OFFSIDES

THE ALIEN GAMES: BOOK THREE

AVA YORK

CONTENTS

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Gamepoint: Sneak Peek

Rekker

Rogue Mate

Rescued by her Alien Mate

Kazan

ZELGOR

I beat against the rolled-pipe bars of my cage. The solid side-panels encasing the cage’s bars popped, unlocked, and fell to the ground. Diffuse light dappled everything in sight. Having spent most of my life on starships, the scents of planet-side life overwhelmed me.

I closed my eyes as my body adjusted to the scents swarming my nose.

I hate planets.

My initial nausea began to ease as my nose adjusted. I opened my eyes. Before me stood a being whose species I had never before seen. She tilted her head, staring at me.

“What are you staring at?”

One of her eyebrows shot up her forehead. Though unfamiliar with the expression, a sinking feeling crawled into my stomach. She blinked, jutted her chin at me and spoke.

“Are you unwell?”

I shrugged.

I do not want to be here for many reasons I don’t really want to tell a stranger.

“I do not appreciate being forced down the well.”

She chewed her lip, shook her head and shrugged.

“I’m not familiar with the phrase ‘the well’.”

“A planet’s gravity well. I thought everyone knew what that meant.”

She straightened her head, long, black hair swaying. Something had changed in her, tickling my instincts.

“I was only recently abducted from my home planet, which had no idea any life existed anywhere other than our home planet. If you were me and only a handful of your species had ever left their planet of birth, would you know what that meant?”

“Oh.”

I paused to consider that for a moment.

She just found out her species isn’t alone in the universe, yet she seems so calm.

She placed a delicate hand on her chest, where her throat dipped just a little.

“Hi. I’m Lena. A Human.”

“Captain Zelgor of The Snaughians’ Bane. I am a Kirtax!”

I slapped a hand on my chest, standing proud. Lena looked me over, head to toe.

“The Snaughians’ Bane?”

“My starship. Well, it was my starship.”

“What happened?”

I tried to ignore the way her hair swayed when she cocked her head, as if trying to see me from a different perspective. I dismissed how quickly the motion caught my eye.

“Mercenaries the Snaughians hired disabled my ship. They boarded us. I tried to fight them to the death and go down with my ship, but I guess they captured me. Everything since, until a few minutes ago, is a blank…”

“Yeah, I woke up the same way. I think we were sedated for transport. Lumpy, green bastards bought me and injected a translator before I blanked out, but I remember glowing tubes that look a lot like Humans imagine stasis tubes would look.”

I sighed, settling into my resentment. I nodded and answered.

“Yes, Snaughians. Their species’ culture has no redeeming qualities.”

“We are definitely talking about the same, evil little shits, then.”

I nodded.

“Excrement, yes. Living, breathing, walking excrement.”

She nodded.

“Now we are both contestants.”

“What do you mean, contestants?”

She shrugged.

“I only know what the other Humans said right before my cage transported me here. One of them, Charlotte, said she’s been a contestant before. She said we’re contestants on season 34 of Intergalactic Love Death Match—a reality show put on by the Snauhgians.”

“The only thing I hate more than planets are Snaughians.”

“Well, that gives us one thing in common. Anyway, Charlotte also said, and I quote, ‘The Snauhgians, those little goblins, also bought five alien brutes. You and your partner are supposed to work together to survive. The first couple to touch the Altar of Freedom wins their freedom.’ I suppose that makes you one of the brutes.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment, I guess.”

Perhaps I am a brute. Big, strong, tough…

My chest swelled a little at the thought.

Lena smiled. While I appreciated the effort, her smile strained her features. She looked around, drawing in a deep breath. Flying, biting insects discovered I existed and attacked en masse. I slapped at myself.

“Agh! I hate planets! Uncivilized! Unsanitary! How can anyone stand this many insects?”

Lena sighed. She walked over to a tree with blue, needle-like leaves. She dug through the strange, very large, full bag hanging from her shoulder. She pulled out a knife, unfolded it, and slapped it into a small branch. The knife stuck.

“You didn’t really expect to cut that off, did you? Your knife is far too small…”

Lena glared at me. She grabbed a fist-sized rock from the ground and pounded it against the knife. The branch fell. She folded the knife and slipped it into a pocket in her pants. She picked up the branch and offered it to me.

“Why would I want that? It’s…dirty…”

“The smell of the leaves will help drive off the insects you were complaining about. Just rub the leaves on your skin.”

I shuddered. Lena sighed again and pinned me with a look.

“Listen, Zelgor—”

“Captain Zelgor—”

“I enjoy people interrupting me with petty bullshit about as much as you enjoy Snaughians.”

“Just get to your point.”

“We. Need. Each. Other. To. Win.”

“What’s your point?”

“Don’t you think a little cooperation might be called for, then?”

“Sure.”

“Great. Then, take this branch and rub it on yourself or don’t. I don’t care, but we have got to make a shelter before dark. It’s already too cold for me and it will only get colder tonight.”

“I’m quite comfortable.”

Lena’s eyes disappeared into the back of her head for some reason I could not fathom.

“Good for you…”

She turned, dropped the branch, and walked away!

“No one has dared walk away from me for years! I am a Captain!”

Lena froze, mid-step. She turned, facing me. Her arms lifted. Her hands balled into fists and rested on her hips. Her shoulders began to creep up. Her shoulder muscles rippled. Danger wafted from her mere attitude.

“Captain of what, exactly?”

“I told you, the starship, The Sn—”

She held up her hand, palm to my chest, fingers splayed wide. Shocked, I fell silent. She looked side to side, up in the air, behind her, and under a rock at her feet.

“Funny how I don’t see your starship anywhere. You were a captain. Now, you’re a survivalist, or we’re dead. So, stop all this terribly unattractive whining and help me.”

I failed to birth a single thought, reply, or comeback. Frustration, and grief over the loss of my ship, crew, battle, and war stoked the rage building inside of me.

“You don’t even know where we’re supposed to be going!”

She replied over her shoulder.

“Of course I do, Captain. We are looking for a good place to shelter. We’ll figure out the rest after that.”

“That’s vague. Are you trying to annoy me?”

I watched her head shake as she walked further and further away.

“Not at all. In fact, you seem to have the monopoly on annoying people.”

Lena disappeared behind a tree.

“Come back here, Human!”

“Just keep up, Mr. Whiney-Pants.”

The lush forest around us swallowed the sound of her footsteps.

LENA

WE’RE GONNA DIE.

I pushed through the forest, looking for a good place to shelter. Behind me, Captain Zelgor crashed through the underbrush. My neck and shoulders tensed. I fought the urge to roll my eyes and lost.

Why? Why someone like…him?

“Human? Human, wait! I thought you said you couldn’t win without me.”

“That is how I understand the game to work, Captain.”

He caught up. He walked beside me. His head snapped back and forth, trying to look everywhere at once. I glanced his way. He scrubbed his thick muscled neck, bared chest, and face with the branch I had cut for him.

“So, how did this Charlotte survive? If you win your freedom at the end of the game, why is she in a second season of Intergalactic Love Death Match?”

“Uh…she said she was the only survivor of the season and made it to the Altar of Freedom. The fans demanded she be saved, so they gave her a new partner for this season.”

“Well, that makes more sense.”

To my relief, Zelgor fell quiet while we walked.

“What supplies do you have on you, Captain?”

Zelgor patted himself, taking stock.

“This is my combat flight suit…”

“Is it rated for space travel?”

“Of course it is, Lena. It’s a combat flight suit.”

I stopped in my tracks. Zelgor stopped after a few steps and looked back at me.

“I understand you are unhappy with your current situation, Captain. I am also unhappy with my current situation. You don’t want to be here with me. I don’t want to be here with you, but—”

“How can I be happy—”

“Act like I’m an idiot again, Captain, and I will leave you behind to make it on your own. I’ll just get out of this the same way Charlotte did, and, maybe, I get a more cooperative partner in season 35.”

The orange-and-red-striped alien scowled, his eyes darted around the forest surrounding us.

“I…apologize.”

“As I was saying, Captain, neither of us want to be here. That, however, is no excuse to be a big jerk. I already told you my home planet has no idea other life exists outside of our planet. Therefore, I don’t know what everyone else in the galaxy knows.”

Zelgor sniffed. “Yes, it is rated for space travel. There are a few blades and a very basic survival kit.”

I stopped in my tracks. “You have a basic survival kit and you’re just now mentioning it?”

He grabbed his head with his hands, eyes wild. “The last thing I knew, I was on my ship fighting mercs! The next minute, I wake up in a cage, Lena, to discover I have been captured, enslaved, and humiliated by my people’s mortal enemy. My flight suit wasn’t at the top of my mind.”

I sighed.

“That’s understandable. What’s in your suit’s survival kit?”

Zelgor shrugged his massive shoulders. As my initial irritation faded, I began to notice details…like the fact Zelgor had to be nearly seven-feet tall.

“I don’t know if I have ever looked…”

Zelgor twisted around and detached a small pack from his flight suit’s thigh and handed it to me. I opened it and looked inside.

“Well, it looks like we have a compass…ooh! That’s a survival blanket. That will be nice…basic first aid supplies… Nice. Between that and my purse, we might survive. I just wish we had a larger blade.”

“I have a couple of knives in my suit.”

Zelgor detached two knives with six-inch blades from his suit’s outer calves, showed me, then snapped them back in place. I nodded, repacked the suit’s emergency kit and handed it back. Zelgor reattached it to his thigh and we continued searching for the right place to camp.

Feathery, light-green leaves caught my eye. I stopped and looked again.

“Zelgor…I think I recognize that plant.”

I crouched and worked the plant out of the ground.

“Are we on your home world?”

“Not a chance. Earth only has one moon, but I can see two in this planet’s sky.”

“Then how did your plants get here?”

I shook my head, ripped the plant out of the ground, and held up a beautiful, gigantic carrot.

“Absolutely no clue. I’m just grateful.”

I stuffed the carrot in my purse and watched the ground far more carefully as we walked, hoping to spot more plants I recognized. I could feel Zelgor brooding beside me. I spotted a tell-tale white substance dripping down the trunk of an evergreen.

I paused to examine the dripping sap with care. I grabbed a thin branch from the ground and snapped it into smaller lengths. I took one of the stick sections and dragged it through the sap.

Viscous, sticky…

I smiled and gathered large blobs of the sap on several sticks. I pulled a gallon-sized baggie from my purse and placed the sappy sticks inside. I left the bag unzipped so the sap could harden, and carefully stuffed it in my purse.

“What are you doing? Why are we wasting time playing with this tree? Is this a Human thing?”

I cut a glare Zelgor’s way.

“Do you want to survive, Captain?”

“Of course—”

I waved my purse in his face.

“Then we need supplies. Do you see any stores around here?”

“Well, no…”

“Then we will have to do what we can with what we have on us or with what we can find. This resin is going to blow your mind.”

“What does that even mean? Speak plainly.”

I sighed and continued, certain he would follow me, even if uncertain I really wanted him to.

Just have to make do with what you have to work with, even if it's a planet-phobic, Kirtaxian Captain.

