Vaka

by Keira Conrad

  But he was real. She could close her eyes and remember the feeling of being safe in his arms as he raced across the field. She marveled at his strength – he had ripped the droid apart with his bare hands – and his speed. He certainly wasn’t what she had in mind when she imagined encountering alien life. There was so much she wanted to understand.

  How had he happened to be so close? Why was she the one he chose to save? The fields were full of fleeing women, but he came to her aid. What did he see in her?

  She had a million other questions. Where did he come from? Who were his people? Where did they live? Were there more of them? Did he know their attackers? Callie and the other humans were totally in the dark, and he was the only one offering them a ray of light.

  She barely knew anything about him, but she was certain of one thing: he was hurting right now. She could picture the shock on his face as Flora fired. The way he limped off with his hand over the wound, blood dripping down his side in worrisome amounts.

  Her insides flip-flopped as she imagined him returning to his people, severely wounded. Or, he could be on his deathbed, cursing the day he encountered their kind. She couldn’t bear the thought.

  Hudson interrupted her thoughts with an ear-splitting whistle. He stood in the middle of camp and waved everyone over to him.

  "I can't wait to hear his soft touch on this travesty," Juno said. She leaned in and did her best impersonation of the Captain. "Listen up, people! Our ship is destroyed and our mission is fucked. It's been one hell of a week."

  Callie choked back a deranged urge to laugh. Flora looked ready to throw up. They gathered around Hudson and prayed for good news.

  "Ladies, listen up!" He jumped onto a crate of charred supplies so everyone could see him. He was covered in soot, dirt, and sweat, and he looked the part of the battle-tested leader. "I need you all inside the perimeter fence. Locate everyone assigned to your sleeping quad. We need to take a full body count and figure out who we lost." This wasn't the rousing call to victory the colonists were hoping for, and the crowd began to murmur. A more skilled leader would have read the crowd. Hudson just got louder.

  "The Sentinel took a hell of a hit. We need to start cataloging supplies and taking stock of the damage. Again, it's really important to stay inside the fence and-"

  The survivors had questions and they wanted answers. Voices rang out and interrupted the makeshift briefing.

  "What good is staying inside the fence? It didn't stop those damn things!"

  "What were those droids? Who sent them?"

  "They were taking colonists. Where did they take them?"

  "Is the ship destroyed? Does that mean we can't go home?"

  The crowd had whipped itself into a frenzy.

  Hudson clenched his fists as he struggled for control. The tendons in his neck strained against his skin, and his nostrils flared wildly. Callie worried he would blow. Juno clambered onto the platform with him and motioned for everyone to quiet.

  "Those are all fantastic questions, and I'm sure nobody wishes we had the answers more than Captain Hudson." She rested her hands on her hips. "But we don't. That doesn't mean we stop. We need to stay orderly and remain calm."

  “Now, we all know there has been tension between the military and civilian crews on this mission. But we need to remember we're all on the same team. The Captain and his men have been tasked with keeping us safe, and that's what they're going to do. Everything's not going to go according to plan. We expected difficulties and complications. Planned for them. We just need to stay calm and work together, and we'll get this all figured out. Now, let's listen to Hudson." She turned the crowd over to him with a nod of her head.

  He returned her nod and seemed to soften a little. He wasn't used to working with civilians. The fact that all the colonists were women just made it that much more awkward. "First, we need to get an accurate head count and handle any injuries." He paced the top of the crate. "Find everyone in your sleeping quad. I need a list of anyone missing and I want it in half an hour." He pointed to the ship. "The medical bay is functional. If you're injured and need help, my men will escort you inside. Let's start there."

  He hopped from the crate and hurried off to handle other problems.

  "What about the supplies?" Flora asked. "Isn't it important to take stock of what's left?"

