“Honey, no one rescues people stuck in the desert.”
“Then what?” Tamzin asked.
“Let’s hope we don’t find out.” Sybil ducked down and looked out, only to stand up, her face pale. “It’s some kind of vehicle.”
“Who would be out here in this storm?” Thomsk said, moving towards his kids, putting a protective arm around them while still clinging to the tarp.
“Maybe they’ll pass on by,” Sybil said.
“Surely any help is better than us being stuck here,” Tamzin said.
“Are you sure? I mean who helps people like us?” Sybil cut Tamzin’s answer off before she had chance to voice it. “Without wanting a lot of coin in return.”
Sybil had a point. If there was someone out there they would be mercenaries, people out for what they could make off these poor people stranded in the desert. For all they knew, they might be out there now waiting for the tarp to blow off and for them to become stuck in the sand one by one. Then they could pick over the dead bones at their leisure. No one would see, no one would know.
“Hello.” A voice sounded from outside.
“What do we do?” Tamzin asked Sybil, everyone else’s face held the same question.
In response, the rain came down heavier, leaving Tamzin with soaking-wet ankles. “We have to take a chance. We are going to die here.” She shouted her words this time; there was no use trying to hide the situation, the others weren’t stupid.
“We are looking for Tamzin Barnstable.” The voice boomed louder, and Tamzin’s heart stopped beating for a moment as she tried to work out why anyone would want her.
Am I dead? she asked herself. Was this the grim reaper or something coming for her soul. Had she died in the storm?
“Tam. Tamzin, they want you,” Sybil said. “Who are they? The law?”
“No,” she said shaking her head. “Do you really think I’ve done something so wrong that the law would come looking for me in the middle of the desert, in a rainstorm?”
“Well, who else would it be? How would they even know to find … you.” She looked Tamzin in the face, her eyes piercing. “I know who it is.”
“Who? What’s going on here, Sybil?” Tamzin was scared now. Really scared.
“Aliens,” Sybil breathed.
“What?” Tamzin thought Sybil had gone mad, that the rain had addled her brain.
“There is this rumour going round the tags are tracking devices, that they track everything we do. Everything we eat, damn, they probably know how often we visit the box.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. For a start, do they really need to know how often I visit the box?” The box was the name for the toilets dug into the sand, makeshift holes with a box over them for privacy. No mod cons in the desert.
“Well, how else did they find you here?” Sybil asked as the voice called Tamzin’s name once more.
“What do I do?” she asked.
“Honey, you get off this planet. That’s what you do. If they are here, that means you are the lucky girl who won the lottery. Now, you make a run for it.” Sybil urged her forward to the edge of the tarp, and held it up so they could duck down and look.
“How am I supposed to get to them?” she asked. The vehicle had no visible means of access.
“Shout, tell them you are here, let them figure it out. They need you in one piece, don’t they?”
“I don’t know. If I die, there are another billion women who would gladly take my place.”
“That’s not how this works. They chose you specifically, you must be compatible.”
“Compatible? With what?”
“Them, you numbskull. One of them must be compatible with you, which means you are worth a lot to them.”
“I can’t leave you all here,” she said, not just because she knew she would not see them again. But because she knew these people, these faces she had known all her life, would die here if the rain didn’t stop soon.
“Yes you can,” Thomsk said. “At least we will know one of us survived, one to remember us.”
His children were clutched to him, both crying, and her heart broke. He should be able to save his children, look after them, and know they had good food and clean air to breathe. A sob escaped her. “I can’t.”
“She’s here,” Sybil yelled and pushed Tamzin to the front, where the rain splattered her cheek, stinging it.
A light came on and the tarp was illuminated. Then the vehicle moved towards them, and a ramp lowered. At the top of the ramp stood a man, a huge man. Larger than life, with the light from the vehicle framing him.
“Here, run here,” the voice said, and Tamzin did just that, thanks to a firm push from Sybil.
The rain hit her in the face and she was disorientated for a moment, and then the figure was coming down the ramp, grabbing hold of her and pulling her forward, just as Thomsk had pulled his kids forward through the sand only hours earlier. Poor Thomsk, who would have to watch his kids die.
But she was safe. They were nearing the top of the ramp, the light called to her, safe, she would be safe here. The metal ramp was solid. After walking through the sand all day it felt unreal, but safe, definitely safe.
At the top of the ramp the huge man—and yes, he was an alien, she could see the colours skimming his skin, as if in protest of where the rain had soaked him. His hand hovered over a button with which he would close the door, shut out the rain, and she would never see her friends again.
“Wait!” She stopped, not quite inside the vehicle. “You have to save them too.” She pointed back behind her at the tarp that looked so tattered and useless from up here.
“No, we are only taking you, Tamzin. We have spent enough time looking for you.”
“Then I’m not going.” She took a step back, feeling the rain spray her face, and saw him reach out for her. She took two more steps back out of his reach. “Please, they will die.”
He looked at her, his face dark, hair dark, and yet from under his collar came a yellow pulse as if the sun was trying to come up but kept getting pulled back down.