“It’s glue, Captain. Unless your suit dispenses glue, I’m going to continue believing we are fortunate to have found it.”

“Oh. I guess glue will be helpful, after all.”

To my great relief, Zelgor fell silent, again—though his expression reminded me of a storm on the horizon.

What I am going to do with him?

ZELGOR

WE ARE GOING TO DIE.

“I take it that Humans live in forests.”

“Some do.”

Lena’s small body slipped through the branches and tangles like she was born to it. She moved so naturally through the forest, where I crashed into everything. I noticed her cringe at the brash sounds of my advance. Resentful anger simmered low in me.

“That’s vague.”

Lena sighed.

“Humans live in many environments. Some of those Humans live in forests.”

“You just seem to know a lot about all this.”

I waved my hand at the...organic matter everywhere I looked. Lena stopped again, examining some vines tangled around a clump of trees. She grabbed a handful of vines and ripped them down.

“I studied environmental design. I wanted to become an urban planner. I wanted to help design the cities of the future—cities which will allow Humans to live in harmony with nature.”

“No one has to worry too much about nature on a ship.”

She stripped the leaves from the vines she collected.

“Not even the people in charge of life support?”

“That’s different. No one likes life support personnel. They’re always reminding you that they control the air… ‘environmental design’ and ‘urban planning’ teach you how to survive in a forest?”

“Not really. I wanted to study what Humans need in order to survive. I wanted to rethink the idea of cities and living spaces. So, I took some wilderness survival courses. Like, I started from the basics.”

Lena coiled the stripped vines into smaller bundles. She threaded one of her arms through the coil and we continued walking. The trees began to thin. I caught glimpses of blue in the distance. Lena halted near some rocks inside the tree line.

“I think we’ve found the perfect spot, Captain.”

She stopped, staring at a rocky shelf in the middle of the wilderness. I looked around.

“What makes this spot better than any of the others? It all looks the same to me.”

Lena pointed at the rocks.

“Those rocks look to me like two walls in a shelter with a little oven in between. Now, we just need more rocks—flat ones—and some branches, too. And these vines.”

She pulled at the vines, jerking at them ‘til they pulled away from the branches they strangled. I laughed and I sat on a little ridge. Lena dropped the vine bundles on the ground, dropped her bag next to them, and turned to me.

“Let me see one of your knives.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“Cut branches, what do you think?”

“That will just dull my blades. These are fine knives. I liberated them from a Snaughian cargo ship myself.”

Lena seethed at me. I glared back.

“You don’t have a whetstone?”

“No. Do you?”

She shook her head. She pulled her knife from her purse, unfolded it, and began stripping branches from several nearby trees.

“Why cut branches from different trees? You could have cut twice as many in the same time, if you’d stuck with the first tree.”

“I don’t want to hurt any one tree more than I have to. I would use fallen wood if I didn’t need the green wood.”

“Whatever that means.”

Lena tossed the branch she held to the ground. She spun on her heel to face me. Her eyes narrowed into an evil glare. She raised her hand, pointing a finger at me. She spoke in a soft voice so full of menace, I shivered.

“Listen, you. If you don’t want to help, that’s fine. You don’t have to share my shelter. Sleep outside for all I care! And, if you’re just going to sit there and be a complete dick, then you can keep your mouth shut. I’ve had about all I can take of you.”

She turned her back to me and continued to work. I crossed my arms over my chest.

How dare she speak to me this way. I am a Captain! I deserve a certain level of deference, here. How can she not see that?

I turned my face from her. Lena and I deliberately avoided each other. Ignoring Lena was far more difficult than I had anticipated. She moved constantly, catching my eye. For an alien, she was quite stunning to look at.

She pulled something small out of her purse and tied her hair back with it in smooth, practiced motions of her fingers. I almost asked what the object was called. Luckily, I remembered to pointedly ignore her.

I soon discovered little else to watch, other than birds I cared nothing about and falling leaves. Some of the trees towered into the sky, thick trunks straight. Others grew lower, but much wider, with tangled roots and twisted branches.

Lena cut things, stripped things, stacked things…it all looked like a mess to me. Something wet hit my cheek. I wiped it with a finger and examined it. Then another splashed on my forehead.

“Great. Rain. That’s just great.”

“You could always get off your whiny ass and help.”

“I—”

A deafening crack of thunder interrupted my words. The world grew dark underneath the forest’s canopy. Whatever weather must be above the forest released its deluge, and the rains hammered down upon us.

“Fine! What do I do?”

The rain soaked every exposed inch of my flesh. The cold crept in. Lena pointed at the pile of branches next to her half-erected shelter.

“Layer those over the top of the frame.”

I shut my mouth, tried to suppress the fury simmering inside, and began to help. Somewhere in my mind, a tiny voice pointed out that I should probably get my rage under control, but I pushed all thoughts away.

Lena and I rushed to complete the shelter as quickly as we could. We layered odiferous branches along the floor and around the sides. On the top, Lena stretched the emergency blanket from my pack and weighted it with more branches.

A few minutes later, we crawled under the awning and huddled against the dry, stone walls. Lena closed her eyes, panting. After a few minutes, when her breathing calmed, she opened an eye and looked at me.

“Maybe you can be helpful after all.”

LENA

I grabbed my purse and pulled out an empty water bottle. I had stashed it in my bag shortly before my abduction, thinking I would recycle it later. Now, I was grateful for the trash I hadn’t yet cleared out of my purse.

I glanced at Zelgor while fishing around for the plastic shopping bag I had also stuffed in it. I opened the empty bottle, poked a hole in the bottom of the shopping bag, and set it up in the rain.

“What are you doing now?”

Zelgor’s bulk filled most of our shelter. Golden eyes looked…so lost. My heart wanted to go out to him, but my mind remembered how much of an obnoxious dick he had been so far.

“I’m trying to catch rainwater. I’m hoping the plastic shopping bag will work like a funnel. Safe drinking water is usually a challenge in survival situations.”

“Have you done something like this before?”

“Not exactly. I took some survival courses, though. It seemed like a fun adventure at the time, spending two weeks in the wilderness.”

I stared out into the rain. Slowly, the water bottle filled. I tried to focus, but my wet clothes chilled my body. I shivered, teeth chattering.

I really need to get out of these clothes before hypothermia sets in. It’s just so cold…and raining. All the wood will be wet…but not the heartwood. Focus, Lena. Fight the cold.

“Why are you vibrating like that? Is it a Human thing?”

“I’m cold, Captain. Wet and cold are hard on Human bodies. My body is trying to warm itself.”

I spotted a thick-enough branch on the ground nearby. I snaked my arm out and grabbed it. I turned to the rocks at our backs. I began to sort and stack them.

“What are you doing now?”

I sighed.

“Making a place to start a fire, Captain, so we don’t die right here. Aren’t you cold?”

“Not really. Kirtax are naturally warm.”

I suppressed a glare and began stacking stones into an oven.

“That is fortunate for you. Please gather up whatever sticks you can reach, ok? They don’t need to be huge. Better if they are not, actually. We’ll have to dry them some to get them lit, anyway.”

Zelgor looked at the ground and shuddered. He gulped, but he picked through the detritus nearby. He collected sticks and thin branches, piling them near the larger branch I had grabbed.

“Thanks, Captain.”

Zelgor grunted. We worked in silence for a while, each at our task. The physical movement helped warm my body enough for my shivering to subside. When I felt confident in my little stone open set-up, I pulled out my knife.

I took the branch I collected and shaved thin slivers from it with my knife. I shaved and shaved, until I reached the dry heartwood in the center of the branch. I piled the curls of wood in the oven. I added some lint from my pocket and a few receipts from my purse, and lit the pile with the lighter I kept stashed in the coin pocket.

The lint flared, catching the receipts alight. Those caught the wood curls on fire, and I began feeding sticks to the fire from Zelgor’s pile. Even the barest flames radiated a welcome warmth. The wet wood began to smoke. I tunneled a vent hole through our shelter’s branch roof.

After fifteen minutes of blowing and adding larger and larger sticks to the fire, our little hearth blazed. I smiled, then looked at Zelgor.

“We’re going to need more wood.”

“It’s still raining.”

I sighed.

“Yes, it is. May I borrow your coat?”

Zelgor gasped, clutching his long coat’s lapels.

“I love this coat…”

“Do you want to go back out into the rain?”

I pointed an entire arm at the shelter’s entrance.

“No. Can’t we just wait it out?”

“Do you know when it will end?”

“No…”

“Then, why wait, Captain?”

“I thought Humans didn’t tolerate wet and cold…”

“That’s why I want to borrow the coat.”

“But, I just got it dry.”

I closed my eyes to seethe for a moment.

“Fine.”

I pulled my cold, wet, clingy, V-necked tank top off. Zelgor looked at me like I had grown a second head. I snaked my wet shirt through the poles supporting the roof near the fire, hoping it would dry.

I shivered again. I removed my shoes—a sensible pair of sneakers I bought a couple of weeks ago—and stripped off my jeans. I hung the soaked jeans near my shirt. A strange, strangled noise escaped from Zelgor. I glanced at him. He looked mortified. Eyes wide, he stared at me, crouching there in my favorite bra and a little pair of boy shorts covered in tiny, pink flowers.

“Calm down. I’m not going to attack you, or anything, Captain. I have to get my clothes dry, and, if I’m going to go run through the rain for more wood to keep us warm, It’s a lot easier to dry skin than clothes.”

Without a word, or a change in his horrified expression, he stripped off his nice coat and handed it to me. I nearly laughed. The ridiculousness of my situation tried to bubble out of my mouth in peals of laughter, but I repressed the urge. I didn’t want Zelgor to change his mind about the coat.

I took the garment and wrapped it around me. The leather radiated Zelgor’s residual body heat. My shivering subsided.

“Thank you, Captain.”

I slipped my feet back into my shoes and dashed out, into the rain. Zelgor’s coat hung to my knees, but it kept me warm and dry. I grabbed an armful of fallen wood and dashed back to the shelter. I handed the wood to Zelgor.

“Here, place these near the fire so they can begin to dry, ok? Just not close enough to set our little house on fire.”

I slipped off the coat and shook it out. Regretting the loss of the coat’s warmth, I handed it back to Zelgor. He held up his hand, refusing the coat.

“No, keep it. For now. You seem to need it more than I do.”

I smiled.

“Thank you.”

ZELGOR

Lena wrapped my coat around her shoulders and sat next to me under the shelter. As much as I tried to forget what she looked like disrobed and wet from the rain, her undergarments had left little to the imagination.

Though I pushed the phantom memory to the back of my mind, I knew I would never forget the sight of this half-naked, wet Human. I closed my eyes, breathing carefully regulated breaths, fighting the stirring of my cock.

No one has a right to be that attractive.

The sound of Lena digging through her purse distracted me. I opened my eyes to look, hoping with all my desperation she had not found a new way to tempt or rouse my desire. She removed the plant she called a carrot and a square thing in a colorful wrapper.

“What are your nutritional requirements, Captain?”

“Food?”

She sighed. Her eyes did that strange rolling around thing.

“Do you want to survive or not, Zelgor?”

“Of course I want to survive.”

