by Becca Van
The light grew dappled as the three small suns were already beginning to set, and from what she could see of the suns through the leaves, she should have at least an hour of light left. The three suns set one after the other and although the rays would dim considerably after each orb disappeared she would still be able to see okay until the last star moved behind the planet.
River speculated if they had birds on Safura because she couldn't actually hear any chirping. She paused when she heard a weird clicking sound and hoped whatever was making the noise was like a grasshopper or cricket. But when she remembered the size of the flowers she became a little anxious. If the insects were as large as the blooms she could be in trouble. What if they had bees and wasps the size of birds?
Stop it, River. You’re letting your imagination run away with you.
She started walking again and when she saw what was making the clicking noises, she chuckled with relief at her overactive imagination. They did have birds on this planet but instead of singing and chirping they made sounds similar to a cricket. She relaxed and followed the path, hoping to see the big house again soon.
When she heard a roaring noise she tilted her head and listened intently. It took a few seconds to figure out that she was hearing a waterfall. She decided it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at nature in all its glory and when she was done she would head back the same way she’d come.
She walked for at least another twenty minutes and when she spied the large fall of water she was captivated by its majesty. The cliff's height had to be close to five hundred feet and although it hadn’t rained as far as she knew while she’d been here, there was a huge amount of water tumbling over it. The trees were sparser near the falls and the sun shone off the moisture in the air creating colorful rainbows. There were massive tree ferns along the river’s edge and other strange but vibrantly colored plants. Perfume from the blooming flowers wafted to her nose and she inhaled deeply before sighing. She’d always found water restful no matter whether it was roaring in great torrents or trickling over rocks. Even though she wasn’t that close to the falls, she could feel the light spray on her face, and it felt invigorating.
When the light faded she looked up to see that the second sun had almost set and turned to head back. She shrieked with fright when she saw a large man standing off the side of the path in the shadows, leaning against a tree. The moment she saw him she knew he wasn’t a native and her heart flipped over in her chest.
The man wasn’t as big as her mates but he was full of muscles and although she wouldn’t say he was ugly, he wasn’t exactly handsome. However, there was an aura of power around him that could be construed as attractive, and his features were pleasant enough to look at, if you could get over the silvery-gray color of his skin. He had a ruggedness about him that would appeal to some women but she felt nothing for him other than apprehension. A slight whirring noise drew her gaze upward and although she couldn’t see anything she felt her skin crawl and the fine hairs on her body stood on end.
She took a step back, feeling with her feet, hoping she wouldn’t stumble over any rocks and fall into the fast flowing river. But then again maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea. Although she had no idea if there were any more falls or if there were rock strewn rapids, she might just have to take her chances. Surely going into the water would be better than whatever this guy had in mind.
Damn. What am I supposed to do and what does he want?
There was only one way to find out.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
He took a few steps closer but instead of moving back again, she held her ground. Her heart was racing but she was able to take quiet shallow breaths. She didn’t want him to know how much she was intimidated by his presence, but when she looked into his eyes she didn’t see maliciousness in them.
He looked her body up and down and when he met her gaze again, she saw lust. River shivered as anxiety raced through her and her muscles tensed. She was ready to fight or flee, whatever was necessary.
“We came for water,” he said, his voice was low and gravelly.
River knew straight away that she was looking at one of the Pendag. Her heart flipped and she drew in a ragged breath all the while taking a couple of steps back.
“Wait!” He held his hands up in a placating, ‘I’m not going to hurt you’ stance, but River didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him, and since he outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds and was at least half a foot taller, that wouldn’t have been very far.
“If you take another step you will fall into the river. I’m sure you don’t want to get hurt or drown.”
“Why would you care?” River asked angrily and cursed herself for goading the man. However, when his eyes lit with humor and his lips quirked up she figured he wasn’t worried about her at all. Not surprising when she was so much smaller than he was.
“Why did you kill the women?” She hadn’t known she was going to ask that until she’d blurted it out. Damn her stupidity.
He frowned, the humor fading from his expression to be replaced by what looked like contrition and sadness.
“We did not.”
River crossed her arms over her chest and quirked an eyebrow at him.
He sighed and scratched at his bare chest nervously. That’s when she saw the tattoos on his skin. They looked like tribal marks but she knew that they couldn’t be Earth oriented. How could they when no aliens had ever been to her world? At least she didn’t think so but the government was renowned for cover-ups and the rumors about Roswell, Area 51 flittered across her mind.
“At least not directly.” His voice brought her back to the present.
Keep your mind on the game, River. God you are such a dumbass sometimes.
“What do you mean?” She lowered her arms and stared at him expectantly.
