If they found their ship, maybe they could use the coordinate transponder. The transponder would send out signals, faster than light pulses of energy, on a communication band specifically calibrated for such signals. Theoretically, it was possible for EMD forces to pick up this signal anywhere in the universe. Practically, however, Ester knew it was just as possible and likely to find a needle in a planet-sized hay bail. Not great odds, but better than nothing.
It was a lot to take in, the completeness of their predicament. We’re fucked. We went from easy street to shit alley in a couple heartbeats.
Her mind struggled against her insistence on using it. It was overwhelmed, exhausted: Just let it go, Ester, just let it all go and go back in and curl up with that big, beautiful humanoid and let him make you forget all about it for awhile.
Footsteps beside her drew her out of her dreamy fugue. Rocky. She turned, wanting to tell him she was sorry for letting things get awkward this morning. I was unprepared for how turned on you made me. I was just horny anyways, it’s been awhile since I’ve been fucked and you looked so good that I…
She didn’t have the chance to say this. The footsteps were not Rocky’s.
She screamed as the strange creature attacked, knocking her backwards by ramming her chest and shoulders with the hard, curved horns on top of its head.
Ester slammed into the side of the cave and fell to the ground. The beast attacked again, snarling and gnashing long, sharp teeth at her face. Ester recoiled and punched at its eye. She missed, striking it in the temple instead. Her hand sank into thick, coarse fur.
With a flick of its massive head, the creature scooped up Ester with its horns and tossed her away from the cave. She landed hard, face first, on the gravelly ground, skidding to a halt 20 meters away. The visor of her helmet was spider-webbed with tiny cracks. Useless. She couldn’t see out of it anymore.
She removed her helmet and tossed it to the ground, ignoring the dust and grit blowing into her face. Gathering her wits in a few blinks of her eyes, Ester jumped to her feet and prepared to counter whatever came next.
What the Jesus fuck…? The creature was large and grotesque. Some sort of bear-like ram-cat or a ram-cat-like bear. Either way, it was big, as were its teeth, horns and claws. It was covered in dense black fur and judging by the look in its eyes as it charged, it was hungry.
She reached for her sidearm but her holster was empty. Shit. My gun. It was lying on the ground next to her pack. Inside the cave. Damn.
The creature swung a heavy paw at her and she ducked, narrowly avoiding its reach. Ester scrambled back a couple of steps, further from its clawed grasp but further from the safety of the cave as well. She would lead it out and away, get the beast in the middle of the wide plain and the make a dash past it, sprint to the cave and hopefully get inside, warn Rocky, grab her gun and…
She dodged another attack. Come on, baby, come on…
She walked backwards, moving away from the cave, keeping her eyes on the monster in front of her. A little bit more, a little bit…
The creature’s head suddenly burst open at the crown as several red blasts of energy tore through it. It fell to the ground and twitched, a pool of viscera forming around what remained of its smoldering skull.
Rocky ran past the animal, sliding his laser pistol into its holster as he neared Ester. She smiled at him, wiping a trickle of blood from her lower lip. When he reached her, he grabbed her and pulled her into a big hug. “Are you okay?” There was panic in his voice. He inspected her, touching her short black hair, searching for further wounds or troubles that, thankfully, he did not find.
6
In the days that followed, a comfortable routine developed. They did not talk about what happened that first night but they did loosen up and reconnect over menial labors and “household chores.”
They skinned, cleaned and butchered the monster, which they finally classified as a “ram-cat-like bear.” Rocky cut it into filets, steaks and roasts. The thick fur hung drying and curing for later use, as did the bones.
With no ship and no transponder, they had no way to find out where they were and no way to be found. A grim assessment that became grimmer when the size of the universe was calculated with the range of possible warp-jump coordinates. How long could they be looking for us before they have a chance of finding us? Near infinity days.
She felt it hard the first day, planting protein fungus, organizing supplies, settling in, and she even cried a little on the second day. The third and fourth days were spent predominantly finishing up work on the water reclamation unit and working in unison with Rocky, both of them silent but content.
By now, on the eighth day, their reality had been fully accepted by both of them. We are here for the long haul.
That night, eating a juicy bear steak, skewered and roasting over the open nano-fire, Ester’s curiosity finally grew stronger than her denial. She asked, “So, that first night we landed, when you…” she mimed masturbation, “how much of that was just plain biological reaction and how much of if was because you have some deep-seated repressed creepy love stalker type thing for me?” She laughed and rotated the steak, playing it cool and unconcerned.
Rocky chuckled. “And you want to know this because…?”
Ester wasn’t sure now if she sounded as casual as she had hoped to. Her heart was pounding with anxiety. “Because I think you like me.” She paused and Rocky’s reaction was exactly as she expected it to be. A giant laugh. A genuine “guffaw.”
The steak sizzled on the skewer as she turned it again. “I mean more than like me,” she said, challenging him with her raised eyebrows. “As in ‘I think Rustorhan Wenego has true feelings for Ester Rodriguez and I think he wants to…” she took the hot meat from the flames and blew softly on the end, “… do things with her’.”
