33. CHAPTER 33

Breathing the fresh, cool, salt-laden air was just what I needed. I activated the beacon long before I touched the ground. This place was not my home; of that, I was sure. I knew of no other planets in our solar system aside from the eighteen I"ve always known. However, I have heard talks of a nineteenth planet that later lost its status as a planet more than two thousand years ago.

My only hope of getting my ship back was activating the ship"s automation systems and guiding it to my location. I saw grayish smoke rising nearby and trekked there. If it was Caspian, then thank the stars. But it was not him; it was Cormac lying on the ground beside his smoking capsule with blood gushing from the deep gash on his thigh.

"It"s not him," I lamented and gazed off into the distance, hoping to see any sign of his pod.

"Gee, thanks. Glad to see you too," he sneered, pressing his hand against the wound in vain.

"You"re not pregnant with my child," I replied, reaching into his pod for the small medical box.

Slapping his hand away, I could assess the damage. A thick, jagged piece of metal had gone straight through the meat of his leg, ripping through his suit. This was not good, for him at least. He was a good kid, but Caspian was my number one concern, and if I had to leave him to find Caspian, I would. But I would do my best to get him in shape.

"The strangest thing about this is that I can"t even feel it," he chuckled ruefully.

"It may have embedded a piece of your suit inside. I must remove it."

"The human thigh has a big artery attached. If severed, I"ll bleed out and die."

"Every pod has a medkit. The fix won"t be perfect, and it will be painful, but I can clamp it shut once I remove the metal."

"Oh, fuck me!"

I worked fast, ripping the piece from the flesh in one swift move, then using the forceps to keep the flesh separated. I found the bloody piece of fabric and used the tweezers to pick it free.

Blood pooled in the wound, and now the boy was shaking from the pain.

"Almost done." I clamped the artery shut and sank my fang into my hand.

"Hey, what the hell?!" He protested, his brow full of sweat.

"I"m healing you," I said, dripping my blood into the wound until the artery and some of the meat sealed, but it would take his own healing abilities to repair the rest of the damage.

"Holy shit!"

I removed the clamp and the forceps. "It"ll take a while to recover. You"ll need a transfusion, though I have no idea how that would work for your kind." After wrapping up his leg, I went back to the pod to contact either Caspian or Connor. If the machine was with Caspian, that would at least take away some of my agitations.

"Caspian? Connor?" I spoke into the comms.

"Sir?" Great, I got the machine.

"Connor. Where are you?"

"Inside of the ship, sir."

I hoped that was good news. "Did you evac?"

"No, sir."

I don"t even want to know. "Where are you?"

"We are on a planet."

"Yes, I"ve figured that much. This is not my homeworld, listen to me. We must get off of this planet!" I yelled.

"Sir, I tried to inform you it would be useless to evac. What we are witnessing is a dwarf planet that has emerged from a spatial anomaly and is now visible. We were being pulled into the gravitational pull of the arriving dwarf planet."

"I know, it"s called Rishi. Our pods were supposed to divert from this place, but something must have gone wrong. I"m going to give you a private channel to keep in touch with me."

"That would help a great deal."

"Can you come pick us up?"

"Negative. The ship crashed, and I"m currently making repairs."

"When can you fly again?"

"In one or two hours."

"Good. Have you seen signs of Caspian"s pod? Cormac is with me."

"Yes, I have. He"s several miles from my location. I passed overhead of a smoking pod. However, his beacon is not on."

"I"ll track him down," I said, feeling confident I could still locate him.

"Anomaly what?" Cormac groaned. "I don"t like the all-powerful stoic alien panicking."

"It"s a spatial anomaly, but I do not know more than that."

"I thought AI knew everything." Cormac coughed.

"I would have to study it and remain long enough on the planet for it to reenter the anomaly."

"That doesn"t sound good," Cormac laughed, and I wondered if my blood was making him delirious. A known side effect other aliens reported when receiving it, which is why we customarily kill other aliens who have been injured rather than give them our blood. The last thing we needed was other aliens using our blood to get high and for their own medical purposes.

"How else would the planet have vanished and emerged? It did not fly here; it is merely undergoing its normal rotation."

Was this machine getting smart-lipped? "Look! I do not have time for your two to banter about this place. We have perhaps 72 hours to leave here or we will be trapped here for 300 years!"

"That is 3 days, Cormac."

"I know!"

"Hush," I said, hearing several heavy-booted footsteps approach. I grabbed some nearby brush and placed it over Cormac, then darted behind the pod.

Several soldiers approached, dressed in black and dark green-hued armor. The green only peeked through once light reflected on it, similar to the ship hidden under the human colony. The armor design was smooth, with a series of small jutting twists of metal forming small triangular spikes along the shoulders, arms, and legs. These soldiers were Valisian; that was easy enough to tell from their height and structure, but the language they spoke was ancient. Elder Norose, or Old Elder, to make it simpler.

Something told me not to go out there and try to talk. Something was not right. Why were our kind here? Were they Valisians from long ago who became trapped here? Whatever the case may be, I would rather not try to communicate with them. I want to find Caspian and be on my way, but that damn human would change that with a small cough.

They surrounded him and pulled the branches and leaves free. Dammit! I ran from cover, lifted two with my jīva, and tossed them back. The others reacted too fast for me to turn my focus on them. I felt something sharp enter my thigh and stomach, sending my head in a whirlwind.

The dripping of water trickling on stone was the first thing I heard when I woke up. They chained my arms, and only the tips of my toes touched the cold, wet stone floor. Slumped on the floor, Cormac looked paler than usual. Cool air swept across my body, and I realized I was naked!

"Finally awake," he chuckled. Infection was setting in; the wound wasn"t healing as it needed to. His own system must have been fighting my blood.

Caspian could handle my blood without issues, but perhaps it was because of the doc"s success at integrating our DNA into his body.

My head and stomach ached, and sweat rolled and beaded on my skin. Whatever poison they used packed a powerful punch, and my body was having difficulties filtering it from my system, though it was not deadly. They at least didn"t intend to kill us; that was the only thing that gave me some hope.

Two men entered the room dressed in a simple tunic, cloth pants, and shoes. They also spoke in the ancient tongue as they turned Cormac"s face about, and before we knew it, they were removing him from the room.

"Hey!" My grip on the old tongue was shaky at best. "Where are you taking him?"

They didn"t answer. One man lingered behind and gripped my chin before running his hand across my chest a little too damn slow for my tastes.

"You are a great find," he leered at my body. "You are alpha? You will create many children and become warrior."

"Where did you take my friend?"

"The alien stinks of death. We will clean him for the feast."

"Feast?" I asked, a little on the willfully obtuse side, though I think I knew what they would do. "Listen to me! I don"t know who you are, but you are all Valisian! I am a prince of all Valisians. My people will search for me, and—"

He cut me off with laughter and left me on my own.