by T. S. Ryder
Zon grinned at her and began rocking his hips again. Lisa stared into his eyes, grinning. Who knew that an alien species would be so compatible with human biology?
Chapter Five
Lisa flinched as she dabbed a milk-colored cream onto Zon's back. It fizzled over the deep scratches there, bubbling like hydrogen peroxide before smoothing out into a sheet of flexible material that was almost the same shade as his skin. It was a fascinating compound called fleshseal, made from synthesized stem cells that adapted themselves to whatever wound it was put against to help heal. Lisa had already put a little capsule of it in the satchel she had bought, with the rest of the samples she was taking back to Earth with her.
"And you were worried about hurting me," she muttered, shaking her head. "Why didn't you tell me I was hurting you?"
"You weren't," Zon chuckled. "Not any more than those bruises on your hips hurt you."
Lisa glanced down to where two perfect impressions of Zon's hands were visible. A quick pass with a laser had turned the dark purple to a mottled green, and the bruises would be gone in a few hours. She had to admit that she hadn't realized that he was holding her that tightly the previous night, any more than she had realized she was scratching deep welts onto his back. Not that she minded.
It had been some night.
"So is your musth over, then?" she asked, trying to sound casual.
"More or less," Zon said. "But I hope that doesn't mean that we won't have more nights like that in the future."
Blood rushed to places Lisa would rather not think about at the moment. She throbbed, both with the aftereffects of the previous night and this new rush of desire. She continued to dab the fleshseal onto his back.
"Yeah. That would be fun." It was only sex, after all. Lisa cleared her throat. "So…"
"So?" Zon pressed.
Lisa hesitated. She wanted to ask him whether he would take her home, but now seemed like the wrong time for it. She didn't want him to think the only reason she had slept with him was to make him more open to taking her back to Earth. But she had to go home. Her brother would be worried sick!
Before she could make up her mind one way or another, an explosion rocked the hotel. She was thrown back onto the bed as the door burst open. There was the zing of a weapon. A flash of light. Zon crumpled.
"Zon!" Lisa reached for him as his eyes rolled wildly, but hands grabbed her and yanked her back.
Lisa kicked back at whatever was holding her, screaming. Something was clamped around her neck. Electric jolts went through her with every movement she made; she kept fighting until her eyes streamed with pain and her head was pounding so hard she couldn't see. She felt a pointed shoulder dig into her stomach and she hung limply. She had the sensation of being carried, and then a smooth lifting, like she was in an elevator.
"Did you make sure the T'Shav was dead?" a voice asked.
"I shot him in the chest. No way he can survive that."
Lisa whimpered, earning herself another blinding shock.
"Idiot. T'Shav's can survive almost anything besides getting their heads blown off." A pause. "Level the outpost. The last thing I want is a warlord like Zon to come after us."
Warlord?
There were the sounds of distant explosions as Lisa was dropped to the floor. She blinked, trying to clear the bleariness from her eyes. Figures loomed in front of her.
The outpost was being leveled. The bartender, the strange aliens who would patiently answer all her questions… Zon. Lisa whimpered again. They were all being killed. Why? What did these aliens want? Why had they taken her?
She pushed herself up, trying to draw the strength to demand answers. A blinding pulse shot through her spine. She slumped as blackness closed in around her.
***
Lisa's head pounded when she woke. At first, she couldn't remember why she felt like she had been hit by a truck. Then it all came rushing back to her and she jerked upright, gasping. A soft white dress covered her, but other than the thin cot she lay on, the stainless steel room she was in was utterly empty.
She got to her feet shakily, feeling her neck. The collar was no longer there. Panic threatened to overwhelm her–what was she going to do without Zon? He had said there were plenty of people out there who would be worse owners than him, and she believed him. Were those the kind of people who had taken her? It couldn't be coincidence, they had specifically targeted her to take. Word of her had spread. Zon had been afraid someone would try to steal her. Was it because she was from an undiscovered species? Did they want her to take them back to Earth to strip it of its resources?
