by Calista Skye
He unsnaps the collar around my neck and takes it off. “I don’t think this is necessary anymore.”
I look up at him with eyes that are suddenly itching. “Thank you.”
He just smirks. “Your manners have improved markedly. Let’s see if you can keep them up.”
25
- Brox -
I enjoy the way she looks at me with those mysterious eyes. It makes me feel strange sensations. Anyway, she deserves the marker strip coming off. She’s been properly respectful today, even while helping to set the traps. She is remarkably useful for a female.
I usher her out of the pool room, enjoying the sight of her now much cleaner body in the transparent suit and the crack of her luscious behind as she walks. I long to ravish her again.
But for the first time in my life, I feel a strong urge to save my energy. I doubt the traps can keep the Glup at bay completely. Hopefully, it will kill some of them, but they won’t give up until they’re in. And then, there will only be me, my sword and my aching shoulder that has gotten noticeably worse over the course of the day. It has brought with it a strange fatigue that I have never felt before.
The large central room has been converted to a maze of heavy equipment and metal bars. I will be able to swing the sword and find cover, while the Glup will hopefully be confused by the seemingly chaotic surroundings.
Althea turns around when we reach the back of the room. “So I guess now we wait?”
“It won’t be long now,” I assure her. “They must be close.”
She sits down on a chair, and I sit on a table. I don’t like how good it feels to take some weight off my feet. This is a low gravity planet, and I should be able to handle much more strenuous work than I’ve had today with no ill effect. Even the thought of impending combat gives me less joy and more dread. I should never have come down into this hole!
“I wonder…” Althea begins, then stops.
“Yes?” I say wearily.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, please. But why are you doing this?”
I sigh. “I wonder that myself. I should have stayed on the surface and faced the Glup like a warrior! This idea of hiding and letting the enemy pick his time to attack grates on my nerves.”
“No. I mean, why are you defending me against them? Yesterday you were ready to sell me to these same guys we’re now waiting to attack us. You’re ready to fight and kill them.”
“I have my reasons,” I state. I can’t figure that out, myself. Why? Why did I turn into the Combat form when no danger threatened me? Right before I was about to be handed a huge amount of money that would have made Bleep and me real contenders in the Competition? This is just a female. A small, soft female from an alien race with warriors that are almost as small as her and rely on ranged projectile weapons for fighting.
Yes, she is beautiful and unusually lively. Her reluctance to submit the way any female should has a strange attraction on me. Her body, too. So luxurious and feminine!
But worth throwing away victory for? Surely not. Much less risking death for here under the ground of a desolate alien planet.
I entered Combat form because of her. That much seems certain. At the time, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the need to be near her. I simply couldn’t stand giving her away.
Then why not just say so? Why attack the Glup and risk both the competition and the ship and even death? Because the Combat form just took over.
“Uh-huh,” Althea says, getting dangerously close to disrespect with that tone. “Is it that you don’t know? It’s okay, I’m grateful for your help. Maybe you just want to do the right thing. I think that’s very honorable and a sign of huge strength.”
“The right thing would clearly be to sell you,” I reply, puzzled. “And I almost did it.”
“No. Some things are just wrong. The right thing is to protect the innocent against the evil,” Althea states. “The weak against the strong. You are doing that. Protecting me against the Glup. That is the right thing.”
“The right thing is to win the Competition,” I counter, suddenly not so sure. “That’s the whole reason I am here. Everything I do must serve that end.”
“And still, here we are. Why is that Competition so important to you?”
I release a growl in my throat. It’s not her place to interrogate a larger warrior male. But she asked the question softly, and I like that topic better than the previous one. “The prize is princely. More funds than Bleep and I could spend in a lifetime. Bleep could buy a larger body than the one she has, and I could buy back the family palace and lands on Nutg’ir’x. I would restore them to former glory and so gain great honor for my kind.”
“Why did your family lose their land?” Her voice is suitably soft and her tone respectful.
“A warrior society is a hard society, as it should be. Only the strongest should prevail. Some of my ancestors were very strong indeed, and amassed great fortunes while conquering alien species. Unfortunately, some of my more immediate ancestors were not as strong and had their goods taken away from them by stronger warriors.”
“You want to restore your family honor and glory.”
I struggle to find the right words. How does one explain to an alien female what the status of the family means? Not necessarily glory, although that usually follows success. But continued life, continued family, a legacy that will survive yourself. Doing something important for your own kind in a hard world. Something that will endure after you’re gone. Something that benefits your own descendants. Something that makes your life worth having been lived, the pain worth having endured. Something that cheats death, in however small a way. Something that matters.
Winning the prestigious Competition will help. The cash prize will help much more.
The sheer longing for it creates a hollow feeling in my chest, and I draw breath between clenched teeth. “Yes.”
Althea nods. “And Bleep wants a new body. Are they really that expensive? I don’t know. Just guessing. Seems the brain itself would be the tricky part. And she has that.”
