An Island in the Stars

by Susan Laine

  Spear in hand, Marcus crouched, glancing between the vine, the plant, and Sam. Then he raised his weapon and struck as hard as he could, not knowing in advance how much power he needed for the blow.

  The tip of the spear hit the ground with a heavy thud and a metallic clink.

  The liana broke, the edges frayed and jagged. Then thick green goo started oozing out.

  The flower shook silently. The buds and vines stirred, flailing about blindly, searching for the intruders it clearly couldn’t see or hear.

  Without warning, something sharp shot out of the buds and blossoms, swift and vicious. Sam cried out in pain. Something burned his arm, leaving a singed red welt behind, as if he’d been kissed by acid.

  Though equally wounded, Marcus didn’t stop for answers. He snatched the cut end of the vine and dashed toward Sam, who was also sprinting, both on tiptoe.

  Purple clouds of puffy vapor arose from the twitching buds and the biggest blossom. It spread all around, camouflaging the whole flower from sight behind an impenetrable wall of mist.

  As the fumes rose high up into the trees and the foliage, a single ozzie groaned and fell to the ground with a soft thump, clearly out of it. The vines closed in on the tiny creature and pulled it toward the flower, swallowed up by the veil of fog.

  Sam and Marcus didn’t stop until they reached the safety of the stone terrace. Only there did they slow down to breathe and inspect their spoils and injuries.

  “Bae, you badly hurt?” Marcus asked breathlessly, pressing a hand over his shoulder where he felt a burning sting and already swollen skin. Whatever had struck him, it must have come from the flower. Or perhaps the damn thing was defended by flora or fauna they were unable to see or hear.

  Sam showed his arm where, just under the elbow, a slightly turgid wound appeared, fire-engine red in a whip-thin but deep mark. “Fuck, it hurts. But… I don’t think anything’s under the skin, and I don’t feel weird or anything. Just in pain. You?”

  Marcus waited for dizziness, nausea, or any other symptoms of poisoning. Other than the painful burning and stinging sensation, there was nothing. He shook his head. “No, nothing odd. I think we’re okay. But we have to assume that whatever that was, it came from the flower.”

  Sam nodded. “It could have been a snake or something, but I didn’t see one, so I think you’re right. Guess we’ll have to add that to the list of things to watch out for.”

  “What the heck was that steam coming out of it?” Marcus asked, waving generally in the direction where they’d run from.

  Sam shook his head in bewilderment. “I don’t know. Some kind of noxious fume that makes its quarry pass out? God, I hope it didn’t eat that ozzie.”

  “Let’s hope we’re not next on the menu.” Marcus straightened and blew out a breath. “How much did we get of the vine? Did we lose the liquid inside?”

  “Bind the other end tight so no more is lost,” Sam instructed, using a long thin strand of cloth he’d torn from the hem of Marcus’s T-shirt earlier (with his permission) to tie his end of the vine. Marcus did as asked. Soon both ends were tightly knotted, not a single drop escaping anymore. Sam used his arm to measure how much of the vine they had gathered and finally sighed. “We got about… six or seven meters worth.”

  “Fuck.” Marcus stomped the ground in anger. “That’s not even a fraction of what we need to make this plan work.”

  “I know. We’ll need to harvest more. Much more. And then we need to figure out a way to attach all the broken ends to each other without the electric current in the liquid dissipating.”

  Rolling his eyes, Marcus huffed out a sarcastic breath. “Sounds like a breeze. Okay. Back to collecting, then.”

  Sam left the coiled liana on the closest statue’s outstretched arm. Then they returned to the flower. Thankfully, it appeared to have gone dormant again. None of the blossoms waved about, and none of the vines creeped, nor did any purple mist shoot out of the buds.

  “It might be more touchy this time, so be careful,” Marcus advised with a whisper.

  This time when they cut one of the vines, Marcus caught a glimpse of what had struck them before a cloud of dizzying vapors hid the flower again.

  “I saw it,” he said, blowing out a breath once they were back to safety.

  Sam’s eyebrows rose to his hairline. “What was it?”

  “They came out of the blossoms, poking out in a flash, like the tongue of a snake.”

  “Really? Flowers with tongues that burn and sting? Man, this place just gets weirder and weirder.”

