by Mara Frost
He and I have always been at odds with each other since I was a Peacekeeper. He was a wanted smuggler and always on the wrong side of Imperial Law, and I was the enforcer of those laws. We’ve had our fair share of run-ins. That is, until the day came that I actually caught him – and chose to let him go.
He was surrounded and had nowhere to go and he knew it. And we both knew that if I brought him in, it would mean a death sentence for him. But I let him go. Why? Who the fuck knows? Maybe because at that point I realized that stealing from the Empire’s coffers wasn’t something that I deemed punishable by death anymore - or something that I necessarily disagreed with.
Either way, he now owes me.
“Never mind what happened. I’m going to need to cash in on that favor.”
This brings out a hearty laugh from the smuggler, which I expected given that he’s a Zerynian. Zerynians tend to take joy in other people’s misfortune. They’re assholes like that.
While Zerynians look generally similar to Truvians, with the exception of their grey color and…oddly placed spikes, we couldn’t be more different. Where Truvians strive towards honor and courage, Zerynians only care for lavish pleasures and money. Where Truvians admire integrity and dedication, Zerynians celebrate cutting corners and cheating,
Vorak is the ultimate embodiment of a Zerynian. And I don’t trust him as far as I can shoot him. And right now he’s the only person I can turn to since no one else is in this quadrant. So I can’t shoot him. Unfortunately.
“Oh Dakhar, I love this. I don’t know if you realize how much I enjoy this,” he says through his laughter, wiping invisible tears from his eyes.
“Yes, I imagine this a great source of joy for you. Are you finished?” I ask dryly.
“Oh come now, Dakhar, you have to see the humor in this? Legendary enforcer of the Imperial Peacekeepers asks for help from a lowly courier.”
I snort. “A courier? An extortionist, a thief, a trafficker perhaps, but I would hardly call you a courier, Vorak.”
At this, he smiles widely. “You were never one to mince words. So tell me, what exactly can I do for you? You must have found yourself in a pile of Tryxack’s shit if you’re calling in a favor from me.”
“General Xuraan and an Imperial Fighter are after me.”
“Okay, worse – you’re in a pile of Imperial shit. What the fuck did you do to get a High Lord running after you? Especially one as fat and foul as Xuraan?”
“I stole something from him.”
“So? We steal from the Empire all the time. It’s part of the job description.” Vorak eyes narrow skeptically. “What else aren’t you telling me?”
“I stole specifically from him.” I shift somewhat uncomfortably in the seat and add, “After I reneged on a deal.”
“What sort of deal? What was the merchandise?”
“A human.”
Vorak’s eyes widen slightly in quiet disbelief. Vorak has been in this business for quite some time and even he has generally avoided the uncharted territories. Granted, it might have been out of pure laziness, but he never attempted to trade humans.
“A human?”
“Yes.”
Silence. He says nothing for several micro-cycles. And then he bursts into another round of laughter. I make a silent note to myself to not be as forgiving to him as I was the last time I had him at the business end of my blaster. Insolent smuggler.
“You got attached to the merchandise, didn’t you? You never get attached to the merchandise, Dakhar. Never,” he says once his laughter dies down.
“I’m well aware.”
“But you did, didn’t you? A little human got under your skin and now you’re being chased across the galaxy by the Empire. I hope you realize that I find a great deal of amusement from this.”
I roll my eyes and sigh. I was expecting all of this, but it still doesn’t stop me from wanting to reach across the visual comm. and strangle the pompous ass. Unfortunately, he’s our only hope for getting off this damn planet. Even though I told Dani that I had everything under control, I know very little about this world other than the fact that its environs are compatible with our biological make-up. I didn’t exactly have enough time to do a full diagnostics of this world while Xuraan was trying to destroy us.
“It makes little difference to me where you find your amusement and you need not concern yourself with the human in question. Can I count on your help, Vorak?” I ask lowly, my patience wearing thin and the pain in my rib increasing with every passing second that I have to speak with him.
