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Payton

Tessi walked towards me as I sent Table 4’s empty bottles and glasses to the kitchen. What did I do wrong this time? I ran through things as quickly as I could, but nothing came to mind.

Still, she had that look in her eyes…

“Payton, get to Table 3,” she snapped.

Then again, Tessi always had that look in her eyes. It was part of what made her so good at running the casino floor of the Fallen Star. That, and the fact that she was fairly tall with a strong figure and piercing eyes that threatened anyone who dared stand against her.

And the Vinduthi markings dancing down her cheek that proclaimed her Alkard’s mate didn’t hurt.

“Table 3?” I repeated. “But I’m scheduled for Table 7 next.”

“I’ll get someone else for it. Right now, there’s a Mondian on a winning streak, and I need someone to keep him playing.”

I rolled my eyes. That kind of evening again. “You sure he’s into humans?”

“I’m sure he’s into you,” she said. “He watched you while you were at the next table closely enough. So get going.”

I nodded. “All right, but he better keep his hands to himself.”

She snorted, her lips curling into a half-smile. “His eyes are more than enough to keep him distracted so that he loses some of his credits.”

Before I could say anything else, she spun on her heel and disappeared back among the crowd on the casino floor. This was going to be a long evening.

It wasn’t hard to spot the sentient Tessi was talking about. It was never hard to spot a Mondian. In addition to being big, often bigger than the Vinduthi, they have bright red scaly skin and enormous heads with bony ridges.

They looked a little like huge lizards and even more like dragons. My mother had a story file about dragons when I was a kid, and if you took one of them, got rid of the tail, and made them walk on two legs, it would be a Mondian.

Of course, if you were blind, you’d still have a pretty easy time finding that one because he laughed up a storm. I grabbed my tray, a bottle of champagne in a bottle holder, and some glasses and headed over.

There were three others at the table with him, two Fanaith and a Nazok. You didn’t see too many Nazoks around the Fallen Star, and when you did, they usually didn’t have much money to gamble with.

I saw from the careful way the one at the table hoarded his tiny pile that he was no exception.

I leaned over in between the Mondian and one of the Fanaith and set the bottle on the table. “Did somebody order champagne?”

The Mondian looked down at me and boomed out his loud laugh. “Can’t say I did, but I guess that’s just how lucky I am!”

He patted me on the back twice, and I did my best to keep my expression from going sour. I’d gotten into enough trouble with Tessi this week.

If I messed this up too, she might think about selling my contract to someone else, and I knew as well as anyone did that being a bottle girl was far from the worst of what a young, pretty girl with a contract could end up doing.

Some jerk in a suit had to read them all off to me when I signed.

It seemed like it went on for hours, but it was all pretty simple, really. Whoever owned your contract owned you. And you better be a good girl for them.

So, I smiled back. “Look but don’t touch, please!”

“Whatever you say,” the Mondian said. “Anything for my little good luck charm!”

“A new card?” the dealer said to the Mondian. He started, then quickly looked at the Fanaith and the Nazok on his left, trying to figure out what they picked. The Nazok passed while the Fanaith drew.

“Deal me!” he said. I couldn’t help seeing his hand as he glanced at the card. 20. Good place to stop. Then again, it wouldn’t be too hard for one of the other players to be

closer. Meanwhile, the dealer showed 15, with one card hidden.

It might have been the right choice, but even so, he should have thought about it a little. Apparently, I was already doing my job.

No one expected the girls, especially us human ones, to know anything about the games. Humans were supposed to spend all their time ogling things and being amazed by all the technology we didn’t understand. We weren’t supposed to understand a round of Halcian 24. That was an advantage we had.

“Pass,” the second Fanaith said.

The dealer nodded and turned over the hidden card. A 4. Just 19 showing. The lowest possible stop. “Does anyone challenge?”

The table turned over their hands. The Nazok only had a 16. The first Fanaith went over, and the second was at 18.

The Mondian was slow with his last card. He tilted it up towards himself, paused, then finally let it fall.

7.

Over.

“Maybe I was wrong,” the Mondian said. “Maybe you’re not such a good luck charm after all. Or maybe, I just didn’t rub you right…”

With that, he slapped me square on the butt.

Before I could stop myself, I hit him square on the muzzle with the serving plate. It made a loud smack sound.

Talk about bad luck.

Because the look of sheer surprise on his face made me laugh.

Mistake number two.

I was still laughing when I saw Tessi barreling down at me.

Uh oh.

“Let’s talk in private,” she said, then turned towards the angry Mondian. “I’m very sorry, sir. We’ll deal with her.”

I hurried quickly after her, as she walked off the floor and down one of the employee-only halls. “I’d like to point out that was just a reflex. Totally out of my

control. I was just startled, and if you want-”

“I don’t care about that,” Tessi said, stopping in front of an office door. “This is about something much more important.”

“More important than hitting a customer?”

“Today’s your lucky day,” she said, gesturing me closer. “You’re going to prison.”

Wait, what?

I walked into Tessi’s office, which was small but well organized. I sat down in front of the desk, and she took her seat behind.

Before talking, she glanced quickly under the table, then felt around the edge. She was checking for listening devices, I realized.

Just what did I get myself involved in?

“Have you heard of Deathgate prison?” she asked finally.

I shook my head. “Doesn’t sound like a nice place.”

“It isn’t. It’s an asteroid prison. For dangerous criminals. The most secure one there is. And we’re sending you there.”

My gut turned cold, my brain freezing.

“What?”

“You’ve probably heard about Havek. The technical expert for some of the family’s less… public business interests.”

I certainly did. Almost everyone had heard about Havek. He was one of the big names in the Vinduthi syndicate. The hacker who could build anything and break anything.

But I didn’t expect Tessi to just admit that the casino was affiliated with the Vinduthi crime family. Sure, everyone knew that, but I never heard anyone say it aloud before.

“I’ve seen him a couple of times here,” I admitted cautiously. I remembered one of the girls telling me a story about how the family once managed to get an enforcement officer from the Federation arrested by his own men. Havek played a big part, forging arrest warrants and getting them to the enforcers as if they came from the officer.

“You heard about the Shadow massacre?” Tessi asked, and I shuddered.

I didn’t think anyone on Thodos hadn’t heard about it.

I had to admit, I wasn’t a general fan of that clan of Maeux.

Their scion was known for causing trouble, feeling up girls, walking out on tabs, and letting his syndicate’s muscle ‘clean things up’ for him.

He was trash.

Yet it still didn’t sit right that someone had snuck into the T’zarti compound and slaughtered the entire family, from the matriarch down to the smallest hatchling.

“You’re not saying…” I couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“Of course Havek didn’t do it,” Tessi snapped. “He was set up by one of the other families. We’re going to get him out.”

“You want me to organize a prison break?” I said, too stunned to make sense of any of this.

Tessi rolled her eyes. “Of course not. Your only job is to be a point of contact. Havek’s being watched too closely to get anything outside the prison. But no one knows who you are.”

“And no one watches humans,” I finished. It was something I heard many times before.

“Exactly,” said Tessi. “You’ll have to stay in the dormitories assigned for advocates until the job is done. It’s not going to be a vacation.”

“This sounds dangerous,” I said.

“It’s our only option.” She sighed softly. “The only other humans in the Family are like me.” She gestured to the sigils down her face. “Not exactly discrete. You’ll have to be careful. If they figure out you’re working with Havek, they’ll have you killed, and if they don’t, there’s a solid chance you get killed anyway. That’s why I want you to have a choice. You can say no.”

“Well, then I say no,” I answered quickly. “I’m not going to some prison to save a stranger.”

“Before you make a decision, you should hear the rest of the deal,” Tessi continued as if I didn’t say anything. “If you do this successfully, and you live to tell the tale, Alkard is prepared to release you from your contract.”

I stared at her, almost unable to absorb the words.

“Are you serious?” I said, finally. “That’s a real promise? Like, you could put that in writing?”

She lifted a tablet off her desk. “It already is.”

I took the device and ran my eyes over it greedily. No catches. It was just what she said. A release form.

“And this could work, right?” I asked, looking up. “This isn’t some one-in-a-million suicide mission. This is actually the way you plan to rescue Havek?”

“At the moment, we have limited influence inside Deathgate prison,” Tessi said. “But anything we can do to ensure your safety and the success of your mission, we will. He’s part of the family. We want him back.”

I looked down at the contract, then back up at Tessi. On the one hand, a life of being a bottle girl in a casino, working until I was old to pay off a debt and then scraping by somehow or another, was straightforward. Simple.

But also, a lot of men would grope me and leer at me when I walked by. And the tips would only get worse with every passing year. I knew that.

On the other, a spy mission. An impossible escape from an asteroid prison for a tech genius I only knew from stories. And if I survived it, then freedom. Real freedom, in the stars, in the prime of my life.

Which would I pick? Safety? Or dignity?

“You can pick whichever you want,” Tessi repeated. “But I’m going to need a decision soon. And don’t try changing your mind. Just because you’re the first girl I’m picking doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty who could do it just as well.”

Well. It was good to know I wasn’t anything special.

But then why did she pick me?

“I’ll do it,” I said, handing the tablet back to her. “Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.”

I didn’t exactly think the whole thing through. I just opened my mouth and let the first words that happened to reach it come out.

It was decided.

I was going to be a spy.

Havek

The key was to make an impression. In prison, the impression one makes on others quickly becomes their reputation. And reputation is everything. It’s the only thing that distinguishes one prisoner from the other.

One of the two guards accompanying me noticed I was scanning the hallway and chuckled. “Looking for a computer? I’ve got some bad news for you. Prisoners don’t get to play with toys around here.”

As for the guards, their goal was to stay in charge. They knew that there were more prisoners than there were of them, and that meant they could never slip up, even for a moment.

Which was why the Alliance scoured for the dregs of the galaxy to take this job.

Rapists and murderers all, the only reason they were the guards instead of the prisoners was that they’d made a deal.

Keep order here, in return for a ‘respectable’ life.

“Just getting used to the place,” I said, doing my best to keep up a steady pace despite the shackles on my hands and feet.

In truth, there wasn’t much to get used to. We walked down a long, straight hallway punctuated with doors that opened and closed behind us. The walls were perfectly smooth sheets of synthetic material, all colored a dull gray. The doors were heavy metal, without bars, and they could only be opened by whoever was watching through the cameras that hung from the ceilings. I counted three doors so far and assumed we had to be close to the last one.

Apparently, the guard didn’t like my attitude because I got a sharp jab in the back of the ribs for that one. “You’ll have plenty of time for that, space dust.” The way he spat the last words told me it was something they call the prisoners here. “What were the charges again? Robbery and mass murder, wasn’t it?”

“That’s what I was convicted of, yes,” I answered. Another jab in the ribs. I was going to need a while to learn how to sound humble. It was something I haven’t had to do for a while now.

We stopped in front of the last door. When it opened, it revealed a new, even heavier door barely a few steps in front. An airlock.

“Go ahead,” said the guard, apparently the talkative one out of the two. “When you’re ready.”

“You’re not gonna show me to my cell?” I said, slightly surprised.

“You’ll have to find a cell for yourself,” the other guard said. “We don’t bother with little details like that. As long as you’re on this barren piece of rock, our job is done.”

It made sense. No need to keep too close a watch when you’re this far away from anyone. The doors weren’t what I needed to worry about if I wanted to escape. The real problem was the vacuum of space that waited outside those bars.

I nodded and stepped forward into the airlock. The doors slid shut behind me, and a few seconds later, the door in front of me opened to reveal Deathgate prison.

The whole thing was one enormous, square room, all the same gray material. In one corner, a desk where a single guard sat, watching the prisoners. Large, metal cafeteria tables took up about half the space, with the rest of it filled with people talking in tight groups or milling around, seemingly aimlessly.

Along every wall were all the cell doors, mostly open but a few closed. There were two floors, with the second story of cells accessed by a catwalk running along them. Metal stairs led up to those cells on either side.

Prisoners looked at me. Some of them leaned closer into their groups and whispered about me.

Right now, I didn’t know anything about how things operated at this prison. If it was anything like other prisons, the prisoners would have far more rules for how you were supposed to act than the guards.

Time to get someone to tell me what those rules were.

I walked over to the emptiest of the rows of cafeteria tables and sat down. There wasn’t much risk in that, I decided. It would be nice to have a few moments to myself.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t get them. Already, a very large and well-muscled Dargun approached me with about a dozen others following him, clearly his goons. Like most of his species, the leader was short and stocky, with pointed ears, two large fangs that stuck up out of their mouth and a grayish skin color.

“May I help you?” I asked as he took a stance that was very obviously meant to be threatening.

“Yes, you can,” said Dargun. “In fact, you’re going to be doing a lot of that while you’re here.”

“Is that so?”

He leaned closer. “The name’s Trovok. And you don’t know how things work in Deathgate, do you?”

“Let me guess,” I answered, meeting his gaze as coolly as I could manage. “You’re about to explain to me that something something something and in conclusion, if I want a chance at living, I have to join your little crew and do whatever it is you say, huh?”

“That’s about right,” he answered. “Only you missed one thing. I’m doing you a favor here. I’m giving you a way to be part of the Vipers. It’s the most powerful gang in this dump, and if you don’t have us for protection, it won’t be just me and my boys you have to worry about.”

Ah. So it was all the usual fun and games. I could work with that.

“I’ll make another guess. If I agree to do whatever you want, whichever of these nice fellows you’ve got following you gets promoted to a full time member and can recruit their own goons?”

“That’s the way things run here, space dust,” said Trovok. “I did my time for a senior Viper. Waded through twelve pieces of fresh meat before I even got started. Only way to climb a ladder is to start at the bottom.”

“And what happens if I say no?”

“Me and my friends teach you a lesson.”

I nodded. “And what happens if I beat up you and all of your guys?”

He looked surprised for a second and then started laughing, turning to his crew to get their reassurance.

Which meant he wasn’t looking at my arms. That was his last mistake.

I whipped my right arm around the back of his neck and slammed his head into the table before he even knew I attacked. Just as I hoped, the rest of the crew was startled enough that I was able to get to my feet before any of them thought about attacking me.

One fighter can’t beat twelve, if those twelve are coordinated, competent or even just dedicated. Fortunately, however, most random groups of twelve people, especially ones who have been bullied into service by someone they don’t care for, are none of those things.

By the time I even grabbed the one closest to me, four or five of the crew had retreated, and the rest were unsure what to do.

I swung him into three more of his friends, then threw a hard punch at the one to my left. The ones left were fighting now, but they were intimidated and disorganized. Easy pickings.

The real question for me was what the guard would do. Would he jump in to stop things, or would he wait for backup? Or was fighting just allowed here? Let the prisoners take care of beating each other down for once?

They were meant to keep order however they wanted. But would they give in to their more sadistic desires, or had the easy life here made them complacent, ready to let the prisoners keep order themselves?

No matter what the answer was, I needed the information. Information would be my key to getting out of this place.

A punch from one of the gang I hadn’t looked at narrowly sailed past my face. This wasn’t a time to think about things like that. I grabbed the outstretched arm and yanked him onto the ground, dodging another attack.

A few more punches and one well-placed knee in the face and it was all over. Four were on the ground. The others retreated.

Not bad for a first impression.

As I stood there, drinking in the looks from the other prisoners, the airlock door slid open and five guards stood there. They watched me carefully, but didn’t do anything as I walked further away into the crowd to look for another place to sit.

So the other guards would come, but only to keep things from building into a full riot. Good to know.

I sat down at another empty table. Hopefully the next person to talk to me would be a little friendlier.

I didn’t have to wait long.

“Are you Havek?” a piping voice called from beside me. I turned to see a small creature, barely up to my hips, had snuck up. He looked somewhat like a frog, complete with large staring eyes and a wide, anxious mouth. An Iknud.

“That’s me.”

“My name’s Braadi. Would you be willing to protect me? From the others?”

So now I had a reputation as someone who could deal with bullies. That was good. “I don’t like bullies. But do you have something you can offer?”

“I’ve been around for a while,” Braadi said, wringing his hands. “I know a lot of the people. What they have. What they want. I could give you advice, maybe.”

Perfect.

Narrowing my eyes, I looked around the room, noting the clusters of prisoners at the tables, all carefully not watching me. “Am I going to be dealing with reprisals from the rest of the Vipers for fighting Trovok or this guy?”

“Not unless you make overtures to one of the other gangs. No one likes Trovok, but if the Vipers think you’re going to join another group, they’ll use him as an excuse. Am I doing okay? Am I helpful?”

I nodded. “You asked for protection. Does that mean you’re not a member of any of the gangs?”

“None of them wanted me. I do my best, but it’s not easy.”

“Are there others who are like you? Who don’t have an affiliation?”

“Oh sure,” he answered. “Little guys like me. Weirdos. A few loners. And some people who joined a gang but got kicked out of it for some reason.”

“And where do you sleep?” I asked.

“Wherever there’s a cell open,” he said. “Once everyone else has picked a place. Usually up on the catwalk. The gangs don’t fight for those as much. Except one time,

when… Well, that doesn’t matter.”

Interesting.

Just how useful could this little guy be?

I never had much dealing with Iknuds. They weren’t strong or fast, and didn’t have much of a presence on Thodos III.

“So tell me–”

“You bastard!” A massive Fanaith charged me, a crudely-worked knife in his fist.

Fine. Apparently the room needed another demonstration.

But before I could knock this jerk into the wall, Braadi hopped in front of me, then barreled himself at the Fanaith’s knees, tripping him.

As the gray, bald head fell, I spun, kicking the side of his face in, crushing the jutting jaw.

With a howl, the Fanaith stumbled away.

Scanning the room, no one wanted to meet my eyes.

Good.

“You all right, boss?”

Braadi pushed himself up to his knees. I held out my hand to pull him the rest of the way up. “Well, I’d say you’ve more than earned my protection,” I told him, setting my hand on his shoulder. “From now on, if anyone gives you trouble, point them out to me. I’ll do my best to make sure they stop.”

“Really? You will?” He bounced up and down on his toes.

“That’s right. I’ve got plans.”

His lips repeated the word, soundlessly. But before I could say anything else, a guard pushed past the group of prisoners and stopped in front of me.

“Havek?”

“That’s me.”

“Your advocate wants to talk to you.”

I didn’t know I had an advocate any more. The trial was already over, and even Alkard couldn’t do much for me now.

A sharp pang lanced my chest. Maybe it was stupid, but I missed my brothers.

What the hell were they going to do without me there to keep shit working?

I shoved the feeling away and stood up.

“Well, let’s not keep my advocate waiting.”

Sophia

I always wondered what aliens got out of seeing a human strip.

When I first started dancing, I expected that the audience would be mostly other humans who’d scraped enough together for an evening without their owners. Maybe there’d be an old, weirdo alien here and there. But it wasn’t like that. Every night when I went out, the club was full of nearly every species except humans.

And they didn’t only come for the novelty of it, either. I had regular customers, people who watched me and only me. Even some who could afford to pay for a higher-class species.