  “Now we know what to avoid. They strike out perpendicular to the blossoms.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Bravely they returned to the flower, this time more than ready to confront their faceless foe of the plant kingdom.

  For the next hour, while the storm continued to rage in the dark of the night, Sam and Marcus gathered more liana. The flower didn’t seem to know what to do or how to react. Flashes of lightning and booms of thunder had to make it blind and deaf. It did awaken each time Marcus cut off a piece, striking out with its stinging tongues and letting out puffs of purple gas, but they escaped unscathed.

  Finally Sam dropped to the floor of the terrace, breathing hard, his skin sweaty. “I think… we’ve got about… three or four hundred meters’ worth…. That’ll have to be enough for now.” He lay on the ground on his back, closing his eyes and just breathing. “I don’t think we should take any more. The plant might not survive losing any more vines. I sure hope for its sake it can grow new ones….”

  Marcus knelt next to his supine friend and smiled. That was such a Sam thing to say. Even though the flower would have happily consumed them if it had the chance, the young scientist didn’t want to kill or hurt the plant more than was strictly necessary. It was not simply being idealistic or ethically minded, but being a good, eco-friendly, nature-preserving person.

  “I’m so fucking hot for you right now,” Marcus said with a wide grin of pride.

  Sam’s cute blush was icing on the cake.

  Chapter 11

  “WHAT ARE you grumbling about over there?” Sam asked once they’d returned to their room above the main hall with their impromptu luggage.

  Marcus harrumphed. “Nothing. Just thinking. Like I was wondering why we didn’t do a Ben Franklin and build a kite with a piece of metal attached to attract lightning to harness it. But then I remembered that’s what the lightning rods are there for. And since the lizzies didn’t build the portal chamber, powering the temple somehow would do exactly diddly squat for the portal. Then I started thinking about which we need to attach the vine-turned-power-cable to: the doorway or the chair, which is broken.”

  Sam chuckled. “Geez, Marcus. Give your brain a rest. That’s a lot to worry about.” It was amusing, though, he thought, since he’d literally worried about the exact same thing less than an hour ago.

  Marcus shrugged. “Not so easy to turn things off, you know. I keep thinking about all kinds of contingency plans. Like what I said earlier—what if the vines burst apart from the electric current? We don’t exactly have replacement parts or a Home Depot next door.”

  “I know. But let’s just stay positive, okay?”

  “Wow. That’s a change. What’s happened to the pessimist I know and love?”

  Sam blushed, smiling. “I’m trying to follow your example and not picture the worst-case scenario at every turn. This is a good plan, worth a shot.”

  “Agreed.” Marcus sighed as he straightened up, grimacing. Sam could relate. His own muscles protested as well. “So how much vine have we collected?” Marcus asked.

  “This is a rough estimate, you understand,” Sam said hesitantly, frowning with displeasure. “But I figure we have about… three hundred meters for sure, plus maybe… a dozen or so more.”

  “That should be enough,” Marcus commented with a nod. “I mean, this whole island couldn’t be more than a mile long anyway. And the chamber is situated on the mountainside
, about half the island’s total length from the temple.”

  “We’ll see.” Sam wanted to believe, to stay positive and have faith that things would work out for the best. That fundamental change in perspective wasn’t easy for him. But having Marcus around helped a lot. “I just wish I knew how we’re going to measure the distance between the temple’s lightning rods and the chamber,” Sam groused, annoyed at the situation and his own sad point of view. “Steps, maybe?”

  Marcus chuckled and fished out his iPhone. “Nah. I got a distance measuring app on my iPhone. Back home I use it when I go out running and stuff. Should be helpful here too.”

  Sam smiled, relief flooding him. “I love you.”

  Marcus smiled back, his eyes shining with happiness. Then his eyes grew dark, and he licked his lips, leaning closer. Sam giggled and did the same. Their lips met in a chaste kiss.

  A deafening rumble of thunder sounded above their heads, shocking them both.

  They hadn’t pulled the stone slab in front of the doorway, so they had a clear view of the upper area of the main hall. At least one side and one corner of it.

