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Chapter 2 – Himari
“You need to stop taunting Aidro,” my friend Caroline said as we worked together on cleaning out a big metal crate of some sort that we planned to use for housing. This was not how this mission was supposed to have gone. I planned to come out of it as an acclaimed biologist, famous for terraforming a new planet. Species across the galaxy would colonize it together, and I’d get all kinds of accolades.
Instead, a navigation error or something had led us here, to Merax 9. We’d crashed on a dangerous planet, and considering how far we were from civilization I doubted that there’d be any critical acclaim flowing my way. Or chance of rescue. I was going to have to put up with Aidro for a long damn time.
“Uli said he almost strangled you yesterday.”
“Oh, he wouldn’t actually strangle me. He’s a big softie,” I said, waving her away. Although Aidro had looked fairly angry. I didn’t know why I enjoyed egging the big guy on, but I did. The way he looked when his muscles all tensed, when his entire focus was on me. I shuddered, a sudden warmth overcoming me.
“Are you sure about that? He’s a hardened criminal and a smuggler.”
I thought about that for a minute. “Nope, I don’t think so. I mean, I know he’s a smuggler, but like a nice smuggler.” I did realize how delusional that sounded.
“Uli says he’s dangerous,” Caroline said. I glanced at my friend, who was helping me dig out an area for a garden within the boundaries of our secure area. The soil here was a rich dark brown, perfect for growing things, and I was excited to try.
“Is your husband a good judge of dangerous? He’s also a sweet cinnamon roll,” I said.
“Uli’s a hacker. Aidro’s a fighter.” Caroline had been the first of the humans to fall for one of the big blue aliens we were stuck on this planet with, but probably wouldn’t be the last. They were all crazy sexy. She had been the pilot on our ship, until the ancient Meraxian AI defense system—a holdover from when it had been populated—had destroyed it. The Tholkons, including Aidro, had rescued us, though I wasn’t entirely sure why. Supposedly they were a group of hardened criminals, but they didn’t seem all that hard. Least of all Aidro, who tolerated me with a sort of sexy grumpiness. “So they rescued us because they’re evil? Why risk themselves, then?”
Caroline shot me a confused look. “They rescued us because Uli heard my voice and knew I was his soulmate. That doesn’t mean Aidro is a nice guy.”
“It kind of does, though, doesn’t it? He cared about making his friend happy.” I reached for one of the strange little berry bushes that we’d dug up outside the perimeter and planted it. The berries were good, but we needed to find some nuts or seeds and some starchy vegetables. Something that would give our people more calories.
“Himari, be careful with Aidro, okay? Uli has told me things.”
“Is it wrong that thinking he’s dangerous makes him kind of hotter? Like, he’s sort of full of himself to be attractive, but if he’s full of himself and dangerous maybe I can get behind that.”
Caroline laughed. “You’re crazy. And there comes my big cinnamon roll now.” We both looked up to see her husband, who was a tall, broad-shouldered, blue-skinned Tholkon. Uli, unlike Aidro, seemed pretty chill, always smiling and cracking jokes. He had an obsession with learning human curse words, and an even bigger obsession with Caroline. She jumped into his arms with a squeal and kissed him almost too raunchily. They were big on PDA, and it made those of us who didn’t have anyone to get us through the cold nights on this planet a little jealous.
I sighed and wandered out to the edge of our encampment, looking around. The safe perimeter was marked by a series of posts, topped by a sort of weapon—an electrical device designed to disable drones that passed too close. Danger lurked beyond, supposedly. I’d yet to witness one of the massive mechanical creatures that we were all supposed to fear, though I’d seen Aidro’s crew dragging in the big metal carcasses of drones that had been disabled to salvage parts off of them. When Uli, Caroline, and Aidro had fought them on the ship I’d been locked away in their brig with the rest of the humans, and I hadn’t learned what was happening until we’d crashed. Until Aidro had yanked open the door to our prison and told us that we might as well come outside.
Supposedly, our android enemies were invisible to the human eye, so… basically, I was forming a lot of conspiracy theories at this point. There were some plants outside the barrier that I really wanted to study, and Aidro was making me take a security contingent with me everywhere, which was annoying. I scanned the vegetation around the crash site, looking for edible plants. I’d been on some planets where the plants were wildly different from Earth’s, and some planets where plants didn’t even exist, but these plants were startlingly similar to the ones I’d grown up studying. This plant looked like a rhubarb, and I wondered if it was edible as well.
I needed to test it for toxins, and the effort to find Orze and ask him to stand guard while I walked four feet seemed overbearing. I would simply grab a stalk and—
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Shit, I was caught. I turned to see Aidro standing there, in all of his shirtless, obnoxious magnificence. He was so damn tall, his muscled body rippling under that long black jacket; the one that made him look like he was an action hero. His blue skin was flecked with metallic spots, almost gold, and I wanted to touch them, to skim my fingers over his stomach and explore the rigid muscles of his stomach. Aidro cleared his throat and I looked back up at his face, caught gaping at him again.
He had a huge axe strapped to his back. Why? Probably because he thought it looked cool.
“I just wanted to grab some stalks of this plant to test them for toxins. They’re everywhere, so it would really be a good source of nutrition. Don’t worry, I’ll come right back.”
“Get back on this side of the barrier, Himari. Now.” His voice was firm and commanding. I didn’t like being bossed around so I ignored him and leaned over, tugging on a plant. He reached for me, ready to pull me back across the barrier, I was sure. But before he could grab my hand, atremor of danger tickled down my spine. There was something behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw nothing, but in an instant I was yanked off of the ground and hurled through space.
Who was screaming? Was that me? Aidro’s eyes widened, and he pulled out that axe and gave chase, sprinting towards danger when he should have run away for it. He gave a great leap, slamming the metal blade into the thing that had me with a roar. Fuck, he was magnificent. The thing sped up, skimming across the expanse, and I was still screaming, maybe.
The drone’s grip on me tightened, squeezing me so much that it hurt. I tugged at the claw that held me, crying out in pain. Aidro shouted something, but I couldn’t hear him over the whir of the engines. He moved out of my sight line, and for a moment I thought he’d jumped off, or fallen, and ditched me.
Then there was another feral sort of growl andI glanced over my shoulder, looking for Aidro, hoping like hell that he was still with me. Could we fight this thing together and win? He had disabled these beasts before, and I felt like an idiot for not trusting him when he’d asked me to move back to safety. When I spotted him, a mix of relief and alarm coursed through me. Like a lunatic, he was climbing on the invisible thing, though I could now see some of it. There was a sparking gash where he had hit it with his axe. He raised the axe over his head. “I don’t think that’s a very good idea!” I yelled.
“Since when are you worried about good ideas?” he yelled back.And with a roar that told me he thought he was very macho, he swung again.
The drone sparked, making a strange high-pitched noise, and started spinning wildly. It became visible at least, and it was definitely some sort of robot monster. Conspiracy theory debunked. Aidro slipped, grappling for purchase on the metal hull, then slid again.
“No!” I screamed, lunging in the drone’s grip asI grabbed for him. I didn’t want him to get hurt when he fell, and I didn’t want to be alone. I wanted him with me. Apparently he wanted that, too, because as we spun towards the side of a mountain he flew past me, reaching out at the last minute to grab my hand and clinging to me, climbing my arm to wrap himself around my legs.