“Then, maybe, you could consider a more cooperative attitude?”

She held the plant out in the rain. Her delicate little hands rubbed at the large root. Words, charged with frustration, tumbled from her mouth.

“Do you know how to find and prepare food on a planet? Do you want to eat? Cause, I’m hungry. If I’m expected to have to keep your whiny ass alive, the least you could do is tell me what you fucking eat, don’t you think, Captain?”

“You don’t have to be rude—”

“And neither do you. But you are.”

The simmering frustration, resentment, disappointment, and other feelings I didn’t bother to sort out, flashed in my chest. I punched the ground. The impact seemed to relieve some of my tension, so I did it again.

“Pull yourself together, Captain!”

I stilled my punches. I dared a look at Lena, unable to repress my glare. She returned my glare with her own. She spoke very, very softly. All my instincts screamed at me that her softer tone meant greater danger.

“Listen to me and believe my words. Neither of us wants to be here. It was a huge shock to me. I can only imagine it was a huge shock to you. There is a ball of rage and indignation in the pit of my stomach which demands retribution, but that rage won’t feed us or keep us alive right now. So, I keep focusing on surviving long enough to find a Snaughian and rip it apart. From the inside out.”

I gulped. I sighed and nodded.

“Kirtax are omnivorous.”

She nodded, took out her knife, cut the wet carrot in two, and handed me half. We ate our carrot in silence. I refused to admit I enjoyed it, though. I didn’t want to encourage Lena too much, so she wouldn’t get the mistaken impression she was in charge of this situation.

I’m the Captain, after all. Being in charge is my job.

A handful of carrot hardly constituted a full meal for a Kirtax. My stomach rumbled, appetite whetted. Lena tore open the colorful rectangle. She broke the dense-looking, brown contents in half and stuck one chunk in some sort of clear bag she pulled out of her purse.

The remainder, Lena broke into two pieces. She handed me a portion, and nibbled on the quarter she reserved for herself. I sniffed the substance.

“It’s a protein bar with chocolate chips.”

I licked it.

“Now you have to eat it. I don’t want it after you licked it.”

I stuffed the morsel into my mouth and chewed. Lena retrieved the water bottle, removed the thing she had stuffed into the top to catch the rain, and drank about half. She passed the bottle to me.

“Drink up, Captain, so we can refill it. We’ll figure out a water supply later. Maybe there is a spring somewhere. Until we can make cookware to boil groundwater, rainwater is the safest to drink.”

I drank, washing bits of the protein bar out of my mouth. I handed the bottle back to Lena. She stuffed the top, again, and set the bottle back out and into the rain. She rearranged the drying wood, rotating the sticks, and fed the fire.

She reached up and checked her clothes. She rearranged them to put the dampest sections nearest the flame. She placed a large, flat stone across the stones ringing the fire. She sat back, watching the rock roast.

“Kirtax can’t eat rocks.”

“Good to know.”

She flipped the stone over with a couple of sticks.

“Do Humans eat rocks?”

“What? No. Why do you ask?”

“Then, why are you cooking a rock?”

“I’m not…I’m sanitizing this rock so I can cook the carrot’s leaves. They are highly nutritious and taste pretty good. Humans need to cook most greens to get the nutrition out of the cells. Our digestive systems aren’t designed to break down the cellulose in the cell walls, so we use heat, instead. Considering your physical shape, I suspect the same of Kirtax.”

“Oh. I never thought about that. There’s not a lot of fresh food on a starship.”

“I don’t understand why not. Humans have been thinking about going to the stars for a while now, and it really seems like a healthy agriculture deck is the key to a functioning life-support system. Why only grow plants which clean air? Why not grow plants which clean air and make fresh food?”

“You act like I designed the starship. I’m a Captain, not a scientist. I have scientists for that.”

Had. I had scientists. I had a starship. If The Snaughians’ Bane is gone, am I even still a Captain?

My stomach sunk at the thought. The rage inside, which had calmed for a moment flared into an inferno once again. I wanted to fight something, anything… My fists balled. I breathed carefully regulated breaths, eyes closed, seeking the return of my self-control.

I heard a sizzle. I opened my eyes. Lena had dropped the carrot’s greens on the flat rock.

LENA

I watched the carrot greens roast, wishing I had some butter, onion, peppers, pepper, a pot, broth, a stove, and a way off this planet. I sighed. I collected some rainwater in a palm and dripped it over the carrot tops, hoping they would at least steam.

Trying to cook without fat is certainly a challenge. Maybe I can find some clay and fashion some crockery…but how do I even know if the clay is safe to eat from?

I pulled two pairs of chopsticks from my purse.

How long ago did I even pick up that phở from the Vietnamese restaurant around the corner from my apartment? Is anyone looking for me? Will anyone even miss me? Has anyone even noticed I’m gone?

As the sun began to set, a mechanical, buzzing noise distracted me from the dark thoughts spiraling in my mind. Zelgor and I both looked out into the rain. A drone flew up to our shelter. On the front glowed a display screen spattered with rain drops.

I opened one of the packages containing the chopsticks and carefully folded the paper wrapper, stuffing it back in my purse. I knew Zelgor and I could afford to waste nothing. Using the chopsticks, I moved the greens to a cooler part of the rocks.

I nearly handed Zelgor the second pack of chopsticks, then remembered he probably had no idea how to use them. I imagined attempting to explain their use to Zelgor for less than a second before rejecting the thought.

Keeping one eye on the blank display screen, I exchanged the second package of chopsticks for a pack of plastic flatware and handed it to Zelgor. I pointed at the greens and ate. Zelgor’s eyes darted between the display, the greens, my chopsticks, and the pack of flatware in his hand. The display lit and I happily ignored anything else Zelgor did.

He’ll either figure it out or not.

Two Snaughians smiled at us from the display, faces distorted by the drops of rain on the screen. Zelgor growled at them. What looked like a tiny windshield wiper passed across the display, smearing the water around.

“Welcome to the 34th season of Intergalactic Love Death Match, where five lucky couples are matched and sent to wild and exotic locations! Which couple will make it to the Altar of Freedom first? Will they survive? Will they fall in love? Will they win their freedom? Will the audience help or hinder their epic struggle across the vast continent of Tikalc on the planet Garglax II? Stay tuned and find out. Now, a word from our sponsors…”

“I really, really hate Snaughians.”

“They haven’t given me much reason to like them, either. I’m hoping I’ll meet an alien who’s not a jerk, but I’m still waiting.”

A heavy darkness rolled over Zelgor’s face. He pinned me with a look of deep-seated pain.

“Did they destroy your people’s planet, too?”

I gulped and shook my head.

“Not that I know of, no.”

He looked away. The rage of his entire species simmered in his eyes. I returned my attention to the display.

“Let’s talk about our third couple of the season, Kvorkt.”

“Lena and Zelgor. Yes, Plabz, this is a fascinating pairing. A Human and a Kirtax!”

Plabz laughed. Zelgor growled.

“These two have to be one of my favorite couples this season, Kvorkt. These two literally have exactly no fans. It’s a good thing we’re such nice guys that we left them more of their belongings than usual.”

“I didn’t believe it when the producers informed me, Plabz, but it’s true. This has to be the first couple we’ve had in all thirty-four seasons of Intergalactic Love Death Match to score so low on Game Day One’s poll.”

Plabz shook his head in pity.

“If I am not mistaken, Kvorkt, Zelgor was the captain of the Kirtaxian starship The Snaughians’ Bane, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, Plabz, that is exactly right. Captured at our most recent space battle victory, in fact.”

“That’s right! I remember reading about that. As I understand it, several species came together in a doomed attempt to rebel against Snaughian occupation, did they not?”

“They did, Plabz. In fact, we even have a Xunon in this season! Captured at the same battle.”

Zelgor punched the drone. His fist went directly through the drone’s display screen. The drone sparked, ruined electronics sizzling. He fought with the drone to remove it from his hand. Frustrated and angry, he bellowed and raised his fist.

“Don’t break that! I bet I can use it to help us survive!”

He froze, breathing hard, but he did not move. I stood and managed to remove the drone from him. I set it in the corner, having no desire to try to dismantle it before it stopped sparking and fizzing.

The sun set. Night fell over the world like a blanket. The sounds of day creatures gave way to the insectoid buzzing of night. A deep chill set into my bones. I banked the fire and wrapped Zelgor’s coat tight around my shoulders.

Zelgor remained silent and I had no desire to dig him out of his shell. Exhausted and cold, despite the fire, I laid as close to the coals as I dared and curled into a ball. My fatigue-heavy eyelids drooped, but sleep eluded me.

Flashes of memory chased each other through my mind in tight loops. The fear I had pushed away since my abduction crawled out of hiding. It nipped at my soul. A few, fat tears rolled down my cheek, leaving cold tracks.

I fought my fear and grief. I fought the self-pity rising in my chest. I fought my swirling thoughts, but my exhausted, shocked mind needed to grieve.

Not yet. Can’t break down yet. Have to hold on. This emergency isn’t over. Stay strong.

My eyes flew wide when Zelgor stretched out next to me. So large he dominated the shelter while merely sitting, when he lay down, his feet stuck out into the rain. He drew his knees up and curled his thick-muscled body against mine.

He radiated warmth. Neither of us spoke, we simply adjusted until we could both stay dry and warm. Surrounded in the comfort of another body and the heat of the Kirtaxian metabolism, I finally drifted into sleep.

ZELGOR

I woke to frantic, raucous chirping. I wondered who filled my cabin with birds until reality slapped me in the face. I remembered I no longer slept in my cabin upon my ship. I remembered I no longer even had a ship—or crew.

Or my freedom.

I opened my eyes. Layers upon layers of green leaves swayed in the breeze above me. Dappled light filtered down onto my face wobbling with the leaves’ hushed susurrus. Thick branches creaked as they swayed. The small sounds of settling leaves snapped around me. Small sticks snapped.

The rain had abated at some time in the night. Thick drops of condensation dripped from the tips of the tree’s dark-green needles. Some sort of gelatinous creature with a spiral shell inched it’s mucous-trailing body up my chest.

I roared and slapped the creature from my chest.

“What did you do that for?”

“It was obviously attacking!”

“It looked like a giant snail and it was an easy breakfast. Now, go find it and hope you didn’t crack the shell too badly. I want to cook it in the shell.”

I cringed back. My gaze darted between Lena and the bit of shell I saw very slowly disappearing behind a bush.

“Is it even safe to eat?”

“Your skin didn’t react when it slimed across your chest. I put a little slime on my skin half-an-hour ago and haven’t reacted yet. Chances are, it’s safe. Many people eat snails on Earth—my home planet. They are even considered a delicacy…in some places.”

I laughed.

“So, eating snails is new to you, too?”

“I don’t know how frequently a Kirtax prefers to feed, but I’m hungry. I’d rather try, with the chance of being pleased, and be disappointed, than sit around and starve. What about you?”

What can I even say to that? Yes, Lena, I want to starve?

“You are a shrewd negotiator. Are you certain your species knows nothing of life outside their planet?”

“Some dream of it and explore the concept and create art in the collective imagination, but none can prove it. Or so one of my writing professors said in Creative Writing.”

