Halley
“We need a plan,” Eot says to Keelo, after we’ve broken our fast and are packing up camp.
If Keelo hears him, he doesn’t answer. Grumpy, as always.
“How far is there left to travel?” I ask in his stead.
“Half of the morning,” Eot guesstimates, examining the map. “We’ve been moving slower than expected, but we should be returning by lunch.”
“Killing a trikon is all in a day’s work for two Arrok outlaws!” I say with false bravado, not daring to ask if we’ve been traveling slower because of me—four people and only three pack animals. I don’t want to risk pissing off Keelo any more than I already did last night.
He’s probably the most stubborn man I’ve ever met.
That’s including my dad, who resolutely refused to have anything to do with Mom and me after he accidentally got her pregnant, and including Xile, who’d been fine blaming all of his problems on me even when I had nothing to do with any of them, the bastard.
To be fair to Keelo, he might be more stubborn than Xile, but he’s at least tolerable to be around when he’s grumpy—and considerably better looking.
Sure, handsomeness doesn’t count for much when compared with personality, but it doesn’t hurt, either.
Especially as Keelo spends most of his time scowling—an expression that strangely suits his golden features and his Viking-style hair.
Rin’s also wearing a scowl this morning, and she’s once again refusing to talk to me.
It hurts so much more now that I know it’s a conscious decision on her part.
I silently vow to do whatever it takes to win her back.
She’s had so few adults she can count on, and I find myself wanting to be one of those she can trust.
For that reason, I keep tight control of my smile, making sure not to show her my teeth any more than necessary, and I apologize again, for all that she refuses to listen. Rin mightn’t be biologically related to Keelo, but boy has she inherited his ability to hold a grudge!
Between the two of them ignoring me, that leaves Eot. Who’s too kind to ignore me, even if he was still angry after last night.
If there’s ever a two-man duo born to play Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it’s these two.
In a bid to make myself useful, I help Eot saddle our mounts and then I volunteer to complete the more unpleasant tasks, such as digging a hole for what little biowaste we’re leaving behind.
The ground’s hard as rocks—of course it is.
It’s mainly shale, so I end up piling stones over the waste instead of burying it, hoping that’s enough to keep our impact on the landscape as minimal as possible.
It feels almost sacrilegious to be walking through a ravine where no human’s ever walked before.
It makes the whole experience of being abducted by aliens bizarrely surreal, as if I’m living in a dream—or in a movie.
I half expect to see cameras and stage lights following along behind us.
And it’s only when my chest begins to ache do I realize I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for someone off screen to shout cut!
It’s all real, though. The stink of the bimors’ piss, nearly solid like shit because of their low water intake, is enough to wipe away any lingering romantic thoughts of movie sets and actors’ dressing rooms.
Oh, what I wouldn’t do for a shower!
I take another subtle sniff of my underarm, and this time I definitely notice a smell. Thankfully, it’s partially masked by the sand and dust covering my skin in a thin layer, but there’s no denying the fact that when I was abducted, my deodorant wasn’t also kidnapped.
Add to that the knowledge that Keelo and Eot have far more sensitive noses than me, I’m blushing with embarrassment and trying to keep my arms tucked close to my sides in an attempt to contain my stink.
It makes the promise of beginning the return journey back to the ship almost exciting—the prospect of a proper wash.
Nevertheless, I hesitate. Returning means having to face the very real possibility of Eot, Keelo, and Rin deciding to leave Lyd without me.
I don’t think they’ll return me to Xile’s, but they also haven’t said whether I can stay on a more permanent basis.
Worry gnaws at my stomach.
For the month after I was abducted, all I dreamed about was returning home.
I remember lying on my blanket under Xile’s market stall at night and stuffing the hem of my T-shirt into my mouth in an attempt to keep from making any noise as I cried myself to sleep, mourning everything and everyone I was missing.
But a lot has changed in a few short days.
For starters, I now know that returning to Earth probably isn’t going to happen. Eot and Keelo don’t know where my home is, and it’s not like there’s a line of other aliens volunteering to help me find one lone planet in a universe of trillions and trillions of planets.
If my mom were in my situation, she wouldn’t want to return home, even if she could.
She’d be having the time of her life, exploring a brand-new world and getting to know real-life aliens.
She’d be determined to experience every possibility the universe has to offer, the good and the bad—and I think she’d want the same thing for me, even if it means we never get to see each other again.
I scrub my face with the cuff of my cardigan—homesick and miserable.
I’ve always known I’m not the adventurer Mom is.
She moved from America to Australia to follow her dream, but I’ve never traveled halfway around the world, even for a holiday.
I’m much more of a homebody, preferring to study weather patterns from the comfort of my ergonomic office chair than to venture into the field.
Now that I’m here though…it has been kind of fun learning to ride a bimor and sleeping under the stars. I’ve loved getting to share my knowledge with Rin. And flirting with Eot has definitely had its advantages.
Nevertheless, after my fuckup last night, I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided they didn’t want me around for the long haul. In two days I might be forced to face the reality of making Lyd my permanent home.
I wrack my brain, trying to think of a plan—any plan!—but nothing occurs to me, except for a hollow sort of certainty that I don’t want to say goodbye to this small family anytime soon.
I’ll miss them.
