by Piper Leigh
He withdrew and rolled to his back, tucking me close beside him. “Guess we were.”
“So what now?”
He kissed me on the forehead and pulled away. Getting up naked, he crossed the room to look in Lanny’s pantry. An array of pre-packaged meals in vacuum-sealed containers lined the shelves. Most people stocked up on that kind of food these days. You never knew when you were going to get locked down and not be able to shop for days. The stores were never sure when they’d get the next shipment.
“Now,” Benson said, “I’ll make you a gourmet meal of…” He pulled a container from the shelf. “Mocorran bean soup.”
My stomach growled obligingly. “Sounds good.”
“And tomorrow we’ll see if we can get secure transport on any ship departing within a couple of days.”
Two days and then we’d be off this forsaken planet and back to our lives. I pictured the cure raging through the galaxy at the same rate as the virus. Things likely wouldn’t go back to normal that quickly. Already most planets in the galaxy were running on skeleton crews. Shaky financial markets barely kept businesses running. Unreliable power sources made things even more unpredictable as the galaxy struggled to maintain the most basic of its infrastructures.
But at least there was hope. As the cure helped people, more could return to work. It would take time, but the galaxy would recover. Within all that upheaval, it seemed unlikely they’d be looking for a couple of fugitives. Or so I hoped.
* * * * *
Two days later, we found ourselves on the spaceport grounds. The planet’s giant red sun had barely crested the horizon. Two of Zombicus’ moons still battled across the sky. The cold air stung my cheeks. Gusts of it made walking difficult.
Giant ships squatted on the ground. Some looked like huge eggs with silver-white hulls and ovoid shapes. Others hung together with multicolored spare parts. The thought of traveling through space in one of those brought a pang of terror.
“Don’t worry,” Benson said, noticing my panicked expression. “The ship I’m looking for is in a lot better shape than that.”
We walked between the massive vessels. The overwhelming sizes made me feel very small. Any moment now, this will all be over and I’ll be starting a new life on a nice planet somewhere. I chanted that thought like a prayer.
“We don’t want to use the main office.” Benson pointed to a metal structure that branched off in all directions. It didn’t look any more solid than some of the ships. “Just in case they’re monitoring for unscheduled departures. We’ll have better luck if we can bargain with the ship itself.”
I scanned the vast landing strip. “Which ship did you have in mind?”
Benson’s gaze swept over the assortment of vessels. He pointed to a gray circular craft. “That one. It’s big enough that we’ll have some privacy and small enough to attract little attention. And it’s headed for the Rodan quadrant.”
I agreed with him on that. The authorities would likely keep a closer eye on the manifests of the big ships.
Benson squared his shoulders. “Let’s go talk to the captain.”
The captain turned out to be a green-scaled female. She wore only loose trousers, leaving her breasts bare. A belt bearing her insignia as well as a holster for a mean-looking weapon cinched the cloth at her slim waist.
The captain’s lidless black eyes swept over us, noting our uniforms from the facility’s kitchen. She motioned for a crewmember to bring a scanner. I held my breath as the invisible beam passed over me. Benson feigned a relaxed posture. I don’t know how he did it. Maybe because he’d been cured just a little longer than me and felt more certain of the outcome.
The machine beeped. A green light glowed on the handle.
We all relaxed a little, even the captain.
“You’d be more comfortable on the Andromeda.” She motioned in the direction of one of the giant ships. Her green-scaled hand ended in long black claws.
“Andromeda makes too many stops,” Benson said. “We’d prefer a more direct route.” He followed that statement with a financial offer that made me blink. Whoever Lanny was, he had a healthy bank account.
The offer ended the captain’s questions. “We leave in two standard hours. Be here on time.”
“We can wait,” Benson said. “We’re all ready to go.”
That much was true. We had little luggage. Mine was back at the facility. Benson’s was in the apartment he couldn’t return to. We’d borrowed the barest of necessities from Lanny’s closet and pantry. Lanny’s clothes were far too big for me, but they’d have to do. I was really looking forward to shopping for a new wardrobe some day in the future when I was safe and had money again. I tried not to think about how I’d get to that point.
