That in turn created a very warm heat where Talia would usually have been wearing panties. Only, she'd fled from The New Horizon’s shower room without time to properly dress. Apart from the jumpsuit that Loraine had tossed her, Talia wasn't wearing anything, not even a pair of shoes. And her redheaded friend had gotten into an escape pod completely naked, the poor thing.
It was hard to see inside this escape pod, the brightness from outside creating such a contrast that the big alien man's face and body were all shadow. "Did you, you couldn't have understood me just now," she whispered up close to his face.
He leaned back and removed his hands from her. He tilted his head and shuddered, like he was having some kind of mini-seizure. For a moment, he was quiet.
"Oh, no, please don't die on me! I don't even know where I am. Are you alright?"
"Yes," he said.
Eyelids wide open, an instant wave of unsureness coming over her, Talia said, "What did you just say?"
"Yes."
"Can you, how did you ... can you understand me?"
But there was a look of confusion and being at a loss taking over his understanding. "Some," he said. Then, he tapped the side of his head. "Soon," he said next. "Learn."
"What? How on Earth—on wherever we are anyway—do you know any English at all?"
"English?"
"Yes, that's my language. This is crazy. I need to step outside." Talia walked out of the pod, shielding her eyes from the brightness outside. They were somewhere hot, with a strange off-white sand surrounding them. It was a desert of some type, that much was for sure. "Just my luck to wind up in a freaking alien Sahara..." Already, sweat was forming on her brow.
The alien man stepped out behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder. It was so big and hard, capable of doing untold damage.
Talia startled. "Please, don't," she said as she stepped away from him. It was all too much, and she had never felt so small and at peril of being sucked up into the vast expanse of existence. She began to step away from the pod. Something was in the air that caught her attention. The sky above was wide, an odd kind of near-blue that was clearly unlike Earth, and there weren't any clouds in sight.
There were strange trails in the sky. "What are those?" she mumbled to herself.
"Pods," said the rugged alien.
"Those could be my friends?" There were others who had been kidnapped from her ship, so there was no telling how many others might have escaped in pods as well. She started to run toward the trail without a second thought.
"No!" called the alien behind her, apparently getting better at her language by the second. That was frightening in itself. Maybe he really had a mind reading ability, or worse, she thought. It didn’t seem much more far-fetched than a brain chip that could make him learn a new language.
Talia began to run even faster. "Leave me alone!" she cried out. After running a dozen yards, the sand began to grow softer and hard to move through.
"Stop!" shouted the man firmly, in a voice that urged her to listen.
He charged up behind her and tackled her to the ground, holding her in place in desperation. The look that came over him was so intense that it sent shivers of fear through her body.
"Dangerous here," he said. "Please stop."
"How are you learning my language so fast? What are you?" she shouted in his face, half expecting him to strike her or worse. "Let go of me, I'm not your captive!" She slipped away from him somehow and kept running across the shifting sand, painfully aware that he was just behind her, following closely. "What do you want?" she asked.
"Stop, please. I don't want to—"
Something moved under the ground, and the spot before Talia's bare feet swirled around like some small ocean in the sand. A large, dark red surface appeared and quickly rose up. It was circular and covered in dozens of black dots, each the size of a fist.
"Back!" cried out the tattooed alien behind her, apparently not her would-be captor at all, but again just a stranger trying to save her. He grabbed her and flung over his shoulder as though she weighed nothing. She let out a scream as she was lifted and sent tumbling across the sand back toward the pod. She didn't stop rolling until she was clear of the softer sand, but was unhurt.
When Talia collected herself and looked up, there was an enormous thing, like a gigantic worm with a gaping maw of razor sharp fangs—hundreds, thousands of them in many rows—and the whole monstrosity was bearing down upon the alien man.
His muscles flexed in the open sunlight as he lunged forward and slammed both fists into the worm's many black eyes. The thing made a sickening screaming sound as two of the black spot burst open and splattered bright green blood over him. It thrashed around, the entire length of its body that was above the sand writhing. The whole length whipped viciously downward without a second of warning. The lethally sharp looking teeth came down and caught the brave alien across his left pectoral muscle.
"No!" Talia screamed, her heart taking a mighty hit as she envisioned herself wondering alone, lost, in this God-forsaken desert for the rest of her life. Or worse, being eaten alive by the nightmare worm.
The hunky alien didn't even flinch when those teeth tore into his flesh. He hit the monster again and again, pounding into its face, smashing more black eyes, and even knocking in a bunch of the sharp teeth in the process. With an ear-splitting scream, it shot back down under the sand and was gone as quickly as it had arrived.
11
-Karthid-
He slumped to the ground the moment the sandworm retreated. This was the first time he'd encountered one of the things. As he rose again, something touched him from behind and just as he spun around and was ready to defend himself from another attack, that golden hair shining in the sunlight, the radiant face of such loveliness, all that was good and womanly, sensual and seductive, calmed his nerves instantly. Karthid felt as though he hadn't even been injured.
"You're hurt," she said with deep concern. "Come on, you have to sit down." She lifted his thick arm and tried to help him along. He was far too heavy for her to shift though. "My, you're so big," she said with awe. It was easy to detect the admiration in her voice.
