Tyr

I didn’t want to leave Alyssa. Just what feels like minutes after experiencing the greatest sex of my life I have had to leave her side and search through alien garbage for a miracle. It doesn’t seem fair, but I have not expected fairness from life for a long time.

If I had my way I would hole up in a visitors’ hut in the Merrel village and fuck my woman all day. I would forget about our troubles and our ticking time constraints and I would bite her neck, pinch her nipples, bury my hardness between her legs again and again and again.

My cock throbs painfully at the thought and I curse under my breath and readjust my branch to continue hopping as fast as I can through these underground tunnels.

It’s lucky that I have been here before. I know the Merrel well enough to know where they would keep an engine and a comms system if they have one. I also know that Loper will not mind as long as I tell him what I’ve taken.

The sooner I sort this out, the sooner I can get Alyssa to Paxia and to safety. She is safe up there in Merrelia under the watchful eye of the pleasant aliens we are allied with. Especially since I made it clear to Loper that she is important to Paxia. He will make sure she stays safe from whatever saboteur might be on this planet.

It’s impossible. I don’t understand it at all. The weight of confusion tenses my muscles and when I reach the motherlode I have to take a few deep breaths before I get to work sorting through everything.

The sparse light that trickles through from the holes above are all I have to illuminate my search, but it’s enough. I have good night vision and I know exactly what I’m looking for.

As I get closer and lean my crutch against the dirt walls of the tunnel, I squint at first and then my eyes widen.

Right at the top of the pile of scraps. I would recognize these parts anywhere. The bones of my Eclipse lie scattered as if she is any filthy run down old ship. I hop forward and sort everything into a pile, manic and full of worry.

Because if my ship is here, that means Loper either lied … or the chief has no idea what is going on in his own settlement.

And either way that means one thing that I did not expect.

Alyssa is not safe.

I knock over my crutch and loudly curse the void as I scramble to pick it up, and then notice a discarded piece of parchment lying in the dirt beside my ship’s beautiful engine. I pick it up and unfurl it, jaw clenched and heart hammering.

“AI,” I address my out of date earpiece. “Translate this text.” I clear my throat and do my best to read the alien words aloud. There is crackling, and then the pleasant voice sounds in my ear.

“Hello, General Tyr. Thank you for your question. Please update to version 8 to get a full translation. Would you like to hear a close approximation while you wait?”

“No, and yes,” I shout, my voice echoing in the walls. I must get back to Alyssa and warn her. The children will not harm her, but they will not protect her, either. Why was I so stupid as to trust these aliens? It has been five years since they were our trusted allies. Any number of things could have happened in that time.

“Greetings. Please … dismantling. All of the … and leave … so the rest of … and keep it for yourselves. Don’t inform the Chief. From—”

“From who?” I bark.

“This is all the information I have. Please return to Paxia to download the latest version. Your software is over ten years out of date. Thank you, General.”

“Damn!” I cry. At least the ‘don’t inform the Chief’ was present — whatever is happening, it is likely that Loper did not lie to me. But I must get back to Alyssa. I must—

A ‘clang’ sounds out what seems like seconds before pain explodes across the back of my head. Someone has smashed a metal object across my skull. I fall to my wooden stump in the dirt, vision sparkling, and turn around to get a glimpse of my attacker. My electrogun is out before I really know what I’m doing, and the trigger is squeezed tight behind me.

“Argh!” I hear him grunt in frustration as he hits me again.

All I see is the tall, broad and purple frame of an electrified, twitching Mahdfel as I topple sideways into the dirt, and my eyes close, the gun falling from my fingers.

* * *

“Tyr, no!”

The sweet voice swims through my mind and sends delicious tingles through my skin before she begins to shake my shoulders.

“My head! Stop!” I order, painfully opening my eyes and holding out my hands. “Where is he?” I get to my one good foot and then stumble again when there is nothing there.

“Alyssa,” I say, my throat dry, wheeling around with just my upper body. “My leg. Is it on the ground?”

“I’m so sorry, I think whoever knocked you out stole your working leg too.”

I am just about sent reeling.

Who steals a man’s leg?

The same sort of opponent that will knock out a foe from behind. If I hadn’t seen his telltale broad, purple frame with my own eyes I would never believe that he was a Mahdfel. This is never the way we fight.

Coward.

“The ship,” I say instead, turning to see that the parts remain, though some are scattered. I must have severely weakened his muscles with my electrogun, to the point that he was only able to unstrap my leg and took that as the only victory he could. He seems to have tried remove all the ship’s parts while I was unconscious but he didn’t manage to retrieve them all. Some remain.

