Once Upon a Starman

by Allie Marell

  “I know they’re watching,” he says to allay her fears. “I have been circumspect.”

  “If you’d gone anywhere near that thing, you’d have been in handcuffs by now. And even if we could get in. Neither of us can operate it.”

  He makes a dismissive sound. “I can likely show you how.”

  “Oh, I don’t doubt that.” Andra’s laugh is more than a little hysterical. Swiping wet hair away from her face, she closes her eyes briefly, composing herself.

  “This is no laughing matter, Andra. I have no protective headwear so I need this tracker disabled. I need to be sure.”

  “Oh, Santar.” She mounts the steps, standing close. The soft weight of her head settles gently on his arm. “What am I going to do with you?”

  Oh, William. What am I going to do with you? But, Mum...

  Another voice echoes in his head. His memories? Or someone else entirely? Without this woman’s help, he’ll never know.

  With one last regretful glare at the mobile scanner, he takes her freezing fingers in his, sharing the cold. Warming them for her.

  “What are you going to do with me?” She’s not only the kindest being he’s had the good fortune to encounter, she’s his rescue pod, complete with safety net and life support system. Right now, she’s all he has.

  “Take me home, Andra. Take me home.”

  Chapter 16

  She wanted nothing more than to take this lost and confused man home. He’d muffled up in the scarf and hat, turned up the jacket collar until all the patients and visitors, the doctors and hospital staff saw was a tall, broad man walking purposefully for the exit.

  Not exactly much of a disguise if it came to picking him out in a line-up. They’d recognise him from the physique alone. But Andra wasn’t about to tell him that.

  And she wasn’t thinking about his physique, either. Not the way those Levi jeans hugged his muscular thighs as if made for him, or the same muscular thighs gripping hers...

  Concentrate on the road.

  Twice, on the icy drive home, Santar had grabbed the dashboard as if that might physically stop the car from sliding away. That wasn’t helping. Leaning forward, she peered through the tumbling snow, looking for familiar landmarks that had faded to nothing in the gloom.

  “Stop the car, I will drive.” Santar was already unfastening his seat belt.

  “No way. What if the police pull the car over and ask for ID? Do you want to risk that?”

  Did Starmen from outer space carry ID? Or did they have some ID chip embedded in their skulls? Either way, he was not getting behind the wheel.

  “I did not mean to offend you.” Santar clipped himself reluctantly back into the seatbelt. “I am obviously the better pilot so it makes logical sense that I take control in these conditions.”

  “Neanderthal,” she muttered good-naturedly and threaded the car into a right turn into the narrow lane leading up to Moor Cottage.

  “That did not sound like a compliment.” He settled back, tense but at least trying to act casual. She couldn’t do this with him yelling instructions at her every five minutes.

  “It wasn’t meant to be. Do you think our friends have been back?”

  “The men who wanted the toy? It’s likely they’ll be watching the cottage, yes.”

  “You think they’d want it that much?” They were following what looked like a Range Rover’s taillights. Thank God for that. The lane was darker than the seventh level of hell. The Range Rover carried on up the lane, beeping its horn as a goodbye. She did the same and pulled the car through the farm gate by the barn.

  Tam the cat was sitting under the eaves, hunched against the snow. From inside the cottage, she heard Jess’s muffled barking.

  It was good to be home.

  They sat for a moment digesting their day while the engine fan whirred on and clumps of snow slid down the windscreen from the car roof. Was there enough food in the house to feed a man like him? She wanted to do another supermarket run. He’d obviously had enough of the day so she took him home instead. The trick with Christmas food shopping was getting the timing right. Doing it before the last minute panic buyers appeared but not so soon that she’d need another run before the big day.

  Besides, she’d let go any thoughts of roasting a turkey with all the trimmings, of Christmas pudding and brandy cream the day she got the call about the accident. The doctors confirmed they were keeping Oliver in for Christmas so that’s where she’d be too.

