Dominance Fury

by Dominance Fury (lit)

  The cycle began to slow, and much to Sydney's relief it came to a gliding stop. Alea hit a switch and the humming motor slowed before fading off. The vehicle lowered, setting itself on stable ground, and Sydney didn't hesitate. She scrambled off so fast one would've thought the seat was on fire.

  "Holy cold snap in hell!" She stared at the vehicle, the hover ring encircling it still glowing and lighting the area around them.

  "Sorry," Alea apologized as she hoisted a leg over the craft and planted her feet on the ground. She leaned back and parked her rump against the seat. "I didn't mean to scare you."

  "Scare me?" Sydney leaned back against the large boulder behind her while crossing one arm over the other. "That was kickass! Where can I get one?"

  "Well I'm sure the ancient tribunal leaders won't think so if they find out I brought a modern machine into Esotar."

  "Why is that?"

  "Protected lands," Alea answered. She paused for a moment and then smiled. "So you're Sydney."

  "How do you know who I am?"

  "Calem and Arjim."

  "Did they send you?" Sydney asked. Her heart thumped at the thought. "Which reminds me, how is it you're speaking my language?"

  Turning, Alea depressed a button on the hover cycle. A horizontal flap on the side of it receded revealing a storage compartment. She reached in and retrieved what looked like a d-shaped handle. It illuminated. Holding it up to her face she stepped closer allowing Sydney a better look at her eyes.

  No gold around her brown irises. Sydney's brows lifted in surprise. "Are you from Earth?"

  "You betcha!"

  "But how?"

  "They came and got me."

  "Who?" Sydney furled her brow. Who?

  "My Sh'em, Tren and Rjant."

  From Earth? "Your mates…aliens…we've had…but…" If she even knew what question to ask first, Sydney's tongue certainly wasn't cooperating.

  "You understood the Tertian word for mate." Alea glanced around the area as she asked the question.

  "Yah, well I've known Calem and Arjim for a long, long time."

  "So I've heard," Alea returned speaking the words amidst a yawn. She reached into the storage compartment once more and pulled out a cube that was about a foot long on all sides. "Well I'm sure you have a ton of questions, but how about we get some shut eye first. I've disengaged the tracker on the cycle so we should be safe for awhile."

  "Safe from what?" Sydney watched in amazement when Alea rolled her oversized dice across the ground. It stopped about five feet away, gave off a few clicking sounds and blossomed into a dome-shaped…tent? "Oh now that is frigid cool!"

  "Just one of many modern conveniences on the planet." Alea chuckled and walked over to the tent, peeling open the cloth door. "Shall we?"

  Suddenly exhausted, Sydney nodded. She crawled inside and Alea followed. There was already bedding inside and she settled quickly onto them sighing at how exquisite it was going to feel to actually sleep on other than the ground as she'd been doing for whatever it was, a few weeks now? She couldn't remember. "You didn't answer my question."

  "What did you ask?" Alea settled into the bedding next to Sydney placing the glowing D-ring illuminator between them.

  "Who are you keeping me safe from?"

  "That is a complex issue, but I'll explain that tomorrow." Alea's eyes closed and she yawned. "For the moment I'm following Trigon tradition."

  "And that would be?" As tired as Sydney was, she wasn't going to sleep until she had a few answers at least.

  "The Triconjugal Hunt…" Alea murmured. "It's tradition for the brethren, who are your future Sh'em to link with Trigon males of their choice and to hunt the female for the mating."

  "Those naked guys were the hunters?"

  "Yes, there's four of them we must evade, Tren and Rjant, my Sh'em, Bjead and Larimon who are Bligh's, and then there's yours of course."

  "I didn't see Calem and Arjim." Sydney frowned. There were more than four who'd attacked. "So who were the others?"

  "The males from the tribes of Esotar who are prowling. Its mating season you know."

  "Really," Sydney scoffed. "I thought it was duck season since that's all it seems I've been doing since I got here."

  "It is what we're doing, I supposed."Alea chuckled in response. "As for your mates, they were coming up the opposite side. It's likely they were going to snatch you when you ran from the other males who were raiding the She'amatina's campsite. I also saw your mates' Prowlers stalking toward the campsite as I was racing through the forest."

