by Leslie Chase
My heart pounded. In some ways this sight was scarier than the fight had been — what if they didn’t let us stay? What if they didn’t let Torran stay? I couldn’t abandon him but taking Malcolm off to live in the wilderness wasn’t an option.
They won’t, I told myself, squeezing the strong blue hand of my alien love. He squeezed back, peering past me out of the window at the landscape, and I felt the tension in him. The worry that fate would tear us apart again.
But he faced the future with a stoic confidence I envied. Whatever the universe threw at us, he knew we could weather it. And it was hard to argue with that, after all we’d been through already. I leaned into his shoulder, drawing strength from him.
“If Gurral couldn’t keep us apart, these humans won’t either,” he rumbled quietly into my ear. “No matter what happens, I will find a way to stay with you.”
“We will find a way,” I said back, looking at the lights pass by as the flier came in to land. “Together.”
“Together,” Torran said seriously. “Together, always.”
The flier settled on a landing pad beside the central colony pod, one much larger than our own. More buildings spread around it, a town large enough to hold hundreds of people at least. Waiting for us were a dozen humans with rifles. Together with the squad in the flier this had to be most of the armed forces of the settlement.
It was almost flattering that they’d called them all together for just us. Flattering and intimidating.
Their rifles came up as Torran stepped out onto the landing pad, not quite aiming at us but close enough to make the threat clear. Torran moved with slow care, doing his best not to appear threatening, but I had to admit he didn’t pull it off well. Even injured and on the edge of passing out he looked too dangerous.
I’d have been frightened too, in their place. Hell, I had been — I’d shot him on sight, after all.
“Welcome,” a woman said, stepping past the armed guards and looking us over. I recognized her voice — this was the woman I’d spoken to over the comms. She had a look of caffeine-fueled energy to her as she looked us over, and I hoped we’d pass her inspection.
Apparently satisfied, she nodded. “Please come this way. You’ll want to rest and clean up, I’m sure, but there are things we need to settle first.”
One of the armed men put a hand on her shoulder and whispered something, but she shrugged him off with a glare that would have killed a lesser man. Waving for us to follow she walked off into the nearest building, leaving us to hurry after her. The guards exchanged looks and let us past, but I felt their eyes following us as we left the landing pad.
Inside was a large meeting room, a table made of local wood, walls decorated with freshly woven blankets. The difference between this place and our own rough attempts at a colony couldn’t be clearer. The woman took a seat at the head of the table and gestured for us to join her. Torran’s chair creaked under his weight as he sank into it gratefully.
“Welcome to the Vale,” the woman said. “I’m Victoria Bern. Call me Vicky. I’m the Vale Settlement’s elected Speaker, and I figure we need to get a few things sorted out before you can get the rest you obviously need. I’ll be as quick as I can.”
In person she sounded a little less intimidating than she had over the comms, but the way she looked at Torran made me worry that our journey might not be over yet. I noticed that while she’d offered us seats, she hadn’t offered food, drink, or medical attention. Nothing that made us her guests, nothing that implied we’d be here long.
If they wouldn’t let Torran stay there was no question in my mind — I’d leave with him, go where he went. But what would that mean for Malcolm?
We didn’t even know if there was another settlement in walking distance. And with Torran’s injuries ‘walking distance’ might not be very far at all.
“Thank you for taking us in,” I said, smiling as warmly as possible. “We’d, um, like to claim asylum.”
Vicky laughed a little uneasily. “For you and your brother that’s no problem. We welcome any human who’s willing to do their part, and you’ve shown that you’ll do that! For an alien warrior, though? His people are the reason we’re stranded on this planet.”
Torran leaned forward, then stopped as Vicky leaned back. Spreading his hands in a gesture of peace, he nodded.
“I understand that, and accept that my people have earned our bad reputation,” he said earnestly. “I don’t ask for your trust, not straight away. But I promise you — I am here as Lisa’s khara, her mate. I wish to join your society, and I will obey your laws if you will let me. All I ask is a chance to prove myself.”
