by Calista Skye
Charlotte was there, throwing a sharp shadow in the bright light. Her hair whipped around her face in the wind. But she wasn't running or staring at the Fire. She was looking straight up.
“So, guys,” she yelled over the storm and the roar. “That thing there ... that's not the fire, is it?”
24
- Harper -
They all looked up. There was something in the air, something huge just hanging still as if totally unaffected by the storm.
Harper didn't think she could get any more down or dejected than she had been, but that thing was probably the only thing that could do that. “That's not the Fire,” she confirmed. “That's the kidnappers.”
It obviously was. Even in the sharp light from the Fire, that was clearly the alien spaceship that had abducted Harper from Gideo Station. It didn't have the hypnotic dancing colored lights now, but with the Fire this close, it would have been redundant anyway. It was the same ship. And the feeling Harper got from seeing it was extremely ominous. Being kidnapped again would mean living longer, but it also meant rape and slavery. And probably an even worse fate than burning here on Bry. Harper remembered the soul-freezing feeling she'd had on that alien ship, and the rusty surgical equipment, and a hard chill went down her spine in spite of the heat from the Fire.
The other girls were staring and pointing. Harper got in front of all three and got their attention. “Don't go with that thing! That's the only thing that's worse than the Fire! Run! Run!”
“At least they'll take us up!” Charlotte yelled over the storm and the cacophony from the fire. “Why else would they be here? We won't have to burn!”
The large alien saucer settled softly on the ground. Then four of the ugly aliens materialized on the ground in front of them. They each held out one long, pale, two-fingered hand to the Earth women.
“Dammit, this is our last chance!” Ava screamed to be heard.
Harper grabbed her by her sleeve. “It's no chance at all! They'll rape you, torture you and kill you! It's worse!”
Lily reached out her hand to the nearest alien, and Harper couldn't stop her. The other girl half-turned. “I think I'll go,” she said. “Sorry.”
A door opened in the side of the saucer, and a dirty, yellowish light streamed out. In the heat of the approaching Fire, it made the alien craft look inviting and soothing. Lily and the alien walked towards it and disappeared inside.
“It's our last hope,” Ava yelled over the noise. “It's literally life or death here.”
“No!” Harper screamed in desperation. “They're both death!”
Ava and Charlotte each took an alien hand, and then only Harper and the last alien were left.
Shit. She couldn't go with that thing. She turned around. There was the Fire, very close now. It was so calm and inevitable. Entire trees just vanished and became ashes in a split second. The heat burned her face. It was certain death. But it would be a quick death.
With the aliens, death was just as certain. But it would not be quick. She turned to run into the forest again, away from the Fire, but the alien grabbed her hand in one cold, clammy clutch.
Harper panicked and yanked her arm, trying to get out of the alien's grip, but it was stronger and just held her.
“Let go of me, you damn rapist,” she seethed and tried to pry the pale, alien fingers off her hand. The alien just looked at her with its milky, unemotional eyestalks and started moving towards the alien ship.
With a last desperate effort, Harper pulled the trowel out of her belt and hacked at the alien's fingers with it. She hit her own hand, too, and the pain shot through her. But the alien lost its grip, then reached out again to grab hold of her again.
Something dark flashed between them for a split second, and then the alien no longer had a head. A spray of some watery fluid stood up from its decapitated neck. Harper fell backwards in surprise, then felt a strong hand around her wrist as someone dragged her fast towards the saucer, where the door was still open.
“Vrax'ton!”
The alien warrior retrieved his axe, still running, then casually tossed Harper through the quickly closing alien door and dived in after her. Harper hit the floor with an undignified oof. She immediately felt Vrax'ton land on top of her – not as a dead weight, but as a shield. He was taking no chances here.
Harper stayed down, trying to catch her breath, while she sensed that Vrax'ton got up and issued hurried orders in his own language. Despite it all, she felt the old hope being ignited in her again. He was there!
“Are you well, my love?”
