by Lucy Snow
For the first time in my life, serving the Kreossian Empire had to contend with a second goal, and it felt good to have real purpose.
Taking care not to disturb Melissa as she slept, I moved her off my chest and got up, stretching to iron out the kinks from sleep and restore circulation to my limbs.
I looked up at the sky; it was going to be another warm day, and hopefully dry. We would be lucky in that regard - the ship would soon be ready to fly again and we could escape this planet.
I watched Melissa sleep for a few minutes, suddenly wondering what she thought of this entire thing, especially the last few hours. I had given her a lot of information very quickly about how Kreossians mated, and while she mentioned that she was not one to believe in the short term relationship culture of her species, I still was not sure just what she thought about our being mates.
I knew that humans did not have the same single-mating desire that Kreossians had, so it was entirely possible that she would not feel the same way as me. I would have to figure that out soon.
For now, though, I had to make a scouting run. I made sure that Melissa was sleeping peacefully and safely, then I made my way to the perimeter and began to walk around. I did not notice anything out of the ordinary, but after I had killed the beast yesterday, I wanted to make sure there were not more of them out there, coming after one of their own or us for having killed one.
As I jogged around the perimeter we had established, I did not find anything that suggested more incursions by more creatures, but at the same time I knew the one we had defeated was wily and smart in combat, so I kept my eye out for any sign, no matter how small, that something might be disturbed.
The warm sun of the day beat down upon me as I finished my survey of the crash site, finding myself standing over Admiral Kaalax’ burial site. I had not planned to end up here, but I knew as soon as I arrived that my subconscious had brought me here because of all the turmoil I was experiencing.
I tried to block it all away as I went through my morning calisthenics routine, which had become a habit even though my muscles did not really need it after the workout Melissa and I had gotten during sex the night before. It felt good to relax and clear my mind of all the decisions I had to make, both about Melissa and about Earth.
After I was done stretching out and getting the blood flowing as a warrior should each morning, I sat down next to Admiral Kaalax and meditated, trying to gain some of my elder mentor’s insight and experience for the trials soon to come.
Melissa’s question last night about destroying Earth came back to me. I could not understand how a species could do such a thing, and yet, at the same time I did not have any other conclusions that I could fall back on.
It was a difficult position, and for the moment I was thankful that I did not have to decide either way at this time.
I sat there for a long time, feeling connected to Admiral Kaalax and missing his presence in my life terribly. I knew that under his mentorship I had become a much better soldier and Kreossian man, and that I did not really need him in my life anymore, but at the same time, I missed our conversations and the little lessons he was always trying to teach me. I did not always learn them as quickly as he would have liked, but I knew that he was never too disappointed in me.
After I was done seeking guidance I got up and went back to the embers of the campfire, and sat down next to Melissa, watching her sleep again. She was so relaxed, and while she slept it looked like all the worry and fear she had over being on a strange planet with a strange alien man just disappeared. I liked that peaceful look, and I wanted to do what I could to make sure it did not go away.
Melissa stirred again and I leaned over and kissed her. She returned the kiss, and I felt her smile as she started to wake up. “Mmmmm, good morning Ark,” she whispered around my kisses as she fluttered her eyes open, and I saw her pupils dilate as they adjusted to the light of the morning. “Last night was amazing.”
“It was a good way to spend the evening.”
She shoved me hard, a look of mock anger on her face. “Jerk! That’s not what you’re supposed to say.”
I was about to ask what I was supposed to say when I heard the alarms coming from inside the ship. They were soft at first, but then got louder, and Melissa’s eyes widened as she registered what was going on.
“I should check on that.”
Melissa nodded and started to get up. I lifted her off me and set her on the ground before I stood up, stretching my arms out to the sky to increase the circulation and wake myself up a little more.
The alarms got louder and I knew the ship was trying to tell me something. I hastily went inside and a panel appeared in front of me, reading out data and telling me what was wrong.
I heard Melissa come into the ship behind me. “What’s going on?” She asked, fear creeping into her voice. “Is everything alright? Are we going to be able to get out of here?”
I glanced over at her, and I could see uncertainty starting to cloud her beautiful face. I looked back at the panels, digesting all the new information. “Everything is not alright, Melissa. The ship is out of energy.”
