“What did you tell my mother?”
“Only that we would be rather busy for the rest of the lunar cycle and not to worry. She just smiled as she always does, her mind and hands half-occupied with spinning candy floss for your eldest sister’s nestlings. She didn’t seem concerned, but it’s not unusual for you to be so busy for long stretches of time.”
“Good. Despite my desperation to bind myself to my female, and my worry for her out here alone, the last thing I would want is my mother worrying.”
He felt a stab of guilt, however, at just how much his duties took him away from his family. When he successfully mated and they found a nesting place, he might retire from his position so he would be able to focus on his family and discover his true purpose.
That was the sort of future that he desired with all his being.
Ji’wa turned his head, eyes scanning the water, when movement among the waves just off to the left caught his attention. It wasn’t just any movement. This wasn’t the small shadow of fish that slipped around the colony dome, their multicolored bodies and tails flickering in the light straining down into the depths. It was much bigger. A large shadow slipped closer, and he felt an electric tingle down his spine.
“Ger’se,” he hissed abruptly. “Dive!”
His friend jerked his head around, startled, but followed the order without hesitation as they both dove deep. He didn’t see whatever rammed him, but it sent him spinning through the water.
Disoriented, he floated for a minute, blinking his external eyelids rapidly to clear his vision. Through the implanted comm chip, he heard Ger’se shout even as the notes moved through the water around him. Churning the water with his tail in addition to his webbed feet and hands, Ji’wa turned until his eyes fell upon the monstrosity silently swimming toward him.
Its pace was leisurely, as if it were in no hurry as it hunted, certain of its prey’s inevitable death. Its tail swept from side to side at the end of a long body that proceeded from a blunt head until it tapered down into a tail. Around its mouth were long tubes that moved in a prehensile fashion around a mouth stretched wide, displaying innumerable jagged teeth. Every so often, one of the prehensile tubes dragged toward its mouth as if dragging something around a sensory organ. As if it were tasting the water around it. He eyed those extensions, certain that if he were to get within striking distance of it that they would likely coil around him and he would be dragged into its mouth.
Despite its enormous maw, Ji’wa took his time to observe it thoroughly, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the predator. It was certainly not built for speed, its upper body more bulbous than streamlined in shape. He knew, just from the way his side ached from being rammed by the beast, that it was built for sheer brute strength, to deliver as much damage as possible with any blow. Its entire head down to its dorsal area was spiny, but in place of a dorsal fin it had a pair of long, taillike whips, each tipped with an enormous barb that he was pretty certain was venomous. Unlike the monster he had previously encountered, this one was not only entirely different, but judging by its fully developed form, it was an adult and likely a very capable hunter.
“What kind of nightmare is that?” Ger’se demanded through his chip. He kept his voice low, however, its sounds barely rippling through the water, doubtlessly hoping to keep the predator’s attention from being attracted in his direction.
“More surprises from the wildlife of New Sirenx,” Ji’wa observed. Although he managed to keep calm, he had to agree with the other male that it was something that appeared straight of some sort of nightmarish tale used to scare nestlings. The long-bodied creature, however, he was certain would have been far worse had it been an adult. “Not the worst of them, I’m sorry to inform you.”
“There are more?” Ger’se asked, a note of worry clear in the sound vibrating through the water. Despite his obvious concerns, his eyes trained on the creature swimming in a fashion that seemed almost placid where it swam separating them. “What kind of death planet did we come to?”
“Does it matter?” he hissed back. “We need to find a way to distract or disable it before it becomes brave enough to…”
Too late.
The creature charged with a twist of its wide tail fins, exploding forward. It wasn’t the fastest creature, but its enormous tail was able to generate a powerful forward propulsion that sent it barreling through the water. Ji’wa fanned his tail wide and slapped it through the water to carry him safely out of its direct path. He frowned at the creature as it turned, slowing its forward motion, before he glanced over at Ger’se. The male was considerably farther from him now.
He swished his tail from side to side, keeping steady as he turned his head up toward the surface. Should he swim back to join his friend or just wait there for the few minutes it would take the male to join him? It seemed unnecessary to double back when they would be heading in this direction anyway. It would be more expedient for him to wait. If they hurried, they should be able to catch up to his female and…
“Ji’wa, below you!”
He spun around, eyes widening just as a whiplike coil wrapped around his torso. A terrible sting covered his body everywhere it touched. It was so painful that it distracted him, giving the second creature that neither of them had seen emerge from the darker shadows an opening. It never occurred to him that the creature was herding him toward feeding a mate—no doubt the one that had him now was protecting a clutch hidden among the rocks and wide-leafed purple plants.
Now that the creature’s mate was rising from among them, he noticed that the deep color offered the perfect camouflage since they were almost the same shade as the plants, all except for the confusing patterns of vivid green veins and pink splotches on the edges of the leaves.
The fleshy coil extending from the side of its jaw yanked him with enough force to snap him down through the water. He dug his claws into it, trying to free himself as it pulled him toward its maw, his tail tangling helplessly in the plantlife surrounding it. Another coil wrapped around his right arm, blocking all access to his gauntlet.
