by Lisa Medley
“We might get this thing off the ground, but, without a full hopper, we’ll be hobbled once we get into space. Personally, I’m not real hip on floating around until we starve to death…or our oxygen depletes. Hard saying which will go first.”
“Looks like we need to go on a rock hunt?”
“Not just any rock hunt. We need to find the bot and see if any of the samples survived. Then we need to find any and all pieces of that asteroid that followed us through the wormhole. We’ve got to break them into small enough pieces they can feed through the hopper, too.”
“All of which need daylight.”
“Yep. You’re the rock hound, Cole. Tessa can man the ship, and I can feed the hopper, but you’re going to have to provide the fuel to make that happen.”
“Let’s hope Ela makes it through the night, or we may become a lot less valuable to our hosts,” Cole said.
“Let’s hope we all make it through the night.”
“Amen to that.”
Chapter Nineteen
Tessa and the men worked through the night on the ship. Noah replaced the fuel injector and continued to work below. Bimisi was kind enough to bring them some meat and flatbread just before dark. The meal sat untouched in the basket at the top of the steps leading into the ship. While Bimisi was clearly curious to see inside, witnessing his tribesmen’s injuries after last night’s dealings with the alien replaced his curiosity with a healthy dose of self-preservation. Tessa couldn’t blame him.
They’d been cautious as they carried about on the ship as well. She’d resisted the urge to don the biohazard suit from their hold but had insisted on gloves for them all at the very least. She shuddered to think what could have happened during their first foray aboard the ship. One drop of that alien blood, and blowing up in space looked pretty good.
She knew better. Now she did better, too. She’d marked as many controls and switches as she could on the main console for easier reference. With only one pressure-sensitive captain’s chair, she’d won the toss as navigator. Lucky her.
Now their very lives were in her hands.
Again.
Tessa had worked out most of the controls during the past nine hours, but she was at her limit. Concentration was no longer possible, and her growling stomach finally got the best of her. She left the helm and went to retrieve the basket of food. As she bent to grab the basket, a shadow moved to her left, the light of the ship’s interior only reaching so far. The movement was accompanied by a scraping sound like something being dragged across the hard-packed ground.
“Bimisi? Bimisi?” Tessa called into the darkness.
Her heart rabbited in her chest, and she was torn between whether to leave the ship and look for Bimisi or close the hatch. Seconds later, her decision was made for her when an arrow flew past her, narrowly missing her head.
“Shit.” Tessa scrambled up the steps and into the ship. “Cole, Noah, it’s back.”
She had no weapons, but she scrambled to the captain’s chair and flipped on all of the exterior ship lights she could find. Hoping to conserve the ship’s energy for takeoff tomorrow, they’d left the outside lights off. Suddenly, they seemed absolutely necessary.
While studying the outside of the hull earlier, they’d even happened upon a hatch that held a harpoon wildly similar to their own. Other than that harpoon, there were no other recognizable weapons systems. Of course, the harpoon wasn’t exactly a weapon, still, it was better than nothing.
More scuffling ensued outside the hatch, followed by yelling. Noah and Cole scrambled off the elevator platform and down the hallway towards Tessa.
“Did you see it?” Cole asked, his Colt drawn.
“No, but they’re shooting at something out there, and Bimisi didn’t answer me.”
Cole reached to raise the exit hatch door. “Wait, Cole. I turned all of the outside lights on. What if you use the top hatch like a turret door and shoot from there?”
“Close the stairway hatch first,” Cole said.
“But Bimisi—” Tessa implored.
“It’s too late. He should have stayed close. Shut it. I’ll go topside.”
Noah worked to unlock the top hatch, and Cole climbed up, scrambling onto the top of the ship. Tessa flipped the switch and watched the steps fold upon themselves, as Bimisi’s last chance at safety slipped away.
Noah leaned over the console to peer outside into the lighted perimeter around the ship. “I can’t see any of them. Do you see anything?” he called up to Cole.