“I’m not sure you understand how big a thing you’re asking of us,” Vicky said. “Many of us won’t accept you.”
“I don’t mind, as long as I can be with Lisa. And I can help. I know how prytheen scout, how we hunt, and I will teach your hunters.”
“And without his help, Gurral and his men would have made their attack,” I put in. “He’s a good man and you can trust him.”
“You’re hardly unbiased,” Vicky replied, but then she shook her head. “On the other hand, you have a point. He saved us a lot of fighting we couldn’t afford, and I don’t want to turn you away after all you’ve been through.”
“You can’t kick Torran out,” Malcolm blurted, jumping out of his chair. “He saved us a lot. And if you kick him out, Lisa will go too and that’s not fair. You can’t do it, I won’t let you.”
Vicky looked taken aback by the outburst and I found myself caught between wanting to restrain my brother and cheer him on. It was Torran who spoke first.
“Do not be angry,” he said, putting an arm around Malcolm’s shoulders. “She is correct, we prytheen have given humans every reason to be wary. If they cannot let me in, then we shall find somewhere else. Do not worry, I will make sure you and your sister are safe.”
Watching him comfort my brother, my heart swelled with love for Torran. And Vicky seemed touched by it too. She tapped her pen on the table thoughtfully, frowned. Smiled at Malcolm. “How can I deny such a passionate appeal? Fine. I can’t offer you a place here right away, but I can offer you a trial period. Six months and then we’ll see where we stand. Don’t make me regret that, okay? This is going to cost me a lot of capital at the Town Meeting.”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, reached across the table and took her hands. “Thank you! We won’t let you down, you’ll see.”
“I hope not. I’m sticking my neck out for you, but we do owe you. If it wasn’t for your help, we’d have been in a lot of trouble.”
Malcolm almost bounced in his seat, eyes bright. “So he can stay? Really?”
“Really.” Vicky smiled back at him. “At least for a while.”
“Good,” Torran said, finally letting his exhaustion show. The relief seemed to have robbed him of all his strength. “Now that’s settled, I can pass out.”
He slumped forward and I barely caught him before his head struck the table.
26
Torran
I drifted in the darkness of my healing trance again, but this time I felt safe. Secure. People moved around me speaking in a language I recognized but didn’t know. Lisa’s English, perhaps? Whatever it was, it flowed over me like a welcoming warm stream.
Eventually I rose from the depths of my trance. I kept my breathing steady, my eyes shut, listening. Instinct and training told me I wasn’t alone in the room, and I waited to gather data before I stirred. Though I felt safe, my training insisted on being sure.
One person. A human. I took a deeper breath, caught her scent, and restrained a joyful smile.
Lisa. My khara. My one and only mate, right there in arm’s reach.
So I did the obvious thing. Opening my eyes, I reached out for her and pulled her to me. Lisa shrieked at my touch, squirming as she fell onto the bed beside me.
“You ass,” she said, outraged but giggling. “You could have given m
e a heart attack.”
Immediately contrite, I let go of her. But she didn’t pull away, instead snuggling up against me.
“I wanted to surprise you,” I told her, kissing her neck.
“You did that alright,” she said with a sigh. “You’ve been unconscious for nearly a week, Torran. And then suddenly you grab me? You’re lucky I didn’t punch you in the face.”
She laughed, and I chuckled along with her. Looking around the room, I examined my surroundings. Prefab walls lined with blankets, colorful displays of fabric that kept in the warmth. Sunlight streamed in through a large window, and a hologram display on one wall showed a looping image of an ocean. Soothing, peaceful, and welcoming.
And definitely not a prison. The window was too big, the door too flimsy, for this room to hold me. I smiled, taking my khara in my arms and squeezing her against me.
“We’re safe here, then? What has happened in this week?” It wasn’t a time unit I knew, but from context I guessed it was long enough for things to have changed.
