Chapter 9
– Theodora –
When I wake up, Kenz’ox is gone. Well, he said he was going hunting at dawn, so that makes sense.
Aker’iz is still here, sleeping quietly in her bundle of leather.
The ambient light is still yellow, and the walls hum quietly.
It’s almost as if the saucer reacts to her specifically, not to me or Kenz’ox.
I lie there for a moment, staring at the alien ceiling.
I keep having dreams about the saucer’s technology.
They’re stressful dreams tinged with fear—what if I can’t make the saucer work?
What if Dex never returns? What if I never find Callie?
At the same time, the dreams always end with me making a small change in a console and the saucer coming alive around me.
I don’t know how that could happen. The crystal shapes are still alien to me.
But at least now, they’re familiar. They change when I touch them—one part may go less transparent, the color of another may change from green to cyan, one shape may shift from square to oval, or there’s a change that I perceive but can’t pinpoint.
I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’m sure there must be a system.
Is it like a Rubik’s cube, where I need to get the colors and shapes to align somehow?
Or just the colors? Or just the shapes? Or neither?
There are literally a billion possibilities for what might work.
Of course, it might just be broken, and nothing I do will make any difference.
But I don’t want to pursue that thought.
I get up and notice that Kenz’ox has prepared a breakfast of cold cuts along with fruit slices. He’s surprisingly civilized in some ways.
Otis comes trotting in and casually curls his tail around my leg as I sit down to eat.
“Hey,” I greet him. “Where have you been? Trying to avoid that caveman?”
He tightens his tail until it nearly hurts.
“Okay, sorry,” I try to soothe his male ego. “You’re definitely not afraid of him. Didn’t mean to suggest that. You’re very fierce, and I’m sure you could take him in a fight.”
I believe no such thing, of course. Kenz’ox’s sword is quite impressive. And so is the rest of him.
“I don’t know,” I mutter as I reach down to scratch Otis’s head.
“That kiss… I should not have done that. It was just too tempting. We’d just survived that attack, and the fear became something else.
So freaking intense… I thought the beard would tickle, but…
it’s just warm. Yeah, you don’t know what I’m talking about. Never mind.”
Otis gives me a glance and saunters away toward the beach.
“Look out for tentacles,” I call after him. “Stay away from the ocean if you can. I don’t think we’ll be making a raft after all.”
I finish up and check on Aker’iz. She’s busy crawling out of her sheets, whimpering with frustration.
I help her out of her bundle and carry her outside. “We’ll have to wait for your dad before we do much else. At some point, you have to ask him to build you a playpen or something. Because you’re getting a little too good at the crawling thing—oh.”
There’s movement in the woods, and I quickly grab Callie’s spear, the only one left with an iron head.
Kenz’ox steps into the little clearing, carrying a well-filled sack. “Good morning.”
I lower the spear. “Good hunt?”
He dumps the sack on the ground and stretches. “Not the best, not the worst. We will live for another day.”
I get the feeling that’s some kind of caveman saying. “Your baby is crawling.”
He picks Aker’iz up, and she squeals and coos happily. “What? Are you crawling, little baby? Do you think you are a spront?” He lifts the girl above his head on straight arms, making her squeal with glee.
I turn away and busy myself with the skins being cured. This is becoming more of a scene of domestic bliss than I’m comfortable with. I don’t want Kenz’ox to think that we’re a little family now.
The skins are soon ready to be used. And the first thing I’ll make is shoes.
I’m done being barefoot in this damn jungle, having my bare toes exposed to the mysterious undergrowth and feeling something living stroke my ankles every time I venture into the woods.
I’ll make some dinosaur-skin moon boots if it’s the last thing I do.
The mug I made has dried out, so I fire up the little pottery kiln and put it inside. I should have made two, because about half of the pots we fire crack in the process. But I don’t have the clay right now.
Kenz’ox and Aker’iz are going through their routine. He changes the baby’s wrapping, feeds her, and takes her for a guided tour of the clearing.
“That’s the ship, left here by the Plood.
No, don’t worry. The Plood are long gone.
But they brought Dorie, and she’s not happy about it.
Those are spears that can be used to kill anything.
