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CHAPTER ONE
Sofie
My footfalls thumped against the ground as I dodged around one of the alien trees that surrounded me. Sliding to a halt, I pressed my back against the golden bark of its trunk and fought to slow my breathing.
Mierda, I’m being too loud. They’ll find me.
A ripple of wind cooled the sweat on my cheeks, carrying the spicy scent of cinnamon. I still hadn’t figured out what plant made that smell, but I breathed deep, enjoying this one tiny hint of the familiar. Green pom-poms swayed overhead, letting through slashes of bright sunlight that set the orange underbrush ablaze. The frilly balls decorating the branches of the trees looked like flowers but must have been leaves. Or maybe both? Hell if I knew. I was a mining engineer and a metallurgist, which was about as far from botanist as you could get.
Not that I got to be anything so grand anymore. Nope. My college degree meant nada in this place. Less than nothing.
Here, I was only a pet.
A rustle sounded behind me, and my heart sped up.
Should I run again?
Prurg made the decision for me, leaping from the orange fern-thing to my left with a growl, his paws raised to show off his claws.
“Oh, no!” I clapped my hands to my cheeks and shrieked, overacting as hard as I could.
Prarr pounced from the right, her snout split into a snarl-smile that showed an impressive amount of teeth, even for a kid. She play-bit my knee, putting no real pressure behind the bite. We’d had an accident our first day, and even if I didn’t know the language, I’d understood her mother chewing her out for damaging the new pet.
The two lizard aliens swarmed me, latching onto my legs in seriously strong hugs, even though they only reached my mid-thigh. Golden eyes with diamond-shaped pupils looked up at me beseechingly. I leaned over and patted their backs, the green scales firm and slick. “You got me! You got me good!” The kids wouldn’t understand me, but they always responded well to the sound of approval.
Prurg stepped away and thumped a fist to the yellow scales covering his chest. His heavy tail lashed behind him. A series of growls and clicks came from him as he pointed off into the jungle. He wanted to play again.
“Okay, one more round of hide and seek.” Though the way they played, it turned into “run and hunt.” But whatever, it was all good. It had to be. This was my life now.
Prarr still hadn’t let go of me, and her brother stepped forward, hand raised to give her a smack.
“Don’t!” I threw my arm up. Hell, I was supposed to be their pet, not their nanny, but I kept intervening.
You’ve got to stop applying human sensibilities to aliens, Sof. These lizards were rough and tumble… and always getting angry. Prarr would give back as good as she got—from everything I’d seen, the female lizards were just as large and strong as the males—but that wasn’t the point. I didn’t like how much they hit each other.
Prurg bared his teeth at me but dropped his hand when his sister let go. Then he jabbed a clawed finger toward the deeper jungle.
“Yes sir, sir.” I snapped him a salute, knowing he wouldn’t get the sarcasm, and took off at a lope. Say what you will about being made to play every day with alien lizard kids—it got you in shape.
I’d been really woozy when the aliens first brought me out of cryo, unable to understand what was happening. A human medic was supposed to wake me onARK 1, the ship I’d left Earth in. But instead, a huge gray pyramid of a thing grumbled and groaned at me, sounding just like rocks in a crusher.
Then it thrust me forward, into the waiting arms of a six-foot tall, upright lizard. Too out of it to do more than gape, I stared wide-eyed at the snout… and all the teeth. So many teeth!
It snapped something harsh, plucking at my flimsy, white cryo onesie with disdain. The conversation whirled around me, each side speaking what sounded like a different language.
My eyes finally cleared enough to focus on the plain metal wall behind the lizard holding me. The ceiling hung only a few feet overhead, covered in industrial lights, and the scuffed metal decking was cool and hard through my thin slippers. Crates in various colors surrounded us, like the cargo hold of a spaceship.
The argument finished, and the lizard alien—because that’s what these had to be, aliens—spun me around and marched toward a bright golden rectangle. I squinted, my eyes adjusting to the sunlight of my new planet. Only it wasn’t a second home for humanity. Nope, this one belonged to the lizards.
Just like I did.
So here I was, an exotic pet, keeping these two entertained.
I ducked around another golden tree trunk, trying not to rustle the orange ferns and give myself away. The shoes the lizards had made me were like sneakers, with soft rubbery soles. The golden-brown pants and a long-sleeved shirt were made out of stretchy material, more like the fabric used in pajamas than something made for toughing it in an alien jungle. But I couldn’t complain. The lizards didn’t wear clothes, and when I’d refused to remove my white cryo onesie the second day, it hadn’t taken them long to bring me something. Almost as if they knew aliens who wore clothes like I did.
Were there other humans in this new world? Conflicting emotions raced through me. I didn’t want to be alone. But I sure as hell didn’t wish this on any of the other women of the expedition, either.
Sweat trickled down my face in a tickle, and I wiped it away and kept running. My breath bellowed in and out of my lungs—I was getting into the zone. What would happen if I didn’t let them catch me? If I just kept on going?