I point to the equipment around us. “You said that these things were brought here at fabulous cost. The price of the body Bleep wants can be described in much the same way.”
“Right.”
“Okay. Will she be okay back there?”
“If she keeps her surprisingly big mouth shut when the Glup are searching the ship, she should not be detected by them,” I growl. “That’s enough rest. I’ll go and make the final preparations. You stay here.”
She just nods. She must be tired, too.
I get most of what remains of the primitive explosives, bring it all into the pool room where we had the bath, and arrange things the way I want them.
Then I go as close as I can to the outer hatch and listen. Still nothing.
I check on all the booby traps we’ve made and return to the common room, sitting down beside Althea.
The silence is total. I even think I can hear the slow dripping of water from the pool room, separated from this location by a hundred paces of sheer rock.
“Brox.”
“Baërr’rokz’zc,” I correct her gently.
“Barox?”
I sigh. “What is it?”
“I’m afraid.”
“I see.” I’m not sure what to say. Fear is for prey, a sensation that helps them escape from danger. That’s all I know.
“Aren’t you?”
“I don’t know. I have never been afraid, as far as I know.”
She looks up at me with wonder in her eyes. “Never?”
“My species was always the hunter. The apex predator on every planet. Why would we need to escape from anyone?”
“Huh. Yeah. Good point. Sounds wonderful to never be afraid.”
I gently poke my shoulder with one finger. Still getting worse. “Is it unpleasant?”
“Yeah. You think something terrible is going to happen, so you worry about it and you want to get away. Your body prepares
to run, but sometimes there’s nowhere to run, or running wouldn’t help you. You imagine what could happen and how much it would hurt. Your whole mind is totally taken over by it, and it feels really bad.”
“And that’s what you’re feeling right now?”
“Yes,” she says in a very small voice, then sniffs.
“Is it useful?”
“I don’t know. Maybe sometimes. Mostly it just seems unnecessary.”
I nod. “Ah. Can you do something to make it less unpleasant?”
“I can’t. But you can.”
“Really?”
“Yes. If you embrace me and hold me tight and say that everything is going to be all right.”
“That will help?”
“I think so.”
I frown. “Of course, I can’t guarantee that everything is going to be all right. I am an accomplished warrior, but the Glup have unknown strengths, and they appear very determined to get you. Their reputation is formidable. I can only assume that—”
She reaches up and places a tiny finger across my lips. “Just try it. Please.”
“Very well.”
I adjust myself so that I can put my arms around her thin torso, then squeeze her against me. “Everything is going to be all right,” I announce, then enjoy the echo of my voice booming from the walls.
“A little less loud, please,” she wheezes against my chest. “And hold me a little softer. Yes, like that.”
“Everything is going to be all right,” I state.
“Stroke my hair?”
I paw at the long fur on her head. “Everything is going to be all right.”
“That’s really good.”
“Everything is going to be all right.”
“Mmmhm.”
“Everything is going to be all right.”
Soon, she’s sleeping peacefully against my chest, and I lower my nose to fill it with her scent.
Then a sharp bang resounds from the direction of the exit, and her eyes fly open.
“What was that?”
I gently disentangle myself from feminine limbs and fur. “The Glup are here.”
26
- Althea -
Brox gets up and grabs his sword.
I get up, too, and walk over to the control panel. This was not just a room for social gatherings, but also a place from where you could keep track of some of the things that were going on in the various corridors. There are cameras set up all over the place, but some of them have failed from old age. Still, six of them are active, including two that show the outer hatch. That makes sense; when this mining base was in operation, there was no air outside and you wanted to keep iron control of the exit. Especially towards the end, when the colonists were going half crazy.
“They’ve blown the hatch off its hinges,” I report. “Lots of smoke there. I can’t see much yet. There’s movement.”
“The first drill has started,” Brox calmly says.
Yep, we can both hear that one of the drilling machines is powering up, because it makes an infernal racket that is propagated by the rock.
“I see it,” I say. “It’s coming right for them. They’re just standing there. Can’t tell how many. No, wait — they’re trying to climb back up the ladder. But they can’t do it. I guess it wasn’t made with spiders in mind. Shit, that thing is going to tear through them— yeah. Glup parts spraying everywhere. I’d say five or six of them got pulped.”
It’s weird. Until yesterday morning, I didn’t even know that such a thing as aliens existed. Now I’m commenting on their deaths like it’s a sports event. A lifetime of consuming pretty realistic science-fiction media of all kinds is finally paying for itself.
“I doubt they got pulped, exactly,” Brox says. “They don’t contain any fluids.”
I glance at the second screen showing that corridor. “Yeah, looks like you’re right. Just dry slivers of black and brown left of them.”
The sight of the spiders being brutally killed by a mining machine should horrify me, and I do feel some degree of doubt. But I can still feel the cold sharpness of the tentacle that was holding me. They had nothing good in mind for me. And I think I know what it was they wanted from me. I cannot give that to aliens.
