by Maia Starr
“Slowly,” he said as we finally got to the bottom. He put his hand out, stopping me. Then he slowly looked around. It was like watching an animal perked up when they heard something. I didn't hear anything.
I held my breath and barely moved. I watched him closely. He moved his hand up and down in order to gesture to me to crouch down. I did. I moved beside a large boulder and hid behind it. Then I watched as he walked out of the protection of the large rocks and across the desert landscape toward the wreckage of the ship. There were very large pieces of metal, the size of a small car, strewn about the landscape. None of it looked like seats or even parts of the room that I had been held in on the ship. Most of it looks like mechanical engine parts. I could not see any evidence that the human women were in this area. Then I heard a loud noise.
“Stop. Intruder,” I heard a computer-like voice say. I knew immediately that it was a cyborg before I even saw it. I watched as it stepped out from behind one of the large chunks of metal.
“Alicron,” I said.
But in a split second, Alicron had his gun drawn and was blasting at the cyborg. He hit it directly in the head. It died instantly. I was terrified. Alicron moved for a cover and waited. But we didn't hear anything else. If there had been more cyborgs, they would have come out hearing these noises.
He looked at me and nodded for me to stay there. Then he ran from one chunk of metal to another and then another and then another until he ran to all of them. Then he stood up straight.
"It looks like it was just one guard. Come on; we need to do this quickly. I don't know what kind of distress signal that cyborg will send out,” he said as he walked back over to it.
“Okay,” I said, running out of my hiding spot to him. I watched as he pulled out his knife and began to take the mechanical parts off of the cyborg that looked like a radio. I was surprised that he knew exactly what to do.
“Come on. I want to see if I can find the transmission radio signal on my ship,” he said leaving the cyborg behind. Then he went to work looking at the chunks of metal. I walked around looking for any signs of the human females. I couldn't even see footprints in the sand. It made me think that this portion of the ship did not have anyone in it.
“Vicki,” he said.
“Yes?” I said running over to him.
He was kneeling down over a large chunk of metal with lots of wires and lights. I didn't know what I was looking at.
“This is the radio. Maybe I can set it up to send out an emergency signal to my planet or a nearby ship that is an ally,” he said as he began to strip the waxy layer off of copper wires and went to work. Suddenly the radio came alive, and I could hear the static and a transmission.
“What is it?” I asked.
“We are picking up something,” he said.
“Is it more people?” I asked.
“No. It sounds like a busy marketplace. There must be a village nearby,” he said.
“But what if it is the cyborg Village?” I asked.
“Good point,” he said turning a few knobs and trying to get the transmission clearer. It became clear and loud and we could hear the voices.
“That does not sound like a cyborg voice,” I said. The sounds were in a strange language I had never heard. It sounded like it could be some form of Mandarin Chinese mixed with Spanish, but I knew that that was not possible.
“I know the language. That is Lonnie. It is the language of the Lana.”
“The Lana? Are they friends of yours?” I asked.
“Better than that. They are allies of the Kynon, but they are also intergalactic merchants. That means that whatever village is nearby is a trading post. We have to get to it. This is good news. It is very good news. It means that this planet is not only occupied by cyborgs, even if it is the majority that is on this planet.”
“How do we get there?” I asked.
He looked around. It could be anywhere as we both looked at the long desert.
"I'm going to have to ask,” he said.
"Ask? How?” I asked.
“Like this,” he said. Then I watched him as he pulled on more wires. He grabbed two and sparked them together. It was like watching someone hotwire a car. Then he began to speak with his face near a speaker looking microphone.
“Requesting coordinates to the trading village? I have goods to sell,” he said. He said it over and over again until finally, it was clear. Then there was the response.
“Coordinates to Cantu, sixty-four by thirty-six,” the response said.
“Coordinates confirmed,” he said.
Then he looked at me with a very proud smile. I could tell that he was impressed with himself.
“Good job,” I said sarcastically.
“I should say so,” he said. Then he moved away from the radio. I watched him as he moved to another portion of the wreckage. Then he pulled on an instrument and yanked it out of the panel.
“What is that?” I asked.
“It is a directional compass,” he said. Then he pulled something out of his toolbelt and attached it to it. It's suddenly came alive. He put in what I could only assume were the numbers that the radio gave him. Then he moved in a certain direction following it.
“It is this way. It is about half a day’s walk; it is not far,” he said.
“That means it's not far from the cyborgs either,” I said.
“It is true. We must be very cautious. But if we are fast, we might be able to get there before nightfall. Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes, let's go,” I said. And then I began to follow him.