“What? How is that possible? How did we not see this coming?” The implication was obvious, since Melissa could not read any of the panels or really interact with the ship’s computer. How did I not see this coming?
I stared grimly at the panels, tracing the energy loss diagram through the ship’s schematic. “There was damage during the crash. The energy reserves sensor was damaged, while we landed with enough energy to complete repairs, too much of it has since burned off.” I set the panel down. “As of now, the ship is repaired, but we do not have the energy to break the atmosphere and get out of here.”
Melissa sagged against the doorway of the ship, all the optimism leaving her eyes in just a few brief moments. I stepped toward her and took her in my arms, but I could tell she was inconsolable.
She started crying, big tears coming down. “So…we’re stuck here?”
“It would appear that way for the moment,” I said, pulling her closer to me. “It will be alright, Melissa, we will figure out what to do next.”
“But how?” She wailed, the sudden anguish never more clear. “We’re all alone here, Ark, and there might be more of those creatures around.”
I knew that there almost certainly were more of them around, whether they were close or not, but I decided in that moment that Melissa did not need to hear of my suspicions. She had enough on her mind for the time being. “We will figure out a way.” I looked down at her, trying to be as consoling as I could. “This is not the planet either of us perish on, Melissa. I know that to be true, now more than ever.”
“But how can you be so sure?” She asked, her eyes trembling. “How long can we survive here eating nutritional supplements? We need to do something different, or nothing will change.”
“I agree with you.” I thought quickly, my mind racing. I had to do something to calm her down and show her that this was not the end of our journey despite the bad news we had just received. Then an idea hit me. “We have some reserve energy left over.”
Melissa sniffed against my chest, the tears still flowing. “What do we do with it?”
“We do two things. First, we repair the breach in the power reserve storage tanks, so once we find what we are looking for, we can safely store it.”
“That makes sense.” Melissa started wiping the tears from her face and I could tell by her voice that the plan was starting to take shape in her mind. “What’s the other thing?”
“We use the remaining power to scan the planet for energy sources. If we can find one then we can go and extract it, and bring it back to the shuttle so we can use it to get out of here.”
“You…you really think we’ll be able to find something we can use?”
“I…do not know, but it is our best chance of leaving this place.”
“OK, what do we have to do?”
“First we will inspec
t the damage to the energy storage tanks.” Melissa nodded and I took her hand, covering it in mine. She smiled, first at her hand then up and me, and we walked out of the sip and around the side.
On the opposite side to where we spent most of our time, we discovered the problem, a small tear in the tank, and it was clear that the sensor was misaligned. Melissa and I knelt down as I ran my hand over it.
“Funny,” she said.
I looked over at her, a question on my face. “What do you mean? It is not telling a joke.”
Melissa chuckled. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. I meant that it’s funny that such a small rupture could derail our entire plans.”
“It is often the small things that eventually become big problems, I have found,” I said.
“Exactly. ‘A stitch in time saves nine,’ as they say.”
“A stitch?” I was confused, as we stood back up.
Melissa laughed. “Think about it some more.”
“I will do that.” We headed back into the ship and into the cockpit. I sat down in the pilot’s chair and Melissa sat on the armrest, leaning over me, her hands pleasingly running up and down my arm.
I brought the panel in front of me to life and started a system diagnostic. As it read out data, I pointed out to Melissa what was going on. I knew it must be irritating not to understand our language, so I wanted to make it as easy as possible to get her involved, even though our technology was mostly hands off. I could tell she appreciated it.
“The ship has enough power to finish the repair process,” I explained, tapping on various images on the panel, showing graphs of power distribution and transfer conduits. “We just need to find another source so that we have enough to break the dense atmosphere of this world.”
Melissa nodded. “OK, so that’s what we’re looking for.” She focused on me. “How do we find it? What if there isn’t any?”
“We must assume there is, and proceed under that assumption, Melissa.” I touched her arm to reassure her. “It is all we can do in this situation,” I added.
Melissa kissed me on the cheek. “OK, let’s get started.”
