Alien, Awakening

by Sandra Harris

  He blinked and his face softened as though she’d said something infinitely pleasing.

  “There is no part of New Earth that bears those aquatic, geological formations, and according to my scans those spires are not natural formations.”

  Damn.

  She drummed her fingers on his chest. “I take it that as we haven’t lost consciousness or asphyxiated the air is breathable?”

  “Correct.”

  “Well that’s something. I suppose we should thank our lucky stars we didn’t end up somewhere environmentally inhospitable.”

  “That is certainly one positive.”

  His tone suggested the distinct possibility of at least one negative possibility. Of course.

  “Go on.”

  “This planet could be in the domain of the Bluthen.”

  She raised one eyebrow at him. “Should we have called first?”

  His eye-ridges V’d and his chin tilted to one side. “I do not comprehend your reasoning.”

  “Never mind. Is there any indication this is Bluthen territory?”

  “Nothing certain, but it is a possibility we should keep in mind.”

  “You mean because of the pillars, because you can link them to the Bluthen.”

  His hold on her tightened a little. “Yes. The Alliance does not yet know the extent of the connection between them. Perhaps it is as it appears on New Earth and the pillars belong to another, older, civilisation. The Bluthen may be attempting to exploit the find.”

  “You don’t think they built them?”

  “I do not.”

  “Think they know how to use them?”

  “Unknown, though doubtful, otherwise they would have invaded New Earth.”

  Yes, the bastards would have done that. Not only to recapture us for their abominable BMI experiments, but to gain a foothold in Alliance space.

  “So, we were teleported somewhere? How far do you reckon?”

  “I cannot attempt to evaluate that. Teleportation is currently beyond the expertise of the Alliance.”

  Well, at least this time when I found myself on another planet there wasn’t any pain and torture. Of course the day is yet young.

  She rested her head on T’Hargen’s shoulder and faced their predicament. Right, a bit disconcerting to undergo an inadvertent, not to mention inconvenient, change in location. She slid her hands down his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist, drew on his solidity and steady calm to keep her mental balance.

  And we have to figure out how to get home. Perhaps TL can help there. At least we have shelter and enough food to last a while. Might have to scavenge.

  The unnatural stillness of T’Hargen’s form and the deep, slow beat of his heart seeped into her deliberations. She stiffened. Damn, she’d grown comfortable within his embrace. Hell, she’d even been familiar with him with her touches, as though she had a right. Chagrin heated her face and dismay raced through her.

  That would not do.

  She could not allow herself to continue to succumb to the allure of his strength and decency. Even in these circumstances. Especially these circumstances where those qualities could so easily seduce her into an emotional attachment.

  One he did not covet.

  The nightmare she’d gone through after Matthew had died loomed in her mind like a burning slice of hungry purgatory, and T’Hargen Mhartak was a hell waiting to happen. She straightened, but T’Hargen’s arm kept her bound and close. She looked into his face and tried to barricade the tendrils of feelings that yearned to wrap around him.

  “We should turn our thoughts to our next move,” she said briskly, as though that would chase away the hot feelings running rampant through her body and blithely ignoring her resolution to remain unaffected by T’Hargen’s charms.

  That’s enough for now. I’ve taken what I needed, time to stop clinging.

  His gaze intensified and seemed to drill into her until she felt it in the marrow of her bones, in the beat of her heart, in the core of every exposed fibre of her being. His hand slid up from her hip to splay between her shoulder blades. Her heart picked up speed as though galloping towards a much-desired destination. The entire length of his hard body pressed against her, offering her succour in this hour of uncertainty. The need to touch, to connect, to press her lips to the full contours of his, to draw him closer to her heart—

  She jumped away from the thought with such ferocity she nearly had them both off the wall. His hands tightened on her, held her upright, but the spell was broken. She ordered her quivering muscles to stillness.

  “So, er . . .” She focused her gaze on his shoulder as she hunted through her mind for something to say. Nothing.

  Come on, wits, don’t desert me completely.

  She steeled herself and met T’Hargen’s gaze. He looked at her as though—she frowned—as though he’d been triumphant in some contest. She bullied a few more synapses into working order. Had her involuntary reactions given her attraction away? Did he think to use it against her? Yes, he was decent, but he’d pursue any thread he deemed would provide the Alliance an advantage.

  And he wouldn’t have searched me out for any other reason. Remember that.

  If she was foolish enough to offer him a thread to pull, then as a functioning adult that was her decision and she would have to swallow the consequences. And they were consequences she would certainly choke on. He’d be quite capable of cajoling and seducing her, convincing her to agree to whatever scheme he had in mind, and all the while remain distant, his heart untouched. But she, she’d fall so heavily she’d break something, most likely her own heart. No, whatever T’Hargen wanted from her, it wasn’t affection, or even straight out sex, and she’d do well to remember that.

  She stepped back carefully and he released her. His hands dropped to his sides.

  “What’s that look for?” she demanded.