Vorak waves his hand, swatting at the air casually as if it was never a question. “Despite what you might think, there’s a code of honor among thieves. Yes, Dakhar, I will help. What does your big blue ass need? Do you want me to pick you up?”
I shake my head. “No, I need you to go to the coordinates that I’m sending you and transmit a message to Maxaya.”
“That’s it? Nothing else? You don’t need me to pick you up? Or drop off supplies?”
“No, just that. I don’t want to draw attention to this planet.”
Vorak shrugs. “Seems simple enough.”
“Good. I’m transmitting the message and coordinates to you n-“
“Who’s that?”
My body tenses at the sound of a familiar and feminine voice behind me. My blood pressure rises. Is it impossible for her to do anything that I say? Is it physically impossible for her?
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Vorak says with a wide grin.
“Never mind that. Vorak, do you have the coordinates?”
“I do. And I’m beginning to see why you’re trying to keep that human all to yourself.”
“Good, we’re done.”
I immediately cut the comm., but not before Vorak manages to say through his laughter, “Never fall for the merchandise, Dakhar.”
I look over at the female and see her skeptical gaze as her brow furrows. “Who was that? What are you up to?” she repeats.
For once, Vorak was right. You should never fall for the merchandise. And I intend not to.
***
Dani
“Who was that?” I repeat. “I heard something about ‘thieves’. Are you going to sell me off again or something? I swear to God if you’re trying to sell me –“
“You have no idea how to follow instructions, do you?”
At this my mouth snaps shut for a brief second, thinking about how to answer his question.
“Of course I know how to follow instructions. You don’t make it as far as I have without knowing how to follow instructions. The problem is when the instructions are coming from a big alien who kidnapped me and tried to sell me off to the highest bidder. That’s when you never know when said instructions are conducive to your survival,” I say evenly, with just a dab of accusation in my voice. I cross my arms.
Big Blue is silent for a few seconds and then slowly lifts himself from his seat. I think I hear a strained growl, but I’m fairly certain it’s just him being grumpy about me being a pain in his alien ass.
I watch as he walks past me and towards the back of the ship. And then I feel an unsettling noise and vibration that shakes the shuttle.
“I wouldn’t stay up there for too long,” he says from the back of the shuttle. He then adds two words that gets my ass moving pretty quickly. “Worm hole.”
“Worm hole! Right! Worm hole,” I mumble to myself as I jump over fallen pieces of the ship and head towards the opening in the back.
Once I jump off the ship, I see him kneeling and going through the bags that I filled. I walk towards him.
“Who was that?” I ask again, this time with less accusation in my voice.
“An acquaintance. Where’s the food?”
“He sounded a little full of himself. Why did you risk getting sucked into a worm hole just to talk to such a lovely guy?”
“Because as unpleasant and cocky as that acquaintance may be, he is going to get us off this plan
et. Now where’s the food?”
I shrug somewhat defensively. “I don’t know. I looked around the replicator and all I found were some weird metal rods.”
“Those metal rods are the food reserves,” he replies as he lifts himself and walks back to the shuttle.
I blink a few times. The blank look on my face must have clued him in on my confusion. He adds, “They’re portable food replicators. They have finite usage, but they can sustain us for quite a while if necessary.” He hops into the ship and I hear him lifting and dropping things in the shuttle, probably trying to salvage as much as possible.
“Oh,” is all that I can reply. Naturally, food wasn’t my first thought when I saw weird steel rods. Just another example of how I would have the life expectancy of a gnat if I were out here alone.
I sigh and look around. So what now? We’re stranded on a strange planet and we’re apparently counting on the generosity of an arrogant space criminal. I heard more than Big Blue realizes and every fiber of my being is saying not to trust that laughing jerk. He might be a criminal as well, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that Big Blue operates with a different set of rules - rules that apparently involve going back on deals with Generals because he has a sudden attack of conscience. Or something.