  "Prowlers?" Sydney question.

  "The Sh'em your mates have linked with."

  "Sh'em?" Sydney was really puzzled now. "Why are mated men participating in a mating hunt?"

  Alea sighed and reached into a container near where she sat. She pulled out a rhyton-shaped object that she held upside down--or apparently right-side-up, since the cap seemed to be on the skinnier end. She opened it and took a swallow of whatever was inside and then offered it to Sydney. "I guess I should explain all of it now."

  "Please do." Sydney returned, a sardonic tone in her voice. She accepted the mug and took a gulp. She then took several more, listening to the sounds of her own hard swallows as she did so. She was only now aware of how thirsty she was. When she'd had her fill, she swiped the moisture on her lips with the back of her hand, as she handed the rhyton back to Alea. "From the time I was a little kid my entire life has been consumed by this invasion in my head. I need to know the truth, all of it."

  Alea nodded, her expression sympathetic. She began to further explain all she knew about Sydney's arrival and all she understood about the Trigon Rituals. Sydney listened intently, absorbing everything Alea was telling her and becoming increasingly irritated that Calem and Arjim had failed to explain any of this to her.

  "So they weren't going to kill those women?"

  "No, of course not. They were prowling.…" Alea paused mid-sentence. Her gaze darted toward the tent's closed flap.

  "What is it?" Sydney began to ask. "Is somebody…"

  "Shh!" Alea pressed a finger against her lips to hush Sydney. They heard a rustling outside, and she mouthed. Shit.

  Sydney opened her mouth to speak again but Alea vigorously shook her head from side to side. Both women listened. Alea's nostril's flared and she sniffed before shifting closer to Sydney. She lightly tapped the tip of Sydney's nose. Responding Sydney sniffed and then shook her head. She didn't smell anything unpleasant or otherwise.

  "Not my mates," Alea whispered. "Not yours either?"

  "What do you mean?" Sydney furled her brow, whispering in return.

  "You can only detect your own men by scent, no one else's."

  Ah, Sydney understood. The wonderfully delicious fragrance that Calem and Arjim issued was unique to her personal olfactory glands. No wonder they stimulated her libido so much. A grin formed on Sydney's lips but it disappeared quickly. Both women stiffened. They heard rustling around outside again.

  "If it's any of the Prowlers," Alea began, her voice still barely audible. "We'll lunge together and then you run like mad rabbit."

  Sydney nodded though she was really clueless about the running thing. It seemed cowardly. She should stay and fight. Still…something…whatever it was, something began gripping Sydney inside, an urging sensation to do exactly that…run. It was a ridiculous notion. She hated the five mile runs she was required to do twice a week as part of her military, physical maintenance program.

  Sniffing again, Alea shook her head. Her eyes snapped and locked with Sydney's, widened, yet alit with what looked like excitement as the flap on the tent lifted. Alea and Sydney crouched on their feet.

  "Ready," Alea murmured.

  "There you are!"

  Sydney lunged, made contact, fell through the tent opening and landed on top of someone.

  "Starblazing comets!" the intruder exclaimed and rolled Sydney off of her. She spoke the Tertian language, yet Sydney understood her.

  "Bl
igh?" Alea crawled outside. She held up the illuminator towards the woman's face.

  "Okay, I give." Sydney lay on her back staring at the stars. "Do I run now? And who the snap is Bligh?"

  "Where's the Prowlers?" Alea scanned the area but it was too dark to see much other than the immediate, surrounding area.

  "I could commlink and find out." Bligh said as she rose to her feet, her finger finding a button on her uniform belt. She paused, waiting for an answer.

  "Ayn, ayn!" Alea returned. "You'll give away our position and I'm going to catch hell for being here anyway." She gave Bligh the once over. "Why are you still in uniform?"

  Sydney sat up. Indeed the woman was dressed in the same style of uniform, a burgundy vest, black pants and knee-high boots that those other soldiers were wearing the first time she'd woken up in the forest.

  "What am I supposed to be wearing?" Bligh asked.

