Chapter 9
Captain Alicron Qinov
I crawled up the wall. This was something that the Kynon were able to do quite easily. We had long limbs, not like the humans, and it made it efficient when we were climbing. I reached the top. I crawled on my belly and looked over the edge of the cliff. I could see parts of my ship across the surface of the orange desert-like landscape. There were cyborgs. I got lower.
I watched as they went through the various parts of the ship examining them. They had gotten to the wreckage first. But I was glad to have found it. I scanned the area. I did not see any of my crew or any human females. It did not mean that none had crashed with this part of the ship, it just meant they weren't there now. They could have walked away. I did not see any seats like the one that I had crashed in. In fact, I could only see what would be the cargo area and parts of the radio console room. I was too far away to hear the robot machines talking to each other. I could not know what they were doing, or what they would do. I was at least one hundred feet above them, which was good because they could not see me. But we were going to have to wait it out. I wanted to take a look at this wreckage and analyze what it was, but I could only do that after they left.
So I watched them for ten minutes longer before climbing back down to Vicki. I knew I could not leave her alone for very long because she was too stubborn and would probably do something to get herself in trouble. She was too filled with fire to remain silent and obedient. It was what I liked about her but also what made her hard to deal with. She could put us both in danger with her loud stubborn arguments.
“What? Who are there? Did you find Bridget?” she asked when I rejoined her. I was glad that she was sitting where I left her. I could never tell with her. I already had to rescue her from the machines once. I did not want to do it again, especially because now I had stronger attachments to her. She was mine whether she wanted to admit it or not. Now I had tasted her mouth. I would not be losing her to any machines, dammit.
“The cyborgs are there. They're all over the wreckage.”
“What? What do we do?” she said sitting up.
“We stay here. We stay right here, and we stay quiet. They are very far below us, more than one hundred feet. Look, the sun is setting, and it will be dark soon. It is not wise to walk around this planet in the darkness, especially with the cyborgs so close by. It is better to stay here and get some rest,” I said.
“Are you sure? What if they come up here?” she said.
"Must you question my every decision? They will not come up here as long as we do not give them reason to. Now let us get some rest. I found some water trickling in from the side of the wall here. I am going to collect some for us to drink. I have some dehydrated food pellets in my belt so that we can eat,” I said.
“Yum, sounds appetizing,” she said rolling her eyes.
“Or I could let you starve,” I said.
“Why are you so mean?” she asked.
“Why are you so ungrateful?”
“Ungrateful? Do I have to remind you constantly that you stole me against my will from my planet? I hate you. I will never stop hating you,” she said crossing her arms over her chest and turning her back on me.
“Hate me if you want. I don't need you to love me in order to be my mate. Now you will listen to me. We are staying the night here. I want to look at the wreckage after the cyborgs leave. With any luck, they will be gone by the morning. Now I am going to go get water and provide you with food. Stay quiet,” I said walking away from her.
When I returned, she seemed to be more quiet and respectful. I was glad for it. We ate some of the dehydrated food I had packages of in my tool belt. We drank the freshwater that dripped from the rock crevices. It was nice and refreshing. But I felt like I was failing her. Regardless of the fact that I had rescued her from the cyborgs, she still made me feel like all of this was my fault. It was true that I had taken her from her planet, but I did so with good reason. We needed her. We needed all of the human females we could find. But I had failed because I did not get her to my home planet of Xeion. There it was paradise, and she would be living alongside of me in luxury. She would be living in the large, beautiful trees and my beautiful home as my wife. Instead, we were out here. Instead, we were running from cyborgs in sleeping on the ground. I did not like the way this made me feel. I was used to being in charge of a ship and a crew. I had many adventures out in space, but this was my first time having to protect a female out in space on a strange planet. My adventures of the past did include fighting other species of aliens, and sometimes even Kynon. But in those battles, I never had a female at my side that I was claiming for myself and trying to impress in some way.
“Tell me about your planet. What is it called again?” she said interrupting my thoughts.
“My planet is called Xeion. It is a very beautiful planet. It is much like Earth, with lots of plants and creatures. But where I live in the city of Gora, we live among our giant trees in beautiful homes. It is a vast city. You would like it. You will like it when we get there,” I said.