  Juno and Callie shared a loaded glance. They both knew it was a lost cause. As an engineer familiar with the schematics of the ship, Callie could tell the heaviest damage was to the loading bay and storage holds. Survival just got a lot more difficult. The habitation quads and med bay were the only places that appeared undamaged. The bridge was gone. Totally obliterated.

  Callie didn't understand the surgical precision of their strikes. How had the attackers known to avoid attacking the humans? Infrared technology? She knew the military on Earth used it. Had she not witnessed the kidnapping of a fellow colonist, the concern for the colonists would have been encouraging. Instead, it made her pulse quicken.

  They weren't spared out of mercy. They were spared because the aliens wanted to take them alive.

  7

  Callie waited for the colonists to disperse and then hurried after Hudson. She wanted to snag him before he was back with his men. The fewer people who overheard their conversation, the better.

  "Captain, can I have a word?" She caught him just as he reached what was left of the ship.

  "I'm a little busy right now, Callie," he said.

  "It's important. Give me a couple minutes and I'll get out of your hair." He shifted his weight and rested one arm against the hull. She lowered her voice. "They took some of the colonists."

  "I know," he said. "I thought it best to leave that out for the moment."

  "There will be a rescue mission, though?"

  "I have no idea," he said. He seemed annoyed at her for asking. "We don't even know what we're dealing with right now. We're a skeleton security team with a small group of civilian colonists. This planet was supposed to be a walk in the park. We aren't equipped for a rescue mission."

  "What if someone could help us?" She asked. He raised his eyebrows in disbelief, and she hurried on. Best to spit it all and let him decide. "I saw someone in the woods. I think he was with the creatures in the air. I think they were trying to help us."

  "Right." His face softened. "These things can happen under moments of extreme stress. I want you to head to the med bay and talk with Doc."

  She threw up her hands. "I'm not cracking under stress. Ask Juno and Flora. They saw him, too."

  "Regardless, now's not the time to be making friends with the locals."

  "Actually, it's the perfect time to make friends with the locals. Especially when they speak English."

  "Are you shitting me?" The disbelief was plain in his eyes, but Callie saw something else there. Hope, maybe.

  "I heard it clear as day. So did the others." She sucked her cheeks in. His refusal to believe her was annoying as hell.

  "Were you having a little chat with him?" He pushed against the hull and stood upright. He was done with this conversation. She needed him to listen. It might be their last chance at survival.

  "I shot him." The admission stopped him in his tracks. It was her only hope of getting him to agree with what she wanted to do next. Callie knew Flora wouldn't mind her taking "credit" for shooting him. Hell, she'd probably give Callie a portion of her water ration in appreciation.

  He looked at her with an entirely new expression. "I'm impressed."

  "Don’t be," she said. “We have a possible ally and I started everything off on the wrong foot."

  "You don't know they're our allies. It's a big assumption."

  "Sometimes you have to trust your gut," she said. "I'm positive he was trying to help me. He saved me from a droid!" He still wasn't buying it, but he didn't look as unconvinced as he did a few moments earlier, either. Callie decided it was time to change her approach and close the deal. "I don't need to remind you that we're runni
ng out of options. And I'm one of twelve engineers. We're overrepresented among the colonists. I'm dispensable."

  He raised his hand to his brow and covered his eyes, massaging his temples. "Why are you telling me this? Cut to the chase."

  "I want to track down the person I shot." It sounded crazy, as she said it out loud, but what other chance did they have? "I'll take him some medicine, make sure he's ok, apologize, and see what I can learn about this planet and the things that attacked us."

  She chose her words carefully and was glad they sounded reasonably coherent as they left her mouth. Part of her was afraid she’d blurt out something about his giant muscles and the lust in his eyes as he looked at her, and then she’d have to leave the colony and die of embarrassment.

  She knew it was horribly inappropriate to be thinking about her hot alien rescuer as more than a source of information, but she was certain that the connection between them was real. And she was willing to take a chance to see him again.

  "An awful lot has to go right for that plan to work."

