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?? CHAPTER 15 ??
Ryle
My crew has much to tell when I return to them. Much to share. They’ve built precarious lean-to shacks along the riverbed, which has re-dried since the mudslide. We gather around a campfire and share meat. They’ve caught an animal that the aliens - the humans - don’t want to eat. They’re still stubbornly sticking to their travel rations. As if they’ll be leaving this planet for their intended destination. Perhaps they will, but it won’t be soon.
“Trecol hasn’t woken,” Shorek reports. “The humans have him in their medical bay right now.”
“That is not good. I am sorry to hear it.” I was certain that our injured teammate would have woken by now. He, the best trained pilot amongst us, was injured in the crash. He’d tried to take control of the ship as we hurtled to the ground. But it was impossible. Out of our control.
But he will wake up. This planet hasn’t failed us yet.
“Tell us what you saw of this place,” Zoxsym says.
“Nevermind what I saw,” I say, tearing a mouthful of meat from the bone. I wonder what the creature was before they killed and cooked it. Predator? I want to know what sort of animals I’ll be facing as I protect Maysee from all the dangers of this place. “Crashing here was a miracle, right?” I say, and they all nod in agreement. “Something even greater has happened.” I pause, meeting the eyes of my closest friends. The mottled greens and grays Zoxsym. All grays Shorek. Kinoth, shades of indigo. “I’ve found my mate.”
The dramatic pause pays off. They lean back and gasp in shock. “Your mate?” golden Amcyth asks. “How?”
“You witnessed. We were swept away. It’s her.”
They exchange glances. “It seems impossible, but look at you,” Zoxsym says. It’s true. My muscles grew larger, my skin tougher, my senses sharper, all in response to my mate. Maysee.
“We have been close to these humans,” Amcyth says. “None of us have responded as you have.”
I hear the doubt in his voice, and the envy. “You may yet,” I say gently. “Remember Riom.”
Riom was one of our team back at our barracks. He was one of us. No different. No better or worse. There was a female who worked in the kitchens - Siemo. We all saw her nearly every day. She served stews on our training days, baked and served bread on our rest days. We thanked her by name whenever we weren’t too drained to speak.
One day, with nothing special going on and nothing different that I can remember, Riom’s mating pulse roused for her. He grew stronger, excelled in our training, beat all of our records - but he defected as soon as Siemo bought tickets for a ship to leave the planet.
I sometimes like to imagine that they’re together somewhere else. Happy. But I don’t believe that’s what happened. None of us could leave. None of us could escape. We’re always found. And then, eliminated.
“What’s it like?” all blues Wroz asks. “The female, I mean. We’ve been working with them to fix their ship and bolster their camp. They don’t like us to get too close, though. We make exchanges down here. Sometimes Draxyk goes up to help them move heavy things, but you know how talkative he is.”
The emerald Draxyk grunts in reply.
“They’re... soft,” I say. “Fragile. Very fragile. And they talk fast.” That they readily agree with, having witnessed it themselves. “She’s foolhardy. No sense of self-preservation, no sense of how easily damaged she is. But she’s resourceful. Clever. I enjoy making her laugh, very much...” I trail off, wondering what my mate is doing right now. The camp seems safe, but is it? I grow restless at the thought of potential catastrophes. “I worry about her all the time. That part of the mating pulse is challenging. I see danger where there is none. Disaster around every corner.”
“Fuck that. What about the actual mating?” Zoxsym demands.
“I have not pulsed inside her yet,” I say, and I sigh. “I don’t know if it’s common to all humans, but she is slow to welcome any touch at all. I have invited her to fuck, but she was shocked and upset. But I’ve earned more of her trust since then. She has slowly become open to some touch...” I think I’ll wait for another day to describe kissing. It will blow their minds. “We have to remember these humans don’t share the same internal systems. They may have no mating nodes at all. So should you find a mate amongst them, she may be slow to embrace you. But I believe it can be earned.”
They nod to themselves, each now deep in thought. Could they find their mates here? Does this planet have more miracles in store for us? I believe it myself.
Soon they change the subject and ask what else I saw. I describe what we found in the caves - the strange smelling mushrooms. That alien archive room - the bunks supporting the rows of huge flat stones. The mysterious door. The bog, and its dangers. They tell me of the animals they’ve killed, the tech they’ve plundered from our crash, their attempts to brew alcohol, because, priorities. I grow tired and they finally hustle me off to one of the lean-tos, assuring me that there’s enough, and they will build more.
Once I’m alone, with my CommPad finally reconnected, I find the human network and send Maysee’s tablet a message. “It pains me to be separated from you,” I write, and I hope that the translator doesn’t butcher it too badly.
“I am away from you also,” she writes back. Okay, I think the dictionary needs a lot of work. I’m still very glad that we have it. “I won’t be able to sleep until you promise me another kiss. Then I’ll dream of it.”
“Affirm!” Another message appears more slowly. A picture of her face appears, lips pursed and eyes scrunched shut. The sight of her makes my heart swell and my mating pulse thunder. For a moment, I clutch the device to my chest. I’m hard again. I always am when it comes to her. She did like seeing it that night in the tiny cave. Perhaps she’d like to see it again?
I send a photo quickly, eager for her reply. But no reply comes.
Too much. I’ve overdone it again.