  "Triconjugal apparel?" Alea frowned as she thought about that for a moment. "In fact, if we're to follow ancient tradition, from what I've read, in the buff would be most appropriate, I think."

  Sydney conveyed her protest to that one! "Oh I am so not running around the jungle without my clothes on. I might…hurt something." Aside from that, she'd had enough of being stripped naked for all and sundry.

  Bligh eyed Sydney, her mouth twisting to one side as if she was considering something. "This isn't an ordinary hunt."

  "You're telling me?" Alea rested her hands on her hips, her body stiffening with her protest. She gave Bligh the once-over, examining her clothing. "If I didn't know better I would think you were working for the wrong side."

  "Now why would I do that?" Bligh's expression appeared indignant. "I am a Tertani woman."

  "Hmm…" Alea eyed her suspiciously. "Maybe."

  "I should be insulted by your doubt." Bligh narrowed her eyes.

  Alea pursed her lips, her face wrenching with irritation. "What they're doing is detestable."

  "What are they doing?" Sydney asked. Alea apparently had left something out of her explanation. All of this was starting to make her very uneasy, not that she wasn't uneasy about all of this already.

  "The Triconjugal Hunt." Bligh's chin lifted and her expression went blank. "What else would they be doing?"

  It was Sydney's turn to narrow her eyes in suspicion. "Poker anyone?" The woman did seem to be hiding something.

  "Whose side are you on Bligh?" Alea asked.

  "Maybe we should just sleep on this." Bligh suggested.

  "Maybe you should sleep on it." Alea snapped while poking a finger to the center of Bligh's chest. She turned to look at Sydney.

  "Now what?" Sydney was getting a major headache, regretting she'd left Gardenia.

  Shaking her head, Alea stalked to the tent touching something on it that Sydney couldn't see. The entire structure collapsed into its original compact, cube-shaped form. Alea picked it up, and then went to the cycle. She tossed it along with the illuminator into the sideboard, storage compartment before straddling the craft's seat.

  "We're out of here." Alea waved Sydney over as she produced two helmets for them to wear.

  What else could she do? Sydney certainly trusted Alea more than she trusted this Bligh woman, so she complied. Catching the helmet Alea tossed her way Sydney shoved the helmet onto her head. Alea did the same with her own as Sydney approached the cycle and then straddled the seat behind her. Bligh made no move to impede them. She merely stared as they sped away.

  "Ya wanna tell me what that was all about?"

  "Soon," Alea answered.

  They zipped along, clearing the forest and then soaring across an open field. Within a short time they came to a stop at a crag of jagged rocks. Sydney looked upward and squinted, trying to see how high it was but the crest was in darkness, disappearing somewhere above them.

  "Where are we?" she asked.

  "Not sure," Alea answered as she entered some coordinates into the cycle's control panel. "I'm scanning the area looking for a safe haven for the night."

  The cycle turned and then began to move slowly. It tracked a path along the base of the stone wall before dipping into a crevice and entering a cavern.

  "Aw shit!" Alea yelled. "Look out!"

  Both women ducked. The hovercraft's headlight had burst through the darkness frightening the nocturnal creatures that were dwelling inside. They screeched as they scattered, flying horizontally overhead. From the glimpse that Sydney had gotten of them, they didn't appear to be bats. They spun like tops with no wings visible, their echoing shrills piercing the once silent air as they fled, the horde disappearing through the cavern's entrance.

  "What the demon was that?" Sydney sat up and looked behind her. A lone straggler hit the back of her helmet and fell like a squishy drape over her shoulder. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!"

  She leapt from the cycle and frantically began swiping at herself, jumping around as if her feet were on fire.

  "It's off, off!" Alea attempted to calm her, pointing an area of the ground lit by the glow of the hover ring. The creature lay dead.

  "Oh Jesus! I wanna go home. This is really starting to suck!" Sydney grimaced. The thing could've taken an eye out. "Thank god I was wearing a helmet this time."

  Alea slid off the craft's seat and removed her helmet. She picked the creature up, dangling the pink, rubbery-looking torso from between her index finger and thumb. "I think you broke its little neck."