  "It's our only chance, and you know it. The attack fried all our supplies. We can probably survive a week or two without help, assuming they don't come at us again." She was so close to convincing him. She could tell from way he dropped his hands to his side and stared beyond her. "Think about the mission. Not me. I'm the one who made the mistake. I shot someone trying to help me. I want to be the one to clean it up. To make things right."

  “Think of all we have to gain,” Callie said. “An alliance with them could be the advantage that helps us survive. We know next to nothing about this place. There’s so much they could teach us.”

  “You think one of them helped you. Any maybe he did. But we don’t know how many there are. We don’t know what their intentions are. The only thing we do know? If he helped you that fast, he was close. They've been watching us.”

  "This place is their home and we arrived, unannounced, and set up for the long haul. I can't blame them for being careful." Callie tried to focus on the positive. If he was close, it should be easy to track him.

  "Fine.” He dropped his hands to his sides and waved her off weakly. “I always love a good Hail Mary. See if you can scrounge anything from Doc. Grab someone from the security detail to escort you as far as the woods." Callie had already taken a few steps toward the med bay when Hudson’s parting words rang out. "Callie, just remember, if shit goes sideways, we aren't coming after you. You're on your own."

  Andromeda was right where Callie knew she would be - in the middle of the bustling med bay. Callie was surprised by its condition, considering how most of the ship had been reduced to scrap metal. Supplies had fallen out of cabinets and treatment carts had tipped over, but there was no sign of any structural damage. Thank God for small mercies.

  Andromeda appeared unflappable as she calmly stitched up a deep laceration on a colonist's arm. Everyone had a job to do, and Callie hated to interrupt Doc's, but she needed to get moving right away.

  "Doc, could I borrow you for a sec?" she asked.

  Andromeda didn't look up from the suture site. Her patients always came first. "I'm a little busy right now, Callie. We're swamped with injuries."

  "Is it okay if I grab a few supplies?"

  "If you can find what you need, you're welcome to it." she motioned to the mess in the corner where a medical tech was sorting supplies into bins.

  "Thanks." Callie walked across the room and started combing through supplies that were still scattered across the floor. She had a rough idea of what she needed. Trauma dressings, clotting agents, and antibiotics. Luckily, their training back on Earth had included emergency field medicine. She thought it was silly at the time, but now she appreciated the foresight of their instructors.

  She gathered the supplies and stuffed them in her bag. On a whim, she added a few extra items that she hoped she could use to bargain with the native inhabitants. She planned on gaining their favor and their help any way she could.

  "You aren't hurt, are you?" Andromeda had finished with her patient and stood behind Callie. She looked her friend up and down, searching for a sign of any injury. "I can take a look, now, if you need me."

  "I'm not the one who's injured," Callie said.

  "Are Juno and Flora all right?" She crossed her arms over her chest and started to look interested in Callie's project. Andromeda was always good at sniffing out a secret.

  "They're fine," Callie responded. "It's someone else. And I need to get going."

  Andromeda peered into Callie's bag of supplies. "If someone is as seriously wounded as those supplies suggest, they need to come here so my team can treat them on site."

  "That's not going to work," Callie said. "He's...a local. With a blaster wound."

  "Tell me more about that." Doc sank into a chair. Callie had her undivided attention now.

  "Someone came out of the woods during the attack. He helped me, but he freaked Flora out and she shot him," Callie confided. "I'm heading back out there to see if he needs help. And, hopefully, get a better handle on what's going on around here." She slung her bag onto her back. It was time to get moving.

  "Give me a minute to suit up and I'll head out there with you," Andromeda said.

  "You have to stay here, Doc. This place would fall apart without you."

  "So, get Juno to go with you. She's always up for a challenge."

  "Hudson said it's a one-woman mission."

  "And Juno just let him get away with that crap?"

  Callie didn't know what to say. She shifted her weight and fastened the strap from her pack.

