Lin's Challenge

by Mara Jaye

  When he looks at me, I grin. “Sorry. You’re an appealing guy, and I can’t help but notice.”

  “You, um, think so?” He scratches the couple of day’s growth of beard on his face. “I mean, am I irresistible to you?”

  “Ego much?” I say and chuckle before giving the wall a smack. “When you let me snuggle your cool body yesterday, I realized how alone I’ve been here.” We’re both working, and it’s odd, but his sweat does all sorts of things to my libido. I take a deep breath and lust curls through me like incense smoke. I turn to him, letting the ax rest for a few seconds. “You also smell so good. Good enough that, yeah, you’re irresistible.”

  He stares at me before leaning in and asking, “You feel this, too?”

  So close to me, I can’t help but stare deep into his obsidian eyes. The iris seems entirely black until we’re nearly nose to nose. Then, I can see the deep blue glimmers in the depths. He’s a handsome man. “I do.”

  Turkh nods before returning to the digging. I watch him for a few seconds before my translator begins tingling. Damn. All I want to do is spend my time and attention on him. Instead of dragging him back to the now clean room, I begin working with my good arm. He’s hitting the wall a little hard, so I ask, “You don’t see any sign of the gemstones where we are?”

  After a pause, he answers me. “No, not until a few feet into the wall. By that time, well, things change, and we may not have to worry about what we hit.”

  He’s right. I may not live long enough to dig so far into the rock. The stone seemed a lot spongier when I first started. I expected the distance between the parallel mine shafts to be a lot narrower by now. Every day it’s the same thing, and I’d hoped we’d all make progress enough to get off of this planet by now.

  I have to rest every ten strokes or so. Every time I do, I glance at Turkh. He’s stoic, working as if he’s a machine. I go back to my own digging. If he were mechanical, that’d explain a lot about his skin. Except for the softness. He may look metallic and feel cool, but his skin feels like a rose petal.

  Now that I think about it, I’ll bet he’s not a real person. But then, he isn’t a robot, either. They’re too primitive, and he’s very advanced. I glance at him and can’t help but ask, “Hey, Turkh? Are you an android?”

  His hits falter as he replies to me. “No, I’m a humanoid. You were there when I pissed.”

  Him saying pissed seems both hilarious and odd. “You know that word?”

  “Yes. Another one of those universal words like fuck.”

  Okay, pissed isn’t the oddest word he’s ever said. I shake my head and reply, “I guess.”

  We work a little longer before he says, “Why do you ask if I’m an automaton? Does your planet have them so realistic you can’t tell man and machine apart?”

  “God, no. Our machines aren’t human at all. You have a bronze look to you, your skin is cool, and you’re physically amazing.”

  “You’d mentioned the metal aspect earlier, plus our world is hot. We tend to run cooler than most races.”

  A hot guy from a hot world. Makes sense. “Are there polar regions on your planet?”

  He laughs, and I look at him. As soon as our eyes meet, he shrugs. “Sorry, but every planet has poles. Ours are cool but not enough to turn water into ice.”

  Amusement colors his words as if the answer were obvious to him. I should have paid more attention in my science classes. Trying to not seem as stupid as he must think I am, I shrug. “Oh, sure. I meant polar ice caps. We have them, and I wondered if everyone did.”

  As soon as I glance over, he’s shaking his head, and that’s when I realize the answer is another obvious one to most people. I try to recover by adding, “I mean, not that every world is a ball of ice or even wants to be.” After a nagging feeling of digging myself into a deeper hole, I give him a quick grin. “How about you tell me, and I’ll stop asking dumb questions.”

  He stops work to grab my shoulder and giving me a squeeze before resuming work. “They’re not dumb. Maybe a little ignorant, but not dumb.”

  I don’t know how to take this and let my pickax fall. “Ignorant, huh?”

  “Just your questions seem a little uninformed. Geosciences don’t seem to be your society’s priority.”

  “No, you’re right. They weren’t mine until recently.”

