But the change in the wormhole bothered her. “What if it collapses, or changes while we are inside it? What would happen to us?”
“Hypothetically, we would just be spat out into space somewhere along the length of the wormhole.”
“Hypothetically?” she asked, not liking the sound of that.
“Yes. It is not a thing that has ever happened, so no one can say for sure.”
“Great. I don’t mind being the first person to set foot on a new planet, but I don’t want to be the first person to break a wormhole.”
“Don’t worry, we will be fine. Now let’s get to this planet and see what is there.”
“Hopefully there isn’t another alien race there waiting to ambush us.” She half laughed, but really she was scared. Maybe it was being a human, who up until eight months ago had thought they were the only sentient species in the universe, how short-sighted they were. Now, here so deep in space, she was beginning to feel space was a little crowded, and that she didn’t want to meet any more aliens today, or any day, while they were so far from home.
Garth plotted the course, and the cruiser moved away from the wormhole, and she felt as if they were being separated from the last thread of contact with Karal.
However, as the new planet came into view, all that was forgotten; it was like she was coming home, in a way she couldn’t understand. The planet in front of her was so like Earth: it was blue, with swirling white clouds drifting around in the atmosphere.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yes, it is,” Garth acknowledged, while taking readings of the air quality and temperatures. They orbited once, and then he set the nose of the cruiser down and they began their descent.
The cruiser was buffeted on solar winds, but Garth managed to correct the angle of descent so that they entered the atmosphere at the perfect angle. Down they went, the planet growing bigger, the land below them green, surrounded by oceans.
“Is it habitable?” Tamzin asked. “Is it possible we have found a new planet?”
“It is suitable for humans, yes, the air is much the same as Earth would have been in the prehistoric times. What we need to know is if there are large predators, which would make the planet too dangerous.”
She looked out of the window excitedly as they passed over large dense forests and skimmed across mountains, one of which looked like an active volcano, a plume of smoke rising out of it.
“Wow. It’s like a teenager, young but volatile.”
He laughed. “I remember those days.”
“You do? I can’t imagine you being a troublesome teenager.”
“It was about a hundred years ago. But I still remember it.”
“Wait, you are that old? I’m impressed,” she added, when he nodded. “You’ve aged so well.”
“From now on I will grow old quickly, once my prime passes.”
“Then we will grow old together. On Karal.”
“We will. First, we need to get this mission completed and head home.” He looked around for a place to land, checking the ship’s computer until he found a flat plain where the forest had been cleared. There he set the cruiser down, and as the engines stopped, it hit her how exposed they were, if there were indeed giant dinosaurs on the planet.
“Now what?” she asked.
“I have asked the computer to do a full scan of our immediate area.”
“In case there are dinosaurs?” she asked.
“In case there are dinosaurs, but it all looks clear. There is plenty of movement, but the animals are small, more like your first mammals.” He undid his seat belt and stood up, stretching. “Are you ready to explore?”
“I am.” She got up too, trying to feel confident and excited, but it wasn’t helped by the churning in her stomach.
Garth walked to the back of the cruiser and opened up a storage closet and took out two masks. “Use this if you feel faint, or dizzy. It will filter the air.”
“OK.” She took the mask and looped it around her neck.
“Here is a kit for collecting samples. We need soil, water, and plants. The plants are put in here so they are sealed in a vacuum and will still be fresh when we travel back to Karal.”
“OK.” Was that all she could say?
Garth went to the ramp and pressed the button. They waited for it to descend, and then he looked at her and nodded, before walking down the ramp and onto the new planet.
Just like that, Garth had become the first person to set foot here, and as she followed him down and stood next to him, she realised she was at least the first human to stand on planet K23RT.
“We’ve arrived.” She looked around her, and breathed in the fresh air, so clean, so pure, maybe even sweeter than Karal’s.
“Yes, we have, so let’s get to work. Once we have everything we need, we can relax and find somewhere to rest for a couple of days.”
“I like the sound of that.” And together they walked across the virgin territory, collecting samples to find out if this was to be the new Earth.
Chapter Twenty – Garth
“I think we have all we need.” They had worked tirelessly for three hours, collecting dirt, and fauna. Now, he wanted to get them back to the cruiser, and head across land to the nearest water source. Once that was done, he thought they deserved a rest, and a chance to explore on their own terms, without the packs of samples that they both had slung over their shoulders.
Tamzin stopped and drew in a deep breath. He watched her breasts rise and fall, and his arousal quickened. Whether the fresh air and open space acted as an aphrodisiac, or watching her move, and the way she swept her long auburn hair back from her shoulders, he wasn’t sure, but something made him want to see her naked.
And today, he wasn’t going to fight it either.
She turned to him and smiled, as bright as the sun in the perfectly clear blue sky, and his heart fluttered. Fluttered. Did the air affect his heart too? Because a warrior from Karal did not feel things like this. Not without a visit to Darl.
