by Ruby Dixon
He cups my cheek and gazes into my face. Then, he peers into my eyes. Puts a hand to my forehead, then to my breast. Asks a question I can’t make out.
I frown and shake my head. “I’m fine? What’s going on?”
“Georgie,” he says and then utters something else that I’m pretty sure is “Come with me.”
I put on the heavy furs, and he nods, helping me bundle up. When every inch of me is covered in shaggy hides and I’m practically sweating, he tugs me onto his back and out into the snow we go.
It’s a lot warmer this way, and I’m rather enjoying the snowy weather as Vektal does the hard work, tromping through the deep snow. The two sickly-pale suns are out, and the world looks rather beautiful right now. Like a snowy paradise.
I’m so busy admiring my surroundings that I don’t notice Vektal has stopped until he nudges my arm and then gestures at the snow.
There’s something in the drifts.
Somehow, I don’t think this is a hunting kill. My stomach churns sickly, and I slide off his back. Holding my furs against my body, I move forward and brush a bit of the snow aside.
It’s a face. Human. Red hair. Her eyes are open and frozen.
I gasp. Dominique. Her clothing is ragged and dirty, and it’s clear from the tinge of her skin that she’s been out here for a while. She’s frozen through and through. A sob escapes me, and I look at Vektal.
He points at the girl, his eyes pale as if with shock. “Georgie?”
“No, I’m Georgie,” I say then point at her. “That’s Dominique.” Then I try to teach him the word “human” by spreading my five fingers. I can’t stop sniffling. What is she doing here? Did they send her after me? Another sob catches my throat. “Vektal, we have to go up the mountain. Please.”
“Mountain. Human?” he asks, voice low.
“Yes,” I say, feeling frantic. While I’ve been fucking around with an alien and eating and wearing warm furs, the others are starving and cold. I point up the mountain. “Please. Please let’s go up the mountain. More humans.”
He nods and lets a stream of syllables fly. I don’t understand them, but when I gesture that I want on his back again, he hauls me against him and begins a quick pace up the snowy hills and past the cliff we spent the night at.
This time, we’re going up the mountain. I want to sob with relief. Instead, I keep thinking of Dominique’s frozen face. Poor Dominique. What happened? Why did they send her out with no clothing? It’s a death sentence. Were they so desperate they had no choice?
“Hurry, please,” I tell him. He doesn’t understand the word, but maybe he hears the urgency in my voice. His pace picks up.
It takes at least two hours of Vektal’s steady, measured pacing before I get a glimpse of the black hull of the ship. It’s almost entirely covered by snow at this point, and I suck in a breath at the sight of it. That can’t be warm, no matter the insulation. Up this high, there aren’t many trees and there’s no wildlife. The air feels thinner, and I wonder if the aliens deliberately stranded us at the most inhospitable site so we wouldn’t run away.
Fuck that. We are getting out of here today, and I am taking my girls with me.
I just pray they are still alive.
Vektal points at the black oblong vessel that had broken off from the ship. “Sa?”
“Yes,” I tell him. “Sa!”
It takes a bit longer for us to get up to the discarded portion of the ship. The slope is rocky and steep, and going up proves to be a bit of a challenge that I hadn’t had while going down. We get to the edge, and I see a snowy drft is high enough on one side that it can act as a ramp. It must have snowed a lot here. Ugh.
I drop off Vektal’s back and nudge ahead, taking the lead. The breeze is picking up, so I swaddle the furs closer about my face and climb up the ramp. The hole is covered by the tarp, so I tug it up.
A snowball immediately hits me in the face.
I sputter, wincing and staggering backward. It’s nailed me right on the nose, and my face throbs, my eyes stinging.
“Back the fuck off!” A voice yells. Another snowball lobs in my direction, and I duck it.
Vektal gives a furious cry, pulling me behind him, rage lighting his eyes. As I watch, he pulls two bladed, carved short swords from his vest.
“Wait,” I yell. “Guys, it’s me! Georgie!”
Silence.
“Georgie?” A voice cries. It sounds like Liz. “You’re alive?”
