by Luna Hunter
His soldiers all carry rifles, and I wonder why Vukan doesn’t do the same. A spear can’t match a rifle, can it?
They sneak through the bush, silent, without taking in a single breath. I follow along, trying to be as quiet as I can be.
Then suddenly they all stop again. Vukan kneels in front of me, shielding my body with his, his trident resting on his shoulder. The squad members take position as I hear the tall grass rustle. My heart is beating in my throat — who’s coming?
I hear low, grumbling voices. The grass moves and tall creatures move out into the clearing.
“Halt,” Vukan growls.
There is a flurry of sounds as guns are readied and cocked and orders are yelled. Human orders. The crew from the FM Zeta! My heart skips a beat, from joy — and fear that this situation is about to escalate.
“Stop!” I scream, standing up from behind Vukan. “We’re friendly!”
I see twelve guns all pointed in my direction. Captain Price is staring at me through the sights of his rifle, a look of pure concentration on his face. For a second I fear he’s about to pull the trigger, but then recognition settles in. “By the Federation,” Captain Price says, breathing a sigh of relief. “I nearly put a bullet in you, Olivia!”
“Never do that again,” Vukan growls.
Price is alive! I feared that the entire crew, all three hundred of them, had been killed on impact… my relief is short-lived, because I realize all weapons are still drawn!
“Lower your guns,” I say. “Everyone!”
“Tell your ‘friends’ to do so first,” the captain answers.
I twirl around, glaring at Vukan. He’s got his trident aimed right at the captain.
“Vukan! What are you doing?”
“Lower your weapons, human,” he says.
Price’s lips are pulled into a tight line. “We have you outnumbered.”
“We have you outgunned,” Vukan answers.
“Guys,” I say as I walk towards the middle of the clearing and stretch my arms wide. “Stop this!”
The two leaders, one Zoran, one human, show no sign of listening to me. Sweat drips down Price’s brow, his hands shaking.
“Am I the only who realizes that we’re in this together?!” I say. “We’re both stranded here! We need to work together, not play army!”
Soldiers. They’re the worst.
Steaming mad, I run up to Price, grab the barrel of his gun and point it towards the ground.
“We’re here to help,” I say. “Tell your men to stand down.”
His eyes go wide with shock and anger
“You’re on their side now?” he spits.
“I’m not on anybody’s side!” I yell.
“You’re wearing their clothes!”
I glance down. He’s right — I’m wearing an obsidian Zoran uniform. Vukan tore my outfit to pieces before ravishing me…
“How come?” the captain bites. “Are you a traitor, is that it?”
“Long story,” I say. “And no! I’m no traitor! There are no sides here! You can all choose: die here in the grass for absolutely no reason, or work together and find a way off this rock!”
The men remain frozen, looking at their leaders for orders, and Price and Vukan both don’t want to be the first to step down.
“Oh my god,” I say, exasperated. “Give me that.”
I yank Price’s rifle from his hand. His grows red with anger, but he doesn’t lash out. I walk around the clearing and take the guns from all the soldiers. The human soldiers don’t know what to do, frozen with indecision, and they let me disarm them. I dump them in the middle of the clearing and then move on to the Zoran soldiers.
The one named Rufus backs away when I reach for his rifle.
“Try, and lose a hand,” he growls.
“Your general will snap your neck before you get the chance,” I answer. “Put away your rifle or I’ll do it for you.”
He glances at his general.
“Sir?” he asks.
Vukan’s light blue eyes are filled with cold fury.
I minored in Zoran Studies, so I’m somewhat familiar with their culture. Honor and pride are the most important things to them. Keeping face is key.
By flagrantly disobeying General Vukan’s orders I’ve shamed him.
Add to the fact that I’m not only human, but female as well, and his shame grows and grows. According to his male-dominated, old-fashioned culture, anyways.
I don’t have the patience to deal with all of that baggage; all of those rules. I’m a woman of action. When I see two squads of soldiers about to fire on one another for absolutely no reason, I intervene.
General Vukan’s ‘honor’ be damned.
Who knows, he might even punish me for it.
A thrill runs down my spine at that thought. I haven’t forgotten how his breath feels on my neck, how his tongue felt when it brushed my bottom lip, how his strong, firms hand felt on my bare-naked bottom…
But that was in the past. Now, everything has changed.
After a moment of silence Vukan stands up and lowers his trident.
“Lower your weapons everyone,” he growls, his glaring eyes fixed on me. His soldiers follow his command begrudgingly.
I breathe a sigh of relief. Finally one of these knuckleheads is talking some sense!
“Good,” I say. “Great. Now we can forget about all this and start working together! Captain Price…”
My breath falters. I need to know what happened, but asking it is harder than I thought.
“How… how is the situation?”
He glances at the floor.
“Bad,” he grunts.
“How bad?”
The captain looks back up, and I see tears are stinging his eyes.
“Real bad. Some force attracted us, drew us towards the surface, like some gravitational forcefield… and without any of our systems online,” he says, shooting General Vukan a look that could kill, “we were absolutely defenseless. Their blood is on your hands, Zoran!”
