Fallen from the Stars Page 10

  She swam in the stream and the shallow ocean waters. Playing in the waves proved an unexpected delight, even if Kane called her childish for it; the amusement in his voice diminished the effect of his admonishments.

  Vasil went out early each day to scout the ocean for any familiar landmarks — or was seamark the word? — that could direct him home. He returned each evening with a frown. But however low his spirits appeared, he always seemed to cheer up when his eyes met Theo’s. He’d flash her a sharp-toothed-yet-charming smile and bring his latest catch into their little camp. They chatted as they shared their evening meals, growing more comfortable with one another with each passing day.

  She worried for the first day or two that he’d ask about her near-breakdown, but he never brought it up. In fact, her childhood never came up during their conversations, even when they talked well into the night.

  Theo had more fun over those five days than she had in as long as she could remember. There were no lectures, no schedules, no stuck-up officers or barking sergeants — just total freedom in a tropical paradise with a male kraken for company.

  And boy did she notice just how male he was.

  She often stole glances at Vasil when he wasn’t looking, admiring the muscles of his arms as he worked, the flexing of his abs with each undulation of his tentacles, and the subtle play of his jaw muscles while he spoke. She might even have accidentally brushed her fingers over his skin on a few occasions. When she’d first seen him, she’d assumed his skin was rubbery or slimy — perhaps both.

  She’d been dead wrong.

  His skin was the softest velvet, suede over hard muscle. Those stolen touches weren’t enough. She yearned to feel more of him, to rub her bare flesh over his and learn what it really felt like, to explore his body and appease her ever-growing curiosity.

  Most nights, she lay awake in the pod, wondering what it would be like to have him touch her. Even his tentacles didn’t bother her. She’d come to see them as just another part of his body, not all that different from her legs. That wasn’t to say she never noticed them — how could she not? — but they certainly weren’t distasteful. If she were honest with herself, she found them intriguing. In fact, they only seemed to heighten her desire.

  She might have fantasized about them a few times by the fifth day.

  Her thoughts were occupied with recollections of those blissful days — and, perhaps, a few naughty tentacles — as she knelt beside the stream while that fifth afternoon burned away into evening.

  Kane’s voice blared through the neural link. “Are you sleeping with your eyes open right now, Theodora?”

  Theo started, nearly dropping the water container she was refilling in the stream. “What?”

  “The jug has been full for over a minute,” Kane said. “Are you still planet-side with me, or are you drifting somewhere in space?”

  “I’m here,” Theo muttered with a frown. She lifted the container out of the water, stood it on the ground beside her, and screwed on the cap.

  “Physically.”

  “My mind is allowed to wander from time to time.”

  “Yeah, maybe. But that time is not when we’re in the middle of the jungle. What if a killer leaf dropped on you from above?”

  “Then I guess you would have failed at keeping watch, huh?”

  Kane scoffed. “You’re not going to blame your hypothetical death on me, Theodora Velenti. We both know my scanner range is limited.”

  Theo laughed. “You got one job, Kane. One job.”

  “One job? One job?” he demanded.

  His tone only made her laugh harder.

  “I am performing hundreds of trillions of operations per second, I’ll have you know!” Kane’s frustration pulsed through the neural link, but the discomfort was tolerable. “All you had to do was fill a damned bottle.”

  “A job well done, if I do say so myself,” she said, tapping the top of the container.

  “Yes, you certainly went above and beyond — if we’re talking about the rim of the container.”

  Theo shook her head. “That’s what you came back with? You should stick to your day job. You know, keeping watch.”

  “Too bad I can’t command you to go to sleep…”

  “Don’t tempt me. You’re lucky I need you to watch my back while my mind wanders aimlessly.”

  “We both know it’s not aimlessly, Theo.”

  Theo’s cheeks warmed, and an image of Vasil flashed through her retinal display. “Sometimes, Kane, I hate that you can monitor my vitals.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re not the—”

  “Shh!”

