by Flora Dare
"We're entering the atmosphere."
This was it. Do or die, literally. My teeth clattered as I asked, "Should we be feeling all this?"
"No."
Oh God, panic time.
Those were the longest, scariest moments of my life, waiting to die in a fiery space craft as it cratered into some random planet. Maybe if there was no existing life here, our remains could fuel something. Gotta think positive. My bones could be what colonized a whole new world!
I was grateful we were strapped in, and that there was enough of whatever magic juice running this thing to make the chair wrap around my body, encasing me in protective goo. Then we hit the ground and the room around us, but it was as if we were in a floating cocoon. I felt totally divorced from the violence and chaos that swirled all around us.
After everything stopped moving, I took a few long, shuddering breaths. I was alive! I survived. Excited, I turned to Tlavi, only to see a gash across his face. Not good. It was probably from the controls that were shattered around us. Blood ran down his face and he was unconscious.
I was alive, but this was still really bad. I fumbled around with my straps, figuring out how to get out of this thing. All while panicking that the one being who knew how any of this worked could be dying next to me.
When whatever I was slapping at finally gave way and released me, I tumbled out of the seat and onto the ground. We'd landed more or less upright and it was easy enough to stand up. I pushed what was left of the control panel out of the way and got closer to him.
"Please, don't be dead. I really need you to not be dead."
No matter how we got on each other’s nerves — not to mention how he had kidnapped me — the thought of being alone God knew where was more than I could take. I reached out and touched his face, praying for him to open his eyes.
He didn’t, but he moaned and moved slightly. I took that as a win. If I managed to still be alive and unhurt, maybe he wasn't too badly injured.
I looked around, getting a handle on what materials were available to me. A bundle of fabric on the ground caught my eye. It looked like one of Thea's dresses.
"Sorry, Thea. He can buy you more, if we ever get out of this."
I used the sharp edge of the broken controls to rip the dress into lengths of fabric. A miraculously unbroken decanter rolled on the ground next to my foot. It was full of vitae. I dampened some of the cloth with it and wiped the copper-colored blood off his face. Instead of his normally stern and frightening glare, he looked vulnerable. Still unnervingly handsome.
There was only one big gash, and it seemed shallow enough. Regardless, there wasn't much I could do if he had a skull fracture under there. Even if I knew how, I had nothing to stitch up the cut so I wound the fabric into a makeshift bandage and carefully wrapped his head. I scanned the rest of him, but didn't see any other obvious bleeding wounds, so that was good, at least.
I looked around the room again. The furniture was mostly completely destroyed and scattered all over the place. But it looked as if at least something vaguely bed-like had survived.
I quickly cleared the area around our seats and flipped over the surviving flat divan. There was no way I could get his heavy ass far and I really did not want to drop him.
The buckles on his seat fought me as hard as mine had, but I finally got him unbuckled. I was half-hoping it would rouse him enough that he could help get himself to the bed. It sort of worked. He muttered a few curses under his breath and held a little of his weight the few steps to the divan. Mostly I just controlled his collapsing into the cushions.
It's a good thing I'm strong and built like a tank, because he weighed about a thousand more pounds than seemed reasonable. All muscle. Probably a lead skeleton. But I managed to get him settled and covered him with some blankets I pulled out of the mess that was all around us.
I tried to make sense of the broken room. I needed to do something, so I pulled all the fabric I could find to one side and stacked the bits of shattered furniture against the far wall. Maybe we could make something else out of the mess.
I wasn't sure if we needed to start a fire. What season was it where we landed? Just because it had a breathable atmosphere didn't mean I couldn't freeze to death. I read a romance once where a captive human crash-landed on a planet inhabited by sexy ice barbarians. That could get interesting. Did we need to get out of the ship before it collapsed around us? I looked up at the ceiling above me. It was crumpled, but intact. I decided not to worry about that yet.
I kept tripping over the stupid flowy dresses Thea made me wear. I would have killed to slip into my jeans. I finally found what was left of Thea's closet and stared into the jumble. I guess she had her own secrets because at the top of the pile were pants! Pants that I’d been forbidden. I glanced back at Tlavi and made sure he was still unconscious. His eyes were closed and his breathing was regular.
I stripped out of the very lovely, very tattered and very impractical gown and slipped into the pants. They looked like black leather trousers, which amused the hell out of me. I could not imagine Thea rocking out in any kind of pants, let alone something as fierce as these. If I ever saw her again, I would ask her about that.
The pants were very snug but made it around my ample frame. There wasn't really anything in the closet like a simple t-shirt - just pretty, filmy wrap-around tops. They were still better than a whole gown of the stuff and, once I got one on, I was relieved that the magic future bra still worked. I kept on moving things around the room.
"That's indecent."