A sudden banging noise from the shuttle catches my attention. I look back at the ship and I see it shaking and vibrating like crazy. I look at in confusion for a second, wondering how it could be doing that when the engine is so verifiably dead, but then I remember.
The worm hole.
“Hey! It’s shaking!” I yell nervously, trying to alert him of something that he probably most definitely already knows.
The shaking increases. In fact, it’s getting so bad that the edges of the ship begin to blur.
“Hey!!” I yell again, unable to hide the panic in my voice. The ship is shaking so badly now that I’m not even sure that anyone inside would be able to stand much less walk.
“Dakhar!!” I scream. “Get out!!”
My heart drums in my chest as I feel the blood drain from my face. I feel light-headed with fear. The shaking sounds like a washing machine that’s going crazy. He’s going to be ripped to shreds and displaced into a different reality and there’s nothing I can do. I run towards the shuttle like an idiot. I know full well that it’s probably close to the top of my “dumbest things I’ve ever done” list, but if he’s hurt maybe I can…
But before I can finish that thought, I’m thrown back about five feet in the air. And then there’s nothing. The shaking stops. The noise stops. There’s just silence.
And the shuttle is gone.
I blink several times and stare in shock at the empty space that used to be filled by the shuttle. I cover my mouth. He’s gone.
“Oh my God,” I gasp as the breath in my chest collapses in on itself. I can’t breathe. I can’t move. I sit frozen.
“Dakhar,” I cry out, my voice trembling with both fear and disbelief. He’s gone? He can’t be gone. I scramble to the open space and look around in a panic. I circle around in the empty space. Where did the shuttle go? Maybe it was thrown in the air like I was? Yeah, it has to be somewhere around here, I think as I look around frantically.
Nothing.
“Dakhar,” I whisper as I collapse to the ground. Never mind the fact that I’m so profoundly screwed now – like a new level of being screwed – but right now I just feel a…heaviness in my chest. The idea of Big Blue…being ripped apart in the worm hole. I fight the pained knot in my throat.
And then I hear something that makes me scream, at least it sort of sounded like a scream – it was more of a mash up between a guttural gasp and a strangled hiccup.
“What?” a low voice moans from behind some bushes.
I yelp and whip around towards the bushes. “Dakhar?!” I repeat, my voice sounding panicked and low, almost as if I’m afraid that speaking loud will make what I’m hearing not real.
I hear a familiar groan in response.
“Dakhar!” I shriek as I half crawl half run across the jungle floor like an awkward puppy trying to run for the first time. Yes, I could have stood up on me feet and just walked…or even ran across, but apparently at that moment I forgot that I knew how to walk.
Once I reach the brush, I push through the leaves and I’m immediately rewarded with a big grouchy blue alien strewn across the ground. My heart becomes 20 times lighter and somehow 100 times bigger at the same time.
“You’re alive!” I cry out right before I leap over the bushes and land square on top of him. I proceed to give him the hug of his life. And he must not be used to bear hugs because he’s just grunting and growling all over the place. I don’t care though and keep hugging it out with him.
I can honestly say that I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see an alien in my whole entire life. I’m happy. I’m not going to die a horrible weird death on a strange world. At least, not alone.
“What happened?! How did you survive? And why are you making that weird face?”
It wasn’t until he gasped and let out a pathetic sounding “Ugh!” that I realized that something might actually be wrong with him. Still straddling him, I sit up and look down at him, his face wearing poorly veiled grimace.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m fine,” he growls through somewhat labored breath, which doesn’t sound very convincing at all. Even his scowl looks like it’s wearing scowl.
I dart off of him and look him up and down critically. I would have almost believed him if it weren’t for the hand that was lazily pressed against his side. My eyes narrow inquisitively as I lift his hand away.