There was a warm hand at the side of her head, and she looked up. Vrax'ton was squatting in front of her, and his eyes radiated worry.
It was suddenly very quiet. She lay still for a few seconds, trying to find out if she still had all her limbs. She felt no particular pain anywhere. But her mind was a total chaos. “You know, how about you tell me?”
“My Harper appears to be in working condition,” the warrior said very seriously. “Would you like to stand up?”
She thought for a moment. What she would like was to just curl up and stay there until everything was over and someone came and offered her a triple tequila and a pizza. Pepperoni. Extra cheese. “No.”
Still he took her hand and gently helped her up. “We will rest when this has been settled.”
She groggily got to her feet and smoothed down her hair, feeling that it was a faintly ridiculous thing to do. But something primal in her wanted her to always look her best when this man was close. “So it's not settled yet?”
He carefully took her into his arms and squeezed. His scent filled her consciousness and his body heat immediately calmed her down. “Very nearly.”
“Well,” she said and reflexively returned his hug, “I suppose I can go on for a little while longer.”
He took her hand and held the axe with the other, then led her further into the alien ship where Kar'x and Eni'ar were waiting for them.
They went through the ship with Kar'x and Eni'ar first, then Vrax'ton and Harper. Her brain was now starting to realize that she was probably saved once and for all, but she'd had so many disappointments lately that she hesitated to feel any sense of jubilation. And the alien spaceship felt so eerie and weird and evil that she got the feeling anything could happen, even if Vrax'ton was with her.
The ship had bare, rusty metal and dirty, white surfaces everywhere. It was cold, too, just like Harper remembered it. Being inside the same ship again made her skin crawl.
They were quiet as they made their way upwards, but they didn't meet anyone.
Until Vrax'ton put his axe through a door with a deafening crash and they entered the same room where Harper had been tied down and almost raped a few days before.
Ava and Lily and Charlotte were there now, tied down in the same way that Harper had been, but they still had their clothes on. The atmosphere was clinical and chilly.
The aliens were gathered around Ava, and they were so occupied with touching and groping her that it took them a few minutes to realize that there were intruders in their spaceship.
Harper spotted the place in the wall where Vrax'ton had come through to save her last time. It had been crudely patched with a grayish material that was as dirty as the aliens themselves. Beside each tied-down woman there was a tray with many rusty-looking pieces of medical equipment, and Harper shuddered again. This was a fate worse than death.
Vrax'ton said something in a hard tone of voice, and only then did the aliens realize that they were in trouble. As the warriors approached, they all backed away from Ava while making the terrible nails-on-chalkboard noises that was their language.
Harper quickly unfastened the alien straps that held the base chief down.
“I think we're okay now,” Harper said. “But don't quote me on that if it turns out that we're not. I will deny having said it. It will be your word against mine and then where will we be.”
Ava rose up from her undignified position and t
ook some deep breaths. “Thanks. I think you were right. As soon as I saw the inside of this ship, I changed my mind. I'd much rather want the Fire than this. But then they knocked me unconscious.”
They quickly released Lily and Charlotte.
Lily looked around anxiously. “So are we okay now? For real?”
“I don't know,” Harper said and looked over at Vrax'ton. He was saying something to the aliens in a stern tone of voice, and the aliens were bunched up against the wall, cowering before the Acerex warrior. It was obvious that Vrax'ton and his two other warriors were completely in control. “But my guess is that we are. Uh, more or less.”
“I'm tired of talking,” Vrax'ton said in English. “Let's give these pitiful creatures a taste of their own medicine.”
He marched one of them over to the racks and tied it down with straps, and Eni'ar and Kar'x took care of the rest of them in the same way. The Gulg aliens squealed their horrific noises, but the Acerex warriors ignored it.
Vrax'ton put his hands on his hips and stood on the alien deck like a conqueror surveying his new conquest. He was insanely hot and confident, and all eyes were on him. “It appears we have a spaceship. And I think we're safely in space right now. Even this ship wouldn't survive the Inferno Fire. They took off before they knew we were aboard.”
