Hero

by Reagan Woods

  It was like he saw the regret squeezing her heart in its suffocating grip.

  Tara sucked in a deep breath at the intensity in his gaze. Instead of the kiss she expected, Calyx dropped to his knees and sat back on his heels. His muscular arms wrapped tight around her. “I am so glad you’re safe, Tara.” He rested his head over her heart.

  Touched, Tara gently wrapped an arm around his shoulder and combed her free hand through his thick hair in the soothing way her Grandmama used to comfort her. “I’m glad you’re safe, too,” she murmured into the top of his head.

  When she felt her pulse thicken, Tara quietly stepped away. She couldn’t lose him. That meant acting on the heat throbbing through her body was out. Forcing a bright smile, she met his quicksilver stare. “Let’s get it together. We can’t disappoint Commander Skylan.”

  Chapter 24

  Trailing Calyx through the dark camp toward the common building, the muffled sobs and moans of the wounded waiting for treatment peppering the chill air reminded Tara vividly of the night she became alien property…the night she realized the aliens weren’t saviors but new masters.

  Tara reluctantly followed Calyx up the ramp and into the alien ship. It looked like a flattened, hovering sausage to her slightly hysterical mind. She wanted to see Grandmama but couldn’t shake the dread pooling in her stomach.

  The aftereffects of whatever Calyx had injected her with were partly to blame for how out of sorts she felt. She wasn’t at the top of her mental game. However, alien drugs could only take so much responsibility. In some removed part of herself, she was preparing for the worst, shielding her already over-taxed psyche.

  A man sporting the requisite striped skin and weird eyes approached. He was dressed like Calyx but with a thick white armband. Calyx said something Tara didn’t understand before switching to English, “Tara, this is Medic Eblen.”

  “Hello,” Tara greeted. “Where is Grandmama?” She’d thought she was prepared for the whole ‘meet the aliens’ thing, but the feeling of disorientation, like all was just not right with her world and never would be again, was growing stronger and stronger, threatening to break through the icy wall of shock that protected her from reality.

  “She is in regeneration bed seventy-two,” Eblen answered, consulting a clear screen that floated near his elbow. There were no cords attached to the hovering screen and that, more than anything, brought home to Tara that she was dealing with alien technology. “Follow me, please.”

  Roughly the size of a football field, the walls of the ship were lined with two rings of big white machines that reminded her of giant lotus flowers. But for the occasional hiss or beep emitted by the regeneration beds, the huge space was unnaturally silent.

  Tara shivered in the cold, dry air, moving subtly closer to Calyx. Their footsteps were muted by some type of spongy coating on the floor as they followed Eblen across the ship. Here, there was a section of beds that were closed to resemble the world’s biggest eggs.

  Eblen stopped in front of a closed pod and the smooth, white shell began to pulse with strange symbols that glowed brightly before fading away to be replaced in a random pattern.

  “The elderly female did not revive,” he reported dispassionately.

  “Beg pardon?” Tara’s first instinct was that she’d misunderstood. “That can’t be right.” She appealed to Calyx, turning to clutch his hand between hers in desperation. “Make him fix her, please.”

  Calyx grimaced apologetically to Eblen and said something in their native tongue. The medic gave her a curious once-over and turned on his heel.

  “Wait!” Tara spun, arms outstretched. “Please! Where are you going? I’ll do anything. Anything! Bring her back to me!”

  Strong arms slid around her, preventing her from running after the medic like a madwoman. “Let me go, dammit!” She flailed blindly, scratching, slapping and kicking at the hulking alien. When her screams of rage turned to wails of grief, she couldn’t say, but the wall of ice she’d been hiding behind lay in ruins around her wounded heart.

  When her knees collapsed, Calyx held her as she sobbed out her fear and her hurt.

  “You should have let me die,” she hiccoughed, pushing away from his solid chest when she really wanted to hide her face and weep for the rest of time. Instead, she forced herself to stand without his support and wiped her snotty nose on the raggedy hem of her threadbare t-shirt.