Rocky’s eyes shifted from amused and tired to amused and intrigued. He took the meat skewer she offered him, “You’ve never used my full name before.” He tore the steak in half and handed her a chunk.
Ester took the meat and smiled. The answer to this will tell me everything I need to know. “Well,” she said, “it’s quite a mouthful.”
Rocky started to reply but his quip stopped in his mouth. He gave her an odd look, noticing the mischievous gleam in her eyes. “Oh gods,” he said, leaning closer to her, “you want me to say it, don’t you?”
She laughed and shook her head “no.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, pleased with her obvious lie. “You say whatever you were thinking.”
He stood up, his crotch level with her head. He grabbed his long penis through his pants, “Speaking of mouthfuls.”
They laughed together. That is exactly what she wanted to hear. She grabbed him by the leg and pulled him closer, placing her hand on where his had been, “I thought you might say that.”
His cock grew hard under her touch, pushing at the fabric of his pants. She unzipped them and eased it out, marveling at the size, the sleek beauty of his thick Falganian tool. She kissed it and licked it for a while, feeling it grow harder and hotter in her grip. The moment his member slid into her mouth he pulled her zipper down, almost tearing her flight suit in his passion-induced urgency. While she teased his penis, he clumsily tried to strip her clothes off.
Finally, Rocky reached down and lifted her up. He stared into her eyes, her lips gleaming from the work they had been doing. “Take it all off,” he told her, gesturing to the flight suit still partially around her thighs.
She was not shy. “Take yours off, too,” she commanded. Together they obeyed. It was cold in the cave but the bearskin over the entrance and the nano-fueled campfire made it comfortable enough.
Rocky studied her body, absent-mindedly stroking himself as he did. She was beautiful. Dark Latina skin, rich brown eyes and cropped black hair. Her face was soft, her nose majestic. She was petite but not slight. Her body was strong, lithe and athletic. Round breasts and long legs, her vagina he knew glis
tening with moist desire.
He reached for her, wrapping his arm around her and placing one perfect ass cheek in his large palm. She let him pull her to him, felt his member rub against her toned abdomen. There it is… his pheromones were releasing as his passion grew. She had been waiting for it, she realized. Ester felt her senses pirouette.
She stared back at him. He’s beautiful. He’s perfect. His body was dark and strong; he looked to be carved from rich mahogany. His whole body was large, arms and legs muscular and solid, his torso sculpted. He ran his hands over her body, “Have you ever been with a Falgan before?”
She suddenly felt shy. “No,” she said, looking away from his eyes.
“Well then,” he told her, gracefully lowering her to the ground in one smooth motion, “I promise to not take it easy on you.”
She threw her head back and laughed as he buried his face between her legs. Her laughter soon turned to moans of pleasure as he began licking her wetness, deeply kissing her clitoris. She dug her nails into his shoulders as his thick finger rubbed then parted her vulva, joining his tongue in a dip inside her hot core.
“More,” she told him, hooking her hands under his armpits. She pulled him up so his face was level with hers. “More,” she repeated.
For the first time they kissed. Deep and hard. Their lips hungry, their tongues finding each other. He pulled her tight and she lost herself in his arms, in his mouth, in his scent… oh yes, please…
He grabbed her hips and she grabbed his cock, guiding it to her, rubbing it slowly over her pussy. “Do you want it?” she whispered, feeling the thickness of the head against her lips, “do you want to be inside me?”
“Yes,” he moaned, his cock twitching in her hand, “I want to fuck you.”
“Fuck me,” she offered, guiding him inside. “Fuck me.” She clawed his back as he filled her, his thick cock moving inside slowly. She could not speak. She could not breathe. She could only feel. It’s what I need. Unable to hold back, he thrust faster and harder until she came…and came…and came.
She was exhausted but her body was on fire. His pheromones were like a drug, and she found herself pulled back her back for another fix. She was on top now, riding him, arching her back and pumping herself up and down, up and down his shaft. She caressed her body as she fucked him, celebrating her breasts, her tummy, her hips, letting him fondle her and watch her work. She came again, tensing and then releasing herself all over him. A tiny noise escaped his throat. “Yes,” he whispered and she knew.
Its time. She built speed and tension, riding until he gripped her hips and snarled, “I’m coming…” and his body bucked, his muscles clenching. His legs spasmed as he moaned in pleasure.
Inside, Ester felt him pulse, she felt his penis throb. She came again, and together their bodies trembled in tiny convulsions. Can it really be like this? Ester wondered, her brain still blissed out from the powerful pull of his musk.
Under the influence of his scent and her satiation, she couldn’t help but wax poetic to herself, her mind conjuring images of endless days and nights of fucking and eating and sleeping and waking and fucking… we have nowhere else to be. We have nothing else to do.
It was true. They weren’t going anywhere.
She rolled over and cuddled deeper into his warm skin. “Do you think we can make it work here?” she asked dreamily.
He was thoughtful a moment, playing with her hair. “I think,” he told her, “that we can live long, somewhat happy lives.”
She sat up and looked at him. Her innocent question and his wistful reply were weighted with unintended truths. Make it work, not live. Somewhat happy, not endlessly joyful. The sadness in her eyes caught him by surprise.