Digging his claws of his left hand deep, Ji’wa raised his dorsal fin and allowed the fiery current of electricity to snap through him. The charge was strong enough to kill something near his own size, but he knew that the larger predator felt it.
A piercing sound pulsed for only a second before the coil of flesh dropped away, returning to twist near the creature’s mouth as it retreated into the shadows of its nest. His heart pounded in his chest as he watched it sink out of sight. Remembering that its mate was nearby, he turned slowly to face it once more only to find it a lot closer than he expected.
It was almost upon him, its mouth opening wide. It had lost no time in coming in to attack when it became apparent that the other wasn’t going to be able to successfully feed. Ji’wa bared his teeth, a low vibration rumbling in his chest.
He flexed his tail so that the fin fanned out to its widest point, the sharp barbs that ran down its edge extending lethally. He raised his arm and pointed his gauntlet at it. The white flash appeared in the water just off to his side as Ger’se snapped his scarlet fins wide to bring himself to a stop, putting them both in perfect position to deal with the creature. He too lifted his gauntlet and, as one, they both fired a tamik barb at the predator. Both barbs jettisoned through the water the short remaining distance. Just before impact, the projectiles each burst into a network of long, thin needles that pierced the predator’s thick flesh.
It whipped through the water in a rage, gearing up for an attack, but neither of them delayed in shooting off another two rounds as they had been trained to do. Small trails of blood surrounded it from the wounds dotting its torso, and its mouth flexed slowly as the excessive doses of venom rushed through it. Ji’wa hoped it was enough. Four barbs were all each gauntlet was supplied with. He only had one more remaining. In the end, it served as enough of a deterrent that the predator dropped away, perhaps to rejoin its mate and to wait for
easier prey.
Spinning around to face the surface once again, Ji’wa flicked his fin, propelling himself toward it. Breaking from the water, he expelled the water from the gills surrounding his lungs and glanced over at Ger’se as he broke through the surface at his side.
The male glanced over at him. “Now that was an adventure. I hope that with everything else that has occurred since you met this female, it does not portend the future. Otherwise, you will never have peace,” he said with an audible snicker.
Ji’wa blinked his outer eyelids, clearing the water from his vision, and turned away, refusing to rise to his friend’s bait. Glancing down at the tracker in his gauntlet, he reoriented himself.
“This way,” he murmured before surging forward over the surface with a kick of his legs and sweep of his tail behind him.
He would waste no more time in finding his female and reuniting with her. He couldn’t lose her. The fact that she would likely try to escape him was a small obstacle. He would find a way to soothe her fear… somehow.
Chapter 12
Nerida paced her deck. It had been a full day since the pirates were brutally killed in front of her, and though part of her was still processing the ordeal, she was starting to realize the true source of her panic: the alien.
Once she got her hysteria under control, she was able to face the knowledge of what she had seen with only minimal flinching. It was made easier by the fact that she hadn’t seen any signs of it. It was as if the distance between herself and the events gave her a measure of safety to bring out her thoughts and feelings and closely examine them.
Nerida knew without a doubt that it had to be an alien; it bore no similarity to anything that dwelt on their planet.
Besides, it wasn’t as if they never had alien contact on Terra II before, so it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility for this planet. Her grandmother used to regale her with stories of aliens who had once descended from the stars after Terra II lost communication with their homeworld, and another race had offered to transport them to a habitat better suited to their species. Some people had agreed to go with them, but most people did not.
Humanity had been suspicious of the other species, and most had held onto hope that communication would eventually be restored. Perhaps more problematic was that none of the colony leaders on Terra II were willing to agree to abide by the laws of the visitors. In the end, the humans were left to survive or die on their own.
When that generation slipped into the second and then third following the severance, with less than a third of the human population of Terra II surviving, it eventually became clear that contact with Earth wouldn’t be restored. They had been abandoned, unable to adapt fully to the demands of the world.
Many in her grandmother’s generation bemoaned that their forebearers hadn’t left with the aliens, and as the aliens never returned, their species had to make whatever manner of living they could on the hostile waterworld.
If those aliens were anything like the one that she had seen, she could understand the suspicion. From what she could recall, the alien had appeared inhumanly beautiful as it was terrible. The alien could have easily killed her without even trying. Once she had calmed down, the most important part of that observation was the fact that, despite its capabilities, it chose not to do so.
Over the last couple of days, her mind kept returning to that, replaying the hazy image of the tall, pale alien watching her leave. Her breath hitched as she considered that just maybe that vessel that fell into the ocean hadn’t been a shuttle at all, but an alien starship like in her grandmother’s stories.
The aliens had returned to Terra II.
Her brow puckered in confusion. Her first glimpse of an alien was far from what she had imagined they would have looked like from a childhood filled with her grandmother’s stories. Its appearance in the Greater Sea was also confusing. According to her grandmother, the aliens purposely chose to land close to the mainland and make contact with the government. If she remembered correctly, they had occupied a nearby island just off the western coast of the mainland from which they arranged to send out shuttles to gather up willing humans.