  His handsome, alien face took on an expression she couldn’t interpret. If he were from Earth, she’d say he looked like a starving man catching scent of a juicy steak. Tara took a frightened step back. In the blink of an eye, the predatory hunger was gone as though it never existed. “Stop talking nonsense.” The patient tone took the sting out of his harsh words. “You know that’s not what she would have wanted,” he chided. “She begged me to make certain you were safe.” He took her hand and pulled her away from the sealed pod. “And I intend to do that to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, I must turn you over to intake now.”

  They burned Grandmama’s body, incinerated it inside the regeneration bed with the touch of a button, she found out later. She was one of the few Earthers who knew the beautiful, awe inspiring alien technology was not the beacon of hope for the ailing as it pretended to be. The CORANOS found interring the dead barbaric. Who knew how many elderly or sick they’d simply burned away in those beds? If she hadn’t had Calyx to lean on, that alone might have been the loose thread that unraveled her sanity.

  But Calyx had looked out for her, helped her learn to appreciate other aspects of her situation. She didn’t know how he managed it, but he stuck close when she transferred into a permanent work camp. Because he checked in on her so often, her transition into life as a CORANOS Galactic Alliance possession wasn’t nearly as traumatic as some other people.

  When Calyx was promoted to Track Team One, she’d been devastated. However, he still managed to contact her every week to ten days and make certain she was in good spirits, and as time between his messages lengthened, Tara acknowledged the wisdom of backing away from the handsome alien. It hurt to be alone in the world for the first time in her life, but it was nice to know she had someone – however far away – on her side.

  By the time he was recalled to his ship, Tara had her head on straight and knew the lay of the land. She liked to think she paid Calyx’s kindness forward to some small degree by making certain her fellow Earthers adjusted to life in the camp as painlessly as possible. Focusing on others, on ways she could provide small comforts to her people, eased the ache of Grandmama’s loss.

  Though she longed for companionship, for something different than the quarrelsome ex-soldiers or female friends could offer, Tara kept to herself when other aliens came sniffing around. Sometime between the day he saved her from the gator in the swamp and the day he returned to the Horizon, she’d fallen in love with Calyx.

  What she felt for him, aside from the raging lust that gripped her body when he came near, was deep and irrevocable. If she could have only his friendship, then she’d take it and be glad for it. It would destroy her to lose that small part of him she claimed for her own.

  “We’re here,” he observed, drawing her out of her bleak thoughts. “You’ve been quiet. Are you alright? Maybe you should just set out ration bars…”

  Tara blinked and placed a hand against the kitchen door. “I’m ready to work,” she forced strength into her tone that she didn’t feel. Having something to do would distract her, and she desperately needed that.

  She turned back to him, needing to communicate that she cared but not wanting to push him further away than she already had. “Be careful out there, okay?”

  He smiled tiredly but it didn’t reach his eyes. Then, his face tightened into stern lines. “I don’t care what anyone else says,” he growled, hands balling into fists at his sides. “If anyone comes for you, Tara, you beat them like you did Shirok. Don’t worry about anything but survival.”

  Eyes wide, she nodded mutely and p
ushed through the door. There was a warm glow in the region of her heart. It meant something that he put her life over that of anyone else’s – despite how the rest of the aliens might feel about it. Didn’t it?

  Chapter 25

  Francesca shivered in the darkness and pulled the thin foil blanket closer around her body. Her hidey hole was a ravine cut into the earth by long-ago rain.

  She didn’t dare sleep, she was still too close to the alien camp. The adrenaline splashing through her system made slumber unlikely anyway. She needed to bide her time, wait a few more hours for the moon to hit its peak, and then she could be on her way without the need for a light.

  Freedom was so close she could taste it. Not drawing attention to herself was key now that she’d escaped. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. Her best bet for finding her sister lay to the west. Avoiding re-capture was going to add days to her trek since she’d fled east to avoid the little alien dispute outside the camp’s western gates.