What a foolish, weak-willed man. I cannot wait to learn his identity so I can spread the truth about him to his peers. That will be the worst possible punishment for being as pathetic as this. The thought brightens me up.

“What’s the next step?” Alyssa asks, and then clamps her hand over her mouth.

“What?”

“Sorry. I said step. I, um, I mean what’s our plan?” She looks so beautiful and worried about me that I almost don’t feel like this is the worst day of my life. I use my arms to hop to the pile of machinery, and my head throbs. She sees me wince, and she motions to the crowd of worried Merrels behind her.

“They can build you new legs,” she says. “It won’t be the same as you’d find on Paxia, they say, but they’ll work. You’ll be able to walk.”

I feel a growl begin deep in my throat. “Will they have a mind of their own?”

She turns around to discuss it quietly with the furry aliens, then turns back to me. “No, they’ll just be legs.”

“Good,” I say. “And then we’ll get started on the ship.”

“They already have,” Alyssa tells me. “You’ve been unconscious for a little while, Tyr. I was really worried. Back on Earth, being unconscious for so long would have meant lasting damage. But apparently the Mahdfel work under different rules.”

She smirks at me, a look that lights up her worried face and is contagious. But I don’t have time to grin like a fool. I must find the Mahdfel responsible for all of this, and I must embarrass him to within an inch of his life. If that doesn’t work, I will switch the mode on my electrogun from stun across electromagnetic pulse, all the way to fatal.

Whatever works.

“Lie back, relax,” Alyssa says, soothingly. I want to fight but I also want to please her. It is a sensation I am unused to, so instead I fold my arms. I must look ridiculous. Half a man, glaring at the wall of an alien tunnel. The Merrel speed back and forth, chattering to each other, and taking bits of my ship and pressing scrap metal against my body and discussing my new legs in chirps too quiet and quick for my AI to translate for me.

“I must help rebuild my Eclipse,” I say.

“Please, please!” I hear the Merrel group squeak up at us. “Please, let us help!”

Alyssa looks at me with a hidden smile. “They are desperate to help with this,” she says. “I had no choice but to, uh, let them?”

I let out a quick laugh. The Merrel find nothing else more honorable or indeed fun than to tinker with mechanisms like this. And they won’t have had a spacecraft to play with for many years. We will ‘let’ them build a ship for us. They will do it faster than I could, anyway.

“I suppose it is only fair that we repay their hospitality with this one favor,” I say, playing along with the human as she rests her hand on my thigh as if it is second nature.

I have never been ‘in on a joke’ with someone in my life. The way her eyes shine as she looks over at me — like we are on the same side against the rest of the universe — makes me feel like I have found something really and truly special.

“I must be alone with you,” I growl into her ear, smelling the sweetness of her skin and feeling a spectrum of barely familiar emotions awaken throughout me.

She doesn’t respond, but I sense the change in the temperature of her skin from inches away.

The Merrel scurry back and forth for another achingly long minute and then we are alone in the tunnel. She turns to me.

“Sleep, Tyr,” she says and presses a light kiss to my lips. “We have things to figure out.”

“There is someone here who wants to stop us,” I say. “Harm us.” I tuck her hair behind her ear and nuzzle the curve of her neck. It’s difficult to remember the gravity of this situation when I am happier than I have been in memory.

I knew the human would be trouble…

But not like this.

“Sleep,” she says again. “I have a surprise for you. I’ve just got to rendezvous with the Merrel. I really don’t think any of them have much of a bad bone in their bodies, by the way.”

“A bad bone?” I say, raising my eyebrows. “Is this a sickness I don’t know about?” I pause. “Are there good bones?”

She chuckles and presses her fingertip aginst my nose, which makes me frown. “No. I mean they don’t seem evil, or anything. At all. They’ve been really cool hosts.”

“Good.” I pull her towards me but the world blurs for a moment and she looks into my eyes with concern.

“Rest,” she says. “I spoke to Aphrodite. Sleep is the best thing for you right now. Not what I would have recommended — I guess I have a lot to learn if I’m going to live in a world filled with aliens.” She smiles and strokes my cheek, and then stands. “I’ll be back soon with something for you.”

I want to ask her what it is. I want to ask her to stay with me. I know I’ll sleep sounder with her in my arms. I don’t want to be free of her scent in my nostrils and her voice in my ears, but she is gone before I find my words, and I drift off to sleep almost instantly.