Close Encounters

by Katherine Allred

By the time we reached Max, the cargo hatch was down, and the hold’s conveyor belts had stacked the boxes in the opening. Crigo, who had arrived seconds before Junior and me, was sprawled in the shadows at the edge of the jungle. Giving the rock cat a wide berth, Junior chose his own tree and leaned against it.

  They had the right idea, I decided. It was hotter than Inferno in midsummer, so it only made good sense to set the huts up where they would be shaded by the trees. It would also impede any line-of-sight surveillance the Dynatec crew endeavored.

  There also didn’t seem to be as much flying insect life in the jungle. The plains abounded in the speedy little critters. A swarm went by me doing about 140 kilometers per hour, and I used my superfast reflexes to delicately pluck one of them from the group for a better look.

  Yep, they certainly were ugly things. They had long, nasty-looking proboscises and orange eyes. But their bodies were streamlined for speed and they had six wings.

  Yetch. I released it in a hurry and went back to what I was doing, wiping my fingers on my leg to divest myself of any leftover bug juice that might be contaminating me.

  Retrieving a laser cutter from the cargo bay, I walked a few steps into the jungle and looked around. The brush wasn’t quite so thick once you got past the outer edge, and I could see the trees gradually became bigger the farther away they grew from the grassy plain.

  A movement in the over-canopy caught my attention, and I glanced up in time to see a tiny creature the size of my hand flit from one flowered vine to another, chittering as it went. It resembled nothing so much as a miniature dragon, but instead of scales, it was covered in jewel-toned feathers.

  It landed by gripping the vine with tiny talons and then delicately sipped from a flower. And it wasn’t alone. Now that I’d noticed the first one, there seemed to be hundreds of them, filling the trees with flashes of brilliant color that rivaled the flowers for sheer beauty.

  A few of them noticed me watching and flitted closer, heads tilting from side to side as they studied me intently. One of my observers, a brilliant iridescent green fellow, dangled upside down from a vine not two feet in front of me and gurgled inquisitively.

  I couldn’t help smiling at their antics. “Friend,” I told them, on the off chance they might understand. It seemed to work. With satisfied cheeps, they went back to flower hopping.

  The more I saw of Orpheus Two, the more I liked it, and that worried me. Agents couldn’t allow themselves to get too attached to a place or a people. Not only did it lead to bias, which could skew the findings, it caused undue upset and heartache when it was time to leave. And that time always came.

  Shaking my head, I went to work clearing a space big enough for the huts, and making a path through the thicker brush so I could reach Max without having to fight my way out. When I was done, I put the laser cutter away and then motioned for Junior.

  His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t move. With a sigh, I walked over to him, took his hand, and pulled. He planted both feet and refused to budge.

  I glanced at Crigo, who was still sprawled under a nearby tree, front legs crossed as he looked on with amusement. “Hey, I could use a little help getting him moving.”

  Lazily, Crigo rose and stalked into the jungle. A few seconds later, he let out a roar from right behind Junior that had the dragon birds swooping and fluttering in panic. It also served my purpose, since Junior launched himself a foot into the air at the sound. I used his forward momentum to drag him to the cargo bay while he was still looking apprehensively over his shoulder.

  Amazingly enough, it didn’t take him long to figure out that I wanted help loading boxes onto the antigrav sled, and he set to work with such enthusiasm that I suspected he’d been bored. Either that, or he was afraid of what Crigo would do if he didn’t cooperate.

  While we worked, I checked in with Max, using my chip so the conversation wouldn’t disturb Junior. “Did you have a chance to scan Dynatec’s ship?”

  “Yes.” Max’s voice vibrated in my ear. “It’s in good condition, but it’s a much older model with a conventional computer. I made sure we’re out of its scanner and weapon range.”

  Odd. Dynatec was a huge company. They could afford the most up-to-date ships and equipment available. So why use such an old one, especially when there was always a danger of pirates targeting lone ships? “What weapons are they carrying?”