  Nearby, she heard the scuffle of boots on hard earth. Ears cocked, she held her breath and willed her heart to stay calm. Maybe she’d imagined it? No one had trailed her from the camp – she was more than adept at spotting a tail and there hadn’t been one.

  Long moments ticked by in relative silence. It had been too long since she’d tested her survival skills. The time in alien custody had made her rusty.

  The wind shifted, and she dragged her shirt up over her nose to block out the poison fumes from the burning space craft. She’d put several miles between her and the camp, but it wouldn’t be enough.

  Happily, the aliens were distracted by their internal feud. Whoever had decided to take the Doranos/Corian dick-swinging contest to an out-and-out fight was her hero. Unless it was the Doranos who attempted to abduct her. That guy could rot in hell. Hopefully, he was roasting in the eternal flames already.

  At thirty-five, Francesca looked many, many years younger and that was handy. She had a knack for finding things, people and secrets and turning them into opportunity.

  Espionage had seemed the perfect fit for a woman of her talents. During the war, she honed her gift into an impressive career as a double agent, and along the way, she’d developed the skillset required to stay alive.

  As good as she was – and make no mistake she was the best – she hadn’t seen the alien invasion coming. If she had, she would have grabbed her younger sister, Margot (Francesca would forever think of her baby sister as little GoGo), and arranged for them to be in the same alien camp together. She had no doubt that with a little planning she could have made it happen.

  Instead, she’d been caught trying to find GoGo after the Collection Teams had swooped through Old Fort Angeles where she’d had her sister stashed. Being remanded to a work camp shouldn’t have stalled her reunion with her sister the way it had. Franny knew the aliens kept a data base of the humans in their possession. The aliens were so hard-up for women, it should have been a simple matter of blowing a Doranos or two in exchange for information on which camp her sister was in. But no.

  Just when she was making progress with Dorit, the Doranos in charge of the camp, the Corian Warrior, Silex, appeared and put the kibosh to her machinations. Every mark took time and attention, but Silex had undone months of prep with his crazy jealousy. A big dick didn’t make up for ruining a girl’s plans.

  GoGo was as delicate as Franny was tough. Fran knew there wasn’t time to groom another target. So, she bided her time and broke out of the camp. The window for finesse was past. She’d break into - and out of - as many alien camps as it took to find her sister.

  The fine hair on the back of Fran’s neck stood on end. To her right, something moved. She stared hard into the darkness, a death grip on the knife she’d used to kill the Doranos.

  From the pitch black of the shadows, something denser, darker stalked forward. In utter silence, the thing leapt. The faint glow of the rising moon revealed a flash of fang and golden fur.

  Instinct had Franny driving her knife at the cougar’s neck. She slashed up hard enough to draw blood. With a yowl and a hiss of pain, the sleek cat propelled itself up and out of the ravine.

  Once the cat decided it was going to live, it would be back. She wouldn’t bet on her luck against a desperate natural predator holding. Moon or no, it was time to move.

  Franny just might be the oldest living Earther, and she didn’t get to this point by being stupid. Getting to her feet, she angrily stuffed the blanket back into her pack. Now, she had to come up with a way to kill the cougar before it made a meal out of her. Fantastic.

  Shit. It was probably sitting up there, waiting to pounce. Well, she wasn’t getting any younger. Bloody knife clenched between her teeth, Franny leapt for the top of the ravine. Her fingers scraped into the hard earth, her back and shoulders burning as she hauled herself up. The slight weight of her pack shielded her back. Hopping to her feet, she quickly assumed a grappling stance, the knife in her left hand, her right ready to deflect the cat.

  And tripped over a warm body.

  “What the!” She hurriedly pushed to her knees and pulled her flashlight out of the cinch strap on her pack.

  The man illuminated by her beam, bleeding and unconscious on the ground, was not in any of her contingency plans.

