by A. G. Wilde
Nia jerked against him. “If you’re on my side, mind letting me up?”
He must have understood her intent because his hold on hers slackened and he paused, she assumed, to judge her reaction to being released.
When she didn’t immediately scramble away from him, he released her fully and helped her to her feet.
Damn, she wished to God that she could see.
The smoke was still like a thick wall.
The hairs at the back of her neck were still standing on end. She wasn’t just going to start trusting this man of the haze just because he said so.
She’d still remain alert.
He was silent, but she knew he was there. He stood close.
She could feel his body brushing against hers with each breath he took, and she was getting a better idea of his size.
Big.
Tall.
He wasn’t anything like the aliens wearing the cloaks.
“I’ve secured the lower sector.” His voice was low, so low she almost couldn’t hear him. “We have to go this way. There’s a cargo chute in the upper sector that empties underneath the ship. We should be able to get out from there before Herza takes this thing up into orbit.”
Fuck, he was really helping her, wasn’t he?
Hope flared inside her and Nia slipped her shoe on her foot. Bending, she felt around for the other one.
It was the only pair of shoes she had and the last thing she owned from Earth.
She couldn’t afford to lose them.
A few panicked seconds of searching passed before her fingers brushed over the missing shoe, but she didn’t get a chance to put it back on because the alien by her side was already moving.
“This way.” He was still holding her hand and she had no choice but to move with him.
But he was going the wrong way.
Nia dug her heels into the floor, causing the alien to pause.
“Can’t go that way. It’s locked. I shut it down.” She tugged on the hand holding on to hers. “The corridor is blocked and there’s not much time. I don’t know how you got in here, but we have to go back that way.”
She tugged in the other direction.
“Ta’ii, I know you think that way is the right way, but I can assure you, if we head that way, we’d be walking straight into a nest of Niftrills. I have enough firepower to get through them, but…I’d rather not get you out of here like that. We have to go this way.” He tugged her hand again with enough urgency to tell he wanted her to head in his direction.
“You don’t understand. I locked it down. That way is blocked.” Nia tugged on his arm once more.
Hell.
He couldn’t understand her, and he was too big for her to move.
She could feel the seconds passing with each breath that she took.
They didn’t have much time.
The smoke was already clearing too, and she was sure the upper sector was going to open at any moment. Then they’d be in deep shit.
“I shut it down.” She waved her free hand in the air, a bit exasperated at the thought that even with the smoke clearing, he probably couldn’t see what she was doing. Not that they had time for a game of charades, anyway. “We have to go this way.”
He didn’t budge.
Ugh!
“We can’t—” The smoke was clearing enough now that she could see better, and her words cut off in her throat.
Nia’s gaze rose higher and higher till she was looking at the stranger’s face…or, at least, where his face should be.
He was wearing a metal mask—something like what a welder would wear.
Her heart thumped in her chest.
She knew him.
At least, she’d seen him before. Once.
Long, impossibly black hair hung over the stranger’s shoulders, flowing freely and contrasting with the stranger’s blue skin.
It was Riv’s friend who lived at a farm not far from the Sanctuary—or so she’d been told.
He was a good guy.
Then what the hell was he doing here?
He wasn’t looking her way.
Instead, his gaze was directed down the corridor and his whole body stiffened as he muttered something.
“What the phek…”
He could see it now, she supposed.
The doors in the direction she’d come from were closed.
“They’re locked. That’s what I was trying to tell you.” She turned and tugged on his hand, but it was like trying to pull a ship by its anchor. “We have to go this way—”
Her words cut off in her throat as she realized that up ahead was a solid wall. Or, rather, the doors were shut up at that end too.
“What the fuck…”
Why were the doors closed?
There was a sound like a chuckle or grunt, and when she turned and looked up at the stranger, her gaze met startling green ones through the slit in his mask.
Even in the now-thin veil of smoke, his eyes were a startling diopside.
“You shut down the sector?” The awe in his voice didn’t register because all she could do was stare up into those eyes.
They were wild…free…and a bit crazy.
It was like looking into the eyes of someone who lived life completely different from the way she did.
Things were happening behind his eyes that she did not understand…and there was interest.
Intelligence.
Amusement.
And interest.
Something moved behind the male and her gaze flicked to it.
His tail.
She’d have thought it was a snake if not for the mop of dark wavy hair at the end of it.
Like a lion’s tail, it was.
It was curling toward his leg in much the same way a cat’s tail would curl to the side of its body when it felt affectionate.
Watching it made Nia swallow hard, and she switched her gaze back to those green eyes.
His gaze was so intense, it almost made her squirm.
It was strange looking at someone directly in the eyes, without seeing any other part of their face.
His gaze was powerful, and she got the distinct impression that he could break her without even laying a finger on her.
Who was this man?
Riv’s friend, the voice inside answered, always so helpful.