“Something’s going on out there. I just can’t see it.”
A scream ripped through the night, and Bimisi rounded the nose of the ship, running as fast as he could. A few feet behind him, the alien chased him. When it rounded the nose, the creature stopped and glanced up, spotting Cole. The creature leaped onto the outer hull of the ship and scaled up the viewing window, leaving a slug trail of fluids seeping from its wounds as it ascended toward the open hatch…and Cole. Cold terror skipped along Tessa’s spine and settled into her stomach. Seconds later, a gunshot retorted, then another and Tessa watched through the helm window as a greenish fluid began to seep from the alien’s large, smooth forehead. Its oval black eyes blinked twice vertically before it fell backward onto the ground. Like magic, Indians emerged from the black night outside the perimeter and filled the beast with arrows until it resembled a spiny sea urchin.
Someone pounded on the hatch door, and Tessa activated it open.
“Nice shooting,” Noah said.
“I’ll feel better when we know for sure it’s dead,” Cole said, climbing down from the upper hatch.
Bimisi ran inside and straight to Tessa. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” He wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed hard.
“Guess you’ve got a friend for life,” Cole said.
Tessa smoothed the boy’s hair and hugged him back.
***
An hour later, the sun rose, and Cole’s worries, at least concerning the alien, vanished with the steam rising from the smoking corpse. Had to say, he wasn’t that sad to see the bastard go. Three more braves had died last night before Cole could put a bullet through the beast’s head. Even with the deaths, Chief Itza-Chu and the tribe were even now preparing a going away ceremony for his motley little space crew.
Noah wiped sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his flight suit then picked at the slowly widening hole in the ground before him with the piece of metal they’d torn from their ship’s hull. The alien’s body, mostly desiccated in the heat and direct sun, lay where it fell last night. The Apache had steered clear of the corpse. Cole couldn’t blame them, but it needed to be buried so nothing or no one would happen upon it. No telling how long the corpse might still be potent, dried up or not, so Noah dug while Cole used the metal detector to search out the asteroid chunks near their crash site.
Bimisi led his horse beside Cole. They’d attached another sheet of their ship’s hull behind the horse with ropes so it could pull their little sled of asteroid bits along behind it. Ingenious, even if it was his own idea.
They’d yet to figure out exactly how the hopper on the alien craft smelted and purified the raw materials into fuel so rapidly. Their own system used powdered nanoscale aluminum particles, but all of that had been done Earth-side, not on-the-fly so to speak. This new tech would revolutionize Earth’s energy consumption, not to mention space travel and colonization…if they made it home. He wanted at least enough raw fuel in reserve to fill the hopper an additional time, which meant they had a lot more surface collection to do.
The asteroid pieces had a much higher metal concentration than most of the Earth’s surface. He’d found a few surface chunks of bauxite in addition to the asteroid bits. Cole hefted a large rock over his head and used it to break the smaller asteroid chunk into more manageable pieces then went at them with the lone hammer from their limited space toolbox. The only actual mining they’d been prepared to do was with the bot, collection only, not dee
p penetration mining.
Breaking rocks in the desert—some people, in his old life, would consider that a well-deserved fate for him.
Tessa emerged from the exit hatch of the ship and stretched her arms up high above her head, soaking up the sunshine. A momentary twinge pinched in Cole’s gut. Were they doing the right thing, trying to get back through the wormhole? Right now, they were alive and well. This time tomorrow they could be blown to bits littering the New Mexico desert with their remains or worse, floating around black space, waiting to die much more slowly.
He was willing to take that chance for himself, but for Tessa?
He clenched his jaw. Bimisi called out to him.
“Terminar?”
Cole shook his head, only just then realizing he’d come to a complete stop, and stared at Tessa. “No, not finished. Más.”
Bimisi gave his horse a little kick, and they moved forward.
It would be many more hours before they were finished.