“I don't understand. Why are you taking me there? You have said that you needed to take us, but I don't understand why,” she said.
“Because my race of Kynon will die if I do not take you,” I said.
“What? Die? You mean the entire race?” she asked.
“Yes, the entire race. This is a very big problem. Trust me, we would not have traveled galaxies across space and put anyone in danger if it wasn't a necessity,” I said.
“You're going to have to tell me more. Why is the race dying? It does not make sense to me,” she said.
“Our females are dying. We don't know why. But without females, we cannot create new offspring. We are not happy about having to create a hybrid offspring of human and Kynon, but it is our only choice. We have searched the galaxy far and wide. Human females are the only ones that seem to be able to procreate with us,” I said.
“What? Are you kidding me? Wait, wait, wait, are you telling me that you already know this? You have taken human females from Earth before? You have had sex with them? They have given you children?” she said standing up. “And that is what you want me to do?”
“Calm down, human. Remember there are cyborgs nearby that want you. Are you trying to alert them to our location?” I said standing up and grabbing her arm. I pulled her to me and picked her up off her feet.
“Put me down,” she whispered with anger.
“I will,” I said as I sat her back down on the rock. And stepped away from her. “You must stay calm. Do you understand that your safety depends on it? I can take on quite a few of those machines, but not all of them. I will not have them take you from me again. Do you understand?”
She looked at me with her trembling lips. She was angry. But there was something new on her face, and I did not know what it meant.
“Yes. I understand,” she said quietly.
“Good,” I said taking a seat again. “Now I will answer all of your questions, but you must remain calm and quiet,” I said.
“Fine.”
“Yes, our Kynon females are dying. It only seems to be affecting the younger ones, not the older ones. Our teams are looking into it. But it is still very early. We think it is some sort of virus, but we are not sure. But we cannot wait any longer. That is why our leader set out to find a race of alien that we could breed with. It has been a long journey to find the humans. But once we started to experiment with them, we found out that they were perfect for us. Now it is my responsibility to bring humans back to my planet in order to get the breeding going. It is very important.”
“Why is a captain in charge of the entire feet of your planet?” she said.
I looked at her. It was a good question; I was not going to answer it. I did not want to tell her the truth. I did not like telling myself the truth. I did not want her to know my real identity. I did not like my real identity.
“Because it is. I am a captain. I captain ships across galaxies; that is why,” I said not revealing everything to her.
“So that is it? You are just going to take me to your planet and knock me out. Oh, no pressure. I just have to have sex with you and create an alien baby and save the entire race of your planet,” she said.
“Knock you up? I don't know what this is,” I said.
She looked at me and then burst out laughing. I did not know what was so funny.
“Nothing,” she said. “So I am at for you. I am surprised that you do not have a female on your home planet. A wife. Did you even try?”
I looked at her. I could barely speak.
“What? What is it?”
“There was someone. She was my wife. I loved her dearly. We were matched at birth. We grew up together. But when the time came, she died in childbirth; the child died as well. This was the beginning of it all. That was when we knew. More and more females began to die in the same way, and before long, most could not get pregnant and were dying before they were even of age. If you must know,” I said. Having to say these words out loud hurt like hell. “I don't want to talk about it.”
“Oh, Alicron. I am so sorry. You have to forgive me. I did not know. That is horrible,” she said as she walked over to me. She sat beside me on the rock and placed her hand over mine. It was a strange image to see her pale skin against my blue and the small size of her petite hand on top of my large hand. “I didn't know. You don't have to talk about it. It must be very painful for you. She sounds like she was your best friend and lover. That is hard. That is a hard thing to lose,” she said.
I looked at her. I was surprised by this new concern that she had for me. “It was the most painful thing you can imagine. I don't want to think of it any longer,” I said.
Then her hand wrapped around my fingers and she gave me a warm squeeze. I was surprised. I was not expecting it. She looked up at me with her large blue eyes. I could not help myself. The sadness that I was feeling mixed in with her body next to mine. I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers once more. I kissed her soft and slow.