by Leslie Chase
“No one!” I blinked, swallowing and trying to get my emotions under control. The rush of embarrassment made it hard to think. “I mean, um…”
She laughed, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head to the side. “Come now, Lisa, there aren’t that many options here. Aside from you and your brother there are only seven humans to pick from. It’s not me or Alex, obviously. Mr. Carrington is too old for you… so. David? He’s near your age, and I suppose not bad looking.”
She laughed again, not unkindly. I wanted to melt into the floor as she interrogated me, but I forced myself to shake my head.
“It’s not him, and I don’t want to talk about it.” I tried to be stern about it. “It doesn’t matter, not right now. I came here to help you with the rover, not get the Spanish Inquisition.”
Maria pulled a disappointed face but relented, waving me over to the workstation. “Fine, don’t tell me. I need a hand with these links, this is really a two-person job.
“But we aren’t done with this conversation. I will find out who your crush is.”
Not if I can help it, I thought as I called up Henry to show me the rover’s instruction manual. The little hologram hopped up onto a crate to supervise and I glared at the amused expression on his fluffy virtual face.
“This isn’t funny,” I told him as the manual unfolded in the air above him. He cocked his translucent head to the side, mouth hanging open in silent laughter, and I glared at him. I couldn't keep that up for long — it’s not easy to stay annoyed with a Pomeranian puppy. Henry was simply too cute.
The work was no easier than farming, but it was different enough to be something like a break. Between us, Maria and I got the frame assembled and the motor and batteries attached. In an emergency that would be enough to drive but given the hostile environment we wanted to have something more solid between us and the Crashland wildlife.
“Break time,” Maria said, stepping back to look at what we’d achieved with some pride. “The rest will be quick and easy.”
“Thank god,” I said, grabbing a bottle of water and taking a long swig. “Not easy enough though.”
The rover’s modular design meant that the remaining sections should simply bolt together. The instructions Henry helpfully displayed showed me just how easy it would be to put on a passenger section, but that still meant the two of us moving a lot of weight. Not just the frame of the vehicle itself, but the three stasis tubes we still had to load.
Even with the ceiling-mounted hoist to help, thinking about the work we had ahead of us made my muscles ache and I groaned, rubbing my arms.
Maria’s eyes twinkled as she took her own drink. “I know how to take your mind off the work,” she said. “Just think about Stephen.”
She’d timed her comment perfectly, nearly making me spit out the mouthful of water as I reacted. The middle Carrington brother? Ew. David was a creep, but his younger brothers were no better.
Maria’s mirth faded as she watched my reaction, and she shook her head in disappointment. “Not Stephen, then? Louis?”
I shook my head quickly, finally managing to swallow. “No, damn it. None of the Carringtons.”
Which… ruled out everyone. Every male human aside from her husband, anyway. Maria frowned at me disapprovingly and I realized I’d backed myself into a corner.
“Okay, okay, I’ll talk,” I said, screwing the cap back on my water bottle with unnecessary violence. “But if you laugh at me, I’ll throw this at you.”
Beside me Henry barked a warning at Maria and she nodded, face solemn but eyes twinkling. This was the gossip she’d wanted.
I sighed. “It’s not one of us at all. It’s Torran.”
There. I’d said it out loud. I had a crush on an alien. I looked at the floor, unwilling to meet Maria’s eyes.
To her credit, she didn’t laugh. Didn’t exclaim in horror either. Instead she let out a low whistle.
“The alien you shot?” The crate shook as she hauled herself up beside me, shooing Henry out of the way. Her own hologram monkey perched on top of the half-assembled rover, watching as Maria considered me carefully. “Is that wise, Lisa?”
“Probably not,” I admitted. “But I can’t keep my mind off him. And he’s been nothing but good to me. If it wasn’t for him I’d be dead — Arvid nearly killed me that first night.”
Maria shook her head. “That does not mean much, you know. You were only in danger because they attacked us.”