“Sounds like he was full of himself.”

“It is amazing how quickly you recognized the behavior.”

“Thank you.”

Lena turned away and stared at the trees. I hunted down the giant snail and brought it back to camp. The lump of slime perpetually slunk to the edges of my hands.

“I found the…thing.”

Lena pointed vaguely to the left.

“Go rinse it in the stream. I’ll tend the grill.”

I sighed and walked to the stream. I fought the snail. It fought me back. We wrestled and struggled, and both returned far wetter than we had departed.

“If this is not sufficiently clean, you can try. I have done all I can.”

“Thanks. I’m sure it’s fine. Put it here, shell-side toward the coals.”

I plopped the thing in the fire and sorted out my clothing.

Hypothermia might not endanger me, but wet clothes are difficult to move in.

I stripped off my battle flight suit and hung the bottoms over a rafter near the fire. I glanced at Lena. I could not read her face, but it had turned an alarming shade of red.

“Are you ill?”

She blinked up at me, then turned away.

“I’m fine.”

I opened my mouth to ask if she was certain, sensing she had left something unsaid, when she interrupted.

“Anyway, I was thinking, when your clothes are dry, of course, that, maybe, you would consider climbing a tall tree? On the broadcast last night, between the ‘Word from our sponsors’ and ‘talking about the couples’, I got a glimpse of a map. We’re supposed to be heading inland toward Central Mountain.”

Shocked at the possibility of climbing a tree, I stared up.

It’s so far up there…

I looked closer.

I could make it from branch to branch…just one, good leap to start, really. Garglax II is, obviously, only a Galactic Standard gravity planet, unlike the Kirtaxian home world.

“That’s a good idea.”

The air between Lena and I subtly changed. I flicked my eyes to her face, wondering what just happened. She tended her giant snail. A small smile hung on her face.

Why does she look pleased? Why did her tiny little expression of happiness stab into my soul like a knife?

I broke my eyes away. I blinked and gulped. My head spun. I suspected I had lost the ability to think clearly.

“So, I’ll just go climb a tree.”

“Ok. I’ll just be here, cooking breakfast. I even saved you a few crumbs of the energy bar…”

This food situation will have to improve soon.

I slipped on my, now dry, flight suit and actually zipped it over my chest, though it felt very old-fashioned, like my father’s generation. I inspected the surrounding trees, looking for one which felt right. Some have called me superstitious, or paranoid, but I had always had a sense for danger. I believed my gut, when it warned me danger drew near.

Alarms ring and my gut quivers every time I think of Lena. When I look at her I feel…ensnared, though the trap has yet to close on my…heart?

I leapt up the tree trunk. I ducked my head and crossed my arms over me to block the small branches at the bottom. My fingers dug into the thick, crackled bark. I looked at Lena, twenty feet below. Her mouth hung open.

Something warm and fuzzy bloomed around the delightful smugness fueling the best mood I’d had since arriving on this cursed planet.

Why do I so intensely enjoy impressing Lena?

I nursed the happy contentment, a point of light and hope in this forest filled with terrifying, unknown planet-y things. I nursed it the entire time I moved from branch to thick branch, circling ever upward.

Finally, my head broke through the forest’s canopy. Birds flew, disturbed by my triumphant cry. The green of the forest stretched from the horizon to the shores of a broad river. Beyond the first river, I could see another forest, a distant mountain range, and the tallest mountain I had ever seen with my own eyes.

LENA

Well, Zelgor is nicer today. That’s a bonus. Like the full frontal when he dried his flight suit…

I found another of the snails and added it to the fire. I remembered little about cooking snails, but I did remember they took three hours.

Zelgor better be happy I found another snail. I didn’t look forward to splitting one. The snails’ three-hour cook time should give us enough time to gather our things and begin our travels. I thought I noticed water through the trees yesterday.

Zelgor leapt from the tree to the ground. I jumped. A little squeal of surprise escaped my lips. Bits of sticks and leaves covered him everywhere. Needle leaves stuck from his goatee.

Does he wear his facial hair in that style on purpose? Or is that all his species can grow?

“Welcome back.”

“Thanks.”

“See anything up there?”

“I saw Central Mountain. There is a broad river quite close.”

“Which way is the mountain?”

I looked where he pointed, then found the spot where the sun’s light concentrated most brightly beyond the forest’s canopy. I only had the sun’s light, and could only refer to what I knew of Earth, but it looked to me like he pointed Southeast of our location.

I nodded, already thinking of what we would need that we were likely to find before we moved. Zelgor’s stomach growled. We both looked at his belly. The contours of his abs rippled under the fabric of his suit.

I gulped, tearing my eyes away. I ignored the memories of his naked body flashing through my mind like old vacation photos. I ignored the knowledge that his stripes covered his entire body.

Well, all the parts I may have accidentally noticed while mesmerized by the swing of his cock.

My mouth watered.

It looked perfect.

“Excuse me, Lena? Do you have a medical condition? You keep changing color and drifting off…”

“Don’t worry about it, Captain.”

“Zelgor. Call me Zelgor. I have no ship. I am a Captain no longer.”

“Very well. We have another two hours before these snails are ready. All the snails I’ve ever eaten were delicious.”

I pulled the shells from the fire. I fished out the snail meat and cleaned it and the shell. I returned the meat to the shell with some water, a pinch of chicken ramen noodle flavoring I intended to hoard, and a few flavorful plants I either recognized or had tested.

I returned the shell to the fire and repeated the process for the other snail. I carefully stored the remainder of the flavoring packet in a small, clean baggie I had folded up and stashed in my purse’s coin pouch.

Zelgor sat by the fire. He stared at the shells. He glanced up at me.

“This is not much food. We have far to go, yet, to reach Central Mountain. Kirtax are from a heavy-gravity world. Even though I have spent my entire life in space, my parents were grounders, driven from our home world.”

“That’s terrible. I’m so sorry. That is a heavy burden for your people.”

“Yes, but that is not my point, Human. Kirtax need more calories than this snail will provide, though it was very large and disconcerting.”

“Well, forgive me for giving a shit. I’m doing the best I can. If you want a more calorie-dense meal, why don’t you find something we can eat? Because, so far, you’ve put not a damn thing on our proverbial plates, have you?”

“YOU DON’T HAVE to be mean about it.”

Deep-seated irritation might have sharpened my words more than I had intended, but I didn’t back down.

“And you didn’t have to be a jerk when I was saying something nice, either. Did you?”

Zelgor puffed up the way I had seen so many college jocks swell up when they couldn’t think of a comeback.

“I can hunt.”

“Do you see me stopping you?”

Zelgor rose to his feet. He pulled his knives and slunk away from camp. I shook my head.

I may be stuck here with you, Zelgor, and you may be hot as fuck with the most promising cock I have ever seen, but I don’t have to put up with your attitude. Just try me. So what if you’re fifteen-feet taller than me?

Lost in thoughts of ways to kill Zelgor as a, comparatively, tiny Human, I packed up camp. I gathered everything I thought we could use which wouldn’t cost too many calories to transport.

What about the classic travois?

I looked at our terrain. Without a way to elevate the end, or add wheels, these roots would make dragging a travois more trouble than it was worth.

Even with wheels. They would just get stuck on every root we tried to pass. Looks like packs are our best bet. Zelgor is big. And mule-headed. He might as well be as useful as a mule, too.

I got to work creating a pack out of the poles we had used to make a shelter. I lashed them together with reeds I simmered in the water bottle. The guide on one of the survival tours I took showed me that as long as the plastic water bottle was full and placed on the flat stone stove, the plastic did not melt. I hadn’t wanted to believe it at first, but I thanked him silently for proving it worked well enough.

It won’t taste good, and the bottle will only last so many boils. We’ll just have to make it work until we can find an alternative.

I secured the joints with the sap I had gathered. Warmed and softened, I wiped it around the reed lashings at the pole’s joints. I set the pack’s framework upside down to cure and prepared our other supplies for packing.

Crashing in the bush alerted me to Zelgor’s return. He tossed six dead animals my way. I glanced at them. They looked like fluffy little space bunnies. My mouth watered.

“You may be useful, after all, Zelgor. Can you clean them?”

“Like the snail?”

“No. Not like the snail. Here, watch me.”

I showed him how to skin and clean his kills, then spitted the space bunnies on a branch and set them above the fire to roast. Though Zelgor shuddered at first, he quickly caught on.

Thirty minutes later, we sucked juices off fat, space bunny legs, followed by alien escargot. I felt decadent for a moment. A laugh bubbled from my lips. Zelgor looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I shrugged.

“The ultimate in glamping.”

“I do not understand…”

“It’s an Earth thing.”

I sighed.

“You miss Earth?”

“Sometimes.”

Every minute.

“I never knew my home world, but I yearn for it.”

“Perhaps we all do.”

We loaded the backpack and strapped it to Zelgor’s back. We moved along, gathering whatever was easiest and most convenient on the way. As the sun set, we reached the bank of a wide river.

We camped. I dreamt of every way to die while trying to cross a river all night.

ZELGOR

I woke under the new shelter we had created last night when we camped. We only needed a new one because Lena had made that big pack from our first. The river flowed past. I glanced around camp. Lena poked at last night’s coals with a stick. She looked over at me.

“Morning.”

I grunted in response.

I may be stuck planetside, but I don’t have to like it.

Lena’s eyes rolled around her head. She huffed and turned her back to me. She fed the fire from a stash of logs left over from building the shelter.

“What are you going to make with today’s shelter?”

“I was just going to pack this one up to use tonight. But we needed a pack to move things yesterday. I can’t fit everything in my purse.”

I grunted and wandered off to relieve myself. My belly grumbled. My nerves felt on the verge of snapping any second. I wondered what we’d eat for breakfast today. I returned to the fire.

“Any more snails?”

“No. I’m just using their shells to cook some mushrooms with some roots I found and a bit of the space bunny fat from last night.”

I sat.

“That sounds tasty. We…one eats a lot of mushrooms when living on a starship. Apparently, they are required for the proper growth of the plants required for a ship’s life-support systems.”

“Scientists on my planet are just now learning to appreciate the importance of mushrooms. I was considering finding a way to incorporate mushroom colonies in my city designs. I imagined a place, a structure, which could house and feed many without destroying the ecosystem around it.”

I hung my head.

“The Kirtaxian people lived in such cities. On our home world.”

The long familiar pain I had almost forgotten awoke, stretching the claws it used to torment me.

“What happened?”

Rage spiked and words spewed forth before I could think.

“The Snaughians happened! Their survey ships detected a valuable mineral on our planet. They came in great starships. My people were primitive and peaceful. We could not resist the might of the Snaughians’ mercenaries.”

“They enslaved your people?”

“They mined our planet, enslaving us to work their mines. They used chemicals which poisoned the air and the water. My people mutated—just look at these stripes. They’re not natural! The Kirtaxian people used to be blue!’

“Oh! And your family?”

“Some of our people escaped, vowing vengeance! We got our own starships. I dedicated my life to raiding the Snaughians, stealing their weapons, preventing them the ability to wage war against other gentle species across the galaxy.”

