The Alien’s Stowaway Read online

  I looked at him in confusion with my hands frozen over his abdomen. "I should hope you're not a child," I said. "If you were, you'd grow to be quite a giant, and you'd never fit into that pod."

  "Oh," he said. "I thought you were confused yesterday when you called me an infant."

  My lips twitched with the effort of holding back my laughter. "No, I called you that because you were complaining like a babe in swaddling clothes," I said. I smiled at him to soften the tease. "But after seeing this wound again, I can't blame you for complaining."

  The flashlight on the ground wasn't enough for me to properly see the gash, so I picked it up and shined it directly on the wound. "Do you know if the first aid kit has antibiotics?" I asked. "I believe you're going to need them. This is redder now. And inflamed."

  He sucked in a deep breath as I prodded the area. "It should." His voice came out tightly between clenched teeth. He was in a considerable amount of pain. The wound was unusual looking, not like anything I’d ever seen. I wondered if it was from a battle, and what had caused it, but thought better of asking. Maybe this warrior alien didn’t want to share his past with me.

  "Hang on," I whispered. Taking the flashlight with me, I rummaged through the kit until I found the antibiotics, then sighed in frustration. All of the packets were in that foreign language, and most of the pictures weren’t as clear as the rejuvenation one. My translator made sure I understood any language programmed into it, but it couldn't help me read them. I took the packet of pills over to Jarix. "Can you figure out which one? I don't read this language."

  He nodded and looked through them as I held the light so he wouldn't have to sit up. "This one." As he put the rest of the packs back in the bag, I opened the one he indicated.

  "Up you get," I said softly. He was so big I had to nearly climb under him to help him sit up so he could swallow the pill and water, but I managed it. "I wish we had a way to help you sit up and off of this hard rock," I grumbled.

  He chuckled. "My kind are fast healers. If this pill rids me of the infection, I'll heal the wound in half a day or so." Half a day? Thinking of how sore and tired my body was from the effort of the last few days, I realized I was incredibly envious. Instead, all I said was, "Oh, that's wonderful."

  "It is. I need to get that pod operational and get off of this planet." Jarix again met my gaze, nodding like an experienced general assessing how quickly he’d be able to return to the fray. Good. We were of a similar mind, then. I just didn't tell him yet that I was going to go with him. "I'll return tomorrow and help," I offered. "When I get through with my work."

  "You don't have to do that," he said. "I don't want to be a burden."

  He was polite, but soon I'd be the one that would be a burden. "I don't mind. You'll need my help to get through the planet without being picked up by the TerraLink Program."

  Jarix's eyebrows raised. "I've heard of them, but I don't know the specifics."

  "They run the planet, essentially. And they control anyone that comes to it or gets off of it. You lucked out that I was here in this part of the desert. It's so remote and uninhabited you would've died if I hadn’t come along. They don't even monitor this area for ships or movement."

  That caught his attention, though I wasn’t sure why. He seemed worried at the mention of the TerraLink Program, but relaxed when I said they didn’t monitor this area. I wonder why that is? Jarix winced as he shifted his position.

  "Can you help me sit up?" he asked.

  I wiggled underneath him again and pushed him upright, then watched as he leaned forward and stretched. From my position, I could easily admire the strong muscles in his back and arms as he stretched. He didn’t notice, thank god. Breathing in and out, he pressed his hand to his side. "That is painful."

  "Why do you push yourself?" I asked. "Give that medicine time to work."

  "It is working." He looked at me in surprise. "Have you never had an antibiotic? They work within minutes, or not at all."

  I shook my head. "I've never had anything that powerful." Lucky bastard. I'd heard of them, but I'd never had any antibiotics at all. The TerraLink Program wouldn't waste that kind of money on me. Cheaper to let me die. But I wasn't ready to tell Jarix yet that he'd be helping me and Alice escape. "I need to sleep for a while before I head back, but I can't come back until near daybreak again tomorrow. I have a job I have to go to during the night, and then I'll have to stay here with you in the caves during the day."

