by Aidy Award
He used the bear’s superior night vision to examine the engine. Combustion. Wow.
No wonder the Earthers had barely made it to manned space missions. What kind of a backwoods planet still used combustion engines. Probably ran on some sort of ancient fuel made of rotting carcasses or something strange too.
He studied the components and, aha, there, wiring that led into the cockpit. The starting mechanism must be wired to the engine from inside.
He ran back and jumped inside. The wires led to the steering column, but the only thing besides the metal was some sort of hanging decoration in the shape of a powerful warrior woman.
Fuck. He ripped open the panels inside the cockpit and found more wiring than he’d bargained for. Combustion meant a firing sequence, and it must be triggered by an electrical current. He chose two wires that had the best chance of connecting and pulled them out.
“Hey. Are you seriously trying to hotwire Herbie? After I saved your ass?” His lovely mate stepped up next to him She had her glasses on her face, and the towel he was sure he’d left in the pleasure den, wrapped tightly around her. Strange. But she also had a fire in her eyes.
He’d have to remember to push that fire as often as he could. She was gorgeous.
He would do plenty of that as soon as they got to safety, or Magic. Whichever came first.
“Kady. Thank Fates. How do you start your vehicle? We have to go now.”
The bladed ship, with the words Task Force Omega printed boldly on the side, bore down on them and pointed its search light directly on them. A voice came from the sky. “Don’t move. This is the TFO. You are being detained for further questioning. Remain where you are.”
Kady held her arm aloft and extended only the middle finger toward the ship. Her gesture did not appear to be a sign of surrender. “Screw you, you big bullies.”
The metal warrior woman decoration in the vehicle must be Kady’s totem.
“Push down on that pedal, right there.” She indicated the pedal to his far left and he depressed it.
Nothing happened. She reached across him, twisted the totem and the engine sputtered to life.
Noted. Pedal, then totem twist. “Get in.”
Kady bolted across the front of the vehicle.
“Halt, or we’ll shoot.” The TFO didn’t wait and fired a weapon that bounced off the corner of the engine housing with a loud clang.
Kady ducked down and crawled on her hands and knees to the side door. No way was Black allowing these Earthers to use weapons against his mate. He roared, letting his bear rise to the surface.
His canines and incisors elongated and his claws burst forth, weapons he would use on anyone who harmed Kady.
“Whoa. That explains the fur.” Kady peered at him from a crouched position on the side of the open door. She tried to stand, but another volley of the weapon rained down on them, puncturing the vehicle’s metal.
“Shit, Herbie.”
Shouts came from behind them and they both turned to see a whole squad of the TFO men moving toward them at a rapid clip.
They had maybe three minutes before they were swarmed. He could not allow them to capture him or touch Kady.
The second bladed ship flew in over the trees and hovered just above them, its lights illuminating the cockpit. “Kady, we have to move.”
“I have a plan. Can you distract them? Maybe with more of that animal thing you got going on?”
“I must protect you.”
“Protect me later, first, cover me.” Kady bolted, running for the tiny home. Fucking hell.
Black shifted fully, his bear pouring forth from his soul faster than it had ever come on. He rolled from the Herbie and stood up to his full bear height and roared so loud it echoed off the mountains.
That drew the TFO’s fire. Shots of metal bit into his shoulder and still he snarled. Fear poured from the men on the ground and he would use that to drive them away.
He charged toward the closest men, taking fire, but pushing them to retreat. The first few rounds went clean through him and his wounds healed easily. Another squad emerged and flanked him shooting at his back.
He turned on the closest of the men and lashed out, tearing them down like children’s toys. More men fired and this time the projectiles lodged in his body. The bear’s healing powers pushed some of the metal bits out, but there were more hitting him than his body could deal with.
He’d have to either turn and run, leading them away, or charge and hope he could last against the barrage for as long as it took for Kady to escape.
Black roared again and his muscles bunched in preparation to take out the line of men firing at him.
Before he could move, Kady appeared on the porch of her home, a small black box and wiring leading into the house under her arm.
A weapon?
“Come on universe. Gimme some cloud cover,” she said.
The billows of smoke from the fires started by his crash and a quickly building bank of clouds closed in over the field. The bladed ships were engulfed and moved off.
Fates above. Had Kady done that?
She squatted down, pointed one end of the box toward the sky and flipped open a cover to reveal a white light.
A squadron of fighter ships appeared in the sky, seeming to appear right as the clouds did, surprising both Black and the TFO men. The men raised their weapons and fired.
Kady aimed a small handheld control at the interior of her home and the sound of the ships whooshed through the sky. Laser fire sounded, pew pew pew, and they could all hear the communications of the star fighters.
“Red leader one…”
“He’s on my tail, I can’t shake him.”
“It’s a trap!”
Black looked up at the battle raging in the sky, and then over at Kady.
“Don’t just stand there, you big bear, help me unhitch the trailer.”
Black used all his energy to run to her side, and fell beside her. The last hits of the weapons had weakened him.