  He lowered his eyelids, his ridiculously long lashes brushed the blemish-less skin of his cheek, and he took in a long breath. The broad expanse of his powerful chest—

  Stop it! Right now, Kathryn Holden.

  She pulled together all the determination that had seen her through Matthew’s death and the abominable cruelty of alien abduction, and clamped it around her psyche like a cloak of armour.

  “Well?” she prompted.

  T’Hargen opened his eyes and smiled. She kept her lips in a firm line, though his dynamic appeal made troubling impact on her resolve.

  “I am relieved that you are not”—one corner of his mouth hitched a little higher—“freaking out on me.”

  She crossed her arms and tapped her fingers on her bicep, clamped down on the sliver of inner supplication that pleaded to respond to him.

  That’s a partial truth if ever I heard one.

  She considered grilling him further then decided that could wait. Currently they had bigger problems.

  “Any proposals on how we return to New Earth?”

  T’Hargen crouched then dropped to the ground in one smooth movement, his muscles rippling and flowing under his form-fitting clothing with fluid grace. He turned and held his arms up to her.

  “Come, Kathryn.”

  She ignored the devilish spark in his eyes that accompanied his order and squatted, balancing her weight into her palms on the top of the wall, then twisting and lowering herself. His big hands gripped her waist and gently controlled her descent. Her feet on solid ground, she turned within the mantle of his warmth, pressed her index finger to the density of his chest, and pushed.

  His lips curved in a provocative smile, but he stepped back.

  “If you assume this”—he turned to the ‘pathway’ diagram and pointed to the large disk on the right side—“is where we came from, it’s a safe assumption that tapping that icon
will return us to New Earth.”

  “Your assumption is based on the fact that the length of the connecting line, the distance, shall we say, between the two points is the only measurement that has not altered?”

  “Correct.”

  “Using that theory, what if we assume, as we did originally, that the larger disk is a representation of where we are now. That would argue, still using the concept of the unaltered line distance, that we should press the smaller icon.”

  “Hmmm. Quite problematic, and we lack further data to make a conclusive decision.”

  Kat turned her gaze over her shoulder. “What about you, TL? Any suggestions?”

  Her friend ripped off a riff and edged a little closer. She turned her gaze back to T’Hargen’s expectant features.

  “He says pressing the larger icon will take us to our intended destination.”

  T’Hargen raised a sceptical eye-ridge. “And how would he know that?”

  “He connected with the computer that administers the system.”

  “So our options are to wait here without reason to believe further information will appear to us to guide us back to New Earth or accept the word of the drone. An interesting conundrum.”

  “No, not really, we’ll do as TL suggests.”

  One of T’Hargen’s eye-ridges rose then he held a hand out to her. For a moment she stared with wary contemplation at him. She was so perilously close to sinking into his appeal and relying on him. It seemed with every smile he bestowed on her, she took a step closer to the edge. The bare touch of his skin could only tempt her further to abandon her rationality.

  “Just in case,” he prompted. “You wouldn’t want to leave me stranded here, would you?”

  Tempting, but . . . no.

  “Besides,” he added, “I might be taken and you left here. Alone.”

  “I’d have TL.”

  “As I said, alone.”

  She sent him a scowl and took his hand, battling how right the strength of his felt wrapped around hers.

  I will not succumb. I will not succumb.

  “You do the honours,” she said.

  “I might not have the touch.”

  “Guess we’ll find out in a moment.”

  T’Hargen nodded then lifted his other hand and pressed the space the large disk occupied. Purple light flashed towards them then vanished.

  Darkness cloaked her vision.

  She gripped T’Hargen’s fingers a little tighter, then tilted her head and looked up. Points of light—she focused her gaze—stars, twinkled in a black sky like a billion flecks of mica on dark velvet.

  “We appear to have encountered a complication,” T’Hargen rumbled.

  No kidding?

  The walls of the maze loomed like dark, circling shadows. Utter blackness edged the night sky as though obscured by something solid.

  Utter blackness . . .

  Her heart did a free-fall from her chest to her stomach.

  Where’s the reflection?

  “T’Hargen?”

  “I know.”

  “I vote we don’t keep pressing buttons,” she murmured.

  “For the moment, I believe that would be a sensible precaution.”

  The silence following his reply felt as though it contained unspoken words fighting for voice and hanging heavy with the implication of misfortune. T’Hargen’s clothing rustled then a soft beam of light penetrated the darkness like a lighthouse’s ray of security. The central column stood intact and appeared unaltered, revealing the same mismatched symbols as the pillar on New Earth before its transformation.

  Relief burned through her chest and her heart began its laborious climb from her stomach to its proper location. At least they had a hope of returning via the teleportation system—if they could work out how to operate it.

  “TL, your navigation skills require a rethink. This is not New Earth. Give us some light, would you?”

  He bip-bipped a choice of luminosity.

  “Ah, diffuse, I think.”