She handed me a shell propped up in a reed basket so it didn’t spill.

“Careful. It’s probably hot.”

“It smells delicious.”

“Thank you.”

That little, pleased smile crept onto her mouth again. I nearly melted into a puddle at her feet, but caught myself. I focused my attention on my shell.

I don’t want to give her the wrong idea…

We ate in silence. After lunch, we packed up our things, adding the shelter poles to my pack. I slipped the pack on my shoulders and we stepped out of the trees and gazed at the river.

“Fuck.”

I snapped my head around, looking for some danger I had yet to sense.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Lena pointed at the river between us and the rest of our journey to freedom.

“Crossing that will be a real challenge.”

I pointed to several large boulders.

“We can just jump.”

“You can jump. I can’t make that jump.”

“I forgot your species is from a Galactic Standard gravity world.”

“Yeah. You jumped up that tree like it was nothing.”

I looked at the rush of the swift water. I looked at the rocks. I turned my face to Lena.

“I can jump across while carrying you.”

She released a little squeal. She looked between me and the water. She sighed.

“Ok. Just...know that I find this entire situation very undignified and distasteful.”

“Noted.”

I knelt and held out my hands. She approached me slowly. I had never before seen an expression so heavy with suspicion. She allowed me to lift her at the waist and place her on my shoulders. Her lower legs dangled down my chest and her back rested against the pack I wore filled with our supplies. I wrapped my hands around them so she would not fall.

“After everything else, I worried you would get too cold trying to swim across the river.”

“Thank you.”

Her soft words fell on my ears like a balm.

Why do I get that feeling every time she touches me? That…feeling…so much like danger, but different… This is not the time. Focus.

I stepped up to the ledge. I held her legs firmly against me. I barely noticed the slight weight of her on my shoulders.

“Hold on, Human.”

She released a tiny squeal. I crouched and leapt into the air. The squeal reached an ear-piercing pitch. Air flew past my face. Exhilaration coursed through my veins. I felt free. My feet landed upon the rock like I was made to leap across rivers.

Maybe I was. I was only the first generation of Kirtaxians born off-planet. That is not long enough for our bodies to adapt to space travel…I…I…just never wanted to love a planet other than my own!

The smile I enjoyed for half a second faded. My good spirits fled the flames of rage flickering in my gut. The fire had lived in me for far longer than a moment’s fleeting joy. Resentment flowed into me, filling me like corked wine.

I reject everything but my people. I live for my people. I live for the Kirtax and our revenge. This…woman, this…Human woman—is merely a distraction. I must reject her. A life with me will only bring her pain. I lived to avenge the Kirtax and, when I complete my quest, my quest will have consumed me—for I have pledged everything I am.

I looked at Lena.

I am sorry, but there is nothing left of myself for you, Lena. I am already a walking dead man. My life is spent.

I leapt from boulder to boulder, focusing on my steps. Water roared by at a deafening volume. Even if I had wanted to speak to Lena, she would never have heard me. I tried to tell myself the lack of communication with her was for the best, but something inside refused to believe me.

I leapt from the last boulder to the riverbank and placed Lena on her feet. Cheeks once again shiny, she turned away from me. She dug a few tall plants from the riverbank, and we walked until Lena declared a halt.

Terrified of what might slip out of my mouth, were I to open my lips for any reason, I spent the remainder of the evening in silence. Somehow, without words, I became hyper aware of Lena’s physical presence.

She haunted me long after I drifted into my dreams.

LENA

I woke with the sun. Zelgor snored softly in my ear. I remembered I very much enjoyed sleeping in, in my own bed, back on Earth. In the forest, while spooning a hot alien with a jerk attitude to survive, I reached full wakefulness as soon as my eyelids opened.

I glanced over a shoulder at Zelgor.

He’s almost cute when he sleeps.

I shook my head, determined not to fall for the I’m-cute-when-I’m-asleep trap. I snuck out of his arms. I missed their warmth as soon as I made it to my feet. I slipped his far-too-big coat around my shoulders and worked on building up the fire.

I drank all the water in the water bottle and boiled more. I searched around the campsite, looking for anything edible, but only found a handful of acorns.

And they take at least a day in the river to taste ok.

I cursed myself for the health kick which led to me clearing all the snacks out of my purse shortly before my abduction. I shook my head to clear it of the memory. I had already replayed that fateful walk home from the University library a million times.

Stop fussing about the past. Deal with empty bellies now. Before Zelgor decides to eat me, or something. And not in an enjoyable way…

I giggled. My eyes darted to Zelgor’s face, worried he had heard me. He snored. I rolled my eyes and searched further from camp. By the time Zelgor woke, more mushroom-with-random-plant stew simmered in the shells over the fire.

“More mushroom?”

“It took a lot of effort just to find this. Alien forests aren’t the easiest places to forage for safe food.”

Zelgor grunted his disappointment. My eyes narrowed.

“Well, if you want something more nutritious, maybe you should contribute food, too.”

“I brought you six space bunnies.”

“And you ate five of them! Did you think we’d survive this game on six space bunnies? With the way you eat?”

“I told you Kirtax have high caloric requirements.”

“Yeah, but why did you assume it was my job to meet those requirements? I’ve only been feeding you because I can’t win my freedom without you.”

Zelgor blinked at me. His mouth did that open-close-fish thing, but no sound escaped.

“I didn’t realize Humans were so callous to the needs of other species. Maybe it’s a good thing your people never figured out how to escape their planet.”

“I’m not being callous. You’re just acting like a child. Expecting me to feed you, to make you water, to provide everything, like I’m your mommy, or something. Grow up, Zelgor. If you’re so big, and hunting is so easy, go do something useful instead of sitting there, like a bump on a log, whining about how unfair life is.”

“I’m Captain of a starship and I was useful when I got us across the river, wasn’t I? I deserve some respect.”

I shrugged.

“You were useful. You also were helping. If I was as big as you, I would have done it. Nothing keeps big people from helping the rest of the time, too. Feeding and watering us is a lot of work. Now, stop feeling sorry for yourself, get off your ass, and go kill something which, hopefully, won’t kill us to eat and might even taste good.”

He returned my glare with the ferocity of an adolescent who lost an argument with their parents which they had really wanted to win.

“Keep talking like that, and maybe I won’t help you at all.”

I growled.

“Fine, then. I guess you don’t need me, or my efforts, or my potable water, or the stew in that shell over there. Or the shelter I taught you to build. I get it! You don’t need me. Well, I don’t need your coat and you don’t need shit from my purse. I’ll keep myself alive and you keep yourself alive without me.”

I stripped his oversized coat from my shoulders and threw it at him. He caught it with ever-present grace. I turned my back to him and huddled near the coals. I banked the fire, hoping to stave off the chill.

I pulled my shell of mushroom stew off the fire. I tried to deny myself the pleasure of making little sounds of appreciation for the food, knowing Zelgor watched me eat…but…I just…couldn’t resist.

“Mmmm.”

“Stop it.”

I slurped.

He glared and growled. I downed the last of the sauce. I could feel the power of Zelgor’s resentful glare on my back. It warmed me from the inside out.

Stop enjoying torturing the alien and get to packing.

I packed up camp and pulled the heavy pack onto my own shoulders. I sighed.

I trained for this. Easy walk, regulate your breathing…

I walked out into the forest, leaving Zelgor to pout by the doused fire.

We’ll see how long he lasts…one thousand one, one thousand…

I heard Zelgor crashing through the forest behind me. I called back over my shoulder, not bothering to stop.

“We’d see a lot more game to kill if you weren’t so loud, you know.”

I noticed he carried his shell of soup.

“Lena, there are no spaces between these branches large enough for me to pass silently.”

“Try anyway. Move like I do.”

For all my bravado, all the wood I used to fashion the pack bore heavy on my shoulders. I knew I could not maintain my current pace, but was determined not to admit the truth until it was wrung out of me by force.

I will not give him a win.

After a moment, Zelgor finally asked the question I had been hoping he would ask.

“May I carry the pack?”

I stopped without a word, unslung the pack and waved him to it. He put it on his shoulders as if made of fluff. I glared, hoping to mask the relief I felt.

We trekked the rest of the trip in relative silence. He drained his shell, cleaned it, and tucked it in the pack. While we didn’t speak much to each other, Zelgor crashed through the underbrush for at least another hour before he discovered the concept of stealth.

Absent his constant, nerve-wracking noise, my mood significantly improved. I picked mushrooms along the way. I noticed Zelgor watching, though I pretended I didn’t. I thought it fair—since he refused to admit his growing interest in the world around him.

Maybe he will come around… He hasn’t been awful in a few hours, and I am kinda stuck with him. Maybe it's time to try another olive branch.

“Thank you, Zelgor.”

“What?”

“Thank you for helping get me across the river. I couldn’t have done that without you.”

He shrugged and huffed a sullen grunt.

“Yeah, well, whatever. Like you said. Can’t win without you.”

My eyes rolled. I flashed back to my very short stint as a substitute teacher.

We’re gonna die.

ZELGOR

I woke, body aching like I had been through a fist fight. My belly gnawed at me. Hunger sharpened my experience of the world. My eyes began to search for more snails…or another space bunny…or more mushrooms.

I wanted to blame my bruised ego on Lena, but she spoke no lies. I realized my mistake in thinking she caused my anger. Wallowing in my own self-pity created the shameful bruises on my ego, not she.

Lena is right. Taking out my fear and frustration on her just makes me a dick.

I glanced at her. She tended the fire. More mushroom stew bubbled in the shells. My mouth watered.

Lena has just been trying to help me… Had I laid around, whining like this, on The Snaughians’ Bane, I would never have made Captain.

The perpetual ball of rage deep inside churned. I clenched my fists, trying to wrestle it back into submission. The fury writhed in my grip, twisting and turning through memories I had long endeavored to lay to rest.

My father’s face—the face of a man broken by loss—haunted my mind. I remembered unshed tears in eyes stretched open far too wide. I remembered the quiver of his lips as he shared the stories of the old ways.

I pushed myself to my feet, hoping I could simply walk away from the shades of the past. Lena turned. She looked up at me. Her face seemed blank—on the surface. Deeper, though, I detected an edge of fear, isolation, and the barest, most delicate hint of vulnerability.

She is so much smaller than I, and so much more delicate, as well. I have treated her poorly.

Pain, loss, rage, and shame turned my face from her. I wanted very much to keep my inner darkness to myself. Something furry, and about the length of my forearm, flashed across a branch. I pulled a knife from my legs and threw it before even thinking.

My blade landed true. The furry thing fell out of the tree, knife through its skull. Lena gathered it up.

“Thanks. I’ll get this on the fire.”

I feel better. I got to kill something and Lena is smiling again. Maybe life isn’t so bad. Why sit around and complain, anyway? Better to find things to do. Like killing food.

Lena cleaned the creature, spitted it, and put it over the fire. She sat back and looked at me.

“Wish we had the time and equipment to tan these hides, Zelgor. These…space weasels? They and the space bunnies are too small to have much use beyond their bones, meat, and skins. Maybe we can find something larger.”

“You want me to go looking for something big to kill?”

