It's okay. Rhea's comms must have broken in the landing. Hopefully Kole's pod exploded, saving me the trouble of strangling him. I'll have to find Rhea another way.
I sweep my eyes across the horizon. There's a mountain range in the distance. That might be the mountain range that was near our first landing zone. I tap on my goggles to activate the magnifiers and get a better look.
That has to be the landing zone. I see what appears to be man-made structures, ancient stone towers. They used to be fairly big back when they were built. They are in total ruin now, but there are definitely man-made structures that have remained partially intact.
I sweep my eyes to the east and stop suddenly. Was that movement I saw? I look back slowly and I see the movement. “Rhea's alive! Thank Peter!”
I press twice on the magnifier button. My heart jumps into my throat. My legs wobble and threaten to give out underneath me. That's not Rhea. It can't be.
I see a fast moving vehicle, leaving a plume of dust in its wake. It's moving at 400 klicks an hour and heading straight at me. There was no vehicle that small or fast on board the Recluse. So it can't be Kole.
Shit, shit, shit! Kartak is alive. Of course it is. It's obvious. I hadn't had time to think about it. We weren't attacked by an automated defense system. We were shot down! In cold blood.
And whoever shot us down is coming for me!
6
LEO
I throttle down the jetbike and come to a slow stop. I let it come to a rest on the sand. I step off the bike to take a small sip of water. I swirl the contents of my canteen and grimace at the hollow sound. I'm going to have to go back to my camp thirsty. But I have some stores there. And there's hope that I will find enough treasure to trade for water on my way back.
I shade my eyes and scan the horizon. The crash site is just a few klicks away. Just past those high dunes. I can't see past them, but it must be there.
I notice a flicker of movement on the crest of the highest dune followed by a flash of light. My eyes are sharp, but not sharp enough to see what it is. I train my binoculars on the movement. There it is again.
There's someone trying to hide past the crest of the dune. I see the top of someone's head. golden hair whipping in the wind. The sunlight is reflecting off a pair of goggles. Stupid to wear uncoated glass. Whoever that is, is not a trained soldier. It's not a skinner either. They don't have any hair.
I rack my memories for any people I've encountered with golden hair, but I can't think of any. I've only seen hair like that in ancient art.
Whoever it is sees me watching them from here. I don't mind giving up the element of surprise. Whatever it arrived in wasn't big enough to carry more than a few men. And I have not met three men I could not defeat in battle.
I'm considering my options when I hear the sound of sand spilling across dunes. My ears perk up and twist, locating the direction of the sound. I don't need the binoculars to know what that is. A voidworm burrowing through the dunes. Coming in from the east.
What is a voidworm doing out here in the Great Sand Seas? I wasn't expecting this. I pat my hand on my vest where I keep the grenades to assure myself that they are there. I don't like to use them unless I have to. But it's good to know they are there.
If this voidworm belongs to the Void Seekers, I'll have to be ready. By Krio, I'll be damned if I let those madmen get my prize before me.
I get back on the jetbike and rev the engine to top speed.
7
ASTRID
I've been following the vehicle heading to me for the past hour. I'm at a loss for what to do. I could lock myself into the escape pod, but I don't know what good that would do me.
I can't see out of that thing and whoever is coming might be able to break through the door easily. I can't imagine that escape pod can keep out the same people that shot the Recluse down from orbit.
I have my gun out now and have tried to get used to its weight in my hands. I don't really have any experience with a gun, but I know the basics. Turn off the safety, point and shoot.
My plan is to wait until he's close enough and hopefully off his vehicle and try to shoot him. Maybe I can even use his vehicle to find Rhea's escape pod. That thing is really fast.
I activate the magnifiers on my goggle again and observe the alien more closely. I've been trying to get used to saying alien in my head. It feels weird. I've even said it out loud to get myself used to it. But I can't.