“Do you think that it's possible that the others might be there? Your crew? I am very worried about my friend Bridget. I hope that she survived the crash. She is very special to me. She is my best friend,” I said.
Suddenly he stopped walking. He turned and looked at me. “I promise you that I will find her for you. I will do this for you,” he said.
I was surprised by his words. I was very surprised. He seemed sincere all of a sudden.
"Thank you Alicron,” I said.
Then he continued to walk. I followed closely behind him keeping an eye out for any movement. We were very exposed in this long desert landscape with nothing to hide behind except for a few boulders here in there. I hoped that this village was friendly. I hope that I could find Bridget. I hoped that maybe I could even get back to Earth.
Chapter 13
Captain Alicron Qinov
I only wanted to make Vicki smile. So when she grew sad that she might never see her friend again, I knew that I had to find her friend for her. It would be my gift to her. She had already given me a gift; she had sex with me.
Now, we were walking to a trading village. I was very optimistic about this. If there was a village nearby that had Lana, that meant it was possibly an intergalactic trading space with many species, possibly even my own. I would possibly be able to buy a ship, or at least send out a signal to my home planet. Now, all we had to do was get there. If I had found out about it, maybe my crew had as well, and maybe some of the human females, like Vicki's friend.
“I see something,” I said as we walked along. I could see something in the distance ahead of us.
“What is it? I don't see anything,” she said.
“I think that my eyesight is stronger,” I said as I zeroed in on the chunk of metal half a mile ahead of us.
“Well what do you see?” she asked.
“I think it is another part of my ship. Come,” I said.
Ten minutes later, we were standing near the chunk of metal. I was right. It was a piece of my ship.
“What does this mean?” she said.
“It just means that we are walking along the path that the ship broke up in the atmosphere. It makes an arc. That's usually how it happens. I want to check it out; come on,” I said walking toward it. I recognized it immediately. It was the weapons hold of the ship.
“Do you see any sign of my people?” she asked.
“N
o. I don't. I think this is part of the cargo weapons hold. This is good,” I said. I moved around it and pulled a panel off. There were guns, knives, bombs: pretty much everything that we had with us on the ship. I went in and took a freshly charged a gun, and a couple of explosives, putting them in my belt.
“Do you know how to work one of these?” I said holding up a gun.
“Are you serious? No. I am a Hollywood agent,” she said.
“I don't know what that means,” I said handing it to her.
“It means I don't know how to shoot guns,” she said.
“I will show you.” I grabbed a cross-body holster for her.
Then we stepped outside.
“You're going to wear this across your body like this,” I said laying the strap across her shoulder across her belly down to her hip. I grabbed the gun.
“This is the lock position. You can't accidentally shoot anything. You flip the switch here, and now it is ready to go. This means that it is fully charged, this level here. Then you aim and pull the trigger,” I said, demonstrating to her by shooting at the sand ahead of us. One quick laser blast shot from the gun. I put it back in the lock position and handed it to her.
“All right. It is no different than what I have seen in the movies, even ones I have negotiated the deals for,” she said.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said. She followed my direction unlocking the gun and then aimed and shot.
“Good,” I said.
“Yes, good, except I was aiming for the same spot that you hit. I'm about five yards off,” she said.
“Well, at least you know how to work it. That is good enough for now. Show me that it is locked,” I said. She locked it and showed me. Then I showed her how to carry it in the holster.
“Good. Let's go,” I said. Then we continued walking. We came across a very large sand dune. We hiked to it, but when we got to the other side, we were surprised.
“Cyborgs!” I shouted as I grabbed her and hit the ground. There were two cyborgs that looked like they were on patrol. They saw us.
“There!” the computer voices said coming our way.
“What do we do? There's nowhere to run,” she said.
“Stay down,” I said pulling my gun. Then I remembered the explosives. I pulled one from my belt. I stood up and threw it toward the cyborgs as hard as I could. Then I dropped back down. I threw myself over Vicki, covering her.
Boom! The explosion detonated. Sand went everywhere. But I could still hear the voice of a cyborg.
“The blonde human. I have seen her,” I heard. “My coordinates are…” It was all that I needed to hear.
I stood up and ran directly toward the cyborgs. One of them was dead, blown to pieces. The other one was lying on the ground speaking into the radio on his chest. I raised my gun and shot at his head, directly toward his mouth.
