Alien Mine (11 page)

"May I see your spaceship?" she asked, trying to keep her excitement contained. If he took her to see his ship, it might provide a good opportunity for her to slip away and escape.

For a long time he stared at her, his face still expressionless. The silence drew out so long she had to concentrate not to fidget.

"Crashed," he said at last.

Alien stoicism or not, she knew when someone was stonewalling her. "I thought I was your woman now." She would chew worms before she would call herself a breeder. "Don't you want me on your spaceship?"
Yeah, sure. Like he'd trust you with his spaceship. And while he's at it, he'll hand over the secrets to their technology as well. Get real, Natalie.

"When fixed." His voice had an edge of warning to it and she sat back.

"All right," she said slowly, her eyes sliding away from him.
So much for that brilliant idea.
The stubborn jerk wasn't going to give her an inch.

Did they really plan to find women and stay in a cave? Somehow she doubted it. Although, with his insistence that she become his breeder, perhaps there was some level of truth there. Had something happened to the women on his planet and they had to search the universe for other women in order to propagate their species?

But if that was the case, why the claws and swords? Why send warriors and not diplomats?

"Don't you want to make contact with the government? Let them know you're here, sort of act as an ambassador."
And become someone else's problem
, she thought.

He contemplated her words for what seemed an endless amount of time. "No."

"But if you don't try to talk to them, you could have a war on your hands. They've already seen your ship."

When he said nothing, a horrible thought occurred to her. "There's no way I'm going to be taken to some strange planet."

"We stay always."

"Always? You mean forever? You're going to stay on Earth forever? Why won't you return to your planet?" Was he seriously going to try to take over Earth with just the four of them? Although, after the total slaughter at the raider camp, she wouldn't be surprised, but she hoped that wasn't the case. Maybe he just simply couldn't return. "Is your spaceship beyond repair?"

"Earth breeders plenty."

So he really is just after women.
"Are women scarce on your planet?" She stressed the word
women
.

"My woman." He pointed to her then himself before continuing, "Warriors take women."

She wasn't going to fall for the broken speech for one moment. "So you're saying warriors will find women and stay quietly in the cave for what? Decades?"

"Yes," he said.

"Do you have family on your planet? A wife? Kids?" Strange how that question never occurred to her before. It should have. She had some scandalous dreams a few nights ago that involved Zacar. What if she had those dreams about a married alien? Her intestines curled.

"Wife?"

"You know, a woman you have an exclusive relationship with."

"Have you. No other." Again, he remained expressionless, giving her nothing with which she could gauge the truth of his words. For all she knew he had ten wives back on his planet.

"Look, I don't know if you realize this, but I'm not going to sleep with you, at least not until I know you
a lot
better."
Make that never
, she thought, but he didn't need to know that. Sensual dreams or not, this was a situation she had to get far away from.

"Yes, you will," he said with chilling certainty.

If she was half as brave as he thought her to be, she would've pummeled him with something.
It's ironic
, she thought,
having a civilized conversation for the first time in months with a being who scared the living daylights out of her.

"Are you saying you'll force me?" That chip in his brain had better make the correct translation.

His gaze moved over her figure and lingered on her breasts before blatantly staring at the junction of her legs. Then finally, he looked up. Her body heated as if hot coals had rolled over it. "No force," he said in what she assumed was a gentle tone.

"Promise?" she asked, hating the tearful note in her voice.

"What
promise
?"

"It's when you say something and you mean it. Like when you promised not to hurt me earlier. And if you do hurt me, you will break your promise and be a warrior without honor."

"Zacar have honor," he growled.

She froze. Had she just found a weakness?

She perked up a bit, eager to test her new discovery. She pointed a finger at him. "Anything you do against my will is violence against me." He looked down at her forefinger as she tapped his chest in time with her words. "And buddy, you had better sleep with your eyes open if you hurt me."

"No make sense, sleeping with eyes open."

She would've found his words and the slightly confused tilt to his head charming if he wasn't a muscle-bound, humongous alien that constantly called her his breeder.

She was about to respond when the doctor alien, Viglar, came into the tent again and grunted something at him.

Zacar surged upright with an ease she envied. "Natlia, stay in cave." He pointed to the TC. "Look at cell cast."