  “Andra?” Santar turned his face to the window to stare out at the falling snow. Lifted a finger to draw a symbol in the steamed up glass. “I have no way of repaying your kindness. Know, though, that it means more to me than gold.”

  “You have gold in outer space?”

  “The precious metals exist all over the galaxy, yes.” He scrubbed out the symbol, dropping his hand to open the car door.

  “Santar. Don’t go yet.” They’d come a long way since yesterday in trust and a whole lot else. But this was an opportunity and she had to know for sure.

  “You wish to talk? Would it not be easier inside, in the warmth of your kitchen?”

  Easier for you to look me in the eye and stick to that outlandish story you’re hiding behind. The car’s courtesy light dimmed and died, leaving them two shadowy figures in the night. Tam the cat streaked across the snow to the back door. The click of the cat flap echoed across the garden as she shot inside to wait for her dinner. Seconds later, an owl sailed over the barn on silent wings.

  “I just want a moment of your time.” People said things in the dark, they’d never say in the light. It put her in mind of lovers murmuring in the night. Sleepovers she’d had as a girl where they’d giggle and whisper secrets under the bedclothes. Secrets they’d invariably hotly deny come morning.

  “Most of my story is truth, if that’s what you wish to know.”

  Perhaps it was a good thing she couldn’t see his face. It must have cost him dear to admit to that.

  “Most of your story? Santar, I’ll be in a heck of a lot of trouble if I’m harbouring a deserter. And I don’t fancy spending Christmas in a police cell. I’ll help you, but be straight with me. I have to know.”

  It felt like a betrayal, challenging him at his most vulnerable. And maybe more dangerous than she knew. What if he left his unit because he did something terrible? A man of his strength would have no problem silencing her if it came down to it.

  “Do you fear me, Andra?” He reached out to touch her cheek so suddenly, she flinched. Hastily, she covered his hand with hers to reassure him. Felt the knots of the two fused fingers under hers.

  “You made me jump. It’s okay. And no, I don’t fear you. Should I?”

  His bitter laugh filled the car, raising goosebumps on her chilling skin. “Once I might have said yes. I’ve done things, seen things you cannot imagine. Things I will never erase from memory. But that soldier died a long time ago.”

  “So, you’re a different man now?”

  “I was always a different man, though I didn’t know it. I lived the lies fed to me by Centrum Command until I could stomach them no more.”

  “Tell me straight, Santar. Did you come here from another planet?”

  “Yes.”

  If she’d been standing, her knees would have wobbled and her legs given clean away. Stay calm. We’re getting somewhere at last.

  “So this story of super soldiers, spies and this inter-galactic Centrum Command is all true?” It was time to start believing.

  “It’s no delusion, Andra. Sometimes I wish it was something I made up in my head and I really am that deranged Earthling deserter you believe me to be.”

  She swallowed, picking her words with care. “Okay. And with all you’ve discovered, where does William Chapman come into this? General Jo?”

  “Fragments of him are in my head, but lost in clouds. It’s like a broken thing coming back together, piece by piece.”

  “I’ll help you put them back together. Okay that’s
enough let’s go inside...”

  “I need to see her, Andra. Tell me you’ll come with me to visit the boy’s mother. When I see her, I’ll know.”

  “All right, I will. We could say we’re from some charity visiting the elderly at Christmas. Does she have family? What did the records show?”

  “She has no living kin.”

  “I’ll make the call tomorrow. Would you open the barn doors so I can put the car away?”

  “Give me the keys.”

  She dropped the keys into his outstretched palm. In summer, she left the car on the flagstones fronting the barn. Better to keep the temperamental vehicle under cover in this weather. The huge doors scraped back, one after the other. Checking she wasn’t about to run Santar over, Andra eased the car into the cavernous space that might once have been stacked high with hay bales and feed when Moor Cottage was a part of one of the many scattered moorland farms.

  Only a few working farms left now. Most of the old farm buildings had been converted to trendy housing, or sold on as quaint pieces of history to city folk, like her. Better than leaving them to rot like the crumbling off-grid cottages on the moor tops.

