by Alyx X
"Walk," I commanded. Setting him on his feet, I backed up enough so he could walk out in front of me. "Lead the way."
He held up his hands and noticeably trembled as he inched past me, scooting against the big desk. Once he was clear of the furniture, he tried to make a break for it, but I caught up to him with a few quick strides outside his office door.
Pressing one of the smaller guns to his head, I sighed. "Do that again and I'll kill you. Walk."
"Okay," he whispered.
He went the way he'd told me, and we discovered a lone guard standing in the hallway. When he saw us, he jumped and raised his gun.
"I wouldn't do that," I called. "Really a bad idea."
"Lower your weapon," the wealthy man said to the soldier.
I leaned close to him. "If you behave yourself and help me get my human to the ship, you will survive this. I promise you that."
He turned his head a fraction of an inch. "How do I know you speak the truth?"
"You know of my species?"
"Yes."
"We do not lie." That, in itself, was a lie. A total bluff.
He bought it. "I will do everything I can to help you leave the planet," he whispered. "I want to live."
"Good. I have no desire to kill anyone, but will and have, when necessary." I pushed the gun into his head again. "Now walk."
Raising my voice again, I addressed the guard. "Put your weapon down and open the door."
The guard looked at the quivering man before me, who must've been someone with authority in the corporation. "Do it," the boss-man hissed.
The guard lowered his gun.
"Kick it this way," I ordered.
He did as I asked, then opened the door to the interrogation room in time for me to see another man in a suit bend back the finger of the love of my life. She screamed, and my rage threatened to explode out of me. She was covered in blood, her face nearly unrecognizable beneath the swelling and bruising.
A warrior must always remain in control. That mantra chanted in my head as I fought the blood lust. Without moving the small gun from the back of the boss's head, I lifted the big one, aiming it high enough that the laser bullets wouldn't hit Evvie in the chair, and opened fire.
The man that broke her, the one in the suit, was the first to die. He had just enough time to turn and look at me with a shocked expression on his face before he nearly disintegrated from the powerful laser of the gun. I pushed myself and the boss-man forward, letting a wicked grin split my face.
The other men in the room surged toward the door, scrambling to regain control of their interrogation. I aimed at the disgusting, red Gurg next. He didn’t even have the chance to fully form a scream before he became nothing but red mist. I strode faster now, desperate to get to my human. As I closed the distance, gun still on boss-man’s head, Evvie opened her swollen, bloody eyes and turned her head toward me.
Even through the chaos, I heard her whisper my name. My heart soared. She was hurt and would take a while to heal, but she would heal. With me. A second Gurg took a shot to his chest and flew backward, landing on the floor with a thud. I could see that most of his body was mush, with a giant, smoldering hole where his chest should have been. There were two other guards in the office and shooting them was only a matter of twisting halfway into the room and taking aim.
The shots they sent my way before I could dispatch them were absorbed by the advanced protection I wore. I breathed a thanks to the aliens that had spent the night in town, leaving this armor and ship for me and my Evvie.
When Evvie and the boss under my control were the only two left alive, I pushed him forward. "Into the corner," I commanded. I couldn't untie her one-handed, but I spotted a knife on the Gurg's belt. With the gun still trained on the suited man, I cut her restraints and leaned into her so she could collapse against me.
"My love. My Evvie. Do you think you can hold a gun?" I asked.
"Yes," she whispered. Her lips were so swollen it made mine hurt in sympathy.
"Good." I put the smaller gun in her hand. "Keep that trained on him."
She pointed the gun toward the man from the office. "He's the CEO," she said. "I want to kill him."
"No," I said. "I promised him that, if he got us off the planet, he would live." I didn’t know what a ‘see-yeeoh’ was, but I still needed him until we were safely in the sky.
She moaned. "Fine." My rage threatened a re-emergence as I saw the pain in her mangled face, but I kept it carefully under control. My main priority was getting her out of here, not laying waste to this entire planet as my instinct called for me to do.
"I'm going to lift you now," I warned.