I took a few swings on the pole and surveyed the audience. It was dark and a little bit smoky, but I made out a few regulars, as well as some new members. All of them seemed more transfixed than usual. I hadn’t even taken anything off yet, and it already seemed like everybody in the room held their breath.

It could be a good night for tips if this keeps up, I thought before working one of my stockings off.

So why did they watch me like that? I mean, sure, most of them had limbs and heads and basic equipment like humans did. Some of us could even spend a pleasurable night together without much creativity.

But I was a human at the end of the day, and they weren’t. That should have been a problem, but the way they watched me, I got the feeling they thought my being a human was a bonus.

Of course, some of them were just scumbags. They thought because the dancers at the Modzrabe were human, they could take liberties. What would a human do if a drunk Ewani said something creepy or touched us when they weren’t supposed to?

It was about that moment that one of the front-row customers reminded me what they could be like.

“Hey there, gorgeous,” a Maeux slurred.

His blue, scaly hand grabbed the other stocking, and the foot it was still on as I slipped my left one off. His grip totally threw off my balance right as I spun. The stocking slipped off, and I turned clumsily, barely keeping from falling flat on my face.

So much for good tips.

“Watch it, asshole!”

He grabbed me again, and I lost it, flying at him with the hardest slap I could muster.

He stumbled back into a group of Voleks who immediately took offence.

The music stopped as yells filled the club, and everyone leaped to their feet, running around and bumping into each other. I heard at least one glass shatter, and that was besides the three that were on top of the table the blue creep sat at.

My boss was going to kill me.

Better be sure it’s worth it, then, I thought, punching the closest part of the pervert’s body.

Suddenly, two strong arms gripped mine and pulled me back. It was security. I felt a little proud knowing that they protected him from me rather than me from him.

The Maeux stumbled to his feet and wiped his large, toothy mouth with a small hand. I noticed places where his skin turned a darker, bruised violet. I wondered what story he would come up with to explain where he got the marks whenever he got home.

“You… you animal!” he cried. “All I did was touch your stocking!”

My boss, the largest Nazok I’d ever seen, stepped in between the two of us. “I’m very sorry for your bad experience, sir,” Kogam almost purred. “If you’d like a complimentary drink on the house before you go–”

“A complimentary drink?” the man shrieked. “I want to see you punish that rabid creature you call a dancer!”

Kogam looked at me, and I could see he didn’t exactly disagree with the customer’s portrait of me. It wasn’t exactly the first time I’d gotten into trouble under his watch. To be fair, when I wasn’t assaulting customers, I also made him quite a bit of money.

“Don’t worry,” he said, turning back to the customer. “I’ll deal with her. But, sir, it is against the rules to grab the dancers while they’re on stage.”

“Against the rules?” the blue man spat back. “Did you see what she did to me? Why, if your bumbling security oafs hadn’t finally arrived when they did, she might have ripped me to shreds!”

Unfortunately, I didn’t think my nails were strong enough to really make that true. Also, Tilx and Novar, who worked security at the club, were both great. No one would get torn to shreds on their watch. Usually, I appreciated them, but at that moment, I wished whichever one of them was holding my left arm would stop twisting it so much.

“Like I said, we’ll deal with her,” Kogam said, obviously intending to worry me. It worked. “But we also are going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Well, see if you ever get my business again!” the customer said. He walked off, limping slightly from the fall. I don’t know why he did, but he continued speaking while exiting the club. “Imagine kicking someone out for getting attacked by one of your own dancers! It’s an outrage! Why, when others hear about this–”

He kept on going in more or less the same tone the whole way out the door.

That was when Kogam turned his attention to me. “My office. Now.”

Kogam stalked off, and Tilx and Novar finally let me go. I sighed and walked after Kogam, running over in my head everything awful that he might do or say. Meanwhile, the conductor started up a new song, and the next dancer poked her leg out onto the stage to dance for the remaining audience.

Kogam’s office was a small thing. It was located behind the stage, with most of the space taken up by some chairs, a desk, and a personal computer that had about every modification possible to ensure that no one who wasn’t Kogam would know what was inside it.

Kogam paced back and forth behind the desk. I sat down, feeling extremely nervous about the consequences I was about to face.

“Okay,” I said after a nearly ten-second silence. “I understand there might have been better ways to deal with that.”

“You assaulted a customer!” Kogam snapped. “Do you think that’s good for business? Come to Modzrabe! Get a wallop from a crazed human?”

“I’m sorry,” I said automatically, not making eye contact.

“Of course you’re sorry,” he said. “You’re always sorry every time you do something. But you keep doing things like that! Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Not good enough! I want an answer!”

But before he got one, the door crept open. It was Tilx.

“Hey, boss. Sophia’s in there with you, right?”

Kogam sighed. “What is it now?”

“Someone’s requested her for a private dance,” Tilx said nervously.

“Well, too bad,” said Kogam. “She’s in trouble.” He scoffed. “I don’t even know if she’s housebroken right now.”

“Uh, right.” Tilx cleared his throat. “Only, the floor manager said to mention to you that he’s one of them.” He leaned forward to whisper in Kogam’s ear, a single word I couldn’t hear.

Kogam’s whole face changed. He immediately became pale and twitchy. “Well, why didn’t you tell me that at the start? Sophia, let’s go. And whatever you do, absolutely, positively, do not blow this one for me.”

“Um, okay.” I stood up. “The private champagne room, right?”

“Obviously,” scoffed Kogam. “Where else would we put such a valued customer?” He leaned close and whispered into my ear. “Look, I don’t care what he says. I don’t care how he acts. Do whatever it takes to make this customer happy. If you do, everything’s forgiven, all right?”

“All right,” I answered, still unsure what was happening. I heard rumors that Kogam had some fingers in organized crime around the station, but I didn’t think it went that deep. What kind of person was I about to meet up with?

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” Kogam repeated, shooing me out the door. “We don’t want him waiting too long and starting off in a bad mood.”

That sounded like a warning for my safety as much as for the bar’s profit. Was I about to deal with some kind of murderous psycho who was just as likely to shoot a girl as he was to ask her for a lap dance?

I made my way quickly down the hall to the door of the champagne room. There, I paused to finger-comb my hair and straighten what little there was of my clothes. I was pissed I only had one stocking on.

Maybe the customer would think it was edgy. I hoped so. I took a deep breath and laid my hand on the door panel. I was as ready as I ever would be.

The door slid open, and I stepped inside, doing my best slow, sultry walk. Even if the being wasn’t some maniac, I decided I might as well pull out the stops. I didn’t feel bad about the blue alien, but anything would be worth it to get back in my boss’s good graces.

Well, hell.

One of them.

Tilx could have been a little clearer.

This wasn’t just any member of one of the criminal syndicates that ran Thodos III.

This was one of the Vinduthi.

Tall and broad, green marking lighting up the left side of his face and neck, almost shimmering against his dark gray skin.

His lips curled up into a seductive smile, and I couldn’t quite tell if the shiver running up my back was because I was terrified or aroused.

Or maybe it was both.

Makar

“Bring me that girl.”

Getting a girl hadn’t been part of the plan for that night. The moment I walked in and saw her, all my other plans took a backseat.

Or rather, they all rearranged to include her for a good hour or so.

A lot of people in my line of work hated surprises, but not me. Surprises kept me on my toes, both professionally and personally.

For me, the worst thing was being bored.

I liked things that messed up my little plans. I guess I could say that’s what my job was, even. Dealing with little surprises. Chatty exes, greedy employees, nosy officers of the law. Hyperspace hiccups, my boss liked to call them. When they threw him off route, he called me in to smooth things over.

For those who preferred the technical term, I was an assassin.

A good one, too, but I had to be. Bad assassins didn’t last very long.

I also made a pretty good Vinduthi folding cake, but I wasn’t in Modzrabe to bake sweet treats. At least, not that night.

I wasn’t there that night to kill anyone, either. Not unless I got lucky. There were rumors for the past few months about our ‘family’ having a spy for the Nazoks in it.

 At first, it was just little things. A few jobs we had planned that Conii and her boys got to first. Extra security getting posted at the last minute. But over time, it got worse. There had even been a raid on one of our stashes; one nobody should have known about.

So now, Alkard sent everyone he trusted out after any lead to try and figure out who the mole was. This club was rumored to have tight ties with Conii’s crowd, so it was worth watching.

I didn’t expect much, but I at least thought I’d get a nice drink out of the situation.

And then, one of the most beautiful women I ever saw jumped straight off the stage and into the face of a paying customer.

I’d already been watching her instead of the room. She was beautiful, but more than beautiful, she had a certain energy to her, one I couldn’t quite identify. Not until I saw her eyes right when she jumped off the stage.

It was ferocity that attracted me to her. The power of someone who knew just what they were worth and wouldn’t let another get away with treating them as anything less. She had the willingness to fight, even if it meant losing. Nothing attracted me more than that.

I saw a lot of beings die. Not all at my own hand. And I saw others take the grief in lots of ways. I saw strong men blubber and beg for their life. I saw cowards take death nobly with a few calm words. I saw a lot of people who just looked surprised like they never thought death was something that could happen to them.

Ferocity was my favorite quality. I respected those who died angry and fighting. It was the way I lived, and I hoped it would be the way I died.

Maybe I particularly respected it in a human. After all, how much easier was it for a Vinduthi like me to know what I was worth compared to some human who was bought by a seedy strip joint?

Of course, I told myself, it was still really part of the job. As soon as the two of us were in a room together, I’d pump her with questions about the mole and the Nazoks or whatever.

Actually, that was a clever way to do it since she might have shared information with me in private that she wouldn’t have in public.

The fact was that I really wanted to get up close with that girl, and I wasn’t above finding a reason to do it.

The whole thing only took a few words to set up once I scared one of the workers into fetching her. Even her name struck me: Sophia Delgado.

“Sophia Delgado,” I said, if for no other reason than to just feel the words fall off my tongue once I was alone in the champagne room.

It sounded strange, the way all human words do, but also nice in its own funny little way.

Sophia Delgado. Sophia Delgado.

I was still thinking of her name when the door opened, and there she stood. She was every bit as beautiful up close as she was on the stage. Long, black hair, sharp eyes, and a tall, graceful frame. She danced as she entered, and while I knew it was all an act to get me excited, the knowledge didn’t stop it from working.

As she got closer and closer, the mole I was searching for slipped further and further from my mind until she finally stood over me, and it disappeared entirely.

All that mattered then was her, and that moment.

I wasn’t even into human girls.

She turned around and brushed carelessly against my legs. No, not carelessly. That was a practiced gesture. The whole thing was perfectly practiced.

I wanted to talk to her, to say anything, but I was afraid I’d come off like a fool. Normally, I prided myself on being able to keep calm in any circumstances, but I felt everything but calm right then.

“Do you happen to know who I am?” I asked finally.

She turned around and laid her arm on my shoulder. Everything she did was intoxicating.

“Not really,” she said, without any attempt to fake interest. “I know my boss thinks you’re important.”

“That’s good,” I replied. “It’s fun when I don’t get to rely on reputation.”

She leaned over me, and I was close enough to smell her scent. I shouldn’t have let myself get distracted, especially on a job, but all I wanted was to give in to it.

“I like that,” she said. “I’ve found the more a man cares about his reputation, the less he deserves it.”

For a moment, between the way she said those words and the look on her face, I let myself imagine she was really interested in me. A silly fantasy and an embarrassing one. I had paid for her to act like she liked me.

She was just good at her job.

“Reputation’s a curse,” I said. “Once you have one, you have to keep it up all the time. Especially when you don’t want to.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered, leaning in close to my face. “You don’t have to keep up anything here.” Her hand trailed down my chest, down to my waist before lifting off again, light as down. “Well, anything you don’t want to keep up.”

“Really,” I purred, reaching forward, just enough to brush against her fall of hair. “But what if I want to know what you would like?”

Before she could answer, the door banged open, and four rough-looking Maeux walked in, their blue faces set, flat black eyes narrowed.

With her on my lap, they might have had a clear shot at me before I had time to reach for the knife at my belt.

Maybe.

But the universe had a way of teaching lessons sometimes.

“All right, I’ll bite,” I said, trying to recover as much dignity as I could in the situation. “What’s made life so painful for you that you’ve resorted to bursting in on me during a private moment?”

The tallest of the group stepped forward. “We’re not here for you. We’re here for the girl. She’s ours now.”

I looked up at Sophia. She was tense but remained still. I could see that fierceness bubbling just under her skin. She knew those beings were enemies, and she looked like she was still calculating how to deal with them.

She just became much, much more interesting.

“I booked her for an hour,” I said. “By my count, there’s still a good fifty minutes before she’s anyone else’s but mine.”

“Wrong!” the tallest one, I assumed the leader, snapped. “You did your booking with the club’s owner. But he just sold us her contract. That makes any agreement he made with you invalid.”

“You thought some human dancer could attack the Scion of our house without any consequences?” one of the others jeered. “Well, she’s ours now. And we’re giving her to him as a gift.” He turned to sneer at Sophia. “I bet he’ll have lots of fun making you regret your little outburst, human.”

Sophia’s eyes widened. She understood the situation now, and so did I.

Frankly, if the four punks had been smart enough to let me have my hour, I might not have cared.

If they’d been smart, I wouldn’t have even known about the problem.

Anyone who had followers calling him a scion had to be rich enough to leave alone and had probably gotten his fortune by unsavory methods.

Maybe a human who attacked a scion in a club where half the galaxy could watch wasn’t very smart. I gave them that, but I still couldn’t help liking her for it.

But those little jerks had let their petty squabble over some grabby leader get in the way of my evening.

It was too late, I was involved.

“Well, if it’s just a matter of money, that’s easy enough to deal with,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “I’ll pay you whatever you paid for her contract. No, you’ll want a profit. I’ll give you twice whatever you paid. You walk home with one hundred percent profit, and I keep the girl.”

She looked at me, startled. Clearly, she didn’t understand why I did that. If I was honest, I wasn’t totally sure, either.

“It’s not just money,” the group’s leader spat. “It’s a matter of honor!”

“I think twice her contract’s value is a pretty good price for honor,” I replied. “But fine, I’ll hear you out. How much money do you think your precious honor is worth?”

“She’s not for sale!” the leader hissed. “And that’s final!”

“Pity.”

I lifted Sophia up, then stood, setting her back down in the chair.

“Would you mind waiting a moment while I do some quick negotiating?”

She nodded, eyes wide, small white teeth gnawing at her lower lip.

“All right then,” I said to the four punks, who were still nervously sizing me up. “Let’s get this over with quickly, shall we?”

Mera

The longer I waited for him to wake up, the more scared I became that he might not. He lay there for days, not moving, barely breathing, the glow of his red sigils faint.

I drove myself crazy, wishing there was more I could do.

The Nazoks came by to sneer, and even the one who’d won the bet seemed disappointed that we were both alive.

We barely had enough water to wash his wounds.

I couldn’t tell how dehydrated he was because he had weird plates under his skin. I could barely dress his wounds because I had to shred my rags for bandages, and trying to keep those clean used more of our water.

On the third day, a sleazy Nazok showed up at the cell and sneered at my meager attempts. “What’s the point? You know one of you will die anyway. Shouldn’t you let it be him?”

Maybe that was true. Maybe the smarter thing would have been to let the wounded man just die the first night.

That way I’d be sure he wouldn’t attack me, wouldn’t drain my blood like all the rumors promised.

But I just couldn’t do it. He was here. He needed help.

And even if I regretted it later, I couldn’t turn away.

Maybe I was just stupid.

“Then why do you care?” I snapped.

Yup. Stupid.

The Nazok snorted then tossed a gossamer wad at me. As it floated to the ground, I thought for a moment about what wonderful bandages it would make. “Get dressed.”

I blinked, my brain having trouble catching up with the shift in conversation.

“What for?”

“Conii has summoned you to an evening with Garlku.”

Shit.

I’d lost track of time, so focused on the Vinduthi, I hadn’t thought about what the comparative restraint the guards had shown me for the last few days must mean.

Conii, the leader of the largest gang of Nazoks here on Thodos III, had been working to build an alliance with the Fanaith.

Not that I’d known about any of that before being dragged here.

But apparently their local chief had caught a glimpse of me back in the old auction house, and Conii had decided to make me the candy to sweeten the deal.

Thankfully Conii was smart enough to understand scarcity made the heart grow fonder… or something like that, and only occasionally let him see me.

There were two more things about his visits that made it almost bearable. The chance to learn a little more about the layout of this place, and a chance to clean up.

“I need a shower first,” I managed, clutching the dress to my chest, doing my best not to look at my roommate. What would happen to him while I was gone? Would the guards take the opportunity to undo all my hard work?

But it didn’t matter.

I couldn’t do anything about it anyway.

“Your race doesn’t always look like that?”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, good. It hasn’t met a human before.”

He slapped me across the cheek and my head jerked to the side, popping my neck. “I’ve met enough to know you’re taking quite the risk talking to me like that. Put on the dress, filth.”

“Garlku will not be pleased if I come to dinner smelling like an Ewani,” I said, holding my cheek.

He gritted his teeth against the flood of rage he had to restrain.

A slap was one thing, the kicking it looked like he wanted to give me would be something else.

Instead, he dragged me to the closest washroom.

“Ten minutes. Make them count.” Ten minutes wasn’t nearly enough to reverse the effects of the last few weeks since I’d last had a chance to really wash up. It was perhaps in my favor that most humans looked at least half-starved on Thodos III.

I spent most of my allotted time letting the water run over my hair and skin. I only got those opportunities when Garlku had an evening off, and I wanted to make the most of it.

I twisted my wet hair into a bun – no one would know the difference – jumped into the silver dress and ridiculous heels and swiped on some lip dye, pinching my cheeks to make them look a little less like death.

“Hurry up in there!” the Nazok growled, pounding on the wall of the washroom.

“I’m ready,” I snarled, oozing as much sarcasm as humanly possible. Some species didn’t understand the human predilection for sarcasm, but I didn’t think it was lost on this one.

He opened the door and grabbed my wrist, roughly pulling me out of the washroom and dragging me down the hall.

“You’re to be kind and courteous for the duration of Garlku’s interest in you. I don’t understand what he sees in something so repulsive, but you will not humiliate us by mocking him.”

“I know, I know, best behavior,” I said as I tried to stay on my feet.

We entered the dining room, and I immediately smelled the fishiness of Garlku’s body odor as he squished his way across the room to greet me. Fanaith were relatively humanoid, and I wasn’t sure all of them were as objectionable as their leader, but the ones I’d met were.

“My lady,” he said as he took my hand in his and inclined his smooth gray head, the dead eyes giving me chills.

Fanaith didn’t have fins, but with the cold sliminess of Garlku’s touch and the shape and color of his body, it was almost more unsettling that way.

“You’re looking lovely this evening, though I wish that dress were on the floor.”

Thank the Void for years working as a dancer. The species may change, but the lines never do.

He growled deep in his throat, a primal sort of groan that sent prickles across my scalp. “How I wish you weren’t human. Your sweet, pure scent tells me you would be a delicacy beyond all others.”

