Alien Slave (15 page)

Dani went back to the cockpit and
gently lifted Reggie off the console. She groaned to see how broken
his body was. It felt like his bones had all snapped like
matchsticks. He hadn’t been strapped in, and no doubt he’d been
dashed against every surface until he’d come back to rest in his
chair.

“
Please, let it have been
quick. Please Reggie, please have died fast.” She didn’t want to
think he’d suffered the pain that would have come with his
injuries.

A stained cloth heaped under the
darkened console near his chair, and Dani took the time to cover
Reggie’s poor battered frame. She wondered if she should bury him
in the morning. She knew nothing of Isetacian funeral customs. She
wanted to have him rest in dignity, but couldn’t even begin to
fathom how it would be accomplished.

At a loss, Dani turned her attention to
the helm’s console. It looked intact, but pressing her fingers over
it, trying to bring it to life so she could get information about
the moon, yielded no results. Like Reggie, it was
lifeless.

Dani sank into the other seat and
bawled. It was Earth after Armageddon all over again; on her own,
and all Dad’s money couldn’t bail her out this time. No police. No
military. No friends either. When the bombs went off as the
Kalquorians invaded, emergency services had buckled under the
strain, disappearing within days. The survivors had gone into
‘every man for himself’ mode, clustering into gangs that fought not
only against each other but amongst themselves as well. And Dani
had been left to find her own way, starving more often than
not.

But she had survived nine months before
the Dantovonian slave ship pulled her off the broken planet. She’d
made it through. That had to stand for something.

Dani ground her tears out with her
fists, hiccups replacing her sobs. “Okay, stupid mistake number one
million two hundred thousand and three. Time to get back into
survival mode.”

She had shelter, so problem number one
was solved. Dani opened up containers, seeing what else she had
going in her favor. She managed a little cheer when a small
refrigerated cooler offered a few meager bits of frozen meat,
perhaps enough to sustain her for three or four days if she ate
very little.

“
Fire. I’ll have to build a
fire to cook the meat and boil water.” Water was even more
important than food. She hoped when the sun came up she’d find
herself near a source.

“
What will I do if there’s
no water?” she fretted, despair threatening once more. She
swallowed it down and punched herself in the thigh for going wimpy
again. “Well, just fold up and die then, Danielle. That’s what
being impulsive and stupid gets you. It had to happen sooner or
later. Damn it, you never think!”

There was nothing left to do until
daylight showed up. She prayed it would be soon. She prayed she
would find help, that some Earthers remained on the moon and that
they were nearby. She prayed to a God she’d never really believed
in, because she was well and truly fucked and she knew
it.

* * * *

“
Uh oh. Looks like debris.”
Wynhod’s enjoyment of the hunt sputtered and died as he brought up
the vid of their surroundings. The glare of the nearby gas giant
reflected off shards of metal. Definitely not natural.

Krijero peered at the rubble floating
within their route. He sounded anxious as he looked at the obvious
pieces of a ship. “You can’t tell if it’s the shuttle Dani
boarded?”

Wynhod’s fingers flew over the panel
before him, bringing up analytical readouts. “No, but this is
fairly recent and it starts on the flight path. See how fast it’s
drifting? And it’s concentrated in almost a straight line to that
moon.”

Gelan already worked to change their
course. He’d also lost all thrill of the chase, to judge from his
grim expression. “What’s the intel on this moon?”

Wynhod brought up yet another vid. He
read it out loud to the other two. “Designated LXS-42. It was
occupied by Earth during the war because of its proximity to
Dantovon. The Earthers used it as a base of operations to harass
our people when our ships came through.”

“
They abandoned
it?”

Wynhod scrolled through the information
quickly. “Except for a few buildings, it’s emptied out. It’s
thought either the Earther insurgents or Tragooms stripped the base
of all equipment.”

Gelan piloted their shuttle after the
trail of spinning fragments. “Containment based, or is there an
atmosphere?”

“
The atmosphere’s good. It’s
listed as a potential colony for the Earth refugees who don’t want
to come to Kalquor, but it’s too far away for anyone to properly
defend them from attack.”

Krijero relaxed a little. “If they made
an emergency landing, Dani’s okay for the short term
then.”

Wynhod scanned the larger pieces of
wreckage that appeared just outside the moon’s gravitational pull.
Gelan entered the atmosphere, carefully piloting around the
remains. The Dramok’s lips were tight.

Wynhod ignored the sick feeling in his
stomach. “Unless that Isetacian was transporting ship parts, I’d
guess it was more a crash than a landing. That’s a piece of a
booster engine right there.” He pointed the fragment out to his
clanmates.

Krijero’s sharp intake of breath filled
the cockpit. Wynhod hated telling his Imdiko bad news, but better
he hear it now and brace himself for the worst.

A hint of a growl trickled from Gelan’s
lips before he spoke. “Let’s go in and hope for the
best.”

The thrill of the hunt was most
definitely gone.

* * * *

The third time Dani moved the topmost
container blocking the door, orange-gray light drifted into the
red-tinged cave of the downed shuttle. She thought she’d never seen
a more beautiful sight in her life. The dismal bit of illumination
was sweeter than any sun-drenched day at the beach.

She rushed to push the other containers
aside, eager for daylight. The instant she could, she shoved
against the reluctant hatch, pressing it far enough open to let her
escape. She stood in the doorway, looking at her surroundings and
inhaling the scent of rotted vegetation and the burnt, oily stench
of the craft.

The ship had come to rest in a small
clearing, surrounded by blue-barked trees with leaves that
resembled gray scales. Dani could see the path the shuttle had
taken by the sheered tops of the nearby wooded area. The ground
beneath the trees looked darker than where the crashed ship lay, as
if it was wet. That didn’t bode well for needed fire, though there
were plenty of broken branches at hand.