She nodded and hissed through her swollen lips as I pulled her out of the chair. "Just hang on," I whispered, holding her easily with one arm while the other took the gun from her. I needed to keep it pressed to the man’s head so his employees would understand how serious I was.
Pushing it again into the see-yeeoh’s skull, I narrowed my eyes. "Lead us out of here." My leg throbbed beneath the added weight—small as it was—of Evvie, but I again ignored it. I’d suffered worse before.
The see-yeeoh nodded and walked forward. "Slowly," I warned.
Another nod, and he did as he was told. We took several twists and turns before coming into the room that led outside. It was full of guards again, the bodies of the men I'd slain shoved to the side. How in the hell did TerraLink have this many men to waste on two runaways? I gritted my teeth, pushing my gun harder into the see-yeeoh’s head.
"Don't shoot!" he shouted. "Let us through."
I shifted Evvie in my arms, trying to be careful with her body. I wasn’t sure what the interrogators had done to her, but she could have multiple broken bones.
"Stay close," I whispered. Then, directing my terse words to the see-yeeoh, I growled, "Lead us out of here."
He shuffled forward with his hands up. "Don't shoot."
"Stop," I said. "Everyone out. I swear I will kill him. You've already seen how many of your comrades I've taken out. Do you want to test me?"
The soldiers exchanged glances, and the see-yeeoh's hands clenched into fists in the air. "Do as he says!" he shouted shrilly.
They complied, walking outside to find even more guards waiting. "All of you," I shouted. "Walk around the ship you know I'm going toward."
Oh, yeah. They knew. They moved forward slowly as I pushed the see-yeeoh with the gun in front of me. When we finally made it to the ship in the bright morning sun, I pressed my hand to the side. "Now go in," I said.
He stopped. "You said I would live."
"I did not lie," I growled. "Go in."
His hands trembled, but he moved up the walkway and into the ship. I followed close behind. As soon as I was inside, I shut the door. Setting Evvie on a chair, I turned to the see-yeeoh. "Sit down, stay quiet, and you'll get out of this."
Pressing my hand to the dash of the cockpit, I searched through the changes I'd made. They'd undone my work on the guns, but I cheered when I discovered the ships were still inoperable. I wasn’t sure what I planned to do with the see-yeeoh, but I would figure it out later.
I sat down, still in full escape-mode, and started up the engines. I glanced back to see that Evvie was now a little more aware, sitting a little straighter in her chair. She held the gun now, pointed directly at the quivering business man as he sat in his corner. How a weak, frightened man like that had gotten into his position was beyond me, but I was grateful for having found him.
The ship shuddered beneath me, and I watched as the soldiers we’d ordered off the roof surged back in a wave of TerraLink grays. They didn’t fire on the ship, probably worried about their precious see-yeeoh. I laughed at them, but turned on the ship’s protective shield anyway. Then, when we were high enough in the air, I turned the ship and headed away from the city.
"We did it," I heard behind me. I turned to see Evvie smiling weakly at the city as it dropped away beneath us. She still had the gun poi
nted at the see-yeeoh, but she was staring in awe out the window. As I watched her, the truth finally hit me. She was right. We’d fucking done it. We had actually gone into the belly of the beast, killed many of their soldiers and—hopefully—some of their high-ranking officials, and we’d come out alive.
Sure, we were battered and bleeding, but after weeks of work and worry, we were finally truly escaping. A surge of joy and disbelief washed through my entire body, and I sighed as I leaned back in the chair. My leg was throbbing, but I stood anyway. I needed to be next to her.
Limping over to my human, I knelt next to where she sat in her chair. I found her eyes among the bruises and blood, then lifted a hand to cup her cheek. She winced, but I left it there, too amazed to move. I heard the see-yeeoh cough in the corner, but I ignored him too as I said, “We did it, Evv. We are getting off of this nightmare planet, and we are going to finally live.”
