Chapter 2

Irina groaned as she opened her eyes, a dull ache gnawing at her body. She wasn't sure where she was, but it certainly wasn't the burning shuttlecraft or a prison cell.

The first thing she noticed was the soft bed she lay in. Was it a bed? As she shifted her head to either side, she saw tufts of fur, twigs, and what appeared to be all kinds of plant matter. The scent of burned oranges and something else, something familiar, filled her nose. Something she couldn't put her finger on.

Her heart raced as the realization struck her. This wasn't a bed, this was a nest.

Where the hell was she ?

Irina sat up quickly, too quickly, and her head started spinning. She grasped for her left arm, but the open fracture was gone. When she poked around the tear in her jumpsuit, all she felt was a scar where the bone had protruded, a dull ache of pain as she rolled her wrist and bent her elbow. How?

Even her legs, which had been pinned and numb, seemed fine. Her black jumpsuit was undisturbed save for the neat tear where the fracture had been. Her whole body ached, but not nearly at the level it should have after the injuries she had sustained. What had happened to her?

The panic should have been overwhelming, but there was only the blissful warmth of relief. She should be dead. But here she was in some sort of comfortable nest, miraculously healed.

If she could survive the crash, she could survive anything.

Irina examined the small room she sat in. A primitive hut with thatched walls and a roof made of some sort of stiff palm reeds. The nest took up a large portion of the space, but there was a washbasin and all manner of detritus hanging from the ceiling, twigs and rocks and dried flowers. A piece of tech sat on a small table, maybe a console of some sort, or a radio?

The air was warm and humid, sweat trickling down Irina's brow. She had been right. The planet clearly had oxygen if she was still alive, still breathing .

Suddenly, Irina saw movement, and a figure appeared through an opening in the thatched wall. The dark shadow from the crash.

Not a shadow, but a creature, enormous and meandering over to her with lumbering steps.

Glowing red eyes peered at her, shining through the room's dimness like twin flashlights as the creature approached. It hobbled over to her like it was injured, but no, perhaps that was just the way it moved.

As it got closer, she took in the details of the rest of its face. The creature looked kind of like a bat; large, triangular ears, a leaf-nosed snout, and two big fangs jutting out of its muzzle of a mouth. It leaned in and Irina's heart raced, as if it were about to beat straight out of her chest. She caught the faint scent of… what was that?

The monster's face was inches from hers, its hot breath blowing strands of hair out of her eyes. What did this thing want from her? No, it wasn't a thing. It wasn't a monster; it was just an alien.

An alien who seemed quite curious about her.

Definitely a species she'd never seen before, as far as she could recall. Even on a backwoods planet such as Earth—by Coalition standards—she had seen all sorts of strange aliens.

Irina remembered the first time she'd spotted a Ukoid, the undulating tentacles and spindly limbs disturbing her to no end as a young child. When she met one as an adult on Astrenius Space Station, her thoughts had been a lot less fearful and a lot more impure .

Now, as the bat alien hovered over her, she realized there was something in its hands. It held out an object to Irina, a hollowed-out gourd that sloshed with clear liquid. She sniffed it, which helped little since there was no discernable odor. The liquid certainly looked like water, and if this alien was a mammal like it appeared to be, then it probably was. Right?

Irina took a cautious sip, fully aware that she was a computer programmer, not a xenobiologist. Her suspicions seemed to be correct though, the liquid tasting ever so slightly of minerals and earth. Unable to stop herself as thirst overpowered her, Irina gulped it down, all the while the creature scrutinized her.

The alien reached forward with a hand, three clawed fingers gripping her left arm with surprising tenderness despite its massive size. It rotated the arm, as if assessing her mobility, and seemed satisfied after a few moments, freeing her once again.

It brought its face low to hers and said something in a language she did not understand. The high pitch of its voice was a surprise, the creature squeaking as it examined her.

"I don't know what you're saying," Irina said, exasperated, and the alien cocked its head to the side.

It chirped before running a clawed hand through her short, wavy hair. Irina froze in her spot, heart pounding. This thing was huge, had claws and fangs that could tear her apart, and yet it was… pe tting her? The alien stroked her hair as it cooed, a strangely comforting gesture, even if it was from a humanoid bat creature.

Irina's mind raced as she sat in the nest, letting the alien pet her. Was that what it wanted her to be? Its pet? The alien scratched her under the chin with a single slender claw and she laughed despite herself at the utter absurdity. This seemed to please the creature as it chirped pleasantly.

Well, at least it didn't want to kill her. Surely, it would have done that by now if that was its intent.

Irina tried to speak to it again. "I need to get off this planet. There are people who will look for me."