A door slid open and a man stepped into the room. He held a bowl, and the smell of freshly cooked meat made Lisa's stomach rumble. Still, she drew away from him, eyeing the man warily. They had leveled an entire outpost to kill Zon.
Zon.
Lisa's hands clenched. "You are going to take me back to where you got me right now."
The man's brow arched. Other than the thick, protruding brow and extra arm sticking out of his back, he looked human. "You are in no position to make demands. You should eat. You'll need your strength."
"For what? What do you plan to do with me? Why did you take me?"
"Why did I take you?" A smile twisted his lips. "You really don't understand how valuable you are, do you? The only reason Zon got you for as cheaply as he did was because everybody was too afraid of him to challenge him. Didn't you wonder why you were attacked in the forest?"
"You sent them?" Lisa's eyes widened. "After me?"
The man shrugged. "Not me, but people in my line of work."
"We thought that they attacked because of Zon," Lisa mumbled, drawing back as the man came forward. "But me? Why? What… Are you going to put me in some rare zoological collection? Do you want to return to my home planet to strip our resources?"
"Mining asteroids is easier than dealing with an inhabited planet." The man shook his head. "No. We're not after your planet or your people, or to put you in a zoo. It's you. Do you have any idea how rare universal DNA is?"
Lisa remembered the auctioneer saying something about her universal DNA. "What is that? It doesn't make any sense, every species has its own DNA—"
"With shared traits. Universal DNA is when an individual, such as yourself, shares all of its base pairs with other species." The man paused. "For instance, you share 100% of your DNA with my species, with most species, in fact. All of your base pairs are present in my DNA, but not all of my base pairs of present in your DNA. Universal. You… you are more than a rarity. You are an impossibility. It's almost as if… almost as if you were human."
The bottom of Lisa's stomach dropped out. Almost as if she was human? What was that supposed to mean? What he was saying… it was impossible. Genetics simply didn't work that way. His species couldn't have extra DNA that she didn't have, it had to be different. How could they share any DNA in the first place? He was from another planet!
Lisa swallowed dryly. "And what do you want with my universal DNA?"
"It can be used for many things. Cures for genetic diseases, reversing infertility. Proving religious dogma. But all I'm going to do is sell you. You are going to make me a very rich man." He set the bowl down on the ground and smiled. "Try to eat."
He left without another word. Lisa pressed herself against the far wall, shivering. Her brain skittered around, finally settling on one thought. Zon was dead. She had nothing left out here to stay for. And so she was going to return to Earth or die trying.
Chapter Six
The next time the alien came to give her food (vegetables this time), Lisa was able to learn that they were still orbiting Senett. Since she was an exotic species, they had to find the right security personnel to bribe into letting them go without putting her in quarantine, which could end in her death. Knowing that they were still near the planet gave her hope. Even though every time she fell asleep she woke sobbing, either because she dreamt of being home or with Zon, she knew that if she c
ould only find a way off this ship, then perhaps she could make her way back to Earth.
She was sitting on the floor, sharpening the edge of a spoon into a shiv so she could at least have a weapon, when she heard the screams.
Her head jerked up, her heart stilling. The low zings and loud explosions of weapons echoed around her small room. Screams of pain and shouts for backup rang over the din and Lisa jumped to her feet. Was it another group coming to steal her? She gripped her spoon-shiv tightly. Whoever it was, if they made it to her room, she would be ready for them.
Stab and run, she told herself, her grip tightening. Stab and run.
The door opened. Lisa's shiv clattered to the floor. Her eyes widened, her heart stopped. Disbelief flowed through her, and the next second she ran forward, crying out with joy. Zon stumbled as he caught her. He leaned against his sword, clearly worse for wear.