Until now, aliens have been something out of fantasy. I have read that people used to believe they'd encounter intelligent life in the beginning of interstellar exploration. How could they not? You would expect to find at least one other form of intelligent life in an infinite of stars.
But it never happened. No matter how far humanity traveled, we never encountered intelligent life.
Now here I am, staring at a man with blue skin, long pointed ears, and a black mane of hair, crouched low on a speeding hoverbike. And I plan to shoot him. If he's an alien, his first contact with humanity is going to be at the business end of my gun.
I’d make one hell of an ambassador. I'm going to have to put this experience down on my fact sheet. “Traveled to distant worlds, encountered intelligent life, shot at it.”
I keep watching the alien ride towards me under the press of the afternoon heat. I watch him when he slows down and comes to a stop. He steps off his bike and pulls out a pair of binoculars and trains them back on me. I scramble back quickly, hoping he hasn't noticed me. But I think I'm just fooling myself. A moment ago, he was heading straight for me, and he pointed his binoculars straight at me.
I slow down my breathing, take a small sip of already hot water from a bottle and lick my dry lips. I creep forward on my elbows, keep my head low and find that he's still looking right at me.
It's weird looking at him, through my magnifiers, watching him look back at me through his binoculars. I'd find it funny if I wasn't starting to panic.
Standing up at his full height, I can see he is massive. My goggles confirm I'm right. He is seven feet tall. I'm assuming the alien is a him, but I figure that's a fair assumption given his size. His blue arms are bare, with black tattoos covering his corded muscles. He wears a sword on his waist and has what has to be a holster strapped to his belt on the other side. He wears a leather vest over his broad chest, with a variety of gear strapped and tucked into its pockets. Mostly knives. His legs, thick as tree trunks are covered in tight black leather, and his feet in brown leather boots.
My heart skips a beat as he swings his binoculars to the east. His ears perk up and swivel like a dog's trying to locate the source of a sound. I look in the same direction, but I can't see or hear anything out of place. Just endless orange sand and the whipping wind.
He puts his binoculars away and mounts his hoverbike. The wind begins to pick up, lifting more sand into the air as he resumes his course, straight at me.
I push a stray strand of hair off my forehead. My hand comes off dry, I hadn't noticed that I'd stopped sweating. At least I'm getting used to the heat quickly. My headache is getting worse though.
I pull my gun, which I think I'll name “Ambassador” from its holster, pull the slide to chamber a bullet and switch off the safety. By the look of him, it's going to take more than one shot to put him down. I'm going to have to wait until he is really close to have any chance of taking him out.
I breathe in deeply trying to calm myself down. I'm just defending myself. I'm going to take my shot, take his hoverbike, find Rhea, get rescued, and become insanely rich and famous as the first person to have ever encountered (and killed) an alien.
The sound of the hoverbike gets louder as it gets closer. If he sees me ready to shoot him, it's not effecting his determination to get at me. He's either an idiot or very brave. I line up my shot, but he's still too far for me to hit him.
The wind howls and carries with it the sound of sand spilling down the dunes. Somehow overwhelming the sound of the hoverbike's engines.
I ignore it, forcing all my concentration on making my shot.
Two hundred meters. My body tenses up. One hundred meters. I hold my breath. Fifty meters. I squeeze the trigger. The gun jolts in my hands and my shot goes wide. Forty meters. I steady my aim. Thirty meters.
As I pull the trigger a great burst of flame shoots out from behind the hoverbike, launching it in the air. I think my shot gets him in his arm, but he barely seems to flinch. Everything moves in slow motion as his bike leaps over me and tilts to the side. He holds his grip on the bike with one hand as the other arm reaches out to me as he passes over me. The sand under me suddenly loosens and begins to pull me in. He grabs onto the back of my survival suit and yanks me off the dune as it collapses underneath me.
