by Hana Starr
“Is that the generator you spoke of before?” she asked.
Rornak nodded, and she allowed herself to feel pleased. “It is a wormhole generator. It allows safe passages between one point and another, as long as the destination is known and can be calibrated into the machine. That is how I came to find you, and also how we have been working our way down the line of planets. By inputting random destinations, we are capable of stepping through and searching for life, but we did not find anything until I met you.”
There were so many questions in her mind, not the least of which was how they had managed to survive going into such risky situations, but she settled instead for choosing the most relevant. “But why? Why would you do that?”
Rornak glanced down and studied his fingers as he tapped them against his thigh, leaning back against the wall. Nelly resumed her perch on the bed, waiting for an answer. He looked put-out and sullen somehow, letting her catch a glimpse of his true age. If they aged at approximately the same rate, she thought he might still be in his early twenties. His size could not entirely banish the impression of boyishness from his face.
“We were afraid of something which has unfortunately come to pass. We feared we were being watched, and hoped that we might be able to get help from another civilization by using their techniques against an eventual enemy.” Sadness darkened in his eyes, and now he looked all but ancient with weariness. He had obviously been through quite a lot. “However, we weren’t successful. We were attacked. Our homes have been taken over, and only a small amount of us managed to escape. I am the eldest, and so the responsibility of leading has come to me.”
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
Rornak just shook his head. “I did not tell you this to earn your pity, but your understanding. I manage to procure one of our devices during the evacuation and have been using it still in the attempts to keep hope alive. Please tell me what it is that makes you so intelligent. Please, help us.”
I’m not sure I can, she thought, but didn’t voice it yet. What she said was, “I am a space engineer. I design and then build devices used for travel through space.”
His eyes lit up, making him seem almost far too handsome. “Truly? That is wonderful news! You can help us build a starship and we will be able to escape from here.”
“I didn’t say any of that!” Nelly protested, holding up her hands. “I don’t want anything to do with this, so just send me back, okay?”
Rornak dropped his head down with a defeated sigh. “Damn,” he swore. “I am so sorry. I apologize, I really do. You do not have a choice.”
Chills were at her spine again, but she persisted. “What do you mean I don’t have a choice? You said you were going to ask for help. You asked, and I refused. That’s all we’re doing here. I don’t want anymore to do with this. Please send me back where you got me from.”
“No,” he said, obviously dreading every word as he spoke. “What I mean is that I am sorry, but I no longer have the option to send you back. Because we are in hiding and cut off from all our supplies, I do not have a means to recharge the generator any further. The last of it was used in bringing you here. You cannot go anywhere now.”
Chapter Three
Rornak tensed his muscles, preparing to have to restrain her again as her whole body tensed, but she proved him wrong this time by just closing and opening her eyes. She didn’t seem to register that blinks were as much a part of the Akait language as words were, as all bodily cues were, and so he cast out all his other impressions of the motion to focus on what they meant for her and her alone. She had gathered her strength, brought herself back around under control.
It was impressive, really.
“How can you recharge the generator?” the human woman called Nelly asked. “What is needed for that?”
“A new battery port,” he answered readily. “I imagine that there are still some left in the guarded ruins of our home by those invaders, but I do not know how thoroughly our laboratories have been destroyed. We mount frequent expeditions to steal supplies but have not as yet been able to get near enough to the proper areas. In any case, food has been more important to our survival.”
“Well, now the battery port is more important,” Nelly growled. “Or I’ll kill all of you anyway.”
The threat was empty, and she looked very displeased at herself for it. However, an idea was taking shape in his mind. “Would you perhaps bargain with me?” he asked, trying not to sound as hopeful as he felt. Ever since that dreadful attack and his sudden and unwanted rise to leadership, he struggled to maintain the appearance and attitude that his people needed. They were desolate and angry, bursting with rage. His control needed to be firm, and he had to have a firm grip on all their actions; unfortunately, he only had two hands and approximately fifty people behind him, who were just as hot-blooded and vengeful as himself.
The number used to be seventy, if that was any indication of his failure. Several of those were suicides, while one was a case of a partially-cured female no longer being able to access the medicine for her disease. The rest of those however, had been part of a secret expedition which formed without his knowledge and traveled to the ruins in order to exact revenge.
Rornak found their bodies scattered on the ice, their blood frozen atop the stone.
Nelly looked suspicious. “Bargain how?”
“You help us build a ship, and we will return you to your home. All our supplies are in enemy possession for both. I do not see why we couldn’t grab one while acquiring the other.”