  Inside a stone recess the shape of a tube, the front of it translucent, the lightning rod glimmered in a cocoon of blue sparks and wild streams of energy. Sam guessed that the metal bar reached all the way to the top of the bud-like tower.

  The semicircular base glowed azure, gathering electricity from the storm clouds above, which was what lightning rods did. Instead of grounding the power of the dark skies, though, the base seemed to collect the energy into a pool, possibly recharging power reserves they couldn’t see, perhaps inside the walls or under the temple complex itself.

  “The base,” Sam murmured. “That’s where we need to attach the vines.”

  “I see it too.” Marcus sounded cool and composed, and Sam took that as a good sign. He relied heavily on his companion’s strength. Not that Sam felt he was awfully weak, but strange space adventures weren’t his forte.

  Silently the two young men stared at the web of blue current that slowly dwindled and died. The thunder and lightning also faded, and the night grew still. Wind still rustled in the jungle’s trees and underbrush, but the storm had clearly passed. Smells of wet earth and damp flowers rose fresh to their noses even inside the temple.

  “I think we’ve seen the worst of it,” Marcus said, rising to his feet and walking out to the balcony overlooking the great hall. Sam followed him. Together they watched through the roof oculus as darkness waned, and a deep rosy hue began to conquer the skies.

  “It’s already dawn.” Sam was surprised so much time had passed. The days and nights moved so quickly on this alien moon. He knew that, but the weirdness of it still rattled him.

  “Yeah.” Marcus frowned. “It’s getting light, but we’ve been up on our feet for a while. We should get some rest now, so we can measure the distance to the portal chamber and attempt a power hookup later, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”

  At first Sam considered arguing that they didn’t have time to waste, since a new storm could brew in an hour or weeks from now. But right then a yawn he couldn’t hold at bay damn near broke his jaw, so he conceded with a curt nod.

  They returned to the room, reset the slab in the doorway, and settled side by side on the stone bed over their winter wardrobe. Sam rested his head on Marcus’s chest, listening to his soothing heartbeat. The heat of Marcus’s skin told Sam they were alive and well, and that counted for something.

  Then Marcus murmured, “You asleep yet?”

  Sam snorted. “Not with you yapping.”

  Marcus chuckled. Then he whispered in Sam’s ear, “Wanna make out?”

  Like flipping a switch, Sam was instantly on alert, his heart racing, his dick hardening, and his desire kindling. “Want more,” he muttered back, arose over Marcus, and claimed his lips in a possessive kiss.

  They both allowed their hands to roam, fondle, and grip. Sam straddled Marcus’s hips, cupped his cheeks, and kissed him harder, his need growing by leaps and bounds. Marcus shoved his tongue in Sam’s mouth and entangled them in a hot swirl of need. Soon they were both too out of breath to maintain a sealed kiss.

  Marcus unbuttoned and yanked open Sam’s fly, digging underneath to pluck out his cock. Sam blindly fumbled with his boyfriend’s pants to do the same. They stroked each other, and none too gently either. Marcus pulled back just long enough to lick his own palm, and then his hand returned to Sam’s cock, tugging roughly but more fluidly too.

  “God, your hand on me….” Sam’s voice failed him. He couldn’t even finish his sentence, his brain muddled, his blood deafening in his ears.

  “If you love that, my bae, you’re gonna love it when my dick’s inside you.” Marcus’s lewd words sent hot thrills and frissons of pure pleasure coursing through Sam’s veins. Anticipation of what their relationship would eventually evolve into made his toes curl and the hairs on his body stand up on end.

  “What if it’s my dick inside you?” Sam teased, breathing hotly over Marcus’s lips. He’d never imagined he would say such dirty words to his secret crush. Now Marcus was his boyfriend, and Sam could say what was in his heart and below his belt.

  Marcus grinned wide, looking like a hungry wolf. “Yeah, that too.”

  There was stuff Sam knew he wasn’t ready for yet. Sexual stuff. But he also knew full well that Marcus would do nothing to hurt or pressure him. He’d said as much earlier. No, this was sex talk, fantasies spilling into words, hot thoughts they’d both had about each other. And that was just fine.

  Marcus pushed Sam’s hand away and wrapped his fist around both their cocks, a fiery stroke mashing them together. Sam moaned, and Marcus half chuckled, half groaned.