  Theo ducked down as a yellow bird-like creature fluttered down from the canopy several meters away. Its length was difficult to judge, but she guessed it would be nearly a meter long from beak to behind if it were stretched out. It had a long neck with blue and green plumes on its backside, and a short, curved beak. It turned its head back and forth, surveying the area with large, dark eyes before scooting closer to the stream, pecking at the ground as it went.

  “You don’t need to shush me, Theo. No one else can hear me.”

  She narrowed her eyes as though she could somehow glare at Kane.

  But you are distracting, she sent through the link, and I can’t hear myself think when you blabber on and on.

  She slowly lowered her hand and curled her fingers around the pistol’s grip. Without taking her eyes off the bird, she tugged the weapon free.

  “What are you doing, Theo?”

  What’s it look like? Hunting.

  Raising the pistol, she gripped it with both hands — just like they’d taught in basic training — and aimed at the bird. Seemingly oblivious, the creature pecked at the ground, hopped forward to gulp down some water, and backed away to drop its beak to the dirt again.

  Did you learn to cook at some point after we crashed here? You don’t even know—”

  Shh!

  Though the neural link went silent, she swore she felt Kane grumbling.

  Gently, she used her thumb to turn down the power setting on the pistol. Sighting the bird down the barrel, she took in a deep breath, steadied her arms, and pulled the trigger as soon as she exhaled. The bird released a short, startled squawk as a cloud of yellow feathers burst into the air and rained to the ground around it.

  Theo leapt to her feet. “I got it!”

  “Great. Looks like there are enough feathers left for arts and crafts afterwards.”

  “Quit being a downer.” Theo refused to let Kane sour her success. She holstered the pistol and strode to the carcass. Countless feathers littered the ground, bright against the green grass, gray stones, and brown mud. “Check it out! I’m surviving!”

  “As I was trying to say before, you don’t even know if it’s safe to eat.”

  Theo’s brows furrowed. “It’s a bird, Kane.”

  “It is an alien organism, Theo, regardless of how familiar it may appear.”

  “Well, it’s worth it to have something to eat besides fish. And this time, I am the one providing dinner.” Lips pursed to one side, she crouched beside the bird and studied its body. “So…you wouldn’t happen to have any instructions on prepping and cooking a bird, would you?”

  “Let me check.”

  Theo tapped her fingers against her knee and waited. “Kaaaaane.”

  He remained silent.

  “Kane!” she said out loud and through the neural link.

  “Sorry, I forgot I’m not connected to the IDC network anymore. No decent recipes on file, unless you’re in the mood for engine grease to garnish your supper. I suppose cooking wasn’t deemed necessary for your rank and position.”

  “Man, they screwed us in the survival department. Cheap asses.” She sighed. “Well, all Vasil does is cut heads off the fish, skin them, and jam them onto sticks. Can’t be that hard, right?”

  “I want you to know that in my imagination, I am staring at you incredulously right now.”

  “Oh, ye o
f little faith.”

  “I have plenty of faith that this is going to be entertaining — at least for me.”

  Theo rolled her eyes. Reaching out, she grabbed the bird and pulled it closer. Though the body was slight in weight, its limpness was unsettling. She drew her knife. “Well, here it goes.”

  Within seconds of cutting off the head — the thin neck had proven disproportionately tough — Theo had spun back to the stream, retching as she scrubbed blood from her hands.

  “Oh that was—” she turned her head and gagged “—so gross!” Pressing the back of a hand to her mouth, she somehow held down the contents of her stomach as it heaved again.

  “I think I’m going to maintain all this footage,” Kane said with a snicker. “Complete records are important in these survival situations, you know?”

  “You’re such an ass, you know that?” She glanced back at the headless carcass and gagged again. “Ugh!”