“Come back on board.”
“No.” She shook her head, although she didn’t know if he could see her in the fading light. “You need me, right?”
He watched her, his face, illuminated by the light, a mask, no indication of his emotions, only now the yellow pulse had escaped to flow freely across his skin. “I will not bargain.”
She wavered, not knowing how to get him to understand she could not leave her friends there to die. “Please. There are children.”
“Your planet is overcrowded; why should we rescue them?”
“Because they are humans. They are people and their father is there, and he loves them. You can’t leave them to die.”
“So you want me to take the children. And then what do we do with them?”
“No, I want you to take them all. Not to your planet, but to somewhere safe. It will only take a few minutes to get them on board, then fly them to the nearest town and let them out.” She took a step towards him. “Please.”
But the face looking back at her seemed cold, unemotional, and she feared he wouldn’t change his mind.
Chapter Six – Garth
“Okil,” Garth called. “We have a problem.”
The female in front of him, who now stood with a pitiful, pleading look on her face, looked past him to where Okil was looming up behind him. She knew they could force her to come with them, and yet she stood her ground, no longer pleading, but asking, and something inside of him stirred. She was honourable and loyal.
“Please, my friends, they will die if you don’t help them, the rain is wetting the sand, the acid will burn them.”
“Garth, spread a sheet out across the hold floor. They can all go in there when they are aboard. How many are there?” he asked the woman.
“Twenty,” she said.
“Twenty won’t fit,” Garth replied, already heading for the hold.
“Yes they will; twenty humans ar
e only as big as ten of us. We can get them in.”
“And if we sink?” Garth asked.
“You won’t let that happen, my friend,” Okil said. “I heard you bragging you were the best pilot on Karal, that you know everything there is to know about these cruisers. Well, now might be a time to live up to that.”
Garth looked once more at the woman, and knew he had to make this work. To impress her.
What was wrong with him? He already felt stirrings of desire for her, or was it the prime calling, his biological clock wanting to mate with a female so he could have a son? A child to carry his warrior genes forward into another generation.
He turned to go to the hold, and she was behind him, “I’ll help,” she said.
“I can manage,” he answered, but the colours skimming his hand told him he wanted her there, close to him. Was she putting some kind of spell on him?
“We’ll work faster together,” she said, and cocked her head to one side, waiting for him to argue.
Garth turned and went into the hold, reaching up to grab one of the canvas sheets they usually used to cover cargo so that it didn’t roll around. Handing her one corner, he pulled the sheet open, and they went around, spreading it out, so that it was flat on the floor.
She took her pack off her back and placed it down, then said, “Is that it? Can we get them on board now?”
He nodded, taking in the red patches on her face where the acid rain had touched her skin. “Yes, let’s go and join Okil. I am sure he has a plan.”
“Thank you,” she said, her face showing her gratitude. “I … I couldn’t leave them to die.”
He didn’t answer, didn’t remind her of the overcrowded planet she lived on and that the Earth would not miss a couple of dozen parasites. Yet she didn’t look like a parasite, and he felt his perception of humans shift. They were people with feelings, with emotions, more emotions than the Karal. And that was probably their weakness.
“Ready?” Okil asked. He was at the top of the ramp, and in his hand he held a rope. “We hold the end, and then one of us goes down and helps the others to grab onto it, so that they do not get lost walking up the ramp.
“Get lost?” Garth asked. “They only have to walk twenty feet.”
“Twenty feet in the rain and with sand blowing about, that won’t be easy.” Okil was tying the rope off on the inside of the ship. “They aren’t as strong as you, Garth.”
“I see that,” Garth said, looking at Tamzin, and admiring her feminine curves. He had never been this close to a female, not a real living, breathing female. The sim, which he had been using to teach him how to please his female, didn’t count.
“Garth,” Okil snapped. “Now.”
“Wait. I’ll go,” the female said, taking the rope off Okil. “I’m already burned by the acid.”
“We are stronger,” Garth said, not wanting her to go out of his reach.
“I know, which is why it will be better for you two to stay up here. If we are all on the rope and something bad happens, then you can pull us in. Right? Reel us in like a fish.”
“Go,” Okil said, releasing the rope and going to stand at the top of the ramp. Garth joined him.
“If anything happens to her, I will be most displeased, Okil.”
“I didn’t think you thought much of them, Garth.”
“She is mine, matched to me. If she dies or is injured, I will have to wait and the mission will be delayed.”
“And that is the only reason you want her to be safe?” Okil asked.
“Of course,” Garth answered, relieved when he saw Tamzin duck under the tarp into relative safety.
A man appeared, battling his way along the rope, holding on with one hand, while his other gripped that of a small child. Behind him came a woman, another child in her hand. They fought to get onto the ramp, the rain pelting their skin, the children scared, with pale faces, but they did not cry. He always thought humans were weak creatures, but he had learned more about them in these last few minutes than he had from all the information he had been given to read about them.
His species and the humans were not so different: they protected their young, protected the weak, and worked together to help each other.