Chapter Twenty
Tessa sat between Cole and Noah around the campfire for their last Apache dinner on Earth. With the alien threat gone, some of the tension had eased, but dread still stirred in her belly. Their chosen career path, being astronauts and exploring space, had always been fraught with danger, but what they were about to embark on was beyond any of that. It made her wonder about the first space missions and how Neil Armstrong must have felt stepping out of the ship and onto the moon for the first time.
The crappy thing was, if they failed, no one would likely ever know what they’d tried to accomplish. They’d never be able to piece together the details of their failed mission.
The voices around the fire stopped chattering, and Bimisi came to the center of the gathering with another man.
Welcome Wagon raised his stern gaze to Noah then made pointed eye contact with Tessa and Cole before turning to face the crowd. He opened his shirt and pointed to the fresh but healing wounds streaking across his chest then began speaking with great animation, motioning toward the space crew zealously.
“Uh oh.” Cole said. “Here we go.”
Chief Itza-Chu nodded his approval, and Bimisi began to translate what Narsimha was saying.
Narsimha showed how Noah had stopped the corrosion with his quick healing efforts and saved his life. He thanked the spirits. Welcome Wagon continued, and Bimisi recounted their efforts as Narsimha explained them to the tribe in much more glorious detail than had actually transpired. He’d even bestowed some Indian name on Cole for killing the thing. A name she had no idea how to spell.
“What’s that name again,” Cole teased, after Tessa translated for him and Noah.
Tessa closed her eyes and shook her head. “Tarak Jishnu.”
“Right and what does it mean again?” Cole smiled.
“Star Triumphant.”
Cole eased back and wove his fingers together behind his head, his elbows splayed out like giant chicken wings. “Seems about right.”
God knew she’d ever hear the end of that.
“Let’s hope you can live up to your name tomorrow when the shit hits the fan, buddy.”
“Oh, precious. I’m good under pressure. Or haven’t you noticed? Maybe you need another lesson before we take off?”
Tessa felt a blush creep up her neck and turned away.
“What did I miss?” Noah asked, confused.
“Not a thing.” Cole smiled.
The ceremony continued for several more minutes and then drums began to play behind them. One by one, braves began to dance around the fire. Tessa found herself quickly mesmerized, immersed in the flickering of the blazing fire before her and the steady rhythm of the drums. She closed her eyes, and the braves began to chant. Bimisi didn’t need to translate for Tessa to know the chant was some sort of invocation. She prayed the Great Spirit was listening.
They were going to need all the help they could get.
***
The party finally broke up, and exhaustion coursed through Tessa. The ceremony had felt like some sort of purge of all the problems and fears of the past few days. Remarkably, she left feeling lighter and more hopeful than she had in a long time but tired. So very tired.
Despite the generally positive feelings from the tribe, Chief Itza-Chu had made it clear that taking Ela with them was not optional. She continued to deteriorate and would surely be dead within a few days. Noah shared his private fears with them that at this point, even their advanced medicine could still be too late to help her. And that was assuming they survived all of the other obstacles they had to overcome.
Tessa pushed the negative aside. They were doing this. It was happening.
And it was happening in six hours.
She followed Cole back to their wicki for one last night in the desert. Tessa flipped open the tent flap to see someone had started their fire for them already and pushed their grass bedding mats together.
“Did you do this?” Tessa asked.
“I did not. But I like the way they think.” Cole pulled her into an embrace. “Last night on Earth and all.” He leaned in and planted a trail of blistering kisses down her neck. “Again.”
“Cole—”
“Oh, you can call me Tarak Jishnu, if you want.”
Tessa stiffened in his arms. “You’re infuriating.”
“So I’ve been told.” He pulled back from her and held her face in his work calloused hands, his thumbs tracing across her cheekbones. “I want you, Tess.”
Her heart rate betrayed her and raced in her chest. All of her common sense said to stop this now. But her body wasn’t interested in common sense anymore. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his in consent.
