This one is all on Robbie and Pam.
“Proximity Alert. Unknown Spatial Anomaly. Twenty thousand kilometers to port.”
As the cool, androgynous voice of the computer mindlessly spat out its warning, Justin rolled his chair over to the navigation console, cut off the blaring emergency signal and keyed up a visual of the jewel-like solar system he stumbled into hours before. The blazing, blue, twin stars serenely danced together in the velvet blackness to the starboard side, along with the first three barren gems of planets. To port were the other three, a bright emerald beauty of a world and two bright gas giants beyond that. Nothing else, especially an object big enough to be an anomaly. Then again, Justin wasn’t an astrophysicist by any stretch of the imagination, so how would he know?
The instruments weren’t telling him anything he could decipher either. Only that his ship, the Nitti, was caught in some kind of gravity sink and was being pulled towards it, and the fourth planet incidentally. The rest of the information scrolling across his screen controlled by the outdated sensor array looked like a whole bunch of science techno-jargon he did not understand. So Justin did what he did best and fell back to standard operating procedure.
Well, at least emergency protocol wasn’t rocket science. “Okay, computer. Let’s try a full stop first.”
“Executing full stop.”
A lurching grind as the thrusters cut out was the first clue that something was seriously wrong, the second was his ship still moving, drifting port side and down. That was a bit disconcerting, but he clamped down on his urge to panic like some green recruit. “Why didn’t we stop?”
“Gravitational pull increased. Eighteen thousand kilometers to anomaly and closing.”
That wasn’t an outcome he was expecting. Shit. He was starting to think that maybe he should have stayed a soldier. This exploring nonsense wasn’t going to end well for him, he could feel it. “Full reverse, full power.”
The computer complied, and the ship gave a jerk, pulling against the thing that had his ship trapped with no success. The sudden blare of the warning klaxon was deafening.
“Warning. Hull compromised. Venting oxygen. Ten minutes until oxygen levels reach critical low.”
“So let’s try something else.” Of course, the computer didn’t answer Justin, not that he wanted it to. Stupid machine. Wracking his brain, he finally latched on to another possibility. “Let’s try full power to thrusters and break out going forward, on my mark.”
“Warning. Possibility of further entanglement with anomaly’s gravitational pull.”
“Gotta take that risk. Directional controls to console.” The control panel lit up like an electrical storm, neon blues and greens adding to the bright lights of the blue suns coming from the view screen. Sweat starting to bead along his forehead and dampened his dark brown hair. If this didn’t work, he would become a grease stain on the atmosphere of the stunning world he was starting to hurtle toward, if he was lucky. “Full power in three, two, one. Mark!”
The sudden surge of speed pinned Justin to his chair for half a heartbeat.
“Spatial anomaly fifteen thousand meters and closing. Imminent collision in five minutes, forty seconds. Oxygen levels continuing to decline. Six minutes of air remaining.”
Damn, that was bad. “If this works, how long will it take to break free of the anomaly?”
“Unknown.”
“Great.” Just what he needed. Another thing to fuck things up. He started to very slowly direct the Nitti, aiming for the northern pole of the planet the anomaly seemed closest to. Hopefully he could pass over it and use it as a shield while he patched up the hull.
A sudden jump in acceleration had Justin gritting his teeth, trying not to let his fear swamp him. He continued his course correction, banking just a little harder and trying to coax his suddenly leveling ship to nose just a little higher. “Why are we are going faster?”
“Unknown.”
“Well, something had to cause it!” Yelling at the computer wasn’t going to help matters, but it sure did give him some outlet for his stress. He just wished he dared to move a hand off the control panel so he could punch the damn thing. “Do a sensor sweep and see if anything else is boosting the pull of the anomaly.”
“Unknown.”
Justin was quickly losing patience and his calm. “Did you even complete the sensor sweep?”
“Unknown.”
An icy trickle of fear broke through his control and made its way down Justin’s spine. It was nothing short of a miracle, and probably his military training, that this part of procedure he remembered perfectly. “Diagnostic of ship’s systems.”
“Unknown.”
Justin moved fast, pushed over to the other end of the panel, and input his override code into the computer. It was a matter of seconds before Justin was manually patched into the entire system, bypassing the suddenly malfunctioning standard interface. Fingers dancing over the keys, Justin brought up the ship’s status.
His heart started racing.
Warning: Auxiliary power failure
Warning: Sensors failing
Warning: Engine failing
Warning: Oxygen depletion imminent
Warning: Main computer failure
Warning: Hull compromised
Justin looked away from the litany of death scrolling across the console screen. Naturally, his eyes were drawn to the glowing jewel of a world and the mint-colored clouds that swirled in its atmosphere.
Inspiration struck him like a lightning strike, because only potentially habitable worlds had air currents if he remembered his science right. Justin pulled up the sensor program and ran it, hoping the stupid thing worked enough to at least tell him what kind of atmosphere it might have.
The ship bucked again, doing a strange shimmy, and then picked up more speed just as the sensors relayed back the planet’s information. Justin cursed his luck and gave the data display a quick glance before sliding back over to the directional controls. Class M. He could breathe on that green ball of salvation.
It was a slim hope to hold on to.
The neon lights of the directional controls flickered erratically for a couple of precious seconds but stayed lit and functional, which was a miracle in and of itself. Justin acted quickly, nosing his ship down, trying his damnedest to aim for the planet peacefully floating in space below him and locking in the route. Without the computer to guide him, it was a crapshoot.
When he was sure there was nothing else he could do, Justin sat back in the chair and buckled in.
Justin watched the stunning planet grow larger in the slowly dimming view screen intently and prayed to the Gods he hoped were really watching over people like him. The Nitti hit the outer atmosphere like it was a slab of concert, but somehow the ship managed to hold together.
The quick deceleration made him light-headed. Seconds later and the deafening impact with the ground was the last thing he heard as the darkness consumed him.
* * * *
Justin grimaced as he hefted the med kit out from under the upturned navigation panel. His hands still shook with adrenaline. He’d woken up with a start, Gods know how long after impact. He was still feeling slightly buzzed with the threat of death, his mind on autopilot. He was sure the shock would come later.