  He nodded, not at all suspicious of my lie. "I will wait for you. I don't know this planet or its dangers."

  "The main thing is don't go outside when the sun is out," I said. "It's too hot and dangerous during the middle part of the day. You could go out for a few minutes in the morning or evening, but not long. If you've never been exposed to our sun, we don't know how your skin would react."

  "I understand," he said seriously. "But I think the healing is tiring my body. I'll lay back down, now."

  He tried to do it on his own, but when I saw how it pained him, I jumped up and helped him lower his upper body. "I am not weak," he said firmly.

  "I can see that. One look at your body tells me you're very strong." He looked at me steadily, as if he was confused by my statement.

  “I can see that you, too, are strong. Though, much smaller than females I am familiar with.” Was that a compliment? Choosing not to bask in his attention, I moved on. "When you're strong enough, we'll work on the ship," I whispered. "It might take a little time since we have to do it in the morning and evening, but we'll get it done."

  Jarix's breathing was already steady and even. He was asleep. I decided to follow suit and closed my eyes for a few minutes, resting beside him in the cool cave.

  6

  Jarix

  When I woke again, the bags of water had been filled and a packet of food from the emergency ration kit was beside me. Evvie was gone. She'd also laid out the first aid kit with the pain pills on top. I appreciated what she had already done for me, especially getting me out of the ship so I didn't bake in the Earth's sun. However, it was shameful for a man to accept help. I had to get moving, had to be under my own power again.

  I rolled to my side and struggled to sit up, forced to admit that it had been much better when she was here to help me. I made it upright after a moment and reached for the meal kit. It was equipped with utensils and only required water. There were likely several large barrels of water on the underside of the ship I'd escaped in, but I had no way to get to them. This water was fresh and tasted good, anyway. I poured some in the bag and watched the flakes of food hydrate into some sort of mush.

  My appetite returned with a vengeance as soon as I took the first bland bite. Too bad I didn't have a bit of salt to put in it. As I ate, I considered Evvie. She wasn't subtle. She was being very nice and extremely eager to help me repair the ship, and I think I knew why. She needed out of this desert, and I was her ticket. She hadn't said that in so many words, but her polite demeanor had been too forced, and her offers to help too quick. That was fine with me. If she could help me get away, I'd give her a ride. It wasn't like I could get more wanted than I already was. The prison ship’s crew might be out here any day to retrieve me, and in my injured state, they wouldn’t have a difficult time doing so.

  After eating, I desperately needed to relieve myself. I'd done it the day before in an empty water bag, then thrown it in the corner, but there were no more spare water bags. It was time to get to my feet. Or knees. It took some time, but I was able to crawl toward the cave entrance. Evvie was right, the heat was nearly unbearable, and it was nighttime. I kneeled at the entrance of the cave, just out of the sand, and let it fly. The sand absorbed the liquid almost instantly.

  I had to rest just a minute before crawling back into the cave, so I peered out at the desert, observing my new prison. For now, while I was injured and my only means of transportation was broken, that’s basically what this planet was. A different sort of prison. The bright moonlight bathed
everything in an eerie glow. Absently, I realized it was sort of beautiful. Different from my home planet, but much preferred to the prison ship.

  The pod wasn't very far away. I needed to get there and check things out. When the heat finally got to me, I scooted backward, pleased to note the pain was lessening. The antibiotic, and my body's own ability to heal quickly, were working. After a short rest in the back of the cave, I began working on getting to my feet.

  Using the wall of the cave, I leaned against it and struggled with first one foot, then the other, climbing the wall until I was upright enough to push off and stand on my own two feet. The more I walked around the cave, the better my back felt. It had been more damaged than I realized, but I was healing quickly. I spent a good amount of time just flexing, walking, and stretching out my body. I was proud of my progress.

  Boredom set in soon after, and I took everything out of the emergency pack and first aid kit to take stock. I had enough food for at least a week, maybe two if I was careful. The water wasn't an issue. If the pod's tanks were empty for some reason, we could find a way to refill them from this stream, meager as it was. The rest of the kit consisted of a flare, bandages, ointments, and medicines, and a thermal blanket to stave off the cold. Not needed here. But at least I could use it as a pillow.

