“Vektal,” she breathes, and there’s excitement in her voice. New excitement. “Izzit a spays ship?”
PART FIVE
GEORGIE
Holy crap, it’s a spaceship.
I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.
Well, actually, I do. I was so tired after our journey that my brain was a fog. The need to help save the others constantly burned in the back of my mind. Vektal seemed to have a sense of urgency, too; he crossed over valleys and climbed up sheer walls with me clinging to him, more agile than a mountain goat. I held on for dear life, but it was still exhausting. The cold hadn’t let up, and the wind felt as if it had chapped my face into one big cold burn. But I still had it better than the other humans, so I didn’t complain.
By the time we finally stopped for the night, I’d barely glanced at my surroundings. Yes, the cave was perfectly made inside. Yes, it was in the side of a hill that also seemed perfectly oval-shaped outside. I’d noted it and stumbled inside, heading for the warm furs that I now knew waited within.
It wasn’t until after sex, as I relaxed and cuddled against my alien, that I saw a light flash. I’d thought my eyes had deceived me until it did it again. Then I stared at the ice really hard.
And realized that the cave was perfect because it was the interior of a ship.
“It’s a ship,” I tell Vektal. Behind the thick layer of ice, I can barely make out a control panel of some kind.
His eyes narrow, and he shakes his head. He doesn’t understand. “Es sa-khui tokh.”
That doesn’t sound like spaceship to me. Right. My big blue barbarian probably wouldn’t know a spaceship if it bit him on his big ridge-covered nose. He wears leather, eats raw meat, and hunts with slings and bone knives. Big guy’s probably never heard of a space heater, much less a spaceship.
I pat his chest. “You know what? I got this. Don’t worry.” I take the blade of the knife I carry with me and use it to hack at the thick ice coating the walls.
Vektal stops me with a gentle hand. He points at the firewood pile in the fire pit, still unlit. Oh. Fire will melt things faster. He’s right. I reach up and give him a quick, smacking kiss. “Clever man.”
He doesn’t know what I’m saying, but he’s pleased by the kiss anyhow.
As I wait for the fire to start, I stare at the walls around us. I’m trying not to freak out. The ice covering the walls is thick. Vektal’s familiar with this place, and it’s set up like a camp as the other caves, which tells me that this has been here a long time. It looks nothing like the cargo hold the other girls are currently camping out in. The odds of it belonging to the same aliens are slim, I tell myself.
I still worry, though. That’s why I have to see that control panel for myself. I have to know what it is we’ve found.
It’s either a frying pan about to go into the fire . . . or a ticket home.
Or neither.
I need answers. No matter how tired I am, I won’t be able to sleep without answering some of these questions.
When the fire is stoked and burning brightly, Vektal takes up a lit stick of wood and hands me the safe end. It’s like a crappy makeshift torch, and I carry it carefully to the wall and then hold it near the panels, watching the ice glimmer and then melt. It takes a long time to thaw away the layers of ice, but as I do, more and more instrument panels become uncovered. I look over at Vektal, and he seems unnerved by this discovery as well.
It looks different than the sleek, bare walls of the alien ship I crashed in. Granted, I didn’t see much outside of what I assumed was the cargo hold, but this has an entirely different feel to it. The panel I’ve uncovered is upraised with hundreds of buttons, and the blips of light flick regularly. It reminds me of when I’ve set electronic devices on standby in the past, and I wonder if that means everything is functional.
I wonder if this means we can go home.
I steal a look at Vektal. His brutishly handsome features are pulled down into a frown, as if he’s not entirely sure what to make of this. He’s been wonderful to me. And the sex? Okay, the sex is mind blowing. But this place sucks. It’s cold and horrible, and I don’t know if I want to stay here when there’s a ride home.
If there’s a ride home, I remind myself. If.
I return my sputtering torch to the fire and examine the panels again. I see a lot of buttons and one blinking light but no screens. Am I wrong in hoping this works? I lean forward and examine the now-uncovered panel. The blinking light is actually a button with a strange squiggly character on it. I move forward to press it, then pause.