by Ashley West
He spoke with a passion that made it clear he was serious about all of this, and Katia wished there was something she could do to help.
And then it dawned on her.
"You know...there's not much I can do about your communications stuff, but you crashed here on Earth. Like literally crashed."
"I'm aware of that," Silas said flatly.
Katia flapped a hand at him, getting excited now. "No, no. I mean, anything like that, crashes and rubble and all, gets reported by someone. Even if it's just small beans kinda news, someone will have seen it and be talking about it online or something. We just have to see where they said they found it."
Those strange blue eyes lit up at that. "And then get there before they strip the ship bare."
"Why do you think they'd do that?"
"Humans are known for not being able to keep their hands to themselves."
"Hey!" Katia said, indignant. "I take offense to that."
"I'm sorry, but that's what I've heard."
And, actually, she couldn't really deny it. Instead she sighed and went with her tea to the living room, curling up on the couch. She had to be back at the inn in the morning, and it would be the same all week.
Actually, she supposed that if she wanted, she could take a day off, considering in all the time since The Lily had been open, she’d never once called in sick or had someone cover her shift. She could easily say she had some kind of emergency and get someone to fill in for her while she dealt with...whatever this was. But she didn’t want to do that.
Silas had followed her into the living room, and he hovered nearby, looking unsure.
Katia flapped a hand at him. “Sit down, will you? You’re so tall that you’re making me nervous when you stand up like that.”
He smiled and shrugged before he folded himself onto the loveseat. “I shouldn’t be inconveniencing you like this,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“You have a life. This is your home. I am a stranger.”
“Ah, that. Well, it’s not really your fault. I’m the one who let you in and haven’t kicked you out yet. I’m actually surprised that you’re still here.”
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Silas said.
“I know, I just mean I’m surprised that you feel like you can trust me enough to stay here.”
He looked surprised himself at her words. “You’re trusting me in your home while you’re at work,” he countered.
"That's true. I am." Katia took another sip of her tea. "But you seem like you need someone to be there for you while you're here. Since you're a stranger in a strange land, and all. And I've never met anyone from another planet before. Call it curiosity."
Silas smiled, and if anything, it made him more attractive. Katia averted her eyes. This was not the time to be feeling the years she'd gone without being with someone. As soon as a hot alien landed in her lap, she wasn't going to go all goo goo eyed over him.
"Then I'm grateful for your curiosity. As soon as I can figure out how to get a message to my Empress or to anyone else in HIMA, then I'll no longer be your problem."
"Don't worry about it," Katia said. "I'll just go grocery shopping on my way home tomorrow evening. I don't think I have enough food in my house to feed someone your size."
He laughed at that. "Do you work every day?"
"Every day but Saturday," she replied.
"What day is it today?"
"Sunday."
"Hm. Your days are named oddly."
Now she was intrigued. One of the coolest things about having an alien in her house was probably going to be getting to know the differences between his culture and hers. "What are your days called?" she wanted to know.
"Kas-ar, Sin-ar, Dorn-ar, Ult-ar, Ilk-ar, Torrind-ar, Samul-ar, and Felst-ar," Silas explained.
"You have eight days in a week?"
He tipped his head to one side. "I guess so. Ilk-ar, Torrind-ar, Samul-ar, and Felst-ar are at the end, and no one gets much done on those days, really."
"Four weekend days? Lucky." Silas smiled again, and Katia made herself more comfortable. "Will you tell me more?" she asked.
"About my people?"
"Yeah. And about you. If you're going to be staying here, then there's no reason why we should be strangers, right?"
He inclined his head, clearly in agreement. "Right. What would you like to know?"
"Well, for starters, what's HIMA?"
Silas began to explain, and Katia hung on every word.
Chapter Six: Progression
Even though he was on Earth and not on Gathra, Silas' built in need to wake up with the sun was still something that happened. As soon as the sun rose over the horizon, his eyes snapped open. It was still an adjustment, knowing he wasn't on his home planet, knowing that his friends were far away, his Empress, his team.
Were they worried about him? Had they given up hope? Did they assume he was dead or worse?
Thinking about it just hurt him, so he pushed it out of his mind and got himself up. Every morning, he walked out to the front porch and watched the sun rise properly. The sky was streaked with colors, and it was actually quite beautiful.
Earth was a lot better than anyone he knew seemed to give it credit for, and the people were better as well. At least Katia was. She'd been so kind to him over the week that he'd been there, buying him food and new clothes and waving away his assurances that he didn't need anything and would be fine with what he had.
His clothes, his uniform, was ripped and bloody, and Katia had told him that she'd rather just get him some other things to wear than watch him walk around in his bloodstained clothes all the time. She assured him that she hadn't spent that much on his things, and he was relieved that they fit, at least. Silas hadn't thought that humans came in his size, but apparently sometimes their clothes did.
It had only taken him two days to get Katia's routine down, and so he did his part by making sure her coffee was ready for her when she finally came out of her room dressed and showered.
The way she smiled at him when she came into the kitchen to see a steaming cup of coffee waiting for her made it all worth it.