Harper felt a hopeful jubilation grow in her chest. But she'd had so many disappointments lately she had to make sure. “So we've escaped from the Fire Planet? Once and for all?”
Vrax'ton examined some of the consoles in the room. “So it seems. Though I suppose we can't be entirely sure we won't return there. I thought I'd escaped it for good some years ago. And look what happened.”
Harper took in the rape racks and the medical equipment. The aliens were immobilized, but just being close to them made a shiver go down her spine. “Okay. Is there somewhere else we could go? These things give me the creeps.”
Vrax'ton nodded. “There must be a control room. I doubt there are more aliens there. None of them would want to miss the spectacle of the alien females.”
All seven of them continued upwards in the ship, through alien corridors and rooms that had no purpose that Harper could understand. Finally they got to a room that was large and airy and had something that resembled furniture.
Ava suspiciously prodded one thing that looked a lot like a chair. “Guys, I'm shot. Do you mind if I take a load off for a little while? It's been a long day.” She sat down without waiting for a reply. “Ooh yeah, that's the stuff. Just a couple of minutes like this.”
Kar'x and Eni'ar had gone ahead, and now came back and said something to Vrax'ton.
He nodded. “It seems the control room is very close. We'll just go and set a new course.”
Vrax'ton turned to go with the two newly minted warriors, but Harper took hold of his shoulder and turned him around. “Hey, they can handle that alone. You don't have to hover over them with every little thing they do. They're full warriors now. Hover over me instead, okay?”
He smirked. “I can never resist you, as you well know.”
Eni'ar slapped a console as he left the room, and suddenly the walls of the saucer were transparent and they could see space outside. There was a myriad of stars, and right in front of them hung Bry, the Fire planet.
“Shit,” Charlotte said. “It looks so beautiful from this far away.”
“And dangerous,” Lily added. “Look at the Fire now! It's much bigger, and totally white!”
They all just looked at it, each processing their thoughts.
Then Ava glanced at Harper and got back on her feet. “I feel much better now. I think we'll just explore the ship,” she said and grabbed Lily and Charlotte by the fabric of their jumpsuits. “See if there might be more girls here that need rescuing. Or maybe there's a kitchen somewhere. Getting a little tired of emergency rations.” She winked conspiratorially and the three girls left the room, chatting happily now that they were safe.
“Why does she get the hot alien?”
“I can't believe they were going to just rape and kill us like that! Like, they didn't even try to give us a drink or anything...”
“See, this ship would be fine if they just had some plants here and there. Or some paintings, at least ...”
“There's got to be more warriors like these ones, right? Actually, I wouldn't mind getting to know that Eni'ar guy a little better...'
Their happy voices faded and then Harper and Vrax'ton were alone.
For a moment Harper could just stand there and look up at her warrior fiancé while her brain processed the events that seemed to have happened very fast. He looked down at her, too, giving her time. Or maybe he was processing his own thoughts.
Finally she reached out and took one of his strong hands where the high-tech bandage she had put on him an eternity ago was peeling off. “You came back.”
He frowned. “Back?”
“Back to save me. I mean, you never left, I get that now. You were just hiding in the woods nearby. Right? Did you know that this ship would come? That the aliens hadn't given up?”
The large warrior took her other hand in his. “I didn't know it, but I strongly suspected it. The Fire shooting down our rescue shuttle made me suspicious. That could have been arranged by some kind of powerful ray weapon like this ship has. And then, when Eni'ar inspected the engine of your shuttle, he saw immediately that the damage was caused by a very accurate shot with a plasma incisor. Why would anyone want that shuttle to crash and be stranded here? Of course we couldn't be sure of who it was. But someone wanted you and your friends to be stranded here. Perhaps someone who wanted to kidnap four Earth women for breeding and experimentation purposes. And so it turned out. It was better if I and my men were out of sight. The Gulg don't like us.”
