by Rachel Clark
“Approximately 13.7 seconds.”
Karriak-Sektannen rolled his eyes, but thanked the computer anyway. He had no idea if To’huto meant 13.7 seconds at the end of the sentence or the beginning, but since he could now see the ship in question he didn’t bother to ask.
“Interesting,” To’huto said, actually sounding interested. Maybe Karriak-Sektannen would hold off on asking for a refund. “The spacecraft is made mostly from metals indigenous to this planet.”
“What?” he asked in confusion. That wasn’t what he’d been expecting. He’d traveled here to explore the planet before it evolved modern sentient beings. There weren’t even any inhabitable worlds close enough to make mining from this planet commercially viable. “To’h, scan for wormholes.”
“None detected,” To’huto said with what sounded suspiciously like laughter in his “voice.” “But you might be interested in the residual readings of a time fracture that seems to have opened up around the same time as our visitor’s unexpected appearance.”
“It’s a time traveler?”
“It would appear that way,” To’huto said as the craft landed in the cargo bay. “It also appears that our visitor is of the female variety.”
Fuck. “Female variety of what species, To’h?”
The machine started laughing, the sound almost a perfect imitation of Karriak-Sektannen’s older brother. He ground his teeth together.
“What species, To’h?”
“Human.”
Chapter Two
Amanda’s eyes were still trying to adjust after the bright light, because she sure as hell could not be seeing what the fuck she was seeing. It just wasn’t possible.
Even if she’d wandered into enemy territory, surely the spy satellites would have picked up such a large vehicle hovering just above the ground. Amanda couldn’t even figure out how it was towing her toward it.
But toward it her small craft went.
A large piece at the side of the vessel slid open, and she watched helplessly as her little craft was dragged inside. She hastily ran through every “captured by the enemy” scenario she’d ever studied and shuddered at every single one. None of the countries capable of building this type of technology would take kindly to an uninvited visitor.
But it was the man who walked toward her craft that scared the fucking crap out of her.
* * * *
Karriak-Sektannen could already feel the effects of the increased oxygen. Even wearing the most advanced, stretchable material known to his people wasn’t going to be enough. He would need to deal with this quickly and go change into more suitable clothing. He stumbled slightly, grimacing as his toes forced themselves through the ends of his most comfortable shoes.
“To’h, is she conscious?”
“That she is,” the computer said, sounding amused, “and judging by the angry language, not very happy about our invitation.”
“Perfect,” Karriak-Sektannen said, not really certain if he meant it sarcastically or not. A pissed-off houseguest wasn’t something he wanted, needed, or even deserved, but at least if she was annoyed she’d be anxious to go home and leave him in peace.
“She doesn’t seem willing to come out voluntarily,” To’huto announced. “Would you like me to override her electronic locking mechanisms?”
“Please,” Karriak-Sektannen said with a nod, “but don’t damage her ship. I want this human gone as soon as possible.”
“So you don’t want to play with your new friend?” the computer asked in the same teasing tone his brothers would have used.
“No,” he said on a low growl. It didn’t help that one of the side effects of telkobar was an increase in sexual arousal. He’d come on this solo mission fully expecting to have his dick in hand quite often, but with a female on board it was unlikely to be enough. Fuck, he had to get her gone before he did something truly stupid.
The occupant of the ship didn’t react as the clear panel above her slid back.
“I thought you said she was human,” Karriak-Sektannen said as he stepped closer to the little spaceship. The being inside didn’t look like a human female. With its large head, strangely reflective eyes, and long, ugly snout, it looked a little like the creature he’d studied on his last survey mission. If his research was correct, that creature turned out to be the ancestor of what humans would later call the elephant seal.
“I believe,” To’huto said, interrupting Karriak-Sektannen’s wayward thoughts, “that the visual distortion is coming from the fact that the human female is wearing both a helmet and an oxygen mask.”
Well, that was kind of a relief. Her appearance would depend on what century the human had traveled from, but as far as Karriak-Sektannen knew they’d remained humanoid in shape for many millennia. With a bit of luck she would have a similar shape to his own.
He shook his head sharply. No, that wouldn’t be luck. That would be torture.
He needed to get this female back to wherever she came from, pronto!
* * * *
The man who approached her was huge. She’d estimated his size at taller than six feet, but as he stepped closer she’d realized he was closer to seven. The truly frightening part was that he was built in proportion. He was tall and muscular and from a distance would have passed for many of the pilots and mechanical engineers she’d worked with over the years, but up close he was gigantic.
He stared at her as he spoke, but he didn’t seem to be addressing her. Rather, he appeared to be talking into some sort of wireless communication. Amanda thought she could hear the replies of a disembodied voice, yet with the helmet on it was hard to discern actual words.
Loath to reveal the fact that she was female, Amanda sat and watched as the man seemed to argue with whomever he was speaking. He stepped closer, reaching out to touch the top of her helmet as if he’d never seen one before.
The disembodied voice started speaking more loudly, the words seeming a little more familiar than they did moments ago. She sat up a little straighter when she thought she’d recognized several words typically used as greetings in Spanish, French, and Chinese.