And Silas didn’t want to examine why he wanted her to smile at him so much.
Instead, he made small talk with her while she flitted around the kitchen, asking about her inn and making sure she was still fine with him being there.
But today was different. Today, she was off of work again, and she had promised that she would drive him out to the scene of his crash. Waiting for an entire week for her to have time had been hard, but he recognized that he had no idea where he was going and didn’t want to end up wandering around some strange city alone looking like he did.
So far, he hadn’t gone out much. He was sure that Katia’s neighbors caught glimpses of him when he was out watching the sun rise and set each day, but she’d said that none of them had made any comments about the color of his skin. Which he appreciated. The last thing he wanted to do was cause some sort of riot or panic because he couldn’t blend in well.
As anxious as he was to get going, he recognized the need for Katia to get some rest, so he tried to keep his pacing and anxious fiddling to a quiet minimum as the sun came up and then rose higher in the sky.
She gets up every morning with the sun to work all day he reminded himself, telling himself over and over again to be patient.
But being out of the loop and unable to do anything had never sat well with him, and he wanted nothing more than to wake her up and get the day started. He was just considering dropping something heavy on the floor just for the sound it would make when he heard the mumbling that accompanied Katia’s morning routine. It was followed by the sound of the shower coming on, and he sighed with relief.
Of course that was short lived when a scream erupted from the bathroom.
It was interesting how he didn't stop to think. All he did was react, moving faster than he'd moved since he'd come to this planet and actuall
y vaulting over the couch. He pushed open the door to the bedroom, rushing through it without stopping to look at anything before he grabbed the handle of the bathroom door and pushed that open as well.
"What happened?" he demanded.
Katia was there, naked and wide eyed, and she jumped when she saw him standing there. "What are you doing?" she demanded.
"You screamed," Silas said, as if it should be obvious.
"So you come bursting in here!?"
"You screamed," he said again, slower this time, in case she somehow couldn't understand why that might be worrying to him. "What happened?"
"There was a spider," she mumbled, putting her hands over her face. Which...actually didn't do anything to cover her body at all. Silas tried hard not to look.
"A what?"
She pointed at the corner of the shower floor with one hand, and Silas leaned in to see a small insect like creature there. It was black with eight legs, and as he watched, it scuttled further away from the spray of the water.
Imagine, screaming at the sight of something like that. The ones on his planet were much, much more frightening, and he let out a low breath, relieved that there wasn't a bigger problem.
"Is that all?" he asked, leaning in and capturing the spider in his hands. "I thought you were hurt or someone had broken in."
"Well, I'm fine," Katia said, bordering on hysterical. "So you can leave now. Okay. Bye."
Silas chuckled. "My apologies."
"Oh, right. You sound real sorry," she snapped. "Get out!"
"I'm going," he said, and left the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He hadn't meant to, but he'd gotten a very good look at her naked body in there, and he had to let out a messy breath because he very much wanted to touch her skin and see if it was as soft as it looked. He had wondered at the extent of her sun spots, and now he knew that they went all the way down her neck and chest and then even further down. He wondered if her inner thighs were spotted. If they were warm and silken. How they'd feel wrapped around him...
Silas shook himself. This was not what he was here for, and he still had the spider in his hand. Carefully, he set the creature outside and then went back to his waiting.
"I really am sorry I walked in on you," Silas said as Katia drove. "It wasn't intentional."
"'Walked in' is kind of mild for what you actually did," she pointed out. "That was more of a definite 'burst', you know. And it's alright. Maybe knock next time you think I'm being killed."
"I'll see what I can do," he said. "It's not really how I operate, though. In my line of work, hesitation can mean someone dies. I didn't want that to be you."
Glancing at her, he could see that she was trying to appear like she was still being stern, but there was a smile playing in the corners of her mouth. It was a lovely thing, and he wanted to reach out and trace it with his fingers. He didn't, though, instead keeping his hands to himself.
He wasn't here to find someone to touch anyway. He was here to... Well, he wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, but for right now, he had a mission. Finding his ship and whatever was left of it was paramount. Who knew what was happening on Gathra and the surrounding planets while he was here enjoying himself. Silas needed to focus.
That never used to be a problem for him. His job was his life, really. Being a member of HIMA meant giving up other things. It meant that when the Empress needed you, you dropped everything to go do what she bid. It meant that your safety was second to the safety of others and that everything you did was for the good of your people.
He'd always believed that. It had always been the way he lived his life, ever since he'd joined up. Sometimes he had time for drinks or dating, the occasional tumble with a pretty girl, but he'd always known that he wasn't likely to have more than that.
And that was fine.
He'd chosen this life because it was right for him, and he had no regrets.
None at all.
"What's wrong?" Katia asked, and Silas shook himself from his thoughts.
"Nothing. Why would something be wrong?"
"Because I asked you if your job was really that bleak, and you were staring morosely into space for the last thirty seconds?" she said. "Which probably answers my question, I guess."