Turning, she came to him, falling into step, her body pressing against his, and she searched for his hand, holding it in tightly and swinging it happily. Close up he could see the radiance in her blue eyes. They sparkled like the clearest pools, glittering with happiness, and he wanted her to be like this forever.
“It is amazing here,” she said. “Humans would be very lucky to have a colony here.”
She breathed in again, and he couldn’t help doing the same. The tang of pine forests, mixed with the scent of warm grass, hit him, but there was another scent underlying it, one he couldn’t place.
“It is one of the most beautiful planets I’ve ever seen,” he agreed. “We need to go a little further, sample the water and also look for any signs of life. I mean, life like you or me. Only then can we know for sure we are not about to ruin an indigenous species.” He didn’t explain why: that the Karal would want to leave them to evolve, and mark the planet as one with a possible female population for future generations to use. And yet this planet had been surveyed briefly before, he was sure, that was why it had been set as a possible colony.
Her voice brought him out of his reverie. “I can understand that. I supposed there may be creatures here on a lower evolutionary scale.”
“Yes, like my mother. She and the other mothers were more like your prehistoric people.”
“Really. I only ever think of aliens as being advanced, but we all had to start somewhere.”
“Indeed.” He breathed in again, and this time he was certain of what he smelt. Very faintly, on the breeze, there was the scent of wood smoke. Turning his head, he looked up to the sky, but the trees obscured any view he might have of where a fire might be coming from.
“What is it?” she asked, tried to follow his gaze.
“I think I smell smoke.”
“Smoke?” She took a deep breath. “Yes, I think you are right.” Her face fell. “Does this mean we won’t get to build a colony here?”
; “That depends on where the smoke is coming from. It might not mean there are people here.”
“You mean it might just be a natural fire?” She had never known forest fires, because there were no longer any trees on Earth.
“It might be.”
“But you don’t think so.” Her voice filled with disappointment.
“Let’s take a look.” He pulled her towards the cruiser, knowing this was important. That this planet would be out of the question as a colony for Earth, if there were already indigenous people living here.
Climbing up the ramp, he turned to see if he could get an idea of where the smoke was coming from, but there was nothing. They would have to fly low over the forest, and hope they weren’t seen. But if they were—well, the space cruiser would just go down in the history of these people as a myth or legend.
“Buckle up.” He smiled, trying to make her cheer up, but she was terribly disappointed.
“The samples we’ve taken will all be for nothing.” She sat down heavily and did up her seat belt.
“We can still take them back to Karal. They will tell us much about the planet.”
“But you won’t come back here.”
“Not unless we are desperate for any reserves the planet holds.”
“So you would use the planet, even with the people on it, but we are not allowed to colonise it.”
“Yes.” He knew it sounded hypocritical, and maybe it was. “For our survival, we take what we need.”
“Like females.”
“Don’t say it like that.”
“So tell me, is the reason you won’t let us colonise the planet because you would rather leave the indigenous people to evolve, in case you need to farm them for later generations. Keep them separate from the human race, a nice clean gene pool, not contaminated by a sick planet.”
He paused, turning to her, as tears sprung into her eyes; he wasn’t sure where this outburst had come from. “Tamzin, it is who we are. But hopefully that is not an issue now, we will never have to take females again. For the people here, that is good, and surely you can see that this is their planet, and for humans to come and live here might mean death for them.”
She frowned, her tears trickling down her face. “I know. I’m sorry, I’m just so disappointed.”
“We can still spend time here, once we know where the smoke is coming from.” He pressed a button and the engines sparked into life, Garth switched it over to solar power, and the engines ran so quietly they would be able to get within a hundred feet of anyone and they wouldn’t be able to hear the alien cruiser.
“Let’s just go and find out one way or the other.” She pouted a little, and despite her bad mood, he found her adorable and longed to kiss her lips. Garth hoped that even if the planet was inhabited, they would still be able to spend a day or two here.
He wanted to make Tamzin happy, and if the planet wasn’t the thing to do that, then he would have to find another way. A much more intimate way of chasing her sadness away.
Chapter Twenty-One – Tamzin
They hovered over the forest, as the sun was beginning its descent in the sky, casting reds and oranges over the tips of the trees. This was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but they had to try. Garth was right: if other people lived here, then humans had no right to take it from them. No matter how desperate their own plight was.
“I’ll switch on the scanner,” Garth said, pressing the computer screen, and she watched as the image turned to heat-seeking camera display. “We can try to pick up a heat source from the fire or animals.
“So we just keep moving over the forest until we find something?” she asked, leaning forward to peer at the screen, and then looking out of the window at the trees below.
“Yes, I’ll work in tight grids. If we can smell the smoke, it must be in a small radius of our position, or we wouldn’t have smelt it.”
She saw odd flashes of red flash up on the screen, but they moved, and she saw they must be small creatures of some kind. Then there was a bigger blob of red, moving slower, and then it turned and began to move upwards.
“Is that something climbing a tree?” she asked, pointing.