I tried not to signal my disgust. I needed to firmly remain within the good auspices of this monstrous thing if I were ever to leave this place. “My lord,” I acknowledged, curtseying deeply. “I often wish the same.”

Working for tips made lying to lecherous males of whatever species as natural as breathing.

I breathed a prayer of gratitude to whichever god might have been listening that Fanaith had a deep cultural disdain for interspecies sexual unions, especially those with slave races. He’d explained it once as being “incumbent upon his nobility to preserve the purity of his bloodline,” which somehow increased my revulsion even as it rescued me from any more serious advances.

Still, there were no guarantees that his “better judgment” would always keep him in control, so I tried to remain polite without endearing myself to him completely. It was a fine line to walk.

“Do sit down,” he insisted, directing me to one end of a mercifully long table laden with delicacies of his home planet. If the best part of our arrangement was the immunity from corporal punishment, the worst by far was the food.

Bloody tissue swam on platters, and raw tentacles sprouted from bowls. The drink a server poured for me smelled like briny muck, and whatever the thick slab on my plate was, it spurted when I tried to cut it with a fork and knife. I would have thrown up if I had had anything in my stomach, the knife skittering away across the plate.

Despite my hunger, there was just no way I could do it.

Except, a wonderful, terrible idea crossed my mind.

The next time I cut, I pushed the knife hard in my hand, bracing myself for the pain as its edge sliced through the meaty part at the side of my thumb.

“Ow!” I screamed as my blood gushed everywhere and I pressed my wounded hand to my chest.

Maybe this was a mistake. But maybe, maybe I’d be lucky for a change.

To my horror, Garlku’s nostrils flared, his pupils dilated, and I could have sworn I saw him salivating. He stood up, and for an awful moment, I thought he would spring across the table at me and tear at my flesh.

What else did I know about Fanaith?

Should I have realized from their meals that the sight of blood was an aphrodisiac?

Stupid, stupid Mera.

Instead, he took up a napkin and held it over his nose and mouth. “Get her out of here! And try to salvage the dress! I spent a fortune on that!”

It was nice to know Garlku’s feelings for me ran so shallowly.

I was quickly and firmly escorted from the room and down several passageways to the infirmary.

While the Nazoks had to follow Conii’s orders and keep Garlku happy to a point, they never obeyed him with total enthusiasm, especially where I was concerned. “Call us when the blood’s out,” one of them growled, and they were gone.

I knew they hadn’t gone far. There was no chance of escaping right now, but I could at least get something back to the suffering Vinduthi in my cell.

I’d been here before a few times, back in the beginning of my imprisonment here, when the guards hadn’t realized how fragile humans were.

Hopefully nothing had changed from my last visit. Holding my breath, I checked the cabinets, then I quickly gathered what I needed and tied it to my legs with bandages underneath the folds of the gown.

Next, I ran hot water in the sink and wet a cloth with it, smearing the blood deeper into the front of the dress while it was still on me. “Oh, no!” I exclaimed. Nothing happened.

“Dammit!” I shouted a little louder, and a Nazok came into the room.

“What kind of an idiot are you?” he snarled. “You don’t know how to get blood stains out of your own clothes?”

I bit my lip and tried to squeeze out a tear. You’d have thought panic would make it easier, but you’d be wrong.

“I’ve never had to get it out of anything this nice before! What should I do?”

“What do I care?” He chuckled to himself. “Garlku ain’t gonna be happy about this. We’ll see how long his affection lasts now. Maybe we can finally sell you off, recoup the investment after you’ve worked off your bill for a bit.”

I practically saw all the things he’d like to do to me cross his mind, but I couldn’t afford to worry about that just yet. Feeling like a drug smuggler, I just wanted to get back to my cell without them finding my stash.

Time for some more acting.

“No!” I raised my voice to a piercing cry. “Take it and have it laundered! Give me my old clothes back! Please!” I reached for the Nazok’s hand as if I would beg him.

He jerked his hand back and spat in my face. “You’ll sit in your mess and be happy about it, filth!” He pulled me in front of him and shoved me out the door so I tripped and fell. I rolled into a ball to keep my legs from splaying out and revealing everything.

The Nazok guard kicked me in my ribs. “Get up! I’m tired of dealing with you, you little slut! Get back to your cell!” I scrambled to my feet and limped toward my cell on a broken heel, exaggerating the limp so he wouldn’t kick me again.

Once in my cell, I whimpered for a while and gradually let my sobs taper off. Best to let them think they got to me.

After what I hoped was a reasonable amount of time, I carefully unwrapped the pilfered supplies from my legs. Then, trying not to make too much noise, I scooted over to the wounded Vinduthi.

It wasn’t much. Clean bandages and antiseptic. It was all I’d been able to find in the short amount of time I had.

But it was so much more than we’d had before.

Finally, I had done everything I could. Carefully, I ran my hand down the side of his chiseled cheek.

Maybe it was because of the medicine. Maybe it was just my own wishes.

But did he finally look better? Still injured past what I knew any human would be able to recover from, but the wounds seemed to be closing up, just a tiny bit.

Probably not. Just all in my head, another desperate wish that wouldn’t come true.

I curled up into a miserable ball and tried to go to sleep, trying to fill my mind with memories of my life before, every good thing that had ever happened to me, wrapping the past around me like a blanket.

Until a rustling sound cut through my dreams.

The Vinduthi was waking.

Mera

“You’ll be okay,” I said to myself, grimacing at the razor-like welts carved into my flesh. 

Every drop of water had to be rationed, so dirt accumulated, coating me in inky blotches.

“I hope.”

I liked to think I was tough. A survivor.

Someone who was going to do good, make a difference, right the wrongs of this messed up universe.

But apparently all it took to crack me was to keep me away from people, make me powerless.

“Something will happen,” I whispered. “I’ll find a way out. Everything will be alright.”

But the longer I stared at my bleak cell and enveloping darkness, the more disillusioned I became.

Bruises caked my skin from my most recent escape attempt. Not the first time I’d pushed their limits. The Nazoks had responded with strikes and insults, dragging me back by my hair, tearing out patches of my blonde hair.

It was hard to make a plan when I’d been unconscious when brought here, so the only way I had to get information was to keep sneaking out, trying to build a mental map of this place.

After my failed escape with Amy, I’d almost given up, guilt and worry crashing in on me, crushing my chest until it was hard to breath.

What had happened to my friend?

Where had they taken her?

It had been my fault that she was captured in the first place, all those months ago.

I’d been so focused on following the rumors of a slaving ring that I’d let my guard down, getting captured myself.

And unforgivably, my friend had been taken as well.

I thought we’d had a good plan. Sneak to the lab, send a message to my best friend Tessi, tell her where we were being kept.

I knew Tessi inside and out. She might be just another human stuck here on Thodos III, but once she made up her mind, she would stop at nothing to reach her goal.

That dogged determination had gotten her in trouble more than once, but right now I was counting on it. If she needed them, she’d force the Uune themselves to get involved.

But we’d been caught before I could get a message out.

And then Amy and I had been separated, and I’d been moved to a different facility, and kept in this windowless cage.

The guards only came by to deliver tasteless protein bars and bottles of tepid water. With no light, no sounds, no pattern to mark my days, I could only guess at the times between their visits by the gnawing hunger in my belly.

I gently tapped my head against the wall, ignoring the scratching. My arms ached from bruises and cuts.

The only time I was let out of the cell was for his visits.

I shuddered, shoving the memory of clammy hands on my arms away.

Right here, right now. 

There was enough to worry about without living through that in my mind.

There were four options left.

The guards would finally beat me to death.
They’d send me out on the next shipment of females.
They’d finally give me to him to keep.

Or somehow I’d find a way out of this hell.

That slim hope was the only thing that kept me from trying to end this myself.

One more week.

I’d give myself one more week, and then… maybe it was time to give up.

Suddenly, harsh shouts and the sound of shackles interrupted the downward spiral of my thoughts and I pressed myself into the wall, hoping that it made me smaller and less visible. 

But the screams got louder.

It didn’t have anything to do with me.

Couldn’t.

Yet, footsteps approached my cell, and their voices got louder with each passing second.

I swallowed hard, completely unprepared for what was going to happen if they opened my cell. Were they going to drag me out and throw someone else in? Had the time come to meet my end?

Instinctively, my stomach clenched as the cell door opened with a clamor. The Nazoks wasted no time in dragging their victim into the cell, tossing him inside with a force that made me flinch, his horns crashing to the ground.

A Vinduthi. Huge, but badly wounded. There was a cut that sliced down the side of his face, oozing blood onto the floor. Smaller cuts and bruises littered his body. Every part of him, from what I saw, had some sort of injury.

“Ever hear the talk about these assholes?”

The second one laughed, its black eyes narrowed. “Too many of them. But hit them with enough firepower, and they break, just like anyone else.”

He kicked my new roommate. “Think it’s true? That they need fresh blood to survive?”

My stomach clenched. The Vinduthi were the center of a swirl of dark rumors. Strong and fast. Heartless.

Blood drinkers.

Vampires.

“I’ll bet you twenty credits he dies before he can drain her.” 

Nearly deafened by my heartbeat I forced myself not to react.

“No way. He’ll smell her, eat her all up before he can stop himself,” the first one sneered. “You’re on. Twenty credits she’ll be nothing but his dinner.”

A malicious glint reflected off his eyes. I averted my gaze, hoping that they would just go away and leave me alone.

Well, I wasn’t able to say that I was alone anymore. Not with the Vinduthi they plopped into my cell like a sack of flesh that didn’t matter.

“Come on,” one of them said. I didn’t catch which one. “I’m ready for my own meal. We’ll see tomorrow who’s buying the drinks. A pity the boss wants to keep him around for leverage. Would have been easier to just finish him off now.”

They slammed the cell door as loudly as they opened it, arguing about how they would run the world if they were in charge.

I stared at my new cellmate, who groaned softly and moved his head slightly. Those were signs of life, at least. 

They weren’t too promising, but they were something.

Gradually, I crawled my way over to his body to get a better look at his injuries. I hissed in a breath, horrified by what I was seeing the longer I focused.

“I’m not sure if you could make it, even with my blood,” I whispered. My eyes filled with indignant tears. “But let’s see if we can avoid that.”

A deep cut across his temple worried me the most, the blood almost obscuring the red sigils that traced down the side of his cheek and neck. Heart sinking, I tore a strip of fabric from my skirt. It was dirty, but it would stop the bleeding.

As I worked on getting the fabric over his cut, I saw his chest rise and fall in shallow intervals. 

“He’s not going to die. I won’t let him,” I reassured myself quietly, working diligently to make sure the fabric was tight around his head, trying to avoid the base of his horns.

With a small bit of hope, I decided to try speaking with him. If we were friends, if he knew I was trying to help him, he wouldn’t take my blood, right?

“Do you have a name?”

No response. 

Every so often, he made a small noise that confirmed that he was still alive, albeit barely. That made me feel a little better but also intensified my sympathy for the Vinduthi. 

They’d always strutted down the middle of the station, aloof and remote, not a bad match for the elegant vampires of Terran legend.

I’d never imagined one could be so injured. What had it taken to do this?

“Well, I hope you don’t die,” I said, reaching towards the water ration that I’d been saving, tucked away in the corner of the cell. I unscrewed the cap. “Because I’m using up some of my resources on you. So I’d appreciate it if you pulled through without deciding to drink my blood.”

No response, but it felt nice to be talking to someone, instead of just myself. Resting his head on my lap, I guided the water to his lips and eased it into his slightly open mouth. Then, I massaged his throat to help it go down. As I watched the skin of his neck bob, I smiled slightly.

“It’s going to be interesting when you wake up and start telling me your story. I can already tell,” I remarked, gently lowering his head down to the ground and leaving him be.

My eyes scanned his body, searching for any more glaring wounds that needed quick tending. A few small bleeding cuts near his feet caught my attention, so I did the same thing as before.

After I was done helping him to the best of my abilities, I slid my back down the wall and returned to the spot where I sat before he was dropped into the cell. Reaching for my water, I sipped a few droplets and relished in the cool liquid coursing down my throat.

It was difficult not to pay attention to the newcomer, despite my attempts to keep to myself. I couldn’t help it. Something about the Vinduthi was captivating.

“I’m going to get us out of here,” I whispered, bringing my face closer to his to make sure no one overheard. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it just yet. I’m still working out the details, but when I do, I’m taking you with me.”

For some reason, my hand trembled as I raised it to touch his face.

“I’m getting the both of us out of here alive.” I nodded firmly, not caring that he wasn’t able to see me. “Trust me.”

Amy

“We have to try and go tonight,” I said, keeping an eye out for any Ewani guards who might happen by. The metal bars forming our cage allowed us to see out into the corridor, and the set of sturdy double doors were now tightly sealed shut.

Just talking about escape could earn you a thrashing from the guards.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason you’d get selected for special attention. Many of the women in the cages around us had half-healed lash marks on their backs, myself included.

I hadn’t been able to figure much out about our captors, other than the fact that they were brutal and likely to kill us before we even made it to the stage where we would be sold.

Slavery was technically illegal on Thodos Station.

Indenture may have represented a virtual slavery, but there was an eventual way out, and methods to pay off your indenture. Straight up slavery was generally frowned upon, at least in public.

But from the number of captives here, there was a thriving market for it.

“What’s up?” Mera’s green eyes flashed over to the door. We could have asked one of the other prisoners in one of the other cells to watch the door for us, but that would have required spreading the word about our escape plan.

The less people who knew what we intended, the better.

It wrung out my heart, but there wasn’t any way to take the others with us. If we could escape, we could let someone know what was going on, and send help.

At least, that’s what I told myself so I could sleep at night.

At the Pulsar, I’d tried my best to look out for my friend, Mera. She seemed way too sweet, way too innocent to work at a skin joint.

Only, it turned out, Mera wasn’t as innocent as she seemed. She’d been on the trail of a ring of human traffickers.

Mera got on the shit list of the traffickers, and when they came for her after we got off our shift one night, I had the bad fortune to be there, too.

Both of us had woken up somewhere deep, deep in the Under. Deeper than either of us had ever been before, at the mercy of rat-like Ewani slavers.

That had been months ago. We wouldn’t last much longer.

“It’s necessary,” I replied. “For one thing, I haven’t had a decent meal in so long that I’m getting weak. You are, too. We need to do this while we are still physically able to pull it off.”

Mera looked like she wanted to argue, but thought better of it. She sighed and then arched her brows.

“Wait, you said for one thing. Is there another reason we should do this tonight?”

“Yeah. I have a feeling they’re going to move us soon.”

“What makes you say that?”

I glanced over at the door. So far, so good. It still remained closed.

“They’ve been doing head counts twice a day now, and it’s not because they’re worried some of us have escaped. And if you’ve noticed, our rations have been dwindling. They either think we’re still fat or they’re trying to weaken us further for transport.”

“You’re smart, Amy, to see all of these patterns.”

“If I was really smart, would I be in a cage right now?”

The lights dimmed out to blackness, and a loud, grating voice echoed through the speaker on the wall.

“Lights out! Sleep! No talk!”

Most of the women settled into whatever meager comfort they could find for themselves. Not us, though. We scooted over to the corner of the cell, where we’d been hard at work.

It was Mera who first noticed that the cell wasn’t really a cell. It was just an empty space the Uune had left when building the station, which seemed to serve no purpose. The Ewani had simply erected the bars of the cage around the shape of the room.

But the room did have a purpose. Its shape was due to the air ventilation cyclers running underneath it. With a ton of effort and a thin scrap of metal we’d found, we’d managed to pry a section of the floor paneling loose.

We’d taken turns exploring the ventilation shaft below. It ran about thirty feet in either direction. Unfortunately, it did not lead to freedom.

But it did lead to a laboratory. A laboratory with a computer networked into the station’s comm systems. If we could reach that computer terminal, we might be able to call for help.

And if we were very, very lucky, we might be able to escape through the lab and find a way back to the upper decks.

Working carefully, I lifted the panel out of the way. I dipped my legs into the duct first, moving slowly so I wouldn’t make any loud banging noises.

Mera came next, slipping into the duct beside me. The cramped duct did not give enough room for us to walk or even to rise into a comfortable sitting position. Even crawling proved difficult, but we had planned for this, too, wrapping our hands in strips of fabric we’d torn from our clothing and then just sliding along.

“Did I ever tell you I’m claustrophobic?” I whispered.

“Only every time we come in here.”

“Well, this will be the last time. Tell me it’s going to be the last time, Mera.”

“It’s going to be the last time.”

We grew silent as we spotted a yellow rectangle of illumination coming in through the ceiling of the ventilation shaft. That was the grate that opened up into the laboratory.

When we scooted up underneath the grate, I felt my heart sink. There was someone working late up there, one of the rat-like Ewani in a tattered lab coat, muttering to himself and messing with something on the table I could not see.

Dammit. I had hoped it would be empty. All the other times we had come by the lab, it had been deserted. I exchanged glances with Mera. She met my hard gaze and nodded firmly.

There was no going back.

We would make our play now, do or die.

Carefully, I pushed up on the grate. Since we had removed all the screws the night before—an arduous process which had taken most of the evening—the grate came up easily.

I went up first, then gave Mera a hand. The Ewani sat in front of a glass case holding what looked like a fat, furry pink and orange Terran caterpillar with a lot of extra mouthparts.

I couldn’t tell what the hell the technician’s purpose was. I swear, he inflicted misery on the damn thing because it got him off.

His lips peeled back into a gleeful grin as he pushed a button on the case, and a jolt of electricity surged through the box, causing the caterpillar thing to jump with agony.

It looked more like torture than science.

And yet, the Ewani took a moment to record his apparent findings. I wondered what to do about the Ewani—

Then Mera walked up behind him with a chair and bashed him over the head. The Ewani fell to the floor, twitching with blood pooling from his skull.

“Mera, what are you doing? You just killed him, I think.”

“I was only trying to knock him out.”

“With a forty-pound metal chair?”

I got a hold of myself and grimaced. Pity for our captors wasn’t really on my list of things to worry about today. “We need to get a message out, quick.”

“That computer terminal looks a lot like the one I used at the Pulsar Club. Let me take a crack at it.”

“Knock yourself out,” I said. “I’ll keep watch.”

Only, my gaze was drawn inexorably toward the creature in the glass cage. It wriggled its little body and came up to the glass, then put a pair of ball tipped antennae against the case and tapped them in what seemed like a deliberate pattern. Two taps, one short tap.

“I think this thing is trying to talk to me,” I said.

“Hush, I’m trying to concentrate,” Mera replied, changing the settings on the lab computer. “This thing is set to internal operations mode for some reason, I’m trying to get it to where I can make a call.”

“Hurry up.”

“I’m sorry, I’m trying my best.”

I sighed. Of course, she was trying her best, she was an angel. I stared down at the glass case and felt my resolve crumbling.

“Oh, fuck it,” I said, looking for a way to open the glass case. I pushed buttons, carefully avoiding the one that had sent the jolt through the critter, until one finally clicked, unfolding the sides of the case like crystal Origami.