Lisa snuggled back against me, her firm body pressed to mine, immediately awakening my lust. My cock hardened at her touch and nearly forgot about my questions.
“Everything’s fine,” Lisa told me, wriggling again. Deliberately, I was certain. I growled a little and a delicious shiver ran through my khara’s body. “Alex, Maria, and Tania are awake again. Lucky them, they slept through the whole escape. And Vicky’s given us this room for the time being. We’ll get our own place if they let us stay.”
“When they let us stay,” I corrected, pulling her closer and kissing her neck. “They have good reason to be cautious, but they will see we are a good addition to their community.”
Lisa squirmed, breathing faster, and turned in my arms. Her flushed face was only inches from mine, and she bit her lip in a cute gesture I loved dearly.
I looked forward to finding out what other endearing faces I could get her to make. The experiment would take years — joyful, long, satisfying years.
Pulling her to me, I kissed her, gentle at first then more urgent. Lisa moaned and slid her hands around me, caressing me, peeling back the blankets that covered me. My body felt fully alive, responding to her touch and her presence.
And then someone knocked on the door. I growled, looking up from the kiss.
“Ignore it,” Lisa said. “They’ll go away.”
The hammering grew louder, and Malcolm called out Lisa’s name. She groaned and reluctantly pulled herself out of my grasp, standing and straightening her clothes.
“Of course,” she said, shaking her head. “The day you wake up is the day he has to visit.”
Frustrated and amused, I lay back on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. “The boy has amazing timing. It’ll get him in trouble someday.”
Lisa snorted an undignified laugh. “Someday? What’s wrong with now? We can find somewhere to hide the body…”
I chuckled and shook my head, sitting up again and stretching. My body felt like a mess of pain, covered in new wounds, but all of it seemed to work. Perhaps I should have checked that before pulling Lisa into my bed, I thought, amused at myself. There was, after all, no urgency now.
My body disagreed. It wanted my khara and no delay was acceptable.
The door slid open and Malcolm’s head peeked around it, grinning at me. “You’re awake! Dr. Collins said you were.”
“Oh? And how did this doctor know?” I couldn’t help baring my teeth. Whoever had sent the kit to interrupt us had some explaining to do.
“Her clinic is monitoring your vital signs,” Malcolm explained, entering the room. He carried a covered basket, and a delicious scent of cooked meat rose from it. “Keeping an eye on you from a distance. And she said you’d want something to eat.”
My stomach rumbled and I grabbed the basket out of his hands. I should have realized how hungry I was — several days in a healing trance had used every bit of fuel my body had.
“You’re forgiven then,” I said, tearing the cover off as Lisa watched with amusement. Inside there were packages of some kind of flatbread, wrapped around meat and vegetables. I tore into one without thinking about it. Delicious.
Lisa shook her head, and Malcolm frowned. “Forgiven? Did I do something wrong?”
I didn’t answer, too busy eating, and Lisa replied for both of us. “No, silly, you’re fine. And it looks like Torran really needed something to eat.”
Starting on the second of the food packages I nodded, trying to slow down. Lisa carefully took the basket out of my hands and grinned. “Hey, if you’re up to it, maybe we should take the rest outside and have a picnic? You’ve not seen the Vale yet, not really, and I’m sure you could use some fresh air.”
I nodded, a little reluctantly. Right now every step away from the bed I wanted to share with Lisa was one too far, but if Malcolm was going to chaperone us anyway, we might as well. And I longed for the outside, for fresh air and sunlight. Unlike many prytheen I preferred the freedom of a planet’s surface to the confines of a ship, or a room.
“Let me get dressed then, and you can show me our new home.”
Our guest room turned out to be a chamber in the Meeting Hall at the center of the Vale settlement, and when we stepped outside we faced the colony pod that had brought most of these humans to Crashland. Far larger than the one Lisa and her companions had arrived in, capable of holding hundreds of humans in their stasis tubes, and all the supplies needed for the planet they’d expected to wake up on.
