Chapter 10
Daisy was very comfortable. Far more comfortable than she was the last time she woke.
And she was mercifully warm. It was for that reason alone that she was reluctant to wake.
She just wanted to stay right where she was, wrapped in warmth.
She might have too if not for the annoying rhythmic ping that invaded her sleep.
It dragged her out little by little and then hit her with a loud blast of an alarm that made her bolt upright, her eyes wide and unfocused as she groggily tried to pinpoint the cause of the disruption.
The illuminated star-chart projected on the display flashed angrily red with every siren, and she shifted forward, her elbows colliding with flesh as she hoisted herself forward.
She ignored the grunt of pain that came from her companion when the side of her hip jostled a sensitive area.
She frowned faintly, embarrassed and confused as to their proximity.
Normally, she would apologize for invading his personal space and for the bodily abuse, but a louder alarm caught her attention as the viewscreen in front of them lit up as well.
Tongue glued to the roof of her mouth, she stared at the planet-surface filling the viewscreen in front of her, actually seeing it for the first time.
“Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck,” she whispered, and she abruptly turned, inadvertently jabbing her knee high against the inside of his thigh.
The Daranthiki’s large hand encompassed her thigh, the heat of it momentarily distracting her. She blinked down at it for a moment before lifting her gaze to the large male’s disgruntled face as he stared down at her like someone who desperately wanted to kill an annoying insect bothering them.
“What are you—” he growled, but Daisy didn’t give him a chance to finish his question.
She jabbed a finger at the screen, her eyes wide as she met his gaze fearfully. “Scary as you are at this moment, can it. We have a big fucking problem.”
The male frowned at her, half-puzzled and half-annoyed, but his gaze focused first on the viewscreen and then on the star-chart with growing concern.
Baring his sharp teeth, his hands closed around her waist and plucked her up as easily as a rag doll and moved her forward so that he could lean in and get a better look at the readings on the panel.
“How did this happen? Even with the recalibrations, we have exhausted our oxygen supply and most of our fuel.” He gave her an accusative stare, but she scowled as she lifted her hands in frustration.
“Don’t ask me. You were the one who arranged cuddle time while I was sleeping instead of paying attention to our safety. Isn’t this what I am paying you for?” she demanded.
“I did not arrange ‘cuddle time,’” he snapped.
“You plastered yourself against me, making it impossible to move. Naturally, with you giving off the warmth of a fur-bearing vilpin in heat, I was coaxed to sleep. This should not have happened. The AI had completely recalibrated our trajectory to compensate for human construction practices long before I found my rest.”
“Okay, that’s fair,” she mumbled as she squinted at the panel and studied it.
It was crusted with filth that she hadn’t even initially noticed.
Like everything about the ship, it looked run-down and likely hadn’t seen the inside of a maintenance hangar in years.
She sighed. “Given the questionable condition of the ship, my guess would be that they never bothered with even the most basic maintenance on this thing. With our luck, we’ve probably been leaking oxygen and fuel into space for a while now while we were sleeping. ”
Zil studied the instruments for a long moment as his hand moved over the surface of the control panel—not really doing anything as far as she could tell except that she could see bits of data moving over his glowing eyes until he finally closed them and settled back against the seat before looking at her again.
When he opened his eyes, they were clear and normal again as he regarded her.
“You are right. When we left the ship, the pod had recorded minor equipment malfunctions. They did not appear to be pressing, and we were not in a position to be selective,” he reminded her.
“But it seems that a component has now broken off, puncturing the containment area for the fuel and oxygen. It also crippled our auto-landing drive.”
Daisy paled. “What the fuck does that mean?”
His mouth pulled into a grim line. “It means that I am going to have to bring us in manually. And I will need to do so quickly while we still have the resources necessary to get us there.”
A cold weight settled in her gut as she studied him. “Can you do it?” she whispered.
“I have done so... in simulation,” he admitted. Her confidence withered. “I only crashed a third of the time,” he added.
“We’re going to die.”
“We are not,” Zil replied stiffly. “I am uplinked to the pod to maximize my fine control over it. It is just a matter of getting the descent right—”
The pod suddenly jerked downward, and Daisy scrambled into the alien’s lap, her fingernails digging into whatever she could get a grip on as she clung to him.
“A small miscalculation,” he muttered as he gently disentangled himself from her hold, like she was a particularly needy and very frightened cat. “I have it now.”
Daisy gave him a doubtful look, but he appeared to be perfectly at ease as the pod leveled out again and shot toward the planet in a gradual slope.
Try as she might, she couldn’t be so confident.
She stared as the planet’s topography became increasingly defined as the pod descended into its upper atmosphere and sank her fingernails into Zil’s massive thighs with every violent shake.
He grunted in response, his pelvis flexing involuntarily.
His attention didn’t break, however. Even when the pod began to vibrate and pitch unnaturally and the metal screeched in protest, he remained focused.
All she could do was hold tightly to his legs on either side of her as she stared at the rapidly approaching ground with wide eyes, her chest rising and falling with every quick, fearful pant for air.
She felt like she couldn’t get enough air. She could barely breathe as her throat closed around a scream she desperately wanted to let loose. But somehow, she didn’t. Somehow, she remained quiet.
Baren rock rose to meet them, and the entire pod jerked violently as metal squealed and sand and rocks kicked up in a massive explosion.
Zil’s arm closed around her chest, anchoring her to him as the pod rolled violently, pitching them over and over and over.
The relief that she felt when they stopped rolling was so strong that she couldn’t even move for several minutes as she held tightly to the alien while her heart hammered a powerful rhythm as if it was attempting to jump directly out of her chest. She panted anxiously and jumped when Zil’s large hand stroked her back.
“Breathe.”
“I am breathing,” she shot back. “I am breathing so much that I may just pass out from it.”
She was in fact feeling a bit lightheaded. She rapidly blinked her eyes for a moment as she struggled to maintain her focus as the world got blurry around the edges.
“So I see,” Zil rumbled as darkness finally descended over her.