The air is knocked out of my chest as I'm pulled away by the alien. The sound of the hoverbike and spilling sand is loud in the air, but I hear another sound. A howling wail crackling with lightning. I've never heard anything like it before. Where I laid before, ready to kill my abductor, is a great black hole crackling with purple lightning, surrounded in a ring of golden teeth. It's the mouth of a great worm – ten meters wide – and it most certainly would have consumed me, leaping into the air trying to catch its meal.
Time speeds back up as I'm whipped around in front of the blue hulk and planted on the hoverbike, right between his muscular legs. His massive arm is wrapped around me, holding me in place, pressed against his impossibly broad chest. I barely hear myself scream as he rights the hoverbike and hurtles down the dune.
I struggle against his arm around me, but only halfheartedly. Denied its prey, the great worm howls in anger, and crashes back into the sand. I twist myself in my captors hold and look back behind us. I see the tail end of the worm sinking back under the sand. A moment later and it’s gone, leaving behind a ruined dune as the only evidence it was ever here.
8
LEO
I hold my captive against my chest as she squirms, trying to get loose. She is surprisingly fierce for such a small creature. The small wound her weapon left on my arm is further proof of that. I grip her soft body tightly against mine, gaining distance between us and the voidworm. The worm was goaded here out of its hunting grounds, and I'm in no mood to deal with its herders.
The little woman turns around and curses at me. I don't understand what she's saying, but the meaning of her word is clear. I look down at her pale face, wrinkled with anger. I've never seen her kind before, but her expression is familiar. It seems even a woman from the stars shares things in common with a woman from the Great Sand Seas. I smirk at her and she responds by spitting in my face.
I'm shocked at her sexual display. I can feel my cock begin to harden. I pull the jetbike around and slow down to a full stop. She is yelling at me in a high pitched voice, but I do not understand her. I pick her up gently by the arms and place her in in front of me. I smile, reach out with my tongue and lick her spit off my lips.
My knees go weak as a feeling unlike any other courses through me body. I feel a wave of heat pass through me and my skin tingles with electricity. I stare at her as she takes this moment of weakness to loosen herself from my grip and run in the opposite direction.
It takes me a moment to gather my wits. “By Krio, it can't be.” Can it? This feeling, it could only be the feeling my father described when he first shared fluids with his Fated Mate. The last Fated Pair in my clan.
I recover from my shock and run after her. “Woman, stop!”
I could catch her within a few quick strides but I hold back from over taking her. I do not know of her people, but perhaps this is their way. A mating dance. I dance I intend to win. I let her run for a few moments before I catch her. I grab her by her waist and pull her in towards me, face to face. “I've never seen one like you before.”
She has long golden hair, the color of the southern sands. Her face is white and soft blushed pink with exertion, like it has never known the touch of the sun. Her body is heavy with the weight of plentiful water, and soft. Her eyes are bright and moist. Her nose ends in round point. Her lips are full and red.
I feel her cool breath on my face. Her large breasts heave in her tight clothes from the exertion. My cock grows hard against my leg. I've not felt like this in ages. She yells at me in her foreign tongue. Teasing me. By Krio, I've never felt like this. She tries to pull herself free from my hold but I don't let her. I do not know her people's ways but I know mine. I must know if she's is truly my Fated Mate. I pull her close by her waist and press my lips against hers.
9
ASTRID
The alien just kissed me! His lips are warm and soft against my dry lips. One powerful arm holds me by my waist, the other by my hip.
There's a blue alien kissing me!
He licks my lips, parting my lips and meets my tongue with his. When our tongues touch, energy surges through my body. My knees quiver. I let him hold my weight. I feel wetness dripping from my lips. What is this feeling? It is anything but a kiss. I know it's been a while, but I have never felt like this before. And for an alien! An alien I just shot!
I think I hear him purring.
I press my hands against his chest, trying to push him back, but I might as well be trying to move a mountain. I can feel his chest vibrating against my hands. But why don't I pull back from his lips? I feel the blood rushing to my face in a full blush, and I feel my wetness soaking my panties. Oh Peter. I forgot how long it's been since I was with a man.