  He pauses long enough to put a hand on the middle of my back before continuing. “Maybe not, but things always change.” I miss when his touch ends. Before I can tell him so, he continues, “I could get into magnetic poles versus rotational axis with a little bit of what happens when either change during a planet or star’s lifetime. That’s always interesting.”

  “Um, yeah.”

  He laughed. “But, I have a feeling you want to know more of the day to day events on my homeworld.”

  “Exactly.” I sigh in relief. Geosciences are probably interesting to people but not to me. “Everything at your home is interesting to me. Where you buy or get food, the vehicles or transportation you have, what you do for fun. Things like that.”

  The sounds of various humanoids breaking up rock ring out all around us. He seems to think for a while before beginning. “The people at home are united and speak with one voice to other planets. Not that we all agree or even get along with each other. We have conflicts, some heated, but we all gathered together into one society with many cultures eons ago.”

  “Do you have space flight?”

  He’s quiet again before answering. “We’ve made some progress in space travel, yes. A race always wants more no matter where they are.”

  “I hear that. We started off with our moon before looking at Mars. It’s the closest planet to us that isn’t 300 degrees or so.” I feel rather smart about remembering the surface temperature of Venus, roughly, maybe. Hopefully, because I have no access to the internet to double check myself.

  “Degrees? I assume it’s a unit of measurement?”

  The tone and mood shift up the mine, distracting me for a moment. “Oh, yes, degrees are temperature or angle things. Math and science weren’t my strong points. I’d say in here the air feels like an even one hundred degrees. The dampness makes it worse.” I look up the conveyor belt and see the food bin in the distance. “So the other nearby planet to Earth is three times warmer than here. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s enough to melt plastic. And me.”

  My stomach growls, and I can’t help but stare as the bin comes closer. We’re further down into the mine, and I’m not sure there’ll be anything left. The back of my neck tingles so I keep working. “We’re not close to any of the blue stones, are we?”

  “Not yet. At this rate, it’ll be several weeks.”

  He sounds as grim as I feel. The food bin rolls closer. Humanoids to my right and up the conveyor begin fighting as the bin approaches. I don’t want to admit I know why they’re angry. “Shit.” At Turkh’s questioning expression, I explain, “There are no more food bags by now. For some reason, they didn’t make enough for us at the lowest levels.”

  “What do they have to gain by starving everyone?”

  “What do they have to gain by feeding us regularly? The strong survive a day or two without food and save them money or resources while the weak die. It’s a win for them both ways.” My eyes fill with tears, and the rock wall blurs. “All this won’t end until there’s nothing left of us or the gemstones.” My pickax misses the rock, and the tip crashes into the conveyor belt, jarring my entire body.

  Turkh’s scent grows stronger, and I want nothing more than to let him hold me until all this fades into nothing, but I can’t. We’d both be killed for my weakness. “You said I could never go home again. Did you mean it?”

  He’s silent for a while with nothing but a slowdown in his work to let me know he’s heard my question. “Yes, I did. There’s no way you’ll ever go back to Earth. Whoever abducted you will get the maximum penalty when they’re caught.”

  His optimism is admirable, but my realis
m is stronger. “If. If they’re caught.”

  “When they are, not if.”

  I admire his certainty, but let the argument go. He doesn’t know anything more about how the universe works than I do. Bad guys don’t get caught. They just pay good guys to look the other way. My stomach growls again. I’m so hungry it hurts, I want a long and hot shower and my car. Not even Rick with his problems and Mom with hers sound bad right now.

  For the first time since I was put here, tears roll down my face. Maybe I’m extra dense to have not given up on life by now, but the futility hits me in the gut. I let my ax fall to the floor. “I think I’m done.”

  Turkh picks up the tool and begins the work for me, alternating with his own. “No, you’re not. You’re going to stay strong and let me help.”

  He’s sweet, but I don’t quite believe he can do anything down here. “For how long? Until you drop dead first?”