"It's not bleak," Silas told her. "It's just the way things are. Someone has to make those sacrifices, and I chose to be that person. It's an honor."
"If you say so," she said. "Can we talk about something less depressing?"
Silas nodded. He didn't want to dwell on sad things. "Of course."
"Great. So, the article said that two little boys found the smoking wreck of your ship and then went to find their parents. The parents called the police, of course, but they live in Butler and nothing ever happens quickly in Butler, so I'm willing to bet it's all still out there waiting for you."
A frown furrowed his brow. "The law enforcement won't have done anything? It's been seven days."
Apparently that was funny because Katia laughed. "I'd be surprised if they even took the woman seriously. If it's not a murder or some high profile robbery, then the police in Butler aren't really on the job. Smoking wreckage probably isn't in their job description, and with no one reported missing, they don't really have a reason to care."
And people wondered why humans had such a bad reputation. If things like this were allowed to happen, then it was no wonder. But he supposed he shouldn't be complaining. It worked in his favor, after all, since he wanted it to be undisturbed.
"I can't believe you walked this far with those injuries," Katia said, shaking her head as she took a turn. "It's like ten miles from out here to my house."
Silas shrugged a shoulder. "I didn't have a choice."
"But why didn't you stop at some other place and ask for help? Why my house?" From the way she asked it, it seemed like it was something that had been bothering her for a while. Honestly, Silas didn't have a real answer for her. It hadn't been intentional, he'd been so out of it once he'd pulled himself from the smoking wreck of his ship.
"I don't know," he replied honestly. "Nowhere else felt right. I walked and I saw lights and vehicles, but they didn't seem safe. I was out of it, but I knew I had to get to a place where I would be safe if I ever wanted to see my planet again."
Katia was quiet for a moment after he spoke, chewing on her lip as she drove. "And you thought you'd be safe with me?"
"Of course." That was easy enough to answer. His intuition rarely let him down when it came to things like that. "I was right, wasn't I?"
She shot him a small smile. "Seems like you were. I'm glad you thought you'd be safe with me. I'm glad you feel safe here. I...I don't know how to explain it, but I'm glad you're here."
They held eye contact while stopped at a light and then the little automated voice announced that their destination was on the right, ruining the moment.
...Which was for the best. Because there weren't supposed to be moments. Silas didn't want to take advantage of Katia at all.
"I remember this," he said, clearing the silence that had fallen between them. "It wasn't this light out when I crashed, and I had other things on my mind at the time, but I remember it."
It was a small thatch of wooded area where he'd come down, and Silas could remember being in the falling speeder, trying to regain some control over it so he wouldn't crush anyone in his landing. He'd aimed away from the road, from where he could see vehicles passing by, going for the trees.
They had scratched his ship and broken as he'd fallen through them, but when he finally crash landed, no one had been around. Silas remembered being in the cockpit for long minutes, injured and dazed, listening to the sound of the speeder's sensors going haywire as the alarm blared.
The AI had announced over and over again that 'There has been a crash' urging him to 'Please immediately exit the craft', and it had taken long moments before he'd been able to clear his head enough to realize what that meant.
Everything had hurt, and he'd had
to punch his way out of the wreckage in order to get free. He never wanted to experience that again.
Katia parked the car, and they got out together, him in the lead, and her close behind.
"I've never been out here before," she murmured. "Not to these woods, anyway. I don't think people are supposed to go in them. So of course there were two little boys walking around." She shook her head.
"We'll make this quick," Silas promised. He didn't want to get her into trouble just for helping him. "You can stay with the car, if you want."
"Are you kidding?" she demanded. "I want to see this thing."
Silas grinned and continued to walk. Being able to share something like this with her, even if it was broken and wrecked and maybe stripped in the middle of the woods, excited him. He'd seen so much of her world and what it had to offer that he wanted to show her something of his.
They crunched through fallen leaves and branches, listening to the sounds of the winding road get fainter as they climbed up a small hill.
And there, at the top, was the speeder.
Or what was left of it, anyway.
It didn't look like anyone had been tampering with it, but it was definitely destroyed. The side he'd come down on was crumpled in beyond all recognition, and the glass on the windows was shattered. It was a wonder the fuel tank hadn't exploded, but he supposed he'd leaked out most of his fuel in the warp path. Thank the stars for something, at least.
Silas sighed and stepped closer, trying to figure out how he was going to go about this.
"Wow," Katia breathed from behind him. The speeder was small to him, mostly because it was always a rather cramped fit for someone of his size, but he supposed to her it looked large and exciting, even in this condition. "This brought you to Earth."
"It did," Silas replied, trying to see it through her eyes. Speeders were the smallest and least glamorous of the ships that came in and out of Gathra. They had much bigger ones for travel, and even bigger ones for diplomatic missions and then there were the warships that could hold an entire branch of HIMA and had their own weapons systems. Speeders were hardly impressive, but to a human, it had to be something to see. "It was never meant to, of course. Speeders like this are meant to go fast for short distances. They carry maybe one extra passenger, and they are not designed for comfort."