“I am,” I yell back. “Fuck off with the snowballs!”
“What’s with the lion, Georgie?” someone else yells up. “Call it off!”
“It’s not a lion. It’s a native, and it’s my friend. His name is Vektal.” I pat Vektal’s arm, trying to soothe him since he still looks as if he wants to crawl inside and murder everyone. “It’s okay, big guy. Really.” I’m so relieved at finding the others alive that I could blubber big, ugly tears of joy.
I try to move forward, only to have Vektal block me again. I give him an exasperated look. “Really. It’s fine. These are my people. Humans.”
“Humans,” he repeats and points at his fingers.
“That’s right.”
Grudgingly, he moves aside, and I push the tarp away and duck, just in case another snowball comes flying my way. When nothing does, I peek in.
Five ragged girls stare up at me, faces dirty. Liz, Kira, Megan, Tiffany, and Josie are all still alive, though they look like hell. Their eyes are hollow, their hair is lank, and they shiver as they stare up at me.
I think they’re all beautiful. I’m so happy to see them that I burst into tears. “Hi,” I sob out.
“Georgie?” Vektal asks. His hands go to my back, his touch possessive.
I turn and pat him, trying not to blubber and failing miserably. “Help me down?”
My wrist is still crap, but Vektal is strong. He helps lower me into the hold just enough that I can grab onto some of the wreckage. I climb down awkwardly, falling forward when I get close to the floor. Then the five girls are grabbing me, hauling me against them in big, smelly hugs.
“You guys smell awful,” I say between sobs and hug each one. Liz is grinning wide, but Josie seems listless, her delicate figure practically skeletal. Tiffany’s blubbering as much as I am, and both Megan and Kira are quiet. “Here,” I say, stripping the furs off my body. “Please. Take these. You guys have to be freezing.”
They grab the furs with greedy hands, and I don’t even mind. I strip them off, happy to hear their moans of pleasure as they get their first warm clothing in days.
“We thought you were dead,” Tiffany says. “You never came back.”
“I got held up. Are you guys okay?” I ask as they snuggle in the blankets. Kira’s wearing Vektal’s traveling cloak, and Liz and Megan are huddling together under one fur, Josie and Tiffany under the other. They’re standing and alert, so that’s good.
Megan sniffs and then sneezes. The others grimace. Liz rubs her forehead, and she’s clearly exhausted. “We’re hanging in there,” Liz says. “Food’s almost gone. Water, too. But—”
Something big and heavy thumps behind me, shaking the entire cargo hold. Everyone’s eyes go wide as they scatter, retreating.
I turn and see Vektal shaking a bit of snow off of his leather boots. His nostrils flare with the stench of unwashed bodies and human waste, and then his gaze fixes on me. He frowns at the realization that I’ve given away all my furs.
“It’s okay,” I tell him, moving to his side. I pat his big chest, trying to soothe him with small touches. “Vektal, these are my people.”
“He understands you?” Liz asks in a small voice.
“Well, only little bits and pieces,” I say, watching him. I don’t think he’s going to greet the others with oral sex, but you never know.
He gazes at the others and then puts a hand on the back of my neck and pulls me against him, possessive.
Yeah, I guess I’m the only one special enough for that greeting. Oddly enou
gh, I’m pleased by the thought. I like being special to him. “Ladies,” I say, gesturing at my big blue-gray friend. “This is Vektal. He’s from around these parts.”
They look at him warily.
“He looks like a demon,” Liz says, ever blunt.
“He’s nice, I promise,” I say and give him another pat on the chest. “He’s been keeping me alive for the last few days.”
“I don’t care if he looks like a demon,” Josie says, her small voice trembling. “Is that a dead animal hanging from his belt? Can we eat it?”
I look down. Sure enough, Vektal’s got his kills strapped to his waist. They look like gigantic naked rats or rabbits with no hair or ears. That’s right. He was checking traps this morning. “I’m sure he’ll share,” I say and gesture at his belt. “Can I have that, Vektal?”
When I reach to his belt, he grips my hand and gives me an incredulous look, then rattles off a string of syllables.
