by Tate, Pearl
My body slows down of its own accord. I’m not even thinking now. I’ve carefully avoided dwelling upon this moment. There are a few reasons but the easiest for me to identify is fear. I’m petrified.
But as I turn to the right and spot the female from my visions, all my worries and fear disappear. She’s tiny. So small and helpless looking. She couldn’t hurt me if she tried. That helps me forget any concerns I had. She won’t even be that hard to keep fed. How much can a creature her size eat?
She twitches as I watch, and it reminds me to start opening the compartments in the walls all around us. No, no. Yes! The medical kit for the shuttle is there. It's small and not any more awkward to carry. I drop my backpack between my legs to shove it on top of the weapons I collected. I may need all of them to keep her.
Her hair covers part of her face but it’s short, only coming to the tops of her shoulders in fine layers. Popping the latch on the stasis pod, I wonder how long she has been traveling? I’m not familiar with planets and space travel. But I do know that usually these chambers are reserved for long passages.
Her scent hits me as the door slides open and I pause, overwhelmed. She smells like hope. Something I’ve never had and didn’t even realize until recently I wanted. Seeing her in my daily reflections and now in person, has made me have desires I didn’t know were possible.
Taking a blanket from the area where I found the medical kit, I reach inside. It's not hard to efficiently unbuckle the harness around her. She isn’t in any crumpled areas of the shuttle, so I shouldn’t have any trouble with broken bones. I don’t know why she is here. I can't imagine what she was being brought here for. But I do know that she is mine.
I don’t acknowledge how ludicrous that idea is. Why would I want another person to harm me in my life but seeing her size has made all those worries disappear. I can keep her. Take care of her.
As I wrap the blanket around her, tucking it tightly around her entire body, I feel again how small she is compared to me. I don’t have time to study her, but I take a moment to gently run my finger across her forehead, moving her hair to the side. The brown of her hair is lighter than mine and the fine strands are limp as I slide them carefully. I hope that doesn’t mean she is sick. Could it be an indicator of her health?
My own hair reaches forward to stroke her eyes and hair. I ignore it as my fingers register how soft and smooth her forehead is. Her light skin has darker spots sprinkled across her nose. She’s as endearing as a baby nertel, whose spots fade in the first few rotations after their birth.
I’m out of time. Sensing others on their way, I thread my arms under her and carefully tuck her into my chest. I’ve created a sling for her and I realize at once it’s much bigger than I needed. She’s almost lost inside it. I don’t even have to prop her upright to make her as narrow as my body.
She’s completely hidden too. Working my way out of the shuttle, I slide my body around corners and out the crumpled hull I’ve destroyed. As I glance over my shoulder, I enter the tree line. I still can’t see anyone coming.
That’s good. They don’t have many heat seeking drones and they rarely send them outside the dome shield. Probably because they rarely come back. I’ve personally taken down dozens over the years. But when they come out, they will have them with them. The guards will start searching the area, especially when they realize that the shuttle was broken into.
I have to get her back to my home and hidden right away. Taking off at a sprint, I pin her to my chest and move as smoothly as possible. Elation makes her light as a feather as I sprint over the rough terrain.
CHAPTER THREE
- Rachel
Familiar rock lyrics pound through the speakers. The bass pounds and vibrates through my back where I sit in the back seat behind the driver.
“Want to try it?” Lucy’s Slurpy cup tilts towards me dangerously as we turn the corner fast. Multiple screeching of tires hits my ears over the music. Her smile turns to surprise as she looks over my shoulder and out the window right before we are hit.
That wasn’t so bad. The pain in my neck that wakes me fades as I fight to open my eyes.
I was reliving that stupid car accident from high school. Before I even have my eyes completely open, I know that it’s just a dream. But now it’s dim where I am and that accident was around noon.