“There, you’re free,” I said. “Hopefully we will be, too.”

“Amy,” Mera said with excitement. “I’ve got a signal, but this terminal is set to only send messages, not receive them.”

“Then dial your friend, Tessi, quickly,” I said, coming over. “We probably don’t have much time.”

“She’s not picking up.”

“Then leave a message. She’ll get it eventually.”

“Right.” Mera cleared her throat and leaned in over the microphone. “Tessi, it’s Mera. I’ve been held captive for what seems like a long time way deep down in the Under. I think they’re going to sell us soon. Our captors are Ewani, and there seems to be some kind of laboratory here, too. I wish I could tell you something else, but they never let us out—”

The terminal suddenly went dark.

“What happened?” I asked, my belly tight with fear. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything. This computer is enslaved to the master system. Someone used the network to turn it off.”

“I hope it got through. We’d better try and get out of here.”

Mera shrieked, and jumped back.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Look at your shoulder,” Mera said with a trembling voice. “Look!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” I said. I looked over and saw the brightly hued caterpillar was now on my shoulder. “How in the heck did you get up there?” I shrugged. “I guess it crawled on me when I opened the case.”

“Get rid of it.” She shuddered. “It might be poisonous, or give you cancer or something.”

“Really?” I blinked. This girl had taken on a slaver ring, had just clocked a guy with a chair, and a tiny caterpillar threw her off? “I don’t think it’s harmful, Mera. Don’t you think it’s kind of cute?”

“No, I can handle just about anything else this universe throws at me, but bugs gross me out—”

The door to the lab burst open and an Ewani guard stared at us. He pointed a stun gun at Mera and fired.

I dove for cover behind the lab table, cupping my hand over the caterpillar to protect it. But when I landed on the floor and checked my hands, the caterpillar was gone.

“I hope I didn’t squish him,” I muttered to myself, but there was no more time to worry about it.

Mera cried out and toppled over, unseen.

“Fuck!”

There was nothing I could do but sit there as the Ewani came around the table and stunned me as well.

Tessi

A towering wall of flesh reared up in front of me as I dodged through the crowded station promenade, his vaguely insectoid body supporting itself on four legs, two manipulative limbs thrusting out from his chest.

Multifaceted eyes stared down at me like ice cold jewels as it clacked its mandibles together in irritation.

“Excuse me,” I said, moving around him and pulling my poncho a bit tighter over my shoulders.

The alien didn’t attempt to stop me.

After all, I was just another human woman on the massively sprawling Thodos III deep space station. Nothing special.

That’s always how I tried to present myself as I made my way through the crowd. The nail that stuck out, got hit.

Every human here knew that.

Sometimes you didn’t even need to stick out.

The glitzy shopping sector had everything one might want, from restaurants to clothiers to computer hardware shops. I checked the station chronometer, a holographic display hovering high above the promenade and its three levels.

“Shit,” I hissed through clenched teeth. I was running late.

Again.

If I didn’t get there in time, the Mondian who owned my contract would be furious. While he probably wouldn’t kill me or harm me for that matter—it would be a waste of his money to do so—I would find myself doing shit jobs when I wasn’t on stage.

Since I had no intention of cleaning the lavatories with a brush held in my mouth again, I tried moving faster, but it was hopeless. A teeming mass of sentient beings blocked the lanes, both human and alien forms in the mix.

I would never make it to the club on time, not with this milling throng of people in the way. A darkened alleyway drew my eyes, really just a space between two shops that allowed for a coolant pipe to run along. But here on Thodos, every space was used.

If I stayed on the main thoroughfare, I would arrive safely, but late. If, on the other hand, I took the back alleys of the space station, I would make it on time…assuming of course, I made it at all.

Fuck it.

I stepped into the alleyway, only going a few feet when the lights of the promenade faded behind me. Someone up ahead in the alleyway coughed wetly, probably a deathstick addict. I pulled my poncho a bit tighter and tried to keep as much to the side of the alley as possible.

I passed by a trash incinerator unit, multiple pairs of red eyes peering out from under the rectangular box-like device. Moknars, scavengers rodents with a propensity for attacking things much larger than a human when disturbed, looking for scraps of food spilled and dropped by careless users of the incinerator.

Thankfully, they left me alone.

I made it through the alley and found myself in a low-ceilinged, dark passage. Sinister gazes passed over me as I traveled through. A human-sized shape stirred in the darkness. A furry face with a long snout and beady black eyes peered intently at me from the shadows.

My belly tightened up in knots as I heard the creature fall in behind me. It was an Ewani, a rat-like humanoid alien who never met a race they didn’t want to exploit. Slavers, thieves, and charlatans; they were among the least politically powerful groups on the station, and yet they seemed ubiquitous if you went even a little off the main path.

This one likely didn’t have good intentions for me.

I rounded a corner and saw the last passage I had to walk before making it to Club Pulsar. I sped up to a half run, and the footsteps behind me sped up, too.

A new shape broke apart from the deeper shadows ahead and blocked my passage. Another Ewani, half its face melted and hairless from some kind of injury, hissed at me.

“That’s far enough, preciousss,” he said, buck teeth protruding almost comically from his ruined face. “You have to pay the toll if you wantssss to passs through.”

“I don’t have any money,” I said, trying to move aside. The Ewani moved to block my path. I took a step back and turned around, only to find the original rat man standing behind me.

“We don’t wantsss your moneys…” the rat hissed. His hand darted out and grabbed the fold of my poncho, lifting it away. I yelped, pulling away from him as my miniscule club clothing was revealed by his rude gesture.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” I said, reaching behind me and gripping the handle of the knife strapped to the small of my back. I whipped it out of its sheath and waved it menacingly in front of me. “I’ll cut your whiskers off.”

The Ewani’s eyes narrowed, and they approached me far more craftily than they had before. I cursed silently. Why couldn’t they be overconfident and just walk into my knife like they did on the triVid?

One of them spun in a tight circle, his tail lashing out with a whip crack. I screamed as a blazing pain tore across the back of my hand. The knife pinged down the metal deck plating and I decided to yield to the better part of valor and make a run for it.

No such luck.

A furry hand closed on my wrist. I lashed out with my free hand, my feet, my knees, clubbing the Ewani with vehemence, but it didn’t do a thing to free my wrist.

The other Ewani came from behind, its furry arm snaking around my throat and pulling tight. The choke hold squeezed off the flow of blood to my brain, making my vision dim at the edges.

Nightmarish despair rolled through me in a wave. I was going down, and most likely, I would never get up again. After the Ewani had their ‘fun,’ there probably wouldn’t be enough of me left to bury.

“Disgusting.”

A voice cut through the din. Deep and cold as outer space, and filled to the brim with revulsion. The arm around my throat loosened slightly, enough that I reclaimed my fading consciousness.

I looked toward the voice, and found a tall silhouette with glowing red eyes standing there. From the pointed ears and the eyes, I knew what it was.

Vinduthi.

If you’d grown up watching old vids from Earth, you might be tempted to think of a vampire.

That would be a mistake.

The Vinduthi were very real.

They were very much alive.

And very, very much feared.

It wasn’t just for their considerable physical prowess, either.

They were known to control at least a third of the organized crime on Thodos III. People who crossed them tended not to live very long.

The Ewani were either too worked up, or too stupid to realize the danger they were in.

“You go away, sssscum,” hissed the Ewani in front of me, his fingers holding the drawstring on my halter top. “Or waitssss your turnsss.”

The Ewani yanked the cord and my breasts came bursting out of my top. I renewed my struggles, digging the point of my elbow into the ribs of the Ewani holding me. A wet, crackling sound ripped through the air and the first Ewani screamed.

“Your filthy hands do not deserve to touch such perfection.”

I looked up from my struggles to find the Ewani staring at the bloody stump of its wrist. The silhouetted Vinduthi casually tossed the severed appendage to the side, where it jumped and spasmed of its own accord as if it had not gotten the message it was no longer attached.

The Ewani grappling with me threw me to the ground, pulling an energy pistol from its dirty waistband.

“Now yous diesss,” it hissed, pointing the gun at the Vinduthi.

The silhouette disappeared. I blinked, not even having seen my rescuer move. A second later, I heard a choking sound, and looked up to see him holding the rat man by its throat. The Ewani’s legs kicked in the air as its eyes bulged out.

“As if I would allow myself to be done in by the likes of you,” the Vinduthi hissed.

Now that he stood in a pool of radiance cast by an overhead lighting panel, I got my first good look at him.

My heart caught in my throat. I’d never seen one this close before, and I found him darkly beautiful.

The strong muscles around his jaws and his prominently pointed canines did nothing to detract from his handsomeness. In fact, they even enhanced it a little, giving him an almost bestial quality belied by his fine silken vest and pants.

A row of small horns ran back from each temple, drawing my eye to the marks on his cheek.

One bare arm glowed with the same purple designs, much like terran tattoos, but were not. They were natural markings, highlighting the play of muscles in his arm as he squeezed tighter. The rat man struggled frantically for a few more seconds, and then hung limply, its tongue thrust out to the side of its fanged mouth.

The Vinduthi tossed the Ewani’s body aside like it was some filth he had accidentally touched. Then his terrible, compelling eyes fell on little old me.

“Are you all right?” he asked and incredibly, offered his hand.

I almost took it, but then I remembered two things.

One, my status on the station was so low, the Vinduthi could kill me just as easily as the Ewani.

Two, I was running later than ever and my boss would be furious.

“Thank you,” I stammered, scrambling backwards and to my feet. The Vinduthi gave me a puzzled frown as I turned to flee.

I had never run so hard in my entire life. I didn’t stop running until I was back under the bright lights of the station’s ‘safe’ zones.

And even then, when I thought of those purple markings and the flashing, hungry eyes, I shivered.

Tessi

My boss, Banek Mari, glared at me as I entered the club.

“You’re late.”

“I was attacked.”

Whatever retort he had prepared was cut off by my shakiness and terrified expression.

That was all it took to convince him it was no bluff. He came over to me immediately, taking my chin in his hands and turning my face this way and that.

I was perfectly aware Banek had not one whit of sympathy within his scaled, crimson body. He only cared if his merchandise had been damaged.

“No obvious marks,” he mused to himself, and then he noticed the reddening mark on my wrist from the Ewani’s hand. “Except for this. Cover it with a bracelet, and get on stage three.”

I kept my scowl hidden from him as I moved off. That was it. No kind words, no request for an explanation of what happened. Just a cold dismissal.

Worse, he’d told me to dance on stage three…where the patrons were close enough to touch me if they wanted. The bouncers were decidedly lazy at Pulsar, and unless one of the patrons looked as if they were going to cause legit harm to the ‘merchandise,’ they would be left alone.

It was what it was.

I could do this. I’d already promised myself I could put up with almost anything to find Mera.

Until then…I had no choice but to do as I was told.

I headed through the smoke-filled, darkened club. Another dancer swirled about on the stage, a Nazok with six exposed breasts.

The patrons cat called, and offered ‘favors.’ Favor chips weren’t as good as credits, but could be used to purchase privileges from Banek.

I’d used my latest accumulation to purchase three days off in a row to look for Mera, all to no avail.

I pushed through the beaded curtain into the dancer’s dressing room. Another dancer, a strawberry blonde named Amy, smiled as I entered.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” I said. “I got jumped by a couple of Ewani, but I’m fine.”

She frowned, looking worried. “Did they hurt you?”

I snorted in reply.

“No, someone intervened.”

“Who? Station security?”

“No.” I remembered my darkly handsome rescuer and shuddered. “One of the Vinduthi stepped in and saved me…and before you ask, I have no idea why.”

“What color were his tattoos?” Amy asked without skipping a beat.

For a moment, I froze, thinking about him more clearly. His face, those eyes. The way he’d reached for me…

“Um, purple.” Her eyes went wide.

“Only one Vinduthi on the station has purple markings—the leader of the Fangs, Alkard. Did he say anything to you?”

The low growl of his voice still echoed in my ears.

I swallowed hard.

“He asked me if I was all right. I thanked him and then ran like hell before I wound up next on his menu.”

Amy snorted.

“Like running away would have saved you if he wanted you.”

That wasn’t encouraging.

But thinking about it anymore didn’t do me any good. Shoving the whole incident to the back of my mind, I removed the poncho and halter top, checking my reflection in the mirror. Now I wore only a leather harness on my torso, a sparkly bra and panty set, and high heeled, knee high boots.

A vulgar outfit, but I had no choice in the matter.

Dressing comfortably didn’t get me favors.

I put on leather cuffs, covering the bruise on my right wrist, and spruced up my cosmetics before rushing toward the curtained door.

I stepped up on stage just as the emcee did my intro, wearing a smile I didn’t feel, sauntering toward the pole in the center of the long, narrow stage. In this moment, I knew that I wielded a kind of power. Too bad I could not reap the benefits of it myself.

A slimy tentacle ran up my thigh. I laughed and playfully smacked it away, even though it disgusted me to be pawed like a piece of meat at the market.

I’ll do this, I thought. I’ll do this to find Mera.

In my mind, I tried picturing the handsome Vinduthi staring at me instead of the scumbag patrons.

The frightening, cold eyes, the purple tracery visible on his left arm and the side of his neck, the tight black clothing revealing his fantastically chiseled physique…

As if my thoughts had summoned them, four Vinduthi walked in through the entrance.

Leading them was Alkard, the one who had saved me. The other three walked carefully behind him, though they looked quite fearsome in their own right. Fangs.

I tensed up a bit. The Mondians and the Vinduthi were technically on good terms, but they also tended to stay out of each other’s territories. What were they doing here?

I was so distracted, I nearly stumbled off the edge of the stage.

One of the other dancers caught me with a hand on my hip.

“Thanks, Lola.”

“Quit fucking up, you’re going to get us all in trouble,” Lola snapped.

I tried my best to perform, pulling off my harness, playing with the straps, but my gaze kept gravitating to Alkard and his bunch of its own accord.

The music ended, and I bent over to pick up my discarded clothing while swiveling my hips to the side to avoid another tentacle caress. Once off stage, I redressed to take a shift on the tables when Banek loomed over me.

“No,” he said. “Don’t get dressed. Get in the booth.”

My heart skipped a beat, my breath catching in my throat. This was bad.

So far, I’d avoided the booth.

My best friend worked at this club when she disappeared. That made it a natural place to look.

We’d grown up together in the Under, watched each other’s backs our whole lives.

When she’d signed the contract to work at the Pulsar, she’d been excited. Not for the work, but for the eventual payout. Enough to get an apartment, nothing big, just something we could call our own.

I’d worried, but she laughed and hugged me.

And then she went missing.

People went missing all the time of Thodos III. Swallowed up by the station, by the gangs or smugglers.

But I couldn’t forget about her, couldn’t let it go. Even if I had to put up with being leered and pawed at, if I could just get a clue to what had happened to her, it would be worth it.

But if Banek put me in the booth, it meant that I’d performed a little too well. One of the patrons had inquired about purchasing my contract.

I steeled myself, setting my jaw hard. Life on Thodos III was rough, but I hadn’t broken yet, and I wouldn’t break now. Head held high, I went to the booth, trying for a defiant stride rather than a meek, hunched simpering walk.

The booth rose up from the floor, one of the clear paneled walls opening for my ingress. I stepped inside, hanging my clothing on the safety rail.

The booth closed me inside, and a gaggle of patrons of all different species gathered around. Most of them likely couldn’t afford my contract, but they were still going to gawk.

“Don’t just stand there, Tessi,” Banek growled. “Entice them or something.”

“She can entice me with those big tits,” said a squid faced alien, and the others laughed.

“No way am I going home with a walking plate of calamari,” I said. The squid grew angry, but the other patrons laughed.

“She’s got spunk,” said another alien. “I like her. Too bad there’s no way I can afford her contract.”

Yeah, it wasn’t really bravery. Just terror making my mouth run faster than my brain.

More and more of the aliens crowded around, interested in the ‘new meat’ for sale. With every moment, my heartbeat sounded louder in my ears, my breaths becoming shallower until I was almost dizzy.

“Who wants a lowly human, anyway?” sneered another patron. “I hear they’re hard to train properly, and aren’t very smart.”

“Smart enough not to wear two clashing patterns,” I snapped, eying his hideous garment with disdain.

Shut up! I chided myself. Shut up, shut up!

The other patrons enjoyed my antics. Banek did not. He crossed his arms over his chest and stood staring with a glare on his draconic face.

I wondered where the Vinduthi had gone. I could not see much of the club with all of the leering aliens gathered around my booth. Thank goodness they couldn’t touch me through it.

The booth featured a credit chip slot affixed to the side, where my purchase price could be inserted. Then the booth would open and I would belong to the person who bought my contract.

I had stopped paying attention to it. There was nothing I could do, other than be trapped here, and spit out my fury to the crowd around me.

The feistier I acted, the more the patrons seemed to think I was just hamming it up and teasing them.

Banek wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity. He got on the house mic and worked his salesman’s magic.

“Just look at this tigress,” he said. “Only a real man can hope to tame her. Looking around here, I’m not sure if any of you have the guts to try.”

“I have the guts,” said the squid. “Just not the credits.”

“Words cannot express my disappointment,” I said icily.

The sound of metal clinking into the slot caught my attention, and the world stopped around me.

Someone had put their money in the booth.

Oh shit.

I’d just been sold.

Mia

Bright flashes of light sped by me too fast to comprehend. The hair on my forearm curled from the proximity to one such energy blast. Better to lose my hair than my skin. The Vune who fired at me weren’t making the most accurate shots in the world. What they lacked in marksmanship, however, they made up for in enthusiasm and volume.

A stray blast struck a branch ahead. It flash-burned right through, searing the heavy limb as neatly as a scalpel. The branch fell into my path. I veered to the side, knowing that if one of those deadly beams touched me, I would be dead—or I would wish I were.

I’d seen a few plasma burns in my lifetime. Terror of experiencing them myself propelled me more than anything else.

I felt like such a coward. Charlie sacrificed herself to give Harper and I a fighting chance. Then Harper sacrificed herself to push me to safety right before she fell into the Deathwater river.

Instead of diving in after Harper, I just watched while she disappeared out of sight. Okay, that’s not exactly true. I tried to follow her for a time.

That’s when I ran into the Vune patrol. I only knew the name of their gamma male, Chutt, the butt of all their jokes.

Their commander was not someone I’d want to meet in a dark shadow—or ever again, for that matter. His casual cruelty was more frightening than all the bluster in the world would have been.

The energy blasts died off as I passed down a steep incline. My legs barely moved fast enough to keep me from stumbling. I just kept thinking that if I fell, I was dead.

When I first fell, my communicator broke. I scooped up the pieces, and if I got out of this, I’d try to piece it back together.

I ran deeper into the jungle, my skin whipped and cut by leaves and brambles. I ran without much thought as to the direction I was going. I only had one thought—get as far away from the Vune as I could.

I did not want to be there when they figured a way across the river. Could they jump across? Doubtful, or they would have.