  "Well I didn't do it on purpose." Sydney too removed her helmet to get a better look at the dead animal. It was shaped like a corkscrew and had a hairless body. Its form seemed to defy all she knew about physics when it came to flying. "So what is it?"

  "Damned if I know." Alea held it closer to the hovercraft's headlight. "Haven't done much spelunking since I arrived here."

  "How long have you been here?"

  Alea reached into the cycle's storage compartment and pulled out the d-shaped illuminator. She pressed a button on it and then pointed the device at the creature. "More than five years, I think."

  "You think?"

  "I haven't paid much attention." Alea shrugged and then flung the carcass through the cave's opening. She set the illuminator on the hovercraft seat, swiped her palms against each other and then rubbed her thighs. Picking up the illuminator again she walked over to Sydney, aiming the light at her shoulder. "Well the little monster didn't sink its teeth into you anyway. Good thing because it's bite is poisonous."

  Sydney frowned at her. "Now how would you know that if you don't even know what it is?"

  "Here, take a look." Alea handed the light to Sydney. "Modern technology. I speak Tertian fluently but Rjant programmed English into it for me because I'm still having trouble interpreting the Tertian alphabet."

  Sydney looked at the device. There was a small screen on the side that providing her with all the information on the creature she might ever want. "It's called a…chibiz?"

  "Apparently so." Alea chuckled as she strolled to the hover cycle. She opened the storage compartment and retrieved two cubes about the size of a ring box. "It's a chibiz."

  "There's a scanning system in it that identifies objects and their properties."

  "Now that's convenient." Sydney aimed the flashlight at the cave wall and watched the screen reanalyzing the new target. "Oh very cool. Not only does this tell me what kind of rock this is, it also tells me the bed is stable."

  "Lucky for us," Alea returned. "Since we're spending the night here."

  Alea pinched the cubes she held and they unraveled, instantly transforming into two sleeping bags. She spread them smoothly along the cavern floor. "We won't need much else for protection. The weather is always tepid here even at night, though it might get a little cooler in the cave."

  "I'm amazed," Sydney shook her head. "And I thought the space station I saw when I passed through the wormhole was a magnificent advancement in technology. It had to be a thousand times larger than ours."

  "Space station?" Alea questioned as sh
e reclined on one of the sleeping bags. "Earth has a space station now? They built that quickly."

  Sydney reclined on the one next to hers and aimed the scanner at her own face squinting at the light now shining in her eyes. "Not really. It took almost ten years. It's been fully functional for almost two decades now. How long did you say you'd been here?"

  "Five years give or take." Alea pursed her lips, her expression showing angst. "Or so I thought. Our space program was in threat of financial ruin when I left earth."

  "Well after Nader became president." Sydney paused as she read the scanner results. Female, home dwelling unknown, galaxy unknown…

  "Nader, president?" Alea interrupted emphatically, her expression appearing astonished. "Ralph Nader finally became president?"

  "Priscilla…Nader. It was before I was born." Sydney corrected. She set the illuminator aside. "So why can't this thing identify me?"

  "My Sh'em have taken great measures to keep Earth a secret, to protect our planet because of the war."

  Sydney nodded, thinking that was good plan. "So who's Ralph?"

  "You don't know who Ralph Nader is?" Alea frowned.

  Pondering that for a moment Sydney drew on a recollection. "I think I remember reading that Pricscilla was related to a famous Ralph who lived a few of decades ago."

  Alea's eyes widened as reality dawned on her. "Oh my god. We're from two different times! How can that…" Alea scratched her head while she considered the inevitable. "Tren told me that Wormholes can bend through time, to specific times in the universe."

  "Does that mean one of us can't return to our own time?" Sydney asked.

  "I don't think so." Alea answered. "I think it just means we can only take certain paths. For me, it would be the long way around. When Tren and Rjant snatched me we didn't come here by wormhole."

  Sydney laughed. "Well, Calem and Arjim apparently needed a little bit of help from the cosmos."

  "The cosmos brought you to them." Alea chuckled in return. "I think the spirit divinities have a sense of humor."