11

- Sophia -

The two defenders catch up with the giant dinosaur and then they seem to climb into the feathery body of the large one, and then their heads poke up from the front of the body. It's a three-headed dinosaur now. I guess the feathers must have hidden cavities in the huge body where they fit perfectly.

“They're one,” I state, because it's obvious. “That's actually just one being, but it can split into three parts.” It probably makes no sense. But that's what it looks like to me.

Jax'zan grunts, turns around and keeps walking. “Yes.”

I guess the show's over, so I follow him as closely as I can up the hill. It's hard going, because the hill is steep and Jax'zan walks pretty fast.

When we get to the stream I recognize I'm soaked with sweat and my breath is ragged in my throat. But I'm not tempted to take a dip.

“Bune,” Jax'zan says and sweeps his hand to indicate the forest ahead of us. The translator doesn't offer any suggestions, so I guess it could be the name of this place.

“Bune,” I repeat thoughtfully. “The tuna can is right over that ridge.”

Jax'zan looks up and around and places his hand lightly over his mouth while looking at me. I get it: shut up.

That's fine with me. This is not-dactyl country and I'm not about to attract their attention.

But it's also sophiasaurus country and god-knows-what-else country, so I stick very close to Jax'zan as we make our way up the ridge. I'm half expecting to find Caroline's dead body on the ground, because after I fell into the stream last night she would have been on her own. And being on your own here in Bune seems very unwise.

We get to the ridge and I see the tuna can glinting in the sunlight. “That's it. I came in that. And my friends are inside. I hope.”

Jax'zan can produce some pretty spectacular frowns, and this one is a real doozy. “Bune,” he says. “Forbidden.”

He points to the ground. And sure enough, right on the top of the ridge there's a row of rocks of the same size. Just gravel size, really, but they're all white and round and carefully placed in a straight line that disappears into the vegetation in both directions. I may be an alien here, but even I can see that it's a boundary of some kind.

But I can't be ruled by alien customs. I have to let my conscience guide me.

I take one step so I'm on the other side of the little stones. “I have no choice.”

Jax'zan doesn't move. But the look he sends me could probably kill rabbits from thirty feet away.

Damn it. So near and yet so far.

I have to try. “Jax'zan, I would really need your help on this side, too. I understand that it's a boundary you don't want to cross, but this is an emergency. Maybe you could bend the rules a little this time?”

The translator goes on for a good while, but Jax'zan's frown doesn't change. He just stands there like a statue, feet apart and his arms crossed over his chest. Yeah, he's not moving from there.

Shit. I don't want to lose his help. But I have to go see the girls.

“I know this is a lot to ask. But if you won't cross, could you please wait here until I come back? I need your protection, and the other girls do too, if they're still alive. Please?”

He looks at me levelly and says nothing. I've made him angry, I'm pretty sure.

“Okay,” I say. “If you have to go, then thank you for everything. I hope I'll see you again.”

And I mean it. Because this guy doesn't just make me feel safe and protected. He also turns me on just by existing. And I like his quiet confidence, especially since it seems to be totally backed by actual skills and strength. He's not showing off. At all. This is who he is. His movements are natural and powerful, and his alien looks are just the right side of weird. I never liked the runway model look anyway, and this is a real man. I could totally fall for a guy like that. Totally. And I think I can see a bulge in his loincloth. It's a big bulge, and its contours are ... interesting.

I really don't want to lose him.

And still I'm turning my back to him and walking away. Because I guess I have to accept being the bitch of the story. But there's no way in hell I'm going to be the coward, too.

I can feel his eyes burning a hole in my back and probably on my ass as I walk towards the tuna can, always looking around for signs of movement. Then I pass on the other side of a tree, and when I glance back he's gone.

I sigh and force down the urge to run back. Dammit. I really liked him.

I reach the tuna can and knock. “Hello in there. It's Sophia.”

The translator says something in Jax'zan's language and I turn it off. The battery is good, but it won't last forever.

The door slides open and a pale face looks out.

It's Heidi. “Sophia?”

I go inside the can and she closes the door behind me. It smells worse in here than last night.

“Sophia?” Caroline gets to her feet and comes over to hug me. “I was so sure you drowned!”

“Yeah, me too.”