“
I’m on high ground. I can
bring the branches up, and they’ll dry,” she consoled herself. But
she needed boiled water sooner rather than later. The air was
muggy, leeching moisture from her. Thirst made her throat click
when she tried to swallow.

An iridescent-winged creature that
resembled a dragonfly whirred past Dani’s head. She stared after
it. It was at least the length of her forearm. Edible, she
wondered?

Several more darted through the air,
coming close enough to catch easily. Dani wasn’t squeamish at all
at the thought of eating them. She’d downed squadrons of insects
back on Earth to survive after the war. Her only concern was that
the flying beasties might be poisonous.

Her little bit of food wouldn’t last
long, and if she didn’t find help soon, she’d have to consider
taking the risk. At least she had good shelter in the downed craft.
She’d have to remove Reggie’s body though. She couldn’t share the
cramped space with a corpse.

First things first: fire and water.
She’d look for a water source and dry kindling.

Priorities set, Dani slipped back into
the ship to find a container worthy of carrying water. She looked
at the covered body of her dead companion before starting her
search.

“
Sorry Reggie. I don’t know
the funeral customs of your people. I’ll bury you with as much
dignity as I can when I get back. I hope it won’t offend
you.”

She located a cylinder with a sealing
lid, perfect for storing two gallons of water. She decided once she
found a source, she could use it to bring manageable amounts of
water back to the ship and fill up one of the larger storage
containers.

Hope burning bright with the rising
tangerine-stained sun, Dani started down the slope towards the
woods. With dry wood and a reflective surface, fire was almost
guaranteed. She allowed herself a little smile.

The ground squelched beneath her
soft-soled slippers the lower she went. Well, that at least meant
water wouldn’t be too hard to find, she reasoned. Her smile grew
bigger.

She paused at the tree line and looked
at the dense foliage ahead of her. It would be too damned easy to
get lost and unable to retrace her steps to the ship. Listening to
the strange cries of unknown beasts deep in the woods, Dani knew
she needed the protection of the shuttle.

It took only a moment’s consideration
before she bent to grasp the hem of her dress, pulling hard to rip
a scrap of it away. She felt a kind of mean thrill in doing it, as
if getting a measure of revenge on the Kalquorians who’d gotten her
into this mess.

Here’s what I think of your ‘gift’, you
big Earth-killing jerks.

She snagged the scrap on some brush.
Its brilliant emerald color shone like a beacon. Better than
breadcrumbs, Dani thought with an even bigger smile than before. If
she grinned any harder, the top of her head would fall
off.

Dani wandered into the woods, leaving
bits of her dress along the way while looking at the straight
lengths of broken branches. She could make spears for hunting and
protecting herself. Maybe she’d chance across the Earther base that
had been here, and there would be help there. She’d at least find
abandoned supplies, she was sure.

Things weren’t great, but they were
certainly looking up. She’d survived Armageddon on Earth. She’d
outsmarted Kalquorians and escaped Dantovon. She’d survived a
crash.

Dani felt good enough to hum a little
tune as she traipsed deeper into the woods, mucky ground squelching
under her feet with the promise of water somewhere.

* * * *

The instant Gelan saw the crashed ship,
his heart plummeted to his stomach. His first instinct told him no
way anyone could still be alive in that wreck. But as his clan drew
near and he got past the blinding dazzle of the sun reflecting off
the bent metal, the Dramok realized it looked worse than it really
was. Before it had crashed, the haphazardly constructed vehicle
would have already looked like a wreck, like something mentally
deficient Tragooms on a drunken spree might have built.

The clan tore the hatch completely away
from the craft and squeezed inside. When the covered body revealed
itself to be an Isetacian and not Dani, the men sighed in
unison.

“
No sign of her.” Gelan
almost shook with relief. “No blood. If she was hurt, it wasn’t
badly.”

Wynhod checked the craft’s
registration. “This is definitely the ship witnesses said she
boarded.”

Krijero re-covered the dead pilot. “It
must be her. The Isetacian didn’t cover his own body.”

“
Stupid move to leave
shelter.” Gelan shook his head. The Earther’s lack of survival
skills was appalling. They had to find her fast. “What kind of
predators are there around here?”

Wynhod checked his handheld computer.
“Some pretty nasty ones. Big reptiles and mammals that could
definitely take an Earther down.”

“
We’d better get tracking
then.”

They stepped outside. Gelan armed sweat
off his forehead. It was only morning, and the temperature was
rising quickly. By afternoon, this marshland climate would be
uncomfortably stifling. The slight breeze only stirred the fetid
air, rendering little relief. The scraping sounds of the scale-like
leaves rubbing against each other high in the trees served as a
backdrop for the constant drone of large insect-like creatures
flitting here and there.

Gelan wondered what Dani thought of her
surroundings. She’d probably blundered off in a panic, screaming
for help.

Almost immediately, Wynhod’s sharp eyes
spied a bright green spot on a silver-hued bush just within the
treeline of the surrounding woods.

“
What do we have here?” He
sped to the splash of color, the other two right behind him. He
held up the scrap of fabric for their attention.

Krijero shook his head. “So much for
her pretty dress.”

“
That’s no accidental tear.”
Gelan spied another piece of the dress Dani had looked at with such
yearning on Dantovon. His estimation of her coping abilities rose a
touch. “She plans to return here. She’s marking her
trail.”

Wynhod held the bit of material to his
nose, inhaling Dani’s scent. “Do we wait or pursue?”

Gelan grinned, his enjoyment of the
situation restored now that he knew his Earther hadn’t been killed.
“Oh, hunting is always so much more fun than trapping.”

Wynhod laughed, and even Krijero’s face
brightened in a ghost of a smile. “I knew you’d say
that.”