  When I couldn't stand it anymore, I worked my way to the cave entrance again. It was a little cooler than the last time I'd come. Not much, though. This time, I stepped out and into the sand. It wouldn't hurt me to go look at the ship and see how bad it was. I wasn't sure how much work would be needed to get it operational. If I could've fixed it myself, that would've been ideal. Evvie was eager to help, and I didn't mind taking her with me, but I needed to at least check to see if I could do it alone. Worry she could've ended up being a liability, in the long run, kept my feet moving toward the ship.

  I was tiring fast. The desert was deceptive. The ship was much farther out than it looked from the cave. Maybe if Evvie hadn't thought me an infant I wouldn't have pushed myself so hard, but it was the mark of a strong warrior to persevere, so I kept on. Eventually, I made it.

  When I got inside, I sank into the one seat in dismay and exhaustion. It was pretty banged up. Several parts were missing and looked to be strewn around the interior. I had to assume the same had happened on the outside. I had this amazing gift, and not for nothing. I could figure out what the ship needed, then get out of here.

  Where could I go? It wasn't a ship, not really. It was an escape pod. The prison ship had been close enough to the planet that there should still be plenty of fuel in the pod. It would travel around the planet fine, but it would never be able to escape the atmosphere. As I sat in the chair, despair washing through me, I realized something I hadn’t considered in my haste to get to this planet.

  I'd never make it to real freedom. I again remembered that the prison ship had to have known I’d come to this planet. Even if they lost me on their radar when I entered Earth's atmosphere, they simply had to contact the Earth authorities. It wouldn't take them long to figure out where I was.

  I spotted a piece of the console at my feet and slowly leaned over to get it. Luckily, it was a key component for the machine. When I reattached it, the dash lit up. I put my hand on it gratefully and watched the numbers move through my brain. The ship was missing many crucial pieces. I made a mental note of the worst of them, then used the interior lights to work inside.

  A piece of the accelerator lay just outside the ship in the sand. That was one of the crucial pieces, so I stumbled to my feet. The pain was better, but the exhaustion worse. The faster I healed, the more energy my body used. Maybe coming out here had been a mistake. It wouldn't matter if they caught me if I was already dead from the heat.

  However, I was here now and couldn't stomach the thought of walking across the sand, back to the cave again, just yet. I was too tired. Using the doorway of the pod to lean against, I bent over as slowly as I could, wincing against the pain still in my abdomen and back. My abdomen from the damn guard shooting me, and my back from the crash.

  When I got the part in hand, standing upright again was too much. I stumbled backward until I got a hand on the console, then sank into the seat again, panting. This planet was a shithole. For the millionth time, I wished I could go home and reset my life. See my sister. But that life was over. She was dead, and I could never go home again.

  After a few more minutes of rest, while I willed my eyes not to close in defeat, I leaned forward and attached the piece of the accelerator. It was missing a screw. "Damn the Earth gods!" I exclaimed. "I have no tools." I pressed my hand to the console, which was still on. "Show me the planet Haltrean," I whispered, even though speaking out loud wasn't necessary to get the pod to show me what I wanted to know from its massive memory banks. The planet was a secret. A rumor. I'd heard the prisoners whispering about the supposed ‘safe haven’ planet. Any normal operating system wouldn’t know about the planet, as it was kept strictly under wraps by the crew who had discovered it. I wasn’t sure if the planet was real, but I used the computer’s inter-planetary information resource to search for it.

  The image of a green planet appeared on the screen, along with some information about it. It was in the outer reaches of the known solar systems, only recently discovered. The land there was still up for explorers to claim, no sentient life having been found on the planet. As I gazed at the images, my mind felt solemn. I could imagine myself there, with Jarsha—my sister—by my side. Smiling and healthy. It was too good to be true, the planet was like a utopia. If I could've gotten there, instead of this festering pit of sand, I would've been free. I’d heard there was no technology on that planet. None at all. Which meant that, with my abilities, I could bring technology to the primitive planet. I could be valuable.