“He just asked if you want to mate here,” Kira says, voice full of disbelief.
“Oh shit,” Liz says. “That’s what held her up. Alien nookie.”
My face feels flaming hot. I jerk my hands back.
They’re all staring at me. Megan looks amused while Tiffany looks a little horrified.
“I can explain,” I begin.
“I wouldn’t,” Liz says. “Just let us imagine for a bit. And feed us. I don’t care if you fucked an entire stadium of aliens if you give me something hot to eat.”
“He’s not keen on the ‘hot’ part,” I say, then turn to Vektal and point at the rabbit-things hanging from his belt. “Food? Food for humans?”
“Humans,” he agrees, unhooking the meat from his belt. As I take it, he offers me his knife.
“We need fire,” I tell him and mime the hand-warming gesture. “Fire.”
“Oh shit,” Josie says. “I’ll even blow him if he can get us a fire.”
“Right?” Liz says in agreement.
I feel a flare of annoyance at the girls. They’re cold. There’s no reason I should be jealous of them. I’ve been frolicking in the snow with a big sexy alien for the last two days while they’ve been freezing their butts off and starving. But the thought of them touching him makes me . . . unhappy.
Jealous.
Crap. I cannot be falling for a big blue alien. No matter how good he is in bed.
“Fire?” Vektal asks. He looks around the cargo bay and frowns, then points at the ceiling and spits another stream of syllables.
“He says that there’s no wood this high up the mountain. He’ll have to go get some from the cave and come back.”
I nod at Kira, then at Vektal. “Please do that.”
His ridged brows draw down, and then he points at Kira and says something else.
“He wants to know if I understand him,” Kira whispers. She edges closer to the others. “What should I say?”
I reach up and brush a hand on Vektal’s hard jaw, turning his frowning face toward me. It’s impossible to tell what he’s thinking right now. “Vektal?” When his attention turns toward me, I gesture at my ear, then move to Kira and pull her forward. “You speak, and she hears it. Understands it.” I add a lot of pantomiming of words and lips moving, in the hopes that he’ll grasp it.
His face lights up, blue eyes glowing. Another string of words, and he gestures at Kira’s ear.
Kira’s face wrinkles. “He says I have a shell that is allowing me to understand him. I wonder if the translation isn’t all that clear.”
“It’s something like that,” I say, nodding at Vektal.
He turns to Kira and says something else.
“He wants to know if my parasite teaches me his language.” She shakes her head. “Just translates.” She taps her ear, then her mouth. “Hear, no speak.”
Vektal scrutinizes Kira for a long moment and then says something else. Then he turns, grabs me by the waist and tugs me against him, pressing a hard kiss to my mouth in front of everyone.
“He says he’s going hunting and to get firewood, and for us to keep an eye on his mate,” Kira relays, amusement in her voice. “Mate, huh?”
This time, it’s my turn to be shocked. “Mate? What? He thinks we’re mated?”
But Vektal’s already climbing up the side of the hull and back out into the snow.
VEKTAL
There are five other humans in addition to the dead one in the snow. All female. My mind cannot comprehend this. All female. I think of my own tribe, with over twenty unmated males. There are only five adult females in our tribe. There have never been many. Maylak was my only age-mate that was not mated, and we were lovers for a time until she resonated for Kashrem. Now they have tiny kit Esha, bringing the count of females in our tribe up to six. Most of our warriors only dream of the resonance of a mate.
And I have found one. And there are five more who could resonate for one of my tribe. Five more who could bring our small, dying people back to life. We are long-lived, thanks to our khui, but it is a long and lonely life, and I have spent much of mine envious of others with their mates.
Now there is Georgie. And Georgie brings hope with her.
I don’t know how she and her tribe have come here or why they are so poorly equipped to survive. We cannot communicate well enough. In time, I will have answers. For now, I must hunt and feed my small, fragile humans. I worry they are too weak to make it back to the tribal caves.
None of them have khui.
Before long, they will sicken and die. It’s too early to see weakness in my Georgie, but I have been feeding her and keeping her warm. The others lack the spark in her eyes. They look tired. Frail. One has a rattle in her lungs that speaks of sickness.
