Chapter Six: Tom
By the time the ship was powered, Tom's knuckles were cracked open and bleeding. He had spent the whole time beating on whatever was available in his training room, trying to relieve the irrational anger that was building in him all too quickly.
He knew he needed to warn Sara about this, but he had been hoping that they would have grown closer and that his musth wouldn't be a problem. There were only two weeks left before it hit, and there wouldn't be a planet between here and their destination for them to stay apart if she decided that she didn't want to have anything to do with him while his hormones went out of whack.
Maybe it would be best just to set her up here in a trustworthy inn or something, and continue on his own. He would be violent and unpredictable, but he could more or less control himself, and he didn't expect to come across anybody else, anyway. His musth would take longer to get through without sex, but he could handle it just fine.
But he needed to tell Sara. He didn't fool himself into thinking that she would want to stay with him. Even though she had told him it wouldn’t take much for her to agree to jump into bed with him, he didn't want just sex. They were Starmates, he wanted to have the same happiness that his parents did. Sure, sexual desire was a part of it, but only a small part as far as he was concerned.
Tom shook his head as he left his training room. Sara hadn't returned to the ship yet, which meant she was probably still angry with him, but they needed to resolve this. After applying flesh seal to his bleeding knuckles, he headed out to look for her.
She wasn't in any of the bars in town, so Tom returned to where he had seen her headed towards the forest. He found her footprints easily enough, keeping to the edge of the trees.
The tracks stopped abruptly. Her weapon laid on the ground.
Tom's heart began pounding. Adrenaline surged in him, and his teeth bared in a ferocious snarl. She was in danger. The appropriate fear was buried somewhere inside of him, but blinding rage took hold. His mate was somewhere out there without her weapon. The crushed leaves around the area clearly showed that she had been ambushed.
He spun towards town. He would find whoever did this, and they would taste his blade. He would disembowel them, string them up by their innards, he would—
Calm down, he told himself firmly, closing his eyes to draw in a deep breath. He hadn't taken the time to research the local fauna, and there was no guarantee that it was one of the aliens in the town that had taken her rather than an animal. He couldn't afford to make mistakes, not when Sara's life hung in the balance.
The prints were fairly fresh, and it only took a little more investigation to see the claw marks in the nearby trees. After taking a closer look at the marks, Tom swore loudly.
Tree scorpions.
The species was a plague on the galaxy, the eggs able to survive on the hulls of ships across deep-space journeys without freezing, and reentry without burning. On some planets the creatures were tiny, but on others, they had grown large enough to prey on humanoids.
Apparently, this was one of those planets. He could only hope that the local species didn't have a fatal venom, otherwise, he was already too late.
Snatching Sara's gun from the ground, Tom headed into the forest, holding the gun in one hand and a dagger in the other. The trail from the scorpion was easy to follow, large gashes in trees where it had merely barged its way through the foliage.
He came across the beast sooner than he expected. It was hunkered down in a small thicket, it's long, camouflaged body contorting. Huge chunks were ripped out of its back and half of its legs were missing. A thick, yellow goop dripped from the sting on its tail, and one set of its five compound eyes was damaged beyond repair. Clearly, the thing had gotten into a fight with something else in the forest.
Sara lay between its pincers.
Rage flowed freely and Tom rushed from the trees, screaming as he dropped both gun and dagger and drew his broadsword. The scorpion shrieked, backing away, but he was too quick. One quick slash and his sword sliced through the left mandible. The scorpion screamed. The stinger jabbed at him. Tom severed its tail from its body.
He was filled with savage joy as the adrenaline pumped through him, the thrill of the kill washing away reason and sanity. He kept attacking the scorpion, cracking open its hard shell to pulverize what was inside, until it stopped twitching. With one final blow, he took off the creatures head. Smiling, he cleaned his sword and sheathed it.
Only to freeze when he turned towards Sara again.
Her arms and legs were flailing, her neck wrenching back and forth. Her back bowed, eyes rolling. A dark foam built at her lips.