She gazed back at me, tears pooling in her eyes. A smile cracked her face, and I could see a glimmer of the beautiful woman I’d grown to love in her face. “Thank you.” She whispered. “Thank you.”
25
Evvie
"I wonder whatever happened to the CEO..." Jarix mused as he tightened a bolt. It had taken a few explanations, but he’d finally figured out how to say the word right. I chuckled quietly to myself, remembering his annoyance when I’d told him he was pronouncing it wrong. We were currently trying to get the ship adapted to short flights without burning so much fuel.
"From what I knew about him, he probably had some tech in his pocket to call someone to come get him." I chuckled. "But I hope he died."
We'd dropped the CEO of the TerraLink Program off in the desert in the middle of the afternoon. It had felt like a special little ‘thank-you’ to toss him where his corporation had so flippantly tossed me. "They didn't have any ships, remember? I bet he did die." Jarix replaced the panel and turned to me, smiling broadly. "Whatever happened to him, he can't touch us now."
I grinned and took the old part from the floor.
"Saril?" I called and stepped out of the ship's doorway. A young woman with pale gray skin walked up to me. "Is that it?" she asked.
"Yeah. Can you see what you can do?"
Saril nodded. "I think I can duplicate this."
She was one of the members of our colony, and was a master at metalworking. Between her ability to build almost anything, and Jarix's expertise with technology, we'd taken the colony forward quickly. We were on the path to prosperity.
They'd named him the colony's primary technician. I was in charge of supplies. We'd really begun building our life here with ease. "Jar," I called to Jarix as Saril walked away. "Eat your lunch."
He chuckled. "I am, I am."
Bringing Jarix his lunch every day, no matter where he was working in the colony, was the highlight of my day. Except maybe for when we both came home and made dinner together. The job of maintaining our supplies was surprisingly simple, mainly because I had so many volunteers to help me keep things running smoothly.
Some of the other refugees had arrived in more sophisticated ships than ours, so the forgers used them to go out and look for supplies we couldn't make or grow here. Most of the planet was empty, but there were three colonies now. We traded with each other as much as possible, and partnered with them on missions for salvaging and foraging other planets we felt were safe.
They'd even gone to Earth a time or two, though of course Jarix and I had stayed behind then. After nearly a year of living on Haltrean, we felt truly at home and at peace. I'd never imagined life could be this good. The other settlers were here for various reasons, and none of us pried into each other’s histories. We kept a very strict set of rules because we suspected most of the people here were escaping something. Prison, slavery, among other things. Any number of them could've been legitimate criminals, so any misdeed was handled swiftly and harshly.
The planet itself was an oasis. As Jarix moved to eat his lunch behind me, I gazed at the lush green of my new home. The vegetation provided us with not only building material, but plenty of fruits and vegetables to eat. I’d never been this well-fed in my life, not even on Hydronia. Perks of being in charge of my own food, I guess.
Jarix had come up with some testing device that I didn't understand at all that would let us know if the food could harm either of us, and so far we’d only gotten sick once. Some of the other aliens were wary of this, as they had sensitivities to different types of foods, but it was a start to help us discover more and more edible plants.
The planet also teemed with animal life. Startlingly so. It was jarring to have come from the barren deserts of Earth to the rich, diverse life of Haltrean. It was wonderful, exciting, and full of opportunities to learn. I loved the wildlife here, except for the bugs. Jarix was currently working on a net that would zap the little creatures when they tried to enter our hut.
There were even some animals that we’d wrangled into working for us, while others became our pets. If someone had told me I’d one day build a relationship with an alien beast that resembled a ship-sized chidder, I would have laughed in their face. I smiled to myself, seeing that exact animal now rolling around in the field near the settlement. She served to protect us from some of the larger, more vicious creatures. I’d named her Alice.
Though it had taken us a while to get over the worry of being caught or tracked down, we'd finally settled into our lives and stopped waking in fear. True happiness is what this felt like. I often wondered if I deserved it, but Jarix always assured me that I did. That we both did.
