Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

Lashe

S omething was going to happen. I didn’t know what, but I knew that when I stepped foot on the surface, the creature would react. It was impatient, hungry. It had caught prey and was ready to savor its catch.

There was no reason to frighten Anna more than she already was. It must have been a riot of emotions for her. I had loved her for years. It was a feeling I was well used to, but this was all new to her. The mate bond came fast for some, and it was disorienting and overwhelming, from what I’d heard. Despite being human, Anna was dealing with many of those feelings, without support from friends, while in the middle of a very stressful situation. All things considered, she was handling it well.

I stepped out into the air lock, holding my breath as my foot landed on the ground and a cloud of dust rose. I’d set the gravity boots to be less strong, hoping to make less impact on the surface. Anything to evade the creature beneath my feet.

I knew how many steps it was until I reached that last exhaust duct. Not too far, but also farther than I’d like. The tether was woven mitlim , a strong, metal fiber that was flexible and useful for many things, especially in extremes of space—temperature, gravity, speed. None of it was moderate. Maybe I wouldn’t need the tether, but if I did, I hoped it held.

My feet pushed off from the ground and I drifted a bit before sinking again, then launched off. In this way, maybe my contact with the surface wouldn’t be detected, but by the time I reached the duct, I knew the game was up.

The ground began to shake. I jammed the compression washer into the duct and started it up at full power, knowing my time was short. My feet anchored to the ground as the creature increased the gravity again. It was using both weapons against me—weight and wind. I braced against the two forces as the ground itself shifted beneath me. Through the swirling dust I saw a fissure open up in the rocky surface. I watched in horror as it cracked wider, like a mouth slowly hinging open.

I looked back to the cleaning device. It was finishing up its cycle on that final exhaust duct. It turned green and I whipped it out, abandoning it on the surface, and sealed up the port. I gripped the tether and pulled myself toward the shuttle, but the pressure increased. It was going to take all my strength—and then some—to get back to the air lock.

By now, Stelis, who had been monitoring the ship and running constant diagnostics, would know that all four exhaust ducts were cleared and they could take off. Whether the creature beneath my feet knew that, was another matter. Stelis had to engage the thrusters before the gravity got too intense.

The craggy and rough fissure made a sound like the sickening crunch of bones as it opened wider and came closer.

“Lift off,” I muttered in vain. Neither Anna nor Stelis could hear me, but they knew what to do. They knew not to wait. They had to take the opportunity to get free.

I heard the whoosh of power through the shuttle and felt the air move as the thrusters engaged—finally. The power cells released a hot blast of burning gas as the ship powered up and worked to lift off.

I gripped the tether, dragging myself another step. As if sensing what was happening with the shuttle, the crack in the ground shifted and moved faster in the direction of the shuttle and me. The landing struts lifted off in a bellow of dust. At least the filters in my suit and helmet were doing their job this time. I could breathe. I could see very little, but that dark, uneven slash in the ground widened like a black chasm. The shuttle lifted. The tether went taut as it pulled me up.

The air around me wavered with the sudden intense heat from the thrusters that were working hard to get distance between the shuttle and the asteroid creature. The inner side of my helmet had a small display screen, alerting me to the increased temperature. The suit could take extremes, but there was an upper limit to the heat it could deflect.

Above me, the shuttle trembled and shook as it fought for release from the artificial gravity generated by the life form beneath.

The craggy opening below gaped wider. Illuminated with light generated by the shuttle, I could see inside. What looked like a mouth was, in fact, a mouth . Green, stringy saliva stretched between rocky jaws and a slick blue tongue reached out towards me. That long, pointed tip swayed as if tasting the surroundings to determine where I might be. I held tight to the tether and tried to pull myself up, like climbing a rope, but the long, seeking tongue touched my boot.

I ground out a curse and retracted my legs up as close as I could to my body, but it knew where I was now, and that tongue stretched out further. It wrapped around my ankle and held tight. Getting away from this thing was suddenly looking impossible.

The best chance for Anna to get away would be for me to release the tether. To allow the creature to have me and let the shuttle escape. I thought of my mate, our new precious bond, and my chest constricted with the thought of shattering it. But for Anna to live… That was the only thing that mattered to me.

I reached for the clasp, ready to release the tether. My thumb pressed the metal. Before I could release it, a shaft of white light sliced through the thin atmosphere. I looked up in surprise to see Anna in her lifesuit, clasped to my tether, holding it with one hand while she wielded the bulky plasma-link blaster that had been stored in the weapons cabinet, for hostile boardings. She was rapidly sliding down towards me.

Her face was a determined, grim mask as she fired repeatedly into the mouth of the alien creature. The tongue released my ankle as blaster marks seared against the blue tissue. The tongue writhed and waved wildly for a few moments before withdrawing into the craggy mouth. The rocky surface began to close and the gravity draw eased.

The shuttle pulled away quickly, and Anna slid the rest of the way down the tether on her thick metal clasp and into my arms. I took the blaster from her and disengaged it. The asteroid creature fell away, growing smaller as we put distance between it and us. Stelis steered the shuttle into open space, freeing us from its deadly grip.

“I thought you didn’t know how to use a blaster,” I said.

“I said I wasn’t very good at it,” she said. “Not that I couldn’t use one.”

My chest ached with the joy I felt at holding her again. “Your aim looked pretty dead on to me.”

“It was a very large target.” Her brows dropped low through the plastoid surface of her helmet. “I saw what you were going to do there. Noble, but don’t do that again.”

Our helmets clunked together as we held each other close. “I had no idea you were going to go all heroic on me.” It was my turn to frown. “ You should not have risked your life like that, Madame Ambassador.”

“If you ever think of sacrificing yourself for me again, I’ll…”

“What?” My hands splayed against her back. “Abandon me on a carnivorous asteroid?”

Tears sparked in her eyes. “Just don’t do that again, Lashe. What are the chances I would ever find another male as perfect for me as you are?”

“I can only aspire to be perfect for you,” I said deeply, feeling overwhelmed by gratitude that we were both still alive. Now, we needed to get somewhere safe and repair the rest of the ship. I glanced along the line of the tether to where it was connected to the shuttle. It still calmly flew through the dark void with us dangling at the end of the line. I looked back down to see the asteroid. It appeared to be churning, chomping at itself in anger at being cheated out of a meal. “And I see no reason why that should ever happen again. I’m having the whole ship overhauled when we are back to port.”

“I wonder how long Stelis is going to leave us dangling out here,” Anna said.

“Maybe she’s mad at both of us.”

She shrugged. “She was very upset that I was coming out here to rescue you.”

“She’s also monitoring your vital signs, and she knows you’re in no danger.”

“Still. I’d like to get back on board. I can’t exactly call these suits comfortable.”

“I’m sure she’ll let us back soon,” I said. “And thank you.”

“For what?”

“Saving my life, obviously.” I grinned. “It was supposed to be the other way around, you know. The Destran warriors usually rescue the females.”

Her face screwed up in distaste. “Who fed you that line of crap? In all the best stories, the princess rescues the knight.”

“You’re a princess now?” The tether began to retract, pulling us up towards the shuttle. “Giving yourself a promotion, I see.”

“I think I deserve one. It’s not every day that a woman gets to save her big handsome Destran mate from an alien predator.”

I wanted so badly to kiss her, but I would have to settle for our plastoid helmets pressed together for a little longer. “You are nothing less than my queen. Today and every day, it’s my desire to please you, protect you, love you.”

She smiled as a tear ran down her cheek. “And you, my love, are my king. Today and forever.”