The first of the humans entered the ship, dripping with wet rain that had already begun to disintegrate their clothes, leaving small holes.
“Thank you,” the man said, his face filled gratitude and fatigue. He looked as if he would drop to his knees with exhaustion, but he lifted the child and carried him.
“In there.” Garth indicated the hold, and added sternly, “Stay on the canvas.” He feared his ship would be compromised, that they would be unable to return to Karal, and staying here any longer than necessary was not a thing he needed.
One by one they came, some older, some younger, all frightened, all relieved, and all filled with gratitude. All chipping away at Garth’s resolve to keep himself distant from the human race.
“How many more?” Okil asked a young man as he hauled himself up the ramp.
“Two. Tam is trying to help one of the older women. Her foot has sunk into the sand, and burned it,” he said.
“And you didn’t stay?” Garth asked harshly. “You are a male, the stronger of your species.”
“She insisted,” he said and quaked under the wrath of the Karalian.
“Then I will go and help her,” Garth said, looking down the ramp, as the tarp finally got loose and flew away. He could see Tamzin, his female, struggling to lift the older woman, who could not put weight on her foot. In two strides he was down the ramp, pushing the human to one side, and then covering the ground to where Tamzin stood, in a heartbeat.
Taking hold of the older woman, he lifted her effortlessly and then reached for Tamzin, hooking his hand under her arm.
“I’m OK. I can manage, just get Marg aboard.” Tamzin held onto the rope and began to pull herself along, heading for the cruiser. Satisfied she would be safe, he carried the human to his ship, feeling the rain pricking his skin.
How did these people live here? He didn’t know and desperately wanted to leave, but now his ship was filled with a cargo-hold full of them.
All because he had gone soft on his human.
Chapter Seven – Tamzin
Her skin tingled, the rain steadily burning her skin. She would heal, it was only superficial, but she would look awful. Nice way to meet your prospective alien mate. He would wonder what freak show he had walked into. However, the fact that they were all safe made her feel a lot better. If the Karalians hadn’t come along, then they would have all perished.
Then the reason they were here hit her fully. She was about to leave Earth behind and go and live on another planet. A planet far away, and as far as she knew there were no return tickets, so she would never see her friends again. Never see Thomsk’s kids grow up, or be held in the comforting arms of Sybil again.
As her feet made contact with the hard ramp, each step she took towards the ship was a step away from her old life. A sensation of homesickness swept over her, and she turned to take one last look at the wild storm still raging behind her and tried to tell herself she would not miss it. But she would. Earth was her home; she loved it and would miss it, along with the people.
“Here.” The Karalian, Garth, held out his hand to her and she took it, suddenly exhausted, all the adrenaline that had kept her going now draining away, leaving her empty.
“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you both.” She looked from one huge man to the other, wondering which one was hers.
“Our pleasure,” Okil said, and then to Garth, “Let’s get on to solid ground, shall we?”
“I hope you haven’t sunk in the sand,” she said, full of concern now the immediate danger was over. This might cause an intergalactic problem if she had caused a Karalian space ship to become stuck on Earth.
“It’s hovering at present.” Okil smiled reassuringly.
“Let’s hope it can still manage to hover wi
th the extra weight,” Garth grumbled, and Tamzin sure hoped he wasn’t her future alien boyfriend.
She watched him go down a corridor and into a room filled with controls; she guessed that was the helm of the ship, or whatever it was they called it. “I’ll go join the others.”
Okil stood back out of the way, watching her as she went into the cargo hold to be greeted by the others, and then he went to join Garth.
“How are you all?” Tamzin asked.
“Jealous of you, my girl,” Sybil said. “Both of those guys can sweep me off my feet any time of day and fly me off to their planet.”
Tamzin tried to smile, but she couldn’t. “I’m scared.”
“Of course you are, honey, but they can give you a better life. Much better than you can ever hope for on this old rock.” Sybil reached out and squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I know your mom would be watching you and be so pleased you are going to have clean air, good food, and a man to take care of you.”
“I don’t need a man, Sybil. And I’m going to miss you all so much.”
“And we’re going to miss you,” Thomsk said. “But you sure as hell aren’t staying here with us, even if I have to knock you over the head and tie you up. When this space ship leaves, you are going with it.”
She felt as if her decision was being made for her. Had she given up her free choice? Yes, the moment she entered the lottery she had given herself over to chance, and for once in her life chance was smiling on her. So why did she feel so miserable?
The space ship was moving. The group of humans in the cargo hold all sat down clinging to each other to stop themselves been flung around. Now they were moving; the wind buffeted them, and the ship swayed, but at least they weren’t stuck in the sand. That was what she kept telling herself as she came to terms with her fate.
They were right. She would go to Karal and be happy. For them.
“When we stop, I’m going to give you everything out of my pack. I have my last coin from the company,” she said quietly to Sybil.
“Honey, give it to Thomsk, he needs it more. I would hate to see those two kids starving in the street.”
Hunted: BBW Alien Romance (Warriors of Karal Book 4) Page 3