“Not at all. But, if we happen to run into something larger, and you happen to kill it, we can cook it and you can eat your fill, I can make a water bladder, and I can harvest some sinew of a useful length.”

“But we need more than that to tan the hide? Seems like a waste to leave it behind. We could make you a cloak out of it, or something. My coat is far too large for you.”

Lena shrugged.

“With sinews, one of your knives, the right rock, and some sturdy branches, I can tan the hide. But it would be very heavy, and you’d have to carry it.”

“Oh. Good point. I wish we had a better way to transport our things.”

“In a forest? In the absence of some sort of levitation—”

“Your planet doesn’t have maglev tech?”

“No.”

“Oh, wow. Earth is a backwards place…”

“You have no idea—”

“We just have to convince the audience to send us something.”

“So…we need more fans.”

“Unfortunately, Lena, we do.”

We ate the space weasel and Lena collected the bones. She claimed she had a use for them later. We packed camp and returned to our trek. Near sundown, we crested a hill and saw another wide river. I scanned for a path across but saw no convenient pathway of boulders.

“If we strap you to me, I’m sure I can swim it.”

“Not a chance. Let’s look for a better place to cross.”

“You don’t think I can make it?”

“You might make it, Zelgor, but I won’t. It’s too wide and too cold. You might get me across, but then everything we have is soaked, I die of hypothermia, you die without my survival skills while wandering the wilderness, and we both lose.”

“I could make a fire on the other sid—”

Lena raised an arm, pointing a finger at a marshy spot in the river.

“Did you notice the predators?”

“What predators?”

“Look, Zelgor.”

Lena picked up a rock. She cranked back her arm and threw the rock into the marsh. Three-foot-long, tooth-studded jaws snapped the thrown rock. I gulped.

“I thought that was a rock…”

“That’s one, evil, space crocodile…”

“Are those from your home world?”

“No, Zelgar, they just look like something from my world.”

I shuddered. Lena shuddered. We decided to follow the river South, after all. I refuse to admit how many times I looked over my shoulder, relieved that the thing with the jaws didn’t lurk behind us.

The sun began to set. The edges of the world we could see through the trees turned red. For a moment, the river we followed glowed red like flowing lava. We stopped and camped. Making camp seemed much less a chore, that time.

Perhaps I am adjusting. I am stuck on a planet other than my own. I am partnered with a fierce, Human woman, and we must survive together. That is my reality. The life I had pledged to my people died in that last battle. This must be the new life I am to live.

I hunted again, bringing home three space bunnies and a couple of space weasels. They tasted delicious with mushrooms and whatever else Lena had thrown in there. I tried to neither ask nor complain.

The buzz of a broadcast drone zoomed up. Lena sat near me and we watched Plabz and Kvorkt’s lumpy, green faces smile smugly on the display screen.

“Welcome to Intergalactic Love Death Match. Kvorkt? Can you tell us more about what the contestants might face on Tikalc? Garglax II is still a wild planet, is it not?”

LENA

We spent the next day in relative silence. Every time I glanced in Zelgor’s direction, he seemed pensive. Though he looked like a rain cloud had settled on his brow, Zelgor remained polite and…even attentive.

After the third time he caught me looking at him, though, his brooding transformed into suspicion. We spent the remainder of the day gathering things along our path, walking more than ever before in my life, and trying to sneak in unnoticed glances of each other.

We camped with few words. By the time Plabz and Kvorkt had their fill tormenting us over our lack of a fan base, I missed Zelgor’s company.

Even if most of it makes me cringe…then again, I am not always the easiest person to get along with, either. I also have certainly been a big jerk when I did not have to be. He seems to be trying to control himself now.

I fell asleep with Zelgor’s warm arms wrapped around me. I dreamt of better days and running through sunny fields, hand in hand with Zelgor. Our three children chased us. The children opened huge mouths filled with tiger’s teeth.

My eyes snapped open.

Just a dream. No one is even considering making half-alien babies. It’s not even supposed to be scientifically possible…

I shivered, crawled out of Zelgor’s arms and began my day. I watched the river flow by as I cooked over the fire. Tall, fibrous-looking reeds grew near the riverbank. A small, shallow pool swirled slowly near a rocky embankment.

I sighed, wistful, imagining a hot bath. I walked to the bank and gathered reeds while I waited for the food to cook. I returned to camp and checked the breakfast simmering in the shells. Pleased with the stew’s progress, I sat near the fire and wove a fish basket.

Once Zelgor woke and ate, I led him to the river and showed him how to set the basket and how to gather reeds on the way back to camp. Then I showed him how to make a fish basket of his own.

We packed camp and stopped by the fish basket on the way down the river. We caught a couple of fish too small to make a decent meal and released them. We gathered the basket, hung it from Zelgor’s pack, and walked until the sun set again.

Zelgor anchored the fish traps in the river and we set up camp. Zelgor went hunting and I started the fire. Once the wood had caught, I began setting up the shelter. Zelgor returned with something about the size of a small deer but with six horns, six eyes, and razor-sharp spikes running down its spine.

“I bet those could come in handy.”

“They will look fierce on the shoulders of my coat.”

Zelgor flexed, creaking his coat. I laughed.

“I can imagine. Let’s see if we have any fish.”

We checked the baskets. Zelgor smiled, obviously pleased, when he pulled three, fat fish out of the second basket. We gathered five fish in total. I considered ways to dry and preserve fish. Dubious, I remembered Zelgor’s appetite and stopped worrying about killing us while trying to preserve fish.

I showed him how to clean and string the fish. Old memories of fishing with Grandma and Great Aunt Betty danced into my mind.

Now that I think about it, we didn’t do much real fishing, but they did a lot of drinking.

A grin spread across my face. Suddenly, I understood my Great Aunt Betty so much better than before.

How did I never notice?

I returned from my thoughts to Zelgor staring at me.

“What?”

He shrugged and looked away. We arrived at camp and I prepared the fish. I rubbed them down with rendered, space-weasel fat I had stored in an empty travel-size lotion pot this morning and some sprigs of a salty herb. I placed stones on the coals.

A few minutes later, I laid the fish on the hot stones. I stuffed the fish with smaller hot stones and listened to it sizzle. The familiar buzz of the broadcast drone caught my attention just as I handed Zelgor his fish.

We sat close enough for our arms to touch so we could both see the drone’s display screen. I drew in a deep breath and settled into what contentment Garglax II had to offer. We ate our fish and watched Plabz and Kvorkt chat with each other about the developments since the last broadcast.

Emily, the Texan, almost kissed a blue-scaled, alien brute. I blushed. Zelgor pretended not to notice. Charlotte, the woman unfortunate enough to survive last season only to be forced to play this season as well, survived a stampede thanks to her green, furry alien brute.

Wonder if they’re about to start boinking, too…‘Boinking’? What is this? Junior High? I’m not thinking about boinking my brute. I’m not. Mutant baby dreams. Remember, mutant, space-alien babies… Forget that really beautiful cock you saw.

I rolled over and pretended to sleep, hoping I’d fake it ‘til I really did sleep. When I finally slept, I dreamt of making mutant, space-alien babies with Zelgor all night. I woke way too hot, bothered, and wet for my own good.

I crawled out of Zelgor’s arms before I started something I really wasn’t certain I wanted to finish. We gathered our fish from the baskets, then gathered the baskets. We ate our fish for breakfast and packed the camp.

I kept myself as busy as I could so I wouldn’t give into my desire to let my eyes linger on Zelgor’s muscles. We began our day’s walk. My ass ached more at this point than it ever had after the elliptical at the gym.

Tired—and horny, though I blushed to admit so—I let my concentration slide. I saw a mushroom a few steps off the path. I angled my feet toward it, happy to find an easy dinner. A warbling call I had never before heard tantalized my ears.

“Lena! Down!”

I dove for the forest floor. I turned my head, looking for the threat. My shoulder hit the ground and I rolled through the needle-leaves blanketing the forest floor. A creature, the likes of which I had never before seen, shot past my view.

What the fuck was that?

A wide, fanged mouth snapped at the end of a long, sinuous, scaled neck. A striped body built like a panther with a long, feathered tail, gracefully landed a few feet away. The creature spun like a cat, and leapt for me. Four taloned bird feet streaked toward me.

I couldn’t breathe.

ZELGOR

An all-to-familiar monster from childhood nightmares leapt at Lena. In an instant, everything I knew of otyiks flashed through my brain. I launched myself at the creature. One of the more twisted relics of the mutations the Snaughians’ pollution of my home world had created, otyiks were the stuff of Kirtaxian horror.

The creature’s head spun, facing backwards to look at me. My shoulder slammed into its ribcage. I wrapped my arms around the its sinuous, muscular waist. I thrust my body backwards with all my heavy-worlder strength.

The otyik’s taloned feet scrambled in the air, seeking enough purchase to cushion the coming fall. I twisted at the last possible second, smashing the otyik, face-first, into the thick trunk of an ancient tree.

Flailing wildly, bloody spittle flew from it’s ruined, fanged mouth. It struck at me with sharp, curved talons. I dodged to the right and smashed the lead-lined sole of my left combat-suit boot into its neck.

I heard a crack. The monster’s body shuddered, then seemed to melt to the ground. I panted. My gut and all my senses screamed at me that the danger had yet to pass. I sank into a low crouch, scanning around me in a circle.

In Father’s stories, otyiks always hunted in packs. He said they spoke to each other with their tails, but I had always thought his stories were made up. No one has even seen one in a generation! My home planet is quarantined…

A dry, high-pitched rattle buzzed behind me. I spun my eyes toward the sound. I caught a glimpse of an otyik shaking its tail. The shafts of the feathers rubbed against each other in complicated patterns. Jaws, tipped with needle-sharp fangs, snapped. The beast crouched, preparing to pounce from a tree limb at least four feet above my head.

I grinned. Blood raced through my veins, supercharging my muscles. My senses woke and my mouth watered. I detached a knife. I heard the distinct rattle of an otyik tail behind me. I spun, swinging my knife in a low arc. I heard an outraged hiss and my knife sliced into the beast trying to creep up behind me.

The one on the tree limb leapt. I rolled to the side, out of reach. I scrambled to my feet. My eyes searched for Lena in the split second before one of the monsters leapt again. Taloned, bird-like feet aimed directly at my face.

I rolled to the side, dodging the worst of the talons. I rolled back and slammed my knife through the monster’s ribs and into an organ. The creature wheezed, struggling to draw breath as blue foam sprayed from its fanged mouth.

Lung.

I quickly sliced the doomed creature’s neck. The third one turned my way. I scrambled to set my feet in a useful combat stance fast enough for the effort to be useful. It stood over Lena, sharp-taloned, front feet raised high over her.

Truths flashed in my mind, one atop another, in the split second the sight of Lena in mortal danger took to light my brain afire. Certainty, stronger than anything I had ever felt, slammed into me.

No! No, you can’t have Lena. She is mine. You will not have her. Lena must be safe. I can’t live without her…and I don’t want to.

The otyik opened its ugly, fanged mouth at me and hissed. Lena held up an unfamiliar device. Two wires shot forth and stuck in it’s hide. Lena grinned an evil smile and squeezed her hand. I heard the distinct buzz of electricity.