Then he did the strangest thing. He leaned down and briefly touched his forehead to hers, the pressure warm and hard. She sat frozen, unsure what she was supposed to do. After a few seconds, he straightened again and went out.

What could they be doing outside in the cold? And how long would they be doing it?

Grateful for the opportunity, she hastily put her clothes back on, retrieved her inhaler from her pants pocket, and held it to her mouth.

Catching movement out of the corner of her eye through the sheer plastic door of her tent, Natalie stilled, the inhaler poised in front of her mouth. The scarred alien stood at the cave entrance watching her, his lip curled. She stared back at him, frozen with fear, expecting at any moment he would come and take her head.

Calm down, Natalie. He's an alien. He can't possibly know what an inhaler is or what it's for.

Trying to act casual and unconcerned, she put the inhaler back in her pocket and stepped out of the tent, walking over to the TC.

When she glanced up at the cave entrance again, he was gone.

Had he gone to tell Zacar about the inhaler?

Pretending to search for a program, she tried calling the emergency number. She wasn't holding out much hope the emergency function would suddenly be working, but she had to try.

A few minutes later, she slammed her fist against the wooden chest, rattling the TC. Why didn't anything work anymore? She hadn't even been able to contact Julia.

I have to get out of here
! With the TC not working, getting down the mountain was the only way she'd be able to inform anyone of the aliens' presence.

She sat on the large cushion that served as her couch, pretending to watch the TC. Even though her heart raced with nervous excitement, she forced herself to wait. And it was a good thing she did, because fifteen minutes later the surly, scarred warrior returned, watching her from the cave entrance again. The moment she made eye contact, he walked away, with what she could've sworn was a disdainful sneer on his face.

Waiting until he disappeared before getting up, she walked casually to the back of the cave. The moment she was out of sight, her heart pounding, she ran along the narrow passage to the storage room then took the even narrower passage leading to the hidden valley.

How long would she have before they came looking for her? On foot, it would take her almost a day to get where her father's antique truck was stashed.

She ran, convinced Zacar breathed down her neck. She swung around, only to find the path behind her empty. When she turned to run again she could vaguely see the red canvas covering the back entrance blend in with the dark rock surrounding it.

She silently thanked her father for insisting that emergency packs be hidden in the valley at all times. He always believed that in the event of an emergency, they should be able to run out of the cave with only their clothes on.

She pushed aside the canvas and stepped out into the bitter cold. For a moment, she just stood and stared. Never before had the icy white winter landscape been so desolate and threatening. But then, she'd never had to escape from aliens on foot through it before.

Shaking off her dread, she ran to where her father had stashed their emergency supplies. A few meters away from the entrance, she found the small hole in the mountain, rolled aside the stone covering it, and lifted out one of the three backpacks stashed there.

She blinked back tears. Her father would have enjoyed outwitting the aliens.

With her rapid movements made clumsy by the cold, she slung one of the backpacks over her shoulders. Shivering, even in her thick jacket, she rolled the rock back in place before starting the long climb out of the valley.

Would the people in town believe her when she told them she'd been captured by aliens?
Probably not
, she thought. As the daughter of two fanatic survivalists, her reputation had long since been tarnished. But at least Julia would believe her. She hoped.

Just a week ago, she had laughed with Julia about the very idea of an alien invasion. Now it was her reality and she still had trouble believing it.

Frantically looking back every few moments for signs she was being followed, she kept stumbling over her own feet. She forced herself to face forward and concentrate on the path. This was the easy part. The valley sloped up gradually. But there was an hour's worth of sheer upward climbing ahead. The sun was out, warming the air just enough to slowly melt the snow, making everything slippery and muddy. The cold seeped marrow deep into her bones.

For the next half hour, she managed a good pace up the gradual slope through sheer desperation. If he caught her now, he would never give her the chance to escape again.

Her breath sawed painfully in and out of her lungs. Several times, she had to stop and use the inhaler.

In all her years on the mountain, her endurance had never been tested as much as it had the last five days.

She took a few sips of water from a canteen, as much to lighten her load as to quench her thirst.

As the slope became steeper, everything turned more slippery, treacherous. She slid back two steps for every one she took forward.

Her muscles ached and her hands felt like frozen claws, even with her gloves, as she tried to grip the rocks and pull herself up the slope. In spite of her need to hurry, she stopped every now and then to scan the area behind her for aliens.