The deviation from what she had always been told was strange, but it was possible that the aliens were going about things differently this time. Maybe they weren’t even coming with a message, but invading quietly to carry off any who desired to leave.
Not that Nerida wished to go anywhere. Wavelanders were used to isolation.
Many people on the floating cities and island cities would likely eagerly embrace such an offer, perhaps even some from the mainland. As a wavelander, however, the sea was in her blood. Despite the dangers, she couldn’t imagine herself wanting to be anywhere else. The pirates would surely have been an obstacle to abductions, and so what she had seen might have merely been the aliens dealing with threats as they come across them rather than waiting for problems to arise.
That seemed logical enough.
A shiver ran over her skin. There was still one matter that wasn’t accounted for. She still couldn’t forget those eyes. They hadn’t watched her dispassionately, as one simply attending to their duty. It had looked at her possessively. Like it wanted to conquer her or devour her… maybe both, for all she knew. That alone was frightening, fueling her fear in the days prior, and countered her grandmother’s descriptions of beautiful beings that had the appearance of gods walking among them.
Not that the alien wasn’t beautiful.
The alien she had seen had been beautiful in the way that a dathli was beautiful—in a dangerous, predatory way, all strong, sleek muscle and a pale, luminous form. It was more monster than divine in appearance with its vaguely humanoid features. That had been part of what made it more terrifying than appealing from what she’d been able to see.
A scratching thump hit the side of the boat, and Nerida jumped nervously. Had it finally caught up to her after all? Approaching the sound, she unholstered the blaster she had taken to wearing over the past few days and strode to the edge of the railing. A gust of wind blew, and the scratch sounded louder. Was it higher or was that just her imagination? Swallowing despite her suddenly dry mouth, she slowly peered over the railing.
A relieved gasp of laughter escaped her.
Debris from a wreck scattered over the water, floating toward her from the east. Two of the nearest crates bounced on the waves, bumping and scratching along the hull. Shaking her head at the flood of relief she was feeling, Nerida squinted at the trail of scraps. The largest pieces that were the most worth fishing out of the sea were closest to her. She wasn’t going to change her route to retrieve everything, but these closest barrels and boxes floating on the water’s surface were worth the small delay.
Re-holstering her blaster, Nerida rushed back across the deck to the storage compartment just behind her living quarters. Flinging open the lid, she pulled out the large net coiled within. She panted as she gathered it up and threw it over her shoulder. The added weight made her stumble slightly, but she strode forward stubbornly despite being significantly weighed down.
Anchoring the ends of the net to the boat, a groan of relief escaped her when she was finally able to shove the rest of it over the side of the railing to drag behind the boat. She allowed herself a moment to appreciate her work before turning to the starboard side of her living quarters, where a long pole was fastened. Taking the pole, she hurried back and worked to knock the sealed cases down along the side of the boat until they finally, one by one, collected within the net.
Once she was sure that she had been able to gather everything within reach, Nerida began to retract the net. The soft whirr of the net rising little by little from the water filled the air with an exciting hum. From the looks of it, it must have been a merchant vessel or a wealthy wavelander family that either wrecked on the side of an island or fell victim to pirates. If it was the latter, everything of great value would have already been stripped, but there was a chance of finding something decent.
Maybe some delicacies or foods from the mainland that she hadn’t had the pleasure of tasting in quite some time.
The net jumped and vibrated even as it continued to retract at a steady pace. The motor didn’t seem stressed, but the evenly spaced twangs over the netting made her stomach twist into knots. Setting one foot back and then the other, she slowly backed away.
One pale hand slipped over the edge of the rail. It flexed, and its faintly pinkish-white claws dug into the wood before the muscles of the scaled forearm appeared to tighten. Her breath left her lips in a soft rasp when the being that had occupied her thoughts for days rose over the side of her boat.
Once its feet were firmly planted on the deck, its other hand let go of the netting so it could freely step toward her. A familiar, brilliantly copper-orange mane of hair fell from the back of its ridged forehead framed by horns. Hair fell around it almost like a halo of burnished copper as the light hit it.
It didn’t make any further movements. Instead, it stood there, eyes roving over her even as it held perfectly still as if allowing her to look her fill. She availed herself of the opportunity to do just that and study her very first face-to-face encounter with an alien.
Though well over seven feet tall and the color of the winter moon, the alien possessed a musculature that resembled divers she knew in her youth, when viewed at a distance. It even had a thick band around its upper arm that looked like it could be diver’s gear and perhaps contained a small pouch within it. Up close, its differences were unmistakable, not the least of which was the bright metallic piece of tech that covered its left wrist and much of its hand. Its humanoid face had a wide, flat nose with vents at either side that cut ridges into its face, running from its nose to the outer edge of its sharp cheekbones. She could see long, pointed ears edged with a strange spined frill that gave them a finlike appearance as they tipped back in an elegant arc. At her attention to them, the spines straightened the fin edging the ear, fanning out in an even more brilliant orange hue than its hair.
Sirein: A Dystopian World Alien Romance Page 10