I think of the dead one in the snow, frozen. That will not become my Georgie.
I travel as quickly as possible through the ever-deepening snow. I clean out first the cave we slept in earlier this morning. Then I will travel further down the mountain and remove the contents of yet another. With luck, I might find something to hunt. I only have one water skin and many human mouths, though. The humans need everything. They are not equipped to survive, not in the slightest. Thinking about this makes me run through the snow even faster. Raahosh is out on his hunting treks, and his territory is near mine. I could head south, enlist his help, and together we could feed the sickly humans.
But it might take days to find him, and I will not leave my Georgie for that long. Not when she cannot fend for herself. Not when she could already be carrying our kit. Not when there are metlaks in the area and Georgie’s tribe has no weapon but snow.
I have no idea why or how they are here, but my protective instincts surge at the thought of my Georgie facing off with more of the rabid, unpredictable metlaks. I must teach her how to defend herself. One small step before the next, I remind myself. First, food and shelter for the humans.
By the time I finish gathering the supplies, both suns are disappearing into the horizon, the larger of the two moons is out, covering the sky. Snow has begun to fall again, and I return to the strange black cave that Georgie’s women are huddled in. The cave’s contents are strapped to my back, their weight heavy. In addition to the firewood and furs, I’ve also hunted a small dvisti that will feed all the hungry mouths for at least a few days if they freeze the meat properly. I’m exhausted from spending the day running, and I’m tired as I drop into the cave from above.
Frightened screams ring out as I do.
“Calmdn,” I hear Georgie tell the others. “S’Vektal.”
I drop my burdens to the hard, cold floor and stretch. My back pops, muscles aching.
“Fck owtall izzee?”
“Ithnk sevnfeet,” Georgie says, and I hear a hint of pride in her voice. She approaches me, and I see concern on her face as she looks at me. “Yewrgon lngtime.”
“I am well, sweet resonance,” I tell her. I caress her cheek. “Did you eat something? You are as small and weak as your fellow humans.” I look at the other five-fingers.
They have taken all her furs and huddle against the walls together. They smell terrible, but they are also trapped inside this cave, so I don’t blame them.
“Eez askinifyewate,” the one with the shell in her ear says. “Sezurweak.”
Georgie makes a funny face, wrinkling her tiny, smooth nose. “S’frozn.” She looks at me hopefully and asks in my language, “Fire?”
I nod and pull her close to my body. I’ll make fire for her in a moment. For now, I feel the aching need to be next to her. My khui rumbles and begins to resonate in my chest at her presence. The anxiety I felt at leaving her disappears at the sweet press of her cheek to my chest.
One of the others makes smacking noises with her mouth at the sight, and Georgie’s pale cheeks turn pink. “Fckyew,” she says but laughs. “Eyelikhm.”
I breathe in my mate’s scent for a moment longer, then release my Georgie and move to the supplies I’ve brought. I create a small pyramid of wood and dung chips, and add a bit of the fluff that keeps my boots warm to use as tinder. The women all watch quietly as I begin to make a fire. When a spark lights on the tinder, though, and I blow on it to increase the flame, I sit up and see I have six weird, smooth faces peering at me with happiness.
“Fck eyelikhmtew,” says one.
They huddle near it for warmth as I put one of my kills on a spit to roast. I don’t understand their need to burn the flavor out of their meat, but Georgie has taught me she won’t eat it any other way, so burn it I must. At my other side, one with a long mane of pale yellow hair begins to cough again, deep, racking coughs that shake her small body.
Georgie grimaces and looks at me. “Medsin?”
I don’t know what she’s asking, but I shake my head. “Nothing I have can help her. It is the khui-sickness.”
GEORGIE
“What’s that word mean?” I ask Kira. “Cwee?”
“I don’t know,” she says with a shrug of her fur-covered shoulders. The others are bundled up to their necks in the furs, only their heads peeping out from the woolly coverings. I’m a little chilly now that I’m not the one bundled, but I don’t complain. How can I? This is the first time they’ve been warm in days. I’m thrilled I can at least do this much for them.