The console next to him sparked bright, too close to his face. He took that as his cue and slid the kit across the battered floor, managing to get it pretty close to the half-shattered exit hatch. The minor scuffs, bruises, and sprains that littered his body could wait. Justin scrambled to his feet and ducked around the hanging bits of his ship’s command cabin. With more energy than Justin really wanted to use, he shouldered the hydraulic door to the sleeping quarters open.
Most of his belongings were flung everywhere. Clothes spilled out of the compartments, boots and tools scattered across the deck, what few personal treasures he owned were in pieces all over the place. Only the bedding seemed where he left it. Justin grit his teeth at the mess and got to work.
He snatched up the first duffel bag he stumbled across and started stuffing clothes haphazardly in it. The other two bags were similarly packed and Justin dropped all three just outside the forced door before turning back to the rest of the mess. The couple of holographs he had of his old squad were done for and so was the miniature Rilexan harp Justin loved to play. He bypassed all that and went for the secure cubbyhole hidden behind the wall panel between a couple of shelves. The nearly invisible pressure lock gave way as soon as he poked it, the door swinging open on silent hinges.
It was a squeeze to get his hand in, but Justin managed it faster than normal, the memory of sparking wires spurring him on. When his hand closed around nothing up shattered glass, Justin cursed quietly. Without the subcutaneous tracker, Justin would be impossible to find on this world, if by some miracle the world itself could be found. Damn thing didn’t work if it wasn’t implanted and the glass injector housing it to keep it sterile busted in the crash, he assumed. Another thing to look into if he ever got off this rock. And if the syringe was broken, that meant suspension fluid in it had soaked his translator tech sitting underneath it. Shit.
The lights surged for a heartbeat before settling and Justin abandoned everything else for the moment. Once he had a camp set up, he’d be back to salvage what he could and see if the Nitti could be fixed.
Justin hustled back to flight control and pulled open another wall panel, triggered the manual override, and punched the button to shut down the ship. He wasn’t going anywhere near the consoles again until they were powered down. The six hours that it took for the full power down would be plenty of time to find a secured spot to hole up.
Finally, Justin picked up two of the big duffels and popped the hatch with an elbow, breathing a sigh of relief when the damned door opened with no problem. With the way he felt, Justin knew he that muscling the heavy hatch door open was something he wasn’t up for. He dropped the bags out the door to land on the startlingly lavender-colored grass a handful of feet below. Giving one last glance around his damaged ship, Justin grabbed the last duffel and the kit, throwing the first out of the opening and then hopped out himself, kit in hand. No reason to risk breaking the fragile medical supplies too.
Landing with a hiss of discomfort, Justin lurched upright and grabbed the closest bag. Damn thing seemed heavier than a minute ago. He glanced around before deciding to take shelter in the trees to the left of his ship. Looked to be the densest clump of forest around.
It took a while to drag the duffels under the shelter of the tree line, but he managed it before his energy ran out. Barely. Wasn’t until Justin started rummaging around through his packs that he noticed the glaring error. Annoyed, Justin kicked at his bags.
Forgot to grab his damned rations.
A groan escaped Justin as he stood up. Damn it, he was tired. Better to get his rations out of the ship now though, as opposed to trying tomorrow when he would be too sore to navigate the wreck safely. Still needed to find a secure place to bed down, in case there were predator animals on the planet. Then sleep. Justin could sleep for ages at this point.
He hobbled his way back and strained getting up into his ship. The ramp was jammed in its slot, so Justin forced himself to jump and scramble in. Galley was a wreck, but the emergency rations were still intact. Justin snatched up the whole box, just in case. Same shit getting the box out and Justin swore he was going to refit his ship with a manual ramp control for next time.
As he was straightening up with, thankfully, his last load, he stopped abruptly, face to face with a ruby-eyed creature whose skin was the color of steel and a riot of dusky brown fur. He dropped the box, surprised, when the being spoke.
“Sah,” and a tumble of sounds spilled out of the faintly pronounced mouth. When it brandished a spear in his face, Justin careful raised his hands before dropping to his knees, his eyes automatically lowering to the grass. Best to seem as harmless as possible.
The alien in front of him moved away, but stayed well within spear reach. From his peripheral vision, it came off as the posture Justin himself would take for questioning an unknown, but apparently non-hostile, person. Without the being blocking his line of sight, Justin chanced it and glanced up, got a good look at how truly, probably, fucked he was. A semi-circle of a dozen spear-wielding aliens had trapped him. Massive beings, the shortest two standing as tall as Justin and the tallest one well over seven feet, the rest falling somewhere in between.
All were solidly built, arms and legs corded and long. Their short, sleek pelts ranged in a wild variety of colors, covering their bodies everywhere except the thick chests and hard bellies where the skin colors contrasted severely. All wore some sort of wrap around the hips, the boldly colored fabrics secured with clasp at the side and the cloth came all the way down to the strangely backward-bending knees. The aliens stood on the balls of their lightly furred feet, toes splayed wide for balance.
A quieter voice spoke more unintelligible words, and Justin looked up towards the speaker. Silver eyes caught him fast. This one, not as big as some, but carrying an authoritative air, started gesturing at him in a universal order to stand. Justin did so, and the rest of the being’s facial details started filtering into his awareness. The long and glossy mane of black hair tumbling around the alien’s face, parting high on either side of the large skull to make way for the tall and velvety pointed ears. High-slanting cheekbones and strangely triangular nose gave the creature an almost canine appearance, but the lush mouth and square jaw looked damned human. The black fur was absent from the alien face, revealing skin as pale as true ivory. Silver Eyes, as he privately named the being, issued what seemed to be an abrupt command, flashing very sharp teeth in the process.
Steel Skin grabbed him before Silver Eyes finished talking, wrenched Justin’s arms behind his back, and bound them together with a coarse rope. That was as rough as any of them got with him. A gentle nudge to the shoulder had Justin moving quietly along, the aliens coming around to encircle him with Steel Skin bringing up the rear. Resigned to it for the moment, Justin instead focused on the predatory grace with which Silver Eyes, walking in front of him, moved. The soldier in him appreciated the quick lightness of Silver Eyes’ walk, alert but steady. The human in him was a little unnerved by the long, black, sleek tail.
* * * *
“Jahstan.”