“Sure, but…” I trailed off, throwing up my hands in frustration. I hadn’t taken the time to consider my feelings and trying to unpack them in front of someone else wasn’t easy. “Look, he cares. I can feel it, I see it in his eyes. If he was a bad man, he’s had enough chances taken his revenge, right? He wouldn’t be helping me escape.”
“And if he was a good man, perhaps you wouldn’t have to escape,” Maria said, squeezing my shoulders. “He could have come in peace and not helped conquer us.”
I shrugged at her uncomfortably, wishing I had better answers to offer. She had a point. How much could I trust the alien man who’d led the attack that captured us?
How can I doubt him? He’s killed one of his own to protect me. “I don’t know what to think. But I know I can trust him, and if I’m wrong about that none of us are getting out of here.”
Maria cocked her head to the side, considering. Then she sighed. “We are already trusting him with our lives, Lisa. Be careful if you trust him with your heart too. All of these aliens are a danger to us, please remember that. Once we’re free… I do not want my Tania near any of them. Not even your Torran.”
I couldn’t argue, not with what the prytheen had put her family through. What would that mean for Torran, though? Would my fellow humans drive him off, or worse? I didn’t want to think about it, but I couldn’t put it off forever. Even if the others let Torran travel with us, what would happen once we were safely away from here? We’d be looking for a human settlement, and Torran might not be welcome there. Might, in fact, be shot on sight.
That’s how I’d reacted to seeing him. It wouldn’t be fair to blame someone else for doing the same.
All of that was a problem for tomorrow, though: if we didn’t escape none of it would matter. I picked up a wrench and walked back to the half-assembled rover, looking at Henry for the instructions. He bounced closer, happy to help.
“What happens after he helps us escape can wait till we’re safely away. Right now, we won’t get far without him. And we’re not going anywhere without the rover.”
Maria hopped down behind me, put a comforting hand on my shoulder, and let out an unhappy breath. “A fair point. I just… I don’t want you getting hurt, once this is over and we’re at the valley. None of us know what will happen then, but it may not be good for you to get too attached to Torran.”
I swallowed, images flashing through my mind. Torran, gunned down or driven off just as we reached our new home. What would I do then?
No. I just said I don’t have to think about this yet, so I won’t. Once we’re safe from Gurral and his thugs, that’s when I’ll worry about this.
With the sinking feeling that I’d simply put off the heartbreak for later, I helped Maria bolt the side panels on the rover. At least we had a lot of work to distract me from my fears.
14
Torran
Walking around in the open air was a relief after the long days recovering in sickbay, and I reveled in it. The scents of Crashland were still strange to me, and the alien grasses underfoot made me feel alive.
Most of the Silver Band lived aboard their ships and didn’t mind the confined spaces, but I was a scout. I lived to explore strange planets, to see new life. And for far too long I’d been cooped up in one small room. If I ever got the chance to tell my tale to the rest of the clan, they’d laugh at me.
Well, so be it. Locked in a small room with my khara tending to my wounds — it was an amusing mix of good luck and bad.
I roamed out, past the ultras
onic fence that kept the planet’s wildlife at bay, trying to get used to this world again. Soon I’d have to lead Lisa and the other humans through this terrain, and at the moment, every other prytheen knew the area better than I did. One day wouldn’t change that but I had to do what I could.
A game trail wound through the woods near the camp, possibly large enough for the humans’ rover. That was both good and bad — it would be faster to travel this way, but easy to follow too. Still, speed would be more important, and any other route would mean pushing through the undergrowth blindly.
What kind of animal makes a trail this size? It had to be something big, and that worried me. Alone it would make for an interesting challenge, but I didn’t look forward to running into whatever it was while I had humans to protect. Right now it was clear, with no signs of recent passage. Perhaps we’d be lucky and wouldn’t have to face whatever it was.
I bit back a bitter laugh. My luck didn’t seem that good these days.