  “If that’s what it takes, yes.”

  I look over at him. No way can this guy care so much about me in such a short amount of time. Attraction is one thing but to work himself to death for me? Ha! I reach for the ax. “Okay, I can keep going. Let me have it.”

  “No.”

  “Seriously. Let me get back to work.”

  “No. Take a rest break.”

  A familiar buzzing begins in my neck, and I reach for the ax. “I need to do my own work because they already suspect something.”

  He looks at me. “You’re getting a signal, too?”

  “Yes. They can tell after the first few hours of work when someone has paid another to take over for them.” I put my hand on his bicep and hope the touch will sway him. “I’m just upset because I’m hungry is all.” I slide down to his now paused hand. “Even with you being right-handed, they’ve figured out I’m not as strong as you.”

  He lets me have the ax before taking my chin in his hand. “Promise me you’ll believe it when I say you won’t die here.”

  “I…” I do want to believe him. He’s certainly strong enough to make things happen. But as the buzzing at the back of my neck grows stronger and begins to hurt, I can’t say the words. The hum turns into crackles. I pull away from his touch. A couple of smashes against the stone wall and the pain fades. After a sigh of relief, I tell him, “I’m sorry, but there’s no need to lie to each other. We both know I’ll die here.”

  Chapter Seven

  Turkh

  I watch as tears leave clean streaks down her grimy little face. She’s the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen, and her sadness kills me. I can’t tell her why I have faith in our escape. I just need her to be strong enough to survive until I get her out of this prison. She’s already back to work on the rock, and I say, “Promise me you won’t even think about dying here until after I do. Promise me.”

  “Can I die as soon as you do?”

  Her question stabs my heart. She makes me wish for the immortality of a first worlder instead of a limited life span of a second worlder. “Yes. You can only die after I do. Promise?”

  “Are promises a big deal for you? As in, you keep them after you make them?”

  I frown. Everyone on Ghar treats a promise as sacred. We don’t promise anything we can’t deliver. I’m not sure how to tell her this without sounding like a Gharian, though. “We do keep them. People have died yet kept their promise afterward. It’s a serious task.”

  “Hmm.” She pauses and rubs the back of her neck before continuing. I create a reminder to give her a neck rub and clean her arm’s wound after the shift. “We aren’t like that on Earth. It’s all I promise this and I promise that but nothing ever comes true. I don’t go to the zoo with the other kids. I can’t borrow the car for a job interview. He works late, so I miss the museum’s opening.”

  She pauses to wipe the sweat from her forehead and leaves a clean streak. The empty food bin goes past us on the belt. We both watch as it disappears before she says, “I mean, it’s all okay. I like that you’ve promised and all, but if something happens and I die here, at least you tried.”

  My mind stopped at her use of “he,” but recording everything afterward gives me an advantage. I want to pry without prying and ask, “So your father or brother didn’t take you to a museum?”

  “Neither one exists. I mean, I don’t know my father, never did, and I don’t have a brother. The he I meant is my boyfriend, Rick. He says a lot but, well, you know. Never follows through.”

  “Boyfriend.” The word translates as a young male companion and I hope that’s what he is to her.

  “Yeah, although he’s probably with someone else by now. He’s faithful, just not patient.” She keeps working while I find it tough to continue. Of course, she had prior relationships. Lin is a beautiful person. Any man would be crazy to pass on getting to know her better. I just don’t want anyone else to ever touch her again because she’s mine.

  Lin’s going on about her living arrangements on Earth and what she calls a boy friend. When I stop thinking of ways to ignore my jealousy, I hear her say. “One or two months without sex and he’s out hunting for a new roommate.”

  “Sex?” Her saying the word pulls me from my own thoughts.

  She doesn’t pause in her litany. “I mean, here I am, not being the most faithful girlfriend by thinking you’re hot but that’s different. I’m on another planet and probably the only human here. Meanwhile, he’s at home, bored, and probably looking for a new girlfriend.”