Justin looked at the open doorway, unsurprised to see Sajah, the silver-eyed alien that had bound him at his ship’s wreckage, entering his tiny hovel.
Two weeks ago, when they’d marched Justin through the circular cluster of the village, bound as a prisoner, he wouldn’t have anticipated befriending any of them, let alone one of their leaders. Captive as he was, however, Justin didn’t begrudge the natives their wariness.
His hut was small, sparsely furnished, and the food left much to be desired, namely meat, but he hadn’t been mistreated. Besides, there was a window at least, and Justin found some amusement at watching the natives at his most bored points of the day. Watching the warriors train in the clearing, just visible between the two adjacent huts to his own, Justin had been able to glean a small amount of information about his keeper, Sajah. The alien had to be very high in the command chain, if the diffidence the warriors paid him was any indication.
As the hulking native approached the small table on the far side of the hut, Justin rose to his feet to meet him. “Hey, Sajah,” he greeted with a light chuckle. “Talk?”
They’d taken him down to the river yesterday to bathe and lie in the sun, something that had become a ritual since he arrived. He wondered, idly, if that it was custom among these people to be so fastidious with hygiene or if his human odor was just that offensive. At any rate, it wasn’t bath day, and his morning meal had already come and been devoured, so he was leaning toward ‘social call’ for this visit.
“Slept?” Sajah began with his customary questions. The ‘L’ was just above too soft to hear and the ‘T’ was more a click of Sajah’s teeth than a solid consonant, but Justin understood it all the same. It became easier with each interaction to decipher the nuances of Sajah’s valiant efforts at a new language.
“Yes, very well, thank you.” He wasn’t lying either. There was a soothing vibe to the whole area and even the quiet sounds of the wild animals in the distance seemed to add to the calmness. Almost too peaceful, truth be told.
“How are the villagers?” Not that he had really met any of them but it was a good conversation starter and a question the being knew. Anuht, his primary guard, tended to keep him away from the others whenever Justin needed to leave the hut, which was usually only to go to the stream to bathe. But he saw them at a distance, busy with tasks around the place, guarding the perimeter, cooking. He and Anuht had been lucky enough to run into one or two of the inhabitants. The handful of encounters always went the same though. His guard would call out a greeting, at least that’s what Justin assumed, and the other being would answer back. Justin said his hello, hoping the sentiment was conveyed. The alien would answer in kind, but with a lowering of the head and none of them would meet his eyes.
Well, Justin hoped that it was just because he was new to their world and the villagers were uncertain of him. For now, he had time to earn their trust, provided he avoided a lethal faux pas or broke some major taboo.
Sajah fixed him with a knowing look, mouth upturned slightly at the corners. “Same as last time suns rose.” His words were heavily accented, struggling over the vowels.
“Which is?” Justin huffed and motioned towards the door, irritated. “All I do is see you guys work. Gathering, fixing, patrolling. Something interesting has to happen around here.” He turned pleading eyes on Sajah, hoping he understood even half of what Justin was trying to tell him. “Tell me anything, anything at all. Hell, I’ll even take scuttlebutt at this point.”
Sajah laughed, the sound a deep and pleasant rumble. “Hetanah give clan two new small ones as dark came.” The pride in his eyes was easy to see. “Ranteh is first to come. Nihja is second.”
“Babies?” Justin grinned at the confused look Sajah gave him and tried to indicate standard human baby size with his hands. “That’s what humans call new small ones like,” and he stumbled over the names a little, the foreign sounds still not comfortable on his tongue, “Nihja and Ranteh.” Delighted, Justin waved at his companion. “What do they look like? Colors?”
Sajah’s nose crinkled in a captivating way and Justin scrambled through his still woefully inadequate native vocabulary for the words he needed, but Sajah smiled. “Red is Nihja. Red as jatta.”
“Jatta?” And then it clicked. “You mean the color of that fake pomegranate fruit you tell me I don’t have to peel to eat?” Justin chuckled. “That’s very red.”
“Ranteh is night like me.”
“Night? Oh! Black!” Impulsively, Justin reached out and caressed a tendril of Sajah’s crow black hair that had fallen over a large shoulder. Sajah growled softly, eyes flashing hot and Justin jerked his hand back as his face paled. “Sorry. That was really fucking rude of me.” He clenched his hands together in his lap to hide their trembling and to resist the unfathomable urge to bury his hands in the unexpectedly silky mane. Damn.
The alien shook his head and grinned. Slowly, Sajah reached out in turn and gently laid his hand on the black shirt Justin was wearing, careful to keep his sharp talons sheathed. “Blahck.” One more caress and Sajah pulled away. “Nahnet is same.”
“Huh.” Justin’s smile returned. “That’s an easy word.”
“Nahnet is empty to be filled. Same as blahck, same as night and no stars.” Sajah’s eyes unfocused for a moment. “Same as rri. That change soon.” Suddenly, Sajah stood. “Patrol.”
Justin rose with a nod, confused by the abruptness of his friend leaving, and walked Sajah to the door. “Of course. Be safe.”
Sajah leaned down and softly rested his forehead against Justin’s with a rumbling breath before striding out. Baffled by the gesture, Justin turned away, deciding to read one of the few books he’d salvaged from the Nitti. Justin had a strange feeling that he missed something in that exchange, but the language barrier made it hard to suss out exactly what it was. As he lay back on his cot to read, he firmly decided not to dwell on it. Probably just quirks of the culture.
* * * *
Justin stood up from his cot and stretched with a sigh. Yet another morning doing the same thing. Wake up, breakfast, wander down to the stream for a bath, putter around his hut, and maybe receive a visitor. Then it would be lunch, after which he sometimes got out for a walk and that was a grateful addition to his routine. Dinner was always before the second sun set and then yet more puttering. It was driving him a little crazy. Sajah still came to see and talk to him every day, which was pleasant, and for longer periods of time.
He was also allowed out of his little hovel more often. Granted, it was only when Anuht or Sajah was with him, but he was not going to complain. Mostly it was still to bathe, though they started taking the longer routes so that Justin could see more of the surrounding area, but sometimes he was able to walk the outer boundary of the village. The warriors on patrol would greet them often; eyes averted, but would still joyfully chatter with Justin and whoever was with him.