But who was he really?
And how did he find her here?
“You locked down the sector. I wonder how you managed to do that…” He was still studying her, and she imagined he was frowning behind his mask at the conundrum.
Nia shook her head and broke the spell.
“Trust me, it wasn’t rocket science, and if it was, I’d have gotten a job with NASA instead of spending my time patching up people at the free clinic. I just did what anyone would have done.” She tugged on his arm. “But we can’t stay here and chat. We have to go.”
Again, he didn’t budge.
Instead, his gaze fell to their hands, and she realized that somehow, they’d switched. It was no longer him holding on to her, but the other way around.
She was holding on to him.
She dropped his hand quickly, too quickly.
“Come on.” She motioned to him and hastened down the corridor.
With the smoke slowly being sucked up by the vents, she could move faster now as visibility was better, but she soon realized she was moving alone.
A glance behind her and the alien was standing in the same spot that she’d left him, seeming completely unbothered.
Now, what the hell was wrong with him?
For a moment, her heart skipped a beat, and not in the good way.
What if he wasn’t there to help her? What if he was working with the ship’s captain who’d refused to let her off the vessel in the first place?
He was Merssi like the ship’s captain. Maybe they knew each other?
Were they working together?
His nonchalance was concerning.
“It’s locked.” His voice reached her. “We couldn’t open it even if we tried. I triggered a lockdown of the lower sector.” He glanced about the walls and took a few steps in the opposite direction from her. “It seems we’ve foiled each other’s plans. Maybe…” He eyed her again. “…you didn’t need my help after all.”
“I do need help!” She gestured around them at the walls and the obvious fact that they were sitting ducks. That’s when she realized she still had one shoe waving in her hand.
Cursing underneath her breath, she put the shoe back on her foot.
Didn’t he see they were stuck?
He chuckled again, at her tone possibly, before he turned in a slow circle, his gaze moving over the walls and floor.
In one smooth movement, he got down on all fours and began tapping the floor with one four-fingered hand as he felt against the surface with the other.
What in the…
Nia watched him, her heart beating hard in her chest.
The metal clanking she’d heard earlier sounded louder now, and she kept glancing from one closed end of the hallway to the other.
She had no idea what he was doing, and she felt helpless just standing by and watching him.
What if the smoke had gotten to his head?
“Here,” he suddenly said as he tapped somewhere on the floor. At the same time, there was a creak and a large panel lifted enough for him to slide it off.
“What’s that?”
Of course, he didn’t answer.
He can’t understand you, Nia.
“Well,” he said, green gaze finding her, “we can’t go forward and we can’t go back. As we speak, Niftrills are piling up at both exits.”
There was a low inconsistent sound, almost too low to hear, and she realized it was the confused chatter of many beings coming from the doors closest to her.
“Apparently,” the stranger continued, “we had the same plan and thwarted each other by accident.” He jerked his head at the doors. “They’re armed.” He cocked his head as if listening. “Charged laser blasters. Third improvement. Twenty of them at that end, give or take two. I’m sure Herza told them to shoot to kill. She’s not one to take chances.” He studied her. “We only have one option, ta’ii.”
She had no idea what ta’ii meant, but knew he was talking to her. Who else would he be talking to?
“What?”
The stranger slid the flat piece of metal to the side, revealing a narrow dark hole beneath the floor.
“We have to hide.”
11
“Ihn deer?”
The human’s little nose wrinkled at the section between her eyes and she gave him a slightly alarmed look.
She took a few steps forward and peeped into the hole.
Her body shook as if she was cold, but the temperature was fine.
“Noh.” She took a step back and began looking around the corridor as if seeking another option.
Ka’Cit looked down into the hole.
It was a below-deck storage space, originally used for storing food rations for the ship’s occupants many moons ago.
Most new ship owners no longer used the space—it wasn’t big enough to hold the modern cargo crates—and some didn’t even know about it.
He was going to bet that Herza was one of those captains that hadn’t cared to go through the manual in detail.
His ears perked, lifting from the sides of his head and pressing against the inside of his mask. He could hear the Niftrills behind the doors on both ends.
They were trying desperately to override the lockdown.
That meant he and the human needed to get going.
He reached a hand in to shake the narrow ladder that led down below.
It wasn’t in the greatest of states, but it would have to do.
“We have to go down.” He glanced back at the human.
She could understand him, but she was still shaking her head and her breath was coming through her nostrils hard.
“Ai cahnt…”
Her gaze darted around the hall once more, but this was the only way they were going to get out of this.
They had to go down.
Either that, or they would have to allow themselves to get caught.
The latter wasn’t an option. Not with her in his care.
His gaze moved back to the hole.
The human seemed terrified of it.
He racked his mind for information. He didn’t know much about her species, only that his only two friends, Sohut and Riv, had found their gnora—their soulmates—with two humans.
