by K. A Knight
“So we search the area, going as far as forty iloms.” He shrugs.
“Ilons?” I repeat with a groan. Just when I think the language barrier is okay, they say more weird words.
“Humans,” he mutters, throwing me a fake smile.
“Asshole,” I reply and his eyes widen.
“What’s an asshole?” he questions curiously.
“It’s an insult.” I shrug.
His eyes gleam and he practically rubs his hands together. “Yes, teach me the insults so I can use them on Rilon and Wrenil, and they will act stupid not knowing what they are.”
I groan, but when I realise he is being serious, an evil smile crosses my lips.
“Why don’t we make a deal? For every human survivor you find, I will teach you one.”
He grins. “Deal.” He turns back to the screen with new determination—what have I done?
Ground Day Five
I have worked out an ilom is like a mile. As I move my reacher through a forest that spread on and on, I begin to lose hope of ever finding Howard with each passing tree, never mind any other survivors.
Animals fly and jump past my camera, making me flinch each time I am paying close attention. I’m searching for something, anything to let me know he was here. “Come on Howard,” I whisper, my heart aching. He’s a smart man, really smart, so if anyone could survive on an alien planet alone, it would be him. It doesn’t explain why he left Effie though, since that isn’t like him. Something must have been wrong.
“Anything?” I ask Jolp, and he just grunts, which I am taking to mean no.
We spend the next half hour combing through the forest, it’s slow and hard going, and just when I am starting to lose hope, I spot it. Footprints, in the dirt, leading to the east.
“Jolp,” I whisper, afraid what I’m seeing is a trick of my imagination or that my eyes have finally blurred enough from staring at the screens.
“What?” he says distractedly.
“Check this out.” I urge.
He sighs before leaning closer, only to whoop when he does. “One down, swear word please,” he adds.
“We still need to find the person the prints belong to,” I point out, throwing him a grin.
“Technicalities,” he grumbles, and I see him manoeuvre his reacher closer from the east, and we start moving in unison. Him left, me right, making sure to go slower this time.
“Nothing!” I throw my hands up in the air, beyond annoyed. We have spent two hours expanding our search circle and nothing has cropped up since the footprints. Someone was there, but where have they gone?
“Let’s keep looking,” Jolp offers.
“You just want swear words,” I moan.
“Yes, but that means you can depend on me because you have something I want,” he answers matter-of-factly, startling me and making my eyebrows fly up.
Unsure what to say, I turn back to my reacher and continue looking for the next hour, side by side with Jolp. I freeze above a small tree, blinking incredulously at the sign below me. Could I really have stumbled across someone so easily?
There, marching along the dirty path below, are four sweaty survivors.
“Er, Jolp.” I nudge him, and he stops and looks over.
“You really are tiny creatures,” he muses.
I look over at him disbelievingly. “The survivors, Jolp, how do we contact them?”
“Do you have trouble reaching things? How do you climb trees and escape predators with some small, malformed legs,” he ponders, staring at the survivors on screen.
“My tiny malformed legs are about to kick your ass! The survivors!” I huff.
“Right!” He blinks. “Sorry.” Turning back to his station, he starts typing incredibly fast again and I just wait, hoping he will explain, but of course I have no such luck.
“Jolp,” I groan, and he waves his hand before hitting my face, then he looks at me with a cringe.
“Oops.”
Narrowing my eyes, I look back at the survivors who are watching the reacher now, shielding their eyes from the sun as they debate whether to run. “Jolp,” I growl and he turns back to me.
“Okay, ready,” he replies.
“Ready for what?” I grumble.
“That.” He points and I turn around, my mouth dropping open at the projection of my face and neck in the forest. It’s obviously coming from the reacher and I manage to snap my mouth shut before clearing my throat.
“A warning would have been nice,” I hiss at Jolp, before smiling at the survivors.