  I knew that the man that held the technology held all the power. I had to get there. Seeing it on the screen redoubled my determination, and I forced myself upright again. My conviction carried me through picking up all the broken parts of the ship inside it, and replacing what I could. Then, as the horizon lightened, I double-checked the water tanks. They were all full, the first lucky thing that had happened so far. I decided to go back to the cave now before the sun came out. I couldn't wait to tell Evvie how much I'd gotten done.

  As I lowered the panel on the floor that covered the tanks, searing pain suddenly shot through my side. Crying out in pain, I doubled over and caught myself on the chair, letting the panel fall to the side. I clutched my wound, and blood seeped through my shirt and onto my hand.

  Damn it. I'd torn something. I sank to the ground and breathed heavily. I had to get back to the cave, but I needed just a minute. A minute to rest.

  As more blood seeped past my fingers and the sun erupted over the horizon, my eyes grew heavier and heavier. My last thoughts were of Evvie, and how much I wished I'd waited for her help.

  7

  Evvie

  I tried to get up and go to Jarix twice. Clarissa intercepted me both times. If I tried a third time, she'd definitely know what I was trying to do, and she'd alert the guards. I looked toward the door. Light streamed through the crack. It was getting to be too late into the day to go now.

  There was nothing I could do but rest and try again tomorrow after work. I'd left him plenty of water and food to get him through the day. I hoped he’d be okay.

  I lay in my bunk, sweating slightly but calm. A thought occurred to me. What if he left? The thought was horrifying, yanking me out of any sleepy thoughts I’d been having. I tensed in the bunk, struggling to relax. If Jarix left, I’d have wasted my time, put Alice in danger for nothing, and I’d be stuck here. That thought alone, of my one hope of escape being ripped from me, had my heart thumping hard.

  I tried to steer away from that thought. No sense in worrying about something I couldn’t control. I had to believe Jarix would stay, if only out of sheer necessity for his injuries. That gave me another thought. What if he was hurting and couldn't take care of
himself? Then I relaxed. There was no way that warrior wouldn’t be able to take care of himself. I had full confidence he had what he needed to survive.

  As I went over the last two days, and how much things had changed for me with the arrival of that ship, my mind wandered toward Jarix again. I imagined his sculpted body and his beautiful eyes. I imagined that long hair and what it would feel like against my bare skin… Feeling alarmed at my body’s physical reaction to Jarix, I reminded myself why I was caring for him. I only did it because he was my ticket out of this desert. He was my ticket to a better life. I nodded to myself in bed. Although, it would be a shame to see such a gorgeous man die, I supposed.

  For the first time in a very long time, small trembles of desire spread through my abdomen. I hadn't felt like this since I’d left Hydronia. I'd taken a lover or two there; had a good time. It had been part of what got me in trouble. I'd been eighteen when I'd lucked out and been assigned to Hydronia. It was a great assignment.

  The home I'd worked in had two sons about my age. They liked to go out into the local town and cause trouble. Before I knew it, they had me wrapped up in their schemes, and for a few years we had gotten away with our games. We developed a close friendship, and I thought I was in love with one of them. I cared for them both. When they were caught, I became an easy scapegoat. At the time, I was too young and in love to tell the truth, so I let them blame me. I thought I was sparing them, protecting them. Their parents had me sent back to Earth immediately, and they'd demanded a full refund.

  I was still paying for that refund. Hopefully not for much longer. Sighing, I let the images of Hydronia and those two boys fade from my mind. Right back to Jarix. Deciding now was as good a time as any, my hand slipped between my layers of clothing. Luckily, most everyone was asleep, so I would just have to be quiet. I closed my eyes and imagined sliding my hand down Jarix's abdomen and lowering his pants. I hadn't checked him out down there when I was making sure he was okay, but I'd seen the bulge beneath his pants.