“And your plan B? The hole in the ground with the asbestos?”
“Ah. You remembered that. It was a possible way to escape the Fire.”
“Both of us, right?”
He gave her an enigmatic smile. “Of course.”
“Bullshit,” she said, but her smile took the edge off. “I looked at the finished hole when I came back to look for you. It was too small for you. But I would fit in there pretty snugly. You were going to let only me survive. There was a heap of herlee berries in there. You put them there for me. Only me. You and Kar'x and Eni'ar would die. That's what you meant when you said that you would ask something of me, something that I might not want: going down into the hole alone, without you.”
Vrax'ton shrugged. “It was an easy decision. Only one of us could survive. And I wanted that to be you.”
She squeezed his hand, deeply moved. “You know, if you don't watch it, I might end up falling for you.”
He smirked. “Someone told me you already have.”
She was suddenly giddy with happiness. “What? It's an outrage. That was supposed to be a secret. Who blabbered?”
“Oh, just a sexy and brave woman of my acquaintance. Someone who brings light into my life. Someone I've fallen for, too. My fiancee, in fact.”
Harper scratched her chin. “Oh, her. Yeah, I know her. She's okay, I guess. If she'd just go a little easier on the pizza.”
Vrax'ton took both of Harper's hands, bent down close and pierced her with his eyes. “I like her the way she is. She's the best woman I've met. I've loved her from the day I met her.”
Harper's eyes filled with happy tears. “She loved you too. And she still does. More and more.”
They just stood there for a moment, looking into each other's eyes.
Harper wiped her eyes. “But tell me this, mighty warrior: what the hell has happened with your English? Suddenly you speak like a college professor. Don't tell me that stuff with 'me fantastic Vrax'ton, you glorious Harper' was just an act?”
He shrugged. “Warrior Vrax'ton must entertain self when on boring Fire Planet. Act like speech meditation not give complete understanding of primitive Earth language. Enjoy innocent deceit very much. Play primiti
ve barbarian to perfection.”
Harper punched his arm lightly. “Hey, knock it off. You really spoke it perfectly from that first meditation?”
He thumped his chest with one large fist. “Mighty Vrax'ton spoke perfect English from second meditation, but decide to have fun not using grammar. Vrax'ton funny, yes? Harper appreciate funny alien fiancé with big axe? And I've had some sleep since then, too. That usually helps a lot to firm up the raw knowledge in the mind to the point where it can actually be used.”
“Shit, that's amazing. Is that speech meditation something that others can learn, too? You'd be a billionaire if you could teach people that.”
He looked out of the transparent wall to the stars outside, not too interested. “I really don't know. I'm a warrior, not a teacher.”
Harper looked out into space, too. The stars didn't twinkle in space, and there were so many of them it boggled her mind. Suddenly anything seemed possible. “So where are we going?”
He grabbed her butt and she squealed.
There was that smirk again. “Somewhere nice.”
25
- Harper -
“I do.”
She looked up at her husband and he smiled at her that way she loved, the way that made his face just light up like the sun breaking through heavy clouds.
The Acerex had agreed to change their ritual a little because Harper was an alien, and she was allowed to say “I do” in English, but there would be no kissing at the altar. Vrax'ton's society was tribal, and much too conservative for something like that. But Harper had a feeling that they would be kissing a whole lot later. And probably do many other things, too.
Vrax'ton had been right: His planet was nice. She had to give him that. Of course, after the Fire planet, pretty much anywhere would seem welcoming and paradisiacal. But here, among steep green hills and deep valleys and turquoise fjords that snaked their way through the landscape from the ocean outside, and with tall, white-peaked mountains not far away, it would have been nice anyway. Spectacular, even. Breathtaking.
Harper looked out over the crowd. It was an outdoor wedding, which was tradition on Acerex, and everyone of any importance were in attendance. Because Vrax'ton wasn't just any warrior.