Looking at him affectionately now, I admired him for the millionth time. His hair was slowly growing back, and it now brushed his shoulders. His golden eyes met mine, and he beckoned me closer. We talked about our dinner plans while Jarix ate his lunch, then when I noticed his water glass empty, I jumped up to fill it for him. We always tried to outdo each other, doing small things for one another to show we cared. I knew the next time we ate together; he wouldn't let my water glass get low either.
That was another thing I couldn’t quite get over about our new life: the absolute unending amount of water. The first day we’d landed, after we pulled our gaping jaws off of the ground from the view, I’d sprinted to the nearest pool of natural water I’d seen. Jarix had run after me, pulling me away right as I’d been about to jump in. I’d practically quivered with anticipation while he’d tested it for safety. It wouldn’t have done us any good to finally escape Earth just to sizzle to death in an acid pool.
Once he’d deemed it safe, I’d plunged in without even bothering to remove my clothing. The water had been cool, clean, and had a slightly other taste to it. It was a little different than Earth water, but it was still everything I wanted. Swimming was one of my favorite things to do, and Jarix and I now had many special memories in the various pools around our settlement. Every day was like an adventure, exploring and testing and figuring out how to live. I never got tired of sinking into cool water though. Not ever.
As I stood beside him in the cockpit of the ship we'd taken to escape Earth, he looked at me slowly, his gaze raking over my body. My nipples hardened. I knew what that look meant.
"You're staring," I mused as I put the pitcher of delicious water on the side console. "Am I hideous in this planet's atmosphere?"
He laughed and twirled his captain's chair around to pull me into his lap. "On the contrary. Back on Earth, I'd suspected what you'd look like when you filled out, healthy and strong, but you’ve blown my expectations away."
"So, I was hideous on Earth, then." I stuck out my lip, but laughter danced behind my eyes. It was hard not to laugh at him. We'd played this game many times.
"Oh, yes. It was horrible to look at you. I nearly gouged my eyes out several times before we left the planet and came here."
I slapped at his chest lightly, and he pressed his lips to mine to stop the retort. "You're glorious," he whispered. "You were glorious then, and you've only gotten more beau
tiful."
We'd found the ship well equipped for a journey with food, water, and supplies. I’d thought the trip to Haltrean, which had been precisely where we'd hoped it was, was the happiest time of my life. It had only gotten better from there.
"If I'm so attractive," I whispered, "Why aren't you doing something about it?"
Jarix growled low in his throat, running his nose along the curve where my neck met my shoulder. "Sometimes I can't believe this is reality." He whispered the words almost reverently and I shivered on his lap.
I wiggled my hips and felt him grow hard and long. "It's real, my love."
Standing just long enough to push my pants down, and for him to unbutton his work pants and pull himself out, I sat back down. His erection pointed at my belly button, and I glanced down at it. I felt him tense beneath me, and I slowly raked my eyes back up his beautiful body. It wasn’t like he needed to bulk up ever, but life on Haltrean had only strengthened his muscles. Physical labor did that to a person, and I was not complaining. Jarix’s eyes became hooded as I wrapped my hand around his cock. He groaned and pulled me to him, claiming my mouth greedily. I smiled around his mouth, slowly working him into a frenzy with my hand.
After a few breath-stealing moments, Jarix seemed unable to handle just my hand anymore, and lifted me with ease. I slapped my feet down, preventing him from doing what I know he wanted so badly to do. He growled up at me, but I just smirked down at him, loving the power I held.
“Why do you insist on torturing me?” His voice was clipped, impatient.
I smiled again. “Do you call this torture?” I ran my hand down his chest, dropping my torso until my breasts were level with his face. I could practically see his mouth water, and he leaned forward to take one into his mouth. He didn’t even bother responding.
As I continued to work him with my hand, he moved his own between my legs. I gasped, but didn’t move as he ran his fingers between my lips and immediately began his own torture. He used those skilled worker’s hands of his to pull gasp after gasp out of me, while continuing to suck on my nipple. Finally, I too could no longer take it, and I positioned myself above him.