Chapter 5
Not Scared
A soft cough came from a meter away, and Krir jumped.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Nicole didn’t smell sorry. In fact, if she’d been Qilffiran, he’d say she smelled amused.
“Not scared. Focused.”
A little scared. For a moment, he’d been able to forget he had a visitor.
“Do you have any extra clothes I can borrow?” Nicole plucked the top away from her skin and pointed at several stains.
Krir noticed the frayed hem, too, and those shorts would not be appropriate to protect her from the sun, sand, and prickly plants of Vrul 4.
“These are in bad shape and stink to high heaven.”
He trilled. What was “high heaven”? This human speech was strange, full of metaphors and idioms he had no reference for. But she wasn’t wrong. He’d noticed it when he’d carried her here but generally kept enough distance that it wasn’t too bothersome.
“Yes, of course, though I doubt my clothes will fit you well.”
“Something is better than nothing.”
Krir walked over to the small closet and pulled out a shirt and a pair of trousers made from plant fibers reinforced with aost web.
Soft, strong, and tear resistant, which was a bonus when far from supply lines and in the middle of a desert with thorny plants.
He placed the clothes on the bed next to her.
“Let me show you how the shower works, then I will step outside while you wash. Knock on the wall when you are ready.”
She wouldn’t meet his eyes but bobbed her head as she stood. What did that mean? Someday he would ask, but it would join the long, long list he’d been accumulating ever since Nicole first woke. Such a list would scramble the translator if he asked them all at once.
He pushed the start button on the water heater and pulled out the showerhead from its compartment.
After some brief instructions, Nicole had no questions, so he slipped out the door.
The sun was close to the horizon, a moon high overhead.
Oh, yes, all three moons were supposed to be up for the next several nights.
What a sight to show the human who’d never been off her own planet before!
He trudged to the shady side of the research unit.
It was too hot in the sun, even for a reptilian species that uses external temperatures to help with thermoregulation.
He didn’t have long to wait—the knock on the wall came more quickly than he expected.
He dashed across the sand and went into the blessedly cool housing unit.
Nicole stood with wet hair and a bundle of wet clothes in her arms.
“Thank you for the shower. And the privacy.” She pressed her lips together, and her face reddened a little. “There was none on the Giuk ship.”
“No privacy?”
“No showers either. I washed what I was wearing. Can I hang them outside to dry? They’ll be fine for sleeping in and keep these nicer.”
She plucked at the loose-fitting pants and shirt. The pants were a little long, but the shirt fit her much better than he expected, showing off the curve of her mammaries in a way Krir found—there was no other word for it, try as he might to find one—erotic.
Inappropriate. Nicole was a traumatized woman stuck on a planet with a strange male. Such thoughts had no place in their relationship. He would help her as best he could until the Qilffiran government took over.
“Here, give them over, I’ll do it. You don’t need to be outside in this heat. You’re still recovering.”
“I am perfectly capable of dealing with the heat for a few minutes.”
“Please, Nicole, let me help.”
Her jaw clenched, and she was going to say no.
“This time,” he said before her stubbornness kicked in. “Next time, you hang up mine.”
Nicole reluctantly handed over the clothes. “Thank you.”
He darted out again, pulling out the little rack used for drying vegetation samples as well as clothes. He might be a geologist, but his cousin was a botanist who had requested a few samples from Vrul 4 for her comparative botany students.
When Krir stepped inside, Nicole was sitting on the bed with her knees drawn to her chest.
“I don’t know what to do with myself.” She let her head fall gently against the wall. “I’ve been so busy trying to stay alive.”
“You are safe here, Nicole. While you slept, I had the pod send a distress ping informing the mother ship that it’s been destroyed.
The Giuk have no reason to look for you.
And I’ve prepared a report to send to the Qilffir Geological Agency.
The authorities will work on your case, and I can request immediate extraction. ”
“I don’t want to be a bother. It would be a horrible way to repay your kindness. Your work is important to you. I’m fine, just tired. I’d prefer a little more time, a little more quiet before dealing with everything.”
Ah. Vrul 4 was a peaceful place, and dealing with a single, known alien would be preferable to being surrounded by yet another crowd of unknown beings. He might make the same choice if he were her.
“Of course. It may take a few days for the Geological Agency to respond. Non-emergency messages take a while to transverse the distance between here and Qilffir. You can change your mind at any time. I have thirteen days left, so they will be here soon, anyway. If your feet have healed enough, I can show you a few tasks you may help with, if you’re interested. ”
“I’d like that.”
A spark of delighted glee warmed his heart.
One of his favorite tasks was training others, and she had given him the gift of spending more time with an unknown sentient species.
The exobiologists at the next conference were going to be jealous.
And he was going to learn everything he could about these humans from a comely, clever female—woman.
He snagged a tablet from a drawer and clicked through a few menus.
Yes, there, an application Qilffiran children played with to learn the characters of the language and basic sight words.
He approached Nicole and trilled softly to get her attention.
When she looked up, he forgot what he was supposed to be doing for a heartbeat.
Krir blinked away the momentary misfire of neurons.
“May I join you?”
She inched back, giving him plenty of space. He pushed aside some disappointment that she still didn’t trust him. Trust should be earned, not given freely, especially after what she’d endured. He gave her the tablet.
“You seemed familiar with the device earlier,” he said.
“We have something similar. We may not have traveled outside our own solar system, but we have electricity, computers, microchips, Wi-Fi, all kinds of tech.”
What was Wi-Fi? At least the rest translated.
“I’ve opened a program that teaches Qilffiran. Start with numbers and I’ll give you a list of words you’ll find on the instruments I use.”
Nicole shifted closer, her warmth tantalizing with its nearness. A spark flared in his chest again. Perhaps it wasn’t just delight and a bit of smug satisfaction over being the only Qilffiran to work with a human.
“Show me.” She leaned in, and her scent enveloped him.
He kept his excited chitter to himself as he tapped the screen. Her gaze followed his movements closely, then her fingers mimicked him. She was soon engrossed in the program, but she didn’t recoil from him. He held still, answering her questions as she worked through the basics.
“And after dinner, I have a special treat for you,” he said when she’d successfully completed the first assignment. “All three moons will be out.”
“Three?” Wonder lit her face, and her eyes went wide.
“Did I say the number word wrong?” He held up three of his digits.
“No, it’s…Earth only has one moon. Three reminds me I’m not in Kansas anymore.”
“What is this Kansas? Isn’t your planet called Earth?”
“An old movie.”
He thought about asking, but changed his mind, chittering to himself. All these new words, new ideas. A bit frustrating and also intriguing. The next days would be fun.