The girls are drawn and look both tired and exhausted, like they've been crying a lot. And I don't blame them at all. I know what I'd rather be doing right now.

I tell them what's happened, glossing over the details of how Jax'zan woke me up that first time. “But I'm not sure if he's there anymore. He may have left.”

They're all looking at each other. “That's the most amazing thing I've ever heard,” Aurora says. “A caveman? Who is hot and protects you? That's ... yeah, just amazing.”

Emilia taps her lips with one finger. “Do you have any of that meat, maybe?”

I give them the packets and they unwrap the leaves and eat the meat with much less caution than I showed the first time. Well, I guess they can see it didn't kill me.

“So what happened here while I was gone?”

“Ohmigod,” Aurora says. “We've had the worst time. First the sun set and it got totally dark and neither you or Caroline had returned. So we opened the door so you could see the light and you could find this thing. Then Caroline comes and she only has one leaf of water and she's crying and says that you drowned. And then we all cry our eyes out for a while because we know we're all doing to die here. Then we drink the water. And then we feel so much better. Except Delyah.”

Delyah shrugs. “That water reeked of psychoactive substances. I wouldn't touch it.”

“After sunrise,” Emilia continues, “we kept the door open for a while and we thought about going back to the stream and maybe finding some plants to eat. Until we heard one of those screams. The not-dactyls. So we closed the door again and that's all we know until you knocked.”

“I went outside at dawn to collect clean water,” Delyah adds. “The air here is very humid and the leaves are dripping with dew all night long. Just a survival tip.”

I nod. “Good thinking. So. What now?”

“You know,” Caroline says, “this can isn't going anywhere. It's like a cargo container on a ship back home. Just walls and floor and roof. Nothing else. No creature comforts except some light and the door. And it provides shelter against predators. That's it.”

I nod. “We should probably try to get Jax'zan to take us to his village. I mean, we have nothing left to lose now.”

“Will they be willing to house and feed us?” Heidi asks. “I mean, he sounds like a pretty primitive guy. No offense, but I highly doubt he or anyone in his village has a space ship that can take us to Earth. Or any kind of emergency communications thing. And even that could be useless. No one from Earth could reach us here. It's another solar system.”

“At least four light-years away from Earth,” Delyah informs us. “It would take the fastest NASA spacecraft seventeen thousand years to get here. If that sun is Proxima Centauri and not another star.”

We're all stunned for a moment, and I feel I'm welling up again. We're further from home than I suspected.

Caroline shakes her head. “What we're looking at is this. As the very best case scenario. We become members of his tribe and go back to a stone age way of life. I'm not sure that's a choice I'm willing to make right now.”

“If it's that or death, then we'll all choose life,” Emilia reasons. “We could give them a chance to help us before we judge them.”

Aurora bangs on the wall with her fist. “We shouldn't leave this can! This is the only shelter we have. And it's the closest thing to a spaceship. Our only hope to get home is if the abductors return to pick us back up. I think they might. It could happen at any time. We don't want to not be here when they come. If we're not, we're stranded here for good. Forever.”

Again we're all silent while the reality of this disaster is dawning of us.

Heidi stares at the wall. “Will they take us in, though? That is not a given. They might be struggling already. We're six useless mouths to feed. I don't think they'll care too much about our great knowledge of Earth languages and philosophers and social sciences. I don't know how to hunt mammoths or dactyls or even how to make wicker baskets. Do any of you?”

“We can learn,” I state. “We're not useless. We're six intelligent young women. Sure, it'll be a harder life than we're used to. But we can do it. What do you think, Delyah?”

Everyone looks at her. She rarely speaks, but when she does, it probably pays to listen. And now we need some common sense here.

She shrugs. “I think we can stay alive right here. Even if the tribe will take us in, I'm guessing that getting to their village will take us through some unknown and very dangerous terrain. In here, we seem to be pretty safe. We can stay here and learn how to stay alive on our own. Then, if for some reason we think that village life will be better, we can go there and ask for their support. Not as a bunch of helpless aliens, but as people who can fend for themselves and know how to stay alive. We'll have value for them then. We can spend weeks right here cultivating skills that they might need. I'm sure we can do some stuff that they can't or that we know about inventions that they don't have. I say we should stay here and thrive. And keep in touch with Jax'zan and his village if that's possible. It's a fertile land. We can live here. I doubt there will be any winters with the sun that close. This could actually turn into a very interesting field trip.”