Turning aside into the underbrush, I set myself the task of finding something to eat. I’d relied on others feeding me for too long and that wouldn’t do for a scout.
The bright pale sun had passed its zenith by the time I returned to the little colony carrying my kill. A large herbivore, its hide covered in fine, razor-sharp spines, it had been an invigorating challenge to hunt with only my knives. Proof I’d recovered from my injuries.
I stepped out of the woods and saw the humans hard at work in the fields. Good, nothing to attract attention there. The cluster of prytheen guards paid them barely any attention, speaking amongst themselves in hushed tones.
Their body language told me there was a problem. Suspicious eyes looked my way the moment I emerged from the trees, and then they turned away again. Whatever the guards were talking about, they were anxious and agitated.
Had they discovered something about the escape? Arvid was with them, and I hoped I’d get some answers from him. I made my way over to them, dropping my prey’s carcass with a thump that drew their attention.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking from one to the next with my blankest expression. “You look like someone’s stolen the keys to your ship.”
The four of them snarled at me, anger and suspicion in their eyes. I didn’t know the one who spoke up. “Have you seen Rarric?”
I hesitated only a moment, hiding a surge of relief. If they were looking for him, Lisa’s nanites must have done their work and disposed of the body. “Not since last night. Why?”
“He’s missing,” Arvid said. “No one’s seen him since yesterday, maybe not since you saw him.”
I shrugged as casually as I could. “I took over his watch for him. He seemed keen to go, and he took a rifle. I think he went hunting? Is he not back yet?”
This was the first time I’d ever wished for talent at lying, but it had never been a skill the Silver Band excelled at. Layol’s clan of manipulators were the exception, and they’d mostly used their abilities to keep the Band together and functioning. Not easy with a predator species like the prytheen, we needed someone to be the social glue if we were going to work in clans larger than a handful at a time.
Arvid frowned slightly, looking at me and the animal I’d brought back. “If he left last night, he’s been out there a long time, and that’s not like him.”
The one who’d spoken first looked out at the trees, face darkening. His hands tensed, claws sliding from their sheathes. “I loved Rarric as a brother, but he is no hunter. That’s why he took the dull watch duty; in all the cycles I’ve fought at his side, he’s avoided wildlife. I can’t imagine he’d choose to go hunting and if he did, he wouldn’t go alone.”
Sundered space. I tried to keep my dismay from showing. That shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it had never occurred to me that Rarric might not like the outside. Most prytheen enjoyed hunting but some of us, used to our ships from living aboard them, disliked the open sky.
Rarric’s friend watched me closely and I knew I’d have to say something, anything, to deflect suspicion. But if I called this man a liar, I’d provoke a fight I did not need. I shrugged again. “Rarric is a stranger to me, and I don’t know why he wanted to swap shifts. Perhaps he wants to learn how to survive on a planet? It’s not as though he has much choice about where to live now.”
The warrior’s eyes bored into me, searching. I met it evenly, not allowing myself to flinch. There was nothing to feel guilty about, I reminded myself. Yes, I’d killed a fellow warrior of the Silver Band, but he’d threatened my khara. He’d had to die.
“Come, Ervas,” Arvid said, breaking the uncomfortable silence and placing a hand on the warrior’s shoulder. “Whatever reason Rarric had for going out into the woods, he’s been out there too long. We’d best search for him before it’s too late.”
Ervas scowled but broke eye contact with me. “Yes. If he’s out there, we must find him. And if he’s not—”
“Then we’ll find out what happened to him,” Arvid promised, leading him away and shooting a look at me. “Whatever it is, he cannot be far away. We’ll solve this mystery.”
I’d bought a little time, but not long. Before nightfall they’d be sure he hadn’t left the colony, and at that point there’d be more questions for me. Nothing I could do about that now, though, so better not to dwell on it. I turned to the other warriors.