"You're beautiful," he said. There was no cause among his people to be bashful upon finding a desirable woman.
"What? Oh, really? Wow. Okay, let's get you seated back in the pod for a rest. That's bad, isn't it?" She was staring intently at the gash that went over his chest, but didn't shy away from the blood like many young women he had met through his travels. "I have to bandage that. Why did I have to get abducted without my tool belt, damn it?"
"Tool belt?" he said. "You're a builder?"
"No, I'm an agricultural expert. I guess you might say farmer."
"A woman? You are much too lovely to work in the fields beneath the hot sun."
"Actually, I was working on a space ship from Earth before those green jerks attacked us and abducted me and my friends.”
“You are a scientist?” They were at the pod now, and Karthid took a seat. He patted the one beside him. "Please, sit."
"I am, yes. Don’t women do that kind thing where you’re from?”
“My people are no more …” he said and looked away.
It was awkward, so Talia focused on the task at hand. “I'll need something to use as a bandage, not that it's going to help much. You're not really bleeding a lot though, are you? Is this your blood? There should be more of it judging from the wound.”
It occurred to Karthid that the deep magenta blood might be unusual to an alien from so far away. "Your blood is not this color?"
"No, it's red. This is, beautiful."
"Just like you."
She ignored that but went a shade of red herself, then teared the sleeve off her jumpsuit without another though and began to make up bandage strips with it, applying them to his wound. Her body smelled so good that Karthid had to resist the urge to kiss her and grope her large breasts.
"Are all of your men as large as you?
"
"Some. I am warrior." The translation chip in his head was working well but still not making his speech very eloquent.
"Well," she said, pressing down on his pectoral muscle and applying pressure while she wound the fabric around behind him. "You are impressive." She blushed. Her hair brushed against his face and engulfed him in her sexual energy. A vibrant, glimmering aura was rushing around them both, although she obviously couldn't pick up on this. It was all simple genetics for his people, but that was hard to fight against.
The stunning woman finished bandaging and sat back, breathing deeply. If she was traumatized, she was certainly good at controlling her emotions. "But how did you learn English?"
"You are English?" he said.
"No, I'm American. That's a country on my planet, Earth. We are human. That's our species. We speak English though. How can you know nothing about my home but somehow, here you are speaking my language?"
"Translation chip," he said, again pointing to the side of his head where the chip had been installed. "They are very common through our whole system. But your planet, I have never heard of. Also, I have never met a more desirable woman in my life."
"Hey now, that's enough of that talk. You'll give me a big head. I'm sure you just have a concussion or something. But you don’t seem to be bleeding much. Is that common for your people? Where are you from anyway, this planet?"
"No, I am Tarz. That is my species. My tribe, the Reh'loy of the planet D'khleas, were attacked by the Gedex. I am the only survivor …"
"Shit. Oh, sorry."
"Shit?"
"Yes. It's, never mind. It's a swear word. Cursing?"
"Ah, yes. This whole situation, shit. But maybe worthwhile to find you."
"Wow, you have to stop saying things like that. You could really make a girl forget the kind of trouble she's in." She was leaning closer to him, had been slowly moving in as they spoke, seemingly without realizing she was doing so.
"Please," he said. "What is the word for … I don't know …"
"What? I don't know what you want to say. Can you show me?"
"Yes," he said, then leaned in, put a hand behind her neck as gently as his immense strength allowed, and kissed her. The taste of her soft lips was beyond his expectations. Karthid closed his eyes, as she did too, and there was zero effort on her part to resist the kiss. The world collapsed around them and the stars shot out to the farther corners of the dark universe. It was like being the only remaining source of light or life that had, or ever would, exist again. That is when he knew.
As Karthid opened his eyes and removed his had from the woman's delicate skin, he noticed that he was buzzing. "This."
"Oh, kiss. And what a kiss." She sat back into the pod's chair, her huge bust rising and falling. Her wide hips filled out the seat easily and pressed against him. There was serious heat between their bodies, making the desert sun outside seem like a giant icicle in comparison. "I know I have to stop saying this but—wow. What just happened?"
"You said it: kiss." He smiled at her.
"Yeah but, there was a light or an energy or something. I can't even begin to describe what it was. Did that come from you? Or was it this planet, or me?" She was starting to grow worried again.
"No, from us. You and I."
"That's not possible. I don't even know your name."
"Karthid is my name. Karthid of the Reh'loy. And your name?"
"I'm Talia. Talia Greene of Earth. It's very nice to meet you, Karthid. Thank for you saving my life, twice. Why do I feel so safe right now?"
"I did not believe it until this kiss: we are meant to be, true mates. I think you can believe that now too."
"That's what the strange feeling was? Shit …"
"Shit? No, it's a good thing." He was fearful that she was about to reject him. Was the kiss really 'shit'?
Talia laughed. “No, Karthid. We use curse words when we're not upset sometimes, like when we're happy, or surprised, or—I don't even know how to explain this. Do you have a word for this? Our people would call it. No, it's stupid."