  "She doesn't even know you're going, does she?" Andromeda moved closer. Her voice lowered in volume but increased in intensity. "Were you even going to say goodbye? What's going on with you lately, Callie? Everyone else is pulling together to make things work as a team, but you're heading off in your own direction."

  Callie didn't know what to say. She knew where this conversation was heading. They'd had it several times before. "I have to go, and I won't ask anyone else to take the risk."

  "Of course, you won't,” said Andromeda. “If you never ask anything of other people, they can never let you down."

  "I'm not having this conversation right now. I have to get moving." This wasn’t how she wanted to leave things with Andromeda, but Callie had bigger concerns at the moment. “You can psychoanalyze me later.”

  "Someday, you're going to realize you can't do everything yourself." The doctor’s voice was getting loud. "It's okay to count on other people."

  "Well, today is not going to be that day." Callie's face was a mask of determination. She never understood the contempt for self-sufficiency. Everything was all about working together and the team. But everyone knew the team was only as strong as the weakest link. And Callie had never been the weakest link. She was stronger on her own. Especially when shit needed to get done.

  She marched toward the door and exited the med bay without another word.

  8

  Vaka hid deep in the brush near where he had been wounded and watched from the shadows. He knew it was foolish to hope the brown-haired beauty would return, but that didn’t stop him from waiting. The wound had stung, but he knew the small woman who injured him did not mean to do so. She had trembled in fear at the sight of him, and her expression had been one of horror and disbelief when the weapon discharged. Besides, the wound had already healed and Vaka was fully recovered.

  He felt no anger. Only compassion and curiosity. His fellow warriors would not approve of him being here, but he told himself there was no harm in it. The opportunity to learn about the others could prove valuable indeed. They would understand when he brought information to the elders. He had so many questions, and he knew they would, too.

  What were they doing here? Why were there so many women? Why hadn't they brought more men with weapons to protect them?

  He heard her voice. She was close. His heart raced. His hunch had been right - she was returning to the sit
e of their earlier encounter. Other voices echoed through the trees, deep ones, and he hoped she had not brought the men with weapons after him. He meant her no harm. Surely, she could see that.

  He exhaled with relief when the men turned back to camp. The brown-haired woman adjusted the pack on her back, looked around to get her bearings, and searched for the patch of ground where he had been shot. His blood stained the soil there, and she squatted down to examine it. Her curves strained against the fabric of her trousers, and her breasts swayed as she shifted her weight and pressed the ground with the palm of her hand. His desire for her stirred in his breeches.

  She rose to her feet and walked in a circle. Her attention was focused on the ground. Looking for more evidence of him. If she had any idea how fast his blood clotted, she would have looked for other signs. She realized it soon enough and changed her tactics.

  She examined moss-covered rocks for any sign of disturbance. She located several track traps of soft, sandy ground and disappointment flashed across her face when they showed no sign of him. Finally, a small smile crossed her face. She had found his trail. A broken twig bordering a natural path in the undergrowth betrayed him.

  A smile grew on his face when he realized her skill. She was a tracker! And a talented one. He knew this part of the planet as well as he knew his own reflection, but it took years of exploring and hunting under his father's guidance to shape his familiarity with the land. She had been here a short time and was managing on her own. The thought delighted him. Perhaps these people were not as fragile and useless as they appeared. And she was looking for him. Warmth spread though his body at the thought.

  He would let her find him but not yet. He wanted more time to observe her. Watching her made him feel things he hadn’t in years.

  She flitted around the landscape like a little bird, searching for signs of him while taking care not to disturb anything.

  His planet pleased her. Her expression transformed into one of delight when she encountered a fern-like plant that filled the air with chimes when the breeze touched its leaves. She gasped in delight and her eyes doubled in size when she stepped on a neon purple ground cover that turned ocean blue at her touch. It was enchanting for Vaka to watch someone else discover the magic of his home.