I…cannot go after Kira. Not if it means leaving these two helpless ones to die. I close my eyes. Forgive me, my mate. I will come for you as soon as I can.
Then, I turn to Harlow. “Take a knife and cut two poles for a travois from the trees. I will find something to bind Haeden’s wound.”
“What about the ship? We can use it—“
I shake my head. I don’t trust it. “We’ll take him back to the healer. Hurry.”
She nods and darts away.
KIRA
One of the basketball head guards hisses at me as he hauls me up the ramp to the alien ship. “Walk faster.”
“I’m walking as fast as I can,” I mutter. Actually, that’s not true. I’m dragging my feet deliberately. I don’t want to go on the ship. I want to run for the hills, but I have to be brave. I knew this was coming if we couldn’t scare them off.
And I have a Plan B, the contents of which are still safely tucked inside my mouth, between gums and cheek.
I’m still terrified.
Nothing’s in my control anymore. These things would just as easily take back my dead body as they would my live one. And I don’t know if Aehako is even alive or dead.
I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll totally break down. I have to think about my plan.
They drag me into the hold of the ship despite my deliberately slow steps. Instead of flinging me down into another hold like they did before, I’m taken to a sterile white room and dumped onto a narrow white board of a bed. Oh God. This looks like an operating room.
The guard that has taken me as his personal hostage looms over me, fingering his weapon. A few moments later, the door opens and another one of the Little Green Men comes in. He speaks, and his voice has a different timbre than the others.
This is the infected one that was mentioned? It tilts its head toward me, curious.
“Yes,” the guard says in his growling language.
I try to chirp back to it, to let it know I understand its words.
Its head tilts again. Is it trying to speak?
“It’s stupid,” the guard says, and smacks my arm with the butt of his gun. “Want me to kill it?”
“I’m not infected,” I say in the guttural language of the szzt. “I have a symbiont. A creature living inside me. But it can’t be removed without killing its host.”
A parasite? How very curious. I wonder that I can remove it anyhow. I should like to study this and see how long it can survive in an artificial environment, if at all.
They want to kill me just to see what happens? These guys are dicks, as Liz would say. “You can’t do that,” I say quickly. When they simply stare at me, I cast about for a logical explanation as to why they can’t. “I’m worth more alive than dead.”
The Little Green Man tilts his head and then reaches out to touch my ear. Even though I want to slap his hand away, I have to force myself not to react. This is the one we implanted the translator in, yes? Her aural cavity shows markings of one, but I confess all these things look alike to me.
“I had a translator,” I tell him.
Where did it go?
“I had the ship remove it.”
The ship on the surface? The creature’s head tilts again. If it weren’t for the fact that my life was in danger, all the head-tilting would be kind of hilarious. It is not functioning.
“It’s not completely functioning. It doesn’t fly, but I have a secret code,” I bluff. “I know the access codes to the computers. I can give you the ship if you return me to the surface and never come after me and the other women ever again.”
The thing chirps repeatedly, and somehow, I know he’s laughing. Why would I want an old ship that does not fly?
“You can tow it,” I tell him, staring into the enormous black eyes of the alien with what I hope is a confident expression. “I’m sure you have a way. And people always pay good money for…” I struggle to find the alien word for ‘antique’ and settle for “…very old and special things. That ship has lots of valuable equipment, plus all the valuables its passengers left behind when it was stranded several hundred years ago.”
The aliens exchange a look.
We can simply take it with us, along with you, the one alien says. You know both of what you speak.
“But if you take me from here, I will die. My dead body is of very limited use to you. Your employers won’t pay as much for a dead girl as they would for a live one. I know this.”
I don’t know this. I’m guessing.