“Hello, my name is Indy Stewart and I was a trainee pilot aboard the Dawnbreaker. We crashed here like you, but we managed to find a society of…well, aliens already occupying this planet. They are friendly and we have made peace, and they are helping us locate other survivors. We have a camp, at the crash site of the Dawnbreaker…” I trail off, unsure how to direct them there.
One man steps forward, his dirty white shirt ripped and splotched with blood, his blond hair a sweaty mess, and his blue eyes cynical even through a camera lens. “Why should we trust you?” he calls.
“Why would you not? I’m human, I’m from the Dawnbreaker, and we have a camp. With food and shelter.” I state, truly confused.
“You speak of aliens!” he shouts, before snorting and looking at the others who are shifting nervously. “Aliens, she is clearly mad or thinks us stupid.” He laughs and a few nervous chuckles come from the others.
Narrowing my eyes, I grab Jolp and drag him on screen. “Yes, clearly mad,” I continue sarcastically, as Jolp waves awkwardly before scuttling back to his seat.
The survivors gasp, physically recoiling. “Now, do you want to come meet the other survivors or should I leave you trawling through the forest with yunret and red-tailed ginople,” I mock and Jolp sniggers.
“Is this camp safe?” the man calls, shaking off his shock. He’s good, I'll give him that. He puts himself back together again very fast and even straightens, holding his head up haughtily.
“Safer than you are, yes, and we have patrols, tents, and a perimeter,” I answer, trying to be nice.
“And aliens,” he sneers.
“Yes, they have their own camp though.” I shrug, pretending I didn’t hear his mocking.
“Fine, yes, collect us,” he demands, waving his hand and ending the discussion.
Collect us? I look at Jolp and he tilts his head, his eyes unfocusing before he nods.
“Okay, stay there,” I order.
“Where else would we stay?” The man rolls his eyes and I narrow mine.
“Gratitude costs nothing, dickhead,” I retort, and swipe across the controls, luckily ending the holo-projection.
“Dickhead,” Jolp drawls out the word. “I like it.”
Sitting back, I watch the humans before looking at Jolp tiredly. “You can go get them?” I ask, my head hurting. I thought we were helping by finding survivors, but I wasn’t expecting to be met with such…zealots.
“Yes, I will send a ship. Your teeny tiny friends are back,” he says offhandedly, and I look over my shoulder to see an annoyed looking Barrott and a chipper Effie heading our way.
Jumping up, I race to Barrott and bury my face in his chest. He hesitates before his arms wrap around me and I feel my tension melt away. When I look up, he no longer looks annoyed, his face is happy as he watches me.
“Everything okay, baby?” he inquires quietly.
“Yes, just—never mind.” I pull back and look at Effie.
“All done?”
She nods, almost bouncing up and down. “Their healing and medicine capabilities are extraordinary, truly. I will need to come back to watch and learn more but, yes! Oh, and we have our translators, truly incredible engineering and the way the technology picks up and translates—” She shakes her head, excitement bubbling in her eyes. “Incredible.”
“You’re welcome, dickhead!” Jolp calls, and I lean my head back with a groan before looking back and seeing Effie’s mo
uth drop open.
“Jolp! No, we only call people like that one dickhead.” I jerk my hand to the screen and he turns to face me with a frown.
“Why?”
I grumble, looking around for help, but Effie watches me closely. “You taught an alien to swear?” She shakes her head and sighs.
“So, you were saying you were ready to go?” I rush out, and Barrott laughs quietly next to me.
“Come on Inds, let’s get back, and you can tell us what you found on the way,” Barrott offers, and at the mention Effie’s excitement deflates.
“Did you find him?” she asks softly and I shake my head.
“It’s a big planet, babe, but I will,” I assure her.
“I know.” She nods, looking at the floor before collecting herself. “Come on then.” She turns on her heel and leaves, and we follow after her, Jolp calling after us.
“See you later, dickhead!”
“Did you find anyone?” Barrott asks as soon as we leave the building.
