Ronan

by Leslie Chase

  The ramp refused to open until he forced it, then it fell from the hull and dropped to the ground with a clatter. Ronan jumped down, turning to lift me to the ground, and a wave of relief washed over me. We’d made it home.

  We’d also trashed the flier. One of the few remaining to the Joint Colony, and we’d brought it home a wreck. Our leaders were going to be pissed. I didn’t care. I just wanted to be on solid ground.

  A welcoming party waited for us at the end of the landing field, Auric and Tamara and a few others. Megan stood with them, waving and grinning as we emerged.

  Ronan and I walked towards them side-by-side, and I saw the knowing looks some of them gave us. A flush spread over my cheeks but I didn’t take my arm from around Ronan’s waist, and he kept his around my shoulders.

  Megan’s smile widened, obviously bursting to tell me ‘I told you so.’ I shot her a look that did nothing to quell her amusement but she mimed zipping her lips shut.

  Sure. You’ll keep quiet until we’re alone if I’m lucky. I knew my friend better than to believe she’d manage to keep silent for long. At least it would be awhile before she had the chance to tease me — the colony leaders wanted our report, and they wouldn’t wait.

  Auric and Tamara took us to the bridge of the Wandering Star, giving us a chance to tell our story in private before it became a spectacle. There was no way it would stay a secret — not when it involved first contact with a new species — but at least this gave us a chance to go over everything first.

  The debriefing passed by in a blur. So much had happened over a few days, and many of the memories weren’t pleasant, but the two leaders needed to know what had happened. Tamara’s face went stony and Auric’s was unreadable as we told them of Korhmar and his abuse of the zrin.

  “Animals,” Auric muttered when our report finished. I recognized the prytheen rage under the surface, struggling to emerge. Captain Joyce put her hand on his, calming him.

  “They’re dead now,” she pointed out. “And these zrin are free. I’m more concerned with the signal you sent.”

  I shrugged helplessly. “There’s not much we can tell you about it. I never figured out the interface. I thought the puzzle was a lock but solving it didn’t give us access to anything. And it’s not a puzzle that the zrin could have answered, not without much more advanced math than they have.”

  “Maybe it’s a test,” Tamara mused. “Eventually they’d be able to solve it, right?”

  Ronan drummed his fingers on the table, claws making click-click-click noises as he thought. “Perhaps, but the zrin are centuries, millennia even, away from being able to calculate orbital mechanics. If it’s a test, someone’s taking the long view.”

  “If it’s a test, we’ve passed it,” Auric said. “Whoever set it will come to investigate that.”

  He nodded decisively and continued. “Which means you succeeded in your mission. Not how we’d hoped, but you contacted a spacefaring civilization. When they come to check on the signal we’ll convince them to let us off this planet. In the meantime, we still have the business of survival to deal with.”

  “And that means getting the fliers back into operation,” Tamara added. The captain had more local priorities. “We need to start shipping goods and people again and helping the outlying settlements. Especially if there are zrin villages out there: we’ll need to manage our contact with them, or it’ll be a disaster.”

  Ronan nodded, but I saw the shadow flit over his expression before he clamped down on it. When I met him he’d seemed hard to read, but I knew him better now, and understood what was biting him.

  Leaning in to kiss him on the cheek I smiled. “Of course you’re going to fly,” I told him. “I’d never take that away from you.”

  “I will not leave you behind,” he said, firmly. Willing to sacrifice his joy and his calling for me. “There is plenty of work to do on the ground.”

  “Don’t be silly,” I said, glancing at Auric and Tamara. They were gracious enough to pretend not to listen, turning to some other colony business and letting us have our privacy.

  So I pulled Ronan’s strong hand to my lips and kissed it. “Ronan, I love you, and I’d never take the sky from you. I’ve seen how happy it makes you.”

  “Not so happy as you do,” he said, pulling me up to sit on his lap. “I’d sacrifice anything to be with you.”

  This close to Ronan, surrounded by his wonderful scent, my heart raced. His rugged, handsome face was inches from my lips, and I felt his heartbeat. Focusing on anything else was tricky.

  Smiling, I stroked his cheek and forced myself to concentrate on my answer. “I don’t want you to have to give up anything for me, love, and I trust you. I don’t like flying, but I’m willing to give it a go if it means more time with you.”

  “You’re certain?” Emotions warred behind his alien eyes. Hope fighting a determination not to hurt me. I smiled, nodded, kissed him.

  “Certain,” I told him.

  His whoop of joy turned Tamara and Auric’s attention back to us, but Ronan didn’t care. He lifted me as he stood, spinning me around. I laughed, dizzy from the spinning and his joy.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tamara take Auric’s hand and lead him off the bridge to give us some real privacy.