  If Moor Cottage lived on because of her, then she considered it a job well done. She looked around for Santar, who’d disappeared in the dark space.

  He stepped from the unlit gloom, his face like a thunderstorm about to break.

  “My weapon has been taken.”

  “What?” Visions of machine guns and semi-automatics flashed through her head. “Someone broke into the barn and stole your gun? How, when the lock was intact and there’s no other way in?”

  “It did not stop me. You believe a lock would stop them?”

  “Santar, exactly what did you hide in my barn? Please tell me you didn’t abscond with some top secret weapon they’ll do anything to get back.”

  He’d moved to the open doors to peer out into the storm. “To you it would sound like an NR 45X energy blaster. Not my weapon of choice, but standard issue for dress uniform code. It was all I had when I escaped.”

  “Oh hell.” Her heart slithered into her boots. Harbouring a deserter was one thing. But weapons? Was it even now out there in the world waiting to wreak God only knew what havoc on an unsuspecting public?

  “Be at rest, it was discharged in stasis. And even so, I believe the energy charge would be too unstable to do damage on this world.”

  “Well that makes me feel better.” She shoved a hand through her hair, wondering if her problems had only just begun. “So, whoever took it can’t use it to inflict any damage?”

  “Only if they possess the correct charging unit.” Leaning his weight on one of the heavy doors, he pushed it closed. Pressed the bolt into the ground to hold it steady. “I think we should move quickly into the cottage. Something’s definitely off here.”

  “Don’t scare me, Santar.” Locking the car, she almost ran to his side. “We should call the police...”

  “And tell them what? Andra, when I took that rogue trader vessel, I expected to lose everything. Already had credits transferred and stashed off world for my new start when the opportunity to escape presented. That’s how it works. A weapon is a valuable commodity, yet no one interfered with my pod.” He steered her outside and set about closing the second door, snapping shut the padlock. The motion sensor light at the back door illuminated their path, throwing long shadows across the snow-covered lawn. No new footsteps in the crisp drifts. But then it had snowed all afternoon, enough to cover any intruder footsteps.

  “Do you think they’ve been inside?” The cottage was her sanctuary, but now threats lurked in every shadow, behind every wall.

  “Stay behind me. Let me go first.”

  Inside her cosy kitchen, Santar spent far too long checking the locks, throwing bolts. He did the same with the front door. Systematically checked all the window locks, his face a grim mask.

  “I get no sense of them. But I’ve been stupid to believe I’m operating at full capacity. My mind is obviously more compromised than I realised.”

  Andra opened the fridge for something to do with her hands. Made a quick inventory of the contents. “General Jo can’t be worth the risk of a criminal record. Are you saying my visitors want more than the toy now?”

  One look at him told her all she needed to know. He was genuinely spooked. A man expecting trouble.

  “This feels like a clean-up job. They would naturally wish to remove all evidence of me being here.” He shook his head, teeth gritted in an angry grimace. “How could I have been so remiss? They were there, right in front of me and I failed to see it.

  “Failed to see what?” Carefully, she placed the pack of chilled chicken breasts on the counter top. Jess crept forward tentatively licking Santar’s hand, whining softly in his throat. Tam seemed totally oblivious to the tension in the room and wound hopefully around her legs, hinting that whatever the problem, her dinner was way overdue.

  “The men who came to demand the toy. I had no reason to connect them to myself at the time, but now? I believe they were more than mere advocates for a keen collector.”

  “Oh hell, don’t you dare tell me they’re aliens from outer space, too.” From his expression she knew he was about to say exactly that. Grabbing the back of a kitchen chair, she held on and breathed away the panic. Santar grasped her shoulders, holding her steady.

  “I was a fool to think they wouldn’t find me.”

  His breath was warm on her neck. The words so forlorn, she twisted in his arms and laid her head on his chest. Santar stroked her hair, and she felt him loosening the scrunchie she used to tie it back, releasing the long strands.