Were humans afraid of the dark?
Small holes?
Ladders?
He wasn’t sure.
“I will be right here with you. I won’t…”
He was going to say he wouldn’t allow the darkness, the hole, or the ladder hurt her, but his words died on his lips.
Her head was moving from side to side so hard now that her hair was shaking like a dark curly cloud surrounding her head.
“Yoo dohnt uhnderstahnd. Ai cahnnnttt. Ai’m kloss-tro-foh-bik.”
She heaved after each word, inhaling so aggressively it was audible, and though he had no idea what she just said, she seemed distressed enough that he rose from the floor and took a step toward her.
His arm reached out before stopping in mid-air.
Just what was he doing?
He had no idea how to comfort a female, much less a distressed one. And he had no idea why she needed comforting. The only thing he knew was that the dark hole terrified her.
His sat-watch beeped, and Ka’Cit tore his gaze away from the female to glance at it.
Phek. They didn’t have much time.
They had only a few minutes left before the lockdown ended.
They had to get inside or risk getting caught.
If he was alone, he’d have done the latter. His blasters hadn’t been used for a while…his knuckles either…they’d have liked some action, but he wasn’t about to put the female in danger.
He’d snuck in here to get her out safely, not to get her killed.
She was still breathing hard, but her eyes were on his sat-watch now.
“It’s an alarm,” he said as explanation. “There isn’t much time left. We have to go.”
Her throat moved and she took a huge gulp of air. She was whispering something underneath her breath, a mantra, and he couldn’t differentiate the words.
There was the sound of metal clanking behind the closed doors and it made her glance toward them.
That seemed to wake her up from whatever she was going through because she swallowed hard and took a step toward the hole.
“Ohkay. Yoo cahn doo dis Nee-ya. Yoo cahn doo dis.”
With a deep breath, she crouched down and looked in.
Her body began heaving even harder.
“Yoo cahn doo dis.”
With trembling hands, she crouched over the hole then sat so her legs were planted firmly on a rung.
With another breath that made her body shudder, she lowered herself onto the ladder.
His sat-watch beeped again.
Phek.
There wasn’t enough time. They had to get inside and they had to get inside now.
He didn’t have time to warn her, he simply worked on instinct.
As soon as her head disappeared into the hole, Ka’Cit slid in behind her, only to realize she hadn’t gone very far.
She’d stopped.
Frozen.
He had no choice but to grip the side of the ladder and lower himself down, essentially lowering himself over her small frame.
It was a tight fit, but he tried not to brace any of his weight on her. It wasn’t his intent to crush her.
She made a sound in her throat but didn’t say anything more, and he was thankful she didn’t try to push him off because he had to slide the cover back in place and close the entryway.
As soon as his feet found a rung below her, he used one
hand to steady himself and the other to reseal their hiding spot.
And it was just in time, too.
As soon as the cover slipped into place, he heard the doors of the upper and lower sector opening.
Feet thumped on the ground above their heads, and Ka’Cit gripped the ladder to steady himself. He had no choice but to lean into the human.
“Don’t make a sound,” he whispered just loud enough for her to hear. “They’re right above us.”
It was dark, but he could see that she jerked her head to let him know she understood.
She had her face pressed against the cool metal of the ladder and she was still shaking.
The sound of feet hitting the floor didn’t stop, and he tilted his head a little, his ears perking.
He could pinpoint that there were at least twenty Niftrill in the corridor.
Just how many of them did that maniac, Herza, hire?
It sounded like she had a whole horde.
“Find it!” It was Herza’s voice.
She was phekking angry.
“Don’t tell me you let it loose in my ship! Qrakking idiots!” It sounded like she hit one of the Niftrills over the head. “If you see it, kill it.”
Ka’Cit tensed.
“But…I thought you wanted to sell it for credits,” one of the Niftrills was brave enough to speak up.
It sounded like Herza scoffed. “I did some searching. It’s a species called yoo-man. Originally smuggled by the High Tasqals. If they catch me with it, I’m as good as dead. That thing is trouble, and I don’t want anything to do with it. Kill it on sight. We’ll dump the body somewhere in the void.”
A growl started in Ka’Cit’s throat and he promptly pushed it down.
He couldn’t afford to give their hiding spot away.
Hard footfalls came down the corridor. They were different from the others, heavier, more confident, and he didn’t have to wonder who they belonged to.
Herza came to a stop just above their heads, and Ka’Cit’s life-organ thumped in his chest.
Had he been wrong? Had he underestimated her?
If she knew about the storage space…
The human must have sensed the danger too because, and he realized this belatedly, even though her whole frame was heaving with each breath, she was fighting to remain quiet.
Herza’s voice was loud and commanding. “Search the lower sector! There’s no way that little thing was smart enough to escape on its own.”