It was an improvement. Maybe not much of one, but Justin was definitely not going to complain about this either. Baby steps.
Communication was becoming easier too. When he had first arrived, the language that the aliens used didn’t make any sense. Damn few hard vowels and no long consonants made talking a frustrating puzzle. It wasn’t until Justin figured out that, while Sajah’s mouth looked human enough, it wasn’t really configured the same way. They muddled along though, and finally he got that the hard consonants were more clicks of teeth and rumbling growls stood in place of long sounds. Meanings became even more evident once Justin noticed how expressive body language was for Sajah’s species. The tail helped.
Soon it wasn’t difficult to figure out that the beings had a lot of similar words in common with humans. There were a few words in their simple conversations Justin didn’t recognize from the standard Terran, but gesturing or actually producing the item, if it was an object, added new words to his already very wide vocabulary of alien languages. And the same was true for Sajah. Even though the creature didn’t have the experience with other cultures that Justin had, Sajah soaked up Terran Polyglot quickly, but had trouble with pronunciation. That was expected.
It turned out to be a lot of fun. Sajah’s barking laugh and sparkling silver eyes every time Justin butchered a word had Justin chuckling, just as Sajah did when Justin attempted the local language. It took time, but eventually they were able to share stories of family and home. Justin also learned about Sajah’s wicked sense of humor. He couldn’t find it in himself to deny that Sajah was becoming a treasured fixture in this foreign place.
As if Justin’s thoughts had summoned him, Sajah’s low tenor floated through the open doorway, getting a report from the guard no doubt. Sauntering over to lean against the entrance, Justin let himself soak up the odd cadence of Sajah’s voice, trying to piece together the entire exchange just to see if he could.
Justin edged closer to the open entry and strained to really hear what he thought Sajah and Anuht were talking about. Anuht’s voice was too soft of a bass to carry well, but his host’s was not.
“Jahstahn sahe?” The question was apparent in Sajah’s tone, as was the concern. His guard’s answer wasn’t discernible.
Sajah gave one of his happy barking laughs at whatever Anuht said, the noise flowing through Justin’s soul with a pleasant tingle. He really did love listening to that voice. “Rrih,” and that meant the same as ‘my,’ as far as he could tell. The rest of it was a shade too fast for him to catch all of it, except his name. One of the other words pinged his memory and for a second, Justin couldn’t put his finger on it.
After a few moments, Justin cursed his curiosity and trembled with fear, blood going cold.
He didn’t know enough of the words to guess at what Sajah said in its entirety, but one of them suspiciously sounded like ‘sacrifice.’ Justin had been from one end of the known galaxy to the other, had encountered thousands of cultures. If Sajah’s people were shamanistic, and sacrifice sure as fuck pointed Justin in that direction, it could range from the simple planet worshipping kind to the cannibal types. Which one were these people? And just what kind of sacrifice was Sajah talking about?
Anuht’s deeper voice drew his attention back to the aliens outside, but nothing they were saying made any sense after that; almost like they were speaking a completely different language that Sajah wasn’t teaching him.
He didn’t see Sajah leave, but after a few minutes Justin noticed the absence of conversation. Sajah had, no doubt, continued on his morning patrol of the village perimeter. The fact that Sajah refused to be exempted from the same duties as the others under his command was a source of pride.
This once, Justin was glad that Sajah hadn’t taken the time to say hello. He had more than enough to think about, worry over. Just once, he had been hoping that his paranoia was wrong.
Justin collapsed a chair at his little table and slumped in dejection. No matter which way he twisted all possible meanings of what Sajah told Anuht, it didn’t sound like a good thing.
With a sigh, Justin buried his face in his hands. What to do?
The damage to the Nitti was extensive and he knew that. In fact, chances were good that it was beyond repair. The hull had been punctured or torn somewhere, the air tanks needed to be recharged, and Justin had to get the main computer up and running. Hell, the engine was probably shot to shit. He just didn’t know. When he hit dirt side, the priority at the time was to set up a base camp, same thing he always did back when he served, then do an assessment of the sideways situation he found himself in. Looking back, he should have looked the ship over first.
Maybe next time he would, if he ever got off this primitive paradise.
Expecting rescue was ridiculous. When he checked the star maps before the crash, this little backwater world wasn’t there, despite the system being smack in the middle of frequently travelled areas of the galaxy. No one, not even his old unit, would be looking for him in a system that didn’t exist on paper, if anyone noticed he was gone at all. And that was not likely. Justin had no lover, family, or friends that would miss him.
No help was going to come from the natives either. The language barrier was hard enough to overcome, and Justin doubted they would go against the leader of their warriors to help him. So far, his continued existence was due to the natives’ good graces, but now it seemed that has changed. Fighting was off the table too. He could not realistically expect to go up against so many and come out the victor. Sure, he might take some of the warriors out before he died, but that was not how he wanted to go out.
Escape was the only choice.
* * * *
Hefting the bright patchwork bag a little higher on his shoulder, Justin eased his way around the last hut on his way out of the dark village. He was pretty sure he was going the right way, but the weak light of the jade half-moon made the shadows jump and gave the night a very unsettling feel.
He swallowed down a massive ball of apprehension that tried to choke him and broke into a sprint, covering the handful of yards that separated the village and the tree line in less than a minute. Justin burst through the gap between pale blue trunks and paused for a second to glance back the way he came to look for Sajah or Anuht. With a sigh of relief that he couldn’t see either alien, Justin set a quiet but quick pace through the forest. He stayed as close to the tree line as he dared to lessen the chance of getting lost.
The dense and unknown forest made it a difficult path and it took a bit over an hour to get back to his ship. He had never been so happy to see the irritating hunk of bright metal through the trees, just where he left it. A strange noise behind him got Justin running the large distance between the edge of the trees to the shelter of his ship in a hurry. The main hatch was still open.
Another quick glance around to make sure he was alone and then he went inside, dropping his stolen bag on his command chair. Justin simply stood where his chair should have been and stared at the damage of the area. It was a disaster. Wires and panels bent, broken, spilling out across every available surface. The view screen was cracked, as were half of the control panels. At least some animal hadn’t moved in and started nesting in the guts of his ship. He hoped not. It was kind of hard to be sure in the dark. If there was, as long as the critters didn’t get into his standard rations, he would live with it.