It froze, muscles spasming. The buzz faded. Lena ran for cover. Stunned, the beast trembled. I lunged, already swinging a clenched fist. Surprised, the otyik tried to leap back, out of range. I shoved my fist down its throat before its feet even hit the ground.

Needle leaves cushioned my landing, crunching under my heavy boots. I crouched, heaving air into my lungs. My heart pounded a steady beat. My ears buzzed and my head spun. The edges of things looked sharper, crisper, their colors more intense.

I felt amplified. All sense of impending danger passed. I rose to my feet. I spun on my heel and dashed to check on Lena.

Let her be well. Please, any God who will listen, let Lena be safe…

She poked her head out from behind a bush. Her eyes darted this way and that. They landed on me, drawing me to her with the power of her gaze. My knees wobbled, then buckled. Her perfect eyebrows shot up her forehead. Her eyelids had opened so wide, they looked like big circles.

I gulped. I forgot to pretend I didn’t dream of her at night—to pretend I failed to notice when she wiggled in her sleep. I could not remember her giving me any hint she wished for more, so I kept the strange, overwhelming feelings to myself.

“Are there more? I’m out of tasers.”

“No, they are gone.”

Lena stood, looked at me and laughed.

“What is so funny?”

“I’m just happy we are alive. Aren’t you?”

Ask me again when I find the courage to tell you how I feel.

“Happier about it than I was yesterday.”

She nodded.

“Fair. Let’s harvest what we can carry and get out of here. Before the scavengers arrive.”

I tore my eyes from her, though I can’t remember where I found the strength. Lena dominated my thoughts. At first, I had been so angry about everything, I had behaved without thought.

I feared having anything more to lose…after I have already lost so much.

We harvested whatever Lena said we needed and washed up at the river. We returned to our trek. Lena shivered in the cold. I stripped off my coat and draped it over her shoulders. Her teeth chattered for only a few minutes more.

She turned to me and smiled.

“Thanks. It was still warm from your body heat. I feel a lot better, if you want it back…”

She began to take off my coat.

“No. No, I am fine. You keep it. For now.”

She smiled. My knees tried to wobble again. That sense in the back of my mind which liked to warn me of danger, screamed.

LENA

The meat we harvested felt heavier than I expected. I finally understood why every fitness guru said muscle weighed more than fat. With any luck, it would taste better than I feared. Without enough fans to buy us help, Zelgor and I would have to use all our wits scavenging everything we could.

I caught Zelgor’s profile at the edge of my vision. One of Garglax II’s moons sank over the dark horizon. The moon’s light shone from the contours of his face, softening the angles. His features appeared less sharp—less harsh than I remembered.

He looked…thoughtful and conflicted.

What is the root of that conflict inside of him? I see him struggle so fiercely against it… I wish I could help. We will camp soon. Camping is an icebreaker, right?

“Hey Zelgor? We ought to start thinking about where to park ourselves tonight. We are going to run out of light soon, and I’d rather not try and tangle with those griffins again.”

“Otyiks. They are called otyiks.”

“Something you’ve seen when battling on another planet?”

“You could say that.”

His dismissive, curt, sulky tone ran out my temper's fuse.

“Well fuck you, Zelgor! Just because this is the only other planet I have ever been on doesn’t mean you can talk to me like I’m an idiot. I don’t know what the fuck that otyik-franken-monster thing was, so I described it the only way I could.”

I stomped off in the direction of a nearby hill which wasn’t densely covered with trees.

That might have been a bit much…but he’s not the only one here who has a lot going on inside. We nearly died…

His hand wrapped around my arm, yanking me around to face him. Our faces not even an inch apart, I wasn’t close enough to bite him. I also wasn’t far enough from him to spit my rage at him. I felt irritated before, but now I was spitting mad.

How dare he lay his hands on me?

His face looked just as furious as mine. I struggled. I pushed him far enough away to give him a swift kick in the shin. That didn’t work, so I began to swear up a storm, the likes would make a fleet of sailors applaud.

His grasp loosened and his expression softened. I thought it was a trick of the light or the adrenaline wearing off from nearly dying by a franken monster attack.

Then, to my outrage, Zelgor began to chuckle.

“Lena, stop.”

His voice melted my heart like a chocolate bar. He pulled me close and tucked my head under his chin, his free arm wrapping around my back, holding me close.

I desperately wanted to resist the sense of comfort and peace he offered. I also wanted to jump his bones.

Damn my human weaknesses. I can’t decide if I still want to kick him in the balls or give in and be held. He is so warm, and I have been cold for so long. Just this once. It’ll be fine if it’s just this once.

“Otyik are from my home planet. I don’t know how they got here. My home planet was quarantined…after the Snaughians destroyed it. I didn’t even know they still existed.”

I understood then why he had been brooding. He had probably just killed the only other living things from his home planet—to save my life, and here I was, acting like a foolish child who’d been told they couldn’t have a cookie. I felt ashamed of my selfish behavior.

“Zelgor, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I really don’t know anything about any of this and I’m so tired of not knowing and, and… Thank you for saving my life. I had no idea what that cost you. Saving my life…”

I looked into his eyes and saw him. Without thinking, I kissed him. I lingered, and his mouth softened. He returned my kiss as I sighed against him.

How can a simple kiss leave me wanting so much more?

His eyes smoldered. His desire and his muscled body felt warm against my breasts. His hand gently pressed against the small of my back. I pressed my hips against him. tempting him, and watched his control slip away.

Good. I want him just as hungry as I am.

I hadn’t finished my thought when his mouth claimed mine. His hand clasped my ass and pulled me closer. I wrapped my legs around his waist and pressed my throbbing pussy against his hardness.

His groan was the most arousing sound I ever heard. His mouth kissed and nipped at the sensitive places on my neck and throat. Little shocks of pleasure streaked through me. He explored every inch of exposed flesh he could reach, ravaging my body with his hands and mouth.

Yes. More.

He put my back against a smooth-barked tree, rubbing his cock against my soaking wet folds. His moan made me go faster, rub against him just a little harder.

My whole body felt as taut as strings on a fiddle about to pop. He cupped a breast with his hand and ran his thumb over the sensitive nipple. I forgot to breathe. I dug my nails into his back and let my need for him take over.

Zelgor breathed hard. In the twilight, sweat glistened the hard contours of his muscular body.

We’re just getting started, Buddy. I want more.

“Lena.”

“Mmm hmm… Zelgor,”

“I need– I just have to– Would you want me to...”

His throaty voice made my pussy drip even more.

“More Zelgor. I want more. I need more.”

He growled. He kissed me. His hands slipped under my blouse. He caressed my breasts, stomach, waist... He found and released the fastenings of my pants. I let them fall to the ground.

“Don’t stop, Zelgor.”

“Lena...”

“Don’t stop...”

His fingers brushed against the wetness between my legs. He found the heat building inside of me. The tip of his cock teased my slit as he lifted first one and then my other leg over his forearm.

Oh, but he wasn’t done tempting me. He knelt on the ground, slid my legs up onto his shoulders, and began to devour my dripping wet cunt. I cried out in need and pleasure, trying to wriggle myself onto his gorgeous cock.

“Not yet Lena. Not yet.”

His tongue and lips danced between my silky slick folds. He took his time experimenting with pressure, tempo, and stroke, until I was delirious with ecstasy. He slid a finger inside me, fingertip curved and stroking upward, while his mouth worked. Higher and higher he took me, until I was nothing but pleasure and sensation. His growls told me he relished every moment.

“Zelgor!”

He stood and let my legs slide to his waist. I felt the heat of his cock pressing against me.

“Zelgor I need you!”

His mouth sealed my cry as he slid all the way into me, filling me to my limit, stretching my walls tight around him. I cried with pleasure, slamming my hips against him, loving the fullness of him, wanting more.

“Lena.”

“Don’t stop, Zelgor.”

He pulled out and slowly slid back into me. I cried out for more. Again, and I pushed down with my hips. I wanted all of him buried in me over and over.

I could feel his cock throbbing inside me. Each stroke made him harder, wilder. He went deeper, stretched me tighter.

Faster now, he slammed deep into me. Unable to hold on another moment, I came, creaming all over him.

Another orgasm rocked through me, pumping against his swollen cock. He grunted and his cock convulsed, shooting his hot cum deep inside me.

I don’t know how long the afterglow lasted, but I was certain everything had changed.

ZELGOR

The golden, morning sunlight warmed my face. I yawned and stretched, filling my lungs with fragrant morning air. I listened to the rustling of the forest around us.

Starships are so different.

They smelled sterile and always hummed–even when one was alone, byproducts of the machinery which made up the ship itself.

Odd noises erupted from Lena, interrupting my thoughts. She nestled against my body, in a deep, restful sleep. Morning light made her skin glow.

Have I ever seen a more beautiful sight?

More of the little noises emanated from her. I nudged her.

“Lena.”

She made more noises, but none of them indicated a conscious reply. I said her name a bit louder.

“Lena.”

Nothing.

Afraid she had taken ill, I shook her shoulder, hoping to wake her, but careful not to damage her delicate body. She rolled onto her side, cuddled against me, and wiggled her backside. I nearly choked.

She released a long sigh. I got the distinct impression she had made herself quite comfortable. Desire flashed through me. My cock swelled, hard as steel.

We will never leave this planet if she keeps this up.

“Lena!”

She made a strange, gibberish noise.

At least that noise sounded much healthier than the one which interrupted my train of thought.

She rubbed her face with the heel of her hand. She turned her head to face me. Her hair stuck out at wild angles.

Have I ever even woken up early enough to watch her wake? How can anything be so endearing?

First one eyelid, then the other, opened. She looked at me, as if she saw me for the first time, face full of innocence and wonder. When she grinned, the urge to protect her flooded through me.

Mine.

Her irresistible, saucy, sweet laughter enchanted me. She kissed me on the chin.

“Good morning Zelgor. I see you’ve already prepared our morning feast and are ready to start the day.”

“I have done nothing of the sort and I—”

The amused glint in her eye told me she had meant to taunt me. I shook my head.

“Do Humans often annoy each other while courting?”

“Courting? Did you say courting?!” She batted her eyelashes at me exaggeratedly and feigned a strange accent.

“Why kind sir, how lovely of you to come a-courting. I fear we shall have to marry, now that my reputation has been tarnished forever by the likes of you.”

She dissolved into a fit of laughter at her own joke.

“I have the feeling I’m missing a lot of context here.”

“I’m sorry, Zelgor. I forget you still don’t grasp sarcasm very well, but Humans haven’t used the word ‘courting’ in a very long time. It’s old fashioned on Earth.”

“If the sounds you made this morning are an indication, it’s noisy business. Do the noises get louder as the union between mates solidifies?”

Her face turned bright red.

“What noises?”

“The ones you made this morning. They were strange and I thought you might be ill, so I tried to wake you.”

“Wait a minute. Are you telling me I snored?!”

“If that is what it is called, then yes. You snore.”

She gasped. She responded as if outraged, though I sensed no danger.

“I have never snored in my entire life, and even if I did, it’s probably because I’m allergic to something here. Maybe even you.”