  “Standard, old-fashioned laser rays, and a few projectile cannons. The type that fires laser-guided missiles.”

  I nodded, although still puzzled at their use of outdated weapons. Projectile cannons could be devastating when used dirt side, but Max would know the instant their system locked on to a target. Using our orbiting satellites and weapons based on his surge crystal, he could strike with pinpoint accuracy to take out a single weapon, or destroy their entire camp if necessary.

  The satellites also allowed Max to record any activity on the planet’s surface. And once Max recorded something, it was a permanent part of the ship’s log. No tampering could destroy his records, because they weren’t stored physically on board. They were beamed directly to a special storage unit in the Alpha Centauri system, where Alien Affairs had its headquarters. Only Max or the boss could access the files, and even they couldn’t erase them.

  After the mission was completed and the fate of the Buri decided, all the recordings would be released to the Federation Library and Archives to be studied by sociologists and other scientists. They would forever be part of Federation history.

  “Set up the usual perimeter,” I instructed Max. “If anyone from the Dynatec crew broaches it, let me know immediately. If I’m not here and one of them shows up, use the static shield. I don’t want them getting within fifty feet of you or the camp unless I’m aware they’re here.”

  “What about the Buri?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think they’re capable of hurting you. Just don’t let them on board unless it’s with me. Other than that, don’t interfere with them. The more they hang around the camp, the easier it will be to gather info on them.” I paused. “You might want to let me know if Brownie is lurking in the bushes, though. I don’t think he likes me much.”

  “Probably with good reason,” Max replied. “There’s an area of new skin growth on his left hip. From a close scan of the scar, it would appear to be the remnants of a laser burn.”

  I mulled that over for a second. So much for Redfield’s assertion about not wanting to stun the Buri. Apparently they’d rather kill them. Unless Redfield didn’t know everything that was going on. With Frisk’s reputation for hating GEPs, it wouldn’t surprise me to discover he was withholding info from the doctor.

  Well, there was nothing I could do about it right this minute, and I still had a lot of work to complete.

  Once the antigrav sled was loaded, we tugged it to the clearing I’d made, and I set the huts to work erecting themselves. The process clearly fascinated Junior, and he watched them go up with a mixture of awe and curiosity.

  When they were done, I had two huts side by side, with a connecting partition between them that I used for storage. Each section of hut had a door with a porch roof covering it. Most of the complicated lab work would be done by Max, but the back hut was equipped with instruments so I could work on my own.

  The front hut would be my living quarters. It came with its own lav, kitchen, and bedroom, and Max controlled the climate through remotes. When I tried to coax Junior inside for a look around, his eyes widened, and he backed up a step. I suspect he thought that any building that could go up so fast all by itself might come down the same way, and he wasn’t going to take any chances on being inside when it did.

  But at least he seemed to be over his hesitancy where I was concerned. He helped me unload the rest of my supplies without a quibble and then made himself comfortable near one of the porches.

  As a reward for his assistance, I made him dinner after Max did a medic scan and assured me the Buri physiology was compatible with human ratio
ns. It took some mimicking on my part, and finally taking a bite myself before he’d try the food. And he didn’t seem too fond of the vegetables sautéed in lemon wine, making faces with each swallow. But at his first taste of amberberries covered in chocolate sauce and topped with whipped cream, total rapture lit his features. It didn’t take a fluent command of Buri to understand his meaning when he shoved the empty bowl at me and growled.

  With a smile, I zapped another packet of the dessert in the heating unit and refilled his bowl. Even when you’re dealing with an alien species, the way to a man’s heart was apparently through his stomach.

  I just hoped it would be this easy with the big guy. If I wanted to be accepted by the Buri, he was the one I had to impress. But I suspected I had my work cut out for me.

  CHAPTER 3

  My first night on Orpheus Two turned out to be a long one. Junior was still working on his second dessert when his replacement showed up. He gave the new Buri with light gray hair and silvery eyes a meager taste of the sweet, and I ended up fixing yet another bowl. Apparently this earned me Ghost’s undying gratitude, because he spent the rest of the night guarding my door, keeping me awake with his shifting and turning.