“Oh no. Black. You can’t die now.” She touched his muzzle imbuing him with her own spirit. The flow of her soul to his buzzed like a shot of alcohol spreading warmth through him. It was enough to get him back on his feet.
The Fates had given him a powerful mate. He only hoped he was good enough for her.
Kady pushed on the metal bar connecting the Herbie and the little house, turning the crank on a hand wheel at the same time. “These schmoes are only going to fall for those X-wing fighters for about two more seconds. Come on, universe. Gimme a little help.”
The metal ball and socket holding the whole thing together fell apart right before his eyes. That was the second time Kady had used those words and made her will happen.
Hot damn. How had he not noticed it before? His mate was a witch. A much more powerful one than any he’d seen on his home world.
“Go, Black, go.” She pushed him toward the Herbie.
“God. You’re not going to fit. Can you turn back into a human?”
Black pushed the bear back inside, again shifting faster than normal. That had to be from her powers as well.
“Yes,” he said.
“Okay then. Get in the truck. The Death Star is about to explode.”
Sweet Fates, what did that mean? Just how powerful was his witch?
They both jumped into the vehicle. Kady started it up and pushed on the accelerator. They screeched across the field and down a hidden dirt road. As they flew into the cover of the trees, behind them a loud explosion boomed and then the sounds of cheering reverberated through the air.
“Did the TFO destroy your weapon?”
“No, the rebels just defeated the Empire.”
Black looked at her wondering what Empire she could possibly mean. Had the Taarians been trying to take over this portion of the galaxy and he’d been so tied up in the hunt for the spectral soldiers he hadn’t known?
There was so much more to Kady than he expected. Her powers could help in
the battle against the spectrals. The sooner they could hook up with his team the better.
“Don’t worry,” Kady said, “The Empire will strike back.”
Chapter
Six: In the Garden of Gnomes
Herbie flew down the mountain, so fast she thought he might fall apart. Kady had never seen him go above fifty, but they were doing ninety miles an hour trying to get away from the TFO.
She took a turn like a Formula One driver, which she was not. But the steering wheel easily gliding through her hands and Herbie floated around the bends in the road and over the rocks and dirt.
Maybe her alien bear man was using a special power to help them escape. Good, because they could use all the help in the universe. If the TFO was after them, they were totally screwed.
She’d read the conspiracy theories, from Area 51 to the ancient aliens of Nazca. But, that’s all they have ever been, fun to think about, but not reality.
But then again, she thought the same about aliens up until a few hours ago.
Kady glanced over at Black. He had transformed back into a man, a man who was bleeding all over the place.
“We have to get you to a hospital. No, wait scratch that. We need to get somewhere with Internet, so I can watch a YouTube video or something to figure out how do first aid on bullet wounds.”
There was a video for everything on YouTube. At the very least there would be an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
She glanced down at the towel, that had somehow stayed on her body through all that, and wished for a Wal-Mart.
“No. Keep going. Put as much terrain between them and us as you can. I’ll be fine. When we find a safe place, you can use your powers to heal where my bear has not.”
They hit Devils Gulch Road and evening traffic buzzed by. Okay, two cars drove by but an old red pickup going ninety would stick out. They would be less conspicuous if she went the speed limit. But, they’d need to find a place to hide quick.
Black sunk deeper into the bench seat, looking less golden and more pale by the second. “Why did you not tell me you were a witch?”
Loosing blood or no, there was no reason to get assholey. “Hey. Don’t be calling me names. I just saved your ass. Again.”
Three big dark SUVs with tinted windows passed them going toward her home and the crash site. The longer they stayed out in the open, the more chance someone was going to spot them and capture them and probe them.
Kady did not want to be probed. Unless it was by Black’s tongue. What, wait, whoa. No. That must be the adrenaline talking. Yeah, yeah, the complete and total attraction to a bear-shifting, alpha male, alien was because of a hormone.
“Is witch a derogatory term in your culture? What do women who can manipulate the world around them with their will call themselves? Your powers are far beyond anything the I have seen on my homeworld.”
“What powers? The power of an LCD projector and high-speed internet?” The closer to town they got, the more rubber-necking tourists they encountered. They passed at least five cars pulled over to the side of the road. Usually people stopped to stare and take pictures of the wildlife that wandered around the town down from the sanctuary of Rocky Mountain National Park. These gawkers were all focused on the billows of smoke and line of emergency vehicles speeding up the mountain.
Kady glanced over at Black and found him frowning at her. Not like he was mad, but like he couldn’t figure her out. That was not a first.
“Stop staring at me like that and help me find a place we can hide both us and Herbie.”
He did not stop staring. “I know of a place we will be safe, but it is not nearby.”
“I’ll take anything at the moment. Unless you mean your home planet. I don’t think we have enough gas for that.” Although, for being an ancient truck, Herbie got excellent gas mileage.
Black pointed toward the south. “No. Do you know how to get to New Mexico?”
“Oh, my god. Are you taking me to Area 51? Is your mother ship there?” She’d always wanted to go to New Mexico.
