by S. E. Smith
Rose Gold soared and caught the wild, tumbling mountain breeze under her wings. Pym took off a breath after she did and soon was riding the air with her, their wingtips almost touching. He led her in a circle around the clifftop clearing where the temple stood, and she admired the graceful spires and bright gold roofs below. Pym circled wider and suddenly the ground dropped away below them.
Rose Gold flapped, digging deep and riding the wind high, high, higher. The temple had disappeared behind them long ago, but she didn't feel even a pang. Jacen trusted her to return, and the sky was open to her. There were no more cages, no more chains. No limit to what she could do or where she could go. She finally knew what freedom felt like.
Pym chirruped at her. "What do you think?"
She clicked her beak and flicked a wingtip against his. "I think…I'm home."
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Pauline Baird Jones and Veronica Scott for inviting me to return for Pets 4. Thanks as well to Narelle Todd for all her hard work and fantastic organization skills. Thanks also to the other authors; it is an honor to share this table of contents with you. Lastly, thanks to my beta readers, Laurence and Jake, for their feedback on this story.
About E. D. Walker
E.D. Walker, a native of Los Angeles, is the author of The Fairy Tales of Lyond Series that begins with Enchanting the King. By day, E.D. helps corral engineers for NASA (without doing any of the tech stuff herself, of course). By night, she loves to write her clever heroes and heroines bantering their way to true love. E.D. is a total geek, a movie buff, and a mediocre swing dancer. E.D. and her family live in sunny Southern California with one of the neediest housecats on the planet. Find out more on her website.
Also by E. D. Walker
Alien Animal Rescues SFR Series:
Zandro
The Fairy Tales of Lyond Series
Enchanting the King
The Apprentice Sorceress
The Beauty’s Beast
The Changeling Child
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Kyndra Hatch - Interrupting Starlight
After the Fall Series
When he answered a distress call, L’Den hadn’t expected to find one of the Invaders waiting for him. The tug he feels on his soul is even more surprising, drawing him closer to the woman, in spite of her humanity. Both his second-in-command and H’tch, his companion mogha, seem fine with leaving her behind and letting the desert deal with the problem, but he’s not so sure.
Tessa has spent the last two years hoping for a way off the harsh desert planet where her research vessel crashed, watching her friends die one-by-one, and befriending a strange creature of the sand. But when a rescue ship does arrive, she realizes she might have been better off lost. The Korthans, savage aliens bent on the destruction of humankind, aren’t happy to find her. And yet, despite her fear, she can’t deny the pull she feels towards one of them.
Korthans only have one chance to find a true mate, but chasing after the human could risk the safety of the colony he’s sworn to protect. Even though the call of a mating bond demands a higher loyalty, L’Den never expected to have to choose.
I want to thank the organizers of Pets in Space® for bringing me onboard for another anthology. Being a part of Pets in Space® has been the best author experience of my life. “After The Fall” and “Interrupting Starlight” would not exist if it weren’t for these wonderful anthologies. Creating ‘The Fall’ universe has been an absolute joy. And contributing to Hero-Dogs.org is near and dear to my heart. Pets in Space® is an inspiration on so many levels. Thank you!
I dedicate this book to my husband, whose support of this crazy author adventure has never wavered.
And I thank all you readers. Without you, pursuing my dreams wouldn’t be possible.
Chapter One
A hot breeze brushed over Tessa’s cracked skin. Not unwelcome, she closed her eyes, reveling in the sensation caressing her face. Night was the only time any of them could get outdoors on this forsaken desert planet. All too soon, the three suns would rise and continue to burn the land—
She shook herself. There was no longer they. Now there was only her.
She sat and looked at the stars twinkling in the night sky, just like she and Britt were doing just a few nights before. The two of them having survived the longest, she really thought they had a chance. Knowing the planet inside and out, all they had to do was hold out until a rescue ship arrived—
Tessa snorted. No rescue ship was coming. She was going to fall and break her neck, or she was going to run out of water. She was going to die in this forsaken place alone.
That was her fate.
Watching the stars, enjoying the breeze, Tessa shrugged. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. The stars were so numerous and bright, she could practically see by their light. It was, by all accounts, the most beautiful starfield she had ever seen from the surface of any planet. They winked and shimmied and danced, the near constant stream of falling stars never getting old. It was the only thing about this entire world that felt alive—
Blinking, Tessa thought she saw something, a dark spot interrupting the starlight. Was that the silhouette of a ship? Rubbing her eyes, she looked again. It was!
Heart skipping, she jumped to her feet.
“You’re too late,” she yelled angrily. “Two days. Two days and you could have saved her. Britt is dead; they’re all dead!”
Slowly approaching the desolate brown and red planet, L’Den checked the readings again.
“Sensors still report the distress signal is coming from here,” T’ren, his co-pilot and second-in-command, said, pointing at a blip in the northern hemisphere.
L’Den angled the ship in that direction. The most inhospitable world in Korthan space, the desert planet was never given a name. Most Korthans avoided it. Not exactly surprised to learn the source of the distress signal, he supposed it was only a matter of time before someone crashed onto the unforgiving world.