“It’s decided,” Eot says, his voice pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts.
“Hallelujah!” I roll my eyes, exaggerating my exasperation. “They’ve finally decided on a plan.”
Their plan, as it turns out, is to leave the saddled bimors tied to a rock and continue on foot, Eot’s argument being that the bimors’ slow speed might put them in danger of the trikon’s attack. We can’t risk them, since we don’t want to be making the return journey carrying our supplies ourselves.
“Are you sure that Rin and I shouldn’t stay here also?” I call after them as they start walking, Rin easily keeping pace with the guys.
“You can stay,” Keelo says over his shoulder, not bothering to glance back at me. “But Rin stays with us, where we can protect her.”
Which…doesn’t seem like the best plan in the world, even if I can’t fault their enthusiasm for wanting to keep Rin safe.
Still, I’m torn between wanting to follow and preferring to stay out of the way, because what the fuck am I going to do in the fight against a bimor-eating trikon?
But deep down I know I’m putting off the inevitable.
I promised to help look after Rin, and that’s a promise I intend to keep, even if it means getting up close and personal with trikon blood and guts.
Because, God help me, I really do care about the kid, and I would do anything to keep her happy and safe.
Even traipse through the desert and forgo having a bath.
I rush to catch up. One good thing about the ravine is that the sun is only directly overhead for a few short hours in the middle of the day, so most of the time we’re protected from sunburn and from overheating by the shade of the rock walls.
I don’t doubt I’ve got tan lines around each of my thighs marking the hem of my shorts.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve got a hat line too, across my forehead, where all the dust and sand and sweat have collected in the hatband.
I glare at Keelo’s and Eot’s backs, jealous that they don’t seem worried about the effects of overexposure to sun.
I don’t even know if they’ve got sweat glands, because they don’t stink of BO, just of leather and bimor scales and shale dust. Trust them to be still looking sparkling clean after three days trudging through hell.
Even Rin has abandoned her hat-cum-helmet back with the bimors, claiming she doesn’t need it anymore.
Whereas I’m firmly leaving my hat in place, despite the ravine’s shadows.
My lips are cracked, and my skin is getting tight, it’s so dry.
And I haven’t seen a glimpse of moisturizer my entire time on Lyd, as if aliens don’t need any extra care and attention than simple water and soap—although even water is a luxury, and I take a small sip from a flask, ignoring the fact it’s gritty with sand particles.
Eot and Keelo don’t appear worried about us running out of water, but I’ve been keeping a close eye on our rations, and it’s becoming startlingly obvious that if we don’t turn around sooner rather than later, we’ll be at risk of running low.
I glance back at the bimors, remembering the stories of old Antarctic explorers being forced to eat their dogs to survive.
“Are we there yet?” I ask, tripping over my own feet in my attempt to peek around Eot to the tablet in his hand. After the fiasco of last night, it’s suddenly a lot easier to imagine all the things that could go wrong, and there are a hell of a lot of them.
“Around the next bend,” is Eot’s answer after another quick conference with his tablet.
“You’d better stick with me,” I say to Rin, regardless of the fact she’s still scowling at me. “We don’t want to get in Eot’s and Keelo’s way, do we?” And I hold out my hand.
She eyes me but must decide I’m speaking some sense because she finally slips her hand into mine.
I can’t stop myself from glancing at the guys, wanting to know if they see this victory, but they’re consulting the map and talking in hushed voices about attack strategies—strategies I really think they should’ve decided on days ago.
I purse my lips to keep from saying, I told you so, and lead Rin toward another animal trail cutting through the steep wall of the ravine.
Loose stones slip underfoot, threatening to trip us, but Rin and I manage to gain the high ground, taking ourselves to a safe distance from which to watch the fight. A fight I’m beginning to really dread.
“They’ll be alright,” I say, squeezing Rin’s hand in what I hope is a comforting fashion.
She doesn’t answer, probably because she knows I’m talking more to myself than to her.
She, at least, has faith in her guardians.
I… Well, I’m suddenly terrified of them getting hurt.
It feels like my heart’s hammering in my mouth, and I swear I can hear my blood pumping in my ears.
I’m battling against my own desperate need to charge back down the hill and drag the guys away from danger. This has got to be the stupidest thing anyone’s done for money. Why would they risk their lives like this for a couple of coins?
Because they’re outlaws. And now I’m silently cursing the elders council, because fuck them for treating Keelo, Eot, and Rin like they’re dispensable.
Fuck them for putting my guys into a situation where they’re desperate enough to take the worst kinds of jobs just to survive. And fuck them for mistreating a child.
“Come on.” I tug Rin after me, stumbling along the edge of the ravine, trying to keep Keelo and Eot in sight. They round a bend, and right when I think they’ll come face to face with the trikon, they pause, pointing to something in the wall opposite.
It’s another cave.
The trikon’s den.
“What’s that stuff scattered all over the ground?
” I shield my eyes with my free hand, leaning as close as I dare to the edge.
There’s something white scattered over the shale.
All different shapes and sizes, but at this distance, they’re too blurry for me to properly see, even with my glasses.
“Can you make out what those are? More rocks?”
Rin’s voice cracks, but she does eventually answer, clearing her throat, and swallowing. “They’re bones.”