Sooner or later, it will dawn on them that they can use one of their ships to fly over the river. I knew that I had to get deeper into the forest to avoid being picked up by ships passing overhead.

I also knew that the Vastgreen was incredibly dangerous. Not only was it teeming with predators that ranged from humongous and scary to clever and scarier, but many of the native plants were deadly.

There is a species of vine that has a life phase like a cross between an ant lion from Earth and a Venus flytrap. I hoped I didn’t run into one of them. I knew their territory usually didn’t range that close to the river, though.

Eventually, I had to slow down. My side ached terribly, as if I had been punched. Every breath I managed to suck in proved to be an agonizing labor. I stopped for a moment, leaning heavily against the purple and green bark of one of the native trees.

It was an evergreen but not like the ones on Earth. This one had leaves that curled into little cones during the rain, to absorb water more directly than with their roots. When the sun came out, the same leaves unfurled and engaged in a process similar to photosynthesis in Earth plants.

I knew a lot about it and yet, so little. For example, all of my research didn’t tell me that the tree would smell like pink bubble gum, but it did. I also noticed a tiny line of small ant-like arthropods traveling in the grooves of the rough bark.

Perhaps the two species lived symbiotically. Or maybe the alien ants were a parasite. Damn it all to hell, it is what I was supposed to be doing. Studying, learning, expanding my knowledge. Not skulking around in the woods like an amateur Rambo.

“I can’t believe you were the one who made it out of that crash in one piece. Well, so much for survival of the fittest.”

I turned to see a man in his late sixties, his eyes a piercing blue, face lined with wrinkles and yet, fearsome like a craggy gargoyle.

“Shut up, Dad. You’re not really here.”

“You’re right, because if I was here, I would vomit at the sight of how pathetic my daughter has turned out. You were the most useless of the three women on that shuttle and you know it.”

“My expertise is needed here, Dad…” I slapped my hand over my face. “Here I am arguing with a figment of my imagination. You know my therapist says I’m not supposed to engage with you unless you’re being constructive.”

“Therapist.” Dad snorted. “Just a softer way of saying head shrinker. And who goes to headshrinkers? Crazy people. You’re not only a disappointment, you’re also a nutjob. Thank goodness you’re off on some alien planet so you won’t embarrass the family.”

“Shut up, Dad,” I mumbled, trying to ignore him. I couldn’t help but feel the things he said all had a kernel of truth to them, though.

“You can’t make me shut up, little girl. Do I have to make you taste the back of my hand again? Or do I need to take my belt off? Or maybe…you should go outside and cut a switch.”

“Shut up,” I said, plugging my fingers in my ears. “My friends are not dead. Charlie might have escaped or maybe been taken alive. Harper might very well have washed up safely downstream. I’m not a failure. At least, not yet.”

I pulled my fingers from my ears and cringed, but the phantom vision of my father had departed. I had to take action.

I took out my canteen and drained about half of it in one go. I regretted it immediately when my stomach sloshed around as I walked.

At least I had a plan now. I would make my way to the Tankyr Latt temple. There, perhaps, I would find my friends. It seemed the most logical place we might go to meet up.

I didn’t let myself get depressed wondering if they would be there or not. Nor did I worry about what I would do if I never found either woman alive again. I needed to focus on one thing at a time, one problem at a time.

My father’s presence loomed large in my mind. I heard him complaining how I was never a survivalist. That I’m in way over my head.

I did my best to ignore those thoughts and assessed where I stood as far as equipment. Like Charlie and Harper, I had brought along the required survival kit. Unlike the two of them, I had swapped out a lot of items in lieu of my botany kit.

I hadn’t thought I would actually need my survival kit…and I had selfishly thought that perhaps I would just share one with one of the other women if it came down to that.

I regretted that decision. I hadn’t been a complete idiot. I had kept the compass, and the paper map of the region. Sometimes signals couldn’t penetrate the jungle canopy and it was wise to have a paper map.

Unfortunately, I was never a cartographer and the map was made for Kagethi use. I couldn’t really read it, but I hoped I could use it and my compass in conjunction to find my way to the temple.

I still had some bandages, and a hypospray with a dermal regenerator. But I had no flares, no tent and no emergency beacon.

Of course, the beacon might have just as easily drawn an enemy Vune to me as someone who would help, so perhaps that wasn’t as big a loss as the other items.

I stared at the map, then at the compass. As long as I continued generally east, I would probably at least run into the outlying ruins of the temple. The jungle swallowed up a city at one time, and now you could only see bits and pieces of it when you were lucky or careful.

I decided perhaps I should search for shelter. I was exhausted, and the Vune were hunting me. If I found a place to lie low, they might pass me by.

I searched the woods for a cave, a hollowed out tree, even just an overhanging cliff. Anything that might provide even a modicum of protection from the elements.

Unfortunately, it turned out that I had nothing but my father’s disembodied voice to keep me company.

Zey

No thought, just action. The jungle’s greens, red, purples and browns slipped past me in a dazzling kaleidoscopic tunnel that I noticed but gave no thought to. I had surrendered full control to the Beast.

Not a split personality. They tell me humans sometimes have those when they are mentally ill. No, the Beast is where I have stuffed my most primal drives, the most violent urges, so that I may govern the Southern Tribe as their chieftain. Leadership walks a fine line between the past and the present, between action and thought.

You must listen at council meetings, but not too much. You must think before you act, but not be paralyzed by indecision. Most of all, you must always be aware of your people’s needs.

The Beast isn’t aware of much other than what’s right in front of him. That’s good for situations like this one. The Vastgreen, mother to all life here, burned! I had to end her agony and stop the flames before they spread.

The Beast whispered in my mind that Hann and Tolmok had chosen me for this task because they believed me too small and weak to fight the Vune. I did my best to ignore it. The Beast came with his own problems, of course, but I felt I needed his strength of conviction and single synaptic response to danger.

I scared the daylights out of a preewee hanging from its flexible tail. It had babies clinging to its stomach, and they all watched with large eyes reflecting the verdant growth as I passed.

My path took me upward, toward a plateau where a mighty underground river came to the surface as a rushing torrent. The river split off into many streams, brooks and creeks, creating dozens of waterfalls off the plateau to feed the surrounding swampland and the continuance of the original river.

The plateau was not an easy climb. The rocks were universally wet from a heavy mist and spray from the waterfalls. What little terrain there was proved muddy, slippery or both.

I carefully picked my way up. When we were young, long before assuming the mantle of chief, my two friends and I used to make our way to the top of this plateau.

There was little to be had in the way of game, but there were a group of Rillfishers. The flightless birds constructed elaborate dams, creating deeper ponds so they could spear fish with their razor-sharp beaks.

The birds were lovely, but didn’t taste very good. So, we came to the plateau for the view instead. The country spread out before us like a many-colored cloak made of memories and scents and the eternal tapestry of life and death.

It is good for a chief in training to see such things because it keeps one humble. I took a moment when I reached the top to take in the view, reminding myself there were always things that even the Beast could not handle.

I thanked the mother for reminding me of my limitations and turned my attention to the opposite direction. My nose wrinkled in disgust as I saw the black pillar of smoke climbing into the sky. When the sun set it would be possible to see the glow of the flames that spawned the smoke.

That is, if I allowed it to continue.

I had hit upon this plan the moment it became obvious Tolmok would get first crack at the Vune. It seemed to me both clever and efficient. And as for the Rillfishers, they may not like it but they had enjoyed a banner spring and would recover.

I made my way across the top of the plateau. The woods were sparser up there, the water frequent. I came upon a wide, relatively still pond and knew it to be the work of Rillfishers.

I located the dam they had built and a sturdy log. Shoving it into the wall of tiny mollusk shells and river stones, I worked at their natural mortar until it came loose. Rillfishers use their own vomit to mix with the stones and shells, coating them in the stuff in a separate pouch in their guts.

I tore a huge rent in the dam, then moved on and kicked the remaining walls. Without the rest of the dam to buttress them, they fell over more easily. The Rillfishers squawked their heads off, but I ignored them. They knew better than to get too close to me.

The pond lowered by a good foot before I was even done. The creek beyond sprang to new life, overflowing its sides and feeding others.

I hunted for the next Rillfisher dam and wrecked it as well. Three more dams were destroyed before I was satisfied that I had enough. The waterfalls now gushed in a white torrent, shooting out dozens of feet before falling to the terrain below.

By the time I’d climbed down from the plateau, I saw that the main river had over swollen her banks as well. I’d succeeded only too well, and created a flash flood. I knew that the wildlife could avoid such things. It was in their blood, in their instincts. I hoped to drown a Vune or two, though.

My smile faded as I remembered something. There were more than just Vune in the jungle. There were people who had been inside of the shuttle when it went down to start the forest fire in the first place.

They must have been scientists from the encampment a dozen miles away. I doubted they could survive a flash flood.

Grumbling to myself, I picked my way toward the direction of the crash site. This proved harder than it would have been prior to my creating a flash flood condition. I had to take to the trees much of the time, which meant my path was far from linear.

Why didn’t I have the good sense to come down on the other side of the plateau? Then I would have been on the other side of the flooded river.

I dove into the water when I had no other choice and swam for the opposite bank. I did not bother wasting my strength trying to fight the current, and instead went with the flow, guiding myself across by degrees.

I was probably a half mile downstream when I finally pulled myself out onto the opposite bank. I shook myself dry as I could and then continued on. The fire seemed to be out. No fresh smoke curled toward the sky.

The wind shifted, and I was able to scent something besides burned vegetation and muddy water. My ears pricked up as I realized I had stumbled onto a fresh trail of Vune, at least three of them.

And something else. Something that smelled of fear and sweat, but carried an unmistakable accent of femininity. The scent curled up inside of my palate and made itself at home. The Vune were chasing a woman, and she was all alone.

I didn’t have to be a strategic expert to know that she didn’t stand a chance against even one Vune, let alone three, unless she possessed some formidable weaponry. I toyed with the idea of trying to find Hann or Tolmok, but if either of them heard that I’d let this woman get killed on my watch, they would never let me hear the end of it.

Besides, I wanted her to feel safe, and not poison her lovely aroma with fear. I tracked along, taking a parallel route to the one I thought my quarry used.

I wanted to get ahead of them if I could. It looked like the woman had been trying to flee cross country, but gave in and used one of the game trails.

That was a smart decision. Her smaller frame could pass through the dense vegetation more easily than theirs, and she was less likely to fall into an ambush by a predator.

A bent branch here, a tuft of crushed grass there, a bead of sweat at a particular height on a vine all told me roughly how tall she was, how much she weighed, clues about her body and her strength.

I had a sort of mental picture of her in my head already. I came to a place where the game trail let out, and my nose told me none of them had passed through yet. I planned to signal her as soon as she came into view, and get her to safety.

But when she stepped into the clearing, my mental picture vanished. Her flaming red hair grew darker near the scalp and bangs, where sweat plastered it to her head. Green eyes as fresh and vibrant as the new green of spring snapped about furtively, as if she knew she were being watched.

Her chest heaved, bouncing gently with the motion of her respiration. I found myself instantly, almost painfully erect. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted this creature, who I had hitherto not even laid eyes upon.

I was so distracted, in fact, that I forgot about the Vune pursuing her. They burst into the clearing, and I cursed my stupidity. It was obvious they would run her down with ease.

Now the Vune would have a hostage. I cursed silently again, thinking myself a grand fool indeed. I had no recourse but to follow them and hope for an opportunity to free her from their clutches.

Think with the right head next time, Zey.

To the woman’s credit, she really made them work for it. She raced across the clearing toward the continuance of the game trail. She didn’t waste her breath screaming in terror, or shouting for help.

 But the Vune were taller, with longer strides. They hooted and howled and snarled like swine as they ran her down. I checked her progress and found she was very close to the edge of the clearing. Maybe she would make it after all?

I saw one of the Vune stop and spin something around in the air over his head. Some sort of weapon, like a sling? But he had a blaster pistol holstered at his side. Why would he need a primitive missile weapon like that?

Then it occurred to me they wanted to take her alive. The rather disgusting reasons for such seemed obvious, but I doubted it was as simple as that. The Suhlik would never suffer their mercenary minions running around collecting women for sheer physical pleasure. They always had an ulterior motive.

I just hoped I could figure out what it was before this enchanting and intriguing woman got hurt…or worse, killed.

Silently, I vowed no harm would befall her. I crept through the jungle, my eyes intent on the Vune. The moon was on the rise, the sun on the wane.

The Vune would not live to see another sunrise. I would see to that. And if they harmed the woman, well…

I’d just have to make sure they suffered before they died.

Mia

Bright flashes of light sped by me too fast to comprehend. The hair on my forearm curled from the proximity to one such energy blast. Better to lose my hair than my skin. The Vune who fired at me weren’t making the most accurate shots in the world. What they lacked in marksmanship, however, they made up for in enthusiasm and volume.

A stray blast struck a branch above the path ahead. It flash-burned right through, searing the heavy limb as neatly as a scalpel. The branch fell into my path. I veered to the side, knowing that if one of those deadly beams touched me, I would be dead—or I would wish I were.

I’d seen a few plasma burns in my lifetime. Terror of experiencing them myself propelled me more than anything else.

I felt like such a coward. Charlie sacrificed herself to give Harper and I a fighting chance. Then Harper sacrificed herself to push me to safety right before she fell into the Deathwater river.

Instead of diving in after Harper, I just watched while she disappeared out of sight. Okay, that’s not exactly true. I tried to follow her for a time.

That’s when I ran into the Vune patrol. I only knew the name of their gamma male, Chutt, the butt of all their jokes.

Their commander was not someone I’d want to meet in a dark shadow—or ever again, for that matter. His casual cruelty was more frightening than all the bluster in the world would have been.

The energy blasts died off as I passed down a steep incline. My legs barely moved fast enough to keep me from stumbling. I just kept thinking that if I fell, I was dead.

When I first fell, my communicator broke. I scooped up the pieces, and if I got out of this, I’d try to piece it back together.

I ran deeper into the jungle, my skin whipped and cut by leaves and brambles. I ran without much thought as to the direction I was going. I only had one thought—get as far away from the Vune as I could.

I did not want to be there when they figured a way across the river. Could they jump across? Doubtful, or they would have.

Sooner or later, it will dawn on them that they can use one of their ships to fly over the river. I knew that I had to get deeper into the forest to avoid being picked up by ships passing overhead.

I also knew that the Vastgreen was incredibly dangerous. Not only was it teeming with predators that ranged from humongous and scary to clever and scarier, but many of the native plants were deadly.

There is a species of vine that has a life phase like a cross between an ant lion from Earth and a Venus flytrap. I hoped I didn’t run into one of them. I knew their territory usually didn’t range that close to the river, though.

Eventually, I had to slow down. My side ached terribly, as if I had been punched. Every breath I managed to suck in proved to be an agonizing labor. I stopped for a moment, leaning heavily against the purple and green bark of one of the native trees.

It was an evergreen but not like the ones on Earth. This one had leaves that curled into little cones during the rain, to absorb water more directly than with their roots. When the sun came out, the same leaves unfurled and engaged in a process similar to photosynthesis in Earth plants.

I knew a lot about it and yet, so little. For example, all of my research didn’t tell me that the tree would smell like pink bubble gum, but it did. I also noticed a tiny line of small ant-like arthropods traveling in the grooves of the rough bark.

Perhaps the two species lived symbiotically. Or maybe the alien ants were a parasite. Damn it all to hell, it is what I was supposed to be doing. Studying, learning, expanding my knowledge. Not skulking around in the woods like an amateur Rambo.

“I can’t believe you were the one who made it out of that crash in one piece. Well, so much for survival of the fittest.”

I turned to see a man in his late sixties, his eyes a piercing blue, face lined with wrinkles and yet, fearsome like a craggy gargoyle.

“Shut up, Dad. You’re not really here.”

“You’re right, because if I was here, I would vomit at the sight of how pathetic my daughter has turned out. You were the most useless of the three women on that shuttle and you know it.”

“My expertise is needed here, Dad…” I slapped my hand over my face. “Here I am arguing with a figment of my imagination. You know my therapist says I’m not supposed to engage with you unless you’re being constructive.”

“Therapist.” Dad snorted. “Just a softer way of saying head shrinker. And who goes to headshrinkers? Crazy people. You’re not only a disappointment, you’re also a nutjob. Thank goodness you’re off on some alien planet so you won’t embarrass the family.”

“Shut up, Dad,” I mumbled, trying to ignore him. I couldn’t help but feel the things he said all had a kernel of truth to them, though.

“You can’t make me shut up, little girl. Do I have to make you taste the back of my hand again? Or do I need to take my belt off? Or maybe…you should go outside and cut a switch.”

“Shut up,” I said, plugging my fingers in my ears. “My friends are not dead. Charlie might have escaped or maybe been taken alive. Harper might very well have washed up safely downstream. I’m not a failure. At least, not yet.”

I pulled my fingers from my ears and cringed, but the phantom vision of my father had departed. I had to take action.

I took out my canteen and drained about half of it in one go. I regretted it immediately when my stomach sloshed around as I walked.

At least I had a plan now. I would make my way to the Tankyr Latt temple. There, perhaps, I would find my friends. It seemed the most logical place we might go to meet up.

I didn’t let myself get depressed wondering if they would be there or not. Nor did I worry about what I would do if I never found either woman alive again. I needed to focus on one thing at a time, one problem at a time.

My father’s presence loomed large in my mind. I heard him complaining how I was never a survivalist. That I’m in way over my head.

I did my best to ignore those thoughts and assessed where I stood as far as equipment. Like Charlie and Harper, I had brought along the required survival kit. Unlike the two of them, I had swapped out a lot of items in lieu of my botany kit.

I hadn’t thought I would actually need my survival kit…and I had selfishly thought that perhaps I would just share one with one of the other women if it came down to that.

I regretted that decision. I hadn’t been a complete idiot. I had kept the compass, and the paper map of the region. Sometimes signals couldn’t penetrate the jungle canopy and it was wise to have a paper map.

Unfortunately, I was never a cartographer and the map was made for Kagethi use. I couldn’t really read it, but I hoped I could use it and my compass in conjunction to find my way to the temple.

I still had some bandages, and a hypospray with a dermal regenerator. But I had no flares, no tent and no emergency beacon.

Of course, the beacon might have just as easily drawn an enemy Vune to me as someone who would help, so perhaps that wasn’t as big a loss as the other items.

I stared at the map, then at the compass. As long as I continued generally east, I would probably at least run into the outlying ruins of the temple. The jungle swallowed up a city at one time, and now you could only see bits and pieces of it when you were lucky or careful.

I decided perhaps I should search for shelter. I was exhausted, and the Vune were hunting me. If I found a place to lie low, they might pass me by.

I searched the woods for a cave, a hollowed out tree, even just an overhanging cliff. Anything that might provide even a modicum of protection from the elements.

Unfortunately, it turned out that I had nothing but my father’s disembodied voice to keep me company.