  After that, neither of them seemed capable of stopping. Their hips rocked in unison as they inched closer to climax, their limbs wound around each other, their bodies pressed together hotly.

  Sam couldn’t breathe properly. It was as if his lungs had shrunk. His heart hammered in his chest, the beat echoing throughout his body. His belly fluttered, his groin was on fire, and desire all he could think of.

  “Marcus.” Sam repeated the name, over and over, his eyes closing.

  Then Marcus sought Sam’s lips in a passionate kiss, and Sam was lost. His whole body jerked violently as his cock erupted, and he spilled his seed over Marcus’s hand and between their writhing bodies. Marcus followed a blink of an eye later, a deep rumbling groan prelude to his cock discharging ropes of hot, sticky come everywhere. Sam reveled in the thick, earthy odors of male musk and spunk while hot flashes continued to cascade over his body and senses, unraveling him to the core.

  Exhausted, they collapsed back on the stone bed, both panting hoarsely as they clung to each other, continuing to pet and caress, softly kiss, and quietly murmur sweet endearments. Sam was so sleepy he felt like he could dream for a month. Marcus didn’t seem to be in a hurry to make Sam move off him.

  So Sam lay there on top of his lover, ignoring the cooling gooey substance between them. His skin remembered, though, each kiss from Marcus, that tongue around his nipples, those lips traveling down his body, that moist breath fanning hotly over him, those strong hands holding his back and buttocks. With a goofy smile, Sam dozed off to sweet dreams.

  “Love you….”

  “MMM, DON’T wanna wake up yet,” Sam murmured drowsily, yawning and rubbing his eyes. “What time is it?”

  “Best guess? Afternoon. Ish.” Marcus stood, straightened, and pressed his palms over his back, grimacing. “Damn. Every muscle in me is fucking jammed. I need a weeklong trip to a hot tub.”

  “With me, I hope.” Sam flashed an irreverent grin as he got up too. His body protested as well, yesterday’s exertions taking their toll. Both the vine gathering and the later lovemaking. His welts had stopped stinging but still felt swollen.

  “Naturally.” Marcus turned on his iPhone, scratching his jaw where stubble had begun to form, a dark shadow on his skin. Sam didn’t have to shave often
since his bristle was still soft and dirt-blond like the rest of his hair, virtually unnoticeable.

  “Okay,” Marcus said. “The app’s working. We can now start measuring the shortest distance between the closest lightning rod and the portal chamber. I’m relatively sure we can get a pretty accurate reading, with a couple of meters margin for error.”

  “Okay, then.” Sam stifled another yawn and put his boots back on. He wore his jeans but decided to forgo his T-shirt. The humid heat wasn’t going anywhere, so the garment seemed unnecessary. “Let’s do this.”

  As they approached the see-through stone pillar housing the lightning rod where it rose through a corner of the balcony, Sam noted a crack in the surface. The transparent casing wasn’t impenetrable. Sam took a piece of rubble off the floor and hit the crack. A few shards of the glass-like outer cover broke off, leaving a jagged-edged hole.

  “That’s not, like… radioactive, is it?” Marcus asked with mild concern in his voice.

  Sam shook his head. “No. Electricity is movements of electrons, which can’t become radioactive. We’re fine. Plus, I think this hole is big enough to stick the vine in there.”

  “Awesome. Time to get started, then.” Marcus pressed the app to activate it and moved toward the edge of broken balustrade, peering below and to the side. “I think we should try to get the vine through the open windows here instead of going around, over the balcony, and under the entrance arch.”

  “Agreed.” Sam hopped down, the lower gravity giving his jump a touch of lightness and speed. “Man, I could get used to this. Feel like an athlete.”

  Marcus laughed as he jumped down next to him. “I already know for a fact that you’d qualify for the sexual Olympics for sure, bae.”

  Sam blushed. “Shut up.” Marcus merely chuckled in response and winked at him.

  They walked under the high vaulted entrance into bright sunlight. The air rippled with heat since even tropical winds seemed to be absent today, not a single leaf rustling around them. The warm moisture hung heavy in the air, and Sam was grateful he’d decided against putting on his T-shirt, same as Marcus.