She frowned at him. “You said you didn’t know the state of things.”
“Perhaps not, but I know my own home. The materials you will probably need to construct something like this will be in the general area of the battery ports. If we are risking our lives to get one, we shall get the other as well.”
She looked extremely unconvinced but he couldn’t help that. He had said all he could. Now their fate was in her hands, the weak hands and breakable fingers of an argumentative female. He certainly had picked quite the interesting human, that was for sure.
Finally, Nelly just heaved a big sigh. His heart wrenched painfully with anticipation just before she gave her answer. “Fine. But I’m not happy about this. You need to know that.”
His lips twisted. “And you think I am? My home was destroyed. Consider that. And now our fate is in the hands of a complete stranger.”
Nelly sat up a bit and put her hands on her hips, the gesture strange and meaningless to him. It occurred to him that he would need to pay close attention to her until her ways made more sense to him. “I don’t think you understand that you just did the same thing to me.”
Shame rose up, burning, in his throat and threatened to steal the color from his cheeks. Fighting against it, he stood and watched as she mimicked him.
As much as he wanted to show her around right now, he shook his head and held up his hands palm-out. “No, it is not quite time yet. I have to speak with the Akait first and attend to some other things. Sleep, and when you wake again I will be waiting.”
The shadows beneath her eyes weren’t individual only to her own species, after all.
“But…” she started to protest, but he would have none of it. If he was in charge of her now, he would treat her the same as he would any other exhausted workaholic he came across.
“You think I cannot tell that you are tired?” he said, trying to sound gentle. “Please, relax. Rest. Gather your strength for the days to come. When you wake, I will prepare you.”
She nodded reluctantly, and he admired her again for just a moment that she should admit her own failings so readily. It was a hard quality to learn, and an even more difficult skill to master, knowing when one had had enough.
Rornak moved to the door and unlatched it. He didn’t look over his shoulder as he stepped out and closed it behind him.
A dark hallway stood open before him, like an angry throat before flame rushed down along it and spurte
d out at the opposite end. In the single moment of peace before he had to face his people again, he sighed, let his shoulders slump, and put his face in his hands. Self-pity and hardship threatened to overtake him, as it had been threatening ever since his people first caught sight of a potential disaster. The battle was long and grew harder every day.
But as he did every time the doubt caught him unaware, he struck out at it with everything had until he was shaking and nearly panting with the effort. The doubt faded, bloody and wounded, receding to take cover in the dark crevasses at the back of his mind where bitterness reigned. Catching his breath, Rornak squared his shoulders again and continued on down the hallway. It curved like a supple, reclining dragon spine and then emptied darkness out into a circular cavern where his people were currently gathered around small scattering of hand-lamps like the one he had left behind with Nelly.
There were no children, as those had been the very first casualties in the days following their escape. They were all around his age, though he was the eldest and therefore elected as the most experienced and the new leader. It hardly seemed fair to him, that he should be given the position without his want, but it was their custom that the eldest male should rule alongside a small council of his brothers and sisters until they either passed, or were otherwise overthrown after being deemed unfit to rule.
Not that long ago, the council of the last leader had amounted to nearly twice this gathered number but it was proportional, and so he had only four so-called advisors. Two were frightened and bashful, while the other half were bloodthirsty and aching for revenge; he had chosen them for these traits, in the hopes that they would balance each other out, but it had really been just a shot in the dark. He knew none of them personally, and this wasn’t the best of times to do that.
It should have been. He knew that. This was the time when they should have united and become better than ever, a joined group of stragglers from all walks of the Akait life, but all they did was fight and argue.
The Akait lived a rather long time as a people, and so the majority of the first part of it was when youth were expected to challenge themselves and others. Rornak and his little group were deep in the midst of that time, and he had no experience that an elder might have had. When anger became uncontrollable, he had no idea how to break up fights or soothe mental scars.
Takla, an apprentice tunnel-digger and the youngest of them all, pushed herself up to her feet because she was the first one to see him. Several others did the same, but a majority of the other dragons did nothing to show a respect that they did not have.
It smarted a bit, but Rornak accepted it with a barely-constricted growl. He bowed his head to those who stood. “Thank you. Please, be seated.”
Takla remained standing, however. As the youngest, she was perhaps the most argumentative of them all. Rornak couldn’t exactly do anything about her though, because it was only her expertise which enabled them to find shelter and their own food in the first place. Much of the vegetation on Pluto came in the form of root-based life, starchy tubers which grew nestled in cracks in the earth where ice could not reach. Not only that, but she was the best at locating the frozen water-dwelling shellfish which compromised the rest of their natural diet. If she had completed her apprenticeship, she would have become a master hunter and gatherer. Now, she was doomed to scrabble around in unfamiliar places in near-darkness with her claws scored down to the quick.