Zey

No thought, just action. The jungle’s greens, red, purples and browns slipped past me in a dazzling kaleidoscopic tunnel that I noticed but gave no thought to. I had surrendered full control to the Beast.

Not a split personality. They tell me humans sometimes have those when they are mentally ill. No, the Beast is where I have stuffed my most primal drives, the most violent urges, so that I may govern the Southern Tribe as their chieftain. Leadership walks a fine line between the past and the present, between action and thought.

You must listen at council meetings, but not too much. You must think before you act, but not be paralyzed indecision. Most of all, you must always be aware of your people’s needs.

The Beast isn’t aware of much other than what’s right in front of him. That’s good for situations like this one. The Vastgreen, mother to all life here, burned! I had to end her agony and stop the flames before they spread.

The Beast whispered in my mind that Hann and Tolmok had chosen me for this task because they believed me too small and weak to fight the Vune. I did my best to ignore it. The Beast came with his own problems, of course, but I felt I needed his strength of conviction and single synaptic response to danger.

I scared the daylights out of a preewee hanging from its flexible tail. It had babies clinging to its stomach, and they all watched with large eyes reflecting the verdant growth as I passed.

My path took me upward, toward a plateau where a mighty underground river came to the surface as a rushing torrent. The river split off into many streams, brooks and creeks, creating dozens of waterfalls off the plateau to feed the surrounding swampland and the continuance of the original river.

The plateau was not an easy climb. The rocks were universally wet from a heavy mist and spray from the waterfalls. What little terrain there was proved muddy, slippery or both.

I carefully picked my way up. When we were young, long before assuming the mantle of chief, my two friends and I used to make our way to the top of this plateau.

There was little to be had in the way of game, but there were a group of Rillfishers. The flightless birds constructed elaborate dams, creating deeper ponds so they could spear fish with their razor-sharp beaks.

The birds were lovely, but didn’t taste very good. So, we came to the plateau for the view instead. The country spread out before us like a many-colored cloak made of memories and scents and the eternal tapestry of life and death.

It is good for a chief in training to see such things because it keeps one humble. I took a moment when I reached the top to take in the view, reminding myself there were always things that even the Beast could not handle.

I thanked the mother for reminding me of my limitations and turned my attention to the opposite direction. My nose wrinkled in disgust as I saw the black pillar of smoke climbing into the sky. When the sun set it would be possible to see the glow of the flames that spawned the smoke.

That is, if I allowed it to continue.

I had hit upon this plan the moment it became obvious Tolmok would get first crack at the Vune. It seemed to me both clever and efficient. And as for the Rillfishers, they may not like it but they had enjoyed a banner spring and would recover.

I made my way across the top of the plateau. The woods were sparser up there, the water frequent. I came upon a wide, relatively still pond and knew it to be the work of Rillfishers.

I located the dam they had built and a sturdy log. Shoving it into the wall of tiny mollusk shells and river stones, I worked at their natural mortar until it came loose. Rillfishers use their own vomit to mix with the stones and shells, coating them in the stuff in a separate pouch in their guts.

I tore a huge rent in the dam, then moved on and kicked the remaining walls. Without the rest of the dam to buttress them, they fell over more easily. The Rillfishers squawked their heads off, but I ignored them. They knew better than to get too close to me.

The pond lowered by a good foot before I was even done. The creek beyond sprang to new life, overflowing its sides and feeding others.

I hunted for the next Rillfisher dam and wrecked it as well. Three more dams were destroyed before I was satisfied that I had enough. The waterfalls now gushed in a white torrent, shooting out dozens of feet before falling to the terrain below.

By the time I’d climbed down from the plateau, I saw that the main river had over swollen her banks as well. I’d succeeded only too well, and created a flash flood. I knew that the wildlife could avoid such things. It was in their blood, in their instincts. I hoped to drown a Vune or two, though.

My smile faded as I remembered something. There were more than just Vune in the jungle. There were people who had been inside of the shuttle when it went down to start the forest fire in the first place.

They must have been scientists from the encampment a dozen miles away. I doubted they could survive a flash flood.

Grumbling to myself, I picked my way toward the direction of the crash site. This proved harder than it would have been prior to my creating a flash flood condition. I had to take to the trees much of the time, which meant my path was far from linear.

Why didn’t I have the good sense to come down on the other side of the plateau? Then I would have been on the other side of the flooded river.

I dove into the water when I had no other choice and swam for the opposite bank. I did not bother wasting my strength trying to fight the current, and instead went with the flow, guiding myself across by degrees.

I was probably a half mile downstream when I finally pulled myself out onto the opposite bank. I shook myself dry as I could and then continued on. The fire seemed to be out. No fresh smoke curled toward the sky.

The wind shifted, and I was able to scent something besides burned vegetation and muddy water. My ears pricked up as I realized I had stumbled onto a fresh trail of Vune, at least three of them.

And something else. Something that smelled of fear and sweat, but carried an unmistakable accent of femininity. The scent curled up inside of my palate and made itself at home. The Vune were chasing a woman, and she was all alone.

I didn’t have to be a strategic expert to know that she didn’t stand a chance against even one Vune, let alone three, unless she possessed some formidable weaponry. I toyed with the idea of trying to find Hann or Tolmok, but if either of them heard that I’d let this woman get killed on my watch, they would never let me hear the end of it.

Besides, I wanted her to feel safe, and not poison her lovely aroma with fear. I tracked along, taking a parallel route to the one I thought my quarry used.

I wanted to get ahead of them if I could. It looked like the woman had been trying to flee cross country, but gave in and used one of the game trails.

That was a smart decision. Her smaller frame could pass through the dense vegetation more easily than theirs, and she was less likely to fall into an ambush by a predator.

A bent branch here, a tuft of crushed grass there, a bead of sweat at a particular height on a vine all told me roughly how tall she was, how much she weighed, clues about her body and her strength.

I had a sort of mental picture of her in my head already. I came to a place where the game trail let out, and my nose told me none of them had passed through yet. I planned to signal her as soon as she came into view, and get her to safety.

But when she stepped into the clearing, my mental picture vanished. Her flaming red hair grew darker near the scalp and bangs, where sweat plastered it to her head. Green eyes as fresh and vibrant as the new green of spring snapped about furtively, as if she knew she were being watched.

Her chest heaved, bouncing gently with the motion of her respiration. I found myself instantly, almost painfully erect. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted this creature, who I had hitherto not even laid eyes upon.

I was so distracted, in fact, that I forgot about the Vune pursuing her. They burst into the clearing, and I cursed my stupidity. It was obvious they would run her down with ease.

Now the Vune would have a hostage. I cursed silently again, thinking myself a grand fool indeed. I had no recourse but to follow them and hope for an opportunity to free her from their clutches.

Think with the right head next time, Zey.

To the woman’s credit, she really made them work for it. She raced across the clearing toward the continuance of the game trail. She didn’t waste her breath screaming in terror, or shouting for help.

 But the Vune were taller, with longer strides. They hooted and howled and snarled like swine as they ran her down. I checked her progress and found she was very close to the edge of the clearing. Maybe she would make it after all?

I saw one of the Vune stop and spin something around in the air over his head. Some sort of weapon, like a sling? But he had a blaster pistol holstered at his side. Why would he need a primitive missile weapon like that?

Then it occurred to me they wanted to take her alive. The rather disgusting reasons for such seemed obvious, but I doubted it was as simple as that. The Suhlik would never suffer their mercenary minions running around collecting women for sheer physical pleasure. They always had an ulterior motive.

I just hoped I could figure out what it was before this enchanting and intriguing woman got hurt…or worse, killed.

Silently, I vowed no harm would befall her. I crept through the jungle, my eyes intent on the Vune. The moon was on the rise, the sun on the wane.

The Vune would not live to see another sunrise. I would see to that. And if they harmed the woman, well…

I’d just have to make sure they suffered before they died.

Harper

“Harper, watch out!”

I looked up too late to avoid walking into the metal crate hovering in the air before me. An oof escaped my throat as my stomach collided with the edge. Since the crate was in hover mode, suspended in an anti-graviton sheath, it meant it flew away from me to careen through the camp.

An alien resembling an elephant crossed with a tomato plant cried out as the runaway box nearly struck him…or her. I’m not even sure if that species has a gender. At any rate, my implant translated his speech well enough.

“Stupid human!”

I didn’t have time to be angry at his racism. I was too busy chasing after the crate as it careened through the camp. Sapient races of all different planets and star systems were all here because of the Torvian Intergalactic University expedition, sponsored by Madhfel HQ.

And every single one either struggled to get out of its way or stopped and stared as it flew past. Not a single one of them attempted to stop it, the bastards.

As I ran after the crate, I was joined by another human woman. Mia’s red mane flashed in the sun as she stretched out her legs to outrun me.

“Hurry, before it gets over the river.”

The crate zipped right for the edge of the open meadow we’d set up our camp in. I thought for us we’d lost it for good, but then a golden-haired amazon stepped out into its path and caught it adroitly. She cocked an eyebrow at us as we caught up.

“You were staring at your computer pad instead of where you were going again, weren’t you?”

I sheepishly shrugged.

“Sorry, Charlie. I’m just super excited. The Tankyr Latt temple is located in a section of the jungle untouched by anyone not native to this planet. Can you imagine what kind of discoveries are waiting to be made? This civilization might just predate the Kagethi civilization itself.”

Charlie smirked at me.

“No, really? You don’t say?”

“It’s not like she mentions it, ever,” said my red haired companion, her green eyes full of mischief.

“Come on, guys,” I said with a groan. “Give me a break, will you? The ruins in this jungle are like heaven to an archaeologist.”

“Yes, we get that…but you don’t have to go around trying to discover things that the Kagethi already likely know about,” Charlie said.

“Much less name them after yourself,” Mia added cheerfully.

I gave them both a rueful look. Charlie laughed and pushed the hover crate ahead of her.

“Is this the last thing that needs to be loaded?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” Mia replied.

“Are you sure? Let me see the inventory list.” Charlie held her hand out and I placed the computer pad in it. I noticed the calluses on her palms from wielding the twin pistols at her belt. Charlie was a Firearms Kata Specialist, an anti-Suhlik soldier trained on Earth as an answer to a galaxy full of aliens that are almost universally bigger and stronger than humans.

Or, as Mia and I and just about everyone else referred to her, a gun ninja. She hated that more than anything, which may have had something to do with how Mia constantly pushed the nickname.

“All right,” Charlie said, handing me back the computer pad. She stared up at the red gold of the morning sky. “We should get moving. I want to be back to camp before dark.”

“Why?” Mia cocked an eyebrow. “Surely the gun ninja isn’t afraid of the dark?”

“What I am is practical, Mia. Fear is irrelevant.”

She always said things like that. There is no quitting on this team, we stay till the job is done, so on and so forth. I could never figure out if she was talking to us…or herself.

“I don’t know why you’re so worked up about this,” Mia said. “It’s going to be boring as hell.”

“Boring?” I gasped. “We could be dealing with an unknown alien species who mastered star travel tens of thousands of years before the Madhfel Alliance. Who knows what cultural and scientific contributions they might have made before their disappearance? This is star shaking stuff, and you think it’s boring?”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll find plenty to occupy my time,” Mia said, patting the silver case at her side. “I’m going to collect samples of the local flora. No offworlder has ever been that deep in the Vastgreen Jungle. And who knows? Maybe we’ll run into someone from one of the local tribes.”

It was quite unlikely we would see any of the notoriously shy Jungle Kagethi. Which is a shame, because I’d have liked to study them up close. Boy, if I had any idea of just how close I would get…again, I’m getting ahead of the story.

We finished loading up the crate onto our small shuttle. The vessel was about the size of an Earth delivery truck, but shaped like a flattened cigar with wings. Its hull had a dull gray sheen, because the university funding our expedition wasn’t big in frills. We had to struggle to get them to give us a portable restroom facility. No squatting over a log for us, thankfully.

Charlie took the pilot’s chair. I wasn’t going to argue. She’d logged a lot more flight time than either of us had.

I sat down and strapped myself in with the crash webbing. Charlie turned on the engines, and the ship started a sonorous hum. She pulled back on a lever and we rose gently into the morning sky.

“Please keep your tray tables up and your seat in the full upright position,” Mia said.

Charlie gave her a dirty look. I’ve never met anyone so utterly cheerless in my life. I’d started to wonder if she even knew how to smile or laugh. Check that, I’d seen her smile before, but it was rarer than rain in the desert.

“Shutting up, Sir,” Mia said, offering a mock salute.

Charlie shook her head and returned her eyes to the cockpit glass. Below us, the jungle slipped by like a multicolored tapestry. Jungles on Earth were predominantly green when seen from above, but the foliage came in every shade here. Mostly it was green, red or yellow, but there were purples, whites and even some bright orange trees. On the surface, it was even more colorful. Some of the flora even glowed, though you could only really see it at night or in the densest parts of the canopy.

At sub-light speeds, it would take roughly three and a half hours for us to reach the temple. As I said before, the jungle was simply huge. Our shuttle kicked up a flight of avians, who flapped away into the sky in our wake.

A light on the console flashed, accompanied by a buzzing sound. Charlie didn’t seem too concerned at first. She just flipped a couple of switches.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. She might not have been worried but I certainly was.

“I’m not sure,” she replied with a frown. “We just lost our communications array.”

“Lost it?” Mia scowled. “You mean it fell off?”

“No, it’s just not working. I’m running a diagnostic right now…huh. There’s nothing wrong with it, according to my diagnostics.”

“Then why isn’t it working?” I asked.

Charlie paled several shades and performed a sensor sweep. The buzzing noise came again.

“Our sensors are down, too,” Charlie said, and I didn’t like her tone. She sounded worried. If super ninja was worried, I was damn sure worried, too.

“Why would that happen? Maybe we should head back to camp?”

I gasped and stared at Mia.

“But I’ve been waiting a week already to get a crack at Tankyr Latt.”

“The ruins have been there for a long time, Harper,” Charlie said. “They’ll wait for you a little bit longer. I’m changing course and returning to—”

The ship shook violently, and all of the lights flickered on and off. If not for our crash webbing, we’d have bounced around the cabin like ping pong balls. As it was, the straps dug into my skin, so hard I knew it would leave bruises.

“What was that?”

“We’re taking fire.” Charlie’s hands danced over the controls. “Taking evasive maneuvers.”

“Taking fire? Who would—”

The shuttle shook violently again, and the hum of the engines ceased being harmonious and became an intermittent coughing.

“Our engines are down to less than twenty percent,” Charlie said.

“Who’s even shooting at us? I thought the Kagethi in the jungle didn’t have ships.”

A dark green vessel three times the size of our shuttle flew overhead, darkening us with its shadow. I didn’t recognize the design, but I knew the sight of weapons arrays when I saw them.

Charlie recognized it.

“It’s a Vune vessel,” she said, her voice edged with panic.

“A what?”

“Vune, kind of like mercenaries employed by the Suhlik. How did they make it past the Mahdfel security net?”

I looked out the cockpit and noticed that the trees were getting closer.

“Um, how far can we make it on twenty percent engines?” I asked, trying not to panic.

“All the way to the scene of the crash,” Charlie said.

“Ha ha,” Mia said. “How far can we make it really?”

“I wasn’t joking.”

The belly of our hull scraped across a tree limb with a terrible wrenching sound. The shuttle dipped ever lower, and soon the branches grew thicker and more numerous.

Then we were flying under the tree line. I looked up through the cockpit glass just in time to see a branch thicker than my thigh smash right through it. I threw my arms up as crystal shards flew directly at me.

One thought ran through my mind at that moment.

Are we going to die?

Hann

By Mother Moon, I love to run.

I stretched my long legs out, racing through the jungle and its many splendors. I startled a preewee on the branch of a velder tree. The creature shrieked and chittered, disappearing into the foliage. The last sight I had of it was its long curled tail before that vanished, too.

The scent of the dangrig herd grew stronger in my nostrils. I was getting closer to the rear of their herd, now. I slowed my pace a bit so I wouldn’t overrun them. It was all going according to plan.

Off to my left, I saw a spotted figure flash through the jungle. Zey, chief of the southern tribe and a close friend. It had been his idea to hunt the horned dangrig, who ran swifter than the wind…but not swifter than a Kagethi.

I had the idea to drive the herd up against Koller’s Cliff, where they would be forced to bunch up together. Then the three of us could pick out the fattest, juiciest of their number for the slaughter.

It was a race as old as time itself. For time immemorial, my people had hunted the Vastgreen Jungle, learning its ways, understanding its creatures.

If we didn’t hunt them, they would overpopulate and do serious damage to the foliage. There are other predators, but most of them are too slow and clumsy to catch the swift runners.

Besides, racing through the jungle, feeling the blood in my veins, I almost felt like smiling. Almost.

I herded the prey toward the cliff, knowing that my comrades, Zey and Tolmok, would do their parts to gather the dangrig together. I spotted bright sunlight streaming in through the trees ahead. Nearly there.

The prey animals burst through the treeline, their cloven hooves striking on bare rock rather than the softer jungle floor. The sound reminded me of thunder. We exploded like lightning from the jungle, the three of us.

I leaped through the air and slashed at the throat of a dangrig. It fell over, throat torn wide open as it bled out onto the rock. The kill was clean and my prey suffered little before its death.

Zey leaped atop one of the herd, probably the largest of them all, tearing it literally to shreds. It looked like he had given in to his rage again. I wondered if there would be enough of the beast left for him to eat.

Tolmok leaped out from behind a boulder. His white teeth flashed a moment before they were sprayed with crimson as he tore into the flesh of the dangrig. Like me, his kill was clean. Zey still tore and ripped at his kill.

The panicked dangrig started fleeing back into the jungle. I watched them go, the taste of fresh blood in my mouth, gushing down my throat, making me feel whole. Alive.

“Zey,” Tolmok said, wiping his maw with the back of his forearm. “You can probably stop that now.”

Zey lifted his gory face from the torn to shreds dangrig and gave us a snarl. We didn’t take it personally. That was just the way Zey was. Always on the verge of exploding with anger.

As the thunder of the dangrig’s cloven hooves grew more distant, I became aware of another sound. A sort of crackling, like kindling snapping inside of a giant fist.

“What is that?” Tolmok’s ears radared forward, facing toward the edge of Koller’s Cliff. I stepped up and joined him on the rocky precipice, my eyes not on the verdant valley below, but on the skies.

“Look.” I pointed at the sky where the blue and white were marred by flashes of red, green, and silver. “Those are starships.”

Tolmok grunted and squinted his eyes.

“I think one of them is just a shuttle. The smaller of the two.”

He turned back and looked at Zey as the spotted Kagethi tore into the viscera of his prey with cracks and crunches.

“Zey, you have the best eyes among us. Can you see what kind of ships those are?”

Zey snorted and leveraged himself to his feet, coming to join us at the cliff. He shielded his eyes from the morning sun with his hand.

“The silver one I do not know…the green vessel is Vune.”

He growled to punctuate the last word. A growl echoed in both of our throats. I hated the Vune and their cursed masters, the Suhlik, like all Kagethi.