“Yes, four survivors…they were…lovely,” I deadpanned. “Jolp has sent a ship to pick them up and bring them to the camp. How did your day go?” I query, wanting to forget my failure of not finding Howard. He must hear the disappointment in my voice because he grabs my hand and squeezes. Effie is walking in front of us, one alien on each side, and I watch her back as Barrott talks, hoping she’s not mad at me for not finding him yet.
“It went fine, we got our translators, thanks for the heads up on that,” he growls, making me snicker. “After, I spoke to Wrenil,” he grumbles and I throw the alien a look with a laugh. He doesn’t seem like the most talkative being around, but then again Barrott isn’t either, apart from when he is speaking with me.
“He described some animals, plants, and any issues regarding the planet to look out for. I will need to scout for examples to make sure what he said was true, but at least we aren’t fully in the dark. Rilon was surprisingly helpful as well, explaining the days, weather, and planet to me.”
Leaning his arm against me, he wraps it around me and we walk together as he tells me what he found. “Apparently it rains fairly frequently, so we need to prepare for that, it also gets hotter, and what we call summer is coming. They only have two months of ‘the heating’ and ‘the freezing,’ and it can get cold, but we have around sixty sun rotations until then. We will need to prepare since nothing grows and the ground freezes, so we will need to build structures to combat the freeze,” he outlines, and I hesitate at his words.
“You are planning for us to stay here, aren’t you?” I ask, reading between the lines.
He sighs, kissing the top of my head. “I hope not, but I also need to look at the facts. It’s better to be prepared than caught short, baby. So if we aren’t here when it freezes, great, but if we are then I will make sure we can survive it.” His voice is low and rumbly, and I shiver as I move closer.
“You’re good at that,” I say with a soft smile.
“What’s that?” he inquires.
“Surviving,” I whisper. He stops and turns to me, cupping my face. His face is dark and serious, his eyes laser into me like he can see into my soul.
“You can always bet on me to survive, baby, no matter what it takes. I will always come back to you,” he vows, and I swallow hard.
“Don’t promise things you can’t keep,” I whisper, tears gathering in my eyes because I know he is thinking about my parents as well.
He grips me harder, almost growling, “Dying is easy, baby. I will live for you. Always. Have I ever left you? Lied to you? Abandoned you?” he asks, and I shake my head in his grip.
“Then trust me,” he replies softly.
“Okay,” I exhale, and his lips twitch before he leans down and kisses me gently, so different than the hard grasp he has on my face.
“Good girl. Now come on, let's get back and make sure those three idiots haven’t burned down the camp,” he jokes.
They hadn’t, burned down the camp that is. When we get back, I stare in disbelief at the sight before me. Not only did they not burn it down, but all the tents are now up, fire pits have been dug, signs have been added around camp, and they are building what looks like a structure near the Dawnbreaker wreckage. They have been really busy. Pride fills me at knowing we have built this and my guys have helped.
Heading down the ramp, I leave Effie to say goodbye to her aliens, before she catches up. I spot Cain, Eldon, and Auden—all shirtless—working on the structure, so I head their way, but Barrott stops me. “I’m going to tell Riley and the others what I’ve found.” He drops a kiss on my cheek and disappears.
“I’m going to, er, go.” Effie winks, before giggling and leaving.
Rolling my eyes at her, I head their way. They don’t notice me at first until I clear my throat. Eldon looks up with a grin before placing down the metal sheeting he was carrying, and wipes his forehead with his arm, making all the muscles in his chest bunch and my mouth dry.
“Hey, Good Looking.” He smiles and Auden grins at me from where he is securing another metal sheet with Cain on the roof of the structure.
“Hey!” he calls, and I wave but when I look at Cain, he just smiles and goes back to his work.
“Hey cuties, what you building?” I inquire, ignoring the frosty reception from Cain. They are right, I really need to have a heart-to-heart with him.
“Well, we figured we could use the spare parts, and metal from the ships and pods, to create buildings of sorts. The women and children would get them first, obviously, but we thought this one could be a meeting place! Our own command center!” Auden shouts gleefully.
