2. Chapter 2
Major Marissa Ozark had a lot to think about. The blanket she was wrapped in had kept her heart rate and oxygen level the entire time so if she’d had the adrenaline dump she was expecting, it wasn’t impacting her the way she was familiar with. Even if her brain felt sharper and her attention easier to focus.
She wanted to shift to relieve discomfort, but she wasn’t uncomfortable anywhere, even if she could shift or twitch. In fact, she was so comfortable she was fighting to stay awake. Falling asleep was a bad idea. She knew that. All of her training had told her that. So why did she feel like she was in a place where it was safe?
“Alright, your original mission is classified and you’re here because your GPS fucked up and you got stranded,” she said in an effort to keep her mind working on something. “So you called for a ride home?”
“Essentially, yes,” her captor said.
She should really ask him what his real name was. His tag on his jacket had said Cooper but she didn’t think that was accurate.
“So what’s to stop your people from sending the invasion you weren’t a scout for to my planet instead of its original destination?”
“Would your people reroute an entire naval fleet to go pick up one downed aircraft in the middle of a desert?”
Marissa wanted to shake her head and was annoyed when she couldn’t. “Wrong type of vessel for the terrain. Alright, so who can we expect to be knocking on our door in the middle of the night to pick you up?”
“Don’t know, actually,” he said. “It will depend on who’s free and what kind of resources they can spare.”
“So you asked for a ride but don’t have any idea if you’re going to actually get one?”
“I’ll get one. Eventually.”
“How long do you think you’ll be stuck here?” If she couldn”t move, Marissa could at least annoy him while he drove. And maybe even get some answers he hadn”t intended to give.
“I’m not stuck, precisely, so I’m hoping it won’t be long. I just need someone to drop by with a refuel and I’m good.”
“So what does that mean if I’m actually your mate?”
“You are,” he said.
“So, if I don’t kill you, what happens when you get your refuel?”
His silence told her more than anything else could have. He didn’t have a plan that included her yet. His hands clenched at the steering wheel and she caught a glimpse of something else around his knuckles? Snake skin? Scales?
“Alright, what happens if you’re not important enough for someone to send you a refuel?”
“They will,” he said.
“But what if they don’t?”
Marissa wished she could see his face. She was definitely seeing scales on his hands, though, and that wasn”t comforting.
“If they don’t then I’m going to be here for a while,” he said finally.
“And that’s going to be a problem,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“And if you do, that’s going to be a problem for me, isn’t it?”
He took a deep breath and she could hear the determination in his voice. “I hope it isn’t.”
She couldn’t sigh but she wanted to.
“What’s your name, anyway?” she asked.
“Cooper,” he said.
“Is that your first name or your last name? Or how do your people do names is more appropriate, I guess. Because I assumed you stole someone’s name tag to go on your fake BDUs.”
“I did,” he said. “Doesn’t mean it’s not a good name. And how could you tell the BDUs were fake? They looked accurate to me.”
“The pattern was off. And what do you mean it’s a good name? I didn’t say it was a bad one, just that it didn’t belong to you. What’s your real name?”
Cooper let out a series of clicks and growls and Marissa blinked.
“Oh,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Well, Cooper’s a good name, I guess. Is it the only one you’re using?”
“I borrowed a couple when I was trying to find my way to the base,” he said. “Nothing that really felt like it would stick. I got used to answering to Cooper so that’s what I’ll go with unless you have a reasonable objection.”
Marissa thought about it and wished she could shake her head. Her neck muscles wouldn’t even tense, but she wanted them to. “It just doesn’t feel like a very alien kind of name. It’s a lot like the kind of name I’d expect one of the boys from back home to have.”
“Do you want me to have an alien sounding name? I could call myself Althacar or something but it’d just be a nonsense word. Cooper at least means something in your language.”
“Does it? One of the boys I knew with the name was because his parents misspelled copper on his birth certificate. His brothers were Steel, Stone, and Mark.”
“It means someone who repairs barrels. Mark? Really?”
Marissa laughed. “Mom got tired of explaining the names and dad couldn’t think of anything else that obviously meant something strong. Mark went on to be a competitive weight lifter, I think.”
“Humans are strange,” Cooper declared after a moment of thought.
“Yes we are,” she agreed. “But you don’t come from a death planet without earning a few quirks.”