As they got closer, signs of a starship crash became more evident, the debris field stretching from pole to pole. How did anyone survive?
Sensors picking up movement just north of a particularly large pile of debris, L’Den sent a command to the viewscreen.
Magnify.
A dark spot ran across light brown sand—
Magnify.
A skinny female biped in raggedy clothing appeared to be yelling at the sky. Skin reddened by the suns, her hair was equally damaged in matted sun-bleached dreads. Both Korthans leaned forward, squinting at the viewscreen.
“Is that a human?” T’ren said.
One thing was certain, she was not Korthan.
They exchanged a glance.
“Looks like she has been stranded here for quite some time,” T’ren said.
“Is she alone?” L’Den brought the ship around, circling the area.
“There are no other bipedal life-forms on this planet, but I can’t read what’s under that pile.” T’ren pointed at the debris pile that the woman was running around.
L’Den felt a tug on his heart as they watched the woman disappear into the pile. Eyebrows furrowing, he explored the feeling. Something about it felt similar to his bond with A’rch, only more—
Said mogha trotted to the cockpit from the cargo hold, antennae sticking straight up.
What is happening? You’re conflicted. A’rch’s voice echoed in his mind.
Heart racing, adrenaline pumping, a mixture of exhilaration, fear and dread hit him all at once.
“Intriguing,” he whispered out loud.
“Intriguing?” T’ren said.
Feeling an all-encompassing need to land, L’Den looked at his co-pilot. “Yea. Aren’t you curious? How did this human send a Korthan distress signal?”
“No,” the co-pilot said, tone flat. “If it is a human, we should either leave her or kill her and be done with it.”
L’Den turned back to the viewscreen, emotions a whirlwind. �
�She appeared to be of ill health and starving. We’ll land. Investigate. If it is a human and her crew gives us trouble, we’ll kill them.”
T’ren agreed and he shrugged. If only it were as simple as that.
Tessa took shelter in the underground bunker her crew built out of the crater impact when they first crash landed on this planet two years before.
“Great,” she said out loud. “So, this is how it ends, huh? We survive the crash, survive this world, only to be ambushed by Korthans.”
A squeak sounded from her pillow on a makeshift cot, her scaly friend executing a full circle, trumpet ears flaring, tail twirling.
“I think this is goodbye, Squeak.” Tessa rubbed the fur under his chin. “You know how to let yourself out. Enjoy all those giant sand spider meals out there.”
Tessa was no match for whatever the Korthans decided to throw at her.
“Well, at least I won’t die alone. I get to watch my killers as I take my last breath.”
Taking comfort in that morbid sentiment, Tessa grabbed the remaining cannon and rushed out the door. Those lessons from Britt on how to use it were about to pay off. She had two shots; she’d make them count.
Chapter Two
How did this happen? All distress messages were to the Human Colony Alliance and in the standard human language. How did this Korthan ship find her? It hung in the atmosphere above the planet, a great shadow announcing her doom.
Hot wind whipped her face as Tessa aimed her cannon and took a shot at the transport shuttle that raced towards her. Nothing happened. The shuttle must have had shields to absorb any damage. Or was the targeting off? How did Britt say to do that?
Blowing out a breath, she fumbled through was she hoped was the correct way to recalibrate the targeting. Repositioning the weapon for a better shot, she took aim at what she figured was a more vulnerable section of the hull. There was one round left—
The sound of depressurization filled the air, along with a thick fog. Tessa lowered the weapon, wishing to run through that white mist. She could practically feel the cool temperature.
A ramp lowered, two very large heavily armored, silver-skinned Korthan men ambling down as if they were on an evening stroll. But it was the four-legged beast ahead of them that had her attention.
She’d never seen one in real life, but she knew what it was immediately: a Hellhound of Korth. The beast was huge, its claws clicking against the metal of the ramp.
Great. Could this get any worse?
"Alliance," one of the men, the biggest, announced in Standard. "We will not harm you."
"As if I could trust the word of a liar," she called back, immediately regretting it when both soldiers' heads swung in her direction. Damn. Stupid, stupid.
"We are not here to fight you," the larger Korthan said, taking several steps towards her, the other following.
She snorted. They didn't have to fight. They could easily kill her without a fight at all. "I can read between the lines," she said.
There was a hesitation, then a gesture from the smaller man. Neither was speaking out loud, but the larger man nodded. Were they communicating through internal comms?
"We are not here to kill you either, with or without a fight."
Tessa had heard about the battles with the Korthans to have serious misgivings with that statement. She looked around for more weapons. Only one more round in the cannon. She wasn't going down without a fight.
Somehow, the prospect of fighting for her life was a relief. At least she wouldn’t be dying alone on this forsaken planet, of starvation, exposure, or injuries from some stupid accident she was bound to have sooner or later. Her only regret was that she wouldn't see her fiancé, Rod, ever again. Would he ever learn what happened to her?