“Yes. We should take a closer look.” He hovered over the area, the trees dense, but the camera picked up the creature in the trees. Now they could see it had four short limbs and a big body.
“What is it?”
“Computer. Simulate.”
The screen shifted, and the image on it showed an animal reminiscent of a bear. It was shinning its way up the tree, and now had stopped. With one short forelimb, he was trying to pick a fruit, or nut, off the tree.
“Do we know if it’s sentient?” she asked.
“Not without examining it closely. Let’s carry on with our reconnaissance and then work our way back if we need too. This creature doesn’t explain the wood smoke.”
The cruiser rose higher and moved forward, searching for the elusive fire.
“Wait, the cruiser can pick up and analyse the air quality, right?” she asked.
“Yes.” And then Garth’s expression cleared. “Clever girl, I should have thought of that.”
“Computer, analyse air for wood smoke.”
“Carbon monoxide source identified.”
“Show reading.”
The display showed a cloud, very faint, but growing thicker about half a mile away. That was where they headed now. With Tamzin feeling her stomach churn over and over, and she had to fight to keep from running to the bathroom. This was no time for morning sickness, although she was sure this feeling wasn’t from her pregnancy, it was from nerves, and the seeming end of her dreams about Sybil and Thomsk being able to come and live here on the planet.
When the smoke was at its densest, he flipped back to the heat-seeking scanner.
“Wow, oh my goodness.” She sat transfixed as the scene before her came to life.
There was a fire in the middle of a small clearing, and around it were around twenty or thirty creatures, maybe humanoid, she couldn’t tell. They were interacting, touching each other, and she could almost picture them, talking about their day, eating their meal, and relaxing in the warm glow of the fire. To their right was a cave of some kind, and they could see figures coming in and out of it. Once inside, they were no longer able to be scanned.
“I think we have our answer. And also the answer to why we thought this planet was deserted. It seems we missed them.” Garth looked across to her, and she could feel his sympathy, and see it on his face as his colours flew up along his neck and then exploded like fireworks across his cheek.
“Lucky them.” She didn’t mean to sound quite so harsh. And she was glad they were free. At least the human females from Earth had been given a choice; at least she had volunteered her body, and not been ripped away from her home and family.
“I’m sorry.” And she knew he meant it.
“So am I, Garth. So am I. Still, there are other planets, other missions. Maybe one of the others found something.”
“Maybe they did. We left before any of them returned, and we have been in space for a week, so all being well, the last mission has already left. One of them may have struck lucky. Later, I will go over the transmission. But for now, let’s go and find somewhere for us to spend our evening.”
“And then what? Do we go home? Back to Karal?” That was the only thing stopping her falling apart, a thing she blamed on her pregnancy; she had never been so emotional in her life. The slightest thing threatened to send her into floods of tears. Maybe this mixed-species pregnancy was like an illness after all.
“I think it might be wise.” He smiled, and took her hand. “But tonight we are going to find a place where there are no other creatures and spend some time on the ground.”
“That would be perfect. I just need a break from these tin walls.” Feeling lighter, and resigned to the fact that they had to go home, she tried to push her unhappiness away and think of how wonderful it would be t
o smell the fresh air and sit on firm land. It would be enough to keep her going on the journey back to Karal.
“Yes, we’ll land, and then prepare a meal; we can sit outside and eat. Maybe have a campfire of our own.”
“Now that I like the sound of.”
He angled the cruiser away from the campfire, and headed off to where the sun was setting. It was as if they were chasing the sun over the horizon, prolonging their day on the planet, not letting the night take it. The journey was wonderful, and by the time he landed the cruiser on a small island in the middle of a vast ocean that had no other creature on it except a few birds, she was in better spirits.
“I’ll prepare the meal, you go outside and paddle in the ocean. The computer said it’s safe, salty, so don’t drink it, but it is safe. I’ve also set the radar to take in the area and warn us if anything big comes our way.”
“Big. What kind of big?”
“You know what used to be in the oceans on Earth in prehistoric times. Big teeth and would eat you alive?”
“I get your point.” That still didn’t stop her practically running down the ramp, and walking across the prickly sea grass to the ocean’s edge. There she let the cold seawater lap over her toes, and then her ankles. The gentle sound of it ebbing and flowing was mesmerising, and uplifting all at the same time.
Gazing out to sea, she felt tears prick her eyes again: it was so beautiful, so unspoilt and the pure joy of this moment was almost too much. Placing her hand on her stomach, she wanted to tell the small spark of life inside her that she loved it, and that she was glad he was going to grow up on Karal, which must be filled with views like this, instead of Earth.
But she also swore to do whatever she could to ensure that her friends on Earth had a similar opportunity. There had to be a suitable planet, there just had to be.
“Food.” His voice was close to her ear, and she hadn’t heard him approach, his footsteps drowned by the soft sand under their feet.
Hunted: BBW Alien Romance (Warriors of Karal Book 4) Page 9