“Who here knows what I’ve caught and how to prepare it?” I asked, pointing to the animal I’d brought in. “I’ve never seen one of these before.”
That turned the conversation back to more friendly territory, my fellow hunters congratulating me on my kill and telling me of their own. Tall tales and exaggeration followed, the old games of hunters talking about their greatest hunts, and I shared the companionship of my kind for what I feared might be the last time as we stripped the carcass and roasted it over an open fire.
It was delicious in the way only game I’d stalked myself could be, and I told my own stories. Not of this hunt but of those on a dozen other planets, stories that none of these warriors could match. They tried, with good-natured lies about hunting animals twice their size ‘armed only with a spear I crafted myself,’ but we all knew it was nonsense.
By the time the sun dipped towards the horizon, other hunters returned to add to the haul. I looked carefully at the food they brought in, asking about their prey and making mental notes. Soon I might be reliant on hunting to feed not just myself but my khara too, and I wanted to learn everything Gurral’s men had discovered about hunting the forests of Crashland. One thing they all agreed on was that the wildlife here was dangerous, and most of them would only hunt in pairs. I hid my frustration at that — it made my lies about Rarric that much less believable, but there was nothing I could do about that now.
Arvid and Ervas were the last to return, empty-handed and scowling. “No sign of Rarric anywhere,” Arvid said. “No tracks, no blood, no corpse. Are you sure he went hunting, Torran?”
“I am not,” I said, offering him a plate laden with roast meat. “He spoke of going hunting, but I didn’t see him leave.”
The smell of cooking meat brought the other prytheen out to join us, and I found myself in the middle of Gurral’s warriors. News of Rarric’s disappearance spread around the circle and I saw suspicious eyes turn towards me. Not good, not good at all. In an even, honest fight I’d take on any of these warriors, but I doubted that they would give me that chance if they thought I’d slain their companion.
These weren’t honorable warriors, and I had to remind myself of that. They claimed the Code of the Silver Band guided them, but when it came time to test that, they’d discarded the inconvenient parts as fast as a hyper jump.
Am I any better? I frowned at the question, trying to push it aside for later. What would I have done if Lisa hadn’t shot me? Would I have joined in the attack and enslavement of the humans, along with Arvid and the rest? Just thinking about it brought to mind Lisa’s face, her brown eyes gazing up at me filled with fear.
Guilt stung my soul at the thought and I forced my attention back to the present. There was danger all around me and I had to be vigilant.
“What if the humans killed him?” I didn’t see who asked the question and I kept quiet. If I spoke, it would be impossible to hide my anger — his accusation threatened Lisa’s life, even if he didn’t realize it.
“Impossible,” Tarva answered. “They’re no threat to us, just look at them. Small and weak creatures, without guns they can’t harm a prytheen.”
Glad someone else had taken up that gauntlet, I bit down on an urge to defend the honor of my khara’s species. Better that they thought her and her kind harmless, even if that was an insult to the strength Lisa had shown.
Hopefully anyone who saw my expression would read it as embarrassment over being shot by a human. That was at least partially true.
“Anyone is a threat if you don’t keep your guard up.” Gurral’s voice broke through the discussion, silencing everyone. All eyes turned to him as he strode out of the shadow of the colony pod. He’d been watching, listening, waiting for a moment to make his appearance.
“Whatever happened to Rarric, we will find him,” the leader continued. “If a human killed him, well, we won’t need these humans for long. Some we can trust, but the rest… we’ll have plenty of new humans to replace them soon. Won’t we, Torran?”
Eyes turned towards me and I nodded, trying to look enthusiastic. “I’ll find us a path into the human settlement, Gurral. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” he said easily, his body language casual and relaxed. Only his eyes gave away his suspicions, boring into my soul. “I know that you’ll get us in, and then we’ll be safe and secure.”
“Unless we bring a killer with us,” someone else said. “No human can kill one of us in a fair fight but working together… we should kill these ones to be safe.”