  Looking at it as little as possible, she grabbed the bird by the leg and held it upside down to let its blood drain into the nearby grass. Once the flow seemed about done, she plucked off its feathers by the fistful, trying to ignore the brief resistance each one offered. Once she’d successfully slit open its gut, dumped out the innards, cleaned up the carcass and impaled it on a stick — all miraculously without vomiting — she picked up her water container and hurried back to camp.

  She was sure to hold the bird as far away from her field of vision as possible along the way.

  The sun was low over the horizon when she reached the pod, casting the ocean in orange and gold. It would be dark within the next hour or so. There was no sign of Vasil at the camp, so set the bird aside, careful not to let it touch the sand, and went to work starting a fire like he’d taught her. Fortunately, they’d collected a sizeable store of relatively dry wood and animal dung.

  Once the fire was burning high enough, she positioned the impaled bird over it, using a stone to hold the stick in place.

  “There,” she said, stepping back with her fists on her hips.

  “So…now what?”

  “Hell if I know.” Theo laughed. “I’ve been eating food out of vacuum sealed bags and machines for nearly twenty years. This cooking stuff might as well be magic to me.”

  Returning to the pod, she changed into her under suit so more of her skin could be cooled by the breeze. She walked toward the ocean at a leisurely pace. Wind whipped her hair, and the sound of breaking waves filled her ears as she gazed over the blazing-gold water. She thrummed with anticipation.

  “Vasil should be back soon,” she said. He always returned before dark.

  “Your heart rate picked up speed there, Theo.”

  “So?” With a disgruntled huff, she plopped her ass down on the ground, idly digging holes with her fingers in the wet sand.

  “Just an observation,” Kane said. He went quiet for several seconds. “May I make a suggestion?”

  “As though I could stop you short of putting you to sleep,” she said, tilting her head. Turning her torso to one side, she propped herself on one hand and scooped handfuls of damp sand out of the hole. A bit of water pooled at its bottom.

  “I know I overstep most of the time, Theo, and I don’t want to do that in this case. This situation isn’t like anything we’ve faced before. I’m out of my element, and that is…unsettling. The last thing I want is for the only person I have in my existence to be genuinely upset with me.”

  Theo paused, a slow smile curling her lips. “You should know by now that I could never be mad at you for long. And I know you’d never do anything to intentionally hurt me. We’ll get through this. It’s…a different way of life, but hey, I’m learning.”

  She resumed digging, glancing over her shoulder toward the cooking bird. A shudder ran down her back; killing and preparing the creature hadn’t been easy — or pretty — but she was damned proud of herself.

  “So, what’s your suggestion?” she asked.

  “Don’t be afraid to give the alien a chance.”

  Theo stilled. “Okay, I guess I thought you were going to say something about our living situation.”

  “It kind of is about that, isn’t it? You’re clearly interested, Theo. I’m not telling you to rush into anything, but…why deny your curiosity any longer?”

  Brows lowering, she frowned. “You’ve never liked any other guy I was interested in.”

  “Because all they wanted from you was sex.”

  “That’s all I had ever wanted, too.” Or had it been? She rarely sought men out for pleasure, and it was only when her loneliness had reached its limits. That she needed — craved — human touch.

  “If that were true, I’d accept it. It’s okay for you to have shallow wants — you’re my friend. But we both know you’re lying to yourself about it.”

  She dropped her gaze to the hole and clawed out more sand, adding to the growing pile beside her. She should’ve known he’d see through her lie; she’d rarely sought out men for pleasure, and when she did, it had only been when her loneliness had reached its peak. In those moments, she’d craved human touch. She’d needed it.

  “And you don’t think sex is all Vasil wants?”

  “I know he wants it.”

  Theo flushed, feeling the warmth from the roots of her hair down to her chest.

  “But I think you know that’s not all he wants,” Kane continued. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be fawning over him like you have been.”

  His voice had taken on a gentle tone that seemed to only come through in the neural link; it was in such moments that Theo felt most connected to him, though she’d never be foolish enough to tell him that. His ego was big enough already.

  “Hey, I am not fawning. I don’t fawn.”

