Forsaken Planet

by Rinelle Grey

  One of her friends came up next to her, seemingly just as excited. “Yes, if we substitute…”

  Kerit didn’t catch the rest of what she said. Or at least, the words made no sense to him. But he gathered Kugah had done something good.

  His mother put the pen down. “It doesn’t do any good though, because we don’t have any.”

  “Any what?” Tyris asked.

  “It’s a replacement for the active ingredient in the reaction. Kugah has suggested a far less toxic reagent that could work equally well. Unfortunately, it’s not readily available naturally and costs quite a bit to make.” She sighed.

  “Well that’s not much help, is it?” Tyris said.

  Kugah looked straight at Kerit and said clearly, “Kugah gahgip.”

  “What’s he saying?” his mother asked sharply.

  “I think he might be saying there is some in his spaceship,” Kerit said carefully.

  Chapter 27

  Folly stared down at the planet below them, unable to tear her eyes away. A slow shimmer, originating from the mountain where Kugah had flown the beacon, spread across the upper atmosphere.

  It didn’t change anything visibly where it had passed, it would take months for the plant life to begin to regrow, but hopefully now it would be possible.

  There wasn’t room for everyone on the observation deck, though Ma, Da and Aleck were here, along with a few other chosen representatives from the caves. Kerit’s family too. His father patted his mother on the shoulder as she watched. Were those tears in her eyes? It must be amazing to watch the results of years of work and research like that.

  Tyris had eyes only for his wife and infant daughter who were making their first trip out of their rooms. Baby Isala slept peacefully in her mother’s arms. Marlee’s parents hovered nearby in case they were needed.

  The alien stood off to one side, alone, staring out the window. His face was unreadable, as always.

  What must it be like, to be so far from home, away from all your own kind, surrounded by people who couldn’t understand you, and who you couldn’t understand?

  Kerit squeezed her hand, and Folly almost needed to pinch herself to be sure she wasn’t dreaming. She still found it hard to believe that after all this time, she wasn’t alone anymore. Hopefully, the need to try to deny it in order to protect herself would fade with time.

  Maybe one day, she’d believe that the rest of her life had a chance to be perfect.

  “The ship’s ready,” Nerris announced.

  Nervous excitement rose up into Folly’s throat, almost choking her. This was the moment.

  “Let’s go.” Kerit turned to grin at her.

  Folly stared at him, torn. “You don’t have to come,” she said. “There’s no knowing if this will even work or not. It could be dangerous.”

  “Then you might need me. I’m not letting you go alone.”

  Kerit’s voice was serious, his face filled with determination.

  She loved him so much.

  “We’ve only known each other for a couple of days, I can’t let you risk your life for my dream.”

  “Is it really only a couple of days?” Kerit asked. “Cause it feels like a lifetime.”

  She couldn’t help grinning in response. “I know. But the reality is, it isn’t. You don’t have to do this, Kerit. I promise I’ll be coming back.”

  Could she blame him for not being sure? For wondering if she was going to be hit by doubts and run again? She wasn’t even completely sure herself.

  But Kerit didn’t blink. “Unless something goes wrong,” he said. “What if you get stuck somewhere light years away and can’t get back?”

  “Better me getting stuck than both of us. You belong here, with your family.”

  “You’re my family.” Kerit’s voice was serious. “Or at least, I hope you will be.”

  Oh my goodness, he was getting down on one knee! Folly couldn’t believe it. Her hand went to her mouth.

  “Tahlia Follett, will you marry me?”

  “I... I...” Folly stuttered. Never in a million light years had she expected this.

  “You’re supposed to say yes,” Marlee prompted, nudging her forwards, her face wreathed in smiles.

  Folly looked down at Kerit, his face earnest and hopeful, and her heart melted a little. “What if I say no?” she challenged.

  “Then I’ll keep hanging around and asking and asking until you give up and agree to be my wife,” Kerit said promptly. “Even if I have to follow you to the end of the galaxy and ask you a thousand times.”

  He really did mean it. For some reason, after even a few days, he cared enough to want to spend the rest of his life with her. He had no doubts. How could she let hers get in the way. Now was the time to take that chance.

  Folly’s eyes filled with tears. “I guess there’s no use putting you to all that effort then.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  Folly nodded, too choked up to speak. “Yes,” she managed.

  Kerit stood up and pulled her into his arms, holding her as if he never planned to let her go.

  Everyone in the room cheered and Folly hid her blush in his shoulder.

  When she looked up, everyone was smiling. The experience was so unusual, that she almost had to pinch herself.

  “Welcome to the family,” Marlee said, beaming.

  “I think Kerit has been very wise. Letting you go would be a mistake.” Tyris shook her hand.

  Kerit’s parents were more reserved, but smiling. “Welcome, dear,” his mother said.

  Folly saw Ma and Da coming over, and braced herself for a barrage of ‘you’re rushing things’ comments. But Ma just hugged her. “I can’t believe you’re going to up and leave us all,” she said. “Well, yes, I guess I can. I always knew you were different to the rest of us. I tried so hard to make you fit in, I thought it would make things easier for you, but now I can see that I was wrong. You just needed to find your place and now you can shine the way you were meant to.”