Benson made the money transfer. Poor Lanny. Not only was he missing food and clothing, a big chunk of his bank balance had just disappeared as well.
“Cabin nine,” the captain barked. She gave us directions on how to find it. With takeoff looming, there were no crewmembers available to show us to our room. She didn’t seem terribly nervous about having us loose on the ship either. I guess that large weapon on her belt served as a deterrent to bad behavior.
We made our way through the cramped corridors. Crew came and went in the narrow passageways, forcing us to press ourselves against the walls. No one gave us so much as a second glance. Still, a shiver of relief ran through me when we found the door with the universal symbol for nine on it.
Benson entered the code the captain had given him and the door swung open. If I’d thought the hallways seemed cramped, the tiny room redefined it. A bed, barely wide enough for one person, lay shoved to one side. A couple of drawers to hold clothing were built into the wall. The accommodation offered no chair, no other furniture, not even a porthole to watch the galaxy go by.
We wouldn’t have anywhere else to go or anything to do but stay in bed. That thought brought a smile to my face. I started to enter the room.
“Janeece?” inquired a voice behind me.
I froze. No, I thought. No, no, no! They couldn’t have found us so soon!
Benson’s head came up at the sound of my name, but he gazed through the narrow doorway appearing completely unperturbed.
Slowly, I turned to face the person risking my exposure by saying my name out loud.
To find Gryl standing behind me.
“Gryl!”
She enveloped me in a giant bear hug. I hugged her back until I was practically smothered by red fur. Finally, I pulled away. “I thought you were dead!”
Gryl let me go. “I thought so too, but there was a great deal I didn’t yet know.”
“Such as her daughter was the key to the discovery that’s going to save us all,” Benson said, coming up behind me.
Gryl took up the story. “They were holding my daughter in another part of the facility, you know. They wouldn’t let me see her, so I had no idea how she was doing. I worried she was dead. But it turned out the virus sped through her system and she began to get well. They used her to develop the cure.”
“How did you get out?”
She nodded toward Benson. “They were going to keep me and my daughter. I didn’t think it was fair since they already had all the blood they needed. The testing was pretty much finished. They’d begun to make the cure.”
“So, I thought it was time Gryl and her daughter left with the rest of us.”
“The rest of us?” Until now I’d thought we were the only ones.
“There were a few of us,” Benson said. “We’ve scattered to make it harder for them to track us. But Gryl and I arranged to meet up on this ship.”
I started to ask him about that, but before I could, a much smaller version of Gryl stepped out of a cabin just down the corridor. She asked a question in her own language. I didn’t understand the words, but the meaning was clear. Who are those strange bare people, Mom?
Gryl beckoned her closer. “This is my daughter, Ryll.”
Ryll g
ave us a shy nod.
“So you’re coming with us?”
“As far as Solda.”
That was probably a good idea. The faster we split up, the better for us all.
Still, I was overjoyed to see Gryl. I’d been worrying about her for days. That she might have a chance to start over with her daughter on some planet far away lightened my heart.
A herd of crewmembers barreled down the hall on their way to ready the ship for takeoff, cutting our reunion short.
There was so much more to say and goodbyes to make, just in case we didn’t see each other when Gryl and her daughter departed at Solda. But the more time we spent in each other’s company, the more we ran the risk of being discovered. Instead, we disappeared back into our cabins. Closed doors made for less talk. I hoped I’d see Gryl and Ryll before we got to Solda, but I likely wouldn’t have a chance. At least I knew they were all right. When the cure made its way through the galaxy, things would settle down. Perhaps I’d be able to contact Gryl then.
I leaned against the cabin door and regarded Benson. “I can’t believe you managed to break Gryl and her daughter out as well.”
He shot a glance at the bolted door. “They were going to keep them indefinitely,” he said in a low voice. “They had quite a few of us guards down there in the infirmary. I guess they were so used to us following orders, they forgot to watch what they said around us. So we all knew what they were planning. I had help getting Gryl and her daughter out—it was a lot more complicated than a couple of kitchen uniforms.” He gave a small smile. “They had enough blood for the manufacturing process. They had enough DNA to continue studies, if necessary. But then they got talking about the money to be made if they controlled the whole process.”