  By the time Ronan and I disentangled ourselves, the news of our expedition had spread through the colony. Ronan went with Auric to check on the flier and work out how much of it was salvageable, and I set out to replace the clothes I’d lost or ruined on our adventure. My pay for the mission rested in my account and I itched to get into clean clothes.

  Megan waited for me outside the Wandering Star, leaning against the wall of one of the market stalls. As soon as I emerged from the darkness, she dropped her noodle box in a recycler and grinned at me.

  “So… you and Ronan, huh?” Megan asked without giving me a chance to speak. I gave her another glare and she burst out laughing. “What? I didn’t say anything.”

  “You’re thinking it,” I grumbled. I couldn’t keep the smile from my face though, and a moment later my friend enveloped me in a powerful hug.

  “I was so worried I wouldn’t see you again,” my friend said. “Now you turn up and I find out your trip was so much more dangerous than we’d ever imagined. A whole new species of aliens? And they tried to kill you?”

  “I’d rather not go over it all again,” I said gently, and Megan looked contrite.

  “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just… they can’t all be on that one plateau, can they?”

  “No, I doubt it. They must be spread over the whole planet. But their settlements are small, and so are ours. It’s not that surprising that we never bumped into them.”

  Megan’s eyes sparkled and I had the worrying feeling she was coming up with a plan. Not necessarily a good one.

  “We’ll see about that…”

  “Oh god, are you planning on going out looking for them?” I shook my head. “You’re too adventurous for your own good.”

  “Says the woman who flew around half the world and nearly got herself sacrificed,” Megan said, laughing. “I won’t go that far. Just… see if I can find them, that’s all. Someone has to.”

  I shook my head. There was no dissuading my friend when she got into this mood, and I had other things I wanted talk about.

  The market bustled around us as she told me what had happened during my absence, juicy gossip and happy news. Looking around, I realized that something had changed while I was away. Not in the colony, but in me.

  Life here on Crashland was hard, uncomfortable, and dangerous. If we could leave, we would. But until then, it wasn’t such a bad place to call home.

  Not when it was the planet where my khara had found me.

  Epilogue

  I’ll never get used to flying. Every time we lift off, the fear grips me. Every time we land, I want to kiss the ground, hug it and never let go. But each time, it gets a little easier.

  And it’s worth it, every
time, to be with Ronan. He doesn’t make me come along. Doesn’t even ask me to. Nothing could keep me from his side, and while I’m with him, I know I’m safe.

  The flier leaps skyward again, the mountains beside the Joint Colony fades into the background. Above us the sky darkens, the stars clear and bright. Somewhere out there is Arcadia, but now I have more important things right here.

  I look to my left, at Ronan. His attention focused on his work, he wears that expression of joy which makes my heart beat a little faster. Up here in the sky he’s so happy and free, and I love him all the more for it.

  Once we’re safe in the autopilot’s hands, Ronan turns to me. His smile lights up my world like nothing else can.

  We’re together now, and that means I’m safe. Nothing to fear.

  “You don’t have to come with me, you know,” he says. It’s a little ritual at this point, an exchange we have every time we leave the surface of Crashland.

  “I want to be here,” I answer, squeezing his hand in mine. “I never want to be apart from you.”

  “Then you never will be,” he says, and the love in his voice takes my breath away all over again.

  We’ve been looking for more zrin villages since our adventures on the plateau. Spreading the word to other settlements, too. So far no one’s seen any sign of the zrin, but without the giant temple to guide us they won’t be easy to spot. Still, it gives me a perfect excuse to tag along. I speak the language, after all.

  A few others do, too, and we’re all keeping our eyes out. We need to learn more about the world we’ve landed on, and who better to tell us than the natives? If we can make peaceful contact, they can tell us so much.

  We’re still trapped here unless someone answers that hyperspace relay — and in the months since we activated it we’ve seen no sign of a response. Maybe the other end is broken, or abandoned? It’s been here for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

  Perhaps we’ll never find out. It feels a lot less important now, anyway. Before we set out, the promise of a way off Crashland was enough to sell me on the trip. Now, though? If I’m stuck here, so be it, as long as I’m stuck with Ronan. My home is wherever he is.

  Leaning my head against my khara’s shoulder, I look out towards the horizon and the setting sun and smile.

  The End

  Thank you for reading Ronan! Please take a moment to leave an opinion about the book, I appreciate every review.

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  About Leslie Chase

  LESLIE CHASE

  I love writing, and especially enjoy writing sexy science fiction and paranormal romances. It lets my imagination run free and my ideas come to life! When I’m not writing, I’m busy thinking about what to write next or researching it – yes, damn it, looking at castles and swords and spaceships counts as research.

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