Only one last thing to do. As silently as possible, Justin slipped back out of the hatch. He needed to make sure the hull didn’t have any holes big enough for the aliens to climb through. The top was impossible to see, so he hugged the starboard side as he started his rudimentary inspection, pleased that nothing showed so far except some heavy dents the starboard panels.
The back end was the least damaged with a crumpled base; the port side was a mess of tears. It almost looked like a giant claw had gouged his ship. A shiver worked its way down Justin’s spine. Damn, he had come very close to being dead.
Just as he was quietly slinking back to the ship’s hatch, a large, heavy hand settled on his shoulder. “Shit!”
“Jahstahn.” Oh, and Justin was never going to get off this world alive now. Sajah gently turned him and Justin looked into the being’s quicksilver eyes, not willing to be seen as submissive or begging. The guttural question was a little surprising. “Run?”
Sajah didn’t seem angry and the look on his face was almost like confusion, but Justin didn’t let his guard down. “Of course I’m going to run!” Wincing at his sudden loudness, he reined himself back in. “You guys were talking about sacrificing me earlier, whatever the hell that means. You think I’m going to stick around for that?” Shaking his dark head, Justin snorted. “For all I know you’re going to roast me over some monstrous fire pit for dinner.”
The confused look only deepened and Sajah shook his great head slowly, then gently walked Justin away from his ship. For a moment, he looked back, mournful that he likely wouldn’t see the damaged ship again. So close, only to have safety snatched away at the last moment.
Sajah escorted him back towards the village, a deafening blanket of silence falling over them. It was so thick that even the normal animal sounds seemed to be missing. The hairs on the back of Justin’s neck started to stand on end a moment later. The absence of forest sounds was not simply a figment of his imagination. He was just about to mention it when Sajah’s ears suddenly went back and he shoved Justin to the ground. “Sah!”
Taking the hissed command as the ‘stay’ he thought it might have meant, Justin lay still, eyes darting around the open area. Whatever got Sajah’s fur in a ruffle eluded his human senses. That disturbed him even more than the too quiet forest.
Some monstrous feathered thing dropped soundlessly out of the sky and landed on Sajah’s broad back, forcing him to bow under the weight of the animal. Justin could only lie on the warm ground and breathe for an instant, paralyzed. Sajah spun around in a mad pirouette. Sharp talons flashed in the weak moonlight as Sajah grabbed at the feather beast that clung to his back. The creature sank its longer claws into Sajah’s shoulder blades with a vicious shriek.
Sajah’s outraged howl, so loud in the quiet night that it made Justin’s ears ring, snapped him into action. He sprinted for the combatants and snatched at the stiff feathers of the creature attempting to snap Sajah’s neck with its gruesome fangs in an effort to pulling it off, but it didn’t even budge. A moment later Sajah howled again, trying to buck the beast off his back. Justin was knocked over as Sajah toppled over with the beast, his legs and hips trapped under the squirming alien bodies.
Justin grunted in pain when Sajah lurched violently over. The creature snapped and shrieked between them until Sajah closed his massive hands around its throat to keep it from biting. The leather hilt of his alien’s knife caught Justin’s attention. He scrambled for the blade, desperately stretching to grab it from the sheath on Sajah’s straining thigh and missed.
“Fuck!”
The thing above him lunged and Sajah forced it down with a snarl that vibrated Justin’s bones.
Justin reached again, grabbing the knife handle just as Sajah yelped. Justin twisted and drove the blade into the closest swath of feathers. The thing jerked but still attempted to bite and claw at Sajah. Fuck. He wrapped his other hand around the warm leather and plunged the knife as hard as he could into the beast. The furious screech spurred him on and Justin kept at it, losing count of how many wounds he caused, until the creature shuddered and stilled.
Justin grunted as his captor stood and rolled the carcass off of him. Sajah panted harshly above him, a strange white shimmer overlaying the dark fur at his shoulder. It concerned Justin for a second until Sajah was reached down to him.
He didn’t bother to make a run for it and instead offered up the blade for Sajah to reclaim. A look of amusement, at least Justin thought it was amusement, sparkled in Sarah’s silver eyes and twitched at the corners of his mouth. The massive hand passed by the knife to grip Justin’s forearm gently and firmly to tug him to his feet. Justin let him, eyes locked and some of the wariness left him. He offered Sajah the knife again once he was steady and this time it was taken.
Then Sajah swayed on his feet and Justin caught him as he started to crumple, wrapping an arm around the huge waist while ducking under the arm to keep him steady. Sajah flinched and growled quietly, but Justin didn’t understand the reaction until he noticed the shimmer again decorating the fur of the shoulder he was under. A ragged tear, obscured some because of the short pelt, was oozing a bluish white fluid. Blood. His captor’s blood was white.
* * * *
Justin cursed under his breath with every step; moving them as fast along as he dared on legs that ached. Sajah’s faint rumble of pain helped Justin judge their pace. He had no clue what constituted a potentially fatal injury for Sajah’s species, and after Sajah kept him safe from being seriously hurt by one of the local animals, Justin wasn’t about to let him die because of his human ignorance.
They were farther from the village than Justin figured and even though Justin bore most of Sajah’s considerable weight, it was over an hour before they came close enough to see the fire light between the buildings. He quietly cheered, because holy shit did he need help with Sajah.
Justin almost missed his next step when Sajah stumbled and the alien growled in a weak and insensate voice. The steadily slowing drag of bare feet against the ground and the spreading wetness on Justin’s shirt was very bad. It was so bad that Justin didn’t wait to pass the outer boundary of clan territory before he started yelling.
“Hey!” No one came running at his first shout, but Sajah whimpered from the volume. Justin winced. Those wolf-like ears must pick up and amplify the tiniest sound, and that shout had probably hurt like hell. He shifted his hold, tucking Sajah’s head against his chest to muffle one ear and covered the other ear as best he could with his hand. “Hey!”
He felt Sajah cringe and attempt to bury his head deeper into Justin’s shirt, but finally Justin heard movement. Between one exhausted breath and the next, he and Sajah were surrounded by spear-wielding warriors. One was barking orders at Justin too fast for him to understand, but the angry tone and threatening shift of the raised weapons made the order crystal clear to his old soldier training: release our commander and back away.