There was no heat in his words, but they still scared the hell out of me. I shrieked and dropped the table top I'd been holding. I spun around and looked at him.
"You're awake."
"Yes, I am. I have been for some time."
I could feel the heat radiating off my face and I must have looked like a lobster. "So, you watched me change."
"It took me a while to get my bearings, to understand where I was, and then I didn't want to disturb you."
He started to sit up and I rushed over. The last thing I needed was for him to go ass over tea kettle. He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but then snapped his mouth shut and let me help.
He looked around the room. "It's a disaster. You've done a good job trying to sort out what we have."
He stopped and touched his forehead gingerly, surprise on his face as he encountered the rough bandage.
"Did you do this?"
"Do you see anyone else here?" But I nodded and continued, "I have no idea if there is something that passes for a first-aid kit around here so I worked with what I could find."
He stared at me for a long minute, confusion on his face, finally saying, "Thank you." There was some solemnness to his words and I got the feeling it wasn't something he said easily, if ever.
I brought the decanter of vitae over and an unbroken glass I'd found. I poured him a measure and handed it to him.
"I'm really hoping there are more supplies, otherwise the first thing we need to do is find water. A human can only live a few days without it. Food, I can go longer without." I slapped one of my hips at that point and his eyes gleamed.
"I hope we don't have to ruin your figure. But we won't really know until we can explore the ship and see the extent of the damage. There is storage under the floor and in the walls. We just have to access it."
He stood up slowly and took my shoulder for support, directing me to a section of the wall. He pushed aside the drapes that still festooned this wall and pressed a tile. A door popped open.
I was baffled. "How does that still work? We crashed, yet we have light and things open."
That was bothering me, a lot. How did we still have light? And did I need to worry about everything catching on fire?
He looked started and started to say something, then paused for a long moment. " I don't know how to explain it. The best way to think about our power source is that it is extremely decentralized and partially
organic."
Organic? "Are we in danger? I mean, well, additional danger from explosions, like fuel blowing up? Unspeakable cubes of raw fuel being breached and destroying this sector of the galaxy?"
He laughed and shook his head. "No, nothing like that." He pulled the door open. I was surprised to see that it was still in order, but everything was pretty well contained.
He seized a large box and pulled it forward. It hit the ground when he couldn't hold on to it. He swayed and I held on to him. His color changed, like life was flowing out of him. This was so not good. I eased him into sitting on the ground. His eyes fluttered closed and he sighed.
"It hurts my pride, no more."
He was lying. Something was very wrong. "I can bring the box to you at the bench. Let's get you back there."
"Hold on, let me show you…" He gestured at another box on the shelf. I grabbed it and brought it down. "This box, it's vitae. Just push the front and a spout will appear. Do you see the symbol at the top?" He tapped the design on the upper left. "That means vitae." He moved to the symbol on the right side. "This other symbol says what kind - but all vitae is drinkable."
He looked up at me, more color draining from his face. This was double-plus-ungood. "Okay, let's get you back to lying down. I won't be able to carry you if you pass out."
"Stop, this is important. You need to know these things, in case…" He let his voice trail off and I filled in the rest. In case.
He pointed at another cube. "That is food. Do you understand?"
"Yes, now please, let's get you back to bed, okay?"
He tried to stand up and I was glad I'd always been a strong woman. I don't know how we managed to get him back on his feet. He was holding his side by the time we got him back to the bed, sweat was dripping down his face. He fell onto the divan and lay there panting until he could stammer out, "Get the box, the first one."
I ran over and grabbed, dragging it over to the side of the bed. He pressed the tile at the center and it opened. I didn't recognize a thing in it.
He grabbed my hand and said, "No matter what else happens, help will be here in no more than two weeks. Two weeks if everything goes wrong, a few days otherwise. The ship won't fly, but it will keep you safe."
His hand was shaking as he pulled a rod out of the box. It looked like the thing he'd used to drug me. He pressed it against his arm, it made a quiet thonk and he slumped forward.
I eased him back to lying down and he muttered at me, "Nanobots. Something is wrong inside of me and they should fix me. But I'm sorry I'm leaving you alone."
His eyes rolled into the back of his head and it was like his bones turned to water as he collapsed. Whatever the nanobots where doing to him, he was out cold and seemed like he was going to be that way for a while. I had no idea when he might wake up. He seemed worried enough that it could be longer than two weeks, or that he didn't know when he would wake up…if he would wake up.
I covered him with blankets and thought about what I should do next. I was trying to stave off my growing terror as I looked out over the wreckage. If he didn't wake up, I could die here. Once more, in that moment, all I wanted was my mommy.
How funny is that? In those high-stress, high-terror moments, all we want is to be a kid again, when our parents could fix everything.