“What is a Vune vessel doing here? Don’t our cousins on the other side of the world keep watch?”

“They and the Mahdfel allies,” I replied. “But the world is vast, as is the galaxy. What matters is that they are here and we must deal with them.”

“It looks like the Vune are firing on the smaller ship,” Zey said, his anger replaced by fascination. “Why aren’t they fighting back?”

“They don’t seem to have any weapons,” I said. The ships were closer now, and I could make out more details.

A bright flash of red as twin lasers erupted from the Vune vessel. The lines scored a black gash along the hull of the smaller shuttle. Smoke trailed from the crippled vessel as it spiraled for the jungle below.

“It’s going down,” I said grimly.

“And the Vune are vectoring as if they wish to land,” Tolmok added.

“Of course,” Zey added. “They ran down their prey, now they will consume it.”

“Not if we can help it,” I growl.

The shuttle crashed into the forest and disappeared. I could follow its path by the way the trees above shook violently. After a moment, the carnage ceased, and black smoke billowed up from the forest floor.

“We should try to help the survivors,” I said. “If there are any.”

“I think we have other problems,” Tolmok said. He pointed his furry finger at the smoke. “The smoke is growing denser. I believe it started a forest fire.”

“And the Vune represent a threat to our people,” Zey piped in. “We must warn the tribes.”

I looked over at my friends and considered the situation.

“My friends, we have three objectives it seems to me. One, we must check on the survivors and protect them from the Vune. Two, we must deal with the forest fire before it spreads. Three, we need to warn our people of the Vune threat.”

Tolmok chuckled softly.

“Then it’s serendipitous indeed that there happen to be three of us. I will warn our people.”

I nodded in agreement. Tolmok had the longest legs and was therefore the swiftest runner in spite of his heavy bulk.

“And I will go and slaughter the Vune who dare trespass on our sacred forest,” Zey growled.

Tolmok and I exchanged glances. That was not a good idea. Zey should be checking on the survivors first, but he would not do that. He would seek out battle immediately rather than helping the crash victims.

“Perhaps Hann should be the one to handle that task,” Tolmok said.

“What? Why?”

“Because you are clever,” I lied. “You are better suited to putting out the forest fire.”

“How am I supposed to do that?” Zey snarled.

“I don’t know. Like I said, you’re the clever one.”

He snorted, but nodded his head.

“Very well. Just try and save some of the tuskers for me.”

“I’ll make it a priority,” I lied again. I had no objection to slaughtering some of the green skinned, nasty mercenary servants of the Suhlik. But if I did my job right, I would have the survivors to safety before the enemy arrived.

“Be careful.” Tolmok’s jaw set hard. “You have the most dangerous task of us all, Hann.”

“Save your pity for our enemies,” I replied. “They are the ones who will need it.”

“Yes,” Zey agreed heartily. “Let the gates of the underworld soon be lined with our victims.”

I turned to them and smiled.

“Farewell, my friends. We will meet again once these crises are past us.”

“Or perhaps sooner, if it turns out to be more than you can handle on your own,” Tolmok said. “As soon as I deliver the warning to our people, I will return to help you both.”

Zey snorted.

“I will put out the fire. The two of you save some Vune for me to kill.”

He loped off, and Tolmok and I watched him disappear into the forest.

“How are we supposed to do that?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” Tolmok said with a chuckle. “We could trap a few Vune and keep them alive until he comes around to kill them, I suppose.”

He often thought he was humorous, but this time I joined him in a laugh at the sheer absurdity of his suggestion.

“I must be away as well,” I said. “Be safe, old friend. And do not worry. I am not as hot tempered as Zey.”

“Not quite.”

We clasped our arms, fingers wrapped around each other’s forearms. I gave a firm shake and then I leaped over Kotter’s Cliff. I stretched out my body and caught hold of a high branch, using it to partially arrest my momentum. The leaves enveloped my body as I descended below the tree line, and at last landed on the forest floor.

The crash site was easy to detect, from the smell of fire and starship fuel. I ran hard as I dared without leaving myself too winded to fight.

Because I had a feeling there was going to be a fight.

Harper

“Harper.”

My name seemed to come from a long way away. I didn’t want to answer the call. I was far too comfortable snuggled up in my blanket of darkness.

“Harper!”

Again, more urgent the second time. I stubbornly refused to rouse myself. I had a feeling if I woke up, I wouldn’t like where I found myself.

“Damn it, Harper, wake up!”

A sharp blow to my cheek finally roused me from the darkness. I opened my eyes to see Charlie’s concerned expression hovering over me. I no longer felt the softness of the shuttle’s seat beneath me. Instead, I was on a hard, lumpy surface, and the smell of smoke choked off all other scents.

“What happened?” I asked, struggling to my feet with her assistance.

“We crashed,” Mia replies, her face streaked with dirt.

“We were shot down,” Charlie replied. “By the Vune.”

“I remember the Vune.” I shook my head and immediately regretted it. I grew nauseous, and my vision blurred. “Oh fuck, I think I need to sit down.”

“No time,” Charlie snapped. “We have to get going—Mia what the hell are you doing?”

“I’m not leaving my botany kit.”

Mia disappeared into the ruined shuttle. It looked like a tube of toothpaste which had exploded at the front end. I don’t know how we survived. I guessed the force fields and crash webbing had done their job.

My whole body was kind of achy, and I knew I had some bumps and bruises, but otherwise, I was unharmed. Charlie had a small scratch under left eye that had already stopped bleeding. She ignored the crimson stain marring her otherwise pretty face and checked her holstered pistols.

“Listen,” she said, her eyes hard as diamonds. “The Vune landed not far from here. They’re probably already on their way.”

“What do they want with us?”

“What do you think? To turn us over to their Suhlik masters, of course.”

That thought did not make me feel all that comfortable.

“We need to get the hell out of here.”

“No kidding.”

Charlie raised her voice to parade ground levels and bellowed.

“Mia, get your ass out here, now! If you’re not out here in ten seconds, we’re leaving without you.”

Mia reappeared, holding her trusty blue backpack, filled to the brim with the tools of her trade. I thought about my own kit, but I figured I could live without it. Besides, we were out of time. A sound of excited voices and crashing through the underbrush drew my attention to our immediate north.

“It’s the Vune,” Charlie said. “Move!”

She pushed me, and then pushed Mia. I ran, my mind reeling. It didn’t seem real. It was supposed to be a safe, relatively boring trip. Nothing like this was supposed to happen.

Only it was happening, and I had no choice but to run for my life. Mia and I kept running, but Charlie stopped running long enough to fire blindly into the woods behind us. The sounds coming from the Vune sounded more panicked now, as they sought cover from their unseen assailant.

“Go!” Charlie said. “You two don’t stop running!”

“But…” We couldn’t leave her. All the gun ninja teasing aside, we just couldn’t.

“GO!” she shouted, then grinned. “I’ll be right behind you.”

I took off running again, quickly outdistancing Mia. I slowed a bit so she could catch up. Brambles and vines tore at my skin and clothing, but I was too scared to slow down more than that.

I burst out into a clearing and despaired. It looked as if we’d run right into a sheer rock wall.

“Oh fuck,” I said.

Mia erupted from the trees a moment later and ground to a halt.

“Are we trapped?”

“I think so…no, wait! Look, there’s a pass through the cliff.”

She stared at it and scowled.

“What if it doesn’t go all the way through?”

“Then we’re fucked.”

She gave me a look. A moment later, Charlie burst onto the scene. We were all glazed with sweat, but while Mia and I panted for every gasp of air, Charlie seemed barely winded.

“Keep going,” she said, instantly spotting our escape route, the one it had taken me and Mia several moments to find. I made for the fissure, hoping it went all the way through the cliffside.

I saw sunlight ahead, causing my heart to leap with hope. The only problem was the fissure was plenty wide enough for them to pursue us. And where else could we run?

I didn’t think too long about it, though. I plunged into the shadowed chasm, followed by Mia. But Charlie had stopped in the middle of the clearing and turned around to face the oncoming Vune.

“Is she crazy?” Mia asked. “Charlie! Come on, don’t just stand there, run!”

Charlie turned around and gave us both a grim, hard look. Then she silently shook her head.

“Run!” she cried, turning back around as the first of the Vune entered the clearing around the cliffside. She pointed her guns and fired apparently without aiming. A sizzling beam of yellow sliced from each barrel. Both beams struck their intended targets, and two Vune fell to the ground.

It was the first time I’d seen one of the bestial aliens in real life. They were big, well over six and a half feet tall, rippling with muscle, and had dark green skin and prominent tusks sticking out of their lower jaws.

They had weapons, too, and fired, but Charlie was already moving in the beautiful and deadly ballet of her gun katas. There are only so many possible fractals of a gunfight, and she had memorized them all. She skimmed out of the way of their fire like a water bug skimming over a pond. Every time she pulled her triggers, Vune fell dead to the ground.

And yet, still they came.

“Come on,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach as I dragged Mia along.

“What about Charlie?” Mia asked. “We can’t just leave her.”

“We have to,” I snapped. “Don’t you get it? She’s sacrificing herself so we have a chance to escape.”

“But—”

“For fuck’s sake, Mia, we’re scientists. She’s a soldier. All we would do is get in her way, and we don’t even have weapons.”

I pulled her hard, and she started running.

“I hate this,” she cried.

“Me, too.”

I wasn’t lying. I felt like a piece of shit leaving my friend—one of the few I’d ever had—to fend for herself like that. What choice did I have, though?

The sounds of battle faded behind us as we raced through the fissure. Something with a bunch of legs and long antennae stuck its body out of a hole in the wall, but I was more afraid of the Vune than it. I ducked underneath its feelers and kept running.

We erupted from the other end of the tunnel. I felt like I couldn’t run much further. Already, my side ached terribly, and I could barely get air to go into my lungs before it blew back out.

“Don’t slow down,” Mia said, taking my hand for a change. “Come on.”

I gave one last, longing look at the way we’d come. Poor Charlie. We couldn’t do anything to help her now, though. The only thing we could do, the best thing we could do, was try to reach help.

“Do you have your comm unit?”

“Yes,” she said, her eyes brightening. Mia opened up her backpack and took out the flat, rectangular device. She tapped on the screen, and the signal search loading circle spun around on the surface.

“Come on,” she snapped. “Come the fuck on! Work, you piece of shit!”

“Mia,” I said. “It’s broken, or you can’t get a signal in this valley. Either way, we need to keep going.”

She stuffed the comm unit back into her pack and shouldered it as we started into the jungle. We weren’t running as fast now, because we were both winded. Not to mention the denser woods were harder to navigate. Before, we had followed a game trail. Now the trees and underbrush slowed us to a crawl.

“Do you hear that?” Mia asked.

“I can’t hear anything over the thudding of my heart,” I gasped.

“I think there’s a river ahead. Maybe we can use it to swim downstream?”

It was a good idea. We hurried as much as we were able, and then came out to the steep banks of the river. One look at the rushing white water told us there would be no swimming to safety.

“Fuck,” I groaned. “We’re cut off! There’s no way across.”

“Yes, there is,” Mia cried, pointing to a moss-encrusted log that had fallen over the river. “We can use that as a bridge.”

We ran toward the log, and I pushed her ahead of me. As we crossed, her foot broke through the fragile bark and she nearly fell.

“Careful,” I said, dragging her back to her feet.

“Thanks.”

We continued on, me pushing her ahead. I tried to put my feet only on the spots where it felt the most sturdy, but grew harder the further we went.

When we were most of the way across, I heard a sharp crack and the log noticeably sagged in the middle.

“Oh no,” Mia said. “We’ll never make it.”

I never saw myself as a hero, or even a ‘good’ person, but in that moment I guess I found out who I was.

“Yes,” I said, “you will.”

I shoved her hard. She flew the remaining few feet and landed safely on the other bank.

Then the log gave way under me and I tumbled to the rushing waters below. I hit hard and sank fast, carried away by the torrent. I hoped that Mia made it to safety. Otherwise my sacrifice meant nothing.

Shelby

My shoes made little sound as I strode down the corridor of the testing center. 

When I got dressed this morning, I knew there was a chance I was about to be sent to an alien planet, after all. Sensible shoes seemed like a good plan.

I like plans.

My reflection looked back at me as I approached the final room. The woman in the mirror had her ebony hair pulled back into a tight bun, held in place with two pencils. 

I’d been studying for my entrance exam right up until I’d had to leave. The tweed blazer and matching charcoal slacks made me look like a sophisticated business woman instead of a grad student.

Then I drew nearer and got a good look at the sour expression on my face. I’d never thought I was anything special in the looks department. Guys didn’t go ga ga over me the way they did, say, over my blonde-haired bubble headed roommate.

Or maybe it was just that they were all afraid I was smarter than them. Either way, I didn’t put up with their nonsense. 

I had a plan, and I was sticking to it.

Until 10 minutes ago when my DNA match came back positive.

Now I was just numb. 

Time for a new plan, but my brain couldn’t think, running in circles.

I was nervous. I was never nervous, damnit!

Except…who wouldn’t be, if they were plucked right out of their life and sent halfway across the known galaxy?

All because of a stupid treaty I had nothing to do with.

“Shelby Thomas?” A woman dressed as a doctor came forward, guided me through the door. “Congratulations on your match. I know it’s a shock, but so many of our matches fall in love. Let yourself enjoy the experience.”

I wasn’t expecting any such thing. Love was a chemical reaction in the brain. 

As real as the delight you get when eating an ice cream cone and gone just as quickly.

“I’ll enjoy the day I get to come home and return to my actual life. This is throwing off my ten-year plan.”

“Ten years?” she blinked. “That’s impressive. I have trouble planning what I’m going to have for lunch.”

Not exactly reassuring to hear from the woman who was implanting my translator.

Finally, I stepped up on top of the teleportation pad while the technicians fiddled with their doodads. Now I was really nervous. I was about to be converted to an energy state and then transmitted like a radio signal across the galaxy. 

I had literally nothing to compare it to.

No way to plan for this at all.

I clenched up as the light flashed bright and golden and my eyes closed on reflex. I felt a strange tingle, but then it was over just as quickly as it had begun. 

I opened my eyes and nearly freaked out.

“What the hell?”

A whole freaking tribe of aliens stared back at me. Anthropomorphized cat people alien to be exact. The overall effect was doubly disconcerting, considering the way they were dressed. 

Elaborate brocade surcoats worn over spun silk shirts, long flowing gowns with lace trim and complex embroidery. 

Sort of like you might expect to see at a Renaissance fair, only, it was mixed with bits of high technology that destroyed the illusion of anachronism. Computer tablets were affixed to forearms, and the liveried guards bore plasma weapons as well as curved swords.

One of the cat people took a step toward me. Her pattern of fur reminded me of an earth tiger, only a bit off. She moved with liquid grace, but I got the feeling she was at least middle aged, if not older. 

Her green and gold finery glistened in the floating globes of light drifting about the room in a slow, random dance.

“Greetings, Shelby Thomas of Earth.” She offered a sweeping bow. “I am Queen Nala Kastigeer. My son Valloa is your match.”

I stared blankly for a bit until I remembered my manners.

“Hi,” I said, feeling awkward as hell. “Nice to meet you. I’m Shelby Thomas…but you know that, because you just said so.”

A Mahdfel man with purple skin and slightly curved horns stepped up beside the queen. I noticed a silver crown with a single sapphire set near the forehead upon his brow. 

“Please don’t be so nervous,” he said. “You may have noticed that I’m a transplant to this world, too.”

His lips curled in a warm smile, but his gaze roamed the room as if searching for something. 

Or someone. 

I started looking over the other Kagethi and trying to figure out which of them might have been my match. 

None of them were looking at me in a way that showed that kind of interest, though.

“Anything you need, Shelby, to make you more comfortable, please let us know.”

“Thank you, but…” I felt bad, but it’s better to be honest, right? “I sort of left a life behind on Earth and quite frankly, I can’t wait to get back to it once my time is up.”

His smile deepened, enough that I could see he had dimples.

“That’s a lot like what I said when I first came here. I hope that in time we will be able to change your mind.”

“I appreciate where you’re coming from, but I hope you’re not investing too much in me emotionally. You might be disappointed.”

A man nearby caught my attention. And by man, I mean another tiger striped Kagethi. His finery was a cut below that of the King and queen, and he was easily twenty years their junior. He smiled at me politely enough, but sort of wanly.

He did nothing for me. Not a damn thing, even though he was sort of handsome for being a cat man. 

I looked at him and swallowed the lump in my throat.

“Are you my match?”

The Kagethi blinked and shook his head.

“No, my Lady. I am Duke Vorath. Your match, Valloa, is my cousin and the crown prince.”

“Oh.” I looked around and frowned. Judging by the clothing, it looked to me like the rest of the entourage were either servants or guardsmen. I didn’t see anyone who looked like a prince. “Um, then where is he?”

The King and Queen grew silent, and Vorath avoided meeting my gaze.

“I believe he’s been delayed,” Vorath murmured.

“Delayed?”

As if on cue, the doors banged open, and a gigantic, furred form strode in the room. 

My eyes widened, because he was simply huge. Rippling with muscle obvious even under his tiger fur, he looked like the other Kagethi only bigger. Much, much bigger. He had to be over seven feet tall.

Something in the back of my stomach started to churn.

No. This couldn’t be it. This wasn’t my match. There was no way. 

But I knew, somehow, that he was.

He looked even bigger because he had a grotesquely tusked thing on his back that looked like a dead boar. Blood dripped from a wound on its neck onto Valloa’s fur. 

Because without a word, I knew in my gut this was him.

My match.

“Where is my mate?” Valloa called out boldly, his golden eyes flashing. “I have brought her a feast.”

I stared at him for a long moment, and then shrank back toward the teleportation pad before he could lay eyes on me.

“So much nope,” I said, stepping back on the pad. “Send me home. Now.”

Valloa

“Well?”

My voice boomed in the cavernous chamber as I cast my gaze about searching for the Earth woman matched to me by the Mahdfel DNA system. 

My curiosity had gotten the better of me.

Originally, I had intended to avoid meeting her altogether. A kind of silent protest of the fact that I really didn’t want an Earth woman. It did not matter that my friends Reo and Karr had found so much happiness with the smooth skinned creatures.

All that mattered was my choices were being taken away from me. I’d gone out hunting instead, hoping to upset my match so much with my absence the whole mating thing would be dissolved.

Then, as I’d stalked through the warm, verdant green of the jungles surrounding our keep, I’d developed something of a crisis of conscience. Avoiding the arrival of my match from Earth would upset my parents greatly. It would be a major blow to their public image, not to mention their honor.

To make up for my tardiness, I’d taken a detour into tarsk hunting grounds, and found myself a prime buck. His neck wasn’t swollen with the rutting season yet, so his meat would remain succulent and flavorful, instead of tough and bitter.

But for some reason no one seemed to appreciate my thoughtfulness.

“Your match is probably cowering somewhere because of your boorish ways.”

I turned to see my mother stride up toward me. The stiffness in her posture and the fire in her gaze let me know I was in trouble. 