I looked back at the panel, tapping it a few times to engage the ship’s scanners. “I am setting a scanning pattern for the planet. Normally it would take only a few minutes,” I said, puffing my chest out with pride at the efficiency of Kreossian technology. “But in this circumstance, due to the atmosphere’s interference, it will take longer.”
“How much longer?”
I consulted the panel. “Unknown. The interference grows as we get further away from the crash site. It may get even worse further on.”
Melissa looked pensive. “So it’s possible that it gets so bad that a power source could be just beyond the edge of our scanners, and we’d never know about it?”
“That is…possible.”
“Could it be that a power source is creating all that interference?”
“That is also possible, however, we know that a certain amount of it comes from the atmosphere itself.”
“That doesn’t explain why it gets worse the further from us we go. We can’t have been that lucky to just randomly land on the part of the planet with the least interference.”
Melissa had a good point, one I hadn’t considered. “You are correct in that assumption.” I looked down at the panel and the previous scans we had from orbit. “We do not have much information on this planet. Previous survey missions did not attempt to land a probe or investigate the interference.” I tapped the panel some more. “It was determined to occur naturally and warrant further study, but-“ I tapped some more. “A full survey team’s arrival is still pending.”
“There’s government bureaucracy for you,” Melissa said, and I even I knew she was being sarcastic.
“The Kreossian Empire is vast, Melissa. Administering it is not easy.”
“I’m sure it is, and I have no doubt it’s not easy. I was just trying to lighten the mood a little bit!”
“I understand your point. It was well taken.”
“What do we do in the meantime while we wait for the survey to complete or find something?”
I tried winking at her again, and she smiled. “I have at least one idea.”
Melissa nodded. “OK, but this time we do it inside the shuttle. The ground outside is a little too tough.”
“Humans,” I said, a smile on my face as I stood up. “So afraid of a little hardship.”
I picked up Melissa and she threw her arms around my neck, squealing. “My huge alien man,” she whispered, running her hands over my shoulders.
“My…smaller, human woman,” I added, and she balled her hand up into a fist and punched me.
We went to the rear of the shuttle and to the bed, each of us tearing off the other’s clothing as we went. By the time I set her down, neither of us had anything on, and with very little fanfare I pressed myself inside her.
I loved watching Melissa’s eyes widen as she took my length inside of her, and when she clung to me, pulling me deeper, I marveled at how sexy and perfect my mate was, and how well we fit together.
Of course, I could not use all of my strength during our lovemaking, but I only held back as much as I had to not to hurt her. Once I found what that point was, I pounded into her, and she gave back in kind. It was sensual, loving, as tender as it needed to be, and as animalistic as we both could make it.
It was perfect.
When we were done, she lay there in my arms as we collected ourselves from the exertion. I was in no hurry - the computer would let us know when it had found something. Until then we were in a holding pattern, with nothing important to do or anywhere to go.
We had enough supplies to last us for weeks, and it was clear that this planet could sustain our lives indefinitely, as long as we were able to hunt. I knew there was a significant chance that we would be stuck here, and barring a rescue from the Kreossian Empire, that could end up being a long term stay.
In truth, despite how much I wanted to get back to forwarding the Empire’s goals around the galaxy, the fact that I had found my mate had quelled that desire significantly, and replaced it with the desire to be with Melissa and keep her safe. Beyond that, I found myself remarkably content.
As we lay there, still intertwined from the furies of lovemaking, I realized that even if we were stuck on this planet for the rest of our lives, as long as that time we had together was measured in decades as opposed to days, I would be satisfied, both with what I had done up until the moment I met Melissa and with all the time we would be able to spend together afterward.
Several times while we lay there I tried to say those things to her, to make it clear to her just how content I was in that moment, but each time when I opened my mouth, nothing came out. Melissa, for her part, dozed quietly in my arms, a small smile on her face that grew bigger each time she turned and snuggled closer into my chest.
I didn’t disturb her any further, and I would have been content to lie there with her the rest of the day and all night, but right at that moment, the computer chose to send out a fresh set of alarms. Melissa’s eyes opened immediately as the alarms grew louder, and we both looked at each other. I could see the panic starting to register on her face, but I shook my head slowly, and kissed her on the forehead. “I will check on it, Melissa. You stay here.”