It was a testament to their species’ adaptability that they’d been able to adjust to Crashland so quickly. This wasn’t the world they’d aimed for or prepared for, but they were making it their home. I hugged Lisa as we walked through the still-growing settlement, prefab buildings arranged in a cluster beside the pod, farms stretching out over the valley. Woods beyond the fields, and an ultrasonic fence to keep out the wildlife. It would make a good home, I thought.
Settling down? Never thought I’d do that. Every planet I’d visited as a scout had been for a mission. There’d been an enemy to hunt or a target to find, and then I was off into the wild black of space again.
The idea that one of those worlds would become home had never occurred to me, not until now. Not until Lisa.
Humans watched us as we passed. Watched me, really, their eyes wary. I didn’t mind — they had every right to be careful about a prytheen after we’d stranded them here. It might take time to prove I was a friend but whatever it took, I’d do it. Hard work didn’t scare me. Only the thought of losing Lisa had that power now.
The settlement was still new, still growing, and it didn’t take us long to get out into the untended areas. Purple-leaved trees rose towards the heavens, eerily silent. Ultrasound fences kept Crashland’s wildlife at bay, and the species the humans introduced weren’t spreading yet. I wondered what would happen when they did. What hybrid ecology would arise?
“Here,” Malcolm said with a finality that amused Lisa and me. Somehow, he’d ended up in charge of our expedition.
He’d picked a good place for the picnic though, I admitted as I put down the basket and spread a blanket on the grass for us to sit on. We’d climbed high enough on a hill to look down at the settlement spreading in the valley below, the sun’s light fell warm on us but the nearby trees offered shade if we wanted it.
I dug out another of the flatbread parcels and tore into it a little more slowly this time, savoring the subtle, exotic flavors of human food. The humans each took one for themselves, and we settled back to enjoy the view and the food in silence.
“This is delicious,” I said when I’d finished. “I had no idea human cooking was so good.”
“That’s because Lisa’s isn’t. Remember the food she gave you when you were in sickbay?” Malcolm asked, laughing. Lisa laughed too, taking the jibe in good spirits.
“We didn’t have much to work with back there,” she said. “Once we’ve got our own place, I can do a lot better.”
“I will teach you prytheen cooking,” I told her with a grin. “I’ve always enjoyed preparing food, but I’ve rarely had the facilities to do it right.”
Lisa snuggled against me, looking down at the valley and smiling happily. “I’d like that. There’s got to be some interesting fusion food we can make.”
Malcolm looked at us, shaking his head again. “Sis, you never liked cooking.”
“Maybe I just didn’t have anyone I wanted to cook for,” my khara said, sticking her tongue out at her brother, and we all laughed. The bright sun dipped low, heading for the horizon, and we basked in its rays.
But while the quiet moment was just what Lisa and I wanted, Malcolm started to fidget. I remembered being a kit that age, full of restless energy and always on the move, and I knew that I wouldn’t have sat still as long as he had.
Even so, he didn’t last long before getting up. “Sis, is it okay if I go and play? I think I see Tania down there.”
I looked where he pointed. A small group of young humans were playing some kind of game with an oblong ball in a cleared area near the settlement and Malcolm vibrated with his eagerness to join in.
And I felt Lisa’s eagerness to get him out of our way. An eagerness I shared — as much as we both cared for the kit, as much as we’d enjoyed our shared meal, we both wanted to get back to what he’d interrupted.
“Of course,” Lisa said, making a credible effort at hiding her joy that he wanted to go. “Just be careful, okay? And don’t stay out too late.”
Malcolm gave her a look and grinned. “I won’t!”
With that he was off, racing down the hill towards the other kits. We watched him go, sharing a smile.
“Now, where were we?” Lisa asked once he was safely away. I growled, my passion rising again, and stroked a hand down her arm. My claws extended, grazing her skin, and she shivered, mouth opening in a silent oh.
