Chapter 18 #2
She peers at me through heavy eyelids. She raises one little hand and puts it right on my face before her eyes close and the fingers sag off me.
Damn, I really shouldn’t get attached to her. But it’s hard not to. She’s incredibly cute, and it’s impossible not to be charmed when a baby’s face brightens like a little sun when she sees you.
And right now, I don’t mind. This could work. Even if that saucer never flies again, maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe Cora was right when she said that life on Xren doesn’t have to be a nightmare, and that it depends on yourself how you see it. And she would know.
I gently place the sleeping Aker’iz back in her crib. Otis looks on and lies down at a small distance, clearly intending to guard her.
I glance over at Kenz’ox. “I wonder if the beach is still there.”
He straightens from his work. “I was thinking the same thing. It would be bad if it were to escape.” He grabs the big leather sheet and throws it over his shoulder.
Tingles start going down my body. I’m becoming insatiable, craving sex with him every day—and getting it, each time better than the last. Well, I have a lot of time to make up for.
I grab his hand, and we saunter toward the beach.
It’s a planet of extremes. Extreme danger, intense loneliness, terrifying wildlife. But then there’s also immense joy as a contrast. If I went home to Earth, I think I would miss those highs. And they are really, really high.
“Oh look,” I exclaim when we’re through the little patch of jungle. “It’s still there.”
Kenz’ox squeezes my hand. “I’m so relieved. I thought maybe the constant sound from the waves was fake. But the beach hasn’t escaped. We can still use it!”
I giggle at our nonsensical conversation. I needed this—someone to joke with, despite the ever-present danger. If you focus too much on danger, you’ll miss the good things.
The ocean is calm and clear, with no blobs in sight and no monsters in the air or on the shore. And if there were any, we’d chase them away. I have my spear, and Kenz’ox has his sword. His bubble of safety is strong and calm, just like him.
I pull my dress over my head, enjoying the sun and breeze on my naked body. Kenz’ox obviously enjoys the sight of me, and I enjoy seeing him so ready.
He’s the most confident person I’ve ever met. And the best part is that he’s right. He has every reason to be this calm and self-assured. He can deal with it all.
It has worn me down. I have no defenses left. I didn’t want to fall for him—but I did. And how.
Oh, I hope this will work.
- - -
“Ipromised we would help you with the Plood ship,” Kenz’ox says one day. “The little chief is asleep, but can you show it to me?”
I put down my new project—a leather bonnet for Aker’iz, almost finished. “Are you sure you want to?”
“I promised.”
I haven’t spent much time on the saucer since my breakdown. The saucer’s blue light is back, thanks to Aker’iz, but nothing else has changed much. “All right.”
The lights on the top panels are different from before, but not in a way that means anything to me.
I show all the weird crystal stuff to Kenz’ox. He reacts like I did the first time, just staring as if in a trance. “It’s very pretty. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It doesn’t remind you of anything?”
He gives me a little smirk. “I think it must be how you look inside. Very difficult to understand, but also very beautiful.”
I slap his giant shoulder. “I’m not difficult to understand. Just sometimes.”
He carefully touches one crystal crescent. “What are you trying to do with this?”
“I don’t know. It might be broken.”
He prods another part. “Why do you think it’s broken?”
“It doesn’t fly,” I tell him. “Dex could fly it. But only barely. He said it was damaged, I think. Or that it would not obey him. Then after a while we landed here, but it was not a soft landing. Dex called it a crash landing.”
“Hmm. Who is Dex? That’s not the name of one of your friends.”
I try to figure out how to describe an AI-controlled flying drone to a caveman.
“Dex is not alive. It is a…” Of course I don’t know the word for ‘machine’ in their language.
“It’s a flying thing that can talk and move, but it isn’t a Small or a Big.
Or a man or woman. It’s hard, and it has parts that spin very fast.”
He slowly turns his head. “It has parts that spin?”
Something about that look on his face… “Have you seen such a thing?”
He scratches his chin. “Well, the Envoy in the village has parts that spin very fast. And it’s alive and talks and could maybe fly. But it’s damaged. Crazy, we think.”
Butterflies take off in my stomach. I’d heard him mention the Envoy before, but I never asked more about it. “How long has it been in the village?”
“Some years. Three years, maybe?”
“What color is the Envoy?”
“It’s black, mostly. Some red spots. Some yellow.”
I grab his arm. “That’s Dex!”
“The Envoy is not Plood,” Kenz’ox says. “He said so.”
“Only this ship is Plood,” I tell him, excitement filling me. “The girls are not. I am not. Dex only came aboard at the space station. What does the Envoy say? Has he mentioned us? The girls?”
He taps one fingernail on a console. “The Envoy has said a lot of things that are plainly crazy. It keeps laughing at us. We don’t know what to believe.
At first, the shaman said it was an envoy from the Ancestors, but then it said some terrible things, and he changed his mind, claiming it had been sent by the Darkness.
Now I think the chief has taken it into his hut. ”
“You said he’s damaged?”
“It said it was in a fight with an irox. The irox lost, which we know because we found it on the ground not far from where we found the Envoy. But it also damaged the Envoy and caused it to fall.”
I think about it. I now know where Dex is.
If I could get him here, and he could tell me how to fix the saucer, then we should be able to look for Callie from the air—if he didn’t damage his propellers in the fight.
He wasn’t that big, but he seemed robust. He was made from metal, I think.
Obviously some kind of alien drone, but he learned some words in English from listening to us girls talk.
By the end, we kind of trusted him—not that we had a choice; he was flying the saucer.
I know there’s an actual dragon alien in Cora’s tribe, but she said he’s extremely hard to get to do anything. And I know what it feels like when he’s close—a paralyzing terror unlike any other I’ve ever felt. So he won’t work as a search-and-rescue vehicle. But Dex might. And the saucer might.
“Kenz’ox,” I begin. “Dex may be able to get this ship to fly. And he’s in your village.
I know you can’t go back there. But you and Aker’iz can come with me to the Borok tribe.
Just to look at the village. Just to see if you could live there.
The chief there may agree to send me to your tribe, along with warriors, and ask to see Dex.
To see the Envoy, to talk to him. Maybe give your tribe things they want in exchange.
Iron, maybe. Fabrics. The Borok tribe has very many things.
For you too, if you decide to come back here.
I am going. Now. And I want you to come. ”
It’s very quiet inside the saucer, and I feel as if the temperature drops.
Kenz’ox slowly stands up as well as he can, bending his neck. He looks at me emptily for a moment. Then he turns on his heel and walks out.