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“We’re fixing our ship,” I say. “Will you fix yours?”
“Our ship no.” He shakes his head for extra emphasis.
“Don’t you want to go home?”
“No.” A darkness crosses his face. I wonder again just where he’s from. What it was like. I’m imagining high tech alien cities, bright lights and flying cars, utopias. Maybe I’m way wrong.
“You’ll stay here?” I ask.
He shrugs. “We stay here. Stay with humans.” He touches my knee. “I stay with you.”
Oh. I had no idea that was part of his plan. That... I don’t hate it. I rest my hand atop his. It’s nice to be so close to him again. To touch him. Even after just one night apart. How the heck did I become so attached to him like this?
“Can we use your ship?” I ask.
“No jump fuel. No blast fuel. Can not make.” He shrugs. “Use parts but can not leave planet.”
“Parts.” My hand pats his as I think. It makes him grin. “Well. Maybe the engineer can ponder that one. Tech is above my head.”
“Above?” He looks up.
“It’s an expression,” I laugh.
“Ahh,” he says. “Lie words.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I don’t lie to you.”
“Maysee.” He lifts my hand and kisses the back of it. How I wish in that moment he could wrap his arms around me, lift me up, hide us away. But his crew is out of the water now, and mine are getting up and stretching their legs. It’s time to move once again. No alone time with my alien today.
Later that night, though, when my team is snoring in the two cramped camping tents and the Rurim sit guard outside, I send Ryle the picture that he drew of us. Not the naughty one. The sweet one, where he’s holding me and we’re both smiling.
Ryle, being Ryle, replies with a brand new doodle of his head between my thighs. I shouldn’t be so surprised. At least it wasn’t another dick pic!
... not that I would have complained.
?????
My estimation was correct, and just after our second day of walking, we arrive at the towering block of an engine. Stella took pictures and video along the route, and now she circles the engine and transmits all the information back to the camp. She left a relay of transmitters between here and there to allow communication.
I return to my own work while she focuses on hers. There’s one image on one of the later stone panels that’s bugging me. It looks like a flood. That hurricane was scary. I don’t like the thought of that kind of storm being a regular thing. I flip back to the weather chart - the oddly precise weather chart - when something bonks me on the head. That better not be Ryle, I will bonk him right back.
Instead, I spot one of those mossy bog monkeys giggling from a branch in a nearby tree. The journey was quiet all the way here, and these monkeys weren’t hanging out near the engine before. We only saw them near the pond. Did this little guy deliberately search for us? I hear a chittering behind me and spot another one of them. How many are out here?
“Uh, you guys? Watch out for these monkeys.” I rise to my feet. “They’re a little mischievous.”
“They’re cute!” Skye declares. She snaps a photo of one of them. It chirps at her and flicks an acorn-like object in her direction. She laughs.
There’s a shout from the other side of the engine, followed by several thuds. One of the girls shrieks, “Monkeys?!” I can’t see what’s happening, but I can guess.
I spot Stella completing another circuit. “Are you almost done?” I ask her. “I feel like we should get out of here.”
“Almost,” she mutters, not even looking up at me. Something shaped like a pinecone bounces off of her head. She doesn’t react at all. “This thing weighs more than we can push or pull. The bulldozer is working, but even that...” She looks up to the top of it. Then turns and looks up into the trees. Another pinecone smacks her right between the eyes.
She blinks for a moment, then returns to her notes. “Monkey interference,” she mumbles, “Just great.”
Hope and Quinn suddenly take off running, a small mob of monkeys on their heels. “I told you not to feed them!” Hope shrieks.
Amcyth scoops one up from their trail and holds it caged between his two huge hands. “Don’t hurt it!” I and several other voices shout.