“Alicron!” I heard Vicki say. But I did not want this cyborg to report our location. The cyborg leader was after Vicki. If he knew our location, he could get to us fast. I don't know if the cyborg gave our location before I shot him. He laid there dead.
“I got him. It's all right,” I said. I shot him again for good measure as well as the other cyborg. Vicki ran to my side.
“That was close,” she said. “Are you all right?” she asked looking at me up-and-down as though she was actually concerned for my safety and well-being. I looked at her and smiled.
“Does that mean you actually care for me? You care if I have been injured?” I asked.
She playfully slapped my chest with her hand. “Shut up. I just want to know if you are injured,” she said.
“I am fine. But we need to get out of here fast. I don't know what kind of signal they put out to their camp. We need to run,” I said putting my hand out to her. She looked at it. Then she reluctantly put her hand in mine. I grabbed her hand and then began to run. She struggled to keep up with my stride, but she ran with me. I looked at my instrument. We weren't too far from the village: another mile or so. All we had to do was get there before the cyborgs got to us.
Chapter 14
Vicki Varsa
Watching Alicron fight was scary, but also arousing. He was so quick. He was so skilled. Watching him was very attractive. He ran fast, covering large amounts of ground when he ran toward the cyborgs. But I was scared. I didn't want him to die. I definitely did not want to be left with the cyborgs. But he made quick work of them. It seemed like he had been trained all of his life to take on anything. I have never seen anything like it.
Now we were running fast. I was having a hard time keeping up with him. His long legs covered a lot of ground. I have long legs, but definitely not as long as this tall blue alien. He was practically dragging me across the desert. Finally, the village came into view.
“There it is,” he said stopping. I stopped next to him trying to catch my breath.
“Thank God,” I said. I looked directly ahead of us. I was surprised. There was a very large village with a massive stone wall around it. It was a low stone wall, and didn't have a gate, but it seemed to keep the village inside the bounds. It looked a lot like a village that you would see in the Middle East. Lots of drapery hanging from different tables and canopies. I could almost hear the murmur of merchants bargaining with each other. I was glad for the civilization, even if it wasn't full of humans.
“Come on. Go: cyborgs could be right behind us,” he said pulling me along. We didn't run, but we walked at a very fast pace. Before long, we were entering the very busy village. My eyes were wide as I looked around. I had never seen anything like this before. It made sense considering I was on a completely different alien planet, but I was not expecting to see so many different types of aliens. There were pink-skinned short aliens. There were large green aliens with four different arms. There were more and more, and I could not get enough of it all.
“Try not to stare. Staring makes you look like an outsider,” Alicron whispered to me.
“I am an outsider,” I said looking around.
“Yes, but don't act like one,” he said.
I laughed to myself thinking about the times that I would say this to people from out of town that would come to Hollywood. I would tell them not to stare at celebrities and act like an outsider. Of course, they always did, now I know what it felt like. Even if this was an extreme case.
“Just stay close to me. Do not wander off at all. Cyborgs might not be the only dangerous thing in or on this planet,” he whispered to me.
“Do you think the others made it here? Do you think Bridget is here?” I asked.
“I don't know. I will have to ask around. But I will have to do it in a way that does not cause a lot of attention. First, I need to find a transmission station. I need to send a message home. Maybe I could even barter for a ship,” he said.
"A ship? Do you mean to leave this planet?” I asked.
“That depends on the ship. If we could get a land speeder, then we could easily travel over this planet looking for our friends. If we could get a space travel ship then I could go home and get a bigger crew in order to do a rescue mission here,” he said as I walked alongside him through the bustling streets.
“No. I don't want to leave here without my friend,” I said yanking my hand away from him.
“You will do what I say,” he said grabbing my hand and leading me from him.
“No, I won't,” I said pulling away from him. He looked around. “You are making a scene. You do not want to call attention to yourself,” he said.
I looked around to see some menacing aliens looking at me. I quickly grabbed Alicron's hand and walked along with him. For once I realized it was a good idea that he showed ownership over me, for now.
“Fine. Let's go,” I said. I was looking around at everything as we walked. I wondered if there was sort of an intergalactic travel ship. Like a bus: pay for a ticket and get taken where you wanted to go. Of course, I wanted to go back to Earth, no matter what.
/> “You, do you know the nearest transmission station?” Alicron asked a merchant that stood behind what looked like small radios.
The merchant replied in a language that I did not know. To my surprise, Alicron answered him in the same language. They carried on a conversation like this. He pointed in a direction. Alicron said something to him and then he grabbed my hand and we continued walking.
“What did he say?”