  “Fair enough, Theo. I will amend: you’ve been drooling over him.”

  “I don’t drool!”

  “Oh really? Who’s been the one keeping watch while you sleep?”

  Rolling her eyes, Theo shifted position, stretching her legs to either side of the sand pile. “Even if that were true, it doesn’t count while I’m sleeping.”

  “Why not? You’re probably dreaming of him at night.”

  That was too close to the truth for her comfort.

  “Ugh, why am I even discussing this with you?” She flattened her palms against the sand and compacted it into a harder mound. She used her fingers to smooth the sides and corners, slowly giving the pile a new shape.

  “Who else are you going to discuss it with? I mean, I’m sure Vasil would talk to you about it if you approached him, but you don’t want to do that, right?”

  She scowled down at her work. “I can’t talk to him about it.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he wants more than sex. He wants…a mate. A life partner.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “If I accept that, I accept this as my fate. It means…that this is where I’ll spend the rest of my life. That there’s really no going back…”

  “Back to where?” he asked in her mind. “Home? That ship wasn’t your home, Theo. Even I understand that.”

  He’d spoken the truth — she knew it in her heart. The CSC Agamemnon had been just another place she happened to live in for a while; it had never been her home, and neither had the ship before it or the one before that. The only time she’d ever felt like she had a home was with Malcolm.

  Theo brushed the hair away from her face with her wrist, but a few grains of sand still scratched her cheek. “Vasil makes me feel too exposed. It…scares me.”

  “What about that scares you, Theo? You had a hard life, but you’ve always persevered. People close to you have failed you in the past, but if you never let yourself move on, if you never open yourself up again, you’re going to feel isolated and alone until you die.”

  “Wow, thanks for the uplifting words, buddy. Can I ask you a question?”

  “Of course.”

  “How is it you have all this…psychology crap in there,
but cooking a bird is too complicated for your processors?”

  “Ouch. I’ll make note to use softer language in the future so as not to upset your delicate sensibilities. Really though, Theo. What do you want?”

  She let out a puff of air. “I don’t know, Kane.”

  “Well, whatever it is you want, I think what you need is…someone.”

  Movement ahead caught Theo’s attention. She looked up to see Vasil rising from the waves. Her heart leapt at the sight of him, and a warm, exhilarating sensation flooded her.

  With the fiery sunset behind him, Vasil’s form was shadowed and mysterious, but light made the moisture clinging to his skin shine like glittering gold. She absently dug her fingers into the sand, and a different sort of heat swept through her as he drew nearer and his features — including his sculpted muscles — came into view.

  “Theo, your vitals—”

  “Nice talk, Kane,” she said quietly, smiling up at Vasil. “Hey.”

  Vasil stopped a couple meters away from her and smiled. “Hello, Theo.” His eyes dipped to the sand piled near her legs, and his brow furrowed. “What are you doing?”

  “Building sand castles. That’s a thing, right?” She looked down at the crumbled sand beneath her hands. “I mean I was building a castle.”

  Before I up and destroyed it the moment I saw you.

  “I have seen younglings make little buildings out of sand,” he said, lifting his gaze to her, “and Arkon, another kraken, has done it with them. But I do not know what a castle is.”

  “Oh, well, it’s a building from the old times. Like, really old Old Earth times. It was a huge building made of stone and— You know, never mind.”

  “Why do you call it Old Earth? Is Earth not simply the planet from which your people came?”

  “Yeah, it is,” she replied. “There’s this other planet the IDC colonized early on called Tau Ceti Three. I guess they sold it pretty hard as a second Earth to get settlers to go, and it was so popular that it became the IDC capital planet a couple hundred years ago. I saw some of the old ads after I enlisted — Why live on Old Earth when you could live on the new one? Go to Tau Ceti Three and claim your piece of a new world! I think they kept them around when I was in training to instill us with a sense of IDC history, but they were kind of a joke for all the soldiers.”