And hey, they’re coming down here to get us. They were not invited, and they started by blowing the outer hatch off, not knowing what was behind it. They could easily have killed someone. No, I’m pretty sure I’m on the right side here.
Also, giant alien spiders.
“The drill is going slow now. Trying to drill into the rock on the opposite side of the shaft. I guess it will continue to do that until the bit goes dull or it runs out of power.”
Brox is by the door, calmly leaning against the last drilling machine. But I can see the tension in him. “Are the Glup still coming?”
“Not yet. Oh, spoke too soon. A whole bunch of them just jumped down the shaft.”
“How many to a bunch?”
“Five or six? Hard to separate them on the screen. Okay, they’re getting past the drill now. They’re slowly going up the corridor towards the next hatch. Another drill waiting for them there. We’ll see if they fall for it again.”
They do, but just for a moment. This time, they have the time to retreat to the ladder, and then they fire a missile or something at the drill, ruining the bit and making the machine splutter and cough so we can feel the rock tremble.
“So, that’s two drills down. Only one of them did any damage to them. The last one is set to maximum speed and will also be propelled by serious bang.”
That was one of Brox’s ideas. Instead of having the drill lumbering towards the Glup, we’ve placed explosive charges behind it that will push it forward like a bullet from a gun. Hopefully, it will be fast enough to surprise them and chew up a couple of them.
“Okay, they’re keeping their distance to the last hatch. Shooting a missile. Yep, there goes the camera. Can’t tell what happens. Sorry.”
I glance over at Brox. This all looks like he’ll have to fight them in here. He’s looking a little slumped to me. “You okay, Brox?”
Before he can answer, there’s a huge explosion that rocks the mountain.
“That was the charge. I would expect to see running Glup on the first camera now… yeah! Look at them go! Only two of them. Looks like the drill got four this time. It must have come jumping out of the tunnel.”
“So about ten fewer enemies so far,” Brox says, straightening up. “Not bad. At most, thirty left.”
“There are more traps,” I remind him. “That corridor is full of them. So, they have blown up all three drilling machines. Just debris left. Okay, fair enough. Shit, I wish I could see these other traps.”
In that corridor, we have arranged high voltage metal bars and crude fences made from welding equipment. They will give the aliens hard and hopefully lethal electrical shocks when they try to clear them away.
Then right behind that, there’s a laser tripwire that will set off fifteen explosive charges attached to the walls in that whole tunnel. Finally, behind the next hatch they’ll have to go through, there are six blowtorches that will focus intense heat right at spider height as soon as the hatch is blown.
And that’s it. After that, there’s only Brox.
I get to my feet. It looks like the Glup will be coming in here. The traps will hopefully reduce their numbers, but I don’t think it will be by enough to make them give up.
“So,” I ask, trying to sound casual, but my voice trembles with terror. “Where should I be?”
Brox examines the edge of his sword. “Out of the way and out of this room. If they win, I doubt they will kill you. You have something they want. Give it to them. They might even let you go after that.”
“I can’t give it to them.”
“Then I don’t know what they will do. They’re not too familiar to me—”
Again the cave shakes from an explosion, but this was a really big one. Like from fifteen smaller charg
es along a tunnel.
“That blast has to have taken out a good bunch of spiders,” I say. “They seem to be six to a group. I’m going to guess that it got one whole group.”
“Six less to worry about,” Brox agrees. “I think it’s time you left this room. Only come back if I call you.”
“If you lose, I might have to kill myself. I hate those spiders.”
“Suicide to cheat an enemy of victory can be honorable,” Brox says. “But not expected of a female. Again, I suggest you go with them and give them what they want. Nobody expects a female to keep a secret in the face of overwhelming power. Although you did succeed in keeping it from me.”
I don’t think he’s being very helpful. But hell, the guy is preparing to defend me from aliens with a real risk to his own life.
“You knew that wasn’t true what I said about the antimatter reactor?”
He sends me a cold little smile. “The Glup are many things. Willing to pay for technology that went out of use a thousand years ago is not one of them.”
For a moment, I’m stunned. He knew all along.
But still. I can’t give the Glup what they want. It’s not mine to give away.
I bend down and grab a tiny explosive charge, all that’s left of it. I thought we had more.
“I’ll blow myself up if you lose.”
“If that’s your choice,” Brox says. “Though I have to say that I would prefer that you live on, regardless. Even with me dead. As long as you’re alive, things can change for the better. It has been my observation that death is extremely permanent.”
“I guess we’ll see,” I offer weakly and walk towards a tunnel that leads further into the base on legs that are trembling again. “Oh, and one more thing. I’m not sure why you’re doing this. But thank you for being on my side.”
27
- Brox -
She disappears into the tunnel.
‘On my side’? When have I ever been on any other side than my own?
The world spins around me. I’m not sure if it’s because of the realization that she’s right or due to the shoulder injury.