We're all quiet for three heartbeats.

“I think Delyah should be our leader,” I suggest spontaneously. “Those in favor?”

“Aye,” the four other girls say as one.

“I've never led anything,” Delyah protests. “I'm just stating the obvious.”

I place my hand on her brown shoulder. “And so are we. You're so smart and full of common sense that  it would be weird to not give you the final word. Hey, you won't be a dictator. I tried leading these girls in that translator project for months, and I tell you, it's like herding cats with these chicks.”

I roll my eyes theatrically and we all giggle. Delyah's little speech has made us optimistic. We'll try living here. And then we can go to Jax'zan and his people and check if they'll help us. Or if we can help them.

“Okay,” Delyah says and gets to her feet. “We might as well get started. We need food. Water we can collect at dawn. So we should probably try to find fruits and berries. Seeds. Edible roots. If it's sweet, it's probably okay. If it's sour or bitter, leave it alone. We should explore that stream more, too. If there's fish, we should try to catch some. We'll make a net. But that's for later. Now, we want to make the wildlife here understand that we live here now. We should make weapons. Sharpened sticks would work fine in the beginning. Rocks to throw. Still have that gun, Sophia?”

I show it. “Yep.”

“That thing is super important now,” Delyah continues. “It will be the deadliest weapon we have for as long as we're here. We could hunt with it, but I suggest we don't. We need the ammunition for defense.”

“Can someone else take it for a while, please?” I plead. “Or we can keep it in a special place in here.”

“Anytime anyone is outside, that gun is also outside and in someone's hand,” Delyah states. “Outside, we're always in pairs or threes. And one always looks up so we're not surprised by dactyls.”

“I think we elected the right leader,” Emilia says and stands up. “I feel much better about this now. Okay, who's with me on berry patrol?”

We pair up and go out the door after checking for dinosaurs and centipedes. I hand the gun to Delyah, pretty relieved to be rid of it. It hasn't really done much good. Then I go out with Heidi to see if we can see any fish in that stream.

- - -

It turns out to be a pretty good day. We don't catch any fish or even see any, but we also don't see any not-dactyls or centipedes. The others have discovered some peach-size fruits that are pretty juicy and taste like blueberries, so we end the day on a pretty happy note. We didn't need to actually make sharpened sticks, because we've discovered three more of the rocky piles with spears sticking out of them. Now they have slightly fewer spears in them, and we have a little pile of primitive weapons made by someone else.

We gather herbs and plants that don't taste too weird. I spot a purple little plant that smells so fresh I can't ignore it. It has a fresh, acidic flavor, and I'm tempted to deem it no good for eating. But the taste is so wholesome I wave Delyah over. “What do you think about this?”

“Looks like a herb.” She sniffs the little plant, then takes a little leaf and chews it. “It's more tart than sour. I don't know much about pharma, but I think this could be antiseptic. Bacteria don't like acidic environments. Could be a possible way to treat wounds.”

I nod seriously, secretly thrilled that I may have discovered something useful. “Yeah. I guess we'll see.”

She looks around, always on her guard. “Uh-huh. Looks like someone's placed flowers on Alesya's grave. I'm not sure we should get too close to it. It's pretty shallow, and it might attract predators.”

I nod again. She thinks of everything.

Throughout the day I keep a very intense lookout. I look at the sky to watch for not-dactyls, and I look in around the trees hoping for a glimpse of a tanned and hairy warrior with a big sword and a safe arm to hold around me. But he's gone.

The sun sets and we get in the tuna can and close the door. We've found some soft leaves that we want to use as mattresses, while our bundled-up lab coats have to serve as pillows. We lie awake and chat for a while, about Earth and our families and what could have happened to them. There's some sniffling, and then someone cracks a joke and everyone laughs. It's nice to not be alone here.

But still I miss Jax'zan. I knew him for only a half day or so, but he made an impression on me with his quiet strength. I never liked the chatty men. My type was always the strong, silent type with an intelligent glint in his eye. And Jax'zan had that in spades. I would feel so much better if he was here now.

I feel my eyes closing all by themselves. “I have to see him again,” I hear myself mumble as I let sleep engulf me.