"We got your message," the large Korthan said. "We know you're stranded and alone. Might as well come with us."
"You must have misinterpreted the Standard," Tessa said. "I'm not stranded. Or alone.” Grabbing a metal bar from the ground beside her, some remnant of the crashed ship, Tessa gripped it tight, calling loudly. “I'm on vacation."
The two Korthans looked at each other.
"Yup," she continued. "A whole battalion of us are here on vacation and we'd rather not fight today. Just go ahead and get back on your ship. Delete that distress message."
Wait, what was she saying? Did she really want them to delete the distress message? Then no one else would ever come. Well, flip—
“You are alone,” the big Korthan said. “We are not going to harm you. It has already been thirty minutes. We know you can’t be out here for much longer.”
Well, damn it all. How did he know that? It took the death of one of her crew to learn that the beating UV radiation from the planet’s three suns was fatal after two hours.
“We could just leave her here,” T’ren said from beside L’Den as the mogha snuck behind a pair of boulders. “It’s definitely a human.”
The Korthan commander pursed his lips in thought. The situation was perplexing. The distress message they received was in non-Standard Korthan, so finding a human was not expected. He’d never met a human that knew their language. How did this human woman know it? Did she know she was stranded in Korthan space? How did she even launch a distress beacon from this mess? The wreckage of her ship was unrecognizable—
Better yet, how did she survive? First the obvious crash, then the unrelenting planet itself.
T’ren barked a sardonic laugh. “Ironic, isn’t it? The humans invade our worlds, driving out the inhabitants in some misguided notion that everything we touch is poison or, my favorite, evil. I say this planet is available. Let the Invader have this place.”
A human, trapped in Korthan space. They could just leave her here. They should. Any other circumstance and they would, without hesitation. But her voice—
It composed a song in his heart, a pull he couldn’t ignore, a draw that demanded further exploration. Getting her onboard his ship was the first step.
“We will return her under Civilian Order Treaty 217. Call it an act of goodwill diplomacy,” L’Den said.
“You know goodwill diplomacy doesn’t work with the humans,” T’ren countered. “They can’t be reasoned with. They don’t negotiate. We’re better off leaving her here.”
L’Den turned hard, silver eyes on his 2IC. “The female comes with us.”
T’ren simply stared at him, as if the second-in-command was looking at a stranger rather than a commanding officer, a stranger rather than someone he shared years of friendship with.
“Are you drawn to her?” T’ren said, gaze measuring.
L’Den felt his eyes widen. “Don’t be idiotic.”
A’rch stalked low to the ground, inching forward ever so slowly, his prey directly in front of him. The human continued to talk to the Korthans, head turned away as she called over some sort of rubble.
The mogha despised humans. This would be an easy kill. He could be upon her, snapping her neck before she even knew what hit her.
If you act upon these thoughts, you will answer to me, L’Den’s voice cut into his mind.
A’rch curled his lip in irritation, pulling himself forward along the ground. We could be rid of one more human right now, his own voice took on an edge.
Do nothing. The alpha left no room for argument, pushing an uncontrollable urge to do nothing through the bond.
The mogha backed down, laying on his belly, the motion of which must have caught the human’s attention, because she looked his way.
A’rch took great satisfaction in watching her eyes grow wide, the scent of fear filling his nostrils.
A second jolt struck Tessa’s heart as gripping pressure landed on her shoulder, weightlessness following as she was pulled into the air and turned, somehow landing on her feet, face to face with the large Korthan. This close, he was even bigger than she first thought—
And handsome. Briefly forgetting about the Hellhound, this man could haul her around any time—
/> Eyes wide, Tessa couldn’t blink. She was stranded on this planet for too damn long if her libido could overtake her fear so readily, and over a Korthan at that.
With the woman distracted by his mogha, L’Den easily walked up to her, grabbed her by the shoulder, and hauled her to her feet. A startled squeak escaped her, the feel of her shoulder beneath his hand and the sound escaping her lips igniting a fire within him that shook him to his core.
He released her, looking first at his hand and then anywhere but her lips.
What was that? A’rch said.
Snapping his hand down to his side, he looked the human in the eyes. The jolt that raced down his spine was the first warning of what a mistake that was.
What is happening to you? A’rch stood straight up, sand squelching beneath his weight.
Eyes darting to the mogha, L’Den hoped the surprise wasn’t showing on his face, relieved to see that the human female was distracted by A’rch’s movements rather than what expression he might have lost control of.
The woman stepped closer to him as she watched the mogha, seemed to realize what she was doing and stepped back.
Her face was getting red. L’Den had to force himself not to touch her skin. “The sun is damaging you. This exchange has taken too long. We must seek shelter.”
“I’m getting a tan,” the human female said, head turning towards him, her matted sun-bleached hair bouncing with the movement. “That’s what people on vacation do.”
L’Den blinked, deciding to play along. “Not the best vacation spot in the universe.”
Flipping her hair, the human didn’t miss a beat. “Oh, I disagree. Except for the occasional Hellhound spotting, this is a pleasant place.”