Justin, so slowly that every muscle in his battered body shrieked in protest, lowered them to the soft grass. He tried to move back as soon as Sajah was all the way down, but the alien had latched on to him at some point and wouldn’t let go.
“Sajah, your buddies are going to skewer me if you don’t let go.” Another soft whine from Sajah cut through the harsh commands of the group leader but, against his better judgment, Justin didn’t try to pull away again. “Please, Sajah, we gotta get you fixed up and these guys know how. You need to let go of me so they can help.”
“Rrih mahtehea…” Sajah murmured, then finally lost the fight to stay conscious and Sajah’s hand loosened its grasp of Justin’s shirt.
He stayed on his knees as the warriors snapped into action, all of their hands lifting Sajah almost as one entity and they carried him out of sight between the huts. For a moment, Justin could only stare helplessly after them, until the leader touched him shoulder.
“Nohem.”
Come. Grateful to the being for some direction, Justin climbed listlessly to his sore feet and followed. Anuht was waiting for him at Justin’s little place. He looked tense, tail swishing with agitation, luminescent red eyes troubled. He guessed what Anuht wanted, despite not having all the words to ask.
“Me and Sajah were attacked by some bird beast.” Justin flapped his hands to get his point across. “Sajah was hurt. His warriors took him away somewhere.” Justin struggled to contain the fear that threatened to seize his throat. “They’re going to fix him, right?”
“Yes.” Anuht said it slowly, but with a conviction so strong it was tangible. Relief made his knees weak and Anuht patted his shoulder, nudging him back into the hut at the same time. Justin nodded in acknowledgement and dragged his exhausted carcass to his cot. He was out as soon as his head hit his pillow and he dreamlessly slept the day away.
* * * *
Waking several hours later, the second moon already starting to fall deep below the horizon, Justin stood up and stretched until his joints popped, his mind at ease. Sajah had put his life on the line for Justin and that wasn’t the action of someone looking to put him on a spit roast. Sajah wouldn’t hurt him. Justin believed that with everything in him. Shit, even the warriors had stopped being hostile once they had Sajah back, now that he thought about it. Maybe he was just seeing this all wrong.
Justin would go along with whatever happened and deal with the issues as they came. It’s not like he had any reason to distrust the natives after last night and the paranoia ingrained from his days as a soldier at war would have to shut the hell up from then on. He was worried about his friend too.
He stripped out of the filthy, blood-caked clothes from last night with a revolted shudder and cleaned up as best he could without a trip down to the stream. That visceral example of the dangerous native wildlife last night gave Justin a good reason to not wander around unescorted. And Justin didn’t want to miss someone coming to update him about Sajah.
An hour went by before Anuht filled the doorway to Justin’s hut like a silent specter framed in the last rays of the setting sun. At first, Justin didn’t notice him, too busy trying to keep himself from worry with his book, but the feeling of being watched made him look up and he almost jumped out of his skin.
“Fuck, Anuht!” Justin tossed his book on the table. “Say something next time.”
The being stepped a little farther into Justin’s hut and he gave Anuht a startled look. The only alien to ever dare step into Justin’s space was Sajah. His guard would simply come up to the door and tap respectfully on what passed for the doorjamb. Not this time.
Then, Anuht flashed his teeth in an unmistakable grin. “Nohem.”
“Sajah?”
“Nohem.” Anuht motioned for him to follow and Justin went willingly into the last of the sunlight, heart racing and weightless. He pushed down a happy shout when his guard took him in the opposite direction of the stream, towards the massive center of the village. Justin was pretty sure his friend lived this way.
It wasn’t a hut Anuht brought him to.
The first thing he saw as he followed Anuht between the last of the homes was roaring flames that licked the night sky from a giant, shallow bowl dug into the ground. Next were the sixty or so tribesmen ringing the fire, dressed in dark, bold colors, their skin and pelts painted in strange swirls and lines in that shimmered faintly.
Standing tall in front of the fire was Sajah.
The raven-black fur was frosted by the burning light, normally ivory skin deepened to a golden color. Sajah’s vivid wrap was nowhere to be seen and his nude, hard body was covered in the most elaborate of the swirling designs, the paint flashing the same silver color as his eyes in the light. Silver beads were woven into his long, wild mane; silver hoops pierced all the way up the outer edges of his left ear. Hammered silver bracelets decorated massive wrists and ankles, as well as a silver cuff encircling a heavily muscled left bicep.
Justin was stunned. Never was Sajah’s alien-ness so apparent than in that moment. He knew, objectively speaking, that Sajah was a very handsome being in his alien way, but he really never put any thought into the observation. This was such a completely different level of beauty that he didn’t know what to think of it. The anticipatory tension in the air wasn’t helping him figure it out, but he got the idea that whatever Sajah was talking to Anuht about earlier, it was about to happen.
With no signal that he could see, Sajah lifted his face to the sky and let loose an unearthly howl.
The sound was taken up behind Justin, Anuht’s deeper voice rising with Sajah’s, and then, one by one, the others joined, faces lifting skyward. A riot of goose bumps rose all over his skin and the urge to add his voice lodged in his throat hard enough to make his breath catch. It left a heady, indescribable feeling in its wake.
Abruptly, the spell broke and the noise fell away into echoes. In its place, Sajah stepped forward and spoke.
Justin had no idea what was said, words seamlessly melding together, but he paid attention, trying to hold on to the reverence that Sajah spoke with. One day, he wanted to know what the words meant.
Sajah caught his eyes as silence fell. They flashed as hot as they did a few days before and with Sajah’s first step towards him, the tribe howled again, loud and raucous. Justin wasn’t an untried virgin by any means, but that look in Sajah’s eyes made him feel like one.
Sajah approached him in large, loping steps. Justin smiled at his friend and met Sajah’s metallic gaze. Sajah leaned in and carefully bumped their foreheads together in an almost playful manner before he nuzzled just below Justin’s left ear. Justin froze as Sajah took a deep breath and rumbled. What the hell?