"Love at first sighting?" He wasn't sure exactly what those words meant to her. The translation wasn't exact yet. But those were the words that had come out of his mouth. "Is that right?"
"I don’t know about all that. If that were true, we'd be the first to really understand it." The idea felt silly to even say out loud.
There was a shuffling outside the pod and some shadows darkened the open door. "Come out and put your hands in the air!" came a harsh shout.
His first thought was that some Gedex had also escaped in pods to planet Lustrya. But it didn't sound at all like the gurgling croak of the frog-faced aliens. Even so, Karthid leapt from the escape pod with his fists up, ready for a fight. Something struck him in the neck. With his sight already going hazy, he felt there was a dart sticking out of his flesh. It caused him to shudder and drop to the sand.
12
-Talia-
"Karthid!" Talia called. And then she gasped with fright as a robed and hooded figure reached in and grabbed her. She caught them in the face with her bare food as she struggled, but another set of hands soon joined the first, as several of the robe wearing assailants dragged her from the pod and tied her with rough ropes. "You’re kidding me!" she cried out, but they ignored her, muttering among themselves. She was gagged with a rag and couldn't do anything more than let out muffled sobs.
One spoke in an alien language, gesturing at their two new captives.
The other shrugged and looked at Karthid on the ground, unconscious. He spoke and pointed at the dart, seemingly upset. Perhaps this was considered too extreme. Maybe these hooded aliens thought they were just defending themselves. If only Karthid were conscious, he could tell her what was being said. This one word, “Graajhert” caught her attention and stuck in her mind.
Talia was loaded into a prison wagon, being hauled by some beasts that resembled extremely stout elephants with short snouts and horns. "Hey, are you okay?" she whispered to Karthid, gently shaking him by the arm. His bicep was unreal but this was no time to be thinking about how much she wanted to inspect the rest of his impressive body. How could a man so hot and powerful really think she might be destined to be with him?
After a good ten minutes, with a grunt and groan, he came to then sat up in the back of the wagon. They'd bound his hands behind his back as well as his legs. "I'm sorry," he said, "I failed to protect you."
"I think you've done more than anyone's ever required to do to save a stranger," Talia said.
"No." He seemed to notice that he was bound. "Desert raiders have captured us."
"I’m sorry, without your fancy brain chip, I had no idea what they said before they loaded us up in here. They kept saying this one word, Graajhert. It didn’t sound like they had anything good in mind.
"No, they don’t. That word means arena, a place for blood sport, fights to the death in some cases." A look of concentration overcame him and his whole body tightened. The ropes that were tied around his wrists and legs simply popped off, breaking apart like they were made of spider webs. He quickly broke Talia's ropes too, although he was a lot gentler in doing so.
"Thank you," she said, impressed yet again by his strength. "How do you know about this planet?"
"I know about many places. My family was, royal, is that the right word? We were rightful rulers of the Reh’loy tribe. Our power and wealth was expansive, but we did not have the space fairing technology of the Gedex. They are like a plague of insects that move from planet to planet, attacking one place at a time. I would like to kill every last one of them. He punched the side of the prison wagon and the whole thing shook noticeably. This elicited a shout of anger from outside the wagon.
It also made Talia startle. "Hey, calm down," she said. "I'm sure there's got to be some way to get out of this. I didn't come all the way to the stars just to wind up some slave."
"That is a less violent end than is likely, if we are being taken t
o an arena on this savage planet as prisoners." Seeing that he’d upset her, Karthid added, “Do not worry, beautiful Talia. I will protect you until my last breath.”
"I wish I had the same sort of courage as you," Talia said. "To tell you the truth, I've been absolutely terrified ever since the alarm was raised on The New Horizon, our ship.” She slumped down in the corner of the wagon. The steel of the sides was warm from the desert sun, although there was shade inside the enclosed vessel. The guards couldn't see inside from their mounts, which was at least some kind of comfort.
For someone who seemed so rugged and barbaric, Karthid had an amazing sense of empathy. He immediately stopped acting so angry and moved to sit close to Talia. "Having fear does not mean you lack courage," he said to her, putting his hard fingers up to her soft chin. "I am afraid each time I must fight. I do not wish to die or be maimed. More so, the concept of losing is unacceptable to me. That would also mean my enemies winning and going on to cause more pain and suffering on others. Only a beast, or a mad man, could face death without being afraid. But courage means fighting anyway, using that fear to drive you forward and to victory."
"I can't describe how I feel when you talk, when you're near me," Talia said. "Logically, I should be scared of you as well. I don't even know you, and you’ve clearly killed loads of people. But I feel so safe and secure with you. This sounds silly, I know, but it's almost like being—"
"Home?"
"Yes." She leaned forward, moving her face closer to his. Talia had to look up at him as Karthid was easily a foot and a half taller than her. He was also wide, so much wider that her. The sheer bulk of his body was staggering and it made her wonder if everything was equally as big. "I have a feeling that I'm going to die soon," she said. "I don't want to be alone if that happens."
"You won't be," urged Karthid in his thick, bass-rich voice.
It made Talia's body quiver and she slid over even closer to him.
Savage Planet Warrior Page 4