  “Wait, what?” She was intimate with someone, potentially bonded with them? I stop her work with a hand on her shoulder. “You had sex with him?”

  She stops and looks at me. “Well, yeah. We were roommates and together.” Frowning, she says, “Oh, I see. Is…what planet did you say you’re from?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Okay, is this “Ididnt” a place where you all don’t have sex but procreate in test tubes and glass bottles?” She begins working again. “I watched a movie where the people stopped having sex because it was disgusting. Is that what you’ve done?”

  Despite my irritation, I can’t help but smile at the idea. We may have one or two unions available to us in our lifetimes, but there are no restrictions on healthy and willing partners. She’s giving me the side eye, and I try not to smile. “That’s not what I’ve done, no. Others tend to wait until their union before they have sex. I’m not the patient type.” She snorts and laughs at the same time. “People are allowed to do what they and their partners want.”

  “Uh huh. You’re acting like my having sex is a big deal while you’re over there romancing all the women. I suppose slut shaming is universal, too.”

  “I don’t understand the term.”

  “It’s used to make women ashamed of how many sexual partners they’ve had. A woman who has slept with a lot of men is called a slut, and, there’s shame attached.”

  I really wish the shift was over so I could face Lin and explain my thoughts and meanings behind them. This constant motion and trying to have a conversation at the same time is frustrating. “There are several things I need to communicate to you.” After such an opening, I’m suddenly at a loss for words. How can I tell her about our union? About how I don’t have a choice and I’m terrified she does? I won’t die if she walks away from us, but I’ll feel like I don’t want to live, either. She’s still working, and I glance over at her. Her face is determined as she hits at the rock with one arm. Yesterday’s injury on her skin is still red and raw.

  She gives me a quick look and grins. “So tell me. My race isn’t telepathic, you know.”

  I laugh. “We aren’t either. Sorry, I was thinking.” I go back to work and modify my ardor a little bit. “One of the things I need to say is I will never shame you for anything. Your past is done. I only care about now and your future.”

  “Okay, I like hearing that. Go on.”

  Her tone is a lot less frosty and leaves me encouraged. “We’ve both had sex in our life, and I don’t care. What we do together in the futu
re is all that counts to me.” I stop at a strangled sound from her. “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah. Sorry, I had this mental image of us... Anyway, you were saying? More things to communicate or are you done?”

  I don’t like lying, even by omission, but it’s too soon to tell her we’re mates. She’s not Gharian. Earthers, especially this one, seem to have sexual issues. Above all, I want to respect her feelings and let her choose me of her own free will. “There’s maybe a bit more to let you know.” I clear my throat. “You see, we have fun and play around until we meet the love of our lives. It’s sort of instant and can happen without warning.”

  “Oh damn. Sounds like a good idea to me.”

  I look over, and she’s shaking her head. “You don’t seem sincere.”

  Lin bites her lip. “I am. It’s just, what if one of you two are already committed to someone else? Do you have three-way relationships?”

  I stop mid-stroke at the idea of any other male being with us. Not even another woman appeals to me. I know that’s not normal for any male of any race, but I only need her. I clear my throat and try to sound calmer than I feel. “Some do. I wouldn’t because I’m too possessive.”

  “Ah, the jealous type.” She stops and leans toward me. I stop, and she bumps our sides together and says, “So am I, so I feel ya.”

  Our union will work, then. I smile and focus as we both resume the digging. “Good. I don’t want to share you with anyone, ever.”

  “What?”

  Her voice comes out at a much higher frequency, and I grin. “I think you heard me. I’m not the sharing kind.”

  “So you think you have me, huh?” She shook her head. “Dude, you don’t have me to share. We met yesterday. Yeah, I snuggled you because you’re literally cool to the touch in this hell hole, but neither one of us is getting out of here alive.” I begin to protest, but she holds up her good hand to stop me and continues. ”You said I’m not going home and now is not the time for a relationship, remember?”