Cole’s hand slid down her side and grasped beneath her thigh, pulling her body in tight against his own. The press of his erection through his flight suit sent a shiver through her. She remembered all too well what he’d felt like inside her. A rush of need passed through her, and she stepped away from him to unzip her flight suit. She pushed it off her shoulders and into a pool at her feet, very aware of Cole watching her. Standing before him, she enjoyed the power she held over Cole as she removed her boots and clothing, leaving her naked in the firelight of the wicki.
“God, Tessa.” Cole took a step toward her.
“Not yet. Your turn, Cowboy. Naked. Right now.”
Cole complied at a quick pace, and she reveled in the ripple of his muscles as he worked to disrobe. That man was all steel and attitude. But, right now, he was hers to command, and she knew exactly what she wanted.
Tessa lay on her stomach across the grass mats and spread her legs wide in invitation. Her head tilted to the side, and she glanced back at Cole, statue-still behind her. “You just going to stand there, or are you going to take me?”
“Fuck me,” Cole said, dropping to his knees between her spread legs.
“That’s the idea,” Tessa said.
Cole spread his warm, firm body out above hers, resting his weight on his elbows, and she felt his erection settle between her legs, stroking lightly against her wet sex with his every breath. He grabbed her wrists with one hand and stretched her arms out above her head. His roughened palm slid along the exposed side of her breast. His hand searched beneath her until he cupped her breasts firmly, his erection stroking, stroking, stroking between her swollen sex all the while.
Her hips arched beneath him, opening farther for him as she pushed him up and pulled her knees in beneath her. Cole grabbed hold of her hair and flipped it off her neck, then bit playfully along her exposed neck and shoulder sending shivers of pleasure through her.
“You like it like this? From behind?”
When she didn’t answer, Cole reached down and slid two fingers into her entrance, roughly. “Do you?”
“Yes!” Tessa cried out. This was exactly what she needed.
Cole continued to work his fingers inside her, kissing down her spine as his pace increased. She pressed back against him, trying to take more than he was giving
her. A gasp escaped her when his thumb pressed into her instead and his fingers slid forward over her hard nub. Cole rose behind her, and she tried to rise and push back against him as well. Instead, he pinned her shoulders to the mat.
“No. I know what you need,” Cole said.
He grasped her hips and brought her buttocks up higher, pushing her knees more firmly beneath her. A hand grasped each cheek, and he spread her open. A primal and animalistic need coursed through her seconds before Cole’s cock pushed at her slick entrance. The pressure there and the need to feel him fill her overwhelmed her, and she cried out.
Mercifully, Cole grabbed her hips and plunged into her. Stars exploded behind her closed eyes. Cole retreated then the air huffed out of her lungs as he plunged into her again. He continued at an excruciatingly slow pace, and her frustration and ecstasy built in equal measures. She needed him to drive out all of the remaining doubt and worry of their impending mission until nothing was left but the two of them. Nothing but this moment.
“More, Cole. Harder.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Tessa,” Cole said, breathless.
“Then pick up the pace and fuck me, Cole.”
Cole answered with a mind-numbing plunge into her. His pace finally matching her need, she let her body relax and match him stroke for stroke as they fell into a punishing rhythm.
As she neared her peak, her hands grasped around the end of the grass mat, and the fibers crumbled beneath her grip. She felt Cole still then shudder, and her sex spasmed around him, demanding all of him be spilled into her.
Cole eased down and curled his arm beneath her belly. Still inside her, he rolled them onto their sides and spooned her snugly against him, facing the fire.
They lay like that, quietly entranced.
Cole reached down and pulled the rabbit fur blanket over them both, and they drifted off for a few hours of sleep.
Chapter Twenty-One
The eastern New Mexico sky filled with pinks and reds as Cole waited outside the alien ship. He couldn’t help but think of the old sailor’s adage: Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.