  Were those tears in Ma’s eyes?

  “Good luck, Folly,” Da said. “We’re going to miss you.”

  “Issy’ll never get over it,” Ma added.

  She’d expected to be glad to see the last of this planet and the family that had never really been hers. She hadn’t expected to feel sadness at leaving them. She didn’t want to feel sad! Not when everything else in her life was finally coming together.

  “Come with us then,” Folly said impulsively.

  Ma jerked back. “We couldn’t…” She looked over at Da.

  He shrugged. “Why not?”

  Ma’s eyes widened. She looked back to Folly. “We can’t leave Semala, there is so much still to be discovered there.” But her voice wavered.

  “I’m sure there will be lots to discover on the planets we visit on our journey,” Kerit said. “Having someone to advise us on whether the plants and animals are suitable for our needs would be invaluable.”

  “We’d certainly welcome anyone who would be willing to join us,” Tyris added. “Kerit is right, we’re sure to encounter many forms of life we haven’t discovered yet, and biology is a skill set we lack.”

  A gleam of interest shone in Ma’s eyes.

  “I’ll go,” Aleck piped up. “I don’t have any biology skills, but there’s no way I’d pass up the chance of an adventure like this.”

  Da laughed. “Well, we might have to consider it then, huh?”

  “That would be great.” Folly smiled.

  “Well, don’t think on it too long,” Tyris warned. “Once we’ve confirmed that the Tahlia Mae works the way we expect it to, we’ll be getting ready to leave. Nerris has already drawn up plans for fitting it to the Resolution, so we should be out of here in a few days.”

  Folly nodded. There was so much to do. Stopping off at one of the Colonial planets to pass on the message that people were still on Semala, then off to find Kugah’s home planet and hopefully a new home of their own.

  She shive
red with excitement.

  But first, she had to test her father’s ship.

  This was the moment she’d been waiting for. The moment when she would finally prove to the world, or at least, to everyone on Semala, that her father hadn’t been crazy, he’d been a genius. Suddenly, she could barely breathe.

  “Let’s go,” she said to Kerit. “We have a spaceship to test.”

  They walked down the corridors hand in hand. Tyris, Nerris, and half a dozen others following them. Everyone else stayed on the observation deck to watch the flight.

  The Tahlia Mae looked old and outdated beside Kerit’s sleek shuttle, but Folly didn’t care. The ship was far more beautiful to her.

  “I’ve set the coordinates for a planet that Marlee’s dad, says is just past the edge of explored space,” Nerris said as Folly opened the door. He followed them into the ship. “Once you get there, you’ll have to change to the home coordinates, I’ve written them down for you. Make sure you enter them absolutely correctly, you don’t want to re-appear in the middle of the planet.”

  “No, that wouldn’t be good,” Kerit agreed.

  He seemed so cool and collected.

  Folly was so excited she was shaking. She didn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded.

  Tyris gave her a sympathetic smile. “Don’t forget, we need to know exactly how long the journey takes you. Since you’ll be flying, Kerit will be in charge of the timer.”

  “I knew there was a reason I was bringing you along,” she joked to Kerit.

  “Yes, for my superior button pushing skills,” Kerit said solemnly.

  Folly laughed far too loudly for his joke, but it released some of the tension building up inside her. “Anything else?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Tyris said. “Take care, both of you.”

  He embraced Kerit in a brotherly hug, then to Folly’s surprise, hugged her too. “We’ll see you soon.”

  He stepped out and the door slid closed.

  Kerit took a deep breath. “Shall we do this?”

  Folly nodded, too excited to speak. She sat down in the pilot’s chair and fired up the engine. Everyone had left the hanger and now the huge doors began to slide open. Folly lifted the Tahlia Mae off the ground and turned slowly between them and out into the blackness of space.

  “We need to be away from the Resolution before we open the wormhole,” Kerit said.

  As if she needed reminding. Folly nodded. “I thought we’d go in front of it though, so that everyone could see us.”

  “Good idea. It will be quite spectacular if we burst into a fireball. We wouldn’t want anyone to miss it.”

  Was he nervous? Well, he could hardly not be. Even she was nervous, and she’d done this before.

  “There’s no fire in space. No oxygen,” Folly reminded him.

  Kerit laughed. “Right, so we’d better just make sure this works properly instead.”

  They both watched silently as the Resolution grew smaller and smaller. When they reached the minimum safe distance Nerris had insisted on, and a little more just in case, Folly eased back on the throttle.

  “This is it.” She took a deep breath. Her hand hovered over the controls.

  “Wait one sec,” Kerit said urgently.

  Something was wrong. How had she missed it? “What is it?”

  He leaned across and gave her a long, lingering kiss. When he pulled back, he looked into her eyes and said, “Just in case.”

  As if she needed any more adrenalin.

  Even though she really had no doubts about the success of the flight, Folly took a moment to look at Kerit’s earnest face and really take in how lucky she was. She smiled, and gave him another kiss, just for good luck.

  “They’re probably wondering what’s taking us so long,” Kerit said.