  Crigo had vanished with first dark, but that didn’t surprise me. He was itching to explore, and I’d seen him eyeing a herd of grazers that looked like a cross between the buffalo and gazelles I’d seen in the Centaurius Zoo. They were elegantly built with long legs and spiral horns, but furred with a woolly coat of dark brown curls. They also had a hump on their backs, long beards, and broad, heavy faces.

  It was during one of Ghost’s tossing-and-turning periods that I awakened from a light doze with a strange thought. What if the Buri weren’t posted outside my hut as guards? What if they thought they were protecting me from the Dynatec crew?

  The idea was so odd I couldn’t believe it had even occurred to me. My eyes opened and I blinked twice before sliding out of bed and into a robe. Moving silently, I padded to the front of the hut and gazed through the transparent door at Ghost. Had I picked up something from him?

  It didn’t seem likely. He was leaning against the wall, head tipped back, gentle snores parting his lips.

  Trying not to wake him, I opened the door and stepped outside, letting my gaze scan the surrounding jungle. Something or someone was out there. I could feel a presence in the tingle that ran down my back and lifted the fine hair on my nape.

  I was on the verge of querying Max when a slight movement caught my eye. It wasn’t much, just a shimmer of moonlight on inky hair, but it was enough to tell me who my watcher was.

  The big guy was back.

  Shifting slightly to my right, I walked to the edge of the porch. We were within touching distance when I stopped. Close enough that I could pick up the scent of his warm, clean, very male body. I had a clear view of him from this angle.

  I’m well above average height for a human female, skimming six feet tall. But he was the largest male of any species I’d ever met. He stood motionless as I stared up at him, and I tightened the belt on my robe nervously.

  Which was ridiculous. I never got nervous.

  In the distance, the roar of a rock cat after prey split the night, but neither of us so much as twitched. If the emotion I’d picked up earlier had come from him, there was no sign of it now. My shields were completely down and I wasn’t getting a thing.

  “Shall I record?” Max asked in my ear.

  I hesitated. Technically, every meeting with a new race should be recorded, because you never know what you’ll miss during a contact that you might pick up on later.

  “No,” I answered. “Not this time.”

  As usual, I had subvocalized when talking to Max, but the big guy tilted his head and his gaze became more intense. Slowly, he lifted one hand and touched me just over the chip implanted behind my ear. Immediately I felt a sense of puzzlement coming from him, and I sucked in a deep breath of night air.

  No one had ever been aware of my conversations with Max before. Absolutely no one. Either his hearing was better than mine, which was impossible, or he had, at the very least, a rudimentary telepathic talent.

  While I was thinking, his interest shifted from my conversation to my hair. I’d left it loose when I prepared for bed, and he spread his fingers to sift through the heavy mass, draping thick locks over my shoulder and wrapping them around his fist.

  For the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to do next. Nothing in my experience had prepared me for this.

  He continued stroking my hair, then his gaze shifted and our eyes met. And as we stared at each other, a buzzing filled my head, a small, pleasant sensation that gave me a warm fuzzy feeling and made me smile.

  Suddenly I was picking up more emotion from him than I wanted to, in the form of complete and utter shock. He dropped my hair as though it had burned him and took a step back. A low rumble erupted from deep in his chest as his gaze swept down to take in my bare legs and silk-clad body.

  With another growl, he turned and faded into the surrounding darkness, leaving me alone to wonder what in the thirteen hells had just happened.

  Had I dreamed the entire encounter?

  No, it was no dream. I was on the porch wearing nothing but my robe, and Ghost was still snoring from his spot against the wall. And I’d just had a deeply physical reaction to a male from an alien species.

  Oh, no. There was no way I’d allow this to continue. I was finished with men, regardless of what species they belonged to. Damn Gertz. When he was busy taking liberties with my genetic makeup, why hadn’t he excised this deep-seated need for love and acceptance I’d been cursed with? It would have made my life so much simpler.