With a quick, neat side step, Sajah circled around behind him and used his height to his advantage, burying his nose in Justin’s dark brown hair. Justin felt the pressure of large teeth gently press against either side of his throat a second later and then warm breath on his skin.
Justin’s world tilted with an epiphany.
Sajah was staking a claim on him. It was brazen and obvious, and how did he miss the fact that this being wanted him? Justin wanted to smack himself for their inability to really talk, so that Sajah could have made his intentions clear from the start. Then maybe this entire thing wouldn’t have blindsided him. Or leave so much to misinterpretation. Did Justin even want to entertain the idea?
As a warm, soft brush of skin on his throat replaced sharp teeth, Justin silently decided he did want this. Sajah was kind and steadfast, and beautiful in his own way. He was also damn sure that Sajah wouldn’t allow any harm to come to him. His companion had shown himself to be too honorable. Maybe it wasn’t a love match at that moment, but given time, it could be. So when Sajah came to stand in front of him again and softly placed his very large hand proprietarily around Justin’s vulnerable throat, Justin tilted his head back and caught the silver eyes, trying to convey how much trust he was placing in Sajah.
The look seemed to get through, because Sajah nodded his understanding. “You are safe.”
Sajah bent down and touched their foreheads together again, maintaining contact this time, and slowly moved his hands down to lift the hem of Justin’s simple syntho-cotton shirt. The feel of the calloused, unexpectedly furless, palms sliding over his skin underneath the shirt had him half hard in an instant. Sajah stepped back and pulled it off him, dropping it absently to pale grass. A jerk on the front of Justin’s pants had the magnetic snaps easily giving way. Justin quickly toed off the soft shoes he wore. Then Sajah’s hands were at his hips, both working in a single-minded fumble to slide off Justin’s pants and underwear, and they almost caught the head of his cock on the elastic in their haste.
Sajah’s gruff chuckle set Justin laughing quietly along as his companion pulled him closer by the hips, a hairsbreadth of space between their naked bodies. A delicate nip to Justin’s ear lobe forced a gasp. It was a move that never failed to get Justin going and he knew that Sajah just found it by luck, not on purpose. They would have time later to thoroughly acquaint themselves with each other, but not now.
Justin looked over the being’s shoulder to the tribesmen watching Sajah’s very public claiming. He got the very strong sense that this was not going to be a slow exploration, which was fine. Justin could go along with whatever was necessary to satisfy his hosts.
The next nip to his ear brought his attention immediately back to Sajah and a sheepish look flashed across his face. Amusement and understanding warred for dominance for a second before a smile lit Sajah’s face.
Putting everything else out of his mind, Justin hesitated for a moment before he did something he had wanted to do since Sajah first came to see him. Smooth skin met his scarred, rough hands when he touched Sajah’s wide chest, only marred by a couple of very old marks that Justin thought came from childhood injuries. He glanced up to make sure the being had no objections to his touch, but he didn’t linger either, the restless shifting from the crowd around them and leashed restraint in Sajah spurred him to action. He slid his hands to either side and down, tangling his fingers in the unusually thick and satin-like fur at Sajah’s hips. Was nothing like he thought it would be, the pelt was so soft that Justin was loath to move his hands. Still, he pulled his hands down and in.
His hands drifted down to find an impressive, hard alien shaft jutting proudly from Sajah’s bare groin. It was silky and slick to the touch and exceedingly warm, almost too much so. As he wrapped his fingers around it and gave the throbbing flesh a slow stroke, he found the base was tucked a little further back than a human’s; with no testicles that Justin could immediately feel when he slid his fingers underneath.
Justin looked down the hard plane of Sajah’s body, curious. What struck him first was the almost uniformness of the shaft and the damn near spherical head. There didn’t seem to be any of the slight thickness at the base like a human would have, and the crown was something else. It sort of reminded Justin of a slightly squished ball with tiny slits ringing the top of it. Justin ran his fingers over the slits and Sajah growled in approval. A generous squeeze to the spongy head resulted in a louder rumble.
Justin was face down on the springy grass in the next instant with no warning and eager hands spread the cheeks of his ass wide. Guess Sajah was done with Justin’s cursory exploration. A strange, wet, rough tongue suddenly licked a broad stripe from the back of his balls to the top of his ass before concentrating on his hole.
Justin moaned low in his chest, the alien tongue scraping wetly across his sensitive rim was so different from anything he had ever experienced, but so good. Each swipe shot his excitement higher until nothing penetrated the sheer pleasure of Sajah’s tongue. Everything else simply faded away.
And Sajah took his time. Each pass started just a little below his entrance and slowly, torturously moved up to just above it. A couple of times, instead of the hot stripe, Justin would jerk when Sajah scraped his sharp teeth over the wrinkled skin, just as slowly, just as carefully as Sajah had when he’d pressed those lethal teeth to Justin’s throat. Minutes crawled by in a haze of warm pleasure.
Justin whined and clutched at the grass. His vision started to gray out at the edges, and then the slick tongue breached his ass.
Justin shouted at the unexpected intrusion. He hissed as the tongue wiggled and stabbed its way further inside of him. The sensation had him reaching blindly for his cock, wanting to find relief from the over-wound coil of ecstasy had tightened in his balls. A hand clamped around his wrist and brought it around, pinning it to the small of his back. Thwarted, Justin whined and squirmed on Sajah’s busy tongue.
The wet muscle started to withdraw after another minute and Justin clamped down on it, trying to keep Sajah from retreating, but it did no good. The alien sat back and grabbed Justin’s other wrist, and pulled him up to his knees, facing the tribe. He felt a moment of panic. Then, before he could work himself into blind hysteria, Sajah transferred both wrists to one hand. Sajah barely put pressure on Justin’s hands, enough to keep him still, nothing more.
Sajah carefully pulled him back to straddle massive thighs, thick fur faintly tickling his legs. The bulbous head nudged at his hole for a second before it slowly began to breech him, eased by the slick substance that covered the alien’s erection and the thorough coat of Sajah’s saliva. The crown of Sajah’s cock wasn’t difficult; it was the widest part of the head that caused a bit of burn and discomfort. Justin took a deep breath, squeezed Sajah’s thighs hard between his knees, and relaxed as best as he could. The intense feeling abated a fraction, and then Justin gave a sigh of relief when the massive organ slipped fully into his body without much more effort than that.