  “I’ve frightened you. Taking the weapon was perhaps a message, or simply a part of the clean-up operation, but for now, I sense we’re alone.” He tilted her face to his. Made her look at him. “Andra, the men I confronted were human. But the Order will often use indigenous populations for the brute ground work. Often they have no idea of the whole picture or who they’re working for. I need to leave.”

  “No.” Her fists curled on his coat, holding him in place. “You can’t leave. Where will you go? Santar, listen to me. Anyone could have broken into the barn. This is a safe area, but burglaries do happen. If the gun is out of action, then no harm done, eh?”

  “So a thief from your planet would enter without breaking a lock?”

  “Not usually no.” That was harder to justify. And whoever broke in, knew exactly what they were looking for.

  “The weapon is location sensitive by E5T sensor. With the right equipment, they’d have known exactly where it was.”

  “Does that mean they’ve found your, umm...wreck? On the moors.”

  “It’s likely. I need to check. Lock the doors, switch off all the lights and hide upstairs. I’ll be swift.”

  She held on tight, almost falling in her effort to keep him with her. “You said locks aren’t a problem for them. I’m coming too.”

  Before she could manage a single step to follow, he’d lifted her and deposited her on the edge of the kitchen table. And then she realised how helpless she really was in the face of this determined fugitive. She might have been a feather in his arms, for all the effort it took to restrain her.

  So close, his eyes were two smudges of smoky grey. He slapped a hand on either side of her, forcing her to lean back. Still in his charity store jacket, the fabric gave off the slightly musty scent of second-hand clothes. Something she didn’t notice in the store.

  “Andra, it’s me they want, not you. But now you’re in the way, you’re in danger. I’ve headed numerous rogue retrieval squads. Negotiated with bounty hunters. Before I... I know how this works.”

  “They get you over my dead body.”

  “I won’t let it come to that. You can have the toy. It was nothing but an empty dream. Give it to the boy for Christmas.”

  His eyes held so much apology, so much regret, it almost broke her heart.

  “You give it to him, Santar
. It was never mine to give.”

  The scent of him, his nearness. The sheer power of him overwhelmed her. Made her feel weak and at the same time stronger than she’d ever felt. Like a mother cat protecting what was hers, she’d fight for him with everything she had.

  “The weather’s closing in,” she said and lifted her arms to circle his neck. “They won’t come tonight.”

  “Andra...” It was a weak protest. When she strained towards him, he met her invitation with a kiss that was almost brutal.

  “They won’t come tonight,” she whispered when he allowed her to breathe. “And they can’t see us unless they come right up to the window and reveal themselves.”

  She fumbled for the zip closing his jacket, fingers shaking with need. Palm splayed on his chest, feeling solid muscle and bone beneath. Checking to see if he was real, or just a mirage she’d conjured out of the storm to ease her lonely days.

  This time tomorrow, he might be gone from her life and she needed one more memory before he left her. Before they took him away.

  He kissed a wet trail over her cheek, to the sensitive spot behind her ear. Murmuring on ragged breath.

  “You purchased protection today. Where is it?”

  “How did you know?” Had it been that obvious?

  “When you exited the store, you had the look of a woman who wished to be devoured.”

  “Oh, God.” He was pressing between her open legs, letting her know she wasn’t the only one craving release. Wanting to do this one last time. “In my coat pocket.”

  He only had to reach out an arm to dip into the coat slung over the back of a kitchen chair. Ripping open the box, Santar shook the contents onto the table beside her. Then he stood back to shrug out of the jacket. Unbutton the jeans with a brisk efficiency that told her he wasn’t about to stop now she started this.

  She didn’t want him to stop. Santar dropped to his knees to pull off her boots and then his hands were sliding up her calves, her thighs. Unzipping her jeans, while she lifted herself and wriggled them free.

  Tam cast them a cursory glance from his perch on the counter and resumed washing his paws. Jess had fled the room, tail between his legs, unable to cope with the kitchen table drama. And outside, men in black with ray guns might be waiting to drag Santar back to the stars.