“We had been to another planet for water and didn’t realize it wasn’t clean. There were parasites in it and they were able to survive in the hoses without being immersed in the liquid. When we came here to replenish our water supply, those parasites were able to enter the water here.
“If we’d known beforehand we would have done something to eradicate those pests but we were so desperate to survive we didn’t take the time check and decontaminate.”
“So you didn’t kill the females of this planet on purpose?”
“Why would we do that when we had an alliance with the Safurians and they were helping to keep us alive?”
River didn’t know what to do. If she took this guy back to the mansion he would likely end up getting killed, but how could she let her mates and their people continue to think this race had deliberately set out to murder their females?
She couldn’t.
“You need to move away from the river bank.” He reached out a hand toward her but stopped when she flinched. “I have never and would never hurt a female or child.”
“Hey don’t take it personally, but I don’t know you.” She sidestepped and then walked away from the riverbank.
“No, I suppose not.”
River kept him in her line of sight and only stopped when she had a tree at her back. Her mouth gaped open when she felt a stiff breeze and once more the hair on her body stood on end.
“What’s going on?”
“My comrades have lowered the suction hose to take on water.”
“Why can’t I see it?”
“We have a cloaking device.”
“Oh.”
He looked at her curiously. “I’ve have never seen such as you before. Where did you come from and how did you get here?”
“It’s a long story.”
River startled when she heard yelling in her head. Her mates were furious with her and worried sick. She hadn’t even realized she’d been blocking them again. It was going to take concentrated effort on her half to keep her natural shields down.
“Where are you?” Stryk yelled.
“Uh, near the river.”
�
��Why are you outside?” Palk asked angrily. “Don’t you realize you could be in danger?”
“I’m fine.” River hoped that now she was open to them they didn’t pick up on the fact she wasn’t alone. If they did she could end up getting this man killed. She decided to tell them about what she and Drav had found out about the Pendag and also tell them what she’d learned from the man watching her intently.
When she’d finished there was total silence and this time she wasn’t the one who had put up the walls. She had a bad feeling that her mates knew she wasn’t alone.
“Um, I think I’ve just put you in danger.”
He shrugged as if he didn’t have a care in the world, but she saw his muscles tense.
“Please don’t hurt my mates?” River almost whispered her question but knew he’d heard her when he frowned.
When she heard a rustle near the pathway she turned to look in that direction and a few seconds later wished she’d been more attentive. The man moved so fast he was a blur and then he had her back pressed against his front with a large hand gripping her throat. She froze, her heart once more racing, and she was panting. A cold sweat formed on her brow but she was able to keep her wits about her. She remembered watching a movie where the leading actress had shown women how to defend themselves, but she couldn’t remember the acronym word the actress had used.
“River!” Toak emerged from the trees and although he looked pissed he was also scared, for her. “Let her go, you fucker.”
“Toak—ˮ
“River, I want you to be ready to run,” Hakk ordered.
She decided this had gone on long enough. She tapped the arm of the man holding her by the throat and whispered, “Let me go.”
“If I do they will shoot first and ask questions later,” he answered just as quietly.
“Not if I remain standing in front of you. Did you put your back to a tree?”
“Yes.” Although he answered in a low voice, she could hear the surprise in it.
“Let her go right now, or I’ll blow your brains out,” Stryk demanded in a cold voice.
River didn’t need to look over her shoulder to know that Stryk and Palk had maneuvered so that they were off to the side of the tree and slightly behind them.
“Don’t hurt him,” River screamed.
Hakk and Toak moved a step closer but stopped when she gasped. The man holding her throat had tightened his fingers for a second but then he released her and moved away. River spun around to see that Palk and Stryk were aiming laser blasters at him.
“His people didn’t kill your females. It was an accident. If you kill him it will be in cold blooded murder.”
The man slowly moved his arms out from his body giving Toak and Stryk an unimpeded target of his torso. “If you think by killing me it will appease you for what was done to your females, then go ahead.”
When River saw Stryk’s finger tense on the button on the side of his weapon her heart stopped beating, but when no laser came out of the barrel she sighed with relief.
“It won’t bring your females back if you kill him. It won’t change anything.” She paused to meet Palk’s gaze. “Did you hear me when I told you what happened? They didn’t know about the parasite. They didn’t know by taking your water that they would make your females sick. How can you blame them when they didn’t know themselves?”
She turned to face the Pendag. “What happened to your women? Did they die too?”
“Yes,” he answered in a hoarse voice full of pain.
“Don’t you think he and his people have been punished enough? Shouldn’t you be blaming your elders as well as the Pendags? There was a trade treaty in place. The generation before you allowed the Pendag to take water in exchange for food. Do you really think they would have jeopardized your women and themselves on purpose?”