Tom's heart seized. He dove towards her, gathering her up into his arms. She convulsed so wildly that he could hardly hold onto her, but he wrapped both arms tightly around her and ran back the way he had come, not caring if he drew attention to himself. He was panting by the time he got back to the town, and Sara's convulsions had stopped. His eyes danced over the signs, finding a doctor's building and rushing towards it.
"Hold on," he whispered, his voice breaking. "Hold on, please."
The doctor was a tall, green-skinned Odap. His wings fluttered behind him when Tom burst into the building, shouting for assistance. Luckily for the Odap, he didn't keep the T'shav waiting and immediately abandoned the patient he was with to help Sara.
"Tree scorpion sting?" the doctor said, nimble fingers pressing to Sara's swollen and bleeding shoulder.
"Yes."
The doctor nodded. "It appears the venom has worked its way through her already. She'll be fine. Our local bugs pack a narcotic punch that can be hard on humanoids, but in my hundred standard years on this planet, I haven't seen one death because of them. You were right to bring her here so quickly, though. I can provide her some medications to help ease the symptoms."
Tom nodded and settled down beside Sara. Now that he knew she was in no danger, his hands began shaking. His blood still rushed through his body, but the adrenaline faded, leaving him feeling tired. He clutched Sara's hand as the doctor bustled about.
"I'm sorry," Tom whispered to his unconscious Starmate. "I should have told you why I've been in such a bad mood."
He glanced up when the doctor gasped. And tensed again. As if being attacked by a scorpion wasn't enough! The doctor was holding a scanner. Tom jumped to his feet. How could he have been so stupid, so unobservant to let this happen?
"She's human!" the doctor blurted.
Tom didn't wait for him to repeat it louder. In this forsaken place, Sara would be worth ten times his ship and fear of a lone T'shav wouldn't be enough to protect her. He couldn't risk this getting any further. The doctor's eyes widened as Tom's fist flew at his face, but as soon as contact was made the Odap was down. Tom gathered Sara back into his arms and kicked open the door, running once more, this time towards the ship.
Sara was stirring by the time he returned to the ship, and he set her on the couch before rushing to the cockpit. It was only when the planet had faded from the scanners that Tom relaxed. It seemed like they had successfully made their escape.
"Bond?" Sara's voice called.
Making sure the course was set, Tom returned to check on her. She was laying on the couch, her hair wound around her hand. She was pulling it, and when she saw him, relief came over her face.
"Bond, I need you to get rid of it."
Tom knelt beside her. "Get rid of what?"
"The spider! It's on my head, and it bites me when I try to take it off." Her eyes were wide and earnest. She tugged hard at her hair and yelped. "It just bit me again!"
Tom had to laugh. After all his worry, seeing that she was okay was too much of a relief. He gently released the tangles of her hair from her fingers. "It's just your hair, Sara."
"There's a spider."
"There's no spider."
Sara narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you sure?"
He nodded. "No spider. I promise."
"Oh. Good." Sara settled back into the couch, sighing. "No spiders. Because Bond got rid of them. My double-o-seven," she sang each word. "Mine. All mine."
"Yes," Tom said, stroking her hair from her face. His heart swelled hearing her say those words, but he knew better than to trust her state of mind. "Sara, do you think you could love me?"
"Hell, yeah. But not right now… I'm so tired…" She smiled beatifically at him and propped herself up on her elbow. Her gaze went to his lips, but Tom quickly stood, putting distance between them. Sara looked shocked. "Is it the spider?"
"There's no spider. But you're not in your right mind. I can't let you kiss me now when you wouldn't kiss me sober."
Sara groaned and threw herself back onto the couch. "Darn alien…"
Tom smiled as her sentence trailed off into a snore. It had been a close call, but she was going to be okay. That was all that mattered.
He would tell her about his oncoming musth when she woke up and was thinking clearly. They would be able to figure out what to do about it then. For now, he would let her sleep.