“Welcome,” the voice finally said after many, many languages she assumed it had been trying. “Please do not be afraid. We mean you no harm.”
“Then why did you abduct me?” she muttered to herself.
“Ah,” the voice said, “English. What dialect do you prefer?”
“Dialect?” She hadn’t really given much thought to the English language having different dialects, but she supposed that different countries would use the same words in different ways.
“More specifically, what dialect from what century?” the voice asked in a helpful tone.
“Century?” she asked weakly as the plots for every low-budget sci-fi movie she’d ever watched flitted through her mind.
“Ah,” the disembodied voice said, “so I take it your little journey through time was not planned?”
“Time?” she asked again, just as weakly. Surely this was some alpha asshole playing games with the poor-little-lady-pretending-to-be-an-astronaut. Sheesh. She didn’t recognize the voice or the man standing in front of her, but it seemed the instinct to belittle women was planetwide. “What the fuck do you want? Why did you hijack my ship?”
“Hijack?” the voice asked, sounding amused. “I would think the fact that we saved you from crashing would negate the whole hijack idea. But, hey, if you want to play it that way. Sure. Name, rank, and serial number…please.”
“What the hell? I’m a civilian, you idiot.”
“Fine,” the voice said in what seemed to be a tired tone. “Please provide your name.”
“Amanda Hasbro.” She’d meant her tone to come out sure and clear, but the realization that she was a woman alone on an unknown ship, run by unknown people, in an unknown area was finally starting to sink in. As much as she wanted to sass these men, maybe the whole “damsel in distress” approach would was a safer bet.
“Do you prefer to
be addressed as ‘Amanda’ or ‘Hasbro’ or perhaps both?”
“Amanda, please,” she said in a shockingly submissive tone. Hell, damsel-in-distress? Maybe. But, roll-over-and-submit? Hell, no! “I mean, um…who are you and where am I?”
The voice seemed to laugh quietly before answering. “You are approximately at the same coordinates you were 4.4 million years from now.”
“Oh.” She really didn’t know what to say. According to her extensive knowledge of low-budget sci-fi series, time travel could explain the bright flash and the instant change in scenery, but surely it wasn’t possible. “Why did you bring me here?”
“Do you mean here as in here here, or here as in now here?”
“Huh?”
“What To’h means,” the man standing in front of her said with a half smile, half scowl on his face, “is that we brought you aboard because you were going to crash. We did not, however, have anything to do with bringing you to this point in time.”
“You speak English?” she asked, rather stupidly when she thought about it.
“I do now,” he answered cryptically.
“Oh…Well, I don’t know how to time travel so…um…” She had all sorts of comebacks forming in her head, but they all seemed to be the equivalent of the childish “so there” reply common in primary school. Disbelieving their claim that they didn’t drag her through time because of her own inability to time travel seemed rather lame. Whatever had happened, however she’d gotten here was something she couldn’t explain, so even if they were lying about the time travel she still had no explanations. Perhaps she should go back to that damsel-in-distress idea. Their “ship” had been far more advanced than anything she’d ever seen before.
Hang on a second. Wouldn’t that mean she’d gone forward in time, not backward?
“Amanda,” the man in front of her said in a far friendlier tone than he’d used earlier, “I’ve adjusted the environment to suit your breathing requirements. It’s safe to remove your equipment and step out of your vessel.”
She sat frozen for a few moments, her indecision so out of character for her that she wanted to punch something.
“I promise that we mean you no harm,” he said with a friendly smile.
“Uh-huh,” she said, unable to swallow the “harmless” speech. Even if he didn’t plan to hurt her, just his appearance was messing with her head. He was huge, but perfectly formed, his shape and facial features very pleasing to the eye. It didn’t help that the smile he was giving her right now set all of her feminine parts tingling. Hell, it had been so long since she’d given in to her body’s baser urges that she wasn’t so sure she wouldn’t be the one to hurt him.
Fuck. Get a grip, Hasbro!
Making a decision that she sincerely hoped she wouldn’t regret, Amanda undid the seal on her helmet and removed the oxygen mask from her face. She took a tentative breath, pleased to find the air clear and fresh.
The man stood back to let her climb out of the cockpit. She’d always hated this part of flying. Climbing into and out of the cramped spaces often put her ass on show. She’d grown used to the chauvinistic comments back home, but this man’s soft groan set her alight in ways that sleazy comments never could have. Holy shit, she was in a whole heap of trouble.
She stumbled slightly, losing her balance as her feet reached the ground. The man wrapped two big hands around her waist to hold her steady. She swallowed hard, trying not to mimic the groan he’d released only moments ago.
Amanda quickly stepped away, grateful when the man’s hands fell back to his sides and he seemed to stand up a little straighter. Hell, he was tall, maybe even taller than seven foot. From her above-average height of nearly five eleven, he seemed even larger now than when she’d first seen him.
She gazed up at him, anything she was about to say lost to her forever as she stared into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.
“I’m Karriak-Sektannen,” he said as his hand lifted toward her as if to touch her face.
“Karriak,” she repeated, almost swaying toward him, wanting that gentle touch instinctively, but thankfully he seemed to realize what he was doing and dropped his hand to his side.