“What?” he asked her. “What just happened?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I just…” She didn’t want to talk anymore. She wanted to melt, to disappear into his arms and float away from the reality lurking beyond his muscular embrace. “I think we can be more than somewhat happy, if we try.”
He smiled and kissed her forehead, “Of course we can,” he reassured her. It wasn’t even a lie. He believed it and so did she.
7
Time passed as it does. Days into weeks, weeks into months. They were happy enough in their solitude: sleeping, fucking, surviving.
Water was no problem once the reclamation and filtration system was running; food was never abundant but a ram-cat-bear a month was more than enough to supplement the protein fungus.
They began mapping the area, working off grids they created, drawing maps on cave walls. Ester maintained her certainty that their Stinger crashed on the other side of the southern mountain range. The wind predominantly blows south to north. We came in hot, the wind carried the chutes this way while the ship kept its trajectory that way. It was the logical place, but she didn’t like it.
The southern mountains were huge, snow-capped peaks jutting up to the never-ending cloudbank above. Her original estimate was a month to get up and over but the more they inspected the mountain range the longer her projections became. “Maybe a month to get up,” she told Rocky as they finished packing the last of their gear, “but those things look like they stretch back forever. We might be looking for that ship until we drop from old age.”
“I know,” he told her, fastening his pack, “and you know my opinion.”
Ester knew what he thought. Fuck the Stinger. Fuck the Earth Military Defense. Fuck the war. Stay here. Grow old. Live long, quiet lives together far from politics and fighting and murder.
She knew exactly what Ricky thought, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t.
“It’s my planet,” she said as she had so many times before, “my friends fighting and dying for it, my family. You know I can’t just abandon them. We don’t…” she couldn’t finish her sentence for the emotion blocking her throat.
Ester slid her pistol into the holster on her hip. She gave a long look to Rocky, finally saying, “We don’t deserve to sit the fight out. We may want to, but we can’t. Those monsters destroyed your home and now they’re trying to destroy mine. We can’t let other people die for us, not just so we can sleep in late and fuck all day. It’s not fair, is it?” He couldn’t answer and she didn’t make him.
She tied the long swath of fabric around her face and adjusted it over her nose and mouth. No dust, no cough. “You ready?” she asked.
Rocky nodded and slipped his own face mask over his nose and mouth. “Let’s do it, partner.”
There was only the slightest of hesitation while Ester looked around, giving their small cave one last look. It had been their home for half a year while they healed and prepared for their trip. And now…
They set off. South. No way to know for sure how long it would take or if they would ever be successful. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that they try. What mattered was they were warriors and their fight was not over.
Ester took Rocky’s hand as they trudged through the driving winds and shifting sands. Together, she thought, squeezing his hand tight, certain of at least this one thing, or not at all.
THE END
III
Star Crossed
Scifi Romance
Prologue
Ever since I was a kid, it was drilled into me that if there’s one thing you don't mess with, it's time. Even in the old movies, meddling with time only resulted in the hero’s demise and society erupting into chaos. Think The Butterfly Effect. A trail of dominoes, falling one after the other, just from a tiny push.
Everything I know goes directly against how I’ve found myself wading deeper and deeper into the dangerous waters of time travel. How I’ve become accustomed to the floor being swiftly yanked from beneath my feet, my limbs being simultaneously in a state of non-existence and existing in six places at once. How the feeling of appearing in another time period has become second-nature. It’s easy to realign what I know to fit with the new era, easy to pick myself up again and walk in a straight line, right to whe
re I need to be.
It’s both a blessing and a curse. Time travel is our only weapon against the alien hordes, Earth’s last secret resource. It’s the only thing the rebels have left in their power; but at the same time, one wrong move and we’re destroying the planet from the inside.
If the aliens don’t manage it first.
1
It’s been nine years and 73 days since my life was uprooted, ripped apart at the seams. Nine years and 73 days since the first Axylan uprising, since Ayla IX took down the first cities with ray guns and bombs. She’s the leader of the fleet, the proverbial butterfly fluttering her wings. The one who started the chain reaction that has led to the enslavement of the human race. New York was the first to go, followed shortly by Washington. Now the Axylan reign reaches to the furthest parts of the planet—structures have gone up in Antarctica, Australia, Russia, and all over Europe. There’s no escape.
My existence now plays out in one of the hundreds of Human internment bunkers. Day-to-day life is a series of regimented motions, a strict schedule of sleeping, eating, working. There’s no relaxation or recreation for Humans anymore. The survivors of the attacks are housed in prison-like structures on the outskirts of all major cities, the unfortunate few condemned to playing out a historical cliché erecting statues of the new leaders—Ayla IX, Gorge IV and V—in the broiling heat of the wasteland. Those are the criminals, the earliest rebels, the ones who tried to fight back and failed. Instead of their lives ending with the sharp pain of a ray gun blast to the chest, their very essence is doomed to seep from their bones in the artificial heat of the hordes, dragging gargantuan stone blocks over sandy plains to erect large-scale replicas of the new leaders into position.
Taken by the Alien Warrior: Scifi Romance Page 8