"How did you—"
"No time," he grunted, wrapping an arm around her. He pushed his sword into her hands; it was heavier than she expected, and she could hardly keep a grip on it. Zon slapped his thigh–his robotic thigh–and cursed. A panel shot from it, revealing a glowing screen that showed a red dot on an orb. Before Lisa could take a closer look at it, Zon had pressed a few buttons and the sound of a tornado filled her ears.
She felt like she was going to die. Her body was being ripped apart, turned inside out. All her memories flashed before her eyes. She screamed.
"Quiet!" Zon slapped a hand over her mouth.
Lisa blinked. The agony was gone, just the ghost of memory. They were laying on the ground, staring up at leaves in shades of red and orange.
"Teleportation," she mumbled. "Wow… I always ascribed to the belief that it would be theoretically possible, but that it would scramble the body too much to ever work in practice."
Zon grunted as he got to his feet. His leg was blackened and there appeared to be chunks missing, revealing shiny machinery inside. "Teleportation takes a serious toll on the body, yes. But it was the only way we were getting off that ship."
Lisa scrambled to her feet. Blisters were rising over his shoulders and down his side. His hair was shorter, with that distinctive ragged, rough texture that came from being singed. A large, black circle was burnt into his skin directly over his heart, scorching away the tattoos that had been there. Her fingers trembling, Lisa touched it.
"How did you survive?"
"I'm trained to take a blast or two and keep going."
"But they leveled the outpost."
Zon nodded, anger flashing over his face. His normally devil-red skin was pale; any paler and he would turn pink. "I knew they would, so as soon as I could move, I got out. There wasn't time to calculate the transporter to get to you right away."
Did he feel guilty? Lisa ducked under his arm, trying to help support him even though she knew that she wasn't strong enough for that. He was massive, and it was like trying to hold a rhinoceros up. "What are we going to do now?"
"There's a place where my family used to go in emergencies. I restocked the supplies and defenses before I found you."
"Bought me," Lisa shot back.
"More like rescued you."
She hesitated. "Maybe."
Zon shot her a crooked grin and chuckled. "You sounded like your teeth were getting pulled there."
"I don't like admitting that I'm helpless. Now let's get to this emergency shelter before they find us."
Zon nodded. They made their way through the jungle, the massive T'Shav warrior leaning on her and his sword for support. Fortunately, they didn't come across any of the local fauna, although there were times when Zon had to slice a flower in two because it was a dangerous mammal-eating plant.
If I had my lab equipment… Lisa though sadly. And there wasn't anybody after us.
Hours later, they reached the shelter, a tunnel with a tiny opening that wound deep into the ground. Eventually, they were in a large room with two dusty beds. Shelves of preserved foods lined the walls, and there were thankfully two vats of water, purifiers humming beneath them.
"Did you spend a lot of time here?" Lisa asked, retrieving the supplies she recognized as a first aid kit. "As a child, I mean."
"Yeah." Zon lay down on the bed, groaning. "T'Shav are not welcome most places in the galaxy. We had drills, every month, where my father would separate the three of us and we would have to find our way here."
"You had to face the jungle on your own as a child?"
"It made me strong." He yanked his robotic leg onto the bed, grunting. "I'm going to need this repaired."
Lisa moved over to sit beside him, first cleaning the blast mark on his chest. The black flesh smelled like burnt hamburger and had a similar texture as well. Choking down her gag reflex was difficult, but Lisa cleaned it up the best she could. Upon Zon's insistence, she scraped off the dead skin until the tender flesh beneath oozed, then slathered it with fleshseal.
Through it all, Zon didn't move. His breathing didn't hitch. He must have been in great pain, but he didn't show it. It was the only way she could get through it.
Eventually, though, all his injuries were tended to. Lisa had to admit that he looked far better than he had. The red color of his skin was returning, and he even sat up to take off his robotic leg and fiddle with it, repairing what damage he could.
To her surprise, Lisa felt heat pooling in her as she watched him. A flush rose in her cheeks and she turned away. This was hardly the most appropriate time for sex! They had just escaped people who wanted to kill Zon and sell her; even if Zon wasn't injured…
"What's wrong?" His voice was soft.