  “Or thinking it’s not working.”

  “Let’s show them then.”

  Folly nodded and reached forwards to hit the button.

  For a moment, nothing happened. The Tahlia Mae just hung there in space. Then it began to vibrate. The frequency increased and a low ringing noise began. Folly’s heart rate increased in direct proportion to the sounds increase in pitch.

  Then suddenly, the sound stopped. Her heart thumped loudly in the silence.

  For a moment, nothing happened. Then in front of them, a dark pinprick appeared. It grew so rapidly it blotted out the stars in seconds.

  “What do we do now?” Kerit’s voice was hushed.

  “We fly into it.”

  Folly inched the ship forwards until the gravity of the wormhole caught them, pulling them in. There was no backing out now.

  Stars rushed past them, streaks of light in the blackness. There was no sound, no hum of engines, nothing. It was strangely eerie.

  “I wonder how long it’s….”

  “What’s that noise?”

  A low hum filled the room, rising rapidly. Folly put her hands over her ears. “Something’s wrong!”

  Then abruptly, they dropped out into normal space.

  The ship coasted forwards, the viewscreen filled with a shining blue-green marble.

  “What happened?” Kerit asked.

  “I don’t know. Where are we? You’d better stop that timer.”

  Kerit looked down at the timer in his hand, staring at it blankly for a few seconds, before stopping it.

  Folly examined the data scrolling up on the screen in front of her. She checked it again, unable to believe what it said, but there was no mistaking it. “We’re here.”

  “Well, of course we’re here. We can’t be over there,” Kerit teased. “But where is here?”

  “At the coordinates,” Folly clarified. “We’re here.”

  Kerit stared at her. “I thought you said it took a couple of hours?”

  “Well, I was five. Forgive me if my memory isn’t perfect. Maybe we spent an hour waiting around in space, or maybe I was counting the time it took to blast off from the planet. Either way, we’re here.”

  Kerit looked down at the stop watch. “It took us fifty-three seconds.”

  “And half that was because we didn’t know we were here,” Folly reminded him.

  They stared at each other for a few moments. Then Folly began to laugh. “Well, I guess we proved it works then.”

  “You did indeed,” Kerit said seriously. “Not that I doubted it for a minute.”

  “Well, I guess we go back and tell everyone. They’re going to be surprised to see us so soon.”

  “Well, there’s no need to hurry,” Kerit said, a slow smile seeping across his face. “They won’t be expecting us for hours.”

  “What are we going to do here in a tiny spaceship for a couple of hours?” Folly asked. Then she saw the look on his face, and heat flooded her body. “Oh.”

  But something else was bothering her. Something she needed to get cleared up. “Kerit?”

  “Yes?”

  “Are you sure you really want to get married? You’re not… just asking because you’re afraid I’m going to get cold feet again?”

  She waited, holding her breath, as he looked at her seriously for a few moments.

  “Folly, I love you. I know it seems impossible after such a short time, but it feels like a lifetime. I can’t imagine my life without you in it. So it seems like we might as well make it official. But only if you want to.”

  Her heart ached at his words. “I love you too. And I do want to. More than anything else.”

  Kerit leaned across and gave her a long, lingering kiss. Then he pulled back, a teasing look on his face. “We really do need to stay here for at least an hour. If we re-appear in just a few minutes, everyone will think it didn’t work.”

  He had a point. “Well, there isn’t a lot we can do to entertain ourselves right now. Did you bring a book?”

  Kerit kissed her again. “Nope, not a single one. There’s just us.”

  His hands slid down her arms, raising goosebumps. Folly fumbled for the buckle of her harness and then sl
id forwards in the seat, her knees bumping against his. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to entertain each other. Have any ideas?”

  “Just a few.” Kerit released his own seatbelt, and pulled her onto his lap.

  Did life get any better than this?

  The Worlds Apart story isn’t finished yet...

  Join Kugah the alien and Dr Amelie Benton as they help the colonists search for a new home.

  An alien supersoldier on the run. A doctor who has no one else to rely on. Can they save the ship's occupants, or will they be the only two left alive?

  Alien supersoldier Kugah needs the human’s wormhole technology to find a new home, one far away from the alien race who created him and want him back. The only future he envisions is a life alone, far from anyone he could hurt. Then he meets the human doctor, Amelie. Her gentle, caring nature opens the possibility of a future with someone by his side.

  Dr Amelie Benton's interest is purely scientific of course. But when the ship's passengers begin to show signs of unnaturally rapid ageing after a desperate trip through a wormhole, and everyone around her starts falling ill, she has no one she can count on other than the strong, silent alien.

  If she can't find a cure for the ship's passengers, soon she and the alien might be the only two left alive on the ship. Will they risk their growing connection on a desperate rescue mission?

  Grab your copy now!

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  Visit my webpage at http://www.rinellegrey.com to sign up to my mailing list and gain exclusive access to novel extras like character bio’s, FAQ and deleted scenes, including the original prologue on Semala before the meteor hit.

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  About the Author

  If you read a Rinelle Grey story, you can trust in a happy ending. Love will always triumph, even if it seems impossible…