“You’ve got that right,” Cooper said. “And I don’t wonder that we assumed this planet was uninhabitable. The number of places I could safely land and function was so restricted, I didn’t think it would be possible at all. I’ve seen what your people have done to make it easier to survive on but without modern technology just attempting to live outside your ideal environments could kill you. Especially with how few physical adaptations your species seems to have.”
“And I suppose your planet is temperate all over and doesn’t try to kill you?” Marissa asked.
“No, it doesn’t,” Cooper said. “What is it about you death-worlders that you try to make living a competitive sport?”
“I just don’t know how you’d survive without summers that could boil you alive and winters where you have to trudge barefoot through the snow, uphill, both ways, to get to school so you can fight the grizzly bears on the way home to get enough meat for dinner,” she said.
“You did not.”
“How would you know?” she asked.
His struggle was palpable and she laughed.
“You humans have a habit of telling tall tales,” he grumbled. “It makes navigating your world very difficult sometimes.”
“Do your people not exaggerate their triumphs? Describe overwhelming odds to explain defeats?”
“The Dragor will,” he said. “And the Ranel. Neither are known for their mercy towards my people. We have learned to mimic some of their ways but we are, by nature, accurate when describing our own exploits and adventures. In this way, those that come after us can know exactly what we did and why.”
“Who are the Dragor? And the Ranel?”
“They are two of the other intelligent species that share our planet with us. Alike enough we can communicate and even live in some harmony but different enough that we do not mingle outside of what is necessary.”
“Oh. Was that always the case?”
“To the best of my knowledge.”
That wasn’t a ‘no’, she realized. There was a whole history he was very carefully not talking about and it made her want to pry. The only problem was that she really didn’t know where to begin. She supposed she could keep needling him where he seemed uncomfortable but she didn’t know if it would work for what she wanted or not.
Of course, it would help if she actually knew what she wanted.
Get free, get away, get as much information as possible about who took her, what they wanted and what their goals were while giving away as little information about herself as possible seemed a good place to start. She had an idea about where she was but nothing concrete.
They’d been driving cross-country with few memorable landmarks she could identify. That made getting away trickier than she’d like. She could probably steal the truck once she was free but they’d been driving so long she knew they had to be almost out of gas.
“Are we almost to your ship?” she asked.
“Not as close as I’d like,” he said. “But we’re almost safe to get out and let you take care of whatever you need to take care of.”
“I would appreciate that.”
She’d forgotten that she’d asked about that. When they were closer to the base, she’d hoped to use it as an excuse to get free, then get away. This far out, she wasn’t sure that was a viable option anymore. Of course, that might have been his plan all along.
It felt like hours, but was actually only another fifteen minutes or so, before they stopped and he parked the truck. His door opened and he came around to her side. He unbuckled her seat-belt, turned her to look at him, and smiled.
“Hey there, beautiful,” he said.
“You’re deranged,” she told him, fighting the urge to blush and suddenly thankful that the stasis wrap wouldn”t let her. “Absolutely, one hundred percent, certifiable.”
“You don’t think you’re beautiful?”
“I’ve been kidnapped, trussed up, and spent the day being driven into the middle of the desert. I can clean up nice but I guarantee I’m not anybody’s idea of beauty right now.”
“You might be a bit of a mess but you are one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen,” Cooper said.
“Creature?” Marissa asked.
“Well, you are an alien. What do you want me to call you?”
“A woman?”
“A human woman,” he said. “Not a Chelion. I’m not sure it’s the same thing but I’ll try.”
“Well, don’t strain yourself,” Marissa said.
“I won’t,” Cooper said. “Now, I’m going to put you down and unwrap you. There might be a slight moment of disorientation.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Marissa said.
“I’m sure you will. I just wanted to warn you.”
He pulled her out of the seat, set her on her feet, and leaned her against the car. She couldn’t see what his hands were doing but the rush of blood and oxygen through her system when the blanket fell away nearly drove her to her knees. With one hand on her shoulder, Cooper pushed her against the car and held her there until the world stopped spinning.
The urge to vomit rose and fell and she closed her eyes to fight it while she took deep breaths through her nose. When she felt safe, she opened her eyes and looked straight into Cooper’s worried gaze.
“Are you alright?” he asked and eased up on the pressure holding her up.
Marissa nodded, then pitched forward and vomited on his boots.