My friends and I decided to take off from school at our lunch break. We were coming back from the corner store. That’s all it took for me to be grounded for life. There were four of us in the car. Each of us had minor injuries like whiplash. My father wasn’t impressed. I was out with boys driving and then the hospital bill on top of that. I didn’t get out to go anywhere after that. I was grounded for six months.
It hurts to move my neck and my head pounds relentlessly. Letting my eyes roam next to me and up, it almost looks like I’m on an airplane. That can’t be right though. I’ve never been on a plane. I would remember if I got on one!
I can’t distinguish very far and before I can give it much thought, I'm conscious of the black creeping in on my vision. It’s a familiar sensation and I recognize I’m going under. Where am I? What exactly is going on…
It feels like only a second and arms sweep under me, jolting my neck and pulling me conscience. It takes a minute before I realize that I’m the one moaning. Instead of being laid out and strapped to a board as I expect, I feel fabric under me. Maybe it’s a fabric gurney?
I realize I’m hurt. I’ve been in some kind of accident and the pain in my head is enough to let me know it wasn’t necessarily minor. I want to sleep. As I’m rearranged in the gurney with my legs supported under my knees, I make a last-ditch effort to ward off the darkness. My stomach pitches as I’m lifted, but the gurney cocoons my weight. I give up and drift off again.
“Honey, it’s just better if you don’t talk about things like that anymore.” My mother’s cool hand presses into my forehead as she checks my temperature. Leaning down, she settles her lips softly on my hairline.
“But why mom? If I can help, don’t you want to know?” I breathe in her lotus flower scent as I whisper.
“It’s not that I don’t want to know… it makes people uncomfortable. Like your father…”
Jolting awake, my eyes pop open. All I see is a sliver of light above me. The blanket wrapped tight around me is starting to feel suffocating. Wiggling hurts my neck though, so I purposefully relax my head into the gurney behind me. It’s odd.
I’m cocooned in something that is almost entirely closed off and I’m not laid out flat. We must have been remote. There’s a firm surface to my left. Oh, duh. I’m being carried. In a sling somehow.
Closing my eyes, I think back. I’m not panicking because I’ve been through this previously. Waking up and feeling disoriented. Unsure of how I got here. It’s just I woke up in the hospital the last time. I must be on the way there. I’ll be there soon, and they’ll get this blanket off me.
Inside this sling, a warm blanket is wrapped around my body in such a way that I can’t even pull my arms out. Wiggling some more seems to make my savior slow down and I freeze. I don’t want to distract them from getting me to medical care.
They pick up speed again. The gentle swaying accelerates, effectively rocking me unconscious.
“How was your date last night?” Jenny’s innocent question has my eyes dropping. I pick a flaking edge of the Formica on the round tabletop in the classroom we’re using for our study group.
“Oh… you know. Typical.” I smirk a bit as I meet her eyes behind her glasses. Jenny’s a great friend and the typical bookworm. One of the reason’s we hit it off so well was because of our similar upbringing. Poor Jenny though. She had a preacher father and if I thought my father was strict, he makes mine look like a liberal. “He did buy me a coffee. After we chatted for about thirty minutes, he wanted to walk over to his sororities party. I left right after we got there.”
There’s no sense going into all the gory details. And there's no way
I’m going to explain it to her. No one would believe I could tell they didn’t have anything good planned for me. As I walked onto the porch, I sensed an oppressive pressure settle in on me. It’s hard to explain even to myself.
I never even went inside the house. He tried to persuade me but I’m the best at deflection.
Changing the subject, I shuffle through my bag between my legs. Pulling out the ridiculous sized book we need for this class, I drop it onto the desk with a thunk. Such a waste of paper!
I spot Susan and Lisa coming in the door. Perfect. We can get started. “Damn! Are we late?” Lisa holds her basket up as a peace offering.
“No. You guys are right on time. Especially since you have food.” Beth waves them over and pulls out a chair for Lisa. Beth’s excitement is contagious as the basket Lisa brought is opened and she pulls out a brownie. “Mmmmm.” She waves the brownie at us all before starting to pass the basket around the table.