  With a sigh, I padded back to bed, my mind still on the big guy. But sleep was a long time coming. I really needed to come up with a name for him, like I had for the others. Blackie was out. He just didn’t seem the type for a cutesy nickname.

  After an unusual amount of dithering, I settled on Thor. Yeah, that had some dignity to it, and I could picture him as the god of thunder. All he needed was a hammer.

  With that decision out of the way, I finally drifted off to sleep, only to have the dragon birds wake me two hours later at the crack of dawn. Apparently they’d decided the huts were a new toy. They covered the roof, their tiny feet sounding like a pouring rain, chattering and inspecting, even swooping down to peer in the Plexiglas windows.

  Mumbling under my breath, I dragged myself to the shower, and then forced my eyes open so I could find my clothes and dress. It took two cups of scalding cafftea before I felt semi-normal again. When I was sure my brain was functioning at its usual level, I walked to the door and looked out.

  Crigo was stretched out on his side beneath a flowering vine, lazily cleaning his paws. His stomach was rounder, a bulging ball that marred his normally sleek lines, and he was awash in contentment. But that wasn’t what made me do a double take.

  Including Junior and Ghost, five Buri males squatted in a half circle around my porch, all looking hopefully at the door.

  Normally, Alien Affairs tries to limit first contact with a low technology group to simple observation for a few cycles by trained xenologists so as not to influence or disrupt their culture. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that luxury with the Buri. Time was a limited commodity if we wanted to save them, and my need for information necessitated getting as close to them as possible as quickly as I could manage. Disturbing their culture was small potatoes when compared with losing the entire species.

  I sighed. “Max, how much of the amberberries in chocolate sauce is left? I think I’ve created a monster.”

  “Not much, Kiera. We are overstocked with Zip Bars, though.”

  “That will do.” I went to the food unit and punched in my request. Zip Bars are high-energy rations. You could live for a month or more eating one a day. It helps that they taste wonderful too. They’re made from compressed zipple nuts and amberberries, coated in caramel and covered in chocolat
e. All of which hides the taste of the super nutrients mingled with the other ingredients.

  I scooped up the individually wrapped bars and carried them to the porch, handing one to each Buri. In unison, they lifted the bars to their noses and sniffed. Thanks to my reflexes, I managed to stop them before they took a bite, wrapper and all.

  Patiently, I showed a Buri with white streaks in his dark brown hair how to unwrap the bar before he ate it. The others watched, then mimicked the action, their eyes closing in bliss while they chewed.

  As they ate, I covertly studied the male with the streaks. He appeared to be in good physical condition, but he had an aura of age about him, so I dubbed him Elder. He caught me sneaking glances at him and grinned, holding out the Zip Bar and nodding in what I assumed was thanks.

  I was waiting for them to finish, and mulling over my plans for the day, when Max interrupted me. “Kiera, one of the Dynatec crew is approaching.”

  “Who is it?” I straightened and turned toward the path.

  “Second Lieutenant Claudia Karle, the woman you asked about yesterday.”

  “Is she armed?”

  “Only with a hand laser and belt knife. And I detect no recording equipment on her person.”

  “Okay. Let her through.”

  The Buri were just finishing off the Zip Bars when the bushes at the head of the path rattled and Lieutenant Karle stepped into view. At the sound, all five males lurched to their feet, spears at the ready, lips curled back from their teeth.

  Karle plowed to a stop and raised her hands. “Whoa. Didn’t realize you’d have company. Maybe I’ll just come back later.”

  “No, it’s okay.” I pushed my way between Junior and Ghost, and started forward. I hadn’t taken two steps before Junior’s hand clamped down on my shoulder, bringing me to a halt.

  I turned to face him, smiling and radiating tranquility and calm. “She’s not going to hurt me,” I assured him with a serene tone. “She couldn’t, even if she wanted to.”

  He hesitated, glanced at Elder, and then dropped his hand. All the Buri moved away to take up positions at the edges of the clearing, watching Karle with suspicion.