  “Dude, where’d you leave your clothes?” She grumbled at his unconscious form. He could have had bad intentions – that might be why he was naked. OR he might have seen the same opportunity she did and escaped the alien camp without a stitch of clothing. Just because he didn’t look familiar didn’t mean he hadn’t been a prisoner just like her. Dammit.

  She should just leave him. There were deep, bloody claw marks all over his chest. Why hadn’t he screamed? The cat must have surprised him when it leapt from the ravine, but the silence went unbroken. That was odd.

  If she left him, it was a good bet the cat would nosh on him and decide against stalking - and eating - her.

  She was a cold bitch. Blowing out a sigh, she hung her head. “Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.” But she wasn’t that cold.

  Nude dude easily had a foot on her and outweighed her by…a lot. At five-foot-six-inches and a hundred pounds, she didn’t have a lot of options for moving him.

  Shaking her head, she pulled out her only damned blanket. “Lucky for you, I’m prepared,” she told him with a frustrated grunt as she rolled him this way and that. “Didn’t miss any meals, did you, buddy? Well, if the cat comes back, you’re SOL. Just a heads-up.”

  Not five minutes in, and playing the hero already sucked.

  Chapter 26

  Two Days Later

  Calyx gave his tired eyes a vigorous rub and rolled to his feet as the alarm he’d set buzzed in his ear. It had only been ninety minutes since he lay down, but he had to meet Skylan, Domik and Silex at the western perimeter. They expected General Darvan in camp within the next few days, and there were answers they still needed to find.

  Though most Corians - Warriors or otherwise - preferred nudity in private, Calyx had begun sleeping in his uniform. The sporadic minutes he had down were too precious to waste on mundane chores like dressing and undressing or putting his uniform through the refresher. Though, if Tara ever folded her luscious self between his sheets again, he’d strip faster than a blaster strike.

  Thoughts of the sweet little Earther were what motivated him to keep moving during exhausting times like these. If he could hang on to the security promotion Skylan had given him, Calyx might just qualify for the Right to Seek Claim for her before they were both old and gray.

  Grabbing his boots, he trudged to the bank of sonishowers located in his barracks. There was still no sign of the missing Earthers. Adding a layer of difficulty to identifying the absent people, someone had sabotaged the biometric repository. Dr. Balcar and his team of scientists aboard the Hope were working overtime to re-tag DNA and other identifying samples. It was slow-going.

  Skylan estimated that some twenty-five Earther females had been abducted fro
m the camp by a small contingent of dissatisfied Doranos males. When Silex and Domik’s soldiers had recovered four Earthers hiding in the wilderness, he’d revised those figures.

  Silex’s Earther friend Francesca remained at large. He claimed there was no way the female allowed herself to be taken. Personally, Calyx thought that was wishful thinking, but his partner refused to accept that Francesca had slipped through his fingers. Silex was a male on a mission where the Earther was concerned.

  Calyx knew once things settled down in the camp, they’d reconvene Track Team One’s surviving members and hunt the missing female. The excursion would be something to look forward to if he weren’t so disturbed by the idea of leaving Tara here undefended.

  Immersed in his thoughts, he tilted his head back and enjoyed the soothing ultrasonic waves as they cleaned his uniform, skin and hair and his internal comm beeped to signal an incoming transmission.

  “Calyx,” he answered, stepping fully clothed from the shower.

  “You’re going to have your hands full for the foreseeable future,” Keble chortled. “Commander Skylan has issued a permanent moratorium on the reconditioners.”

  Keble, Vertik and Miknel were the shift leaders Calyx had assigned to Earther security. The civilian contingent of Doranos wouldn’t have an easy time wresting responsibility for the Earthers’ safety away from the Warriors again.

  Calyx stretched his arms above his head. The tension in his shoulders was already ratcheting into a headache. He agreed with Skylan’s bold move in curtailing the Earther’s exposure to pro-Doranos reconditioning, but that was going to make his life far more difficult.

  “Have we increased work shifts for the Earthers, then?” He asked hopefully. It was selfish to wish more work on people in their situation, but unscheduled time often led to problems.