“The same thing happened to us,” the general answers. “We tried to save you at the expense of ourselves!”
“What’s he talking about, Olivia?!”
I rub my temples. I’m not a mediator. Solving squabbles is not my forte, and especially not between two opposing military leaders. But someone has to do it…
“Vukan used his tractor beam to try and slow your descent. Did it work?”
Price’s eyes light up. “That was you?”
Vukan nods.
The human captain swallows the lump in his throat. “It did help, yes. Some. But still… I lost a lot of good men today.”
The Zoran general nods.
I look straight at Vukan and shake my head. You need to give me more than that, you hard-ass.
“My condolences,” Vukan says through gritted teeth.
I mouth ‘thank you’ at him. Was that so hard, really?
“The Zoran had nothing to do with it,” I tell the captain. “Their ship got pulled towards the surface as well. We crashed a few miles south of here, though the ship survived the emergency landing relatively unscathed.”
“How convenient,” Price snorts. “The FM Zeta will never fly again.”
“We came here to help you,” I say.
“We don’t want your help,” the captain bites.
“Want it or not — you need it,” I tell him. “Now, let’s see what shape the FM Zeta is in.”
Price relaxes his shoulders. “You’re right,” he mutters. “Damn aliens.” He signals to his men, and they pick up their rifles, sling them onto their backs and head back north, towards the downed ship.
The Zorans follow behind closely, while I walk next to the human captain.
“Tell me the truth, Olivia,” he whispers. “Can the Zorans be trusted?”
“I think so,” I answer. “We’re in this together now.”
“What were they doing out here then? It’s all a bit convenient.”
“They were on a mission, same as us.”
“What was their mission?”
“I don’t know,” I admit.
The captain rolls his eyes. “Figures.”
“I’ll ask Vukan.”
“So… what happened when you were on board their ship? Did they treat you right?”
I feel a hint of guilt in the captain’s words. Faced with General Vukan’s impressive frame he was all too eager to send me over to their vessel as a sacrificial lamb, but now his conscience is getting the best of him?
Should I tell him the truth?
That the Zoran general yanked my pants down, tore my panties off, pulled my hair and gave me a bare-bottomed spanking? One so hard that my cheeks still feel like they’re on fire?
And that afterwards he punished me with every hard, throbbing inch of his big, beautiful, blue…
Ahem.
“Nothing much,” I lie, my cheeks burning as hot as coals. “We just talked.”
“Just talked?”
“That’s right,” I say, flustered. Is it getting hot in here? This planet’s hot. It’s not just me.
“A HA! Got you!”
A loud squeal reached my ears, and I whirl around in surprise.
General Vukan is holding a green creature up by its hind legs, the animal peeping ceaselessly.
“Ype ype ype!”
He’s smiling at me triumphantly.
“Told you,” he says, tapping his nose with his free hand.
He caught an Ype!
16
Vukan
“Put him down!”
I raise my eyebrows.
“Why? This is what you wanted, isn’t it? A green, bipedal lower life-form. Here it is.”
Olivia runs up to me and pounds my rock-hard abs with her small fists.
“You’re hurting him!” she says. “I want to talk to them, not trap them!”
“Talk to them?” I glance at the small being. It’s squealing and flopping about senselessly, while emitting a high-pitched cry that seems completely devoid of any structure. “How?”
“With a lot of patience.” Olivia glares. “Now put him down.”
“He’ll run away.”
“Yes, because you frightened him! If they associate your scent with fear we’ll never be able to talk to them!”
I don’t understand the human female. This is what she wanted! I present it to her, and yet she is still angry, barking orders at me like she doesn’t know who she’s talking to.
I really ought to put her in her place.
“Fine, your choice,” I growl as I lower the animal to the floor. It instantly scampers away, disappearing into the high grass.
“Don’t do that again,” Olivia says.
“Or what?”
I push my shoulders back, towering over the female.
“You are still mine,” I say, soft enough that only she can hear.
She glares back at me, but I see her neck becoming flushed. With a huff she turns back around and marches north with the human soldiers.
I love watching her go. I’ve never seen anyone look as good in our military jumpsuits. The fabric is pulled tight around her curvy hips, and my fingers twitch as I remember how they felt in the palm of my hands.
The moment we’re alone I’m going to give her a long, hard spanking, for all the lip she’s given me.
After a short march we reach the human vessel — or what’s left of it. The human leader was right. This thing will never fly again.
It ploughed the dirt for nearly a mile, scrap metal strewn across the entire distance. The ship itself broke in two, black smoke billowing out of the metal wreckage.
Soldiers are busy unloading what supplies they can save from the remains of the ship, and I see several emergency tents set up where battlefield surgery is taking place.
It looks like a battlefield.
“Oh my god,” Olivia gasps.
The sight touches me. That could very well have been our vessel. As a commander, the lives of my troops are in my hands. I always keep that in the back of my mind. Every time a warrior under my command dies I feel like a piece of me has been lost.
If the same applies to Captain Price, he has just had half his soul ripped out.
