by Juno Wells
Only now did she get a good look at the Pirgk aliens. And up close, they looked worse than she had ever suspected. Their skin was colorless, half translucent and splotched with boils and discoloration and what looked like revolting parasites, and two of them seemed to have faces that were slowly rotting. They had two stubby fingers on each hand, and they used them like strong crab's claws. They had thick hairs that grew in dirty tufts and no chins or noses on their faces, just irregular, misshapen holes. Their eyes were those of chameleons – just crusty growths with one little dark pinhole the diameter of a grain of sand. There was no personality in them, no soul. It chilled Amelia to the bone.
The stench was indescribable. But the worst part was that the Pirgks were obviously all male, and they were all obviously very excited to see her. They only wore loincloths, but they were all pitching tents in them. Not too large, but still – they definitely had something very unpleasant in mind right now.
Amelia yanked her hands and legs and tried to get out of their grips, but they used both hands and held her easily. They breathed with loud, raspy sounds and their eyes made crunching noises as they swivelled in their heads.
She felt cold fingers against her skin, right at her waist. They were trying to take her clothes off.
Amelia struggled, but it was no use. They had her, and she was helpless.
9
- Braxan -
He could feel the tips of his wings heat up as they used the energy from the Other and pulled the rest of his body along through space so fast that the planet grew larger in front of him from one second to the next.
Then the air started whooshing past him and the dragon folded the wings out to soar and dive by itself, not helped by the mysterious Other realm that was so useful for travel through space.
He had done it thousands of times on a multitude of planets. But this time, something was wrong.
The outer parts of his left wing hung limply in the air and flapped helplessly in the increasing wind. His chest hurt like hell, too – right where she had shot him. It was the main muscle for the left wing that now had a large wound in it.
His mind reeled. A dragon injured? This bad? He'd never heard of that ever happening. Dragons could sustain smaller injuries, and they could die. But their scales were so thick and impenetrable that it was extremely rare for them to be seriously wounded.
With only one wing working, he plummeted chaotically through the thin atmosphere far above the planetary surface. He had no control and no balance, and he started to realize that if he fell to the ground from up here, that could well kill him.
The planet rotated under him as he tumbled towards the ground. For a moment he marveled at this new experience. It was refreshing, in a way, being this close to death. Being out of control, falling like a rock. Interesting, in its way.
No, he had to regain control before it was too late. He extended his right wing fully and was able to stabilize his sleek body in the air, using one wing like the keel of a boat. But that wasn't enough. He pulled the left one in as far as he could, then carefully extended it again until the pain became unbearable. He fell slower through the air and was even able to steer his descent. He didn't have full control, but enough to avoid landing in the middle of that crater with the desert in the middle. He also wanted to avoid the rocky edge of that crater, with what looked like forest beyond it.
His dragon eyes were large and extremely sensitive, and already he could see the human base he had helped the Pirgks attack. He wanted to land there. That was where she lived. But, he realized, it was out of reach the way things were going. He was falling too fast, even with the little control he had.
There was movement on the sand below, close to the crater's edge. He focused, and when he saw what it was, he was so astounded he lost control again and started tumbling. That was her! And a band of Pirgks!
Jealousy and suspicion welled up in him, and he wanted to yell at them to leave her alone. She was his.
He fought desperately to get his balance back, but there were gusts of wind this low and his chest and wing hurt so much he feared the wing might get ripped off him. He was very close to the ground now, but still he doubted that even the dragon could survive that drop.
A helpful gust of wind stabilized him for a split second, and he was able to slow down enough so that he could be pretty sure he wouldn't die. The rocky ground shot up at him with frightening speed. He spun around, getting his feet underneath him for the impact and readied the immense muscles in his body for the huge strain they would have to absorb.
He rolled and tumbled to spread the force of the impact over larger parts of his body.
Then he was down, and a cloud of dust rose around him. He knew that his left wing was badly injured. He let the Change back to human happen without any resistance. The dragon needed rest. And lots of it.
He hadn't had the presence of mind to bring clothing when he dived out of the spaceship that was his lair, but that was of no concern right now. Only one thing filled his mind: she was close. Not only had he seen her close by right before he crashed to the ground, he could also feel her with his mind. She was close. And she was in danger.
His chest and his back ached, but he didn't notice it as he ran as fast as he could in her direction.
10
- Amelia -
She was already exhausted, but when they started pulling her clothing off her, she found new desperate energy to fight and scream and resist and try to yank her arms out of their alien hands. Even in the sulfuric smell that could be felt all over the planet, their stench was overwhelming.
Two of the Pirgks turned their unspeakably dirty loincloths to the side, and Amelia closed her eyes and turned her head away.
They held her tight, and then they pulled her over a rock. She felt clumsy hands fumble with the waistband of her jeans, but the fly and button were beyond their capabilities, and they gave up, instead trying to just pull it down.
There was a strange, hollow sound as of two coconuts being banged together, and suddenly she was free. There were no more hands on her.
