by Maya Kane
“You crashed.”
“Were attacked.”
“By?”
He shook his head. “I do not know how say. Fierce.”
Kate shivered. If the look in his eyes was anything to go by, things didn’t bode well for them. “You have combat with them?”
“Knives.”
“Knives?” she said, stopping at staring up at him in confusion. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or frustrated at his limited Uniton. At least now she felt no guilt for her own limitations, but it certainly didn’t help them communicate. Of course, the other one could have translated, but she only wanted to speak with this one. Even if it was as effective as running through concrete.
“What is name? I am Kate.”
“Kate,” he repeated in his strange accent, inclining his head. “Ka-te. I Redon.”
“Redon,” she said, liking the unfamiliarity of it. “Where are you from?”
“Dreon.”
Kate frowned. She had never heard of it.
“It is on the Zircon Belt. Market.”
Behind him, the other alien cleared his throat. “He means west. I am Aron. His second-in-command.”
Kate nodded her thanks. They walked on in silence for a short time longer. “You are married?” she asked, blurting out the question that had been on her mind since they’d met but that she’d restrained herself from asking. She wanted to kick herself now.
“Married?” he asked, seemingly not understanding the word.
She nodded, hoping he couldn’t see her blush. “You know. Is a female Redon?”
“Female?” he roared. “Female?”
She shook her head. “No. No. I didn’t mean—”
Behind them, Aron snorted and burst into a volley of their language. Redon listened, eyes widening.
“I do not have mate,” he said simply.
Kate didn’t know why, but she found herself cheered by his answer. “Neither do I.”
Athena, who had remained silent for the entire walk, spun around to face them. “We’re here,” she announced in Uniton. “So maybe you guys can hold off on flirting until we figure out how to approach this with the commander?”
Behind them, Aron snorted with laughter. Kate spun around in amazement. She had understood just enough to get the gist of Athena’s statement. “Careful, Athena. You and Aron seem to be bonding over teasing me.”
Athena jerked her head. “Bullshit. Come on; let’s go.”
Kate had wanted to return the way she left, but Athena insisted they approach through the main gate. That way, if the fence was being watched, there was less of a risk of them being mistaken for alien intruders and shot down as they reentered.
Kate pushed the button in the gate that was disguised as a bolt and stared up to the point where she knew the camera was hidden.
“Open the gate,” she said, sounding almost bored. “We haven’t been taken captive. We approached the Dreon and we have a suggestion. They’ll wait here while we brief the commander.”
“Kate Brown, how could you have been so stupid,” Nick blasted.
“Calm down, Nick. It’s done now. Open the gate.”
“You don’t have the authority. You—”
“Let’s not turn this into a pissing contest,” she sighed. “It’s done now. Open the gate. By all means keep the defensive weapons trained on these guys, but bear in mind they can fly over our fences if they really want to, so…”
After much grumbling from Nick, a whirring noise came from the gates. It was decision time, Kate realized.
Chapter 11
To Kate’s surprise, Commander Jessop was waiting for them inside the gates. He didn’t need to speak in order to convey his feelings—she could tell from his face that he was angrier than she’d ever seen him.
“What is the meaning of this, Kate? You were supposed to be researching.”
She shook her head defiantly even though it hurt to cross the man that was the closest thing she had to a family. “I’m sorry, Commander. I understand why you’re angry, but I couldn’t bear to just stand by and do nothing.”
“I didn’t ask you to do nothing. You had orders to go and study the alien intelligence database to try and figure out who our attackers are. Instead, what did you do? You risked your life and approached those creatures. They could have killed you.” He turned his attention to Danni and Athena. “And you. Instead of coming to me and reporting what she’d done, you decided to join her?”
Danni widened her stance and squared him down. Kate had never seen the usually quiet soldier stand up to anyone, much less the base commander. But it was clear she wasn’t backing away from this.
“Sir, I agree with Kate. Something needed to be done. If we stay here researching, we’re sitting ducks for whatever did this to LA. We could be the last humans on earth, and you want us to sit down and sift through papers? I’m sorry, Commander. But I can’t do that. Not when my friends and neighbors seem to have vanished into thin air.”
Kate’s heart wrenched. She had forgotten Danni was from LA. Now her uncharacteristic behavior was beginning to make sense.
“What do you suggest we do?”
Kate stepped forward. “I say we work with the Dreon. They can fly—you saw it yourself. We’re stranded here if we can’t use our ships—they’re our only hope to find out what’s going on.”
“That’s risky and unproven, Kate.”
“What else can we do?” she asked sullenly. “You yourself said there was no way out because we can’t risk using our ships and alerting them to our presence. Now we’ve got a group of aliens stranded on earth and they’re willing to work with us. Shouldn’t we take them up on their offer? Or are you going to keep us here until we all starve to death?” She squared into his sad eyes, refusing to back down.
Kate had never questioned authority. If anything, the opposite was true. She had embraced the military as the only real family she had and blindly obeyed any orders from her COs. Those years of compliance seemed to evaporate now as she considered the two paths that lay in front of her. She didn’t think of them as options—doing nothing wasn’t an option for Kate anymore.