"Your musth is still affecting me."
There was a long pause. "I'm not in musth anymore. I've been out for nearly a standard week."
Lisa's blush deepened. "I don't know what that means."
"It means that you should not still be feeling the effects."
"It's the rush of endorphins from being rescued, then."
Zon chuckled. "Can't admit that you find me irresistible, huh?"
"Those people who had me on their ship," she blurted, trying to change the subject–yes, she found him very attractive, but that was all there was to it. Maybe that was why she was feeling desirous. She knew she couldn't have an emotional connection, and a sexual connection was the next best thing.
"What about them?"
"They said I had universal DNA. They told me what that meant, but it's impossible. I'm a genetic scientist, I know DNA. It's impossible for one species to share all its DNA with another species, but the second species to have a little extra it doesn't share. Evolution doesn't work that way."
Zon shrugged. "I don't know much about DNA and genetics. Sounds like a load of gushlot if you ask me."
"They said it was like I was human." Lisa held her breath, watching Zon closely. To her surprise, he laughed. Actually threw his head back, laughing so deeply that it turned to coughing.
He put a hand to his chest, bringing himself under control, and shook his head. "Don't worry about that. Humans don't exist."
Lisa's jaw dropped. "But they do."
"Your species believes in them?" Zon looked intrigued. "I'll admit, it's odd that so many planets have similar origin stories. The myth is that we all originated on a single planet, but a great war released geo-nuclear radiation and changed us, and our ancestors all left on ships, hundreds of ships that got lost from one another and eventually settled on various planets, rebuilding their populations."
Geo-nuclear radiation? Lisa's heart thumped hard in her chest. That was what she had been researching, its effects on human DNA, when she was taken. And she had been stored in a cryostatus, going at light speed. Who knew how much time had passed… She choked back bile. It couldn't be possible. It just couldn't.
"The name of this mythical original species always translates to human." Zon shrugged. "I don't buy it. If we were all from the same planet—"
"Earth," she blurted, hands trembling.
"Y
eah. Some people claim to have found it…" Zon looked up at her and trailed off into silence. He frowned and reached for her. "What's wrong?"
Lisa stared at him. How could she say what she thought was true–knew was true? Her world was gone. Her home was gone. She had universal DNA because… because it was all true.
"I am human," she whispered. "I'm from Earth."
Zon's eyes widened.
"I thought that… that the aliens that took me from Earth were probably around here somewhere. But they aren't, are they? That was… it must have been thousands of years ago. We had only just traveled to the moon in 1969. I was born in 1987. I'm twenty-nine years old, it was 2016 when I was taken. But… but if humans are myths, if they left Earth long enough ago to develop into other species…"
A hesitant hand grasped her wrist. "It doesn't mean that it was your Earth, Lisa. There are other explanations."
"What explanations? Universal DNA. The fact that all you different species are humanoid and mammalian, not to mention that you do share some DNA, means that you came from the same source. And if human is the word for your creator species, if you came from Earth in ships… I was found in a ship going at light speed. Relativity means that I could have been there for what was only years for me, but thousands out here. And that's not even taking into account that I was in cryostatus, and there is no telling how long I was there."
"Lisa—"
"Earth is gone. My home is gone." Lisa huddled on the bed, wrapping her arms around herself. "What am I supposed to do now?"
Chapter Seven
If Zon hadn't assured her that they were miles underground and that the planet had a natural radiation that was harmless to organic organisms but made scanning difficult, Lisa would never have felt safe enough to fall apart the way she did. Even though she had had no idea about how she would get back to Earth, she had clung to the belief that she would, somehow, return. Now she knew that wasn't going to happen, and she curled up in bed, crying.
Zon sat beside her, stroking her hair silently, letting her grieve her planet, her family, her life. She occasionally wondered if he had ever been planning to take her back, but never asked. It didn't matter now.