Amelia turned fast and saw all the Pirgks lying spread across the landscape. One of them was still flying through the air and landed on its head thirty feet away, with a sound like a dry branch snapping.
The reason was obvious: there was a man there. There was no doubt that he was a man, because he wasn't wearing a stitch. His maleness was very obvious.
He came over to her, and she was too exhausted to do anything but shrink away from him and make sure the rock was between him and her as she rearranged her clothing.
His eyes ran up and down her as she pulled her utility suit closer to her. “Are you all right?”
His voice was deep and resonant and his face definitely had a worried look. His demeanor immediately made Amelia feel safer. Safer than she had been with the Pirgks, at least. His English had no accent that she could hear.
She swallowed and had to repress an urge to smooth down her hair. “I'm not too bad,” she managed. “Thanks.”
She took a deep breath and looked him over while she fastened the zipper of her suit. He looked like something from a story book. He must have been close to seven feet tall and his hair was dark with a golden sheen. His face was more rugged and characterful than the model perfection of a runway model, but that character gave it an unconventional beauty. His chin was strong with a hint of dark stubble, and his eyes appeared to be a vivid green.
He was so muscular and chiseled she almost felt envious, with shoulders like rolling hills and thighs like pine logs. And between them she couldn't help noticing an impressive manhood, even if it wasn't erect. She was glad it wasn't. This one she would never be able to fight off.
He looked human enough, except for a hint of a ridge running from his chin up too his ear on each side of his face and some strange quality of the skin across his chest and shoulders that made it appear as if it had a metallic sheen and a strange texture.
His muscles looke
d unusual too, even if Amelia couldn't pinpoint exactly why. Except that they were uncommonly thick.
But she had no trouble pinpointing that he was hurt. His chest had a wound that looked painful and even infected, with watery blood seeping down his chest.
She pointed. “Looks like you're more badly hurt than I am.”
He just looked at her, and she was starting to feel uncomfortable. She checked his crotch real quick. No, there was no obvious action there. He wasn't planning to rape her.
He looked around. “This is not a good place to stay. These things” - he pointed to the unconscious Pirgks - “have friends nearby.”
Amelia found the button that would activate the distress beacon, but she hesitated to press it. The way things were, there was no chance anyone from Belzon Base would brave the desert inside the crater and come this close to the rim to get her. And they couldn't be sure if it wasn't a trick, a setup for an ambush. No, she had better save it.
She got her comms unit out even so. But she knew it wouldn't work. When the orange sun was up, radio signals were always badly distorted and the energy in her small set wouldn't even reach a hundred yards. That sun sent out a huge stream of radio signals that created ridiculous interference.
“The base I come from is over that way,” she said and pointed. “You can get medical treatment there.”
He came closer, and this time she didn't feel any urge to draw away from him. On the contrary. His sure way of moving, completely without any self-consciousness, reassured her. It was as if she could feel the heat from him.
He squinted in the direction she was pointing. “We shall not go that way.”
Amelia couldn't help herself, and stole a glance at his butt. Yeah, that was round and muscled.
After the ordeal with the Pirgks, she didn't mind being in the company of an actual human. Or human-ish man, anyway.
She was grateful for being rescued, but she didn't want to have gone from the frying pan and into the fire. She was not about to have a random stranger make her decisions for her. “Speak for yourself,” she said. “Thanks and everything, but I know I am.”
The stranger didn't look at her, just lifted his hand to shade his eyes as he scanned the horizon. “I count eight hundred of these things coming straight for us. From all sides.”
He turned again and looked towards the rocky wall that was the inner edge of the giant crater they were in. “That way there are none. There's no time to lose. They run fast. And you ...” He looked her over with a skeptical look on his face. “... you don't.”
“Well, maybe. At least I have clothes on. But you ...” She looked him over in the same way he had looked at her. “... you don't.”
He glanced down himself and shrugged. “It doesn't impede me.”
“Okay. But it kind of impedes me. In the best possible way, of course. But still.” The utility suit could easily be split in half at the waist, and she pulled the lower part off her, revealing her jeans underneath. She handed the blue-orange pants to the man. “See if you can get this on you.”
He accepted the pants with hesitation. They didn't look like they'd fit a man half his size, but the memory fibers would adjust themselves to his measurements. All the utility suits at the base were one size fits all.
The man pulled the pants on, and the fabric creaked with strain when he pulled them up over his powerful thighs. “Remarkable garment,” he said and moved around, testing the pants. It was tight, but they fit.
“Uh-huh ... um yeah, let me help you with that ...” Amelia gingerly reached out and fastened the quick-zip at the fly. Then she couldn't help staring at the man. He looked so spectacular she had trouble believing it. He was not from the base, she was sure of it. “So where do you come from, anyway?”
He looked past her, out into the desert crater. “We can't stay here,” he said calmly, ignoring her question.
She turned around and immediately felt her skin crawl. “Damn!” she exclaimed at the sight of hundreds of Pirgks closing in. “Where the heck did those come from?”
“They are too many for me to fight.” He placed his arm around her back and turned her, pushing her in the direction of the mountains with an urgency that scared her.