Jenny takes a napkin from the pile passed to her and settles one for her on the table and one for me on my book. “Brownies almost make this class tolerable.”
I guess. Almost. The basket Jenny passes me is full of brownies, but I control myself and only take one. I’ve never had weight trouble or anything. I could stand to gain some weight. My tom boy upbringing worked well with my five-foot one inch frame but I’m small everywhere. No one's chasing me for my figure.
Shelly’s on my right side and she claps her hands wildly over her head. Her blond, shoulder length hair flies towards me as she turns to address Susan on her other side. “Ladies, ladies. Oh yeah! Brownies.” Grabbing one from the basket that I placed in front of her, she slides it over to Susan before continuing. “Let’s break into groups for our specific issues. With eight of us here that should make it, so we can cross reference our strengths and weaknesses for each other.”
She stands and starts pulling out some of her own paperwork. Everyone starts whispering quietly.
A bright light pulls my attention to the left behind Jenny and Karen. The windows run across the length of the room and outside looks just as bright as inside our room. Chairs slide across the floor and crash into each other. Susan, Lisa and Beth move around the table and towards the windows to check it out.
Karen follows them from the end of the table and even I stand, resting a knee on my chair to see what’s going on.
“What is that?” Lisa’s words are echoing in my head as I notice that the light from outside is a horizontal wave. I can literally make out the light coming at us. Long, rainbow lengths of light are flowing in and around us in a continuous stream. Looking at Jenny, I see that she’s totally surrounded by the light and I try to reach for her. Not to do anything specific, but I can’t move.
I’m frozen! Looking at Jenny, I realize she is too. Both of us are locked into place with our lips parted. I watch light dive right down her throat and she seems to illuminate from within. Her skin becomes more translucent. The light continues to pour into her through her mouth, nose and even her ears.
Everything is becoming whiter and brighter, like our life is over exposed. A tiny part of my brain realizes the light is pouring into me too! That's the reason everything is getting washed out!
I wake to the classic falling feeling.
I’m immediately relieved to feel that I’m laid out flat but not in my bed. There’s a loud droning sound that seems to echo and vibrate the bed under me.
Opening my eyes, I’m startled to notice gray walls? Reaching out with my right arm, I touch the gray surface next to me. It’s rock.
A popping sound to my left has my head turning slowly to take in a room—no a cave. It's about twenty feet across. There’s a fire in the center. The smoke floats up and trails across the ceiling. It's exiting out an entrance that I wouldn’t have noticed. It's covered except for the gap at the top the smoke is filtering out.
Movement to the left of the entrance draws my eye. The light is dim, but I detect a large form crouched in the shadows there. As I startle, the sound that comes out is not the shriek I intend. It’s more of a high pitch moan that sounds much softer.
My dry throat clicks and chokes me as I watch the form move closer. As it does, the light shines behind it. It's a man and all his features are cast in shadow. A large hand slides under my neck, turning it up and lifting me to meet a cup. Water.
Gulping furiously, I try not to choke as the cool liquid slides down my parched and needy throat. Closing my eyes, I block out my surroundings. I’ve obviously crashed somewhere remote. But someone is helping me.
Reaching out with my senses, I try to feel what his intentions are with my own energy field. As soon as I do, I realize his energy totally surrounds me. It’s male, and he’s taking care of me with the purest of intentions. He doesn’t mean me harm.
Even as my energy communicates this, he shifts. His body moves towards my knees and leans in, letting the light illuminate his face. I stiffen, frozen. His eyes… one is blue, and the other is black, cast in the shadows of his face.
As I’m pulled under again, I question whether I’m really awake. In addition to his eyes that look identical to the wolf that killed my Dumpy, he doesn’t really look human…
and that’s all it takes for me to drop off to sleep again.