  Her friend increased his altitude and a moment later a spread of white light further illuminated the circling rock walls of the standard maze. Above curved the partial roof of a cave, cold air and starlight flowed in through the mouth.

  An almost unheard bip-bip, bip-bip, murmured from T’Hargen’s direction.

  “Problem?” she asked.

  T’Hargen viewed his scanner, his lips sealed into a tight line. His right arm shifted slowly. He seemed to absently brush his fingers across his thigh, then he moved faster than her brain could comprehend. A needle of red light shot from his laser and slammed into TL. Her little friend yelped. The light he emitted perished, taking her sight with it. An ominous clattering echoed through the dark, grabbed her labouring heart, and squeezed. Her feet took off towards the sound with her body in tow.

  She skidded to a halt on her knees, her seeking hands encountered TL’s unresponsive body.

  “TL?”

  No reaction.

  She blinked rapidly, readjusted her eyesight to the dim gloom of the remaining light provided by T’Hargen’s torch, and ran agitated fingertips down the spine of TL’s fuselage.

  “TL?”

  Nothing. No vibration, no flicker of light. Nothing.

  T’Hargen loomed by her side, his laser pointed at the inert form of her friend. Outrage flipped her every switch and she burned. She gripped T’Hargen’s wrist and shoved the weapon away.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Eliminating an enemy.”

  What?

  “Explain yourself.”

  “There is evidence of Bluthen DNA here.”

  The alarm on his scanner. Her heart gripped her ribcage in a desperate attempt not to nosedive into her stomach again. She spread her hand protectively over TL and glared at T’Hargen.

  “So? How does that equate to TL being an enemy?”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but did he not say that pressing the large icon would take us to our intended destination? He wanted us here for a reason, Kathryn. Here.” He stabbed a finger at the ground. “Here where there is proof of recent Bluthen activity. His motivation seems obvious.”

  Her heart crawled up her throat, dragged tears in its wake. She sniffed, blinked the stinging moisture from her eyes.

  “No. You’re wrong. Back there, on New Earth, in the tunnels, he”—she pushed a determined swallow through the sadness constricting her throat—“he saved me from something.”

  “I’m sure he did. Because he’s programmed to keep you intact! Wake up, Kathryn!”

  Unreasoning anger snarled through her. “Get away from me, murderer.”

  T’Hargen’s sharp gasp, so full of pain, scraped across her tender heart. She should not have said that, knowing the burdens of war he carried, but she couldn’t find the grace to retract her denunciation.

  “Look at yourself, Kathryn. Surely your distress at this . . .” She could feel his wariness in choosing his words. “At this incident is not natural. The drone has influenced you in some manner.”

  Rage, resentment, and anguish blazed through her like flame along a line of alcohol and flung her to her feet. She fisted the front of his shirt and growled.

  “Listen to me. He may be just another automated device to you, but to me he is a friend.” She shoved T’Hargen from her with all of her strength and he staggered back a pace. Fury for what she’d already lost, for what the Bluthen had stolen, seared through her. “Don’t you ever assault my friends.”

  A feeble woo-oo-bl-bl-bl reverberated from the floor. Hope burst through her heart with breathtaking force. She knelt and laid a gentle hand on TL, lowered herself to stare eye-to-cockpit with him. The cold rock floor against her c
hin reflected the icy anxiety in her heart. A ghost of light sheened his ‘eyes’.

  “TL? Tell me what you need. How do I fix this?”

  His propulsion system glimmered pale blue, grew brighter then stuttered.

  “Come on, my man, you can do this.”

  Heat poured from his thrusters, a sapphire spark grew to a steady stream of cerulean flux.

  “Stand aside, Kathryn.”

  She levered up and swung to T’Hargen, shielding TL with her body as she climbed to her feet. “Go to hell.”

  Regret fringed the implacable hardness in T’Hargen’s eyes, but his damned laser-hand remained steady, weapon pointed to the ground, his stance alert.

  “He’ll advise the Bluthen of our location. If he hasn’t already.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  She sensed TL rising, his vibration tracking up her spine.

  “Are you willing to bet your life on it?”

  “Yes! And if you have a problem with that you’re welcome to leave.”

  The muscles below his right eye contracted.

  “I will not leave you.”

  “Yes. I know,” she flung at him, “and you’re yet to answer why.” She crossed her arms and sent him a frigid glare. “So tell me, T’Hargen, why is it so all fired important for you to endure my company? You agreed to this exploration to humour me. Why?”

  His free hand twitched in a show of exasperation and rejection. “Now is not the time to speak of this, Kathryn.”

  “No? When will be a good time, T’Hargen? When will it be convenient for you to be truthful with me? Completely truthful.”

  T’Hargen’s gaze shifted from her to stare over her shoulder, his laser remained at his side. She knew TL wouldn’t stay behind her, no way would he use her as a shield. And now she had to decide if she had the strength or—to be honest—inclination to prevent a fire fight between a man she respected and someone she considered a true friend.