“And that’s when you decided to escape the facility?”
He took a seat on the bed and regarded me solemnly. “We didn’t think it was right. Like you said, they brought everyone there to be cured. They were supposed to let us go once we got better, not keep us to make drugs and hold the galaxy at ransom with the price.”
“You stole the cure?”
Benson shook his head. “Not me. I only took enough to make you better. The others had more radical ideas. But by then we’d gone our separate ways.”
“Meaning you wouldn’t know anything even if you were caught and questioned.”
A wider smile broke across his face. “Meaning just that.”
I eyed the narrow bed. “We should get some sleep. It’s a long way to the Rodan quadrant.”
“It is,” Benson said. “And we should get some sleep. Once we get to Rodan, we’ll have lots to do. But until then…”
I crossed the room in one stride. The space being so tiny, it was easy to do, but I think I would have made it there in one lunge anyway because Benson was sitting on that bed.
I thought of how awful my time in the facility would have been without him. Without Benson, I might have been there for months more while they studied us and tried to find ways to make money off our misfortune. Without Benson, I wouldn’t have the promise of a new life.
Without him, I might never have found love.
Slowly we undressed each other, taking care to savor every moment. It was a long way to Rodan. I thought of how wonderful it would be to have the luxury of a proper bed once we’d settled somewhere. And then I stopped thinking about anything but Benson.
We reclined on the narrow bunk and I landed on top. I looked down at him, my eyes raking his body. In his gaze, I saw a feral hunger that matched my own. I ran my hands over his muscular pecs, the sight of all that hard flesh bringing a rush of desire.
Benson reached up to grab my hips and eased me down, but he didn’t rush. Instead, he rolled his hips gently, seating himself deeper inside me than ever before. I followed his lead, raising myself then sinking to claim every delicious inch of him with aching slowness. Beneath us the ship thrummed with its own rhythm and the vibrations only added to our pleasure.
Unable to stand it any longer, I moved faster. Benson’s hands tightened on my hips as he obliged me. Inside my sex, every muscle tightened, poised on the precipice of release. My fingers strayed to my clit. My whole body jerked when I rubbed the hypersensitive nub. Benson’s gaze seized on that small movement and the hunger grew. Never had I been so uninhibited. Benson had freed me in more ways than one.
Our frenzied movements rocked the narrow bunk. For a moment I worried that someone in one of the nearby cabins would hear what we were doing…and then I decided I didn’t care.
But I couldn’t help smiling when I thought of how many more hours we needed to fill before we arrived at Rodan.
* * * * *
Two suns shone high in the sky when we disembarked at the Rodan spaceport. I wasn’t used to the brilliance after the artificial illumination in the bowels of the ship. The light made my eyes tear. The double shadows cast by the small blue sun slowly circling the larger red one would take some getting used to.
The entire spaceport was alive with activity. Ground teams directed the giant ships into their berths. Crewmembers swarmed around, unloading cargo. Orders were shouted in a multitude of languages, adding to the general din.
Unfamiliar smells assaulted my senses. I caught a breath of dense, sweet foliage mixed with the biting scent of rocket fuel. A cool wind eased the overheated air. The entire landscape had a startling beauty to it in an undeniably alien way.
A lot about this new life would need adjusting to, I figured, gazing out at the sky. I reached for Benson’s hand. His fingers closed around mine. With Benson beside me, starting over wouldn’t be so hard.
Together, we took the first steps off the ship and into our new lives.
The End
About Piper Leigh
Multi-published author Piper Leigh had been nominated for numerous awards. She’s always had a fascination with the dark and mysterious and enjoys writing about larger than life characters like vampires, ghosts, zombies, angels…and sexy blue aliens.
Piper welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Piper Leigh
Galaxy Fever
Galaxy Tryst
Galaxy Vampirus
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Galaxy Zombicus
ISBN 9781419943249
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Galaxy Zombicus Copyright © 2012 Piper Leigh
Edited by Kelli Collins
Cover design by Caitlyn Fry
Photo: Lithian and Diversepixie/Shutterstock.com
Electronic book publication December 2012
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