CHAPTER FOUR
- Amari
Walking from where the shuttle crashed to my dwelling normally takes half a day. Today it takes half that again. Not because of what I’m carrying physically. I can still run even carrying my precious cargo but because I can’t take any chances with being seen.
Keeping to the shadows of trees and rocks, I work my way across the terrain. Getting to my place means taking some of the roughest trails. It’s uphill through a canyon between tall mountains before it drops down into a valley.
I only have the occasional visit from Whik. He and I separated after our escape from the prison dome and he settled over on the other side of the same mountain. For the first month or so, we stayed together after leaving the prison. Over time, we became more confident in handling the wildlife and surroundings. Eventually, we each started venturing out alone. It isn’t an easy life, but it’s so much better than being around any others.
Whik is alright for another person. He never has made any derogatory remarks towards me. His case is not dissimilar to my own, but his own defect is not as noticeable. He never gave me all the details and because I don’t want to discuss mine, I never ask about his.
I try to make certain that as the air cools around us during our climb, I keep my precious burden warm. There’s no snow in the pass we travel through right now but it’s the warmest season. When the cold season sets in, the pass is often cut off for foot travel.
The valley just beyond it has everything I need to survive. Small herds of nertel live there full time. I support their population by keeping out the larger predators. They will often try to wipe out and scatter a herd that size.
In the higher areas I pass through, the vegetation is less of an obstacle and I pick up my pace. My bundle shifts as I travel. At the top of the pass, I stop for a drink and admire the view.
The fine outline of markings that have shown up on my hands catch my eye. They’ve darkened. Colors have started to clearly shift and blend together in the lines. It’s even more defined where they go up onto my chest. I believe there was something in our past that made these marks show up on our skin? But I’ve never seen anyone else with them. I plan to ignore them. They are just another thing that makes me different from everyone else. Another reason to be scorned, ridiculed and abandoned.
Looking in on my female, I still can’t get over her size. When I first glimpsed her in my daily reflections, I was instantly concerned. I didn't want a female running my life. I wasn’t even sure if I would take her with me. My interest was more in the weapons that I realized her shuttle would arrive with. At least, that's what I tell myself. Now I wonder. Could I have walked away?
When I saw her though… I knew. She looked s
o small and helpless. She isn’t one of my kind. I’ve never seen a female Quasarian this size. They are large, usually half a head taller than my height and built firm and muscular.
This tiny creature is small and soft. She makes me want to tend to her, like the nertel. But more. I don’t totally understand these feelings. But her scent, wafting out of the sling… sometimes I get a breath and it makes me feel lightheaded. It inspires feelings of home and want. These are all experiences that I have lacked over the last ten seasons on this planet.
The wind is picking up as I descend into my valley. Working around the edge, I follow one of a dozen trails that leads to my living space under the falls. Shifting her sling against me, I think again about shortening the straps. She's rubbing against my groin and the tingling there is distracting.
My thoughts are confused by this new distraction. I’m still cautious though, as I make the last bit of my journey to my home. The last hundred feet can be tricky because the sound of the waterfall can drown out other noises. Taking a longer route, I skirt the water and drop in under the falls from above. In anticipation of this, I left a rope to help me down the steepest side. I planned to make sure the weapons stayed dry.
Moving slowly behind the falls, I travel the last few steps cautiously as the area gets darker. Reaching the stone blocking the opening to my area, I shift it to the side. It keeps it hidden and formidable. I have a stone on both sides which will give me a warning if someone moves one. Of course, I have traveled the other exits. Just in case.
Anticipation is making me move faster as I drop the backpack with the weapons and medical kit to the ground. I will take care of her first. I don’t know a lot about first aid but it’s clear that she isn’t bleeding. I would detect that instantly. Only her natural scent comes to me and as I open the sling. If I wasn’t already on my knees next to my pallet, I might have dropped to them overcome. Her scent is incredible. Sweet and pure.