by Lia Nox
I closed my eyes for a moment, tasting the ocean salt in the air, and let a smile spread across my lips. Even though our situation was abnormal, I relished the fact we had been let loose once more, free to wander the wilderness and destroy those who dared oppose us. It had been like that for a long time, our life one of successive and brutal encounters, and I found some kind of twisted comfort in that.
Outside, Talos walked the perimeter in absolute silence, and I had to squint my eyes to detect his figure. Stealth was his bread and butter, and I knew that it was almost impossible for anyone to get the drop on him.
I tried on a regular basis. It kept us both on our toes, even if he swore loudly enough to wake the dead when I was successful.
Confident on the fact that Talos had the outer perimeter secured, I dropped down from the rooftop and onto the courtyard, slightly bending my knees as my feet struck the ground. Even though I felt wide awake, I knew I had to try and get some sleep, even if just for half an hour. My body had been engineered to survive for days without any sleep, but the more rested I felt the better I would handle myself.
I was about to enter the small building where Erin was when I felt that nagging sensation inside me once more. There was something wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. No one had tried to sneak past Talos, that much I had seen, so why was I feeling like this?
The answer came to me the moment I stepped inside the building. The small corner where Erin had been laying was now vacant, my chest tightening at her absence. I gritted my teeth, confused and angry at her disappearance. With me on the roof and Talos walking the outer walls, it was unlikely she had somehow managed to make her way past us.
Unless, of course, we had underestimated her.
Significantly.
We saw her as something fragile and delicate, but there was a fire burning inside her.
Rushing through the few rooms of the abandoned station, sweeping the building just to make sure she hadn’t simply changed rooms, I felt my stomach lurch when I realized she was nowhere to be seen.
Talos, asleep on a room lined with old rusty cabinets, jumped to his feet when I kicked his boots.
“Are we under attack?” he asked, cracking his knuckles immediately.
“No,” I shook my head. “But Erin’s gone.”
“Erin’s gone? That’s impossible. Talos is patrolling the area and—”
“I’m aware.” Cutting him short, I turned my back to him and started walking out of the room. We couldn’t waste any time. “She snuck out somehow. We need to find her.”
“And we will,” Talos said, and I heard him grab his chest plate, which he had placed by his side and against the table, and strap it to his body. By the time I reached the courtyard he was already by my side, a high-powered rifle in his hands. I grabbed mine as well, ready to mow down everyone and everything, and then let out a small whistle. One second later and Talos emerged from the shadows, just a few feet to my left.
“Something wrong?”
“Erin’s gone,” I said. “Somehow, she left the station undetected.”
“That’s impossible,” Talos snarled, and I could tell he wasn’t angry at the fact that Erin had disappeared. He was angry that he hadn’t seen it happen.
I understood that feeling well, as I carried the same kind of guilt. But guilt didn’t help when it came to achieving our objectives, so I merely dropped it as the useless thing that it was.
“Impossible or not, that’s what happened. She’s not as defenseless as we assumed.” Pursing my lips, I let my gaze fly out into the wilderness, the shadows covering everything with a kind of threatening silence. “But even if she’s more capable than we thought, she won’t last long out here. She needs us, and now more than ever.”
And if we’d been wrong? If she was an agent of the Master’s after all, and had gone back to report?
We’d deal with that then.
“We’ll find her,” Kern said, already ahead of us by a few feet. He was kneeling close to the place where we had buried the creatures that attacked us, his fingers carefully touching the earth we had used. “There’s one footprint here. It’s hers. She came through here.”
“Then lead the way,” I urged him. Even though all of us knew how to track anyone we needed to, Kern was probably the most capable. He quickly led us into the woods near the beach, stopping occasionally to touch a broken twig or to analyze bushes that had been flattened by a careless step.
“She’s close,” he announced after a few minutes of walking. He didn’t have to say it. Just a few seconds later and I started hearing voices, one of which I immediately recognized as belonging to Erin.
But what about the other one?
It was high-pitched, whispery.
And female?
Gripping my rifle tight, my finger hovering over the trigger, I did one quick hand gesture and both Talos and Kern fell in formation right behind me.
Doing my best to be as silent as Talos, I pushed through branches and twigs until I finally emerged in a small clearing.
Erin was there, just a few feet ahead of me. . .
Talking with another female of her own species.
This one was slim and beautiful too, but my eyes barely registered her—the only thing I needed to know was if Erin was in any danger.
“Erin,” I called to her with a low growl, carefully taking aim at the other human. If she proved to be a threat, then she wouldn’t be one for long. “Come back towards me, slowly.”
The moment she heard my voice, Erin spun on her heels and her eyes landed on my rifle. In a fraction of a second, faster than I realized she could react, she took one step to the left and stood in my line of fire.
“No!” she cried out. “She’s a friend. Delia.”
I frowned, not knowing what to make of the situation.
“You said there weren’t any other humans here,” Talos barked out, weapon still raised, still with a clear shot.