She stumbled over a loose rock. “Do they know we're here?”
“Can you see them? Yes? Then they can see you. They will follow into the mountains, but beyond is a forest. We can hide there.”
The man went in front, and he moved with an agility as if he weighed very little, effortlessly jumping around on the big rocks. Amelia struggled to keep up, and soon she was sweating and panting. She had been pretty exhausted already, but the sight of the encroaching mass of Pirgks had given her a shot of frightened energy. But she knew it would burn out soon, and then she was afraid she might collapse. The outer rim of the crater got steeper and steeper, and now Amelia was pretty much rock climbing. She released a little avalanche of pebbles and sand from the loose scree.
“I wasn't built for this,” she muttered, and the man looked at her over his shoulder. Then he came back down the slope, not releasing a single pebble.
“They are gaining on us. We had a fiftieth head start, but now they'll be here in a hundredth of a day. Can you go any faster?”
Amelia was both scared and frustrated. “Oh sure,” she seethed, “let me just activate my hoverboots and fucking fly over these damn rocks.”
The man glanced down at her feet and scratched his chin, nodding. “Yes? That would not be a bad idea.”
Amelia frowned. Seriously? “No, just kidding. I can't do that. Those are just ordinary boots.”
“Ah,” he said, and suddenly he looked her right in the eye and his gaze pierced her soul so hard she had to look down. “Sarcasm. Not, perhaps, the most fruitful of approaches in this context. Or any context.”
“Well maybe,” Amelia said, taking deep breaths in a sore throat, “but it's all I got right now.”
His eyes had burned themselves into her consciousness. They weren't green. The irises were alternately sky blue and clear yellow, arranged in sectors with thin, black borders separating them. They reminded her of something. Heck, the whole guy reminded her of something. She got the feeling she'd met him before. But it was impossible. She would have remembered. She would definitely have remembered.
A sudden noise from further down the slope made her whip around. There were two Pirgks only a couple of hundred feet away, looking up at her with their misshapen faces. “Shit. Do we start throwing rocks or what?”
“There's only one thing we can do,” the man said. And then he moved one step closer, got a good grip around her waist and hoisted her onto his shoulder, caveman style.
“Hey, what-” Amelia yelled, but then she shut up as he started moving up the rocky slope with her hanging over one shoulder. She contemplated protesting, but then she realized that as undignified as that position was, it was effective. Because he moved fast. Even with her slung over his shoulder, and she wasn't the lightest waif in the world. She felt his muscles working and she felt how he almost bounced from rock to rock and scrambled fast up slopes of pebbles and sand. He held her gently, but she still felt completely safe.
She was just about able to lift her head from her ridiculous position to check what was going on behind them, further down the side of the crater. The Pirgks were definitely further away now, so, humiliating as it was, this was working.
She couldn't really make out how far they were from the top of the rim, where they could go downwards again and maybe she didn't have to hang on this guy like some kind of newly clubbed cavewoman being taken to a cave for ... for whatever this guy had in mind. She decided not to pursue that line of thinking just yet.
She knew nothing about him, only that he was helping her escape the Pirgks. That made him a good guy in her book, at least for now. But there was no way she would ever tell anyone about how she was being carried right now, and if he ever spilled the beans about that to people she knew, he would be talking himself r
ight into the 'bad guy' category. He would always be in her 'hot as shit' category, though.
Still he went on up the steep slope, but Amelia could hear his fast breathing and she could feel his skin starting to feel slick.
He smelled great. Spicy and dry and fresh, healthy and male. And there was a note in there that she knew she had never felt before, but which gave her a feeling of time passing. Not old and musty, just... ancient. And alien.
Who was he?
They must have been running up the hill for a good twenty minutes when he slowed down and stopped, then gently helped her get down on her feet. “From here on it's downhill. How's your leg?”
She moved it around a little and winced. “It's been better. How's your chest?” She pointed to his injury, which was looking very red and sore.
“It has also been better,” he said and shielded his eyes again. “Our pursuers are further away now. A twentieth of a day before they'll catch up with us.”
Amelia looked around. Yep, this was the edge of the giant crater that contained both Belzon Base and the Pirgks. On the outside of the crater it was dark red and yellow and green as far as the eye could see. Belzon Forest, as it was called on the base, was largely unexplored. The first priority for any base was to ensure its own future and stabilize, so that it could support itself. Only when that was complete, which could take years, would the colonists explore the planet in detail. Bases were always built in deserts or on rocky ground if possible, because the last thing the human colonists and explorers wanted to do was disturb the sensitive biotopes in forests and jungles.
But the forest seemed warmer than the cold desert, and there was definitely steam rising from several spots among the dense woods.
Amelia turned around and looked into the crater. The horizon was hazy, and she couldn't see Belzon Base. She checked her comms unit. No signal at all. Just zero.
She looked up at the young man. The golden lines on his skin reminded her of thin veins of gold in rock, before it was mined. “Before we go any longer, I'd like to know who you are and where you come from. I'm Amelia, and I come from Belzon Base.”