He loosens his grip on me and pulls back from the kiss. I find myself leaning into him, reluctant to break our kiss. I stand there in his arms, my chest heaving, trying to catch my breath. I feel a little dizzy.
He smirks at me like an arrogant prick, flashing his set of sharp ivory teeth. I can tell he knows how he affected me.
This is the first time I've gotten a good look at him. His face is blue like the rest of him. He has a flat nose with slits for nostrils. His eyes are large almonds, bright and gold with a catlike iris. His ears are tall and pointed, tufted with black fur. His head is covered with a thick black main of fur down to his neck. His lips are thin, black, and surprisingly soft.
“Who are you?” I don't know why I bother asking. There's no chance he speaks the Merchant tongue. He pulls on my waist trying to get me to walk with him, and he gestures with the other at his hoverbike. He stops when I resist says something in his deep voice.
“No, I'm not going with you.” I shake my head to emphasize my words. Shaking my head is a bad idea. My head is pounding now, and I'm starting to feel woozy. “I need to find my friend.”
He snorts and points back at where we came from. He squats down and drags his finger from in the sand from the direction he pointed at towards me, drawing swaying line in the sand. Then he makes a ball with his hands and pulls them apart.
“Oh, shit.” I think he means that monster is going to come after me.
He gestures at me, then back at his bike. He's given up trying to speak with me. I shake my head and start backing up. My knees buckle after a few steps and I collapse on my butt in the sand. I don't feel right. I think I might throw up that ration cube I had.
He walks over slowly and reaches for me. “No,” I try to wave him away. “I need to find Rhea.”
He ignores me and scoops me up. I'm too weak to resist. I see the wound I gave him on his arm. His blood is already dry. His blood is a dark purple. Almost black.
“I hope you aren't mad at me.” My voice is weak; I don't know why I feel like this.
He speaks softly in my ear as he holds me close to his chest. I can feel his heart beat against my shoulder. It's powerful, and beating fast. I can hear a faint purring in his chest.
He puts me down on the bike and gets on it behind me. He offers me a skin of liquid. I push it away and reach for one of my own bottles. I feel awful, but I still have a little sense left in me. Who knows what he drinks. For all I know it's acid. Or something that turns you blue. I try to drink from my bottle but it's empty. I try
to put it back on my belt but it slips out of my hand.
I feel too weak to lift up the second bottle. He takes it off my belt and brings it up to my mouth. He holds it up and helps me drink. His bedside manner isn't so bad for a big blue alien. I lean back and lean my full weight against him. There's something, pressing against my back. I shift over, thinking it's a weapon, and realize it must be... Oh for Peter's sake! That can't be his-
I don't get a chance to finish my thought. I hear a booming thunderclap and the sand behind us explodes. My ears are ringing and I can barely see with all the sand in the air. I feel the hoverbike engine start and it lifts into the air and shoots forward.
I hear the sound of other engines, higher pitched and louder, following us. Big Blue – that's what I've decided to call him – is holding me tight with one arm and driving the bike with the other.
I see one of our pursuers pull up next to us. He's a tall and thin, red skinned, with a huge mouth filled with rows of shark-like teeth. He's wrapped in strips of leather, decorated with chains and bones. He stands up on his hoverbike, somehow keeping his balance, and starts swinging a chain with a spiked hook on its end. Another one pulls up on the other side and takes aim with a pistol, screaming a chittering battle cry. He fires. Big Blue tilts the bike to its side and the bullet zips over our heads.
Big Blue rights his bike, and I scream as the other one launches his spiked chain at my face. Big Blue blocks the spiked hook with his thick forearm. It's stuck deep in his flesh. Purple blood oozes slowly from the wound.
We speed over the orange dunes tied together by the length of chain. The other attacker firing his pistol, missing as Big Blue weaves his hoverbike in the air. My stomach is roiling, ready to heave.
Renegade Leo: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Shifter Kings of Kartak Book 1) Page 3