“Kate, you’re forgetting who is in command here.” His eyes sent a silent plea for her to back down.
She watched him, heart tugging at the way the muscles in his jaw worked. She knew he was upset but that wasn’t enough to make her just give up. In a way, she almost hated him for asking that of her when there was so much at stake.
“No, Sir,” she said, staring back at him. “But I can’t just stand by and do nothing. How can I when we’ll grow weaker and more disillusioned by the day? We may as well surrender to the invaders right now.”
Angry murmurs erupted behind the commander. Kate stood her ground. The fact that she believed in her argument made it easier, as did the support of Danni and Athena, who lingered close to her. And she had to admit, having the large Dreon on her side made her feel more confident. And kind of tingly—but she tried to ignore that. Right then, she was Kate the space soldier, not Kate the woman who longed for his electrifying touch.
“Kate, I’m warning you. I won’t tolerate insubordination just because of what your father meant to me.”
“I won’t be convinced. To stay is suicide. Surely you see that?” she took a step closer to him, recalling the stories of coups she had half paid attention to in history class. She had never understood how a soldier could do such a thing. Now she got it.
She had always been so loyal, but now she saw the commander for the obstruction he was. Could she really allow him to stand in the way of their freedom? Could she watch Danni miss her chance for revenge on the aliens who had destroyed her city?
“No,” she said firmly. “I’m sorry, Commander, but this is it. I quit. I’m setting out on an exploratory mission tomorrow with the help of the Dreon.”
The other soldiers gasped. Commander Jessop was the only one who didn’t look surprised. Kate’s eyes were riveted on him even though she
wanted to look to Danni and Athena and gauge their feelings. Up to that point, she hadn’t known for sure what she wanted to do—her plan to set out on an exploratory mission was as new to her as it was to the rest of the base.
Commander Jessop shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry it had to come to this.”
Kate frowned. It wasn’t like him to be so cryptic. Seconds later, though, it all became clear.
The Commander turned away. “Arrest her,” he shouted. “Take her to the holding unit.”
“What?” Kate gasped when his words had sunk in. “You can’t arrest me. What are you arresting me for?”
“Treason,” he said, shaking his head.
Kate sent a silent plea to her fellow soldiers who walked forward to take her. But they avoided her eyes. Athena protested loudly and tried to intervene, but to Kate’s surprise, the rest of the base sided with the Commander. She was dragged away by two tall soldiers whom she didn’t know very well.
“Is this what you all want?” she screamed. “You want to be sitting ducks? Well let me go! I don’t want to just wait for those fuckers to come for us. I’m willing to sacrifice myself to find out more. Why won’t you let me do that?”
Her pleas fell on deaf ears. Athena tried to run to her side, but Kate saw Nick hold her back.
“Let her go! Let us go! You’re the traitors. You allowed our ship to crash. The others perished. And for what? We’re all just going to die here.”
Kate grew more and more desperate as they came close to the roller door. Hard as she struggled, she couldn’t escape the tight grip of the soldiers who restrained her. Nobody would look at her; not one of the troops she had called her brothers and sisters.
If they get me inside, then all is lost, she thought.
But she couldn’t see a way out. They were only feet from the door now, and their grips seemed to be getting stronger. She had the disadvantage of two years in space—her limbs still felt heavy and awkward after growing used to zero gravity.
“Please!” she screamed—one last attempt to make her fellow officers see reason now the commander had disappeared.
The door was open now. Kate closed her eyes as it loomed ahead. This was the moment; the moment where all hope was lost. She figured once they put her in the lockup, the last being she would meet would be one of her jailers. She shook her head. She couldn’t imagine a fate more miserable.
A strange noise behind them shook her from her self-pitying reverie. Actually, it was more like a loud flapping. Kate spun around as much as she could, straining her neck as her arms were still tightly held by her guards. She gasped in astonishment at the sight.
He came for me, she thought, heart soaring.
At first she told herself not to be so foolish, but as he got closer and closer, she saw that his golden eyes were fixed on her. He swooped down, so fast that the unit’s weapons were useless against him. Seconds before he reached her, her guards let her go and retreated back inside to safety.
And then they were smaller, smaller, smaller, until Kate and Redon were high above the base. She looked around. She could see the horizon, a fuzzy, hazy fog far into the distance, broken up by jagged desert peaks.
“The others,” she muttered, feeling a pang of guilt.
They were so high up that she could only make out Athena and Danni’s heads, and even then she only knew who they were because they were the only ones who hadn’t retreated inside.
“Redon,” she whispered.
He didn’t respond. His golden eyes were totally focused ahead. She watched him for a while and then turned her attention back to the ground below them. With him she felt safe; secure. Despite her advanced training, she had never felt that way before. It wasn’t that she couldn’t take care of herself—despite the incident at the base—it was more a sense of belonging that she had never experienced.
When she was beginning to wonder where the hell they were going, Redon wheeled around and returned in the direction of the crashed Dreon ship. But then he surprised her again by turning and flying west. Kate wondered where he was going; what—if anything—was going through his mind. She longed to ask him; longed to have him back in his more human form so they could at least attempt to talk to each other.
