Although we had escaped the expedition crew, now we faced the onerous task of flying the sleek Neutomian ship through the field of swirling and rotating asteroids. They were all around us and came in all shapes and sizes. Some were only as large as boulders, while others were as big as small moons. All of them were various shades of orange and brown, pockmarked and full of craters of different sizes. I had to maneuver the ship back and forth and dive suddenly to avoid having a collision with them. It seemed that the further inside the belt we ventured, the more numerous the asteroids became.

“Hold on!” I yelled to Jessie who looked as if she were turning blue. The swoops, turns, and dives I was making, were starting to affect her human stomach. Humans did not have the tolerance for such a motion that we, Karkastians, had.

“As soon as I find a place that looks safe enough, I will attempt a landing!” I said as Jessie closed her eyes and tried not to become sick. Just a second later, a medium-sized asteroid struck the side of the ship. It was becoming increasingly difficult to steer. I was losing control of the ship. It was pulling to one side and I knew that the alignment had been thrown off by the collision. I also began to notice that smoke was beginning to pour out from the location of the impact from the asteroid.

“I am going to have to land the ship immediately or she might just break apart!” I said.

“I see the smoke pouring out. Oh, Yahn are we going to make it?” Jessie asked, her voice sounded panicked.

“Yes, don’t worry. I am going to land the ship safely. Hold on tight!” I yelled as I scanned the immediate vicinity of the ship. I spied a very large asteroid just south of us that seemed to be moving very slowly. Our safest bet was to try and land on this enormous rock. I fired the boosters to slow our descent and began to maneuver the ship down towards the asteroid. I barely escaped an even larger asteroid that was barreling down on us, towards the north, as the ship moved southwards. Finally, I could see the rocky surface of the asteroid below us as we moved in for a landing.

“Brace yourself, this could be quite a bumpy landing!” I said. I gave the boosters more power to slow down our movement, but we still struck the surface of the asteroid with some force. The ship ground to a halt and Jessie opened her eyes.

“We made it. You did it!” she shouted, throwing her arms around me.

“Yes, let’s just hope that the ship isn’t damaged beyond repair,” I said.

As I opened the hatch and extended the ramp, I ventured out of the ship with my laser cannon in front of me. I had no idea what creatures might be living on this rock, so I wasn’t taking any chances. Jessie came behind me, wearing an oxygen suit and carrying her own weapon. Everywhere the landscape was brown and rocky. There were low hills and mountains here and there that dotted the landscape, but there seemed to be no sign of life. Craters were all around the ground, some as large as a lake and others that were very small in diameter. We walked for some miles without seeing any sign of another living creature.

“Seems safe enough. I suppose we might as well set up camp. Once we’ve had some rest, we can determine how badly the ship has been damaged and try to make the needed repairs.”

“I hope that we can do that. I don’t think that this is a place where we would want to become permanent residents,” Jessie said.

“I would be happy to live anywhere safely where I can be with you,” I said as I smiled at her and took her hand. She smiled back as we walked back to the ship to get some wood for a fire. The asteroid was quite cold, being fairly far away from any star to give it warmth.

After the fire was built, we began to feel relaxed and share stories.

“My father was always so supportive of me even when I wanted to join the army. It’s my mother that told me that it would come to a bad end,” Jessie said.

“Well, mothers always want to protect their children. My mother was no different. She would always tell me, ‘Yahn, your place is here on your home planet. There is nothing out there in space but trouble. We have enough problems down here on our own planet.’”

“You didn’t listen to her though did you?” Jessie said, smiling.

“No, I did not. As soon as the chance came for me to go out on a space patrol, I took it. Luckily, I came back in one piece,” he said.

“Earthlings have the same problem. Now that I have left home, I can see that we need to change our priorities. All of this time and effort that we have spent exploring other planets, has kept us from addressing our own difficulties back home. Earthlings still engage in war with themselves, and we still haven’t figured out how to feed everyone and live in harmony,” she said.

“We lived in harmony. It was resources that were our problem. Karkast is a pretty barren planet as you saw for yourself. We depended on trade to bring us the resources we needed to survive.”

“If only Earthlings could learn to put aside differences and get along as you and I have,” Jessie said, moving in closer to me. I took her by the hand. “I sure would like to kiss you right now,” she said.

“I can create a temporary oxygen bubble for you if you’d like to,” I said. Jessie smiled and took off her helmet. I closed my eyes and expelled enough oxygen to last her several minutes. Our lips met and we kissed for what seemed like an eternity. Then, we engaged in mind melding as we brought one another to orgasm, without touching. I gazed at Jessie as her eyes rolled back in her head and her mouth fell open in a gesture of pure pleasure. I thought that she was the most gorgeous creature in the universe.

“Ok, we’ve done it your way, now it’s time to do it my way,” she said as she removed her space suit and clothes. I gazed at her lovely body as she got down on all four.

“I want to try it a different way,” she said, shaking her bottom at me. I was so enticed that I could not refuse her invitation. I began to make love to her in the new way that she showed me, penetrating her in a different place. It felt tighter as I made love to her and I could not last very long as she looked back at me and winked. Soon afterwards, the oxygen began to run out, so she had to put her suit back on. We fell asleep next to one another as the fire began to burn low.

I woke up feeling very strange. I could not move my arms or my legs. In horror, I realized that my body was encased in stone except for my neck and head. I looked over at Jessie and the same thing had happened to her. I realized right away that we had been attacked. We were being slowly engulfed by Stonefalians, creatures I had read about during the days of my training. Stonefalians looked exactly like the rocks that dotted the landscapes where they lived, but they were living creatures.

“What’s happening?” Jessie yelled as she woke up and looked around.

“We are being devoured by Stonefalians, strange stone-like creatures. In order to keep them from engulfing us, we must focus our mental energy on breaking them apart. It is the only thing that will free us,” I said.

“What?” she asked. She was obviously confused. I closed my eyes and focused all of my concentration on breaking apart the rocky creature that was beginning to grow in height, moving up to my chin. Cracks began to form in the creature as it gave off a high-pitched squealing sound. Finally, I was able to free myself, as the creature broke completely apart.

“Quickly, concentrate on breaking the rocks apart. Focus all your mental energy on it!” I said as the rocks moved up over Jessie’s face.

All I could see now was her eyes and the top of her head. Soon, the rocks began to form tiny cracks around her.

“It’s working, keep concentrating!” I said. She continued to focus as the cracks became larger and larger. Finally, she was able to free herself.

“Quickly, let’s get back to the ship before they try and engulf it!” I said. I took her hand and we ran back to the ship together.