Chaytok reached up and pushed her hair back from her face and stroked her cheek with the backs of his fingers. The sun had long set, but he noticed and orange light flickering in the bedroom window. “What's that light?” he asked.
Alexa looked up. “Oh, no! Fire!” She rolled out of bed and ran to the window naked. “It's the barn. I have to get Jetson out.”
She raced to the pile of clothes on the floor and pulled on her jeans and blouse sans underwear and boots without socks. Chaytok pulled on his clothes and weapons belt and followed her as she raced down the stairs. She flipped on the light switches by the door, unlocked it and yanked it opened. Before she could unlock the storm door, a shot rang out and shattered the window in the outer door. Chaytok grabbed her arm and pulled her inside, slamming the inner door shut. Alexa ducked low and flipped off the light. Then bobbed up to peek out the front window.
“It's not the barn,” she murmured to him. “Just a big bonfire in front of it.” She stayed low and moved through the darkened house to another window. From there she could see a car parked a little way down the road. “Looks like Lawrence's car. I figured he was lying.”
“Do you have that shotgun you threatened him with?” Chaytok asked.
“Yes, in the closet with a new box of shells,” she said. “I'm not much of a shot, but I'll get it.” Alexa moved through the darkened house with ease and got the gun out of a small closet under the stairs along with the box of shells. She loaded the five shot twenty gauge pump with shells by the flickering firelight from outside.
“He doesn't know I'm here, and I can see far better than a homo sapien in the dark,” Chaytok said. “Can you take the gun and open the inner door and shoot through the broken window?”
She nodded.
“And stay out of the line of fire... I will go out the back.” He trotted to the back door in the dark, unlocked the back door and drew his weapon. He opened the door and slipped out.
Meanwhile, Alexa went to the front entrance and opened the inner door standing to the side. She pushed the muzzle of the shotgun out the broken storm door window and fired it toward the bonfire, then crouched low on the floor. Momentarily, three shots in succession bored through the thin aluminum door and slammed into the living room sofa. Alexa waited a few seconds, pumped another shell into the chamber, and fired out the broken window again. The gun kicked back, and she almost dropped it as she ducked back behind the wall.
After a few seconds, she heard another weapon fire and saw a bright light flashing in the windows. It stopped for a minute or so then she saw some more flashes, then nothing but the flickering from the bonfire. She thought it must have come from Chaytok's weapon, but she didn't know. She pumped another round into the chamber and let the empty casing fall to the floor. She stayed squatting by the front door and waited, silently praying her lover was safe.
Two long minutes passed then she heard the back door open. She stood up and raised the butt of the gun to her shoulder with the muzzle aimed at the floor. Her whole body was trembling as she waited, hoping.
“Alexa,” Chaytok called. “It's me. He's gone---forever.”
“Oh, my God!” She shuddered in relief. She flicked on the safety and laid the shotgun on the floor. She jogged toward the kitchen and met him in the dining room and threw her arms around him. Chaytok hugged her close. She was horrified that it had come to this with Lawrence but also relieved that it was over.
“You did well, sweet one,” he murmured kissing her hair and nuzzling her neck. “He's gone, and so is his car---nothing left but a couple burn marks on the dirt.”
“He deserved it. He came back to kill me. He set that fire so I would think the barn was burning and come out to save Jetson.” she asserted. “Are you, all right?”
“I'm well,” he said. “I should have killed him the first time for what he did to you... But he is gone now.”
Several sharp bleeps emitted from a pouch on his belt. Chaytok released Alexa, pulled out his tablet and flipped it opened to read the text message. She looked at him expectantly.
“Good news! A freighter will deliver my part to Mars in about a month. They will send a drone with the part for my ship, then we can be on our way,” he said, happily.
“Wow, that's a lot sooner than you expected,” she said thoughtfully as the enormity of leaving planet Earth to start a new life on a colonial world began to set in. It meant she would have to leave Jetson behind. In the two years since she got him, she had become quite attached to him, Tears pricked her eyes at the thought of leaving him.
His face grew serious at her expression. “Do you still want to go?”
She grinned up at him. “Of course, I do!” she murmured fervently and rested her hand on his upper arm. “I just realized that I can’t bring Jetson with me on your ship.”
Chaytok frowned, “You are emotionally attached to the horse.”
“He’s my friend---like a pet or companion animal,” she said.
“I understand. Many people on my world are fond of horses as well. We have imported them for centuries,” Chaytok told her. “When the Alliance first came to your world, riding horses or in wagons pulled by animals was the primary means of transport. Many of our agents developed a fondness for the animals.”
Chaytok thought for a moment, then spoke to his tablet in his language then folded it up and put it back in his pocket. “We can put him in stasis for the journey. I can make room in the cargo bay for him. I will need to send a small tissue sample from him to make sure he carries no diseases to our base here to clear him for transport to Vesta Three.”
“Stasis---what will that do to him?”
“Slow his metabolism, so he will be inactive for the journey, requiring no food or water, nor have need to excrete waste,” he said.
“And that won’t hurt him?”
“It won’t. I ordered the equipment we need to set up a stasis field for him. Horses have been transported this way for centuries, they said,” he told her.
“Is it expensive?”
“Not if it makes you happy, meomee.” He smiled down at her, his eyes sparkling with affection.
She returned his smile and hugged him fervently. “Thank you Chaytok! You make me happy. I’m just sorry that you had to be involved in dealing with Lawrence but glad you were here.”