It was more than that, though. She longed to be entwined with him. She sighed. The sun was beginning to set; brilliant orange light was painted across the horizon.
This is more like it, she thought. If we’re all going to die, then at least let me experience a magical moment like this sunset instead of being locked up in a cell.
And then, just as she thought she might drift off into a peaceful sleep, everything was thrown into turmoil. Because they weren’t flying anymore. Dozens of yards in the air; so high that the buildings at the base were like dots in the distance.
Kate cried out as she experienced a couple seconds of freefall before he grasped her to him. He was no longer in dragon form. She felt the muscles of his thick chest press against her back. It was oddly comforting, given that they were falling to earth rapidly. She’d rather have him in dragon form in that moment, though.
“Oh my god,” Kate gasped, the rush of wind stinging her eyes.
He didn’t respond, he just clung on to her in a way that might have been uncomfortable with someone else but was pleasant with him.
Kate glanced down and saw they were only a matter of yards from the ground. Her stomach churned. She pushed back into him and tried to squeeze herself into as small a ball as possible. She closed her eyes and willed it to be over; for neither of them to suffer any pain.
Chapter 12
The first indication Redon had that anything was wrong was the feeling of the wind on his skin. It was suddenly bitterly cold. Slowly he became aware that that was a feeling he hadn’t experienced before when flying. Except for one occasion.
One very recent occasion.
Why am I conscious when I’m flying? he wondered.
Less than a second later he understood. He had changed form. His Drayon had retreated just like it had before, except this time he wasn’t the only one in danger.
Cursing himself, Redon clutched his human to his chest and tried his hardest to transform back. It was something he had never needed to do while actually flying through the air, let alone while experiencing the mating call.
What have I done? I heard her distress cry and reacted. Why didn’t I remember what happened after the first time we flew on earth. My body is unstable. But Aron is not around to save me now.
He had left his deputy at the gate to the human base. It wasn’t exactly planned. They were waiting outside for the humans to speak to their commander as they had promised. But then it didn’t sound right. Of course, they could only guess at what the humans were saying and even Aron didn’t understand their strange earth tongue. But then she had cried out. And there was such anguish and desperation in her tone that Redon hadn’t needed to understand her words to know that she was in trouble.
And he had gone to her with nothing more than a nod to Aron to let the others know what was happening.
It was useless. They were falling to the ground with alarming speed and his body was going crazy. He tried and tried as hard as he could, but his Drayon seemed to have retreated to the furthest depths of his consciousness. In his arms, his human wriggled. He could feel the rapid thud of her heartbeat.
They had seconds now. Redon fought against it; fought for both of their survival. He squeezed his eyes closed.
Come on, Redon. Change or you’ll sacrifice her too. Do it. Now!
It was like a dull feeling clouded through his mind. Everything slowed down. His physical strength shadowed his mental acuity. He was dimly aware of a conflict but his mission was foremost. Take the human away from danger. He was aware of her wriggling in his grip, the human. In the distance ahead, he saw the place he had noted; the place he had been intent on taking her.
Danger.
Instead, he flew to a cluster of rocks and landed close
to it, being sure to hover to the ground so the human could land unharmed.
***
“What happened?”
Redon turned around, shaking his head. It always took him a couple moments to regain all of his Dreon functions after he had transformed from his Drayon form, especially recently when the chemical surge had robbed him of his energy. It felt like a punch to the stomach and he had no desire to ever experience it again.
“I have not words,” he said thickly. His own voice sounded disjointed, like he was suspended in some thick fluid.
She was sitting on a small rock in the outcrop, her elbows resting on her knees. Redon found himself entranced by the soft curves of her body and the sheen of her hair. He would never grow tired of looking at her.
“But why?” she asked again. “Why here?”
He shook his head. “Danger.”
“Danger? What kind?”
“Orbit.”
“Orbit?” she asked, standing and walking to him. “You hurt?” she put her cool palm against his forehead.
“No,” he sighed. “Wrong word. Um…”
She pulled on his arm and he followed her back to the rock she’d been sitting on. It was actually reasonably comfortable—the top was smoothed by thousands of years of erosion. He sat beside her, huddling close to escape the chill of the rising wind.
“Changing. Um… unpredictable.”
She stared into his eyes intently and put her delicate hand to his lips. “No. No talk. Too… too impossible.”
He nodded. “No.” He pointed to his ears. “No at academy.”
To his surprise, she nodded enthusiastically. “I too. Listen warfare. No listen Uniton.”
He laughed.
They were still staring into each other’s eyes, huddled there against the wind. Redon’s every instinct told him to take her back to his crew, where Aron would be able to translate—that’s if the other female humans had made it out of the base. But something stopped him. He told himself he was being cautious; ensuring he was well rested so that he wouldn’t experience another sudden chemical surge. But he knew deep within that that wasn’t the real reason. If he went back to his crew, he’d be swept up in the responsibilities of his post. If he went back, he’d have to let go of his human—and he didn’t want to do that.