“I don’t know any area by that designation, and my mother does not have a ship, she has, had a farm. We need to get to a place called Magic, New Mexico. There are more of your kind there and my team is waiting for me.”
Her kind? Like plump nerdy girls who didn’t much like people and preferred to live in sci-fi and fantasy worlds on TV and in books? The only place she’d ever been that had people like her was ComicCon.
“We need someplace closer than New Mexico. You’re wounded and Herbie isn’t exactly inconspicuous.” Maybe they could get lost in the traffic in Denver. But, first they had to get there.
“We should head in that direction. Do you have any friends we could take refuge with?”
Friends were not her strong suit. She’d been better off on her own, up in the woods, in her tiny house.
That was probably now swarming with TFO agents who were examining every bit of her pathetic life.
“Not really.” Kady glanced over at Black, expecting to see that disdain everyone who was cooler than she was got when she had to admit her shortcomings.
He looked decidedly ungolden. His injuries were taking a toll on him. “Can you call your team and have them come get you?”
He shook his head. “My communicator is likely still in the remains of my ship.”
Her cell phone was back in the remains of her tiny house. Damn. “Won’t they come to rescue you?”
“No. The mission they are on is more important that one man. Which is why we must get to New Mexico.”
Once they got past the lake, she got on US 34 to head down the mountain. But, that road was only two lanes, and there were not a lot of options to get off if the TFO showed up.
Which they did, right then and there.
One of the big dark SUVs they’d seen earlier drove up behind them and rammed her bumper. “Holy crap. They’re going to kill us.”
There were only trees, a cliff, and the steep slope of a mountain on either side of the road. If they tried to run her off, she and Black would either end up Thelma and Louis-ing off the cliff or crashing through the trees. Black had already done that once today.
“Go, Kady, go. I will try to find a way to defend us.” Black opened the glove box and found Herbie’s service records, a box of breath mints, an aux cord, and nothing else.
He crumpled the papers and tossed them out the window. One stuck to the SUVs windshield, but their wipers took care of that instantly.
The TFO bad guys gunned it and pulled up next to her, then plowed into the side of Herbie, making her swerve onto the shoulder.
“I suggest you call upon the Universe to help us.”
“I don’t think the law of attraction works like that.”
“Do it, Kady. Say your spell.”
The SUV rammed them again.
What the hell. “Dear sweet Universe, help us not die and get away from the bad guys.”
They took the next turn, screeching around the corner and straight into a thick bank of fog. Kady couldn’t see a thing, but she knew the cliff edge was to their left and the forest was to the right.
She’d rather end up smashed into a tree than smashed into the canyon floor a trillion feet below them.
She jerked the steering wheel to the right and Herbie flew into the ditch, into the trees and down a small incline. Kady did the best she could to steer. Trees branches slapped the windows and they bumped over the rocks and other terrain. The ground below them dipped and she lost all control of the truck floating through the air. Please don’t let them have gone over the cliff.
One minute they were bouncing off trees, and the next they were at a complete stand still.
Kady breathed in and out. It was all she could muster for a moment. How had they stopped? They hadn’t crashed. They’d simply stopped moving forward. Maybe they had plowed into a tree and were dead now.
“Kady, are you okay? Are you injured.” Black was breathing as fast as she was, but he seem
ed unharmed too.
“I’m fine, I think. Unless we died in a fiery crash and don’t know it yet.”
Black pointed out the window. The fog bank lifted, leaving as suddenly as it had rolled in. “I think not, unless your afterlife is a green field surrounded by large metal boxes.”
In front of them, a small serene meadow sat dotted with tiny houses made from shipping containers. Behind them was a forest of thick trees, none of which seemed disturbed by their violent entry.
How? What?
A small person, like really short and stocky with a long white beard, popped out the front door of one of the houses. If Kady were less PC, she’d have said he was a garden gnome minus his hat.
She couldn’t hear him, but he was waving his arms and yelling across the field at them. Then a second small person, a woman wearing a yellow dress and an apron came out and starting yelling at the man.
“Do you know these gnomes?” Black asked.
She smacked him on the arm. “Don’t call them that. They’re little people.”
“The little people are approaching. We should ask them for shelter.” He opened the door and got out of Herbie.
She followed him out, but only to stop him. “Wait, they don’t look very friendly.”
“We will be able to evade the TFO with them. Come, mah wah.” Black took her hand and led her across the field.
“You,” the man pointed at Kady, “what do you think you’re doing coming in on a cloud and invading our garden?”
The woman tsked. “Now, dear. Don’t make the pretty witch and her bear mad. I’m sure if they needed to break through our wards there is a good reason.”
The little woman said some foreign sounding words, waved her hand in the air, and a quick buzz, like a bee flying by shot over their heads. “There, that fixes that.”
Black put his body between the little people and Kady. Like he had when the TFO had been firing at her. Both times this strange tingling happened below her breastbone.
“We require your assistance,” Black said.