“No,” he said, flexing his fingers as if he was in pain. “My name is Karriak-Sektannen. The full thing. One whole word.” Wow, touchy. He waited for her to nod her understanding before he went on. “To’h tells me that you’re most likely here from the twenty-first century.”
“Um.” Okay, not her most intelligent response, but it seemed that both he and this mysterious To’h believed she had actually traveled to another point in time. Maybe it was safest to play along until she could repair her ship and find a way back home. “Er…yes. I’m from the year 2018.”
* * * *
Karriak-Sektannen could see the disbelief written on her face. She didn’t believe that she’d jumped four million years into the past, and had apparently labeled him as delusional. He stifled the urge to correct her assumptions. He needed to get her ship repaired and her through that damn time fracture quickly, very quickly. And he needed to do it before he did something stupid like taking her into his arms, peeling away her clothing, and spending the next several days exploring her body. Shit. Fix her ship, set her course, wave good-bye—none of that required him to explain that he wasn’t crazy.
In fact, thinking him crazy just might keep her at arm’s length, despite the fact that he wanted her much, much closer. Her hair was long and blonde, but no longer properly secured by the ponytail, the messy curls framing her face beautifully. And she was tall, quite tall for a human if he remembered correctly, and slender without being emaciated. Hell, if he’d designed his perfect woman she’d probably look a lot like Amanda Hasbro.
Damn, talk about fucked-up timing.
He was absolutely not going there. His time for telkobar was rapidly approaching. There was no way he was getting involved in any sort of relationship—even a hot, sweaty, temporary melding of two bodies built to perfectly align…Fuck!
“Are you okay?” Amanda asked him with a concerned look on her face.
“Fine,” he growled.
“Oh,” she said again, obviously still unsure how to deal with him.
“Perhaps I could interject,” the computer said with a snicker. “Amanda would probably appreciate a meal and a place to rest at this time. Perhaps you can play host to our guest while I run a diagnostic on her ship and see if I can begin repairs.”
“No,” Amanda said sharply. She seemed to reconsider her stance as she glanced up at the surprised look he most likely wore. “I mean…I just…It’s my ship. I designed it. I built it from the ground up. I know it better than anyone. I would be more comfortable working on the repairs myself.”
“Certainly,” To’h said in a voice Karriak-Sektannen was beginning to think of as poisonously amenable. The computer’s personality had proved rather efficient at punishing him when he didn’t agree. Cold lasers in the shower, changed gravity in different rooms, strange ingredients mixed together in his food. None of it had been particularly dangerous, more like humorous pranks, but there was really no getting over the taste of choc-fudge sundae sprinkled with red-hot, burn-your-lips-off chili flakes.
Karriak-Sektannen almost found himself looking forward to what the computer might do to Amanda for disagreeing with it.
Except that—fuck, he had to control his need—she wasn’t staying that long.
Fix her ship, set her course, wave her good-bye.
End of story.
Yeah, right.
* * * *
“I just need to borrow a few tools, if you have them. I should be out of your way in a jiffy.”
“What’s a jiffy?” the man asked, looking perplexed.
She raised an eyebrow at him, but couldn’t for the life of her explain what a “jiffy” was. “I think it’s just an expression. You know, I’ll be out of your way quickly, as soon as possible, before you know it.”
“Oh,” he said, almost perfectly
mimicking the way she’d said the word earlier. It seemed that confusion was contagious. But then he smiled as if a thought occurred to him. “To’h, can you send me the colloquialisms common to Earth English in 2018 as well, please.”
“In a jiffy,” To’h said with what she would have described as a perfectly straight face if she’d been able to actually see his face.
“Are you two the only ones on board?” she asked curiously. She hadn’t seen evidence of any others, but it seemed implausible considering the size of the ship.
“Actually it’s just me,” Karriak-Sektannen said with a forced smile. “To’h is the ship’s computer system.”
“To’h is a computer? Are you sure?”
He laughed and moved as if to grab her to give her an affectionate hug. But again, at the last moment, he seemed to realize what he was doing and backed away. “Yes, very sure,” he said instead.
“Oh.”
There was that word again.
Fabulous. Fan-fucking-fabulous. Karriak-Sektannen must be wondering how a woman who sounded like such a twit could be an aeronautical engineer. In fact, she was beginning to wonder that herself. “Are there any side effects to time travel?”
“Not that I know of,” he said grimly, “but since you seem to have passed through a fracture it is probably wise to run some basic medical scans.” He held a hand out for her to take, this time stepping closer to reach for her.
The moment his warm fingers curled around her own, a sharp pang of desire speared her middle. Holy heavens, if that was the reaction she got from touching the man’s hand, she was nearly certain she didn’t want him touching her anywhere else. Okay, maybe she really wanted him to touch her everywhere else, but it certainly wasn’t a wise thing to wish for. She wasn’t even sure that he was human.
The question was out of her mouth before she thought to stop it.
He laughed softly and his thumb caressed over the pulse point on her wrist. “No,” he said with a smile, “I’m not human. Your species won’t meet mine for another six years after the time you left.”