If you’re good enough. Dorie is a spear master, and one day I will ask her to teach me. That’s where we keep our food…”
It’s much the same tour as yesterday, although he changes some of the descriptions of what they’re looking at.
Little kids do like things to be repeated, as I recall hearing years ago.
I can’t deny that he seems to be a perfect father for little Aker’iz.
It must be instinct, because I don’t think Today’s Parent accepts subscribers light-years away, but I assume parental instinct is the same on all planets.
All right. I have to make myself useful. He’s still showing no sign of wanting to get rid of me, but once I see a sign like that, it’s going to be too late. He should see that I’m pulling my weight here. But I also have to remind him that this place is mine.
“That is meat?” I ask and point at the pack he dropped.
“Finest skarn meat,” Kenz’ox says and puts his daughter down. “It needs longer on the fire to be tender, but the flavor is full.”
“I will cut,” I tell him and grab the little knife that Sprisk gave me. Sitting down on my usual rock, I take out the big pieces of some prey animal that must have been a good runner, judging from its muscles.
It’s been a while since I was squeamish about these things.
The girls and I have been able to take down the occasional edible wildlife when one of them strayed so close to the saucer that it really gave us no choice.
The saucer does still give off some thin nourishing substance that kept us alive the first months, but we felt it wasn’t enough.
There is something to be said for actually feeling full after a meal, and the only thing we knew that could help us there was meat.
Morgan was the best hunter, but we all pitched in on gutting the prey she would bring home.
As I work, I can’t help sending Kenz’ox some stolen glances. He has that kind of presence. He even overpowers the terror that the jungle radiates. I know that if something mean comes out of those dark woods right now, I’ll bravely seek safety right next to him.
I really should not have kissed him. Because now that’s the only thing I can think of.
His lips were so soft and searching, and it kind of boggles my mind because the rest of him is so hard and powerful.
His beard was also much softer and silkier than I would have guessed.
I have an urge to run my hand through his thick, semi-curly hair, which also has a soft look to it.
I clear my voice. “You good with the baby.”
He sends me a blue glance. “Yes? I don’t really know what I’m doing. I have sometimes cared for the boys in the village, but this one is more thoughtful. She doesn’t crawl around as much, and she screams less. Is that common for girls?”
I shrug. “I not have baby myself. But I think boy babies not very different from girl. Perhaps Aker’iz just is more thoughtful baby.”
He carefully puts the girl down. “When she looks at me, she doesn’t blink. It’s as if she sees through me and out the other side.”
“Aker’iz has intense eyes,” I tell him. “I not know word in your speech.”
“Intenz.” Kenz’ox tastes the alien word. “Mmm. Yes. That’s how it feels.”
He gets up and follows Aker’iz, who’s enjoying her exploration of the clearing on all fours. It’s an adorable sight, the huge, scarred warrior with the big sword focusing only on that tiny little girl.
I’m not sure what to do. I’m not going to be part of their family. At the same time, I have to live here, too. How much should I separate my life from theirs? Is that even possible?
My only hope is to get the saucer to work. Or for Dex to return, but that does seem unlikely after all this time. Callie coming back would solve part of the problem. We could stick together and let Kenz’ox and his daughter stay until we fixed the saucer. Or decide to join Cora’s tribe.
No, that last thing is not an option for me. The saucer is here, and now I know that it does kind of respond to my touches. At least sometimes. So I’m even less interested in leaving it now.
It gives me an idea. “There is other tribe. Borok tribe.”
He gives me a glance. “So you said. I’ve never heard of it. Is it big?”
“Yes. Big village. Is a mountain there. Safe village, no Bigs come.”
“Safe?”
“They say it is safe.”
“Is it far away?”
Cora and Sprisk had been walking for weeks, apparently. “Yes.”
“Safe for Aker’iz?”
Cora said some really good things about the chief and the tribe. “I think so. Other women live there. Earth women. Babies. Girl babies.”
“Why are you not there?”
I nod toward the saucer. “I want to repair that.”
“So you can go to your home world.”
I shrug. We both know that. “The Borok tribe allow warriors from other tribes.”
He raises his eyebrows. “They allow outtribers? Not just women?”
I’m actually not completely sure about that. I didn’t listen too closely when Cora told us about her tribe, because I knew I’d never see it. “I think so. And Foundlings.”