“I didn’t know she was here.” Erin’s eyes were wide, pleading. “We found each other by accident. The same bastards that sent me here must have done the same with her.”
Accident.
What was another human female doing on this planet? Bastards or not, someone must have a plan. Slowly, though, I lowered my rifle and ordered the guys to do the same. Erin sighed, apparently relieved we had adopted a more casual posture.
We wouldn’t need the rifles to destroy this female if she made a threat to our Erin, but she didn’t need to know that.
Still, even though I had decided this new human female didn’t pose a threat by herself, I had to be sure of our surroundings. I raised one fist and, with quick motions, ordered Talos and Kern to fan out and conduct a search of the woods.
They hadn’t taken one step away from the formation we were in when, right on the other side of the clearing, three figures stepped out from the shadows.
Tall, as threatening and agile as the felines they resembled. I leveled my rifle on them, observing their tension, the air between us crackling with the potential for a proper fight. Adrenaline kicked in and I bared my teeth.
Finally, I had found some worthy opponents.
“Roth?” One of the figures asked, stepping close enough for me to recognize him. It was Axar, and with him were Zuvo and Tarnan. The three of them composed one of the best teams the Masters had ever allowed to roam this planet, and to find them here—and alive at that—was a relief.
But what were they doing here?
Lowering my rifle again, I stepped toward Axar and we embraced. Even if we were in different teams, I considered these three worthy of being my brothers-in-arms. We had fought side by side before, and they were both fierce and honorable.
“It’s good to find you here,” I said, addressing the three of them. “The human woman. . .is she with you?”
“She is. Her name is Delia,” Axar explained. “I see you found one as well.”
Found one. Like a weapons cache or a shining stone. Perh
aps they were right, to think of her as a treasure, rather than a potential threat.
Perhaps.
“We have.” I nodded, mind whirling. “She came from the wasteland near the northern coast.”
“Take good care of her,” he smiled. “These humans have wonderful skills, as I hope you’re lucky enough to discover.”
“We already did,” I said, barely hiding a grin.
“Good,” Axar chuckled. “But don’t let that distract you from the fact that they can be very capable as well. Can you communicate with your human? Delia figured out a solution for us.”
“We have our implants.” Tapping my skull with two fingers, I then let out a shrug. “And we found her a translator to sync with, adapt to her language. But it has limitations.”
“Then maybe Delia can work something out.” Turning around, he called Delia. The tiny female made her way toward the two of us, acknowledging me with a nod and a smile, and listened attentively as Axar spoke. Even before he was done speaking, she was already reaching inside her bag and grabbing a tangled mess of wires, beckoning for Erin to sit with her while she examined the pendant.
“She’ll sort you out,” Axar said. “She is a goddess of teknologi.” He looked sly. “And other things.”
“Thank you,” I told Delia, ignoring Axar’s teasing words.
I did not need to know what lay between him, his teammates, and this strange human woman.
I only cared for how quickly she could adapt the translator Erin wore.
The better we could communicate with Erin, the sooner I could find out what she’d been doing when she left us. What she’d been thinking.
What really mattered now, though, was that Erin was safe.
And I was hellbent on not letting her out of my sight again.
Erin
Delia and her companions certainly made an impression on me.
First, there were more aliens here—of course there were. There was a whole planet to fill up, right? But why did they look so different from my guys? I thought back to what I’d been wondering before, when Kern had been asking me about teams. Fighters.
Were humans fighters?
Not like my guys. And not like Delia’s team, either. If I had to guess, both models had been engineered, created specifically to enhance certain abilities. Maybe to perform certain tasks. Maybe that’s what they meant about missions.
Maybe.
But there was still so much I didn’t know.
We’d all moved to the larger building where the others had set up camp while Delia worked on my translator.
“I’ve already been filling mine up with a whole dictionary’s worth of words,” she explained. “Gives it more to work with. I think that helps.”
“Sure,” I babbled. “I’m sure you’re right.”
But I wasn’t sure of anything. They’d turned the tiny scraps I thought I’d scavenged about this world upside down.
It was great to see the two teams coming together, embracing like brothers after a long time apart. Despite their differences, both physically and socially, they respected each other’s skills; Delia and I had marveled at how they’d eased into conversation with one another.
They’d gone from pleasant surprise to business talk within seconds, Talos eager to learn of what Axar and his unit had discovered throughout their travels. Judging by Talos’ reaction however, what they’d learned hadn’t been cause for celebration.
Thanks to Delia’s magic touch with tech, I was now able to follow along. There were still gaps in what the translator could manage, but considering Delia had altered alien technology based on her own, personal device and from scratch, I couldn’t complain.
Being able to listen more easily to the guys, no matter how spotty, was a blessing. But there was so much more I didn’t understand. And still, I was out the outside, listening in.
As I looked on from my perch beside the campfire we’d made earlier, Delia wandered over to join me, her eyes trained on the huddle of aliens over in the far corner.