“Rornak,” she said in her pretty voice, like a tail sliding across fresh snowfall, “did you manage to find anything?” She sounded bland. All of them knew the chances of having found anyone on their very last bit of generator energy had astronomical odds against it.
A bit of extra warmth rose up in his throat as he thought of how he would be able now to break through their expectations. “Yes!” he trumpeted, and turned into a dragon for celebration. Bracing his feet against the stone floor, he spread out his wings and curled his tail up high. Flame bubbled in his chest, and he spat it towards the stalactites; back home, the ceilings were often scorched and flaking with a constant rain of ash because of this. These conical spears of stone were barren however, but he hoped to start adding to them now. Every bit of discoloration told a story, piled upon a rough surface in layers and layers.
No one joined in, however. They were all staring at him –those who had paid attention- and he was held fast by their uncomprehending gazes. Feeling his thick, sluggish blood blush against his scales, he transformed back and spread out his arms now to explain. “By some form of miracle, let it be known that upon our last charge, I entered into a strange laboratory of sorts which did not far resemble our own! There was a woman working on something, and I pulled her back through with me.”
“What kind of a woman?” one of his two quiet advisors asked, his face a mask of distaste. “And how can you tell?”
“She is remarkably similar to us,” he answered. “If a bit pinker in color. And she wears strange dress.”
A ripple of amusement ran amongst the listeners, catching the attention of the rest. A pink woman? That sounded absolutely absurd! Then again, so had the reports of strange white-suited beings watching from afar when they first began to become aware of the threat of invasion.
Rornak flickered his eyelids twice, watching as they all settled down because that meant he had something to say. “I do not know which sort of strange fate has bestowed this miracle upon us but it appears that this female is a scientist. She creates designs for space vehicles.”
A murmur of surprise and appreciation ran through them. They were rapt with attention now, some of them with their mouths hanging open with shock.
This is going better than I expected.
However, it was not going to continue to be so easy. Takla glanced around at everyone else and then spoke up again. “No one is that selfless. Where is the catch in all of this?”
There was no time to hesitate, he knew. This was something which needed delicate handling and oh, how he wished he were more mature. It seemed like only yesterday that his wing casings had come off, and now he was here flying all on his own.
“The human wishes to return to her home,” he explained. “We will need materials from our old home, and we will need to continue to take what belongs to us. Hopefully, she will guide us with what she needs. In trade for assisting us, we are to grab a new battery port and grant her a way back to her own planet.”
A mechanic known as Horule gave a low growl in the back of his throat as he stood to address his leader. Horule was a rare grey, with darker blood, skin, and scales than all the rest; Rornak knew that he thought he should have been in command, and there were times when he wished it had turned out that way.
“Space vehicles are an impossibility,” he said roughly, and the tone with which he spoke was not at all pleasant. “No one in any age before ours has been able to accomplish it. My great-grandfather said this.”
Rornak bristled at the direct challenge, but he just turned his head a little and hissed between his teeth. “She is from a different planet entirely! We cannot yet know anything about her or her ways, but I would like to think that this could be our chance.”
Horule hissed in return, starting to approach. The watchers drew out of his way, pulling their hand-lamps close to their bodies to avoid having them be damaged by someone who wouldn’t watch where he was going.
I wish this wasn’t part of what I had to do.
If he didn’t rise to the challenge, they would see him as weak. Taking a few steps forward and lowering his head, he raised his hands; Horule met him then, and their fingers locked. Grappling with each other, Rornak dug his toes against the floor and tightened the muscles in his legs. Their species were bulky enough to begin with, which meant that both he and his challenger were solid as rocks to begin with; Horule was larger than him however though, and his wrists were beginning to ache.
Horule clutched at him tighter and began to twist, making him tilt dangerously to the side. Thinking quickly,
he suddenly relaxed his entire body and let the larger man throw him. Surprise was his advantage, and he lunged his body sideways into the toss with his hands still firmly gripping his opponent. Unprepared for his sudden victory, Horule went sprawling as Rornak rolled to his feet and stood over him.
Adrenaline made his slow blood pump faster, changing the color of his body to a fainter color while Horule also paled with embarrassment. “Is that enough for you?” Rornak snarled, glaring down. “I am your leader. My word is law, and you will not challenge me. The human stays and we will do all that we can to ensure she will assist us.”