“River is right,” Hakk said as he came up beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist. “We’ve all suffered enough.”
“You can’t let the past rule what happens now. What you should be concentrating on is working together so that none of your species die out,” River explained.
“That’s the best advice I’ve heard yet.”
River turned toward the path and saw three human women with groups of men standing behind them. “Annie, thank God you’re here.”
“I brought my men with me. Sharm, Baro, Mott, and Riek.” Annie pointed to each man she introduced.
“Hi, I’m Shannon,” one of the other women, rounded with child, introduced herself. “These are my mates, Barclay, Darby, and Gilmore.”
“I’m Darcy,” the other woman stepped forward. “These are my men Froz, Drac, Lowl, and Cark.”
“What’s going on?” River asked. “Why are you all here?”
“We’ve decided to join the alliance and from what we just heard none too soon,” Darcy answered, crossing her arms over her chest.
“So am I free to go?” the Pendag asked.
“What’s your name?” River met his gaze.
“Barre Net.”
“What’s your title?” she asked.
“Title?”
“Are you a leader?”
“All males are equal,” Barre replied.
River smiled. She had a feeling that everything was going to be all right. Now all she had to do was convince her men that another trade agreement with the Pendag would be a good thing.
“Why don’t we all go back to the house and discuss this over some food?” River suggested. “I’m really hungry.”
Although Stryk nodded he kept a wary eye on Barre. She ignored her men, walked toward the women and began asking how they had ended up far from Earth. When they told her about finding the slave gold bracelet she knew that none of them ending up where they were was a coincidence.
She just hoped that the goddess of love and beauty was happy with her machinations, because she certainly was.
Epilogue
River had organized another get together with her new friends. She was so excited she could barely sit still. It had only been a couple of weeks since the confrontation between her men and Barre Net but everything had been resolved, thank goodness.
Although Barre said that all Pendag citizens were considered equal he had conveniently left out the fact that his men saw him as their leader. When they had all returned to the house—if a Grecian style mansion could actually be called that—Barre had stood up in front of the Safurian leaders and warriors and sincerely apologized for their part in the death of the females.
River knew that the peace was a tentative one but was glad that her mates had backed down from wanting to kill a whole race of people and a new trade agreement had been signed.
Now she and the other three women were plotting ways to get more women from Earth to come to all three planets with the hope of matches being made and babies being created. Darcy and her mates had been negotiating with the President of the United States and although a handful of women had agreed to leave Earth and go to Zennox, they were hoping that more would be sent, but this time to all five planets. Pendag needed women just as much as Aeros, Cardinal, Zennox, and Safura.
From what Darcy had said the last time she and River had been talking, things were looking up.
She flittered around the feasting room making sure all the tables were set and when she saw everything was ready she sighed with relief, but wasn’t sure what she would do to keep herself occupied for the next few hours while she waited for their guests to arrive.
Instead of lingering inside where there was nothing to do she walked out onto the balcony and inhaled the fragrantly sweet fresh air. She didn’t think she would ever get used to seeing oversized flowers and plants but at least she wouldn’t take everything for granted like she had back on Earth.
When she felt a tingling warmth on her arm she looked down where the slave gold bracelet had been ever since the sneaky goddess Branwen had placed it there. The gold looked like it was glowing and it seemed to heat even more. For a mom
ent fear permeated her heart and soul because she was scared she was about to be whisked off to God knew where. However when the bracelet faded and then vanished right before her very eyes, her legs nearly collapsed with relief.
“You may not realize what you’ve done, River Caisson, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
River gasped when she saw the exquisitely beautiful tall dark haired woman standing next to her. She gulped and licked her dry lips. “You’re welcome.”
“If not for you looking into the history of the Safura and Pendag the two races would have fought until they were no more. Now, with the treaty signed once more and peace between them, both races will prosper.”
“I’m glad to hear that. No one should lose their lives just because of a mistake, one they probably had no control over.”
“Yes.”
“Do you think the President will agree to send more women? It’s going to take more than a handful being sent to each planet for the population to grow.”
“The current President is very wise and now that he knows that humans aren’t alone in the universe and that the Earth technology isn’t anywhere near the other planets, he is going to need all the help he can get.”
“So we should ask him to join the alliance?” River asked.
“Yes. The benefits to all will be unprecedented.”
River nodded.
“I want to thank you for sending me and the other women here. I didn’t even realize how lonely I was or how much I was missing. I love my mates so much, but I wouldn’t have ever known such without you.” River bowed her head.
Branwen clasped one of her hands. “You are more than welcome. And congratulations.”
“Thanks. Is that bracelet going to be found by another woman?”
“Only the fates know,” Branwen answered cryptically as she released her hand.