He rested against the warm, hard chest at his back for a minute once he had settled completely onto Sajah’s lap, waiting for the burn to dissipate completely. Justin was thankful that Sajah seemed to understand and didn’t try to move. He had never taken a being with such a differently shaped cock before. It all came down to the huge knob on top. He could feel the thing pressed tightly against his insides, up against his sweet spot, shifting minutely every time one of them took a breath. Not that he was complaining, but the sensation of being so full would take getting used to.
The uncomfortable feeling went away in a shorter amount of time than he expected, and Justin gave a roll of his hips to test that there wouldn’t be any more problems. Sajah took the move as permission to continue, a first easy thrust the start of a slow rhythm. Sajah let go of Justin’s wrists and clamped his hands around Justin’s waist to better guide the human that writhed on his shaft. Justin clutched Sajah’s forearms to keep him grounded.
It was a heavenly experience to be stuffed full of Sajah’s cock over and over again. But the pace was about to kill him. He tried to wrest control away from Sajah, tried to build a little more speed, but Sajah growled at him. The harsh sound vibrated everywhere, against his back and hips and even faintly through his full ass. He knew it was a reprimand and he had a fleeting impulse to rebel against it. Sajah strengthened his grip, enough to leave tiny dents in Justin’s skin, and Justin let the idea go.
Sajah kept at his slow speed, seemed content with it even, and Justin could only pant and moan. Justin relished the feel of the huge head that constantly rubbed against his prostate, the friction of the shaft pushing and pulling against the rim of his hole. Soft fur whispered against his legs, his hands, his arms in a beautiful contrast, and the smooth, sweat damp skin gliding along his back set his body further alight.
Finally, Sajah sped up and Justin wanted to thank his lucky stars. A subtle change in Sajah’s angle had his thrusts jamming against his sweet spot more firmly, as well as sliding in deeper than ever. Breathless groans tumbled from Justin’s slack mouth and filled the air in counterpoint to the surprisingly sexy rumble Sajah was making. But the tension was too much, the coil wound past the breaking point and he needed to come so badly, the tightening of his belly and the lightening that arced up his spine too good to ignore.
Justin couldn’t let go of Sajah’s arms though, afraid that he would lose himself completely without that anchor of fur and muscle in his grasp, even just to stroke off. So, he held on, hoping to last.
Sajah sped up even more, his growl changed to a deep and loud animalistic snarl as one of his hands left Justin’s waist to wrap tightly around his chest. The rolling thrusts morphed into harder, jarring lunges into his ass that tore loose a shout of ecstasy. Justin didn’t get a chance to make another sound.
A last thrust and Sajah buried deep in Justin’s body and he didn’t move again. Instead, Justin felt both hot breath on the nape of his neck and a tingle of unease filtered through the hazy feeling of bliss a split second before Sajah’s wickedly sharp teeth sliced through the skin of his throat.
The pain was a sharp, bright fissure for an instant that blotted out the slight sensation of sucking and then it faded back to a dull throb, but it did nothing to cool his lust. If anything, it almost pushed him over the edge. Sajah’s hand wrapped firmly around his cock and Justin squirmed helplessly in Sajah’s grip, regardless of the teeth still imbedded in him, and a single stroke had the wound coil of Justin’s orgasm exploding in a painful rush. Wave after blissful wave pulled him under. Justin spasmed around the hard shaft and then collapsed helpless into the cradle of Sajah’s body, wrung dry.
Sajah carefully extracted the teeth and howled at the dark sky as he laid his seed deep, every pulse of it easily felt by Justin’s oversensitive body. Justin hummed in satisfaction.
As the aftershocks of their lovemaking continued to race along his nerves, a new pressure started in his ass, right against his sweet spot. Justin thought it was his imagination at first, but in a matter of moments, he felt too full. The large tip of Sajah’s cock was thickening quickly and was well on its way to lodging itself solidly in Justin. It was too much, far too much for his exhausted body to handle after what he and Sajah had just done.
Justin’s world went dark.
* * * *
Justin sighed as the first rays of dawn fell across the bed and woke him. Trying to stretch, he bumped into the warm, naked being behind him. He couldn’t help but smile as the furry arm around his bare waist tightened and trapped him where his was. Giving up any plans of moving from their bed, he settled down against Sajah and relaxed.
“Rrih mahtehea,” Sajah murmured to the top of his head and rubbed his cheek over Justin’s dark hair. Justin smiled and threaded his fingers between Sajah’s.
“Good morning, my mate.” Despite the busy day of patrols and picking a ripe crop of vegetables that could pass for Terran apples, Justin would rather lay in bed with Sajah all day. They couldn’t play truant, as much as Justin wanted to. Anuht would come roust them out if they tried.
In the months since the night Sajah had taken him as mate, and Justin was surprised as hell when he finally learned what all the pomp and voyeurism was about, life finally started to make sense again. Sajah had adjusted to their newly mated status far better, but then again, his lover had planned their mating from the beginning.
Justin had coaxed the story out of him one night, a month or so after they had mated. How the first time Sajah laid eyes on the ruffled alien, like no other he had ever seen before, that had jumped out of the damaged ship, he was enchanted by the dark, bare skin and eyes as blue as the suns their world circled around. The days trying to learn about each other and listening to Justin’s quiet voice had Sajah completely smitten in short order. But it was the way that Justin was so kind and willing to integrate into the village, Sajah told him, despite the isolation to determine if he was a threat, which warmed Sajah’s great heart. Although some days he was sure Sajah cursed the stubbornness Justin was known to exhibit on occasion.
Sajah passed his cheek one more time over his hair, and then buried his nose in the spot right behind Justin’s ear. It tickled like crazy when Sajah gustily sniffed at that spot and Justin ducked his head and laughed. Goofball.
Then his mate squeezed him one last time before Sajah gave him a tiny nudge to get Justin up. Justin refused to get out of bed right away, wriggling as close to Sajah’s warmth as possible.
Looking out of the glassless window of their home in the middle of the village, Justin smiled when he saw an arc of light burn just above the horizon. It was a going to be a great day and he was happy to cherish it with the being that had captured his heart.
THE END