“Oh my God!! You’re hurt!” I yell as I look at the very nasty – very deep - wound in his side.
“It’s just a small cut.”
I snort and snort big. So apparently it’s universal for men of all alien races to downplay major injuries. I lightly press around the wound, trying to assess the extent of the damage. He flinches almost immediately.
“Ack! Ow! That hurts, ” he growls through gritted teeth.
Apparently, being a big baby is also universal. And they say women are walking contradictions? As I lift my hand away, I see dark green fluid on my fingers and soon realize that it’s his blood. He’s bleeding. A lot.
“How did this happen?” I ask while looking around, trying to find something that will slow the bleeding.
“It was while we were going through the worm hole. I had to manually reset some of the controls and I got thrown around a little. I think I broke a rib. It would have been fine, but I think jumping out of the shuttle just now and landing directly on it made it worse.”
My eyes widen. “Wait, you got out of your seat while we were being thrashed around in the shuttle like a maraca? Why don’t I remember this?”
He shrugs and then his face immediately contorts in discomfort from the movement. “You were passed out. You wouldn’t have remembered.”
“I was passed out? The thrashing and temporal shift in the worm hole made me lose consciousness and you were still walking around the ship like it ain’t no thing?”
This time he only nods his head once, limiting his movement to his head. I sigh deeply. I suppose I should just be happy that he escaped that stunt with just a sore rib. Honestly, we both probably should be dead…but here we are! Barely keeping our shit together after we crash land onto a planet made entirely out of trees. Yay…
“Okay, so we need to deal with this wound. We can’t let it get infected.”
As I reach for his side, he gently but firmly catches my wrist before I can inspect it any further.
“It’s fine. I’ll be fine.”
I snort. “You can barely breathe without wincing in pain. Your own rib punctured your skin! That’s not fine – that’s gross, big guy.”
He shakes his head stubbornly and makes a move to lift himself up. “I am fine,” he repeats. “I heal very quickly. This is nothing. We must move.”
A low grunt sounds from his throat as he lifts himself up into the sitting position. My eyes widen as I shake my head disapprovingly. His dark purple eyes then match my gaze, as if challenging me to stop him. I fight the urge to laugh. He looks all rough and tough, but all I have to do is tickle his side and he’ll be crying like a baby. But I say nothing and just raise my hands up in defeat.
“Okay, fine. It’s your body. But if I end up having to carry your ass, I’m going to-“
I’m cut off as he pushes past me and lifts himself up onto his feet. He swallows deeply and pauses for a second, as if trying to privately deal with some pain, and then looks down at me.
“You will not have to carry ‘my ass’. We must collect our things and move now.”
I shake my head in confusion. We just crash landed onto a remote planet. No one is chasing us. No one even knows we’re here. I was actually looking forward to not fearing for my life for one night and taking it easy.
“What’s the rush? Why do we have to be on the move so soon?”
“It will be dark soon and we need to find a defensible area to make camp.”
I moan. Well, actually it was probably more like a whine. My kingdom for one night of not having my life threatened?! Just one night? I suppose that’s asking for too much.
“Defensible area? Why? I thought you said you knew this planet? I thought you said we were fine?”
He cocks his head to the side. “Just because I know a little of this planet does not mean that we can’t die on it. This is why we need to find a defensible position before nightfall.”
He then walks back towards where the shuttle used to be and begins to go through the packs. I just look over at him blankly and blink in disbelief. Just because he knows a little of this planet doesn’t mean we can’t die on it? Wonderful. Well, isn’t he a Debbie Downer.
As I march towards him, I step over bushes, fallen branches and try to avoid all the alien looking plants in my path, which are...well…all the plants. I’m not an idiot. If I were stuck in the middle of a tropical rainforest on Earth, I would probably be screwed the first second I tried to eat my first poisonous berry, so I’m not going to take any chances here. For all I know, the pretty little daisy-looking flower here might be a carnivorous human-eating monster.