I gave into my fears and had a good old-fashioned crying fit. I felt better when I was done. I dried my face and picked myself back up. I told myself it was okay for me to be scared, but that I needed to keep moving forward. Giving into my fears would mean giving up, lying next to Tlavi and waiting to die.
Not this girl. I'd never been someone to back away from a challenge. I sure as hell wasn't going to start today.
I wanted to see if I could get out of the ship, see where we'd landed. I got excited thinking about how maybe we'd landed on a planet that was in the middle of a dinosaur period. How cool would that be? Of course, then I thought about a hungry T-Rex spying the delectable morsel that is me and decided maybe that wouldn’t be so cool, after all.
I just hoped it was uninhabited, even by sexy ice barbarians, because if there were anything on the planet like humans, they'd kill me just as dead as a hungry animal. Or worse, cage me and experiment on me in whatever their version of Area 51 was.
The door cracked open when I pushed the tile. For once, things were listening to me! As I stood in the doorway, I looked down the now-broken corridor. I had no idea which way led out. And I was scared I wouldn't be able to find my way back, it was a confusing maze of identical walls.
I hated most of my school days, but I'd loved reading about ancient Greek mythology. What's the connection? Just that Theseus took a ball of red thread to wander the labyrinth when he was hunting the Minotaur. Which is what I did with all the draperies from the room, turning them into a long rope.
I explored for hours and never found an exit. Or maybe I did but I had no idea what I was looking for. I randomly slapped at panels, hoping something would open, but nothing ever did. I finally gave up and went back into the room.
I was utterly exhausted, mentally and physically. I drank some of the vitae and lay next to Tlavi. I probably could have figured out a separate bed, on the floor, from the broken scraps that lay around us. But I was so tired and, frankly, pretty goddamned scared. He was the only being I knew for literally billions of miles.
Sue me. I'm human. I just wanted the comfort of lying next to him.
Several days passed like this. I would wake up next to him and cry in relief to feel his warmth. He hadn't died in the night. That kept me awake for several nights, the fear that he would die in his sleep. Well, 'nights'. I had no way of knowing how much time was passing and I started to feel more than a little bit anxious.
I finally managed to pry open the door to the bathing room. I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, and it was intact and worked. Whatever magic kept the lights on also kept the bathroom working.
Thirst woke me, that and Tlavi shifting beside me. He was waking up! I poured us both glasses of red vitae I'd found. I took a few gulps of mine before tending to my patient. He seemed to move easier and blinked a few times at me as I held the glass to his lips. He took a few sips, then took the glass from my hand and polished off the liquid inside.
I reached for the decanter and refilled both our glasses. We both drunk heavily. "Why do you lie beside me?" His voice was raspy from disuse.
I felt defensive, like I had to explain myself, so I finished my glass of vitae before I spoke.
"It's the only unbroken piece of furniture and, hello, sorry for being worried about you."
"You were worried about me?" He seemed startled by that news.
My head was a little fuzzy and I reached to pour myself more vitae. "You shot yourself full of something, and then collapsed. I was pretty worried you were going to freaking die."
"I have never had anyone worry for me. Although I think I have also never been in such a state." He gingerly touched his wounded head, then unwound the bandages. I shouldn't have been shocked, but I was when completely intact scales appeared where before had been a massive gash. I gasped and reached out to touch him. His scaly skin was warm beneath my hand. If you've ever touch a snake, you'll understand the supple slickness inherent to being scaled.
His eyes dilated and he grunted. He captured my hand and stared into my eyes. We were suspended in time, frozen.
In a heartbeat, I was beneath him, my arms trapped over my head. I flexed against him, wanting him as much as I wanted to get away from him.. My body betrayed me as the weight of his body pressed my legs open. Even as I struggled against him, my legs wrapped around him as if of their own accord. In my head, I was thinking, I can get leverage like that.
Except it left me wide open to his touch. And every move I made, I could feel a growing erection pressing into my core. Instead of getting leverage, I found myself rubbing against him. I was damp with need and a strong rush of warmth filled me.
He thrust against me
and I arched my back, writhing against him like a cat in heat. I was grateful I wasn't wearing a gown, with panties not being a thing. He would already be deep inside me. I could still stop this, even though I didn't want to.
"Stop, Tlavi! You said you don't want me, you wanted to be free of Pogona."
"Didn't. Want. You." Every word was punctuated with a growling thrust. He let my hands go and, as I tried to shift to get up, he grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled. The fabric shredded against his onslaught. He paused, staring at my full breasts, exposed to him for the first time. I tried to cover them but he used the remnants of my shirt to pin my arms to my side. I was helpless against him as he glared down at me.
"I don't want you," I breathed, even as my nipples grew hard under his gaze.
He shifted his body, grinding slowly against me. "Then why did you share La'sha'ntea Vitae with me?"