Familiar territory, unfortunately.

“I thought it would be impolite not to bring a gift. Look, is it not a fine tarsk, Mother?”

“It would be fine roasting on a spit or laying in chunks on a butcher block. Not dripping blood all over the teleportation chamber. Have some decorum.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but then I spotted her. 

My match.

I only saw her from behind at first, a long-haired woman with her hair pulled into a tight bun. She was arguing with one of the Mahdfel technicians over the comm screen. 

It sounded like she was trying to convince them to send her back.

“Shelby Thomas!”

She stiffened up, and then grumbled as she turned about.

“Who wants to know?”

I could not respond. My jaw had fallen open in awe. I had not expected her to be the loveliest creature I had seen in all my years of life. 

Her dark eyes were the color of magic, her ebon hair like spun silk. Her furless skin should have been repulsive, and yet it looked just right on her. I longed to stroke my fingers along her smooth, soft neck.

“Well?” she snapped, drawing me out of my reverie. “I asked you a question?”

“Introduce yourself, my son.” My father sniffed, trying to pretend like I hadn’t insulted everyone in the room with my tardiness.

“But of course.” I swept into a polite bow. “I am Prince Valloa Kastigeer. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Eventually,” she said dryly.

I cocked my head to the side. Though she was little, she was fierce. “What do you mean?” I asked when she did not elaborate.

“You didn’t even bother to show up to greet me on time, and when you do finally show up—late, I might add—you’re dripping blood all over the place from the animal carcass you have slung over your shoulders. I thought you were some kind of sophisticated alien prince, but it turns out you’re Conan the freaking Barbarian.”

“I do not know this Ko Nan, but I am far from a barbarian. I am skilled in philosophy, debate, music, and culture.”

Mother covered her mouth with her hand in a vain attempt to hide a smile. My father didn’t even bother with that. He burst into guffaws.

“My son, there are many words I would use to describe you. Sophisticated and refined do not number among them.”

Shelby smirked, and it raised my ire. 

I carefully laid the Tarsk corpse on the floor and turned to regard my mate. I had gotten a bit of blood on my vest, but not very much. I don’t know why she shrank back like she was afraid of it touching her.

“Shelby Thomas of Earth,” I said with stiff formality. “If I were the sort of man who offered apologies, I would give you one right now for my tardiness. Most vociferously and vehemently.”

I cast a dark look at my father so he would know that I was more refined than he thought, then continued.

“However, I consider apologies a sign of weakness. I do not apologize. But if I were to offer an apology, I would offer one to you.”

My mother sighed and rubbed her temples like she had a headache. My father covered his mouth and muttered under his breath.

Shelby stared at me, mouth open.

“Are you kidding me right now? Why would I want to be matched with a jerk who shows up late, flings blood everywhere and then refuses to apologize for any of it?”

“Kageth is superior to Earth,” I said. “You should stay for that reason alone. Plus, I am a prince. You will be queen one day.”

Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

“What makes you think I want to be a stupid queen?”

She turned to my mother.

“No offense.”

Then she turned back to me.

“I have my life all planned out. I’m supposed to be taking my grad school exam right now. Instead, I’m stuck in the basement of some alien castle with a giant tiger man telling me how lucky I am to be in his company. Even though he’s a total jerk.”

She made a strangled grunt.

“I have plans, you big jerk, a ten-year plan, and you’re screwing it up.”

“Ten-year plan? What comedy is this? Planning is for those who are too weak to live in the moment.”

“Weak?” The ice in her tone made me want to shiver. I turned to my mother and father for moral support. Father just looked disappointed, but Mother looked angrier than Shelby.

“Ah,” I said. “Well, I suppose I’m sorry for dripping blood around and offending you.”

“You suppose you’re sorry?”

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

“I guess that’s as good as I’m going to get, isn’t it? Well, fine. Just stay away from me. Because this?”

She gestured between the two of us.

“This is going nowhere.”

She pushed through the guards and stormed out of the chamber.

“Somebody better show me where the bathroom is,” she muttered on her way out.

I was stunned. “What did I do wrong?”

My mother scowled.

“You are going to have to navigate these waters on your own.”

She left the chamber as well, as did my father. I stood there alone wondering what in the Void just happened.

Not an auspicious start, to be sure. 

Yet, something inside of me was hopelessly intrigued.

I wanted to see more of her. 

Only that seemed a vain hope, since she had just declared she wanted nothing to do with me.

It was a good thing I liked challenges.

Nina

Form without substance. 

Light without a source. 

Me, but not me. 

A burst of crackling electricity, like summer lightning.

I staggered forward a few steps, momentum unchecked by the teleportation device. My foot hit something immovable and I sprawled to my knees. 

They’d told me not to run. I was a little freaked out at the time, though. Maybe I hadn’t paid attention as much as I should’ve.

Okay. Definitely.

But how could I not be freaked out? Thanks to a treaty with an alien alliance, I’d been selected to get beamed across the galaxy to an alien world. 

Random chance or fate had decreed my DNA to be compatible with an alien.

And due to some stupid treaty, I’d been sent here.

I shook my head to clear it, skin tingling as if I just touched a live wire. 

The guy at the testing center had told me the law of conservation of matter and energy meant my momentum would transfer to the destination. 

But he wasn’t the one who’d be beamed across the universe.

If I’d thought too much about the fact my body would be sheathed in energy and then transmitted millions of light years away, I’d never have gone through with it. Treaty or no treaty.

So instead, I’d decided it’d be easier to run and jump in, like a terrifying leap from the high dive.

That was a mistake.

Slowly, I dragged myself to my feet. I stood on the worn stones of a circular dais, surrounded by a dense jungle. 

It sort of looked like the jungles in adventure movies back on Earth.

Except it was completely, totally wrong.

Colors and scents had a strange, odd tinge which made me mistrust my senses.

I spun in a circle, physically and mentally. Coming in alone in the middle of a jungle wasn’t what I’d been told to expect, not at all. 

There were supposed to be people there to greet me, right?

Instead, I appeared to be alone on an alien planet. 

The sky was the wrong shade of blue.

The air felt different, too. 

I felt different. Higher gravity? Lower?

I tried jumping, but honestly everything was just too much to take in to try to figure it out.

Seriously, it wasn’t what I’d planned for this week.

I’d minded my own business, running my dog walking gig in New York City and making enough money to pay rent and eat. 

It wasn’t a great life, but it was my own.

Of course, none of it mattered in context of my current predicament. I was alone in an alien jungle. The more I thought about it, the more I realized somebody had made a major mistake.

The only question I had was: how big was the mistake? Had I been sent to a different place on Kagath than I was supposed to arrive at? 

Or was I in a totally different alien world?

Why wasn’t anyone here?

A flash of seized me, causing my breaths to come in ragged gasps and a sweat broke out on my body. 

If I’d been stranded on an alien world, then how would they ever find me? 

I checked my communication device, a small rectangle roughly the size of a cell phone, but it’d shorted out or something and the screen stayed dark.

Did it need a charger?

Oh hell.

My bag wasn’t with me either. 

I had no equipment, I was all alone, and I had no idea where I was, not even what planet I was on. My luggage probably made it safely. I was the one who’d been lost.

Pull it together, Nina.

Panic wouldn’t do any good.

Should I stay or should I go? Should I remain at the stone dais and hope a rescue was imminent? 

Or should I try to find my way out of the jungle to some semblance of civilization?

I studied the dais beneath my feet for clues. Smooth gray stones shot through with specks of lavender, clearly worked by the hands of an intelligent being. 

There were people on this planet. Or there had been.

I just needed them to come find me.

Because going out into a jungle alone with no equipment was tantamount to suicide. 

I sank down on the gnarled, exposed root of a thick trunked tree. Its bark had lovely purple highlights breaking up the dark brown of its coarse surface. 

Somewhere a sound like a bird call, but tinged with exotic strangeness, echoed in the sky. It didn’t sound very big, but I shivered with fright nonetheless.

“I miss my dogs.”

My voice sounded hollow and tinny to my ears. Maybe a side effect of the teleportation, or perhaps because of the sound absorbing qualities of the stone dais.

Maybe because I was afraid.

Something bounded out of the wood, startling me to my feet. About the size of a rabbit, the creature had a body shaped like a swollen bowling pin with two bent back, thick legs. I saw no sign of any forelimbs. 

The creature hopped like a rabbit, coming a bit closer to where I stood.

Its little black eyes glittered in the half light as it turned its head as if puzzled to find me there. 

“Hey there, little guy,” I cooed. “Aren’t you adorable? I don’t suppose you have a master you can take me to?”

It made a cute little chittering sound and hopped nearer. I squatted down to make myself less threatening, holding my hand out, palm facing up.

The creature hopped a bit closer, slitted nostrils testing the air. It stopped about two feet from my outstretched hand. 

I wished I had some treat or something, but then again I’d no idea what that thing ate. Given its size and cute fluffiness, I found it hard to believe it ate meat.

Until its head tilted backward like a Pez dispenser to reveal double rows of sharp teeth. Green saliva trickled out of the stalactite like teeth, perhaps a venom of some sort.

“Holy shit!”

I leaped back and snatched up a rock off the ground. I flung it at the creature, but it reacted like lightning and my errant missile bounded away into the underbrush. The creature hopped a few feet away, stopping in the knee high grass to peer out at me.

“You just stay right over there and we won’t have any problems, you and me.” I picked up another rock just in case. “You hear me?”

Something jumped out of the tree line. 

Another of the creatures. They sniffed each other, and then turned their mutual attention to me. They crept out of the tall grass, stalking me like a cat stalking a mouse.

“I said get away!”

I hurled the stone and they both bounded back, but not as far as the first time. A low growl escaped their throats, so deep and rumbly that I felt it in my stomach.

Another of the creatures joined the first two, this one a bit larger with dull black fur instead of brown. It made a chattering noise and suddenly the tree line was alive with the little monsters.

I spotted a twisted, fallen limb on the ground and snatched it up, wielding the timber like a club. The closest creature received a swat, but it didn’t seem to do much more than push it away a few feet.

“Stay the fuck away from me! I mean it! I don’t back down from Dobermans and Rottweilers, and I’m not backing down for you.”

The creatures turned and fled, streaming back into the tree line. For a moment, I felt a rare boost of confidence.

“Yeah, that’s right. And don’t come back—”

A thunderous roar split the air behind me. I spun around, raising my improvised club in the air before me.

A pair of eyes the size of basketballs glared out at me from the foliage and I saw the vague outline of a black furred shape beyond, something that looked similar to an Earth bear but three times the size with long, pointed ears.

Six legs, too, I noted as it trundled into the clearing. Its claws scraped against the stones of the dais, each one as long as my forearm.

It opened its maw and roared, the volume of air in its lungs so great it blew my hair back.

Am I about to die?

Fear paralyzed me, rooting me to the rounded stones of the dais. The monster pushed its way fully into the clearing, moving with liquid grace which belied its bulk.

No time to run now. 

I watched, transfixed with horror, as it raised a paw the size of my torso high into the air. 

I threw an arm up in reflex, though such a pitiful barrier would do nothing to stop my death. 

The monster’s claws descended. 

Then a golden humanoid shape blurred into my field of vision, interposing itself between me and the creature.

I tripped and fell hard on my rump. My jaw fell open as I witnessed a fur-covered person built like a pro wrestler blocking the descending paw with a rounded shield.

The monster recoiled, snapping its paw back. Blood spattered onto the stones. I noticed my rescuer wielded a short, curved sword in the other hand, wet with crimson. I hadn’t even seen the attack.

The stranger turned his head toward me, a lustrous mane flowing like water with the motion. I gasped, because his face was a mix of human and feline features. 

His nose had the black velvet look of a cat, but his mouth appeared quite like my own, albeit with more pronounced canines. His whiskers twitched as his amber eyes bored into me.

“Get back.”

He turned toward the monster and bent into a half crouch, a shield held defensively before him. The big monster’s eyes narrowed. It tried to move around him to get to me, but he sidled along to keep himself between me and the beast.

My hero took a half step backward to avoid the monster’s next attack. His foot hit my calf and he stumbled slightly.

“I said get back!”

He rounded on me, eyes narrowed and burning with irritation. 

Grumpy hero. 

I scrambled back in a crab walk until I slammed into the rough bark of a tree trunk.

The lion man turned around and roared a challenge at the beast. The huge monster reared up on its thicker hind legs and swatted with the other four paws but my savior leaped over the lowest, twisting his body in the air like an acrobat.

He landed in a crouch and I winced at the sight of blood running down his side. He hadn’t quite avoided all of the creature’s attacks.

The lion man leaped into the air, and I do mean leaped. My jaw fell open in awe as he launched himself a full twenty feet in the air. 

His sword darted out at the monster’s face and the answering howl of pain meant his weapon bit deep.

The six-legged beast dropped down to all of its paws and tore away from the clearing, half its face covered in blood. The lion man stood at the ready even as it fled, as if expecting it to come charging back at any moment.

Once the sound of crashing foliage faded into the distance, the lion man relaxed. 

He ignored me completely and went to grab a thick leaf wider than my body. I watched as he used the leaf to clean the blood from his blade. His side seemed to have stopped bleeding already. 

Neat trick, that. Super fast healing.

“Um, hey. Thanks for saving me.”

He started and turned his gaze over his broad shoulder. His glare sent a shudder down my spine. I couldn’t make heads nor tails of the inscrutable light in his eyes.

“My name is Nina, by the way.” I realized I was babbling, but I couldn’t stop. “Obviously I’m not from around here. Um, do you know the way out of this jungle, by chance?”

He didn’t respond at first. Then he let out a snort and turned his back on me.

“Come.”

The lion man made for the edge of the clearing and disappeared into the treeline without stirring so much as a leaf. 

It was insane that somebody so big could disappear so easily and quietly. He had to be pushing seven feet tall and not slender like a basketball player, either. 

More like if Wilt Chamberlain and Arnold Schwarzenegger got put in a blender along with an escaped zoo lion. 

On steroids.

“Hey!”

I only stood there another moment before tearing off after him. I quickly caught up, following the same thin game trail he used.

“Hey, slow down!”

I struggled to keep up. He just kept eating the terrain with those mile-long legs of his. 

“Come on, please slow down,” I panted after only a few minutes. “I can’t keep up.”

The lion man stopped and turned toward me, rolling his eyes. Apparently, that expression was universal between our worlds.

“Are all humans as weak and slow as you?”

His voice was somewhere between a growl and intelligible speech. I was reminded of Clint Eastwood before he turned into a mummy. 

I wilted under his stern gaze and speech.

“I’m sorry. I’ve never been in the jungle before. I’m not even supposed to be here, you see. I was supposed to be sent to a population center. At least, I think that was the plan.”

His eyes burned hard and hot as coals. Then he snorted and turned his back, walking away from me again. This time, though, he slowed his pace enough that I could keep up. 

It still remained far from a casual stroll, but at least I wasn’t being left behind.

I hurried my pace for a half dozen strides, ignoring my aching calves, walking abreast of him. He didn’t look at me, but I could tell he knew I was there.

“So, ah…what’s your name?”

He didn’t respond immediately. His hand reached out and grasped a stout branch blocking our path. He bent it back, careful not to break it though I knew he had the strength to splinter the branch into kindling. 

Then he turned back to me with an expectant glare. I finally realized he’d held the branch out of the way for me and ducked underneath.

Once I reached the other side, he finally spoke.

“Reo.”

“Nice to meet you, Reo. I’m Nina, in case you’ve forgotten. So, how’d you find me? I wound up teleporting to the wrong planet.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I didn’t?”

He shook his head, still not looking at me. His gaze remained focused down the path ahead.

“I didn’t? But if that’s so, how come no one was there to greet me? I was told specifically that I was supposed to meet people there.”

He paused, turning to me with his leonine features.

You know what? I was shocked by his appearance at first, but now I think he’s actually rather handsome. Very distinguished, too. This is no barbarian, despite the fact he’s not wearing much clothing.

It was true. He wore a leather breechcloth keeping his rippling torso and thick legs visible. I’m pretty sure the circumference of his muscular thighs was greater than my waist.

“The teleportation device malfunctioned. You should’ve arrived safely in the palace. Instead, you were sent to an old rallying point half a day away.”

I pursed my lips into a frown.

“Wait, what? How’s that possible? I thought Mahdfel tech was infallible.”

He turned a brief glare my way.

“How the fuck should I know? Do I look like a scientist?”

“No,” I agreed. “You look like a warrior. I’m assuming you’re a man at arms, or a guard for Prince Nafaria, the man I’m matched with. Am I right?”

He flinched a bit at the prince’s name, but otherwise didn’t respond.

We walked for what felt like hours, but probably was only one, if that. 

Going through the jungle proved harder than I would’ve thought. The game trail wasn’t a sidewalk, it wound crazily through the jungle. 

He took it all in stride, but I had a hard time keeping up.

I almost collapsed with relief when he called a halt next to a steep river bank overlooking a blue ribbon of rushing water. I settled onto a moss covered rock and sighed, rubbing my calves. I thought I got a good workout as a dog walker. 

It turned out, not so much.

I guess all those paleo enthusiasts who think you should run up hills and crap have a point after all.

Reo reached into a leather pouch at his side and withdrew what looked like dried fruits. He handed me a few, and I was surprised when my belly rumbled. 

I bit into one and it tasted a bit like a fig, but maybe with a bit of plum thrown in as well.

He then handed me a sloshing leather bag. When I looked at it suspiciously, he spoke.

“Water. Drink. I can’t have you collapsing. I’m not carrying you.”

I unstopped the top and tilted it back, noticing the waterskin had a patch branded into it. It appeared to be a cat’s paw clutching an ax and a sword, their blades pointing out in opposite directions. 

Name brand? Or a royal seal? 

More and more it seemed likely Reo must be one of the prince’s guards.

The water was warm and tasted of leather, but it was wet. I guzzled half of it before I worried I was rude. I handed it back to him and he shook his head.

“Keep it for now.”

He leaped up onto a boulder taller than I without apparent effort. Then he crouched down, nose testing the wind, rounded ears moving independently of each other on top of his head.

He’s certainly not Mr. Congeniality. But he saved my life and now he’s taking care of me. I’ll have to ask the prince to give him a commendation or something.

Maybe he’s not as mean as he seems?

A dark shape skittered across the sky, darkening the river with its shadow. He stood up, body tense like a bow string and watched it go, trailing smoke in its wake.

“Was that a ship?” I asked.

He growled in response.

“Suhlik.” He spat the word like it was a curse. I felt a shiver travel down my spine. 

Suhlik were the ones the treaty protected us from. Reptilian and coldblooded as the snakes they resembled, the Suhlik were galactic boogeymen for good reason.

“We’ll take a slight detour,” he growled, still watching the direction the ship went. “It can’t be helped.”

I started to ask where we were going, then thought better of it. I didn’t think I wanted to know the answer.

Most sane people ran from the Suhlik. I got the feeling Reo had the exact opposite plan in mind.

Oh boy. This day just keeps getting crazier and crazier.