They’d stood like that for some time now, with us women unable to do much other than wait for them to resurface.
It wasn’t that they didn’t want us involved, but rather it was regarding their individual missions and the current state of affairs—basically matters Delia and I had no real place being involved in. We didn’t know enough about this world, about whatever was going on, to make a real contribution to the discussion.
I knew that. I knew the voices in my head were ghosts, echoes of other discussions, other groups that I’d never felt I fit into.
I glanced over at Delia. She was a stranger here as well. But unlike me, she was content with her new group. Hell, not just content.
Happy.
She’d made her decision. They accepted her, were proud of her. This was her new family.
I sighed deeply.
“Are you okay, Erin?” Delia queried, her brows knitting together into a beautiful fine line; even when concerned, she was lovely.
I shrugged. “Yeah, well, I think so—I’m just not sure how I fit in here. If I do at all.” I stared at the floor, not willing to risk seeing pity in her eyes.
“Oh, Erin,” Delia began, no doubt about to comfort and soothe me into thinking it would all be okay. But as she went to speak again, Kern strode over to us, a look of frustration covering his rugged features.
Placing a hand on his shoulder, I leaned towards him. “Problem?” I asked, keeping my words short, not sure just how much I could trust the new, improved translator.
He scowled at me, crestfallen.
“Zuvo says how their plan,” Kern pointed at Delia, “Is to return to her vessel. Uyyohi.” I couldn’t make out what his last word had meant, but given how deflated he now sat, logic dictated that it wasn’t anything good.
Turning to Delia, I silently implored her for help. Unfortunately, she had no words of comfort to offer either, nor could she deny that this was their plan.
“I don’t know if I can do anything with it,” she shrugged. “But I have to try.”
“But the pods,” I argued. “They’re not made for that, are they?”
She laughed. “I don’t think so. Honestly, I didn’t get a good look at mine once I crashed. That’s part of why I want to get back, check it out. At the time, I was too busy trying not to be eaten by giant spiders.”
Of course.
Zuvo came over, followed by his comrades and then my band of warriors, all five of them troubled. I felt their displeasure and woes, but I also had my own to contend with—if Delia could leave, maybe I could go with her? Despite my old life having been eradicated by none other than myself, I’d be lying if I pretended I didn’t miss the simplicity of my homeworld.
On Earth I knew where I belonged, how I could contribute to the world, even if it meant operating from within the shadows.
Yet here I was a fledgling, new to this world and my place within it. This could be my only chance to escape from this planet for the foreseeable future, but that meant doing so without Roth, Kern, and Talos by my side.
My thoughts whirled.
I’d left them, true, but with every step, the more I regretted it.
It was Talos who spoke next, his voice terse. “We have our plan and they theirs. Kern, we can’t change this.” It was obvious Kern wanted to argue back, but Talos didn’t look to be in the debating mood.
The mood quickly became somber and tense, nobody sure where else to steer the conversation; lines had been drawn and we were on different sides. We weren’t enemies but we weren’t friends with a common goal. Again, my mind raced with questions of what to do.
“We can’t change their minds,” added Roth, both addressing Kern and the group before turning to Axar. “Hyatahesi, Iginvii.”
“Hyatahesi, Iginvii,” repeated Axar, nodding to Roth and then the others.
I was mesmerized by this brief exchange of words, words which felt weighed and meaningful, and had ultimately ended our meeting.
She must have felt the same, as she grabbed my hand tightly, our eyes meeting as we looked at one enough, both of us emotional that this farewell had come so quickly.
“No matter what, there’s a place on my ship if you want it.” The tears started to fall now, neither of us able to hold it together any longer. “I mean it, Erin. You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to. I don’t know if I can break the gravity well, much less get back through the wormhole, but I’m going to try.”
Delia was right, of course. I didn’t have to stay and I didn’t owe anything to my saviors. Yet as she walked away and they looked from her to me, I could tell they were concerned I might leave.
I had once, just hours ago.
I might again.
Kern looked most worried of all, though Talos was also trying to pretend to not be watching me carefully. Meanwhile, Roth remained stony and prickly. I got the feeling I’d hurt his pride most of all.
He was such a proud warrior, a noble beast whatever his origin, for me to be keen on leaving must have seemed like a reflection of my feelings towards him. Towards all of them.
And suddenly my mind was clear.
It wasn’t just that they needed to accept me. I needed to accept them as well.
I ran to Delia’s side, and her face lit up. “You’re coming with us?”
Shaking my head, I hugged her. “No. I’m going to stay. Whatever this is between us, I want to figure it out.”
The silent presence of the men behind me made the air heavy.
“Axar says they’re good men, good warriors,” Delia sniffed, her eyes shining with tears. “I know they’ll take care of you.” She hugged me tightly, whispered in my ear. “It’ll work out. Just give it a chance.”
“We are returning to the sub-station,” Roth announced. A long pause. “Will you come?” He held one hand out towards me, carefully not looking my way.