“That’s an amazing idea!” I reply, truly happy. “How long have you been at it?” I ask, eyeing the structure, which is almost half built. It’s a skeleton, but it has three walls and what looks like a floor already.
“Couple hours,” Eldon answers, coming to my side and watching as Auden and Cain secure the next sheeting, which I’m guessing is a section a roof.
“Good, wanna go for a swim?” I beg, needing a break after the disappointment of not finding Howard.
“Sure! Cain, you want to come?” he calls up to him.
“I’m good, you guys get going. You need a break. I’m going to carry on with this,” he answers, throwing me an unreadable look as they both climb down.
My heart thumps harder and I swallow. “Okay, be careful,” I reply.
He nods, waving us away. “Have fun, speed demon,” he shouts, before rushing off and getting some more metal.
I watch him go as determination settles into my bones—I’m going to confront him tonight. It’s time for a heart-to-heart. I never thought I would say this, but I miss my cocky Cain, this…stranger is slowly but surely breaking my heart.
“I’ll go grab something to dry off with and let Barrott know,” Eldon tells us before jogging off towards Barrott, who is talking with patrols on the outskirts of camp. Auden wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me to his side, and I don’t pull away.
“If you wanted to get us naked, Good Looking, you only had to ask,” he whispers in my ear. I know he’s joking, but it sends a shiver through me even as I smile. We spot Eldon jogging back and Auden lets go, backing away as he wiggles his eyebrows, making me laugh. The noise must carry, because I look up to see Barrott watching me with a smile. He waves and mouths, “Be good.” It makes me raise my eyebrows—he is letting us go alone?
“He said to get going, but be back before it’s dark.” Eldon grins.
“What else?” I smirk, knowing there would have been a threat in there.
“If you get hurt, even so much as one scratch, he is going to disembowel us and, I quote, ‘use our pretty boy faces for punching bags.’” He grins gleefully and I laugh again.
“Yep, sounds like him, come on then!” I grab his hand and we make our way from camp, ignoring the stares.
Once we are in the trees, I start to relax a little knowing their eyes can’t reach me here. I even let myself
grab Auden’s hand as we walk to the waterfall and pool we found in our earlier explorations. I spot a dash of black in the leaves next to me and smile, knowing Ker is following us. He doesn’t come into camp a lot, I think he doesn’t like or trust the other humans.
Auden swings our hands, making me giggle as the ground smooshes under our feet. “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!” he sings loudly, causing my giggles to turn into full-blown laughter. He grins at me as Eldon carries on, “If you’re happy and you know it, grab your girl!” His voice is loud and off-key as he sings, and I squeal as they both grab at me.
Auden lets go of me and starts walking backwards in front of us. “If you’re in love and you know it, scream!” he yells, before cupping his mouth and yelling wordlessly.
My mouth drops open as Eldon joins in and they both look at me, waiting, and I decide what the hell. I join in, all of us yelling wordlessly, and birds break from nearby trees making us grin, but a weird, high growling has me looking to the left to see Ker watching us, his mouth open as he howls at the sky like we were.
We look at each other and burst out laughing, leaning against each other. Every time I think I can stop, I look at one of their faces and start laughing all over again until tears race down my face. “Oh stars, stop, it hurts,” I cry, laughing and hiccupping.
“You stop,” Auden gasps between bouts of laughter.
I blow out several breaths, giggles interrupting my exhales, until I can calm down. My face hurts and so does my belly, but when I look at them, seeing their struggle to calm down as well, I can’t help but be thankful that I met them.
“Last person there has to sleep next to Barrott!” I shout, and push away from them, racing down the path. I hear them swear as they set off behind me, their feet slamming the ground as they run. Laughing again, my hair blowing in the wind, I race through the trees, pushing my speed. I let go for now, allowing myself just have fun with two men I love.
They catch up to me pretty fast and we break through the trees, all of us panting as we lean down and grasp our legs. The waterfall is as beautiful as I remember it, the sounds of crashing water blocking out everything else, and the water sparkles in the sun. It looks as untouched as before, like a paradise just for us.