She was fully aware of the tracker implanted somewhere near her right shoulder, that Coalition forces could come at any moment, dragging her straight back to Oblivion. She needed to get to Athea as quickly as possible, get her tracker removed, and carve out a new identity.

All of which seemed less and less likely without a functioning ship.

The alien cocked its head as if trying to understand her words, but failing. It spoke again, a quiet chittering as it nodded its head. Irina grumbled and rolled her eyes. This was going nowhere.

"I," she said, pointing to herself. "Need to go to my ship."

She mimed walking with two fingers and her ship by waving her hand through the air.

The alien seemed to consider this, blinking its eyes rapidly as it nodded with another chirp .

Without warning, it scooped her up in its arms and pressed her against the crest of brown fur on its chest. It cradled her like she was a baby, bringing its bat face in close, cooing and rocking her back and forth.

Irina was equal parts horrified and infuriated as she struggled against the alien's powerful grasp. When it got too close, she screamed, though all that seemed to do was give it pause for just a moment before it licked a slobbery line across her forehead.

That certainly shut her up.

Irina tried to remain calm. She hated that the creature could control her so easily, but it didn't seem to have nefarious aims. It was trying to understand her and hadn't harmed her while she was unconscious, had somehow healed her gruesome injuries.

She was safe. Annoyed, but safe.

The alien made its way to the hole in the thatched wall, and Irina wrapped her arms around its neck so she would stop jostling around. Its gentleness continued to surprise her as it cradled her with one arm and brushed her hair with its other clawed hand, all the while rocking and cooing at her.

Fuck. This thing clearly thought she was an animal… or a baby. Irina supposed she was quite small compared to it, perhaps even the size of a child of its species. Still, its incessant fussing made her jaw clench and she could only hope it was heading towards her shuttle.

And there was that smell again, one so familiar, yet she couldn't quite place it. Trying to be subtle, she leaned in, sniffing the alien's fur as quietly as possible. It looked down at her with a wide grin before turning its eyes back to the path.

The memory came to Irina in a flash, a scent from the depths of her childhood on Earth.

Corn tortillas.

Not the stale ammonia smell of old ones, but the sweet corn scent she remembered from freshly made tacos. There had been a tiny stall Irina used to sneak to as a child, when she needed to get away from the children's home.

The old woman had been kind—always giving her free food even though she had so little to spare—and it shamed Irina that she couldn't even remember her name.

A lot had been lost to the vaults of memory, though she had no doubt it was for the best. Some things were better left forgotten.

But it was unmistakable now; the alien smelled like tortillas. Not a bad aroma at all, and strangely comforting despite the peculiarity of the situation.

Irina tried to take in her surroundings, any clues as to where she was and what dangers lay in wait. Oblivion was on the frontier of Coalition territory, conveniently tucked away from any major space stations or inhabited planets as far as she was aware.

Clearly, this one wasn't as deserted as the galactic government had thought, though maybe the species here simply provided nothing of value.

Nothing of value to the government, to be clear. Irina knew all about the torrid history of the Coalition, its designation of humans as non- Cognizants, unintelligent beings undeserving of the safety of personhood.

People had actually been abducted and sold to the zoos of rich aliens in the past—like some sort of stereotypical science fiction movie—at least until the Coalition finally accepted humanity as a Cognizant species. Though the designation did away with things such as legal abductions, it did little for the masses on Earth. Learning about the menageries as a child had stuck with Irina her entire life, had taught her early on all she needed to know about the galactic government she was supposed to obey without question.

The alien waded through a sea of dark green grasses, massive trees towering over them as it followed a path through the woods. Intertwining black branches spread out in all directions, covered in small leaves ranging from sage green to lavender. A fine mist hung in the warm air as the alien walked, holding her tightly to its chest.

Irina spotted large red flowers growing in clusters around the bases of the trees, four petals that swayed in the gentle wind. The forest was eerily quiet, though she heard the buzzing of some sort of insect emanating from deeper within. A howl in the distance, strangely similar to that of a wolf, and all her hairs stood on edge.

After a long walk, they appeared to be entering some sort of clearing. And there it was. Her ship.

The Cyclone .

It listed heavily to one side, tendrils of gray smoke still wafting into the sky, an enormous piece of the hull completely caved in. Irina patted the alien on the shoulders until it set her down gently, her legs wobbling at the sight. Of course, she knew that there was little hope of salvaging the ship, but the reality hit her like a ton of bricks.

Her eyes burned as she turned to the alien, holding her hands up, hoping it would stay behind. It narrowed its eyes, but nodded. So maybe it understood?

Irina fought back tears as she walked towards the smoldering wreckage of the Cyclone , a black hole of despair swirling in her stomach.