As one commander to the other, I can’t stand by and watch him suffer.
“Rufus, send one of your squad back to the ZMC Bran immediately. Return with buggies. Salvage what you can, and then escort the humans back to our vessel. Give them all the supplies they need.”
“Sir,” he growls softly but threateningly. “Are you sure? The humans can’t—”
I raise my hand before he can continue to question my orders any more than he already so
“That’s an order, Rufus.”
He snaps to attention. “Yes, sir.”
Rufus relays my orders to his squad, and they get to work, assisting the humans, while one of them heads back towards our mothership as fast as he can.
Olivia turns to me, her blues eyes filled with surprise.
“The humans need our help,” I tell her.
Or am I just doing this to win her favor, I wonder? No. I’d never do such a thing. I’m a Zoran general, after all. I don’t concern myself with the opinions of human females… not even those as shapely, as beautiful as Olivia Booth.
The human captain turns to me and removes his cap. His eyes are filled with emotion. I can see that the sight of the ruined ship has touched him as well.
“I suppose I ought to thank you for your help, Zoran,” he says.
I reach out and grab his shoulder. “We got off on the wrong foot. Olivia is right — we have to work together.” I offer him my hand and he shakes it. His grip is firm. For a human.
“You’re right,” he says. “You’re right. Damn, what a mess we’re in. What do I call you, Zoran?”
“Vukan will do.”
He nods. “Name’s Jonathan. I assume by now our in-house scientist has told you all the fine details of our mission?”
Olivia punches the captain on his shoulder. No respect for authority, that one.
“Studying the local wildlife, I gather.”
“Among other things. Luckily, the Federation was smart enough not to share every detail with her.”
“I’m standing right here you know,” Olivia sighs, crossing her arms. “I can’t believe you’re talking about me like I’m not even there!”
Jonathan Price scratches the back of his neck. “I would feel a lot more at ease if I knew why you’re in this sector, Vukan. If we’re working together, we shouldn’t hold any secrets from one another.”
I square my shoulders.
“That is not my call to make. I have a king who—”
“Yeah, yeah, and I have a Federation council full of stuffy old white guys who will be up my ass about working with a Zoran. Fuck the chain of command for a moment and be straight with me, Vukan. My ship is utterly destroyed. I lost a quarter of my crew. Throw me a damn bone.”
I take a moment to size the human commander up. The first time I met him he was cowering in his seat, utterly afraid of me. Now, he has found his backbone. Or at least, a part of it.
“Alright,” I say. “But we will have to talk in private. The fate of the galaxy could depend on it — and I don’t say that lightly.”
The captain’s face loses a bit more color.
Time for him to share this burden.
17
Olivia
“Wait here,” Vukan says as he wanders off with Captain Price.
I’ve had it up to here with men telling me what to do — and now the two commanders think they can shut me out like this?
Hell no.
I wait until they’re lost in conversation before I sneak up on them, crawling through the high grass on my belly. I’m quite adept at moving stealthily through nature — all part of being a wildlife biologist.
“We had a disturbing report about a kidnapped female,” Vukan says.
He�
��s speaking softly, but his voice still carries far because it is so low.
“A human female,” he explains.
Captain Price listens and nods.
“Tyk’ix took her, and they were headed to this planet.”
“Here?” Price says, surprised. “There’s nothing here.”
“That’s what we thought as well. A Zoran rescued her just before they arrived. That’s why we were here — to check on that vessel. And to make matters worse: the Order could be involved as well.”
“The Order? As in, the Intergalactic Alliance’s Order?”
“That’s the one,” Vukan growls. “You understand why discretion is key. If we find proof that the Tyk’ix are kidnapping people, and it’s been sanctioned by their leaders…”
“There will be war!” Captain Price says without hesitation. “Immediate. The Federation will have to retaliate. This cannot stand!”
“If that’s the case, yes,” Vukan says, stressing his words. “Don’t charge blindly into a war. So far, we don’t have a scrap of proof. This planet must hold the key, somehow, but so far, all I see is swamp. There’s nothing here.”
“Maybe there is,” Price says. “Like I said, Olivia didn’t get the whole briefing. Have you ever heard of Malice? Or DEVO?”
I listen carefully. What has the Federation been keeping from me?
General Vukan shakes his head. “No. She only mentioned a human crashing on this planet, together with the Zoran Special Forces. They escaped with the help of the Ypes — that is why you are here, correct?”
“Yes,” Price says, “but that’s not the whole story. The ship’s AI went haywire and crashed here on purpose, as it tried to kill the crew. It even infected some of the Zoran survivors.”
“Infected? How?”
“We have no idea,” the captain answers. “And that’s why we’re really here. The animal thing is just a cover-up.”
My cheeks burn brightly with anger. The Ypes are not just a cover-up! They need our help — I promised Cindy this. My nostrils flare as I exhale.
Angrily. Loudly. Forgetting Vukan’s heightened senses for a brief moment.
With a lightning quick reflex he ducks down and snatches me from the ground. I keep being surprised by how quick and strong he is. He’s carries me with only one hand, effortlessly.