She stuck out her lower lip. I gulped.

How can she wield such power? Or control me with merely a look?

It was the most adorable thing I ever witnessed. I decided to see if I could use her sarcasm against her.

“You make a very good point. I suppose that, as long as the sounds you make while sleeping are not as loud as the ones you make while I pleasure you, you must be otherwise healthy. Right?”

Her eyes went wide. She turned red. I enjoyed her scandalized reaction far more than I expected. For a moment, I forgot about the fire inside. I grinned. Her eyes widened. I watched realization wash over her face.

She realized I had been taunting her. She chuckled and wagged a playful finger at me.

“Just watch yourself, Mister. You might be a fast learner, but I have years of practice.”

She wriggled her bottom against me before rolling out of my reach.

“My, my. Looks like we best get moving before you get any feistier. You already nearly killed me last night, Human. Now where are my pants?”

She bent over to pick up the backpack with our meat, giving me a glorious view of her unclothed bottom.

Today is going to be a very long day.

We picked up the belongings we had so abruptly strewn about the night before and walked along the riverbank. The air smelled different here than where the trees had been so dense. The air smelled softer and less medicinal.

Along our path, Lena pointed out various details of the flora and how to determine if something was edible. There were so many rules, my head spun. She rattled off a list, ticking the points off on her fingers.

“If leaves of three, let it be. No waxy leaves are ever to be touched. No fruit from star shaped flowers, no white, green or yellow berries, nothing with a white, viscous coating…”

“Are all these plants from your world?”

Lena shook her head.

“No, Zelgor. Some, I recognize. Others, I don’t. These are just the rules I know from Earth. It’s all I have to work with.”

“I understand that.” Working with the rules I knew. That was all I had, too.

Lena tried to describe the scent of something called onions. Apparently, that scent meant a plant was probably safe to eat. We made a sort of game of it and, by the end, I had a decent grasp on what to look for—beyond mushrooms, space weasels, space bunnies, mushrooms and more snails.

“You really are a fast learner, Zelgor. I might start to think you like being on good, ol’, solid ground.”

“I don’t know if that is accurate, or if it’s because I’m very hungry. I don’t think I can keep killing otyiks every time we need food.”

“Zelgor, did you just make a joke?”

She gasped and put her hand over her mouth as if scandalized. I feared I had offended her somehow, until she smiled at me. Something inside me danced.

“Perhaps I did. I am also very hungry.”

She laughed and skipped ahead to inspect a bush along the riverbank.

I watched and wondered if this was how my parents had felt about each other—before the Snaughians came—before surviving became more important than the dreams of long life and family traditions.

I hoped this was how that felt and that my parents knew I finally understood how it felt. If I was going to adventure with anyone, why not a most contrary Human female who snored like a cantankerous power converter?

LENA

Well now, if this just hasn’t this just been the most interesting and confusing of days? If Zelgor keeps this up, I might actually start to really like him outside our bed.

That thought stopped me dead.

OUR BED?! Holy shit- when the fuck did that happen? Oh yeah, last night.

Erotic flashes of our little encounter zipped through my mind.

Get your mind out of the gutter and back on finding food, or neither of you have the energy for another go. That was a damned fine gutter to be in, though.

I heard a noise and turned to see a very determined Zelgor examining yet another plant. He mumbled to himself. I crept closer to hear.

“Waxy leaves, green berries. No. Red berries and three leaves. No.”

The man is persistent, I’ll give him that.

More flashes of our raunchy escapade raced through my mind like white-hot lightning. My inner demons warred with my better intentions.

I need to get a grip, or I’m doomed. -Get a grip on that cock, you mean.

Focus, woman. We need food! We’re hungry! Shut up already!

It is a really nice cock though. Damned right.

I sighed, thankful Zelgor couldn’t hear me argue with myself.

I would never be able to explain arguing with myself. Or arguing with myself and losing.

I noticed the depth of silence ringing in my ears. I turned my head. Zelgor stared at me like an oversized, alien cub scout trying to earn his first merit badge. It was nice to see him exploring nature, instead of shunning it. I smiled at him, and he smiled back.

We walked along the river, talking about nothing and everything. He pointed out what he found, and I would tell him whether it might be safe to eat. We both knew I was basing all of my advice on what I knew about foraging on Earth, but it was the best guess we had. It was also the most fun we had had together.

By the time we were done, we’d found some long leaves we could use for weaving, a decent bundle of microgreens, a few more mushrooms, and what looked like space pears. Zelgor had been especially excited about the microgreens because he finally got to see what an onion smelled like.

“Well if you are that excited, then it’s your turn to cook dinner!”

“I don’t know how to cook, Lena! What if it turns to poison or makes you sick?”

“Then I guess it’s lucky you have a patient supervisor.”

“I am a CAPTAIN. I don’t have a supervisor.”

“If you’re hungry, you do. Just for the night.”

He looked half excited, and half terrified by the time we made camp. This time, I built and banked the fire while he washed our wild produce. I weaved mats for our food and realized he’d been paying attention to how I cleaned and cut the mushrooms and meat.

WHEN IT CAME time to work with the microgreens and space pear, he was at a loss.

“Zelgor, haven’t you ever had a salad before?”

“Salad?”

“Yes. Salad. A mix of vegetables, sometimes fruits all on a bed of green leafiness. Sometimes we even have dressings.”

“You clothe your vegetables?”

I remembered a dad joke about knocking on the fridge door in case a salad was dressing and laughed.

“No, Zelgor. Salad dressing is like a sauce, but it’s cold and you put on vegetables in your salad to accentuate their flavors and textures.”

“Cold vegetable sauce does not sound appealing.”

“You might not be a vinaigrette guy, but if we ever get off this planet, I bet you’d love ome ranch dressing.”

He stared at the greens, even more lost now. I walked over with the mats I had made and knelt next to him. I took his hands and guided him in shredding the greens and dicing the pear into small pieces before putting them on our woven plates. With a piece of flame-roasted otyik and mushrooms, our dinner was a true feast.

“Zelgor, this really is the best dinner I have had in a very long time! You have a real talent for grilling!”

He beamed with pride.

Guess my cub scout just earned his merit badge.

We had been enjoying our meal until a drone lit up on the other side of the fire. I could see Plabz and Kvorkt’s ugly, green mugs on the screen.

“Well, well, well folks, looks like Captain No Fans has got himself domesticated today, Kvorkt.”

“Yes, it is, Plabz. Yes, it is. Could our least-ever-liked male competitor have some redeeming talents hidden underneath his scowl?”

“It certainly looks that way and what an upset for season 34’s underdogs! Good thing he’s finally discovered something useful to do, Kvorkt. Zelgor and Lena will need all of that tomorrow, when Team No Fans faces their first challenge!”

Hot fury burned in Zelgor’s face. He roared in anger. In a flash, he jumped over the fire and punched his arm straight through the drone. Another appeared from the darkness further away.

“Would you look at that Plabz? Looks like Captain No Fans has a lot of energy to spare, now that he’s eaten his first gourmet organic dinner.”

“Indeed, Kvorkt. If health is wealth, Captain No Fans better save it tonight because he is going to spend it all tomorrow!”

Something hit the drone and created a dark spot on the screen between the two ugliest faces from hell.

“Whoa there! Looks like First Mate No Fans wants in on the action, Plabz.”

“Did you just call her First Mate, Kvorkt? Because that’s what last night looked like to me, too!”

Video of our romp the night before played on the screen. It was humiliating to realize that the whole fucking galaxy had watched us share our most vulnerable and intimate moment.

For entertainment.

Ugh.

“Don’t be so upset First Mate No Fans. If you both survive tomorrow’s challenge, maybe you will get to be Second Mate, too!”

The two, dweeby, little monsters' faces faded from the screen, and the drone flew off into the darkness, leaving the two of us absorbed in our feelings. The ease and comfort we had enjoyed all day had just been murdered on live, galactic TV.

I wanted to cry, scream, break something–especially the necks of those two, green freaks.

Zelgor walked to the riverbank and threw his arms wide. He roared so loud, the trees shook.

I wanted to comfort him, but I had no idea how. I could barely contain my own embarrassment. I felt like I had been robbed, cheated of the only peace I had known on this planet.

I couldn’t even bring myself to sleep next to him, afraid I would humiliate us both again. It wouldn’t have mattered if I had wanted to. He still growled and paced as I fell asleep.

ZELGOR

Veils of a dream of teetering on the edge of a cliff fell away from me in ethereal wisps. My mind rose through cloudy layers of consciousness. I drifted up to the boundary between the dream and wakefulness.

Longing for another Galactic Standard hour of oblivion in a dream somewhere other than the edge of my recent, dream cliff, I passed through the veil and opened my eyes. My body missed Lena’s warmth in my arms.

I rose, propping myself on my elbows. I scanned the camp. Lena sat by the fire, staring out, into the distance. Mist rose from the ground with the sun, blanketing the forest in damp silence.

I dressed and rose. I kissed Lena on the cheek before dashing behind a fog-blurred bush to relieve myself. I washed up at the river and returned to the warm dome of fire-glow surrounding Lena’s stone stove.

“Good morning, Lena.”

“Good morning, Zelgor.”

She handed me warm food in a woven-reed holder. I accepted it gratefully. I now knew the effort each meal required. I slurped down the mushroom and space-bunny stew. Before I had the opportunity to fully awaken, drones flew in.

Plabz and Kvorkt’s misshapen, lumpy, green faces smiled condescendingly from the drone’s display screen. Their sheer…Snaughian-ness offended me on a basic level. The heartbreak of an entire species bloomed in my chest.

One day I vow to rip off your horrible grins. Laugh while you can, you vicious, little, space vermin.

“Welcome back to Intergalactic Love Death Match, season 34. Kvorkt, today we join Team No Fans at their first Challenge.”

“Haha! Yes, we do, Plabz, yes, we do. Lena, Zelgor, follow the drone.”

We stood and followed the drone to the edge of the riverbank. Plabz’ toothy, smarmy grin awaited us from the drone’s display screen, when we caught up to the device.

“Listen up, Team No Fans, do you see the flashing light on the other side of the river?”

I nodded and pointed.

“We can see it, though it is hazy in this fog.”

“That’s great news! You have thirty minutes to retrieve the code located across the river before it burns to ash.”

“I’m so excited, Plabz—”

Lena looked stunned.

“But…how are we supposed to get across that so fast? I could never make it in time…”

I scanned the fog.

“I see boulders. I will go. I can leap far on this planet. What does the code get us, you morally-bankrupt piles of oytik shit?”

The Snaughians laughed.

“Now, that’s the kind of fight we like to see, Kvorkt! Keep it up, Team No Fans Captain. Maybe you can change it to Team One fan!”

Kvorkt laughed so hard at Plabz’ joke, he looked like he would die any second. I had never wished as hard for a life form to find a bitter end as I wished someone would smash Kvorkt in the face with a pipe right at that moment.

Drones flew a large trailer in a cage through the air toward us. It landed nearby. A keypad flashed from the cage door, begging for a password. My gaze darted between the trailer and the light flashing in the fog on the other side of the river.

“And, their time starts…now! Wish them luck, Kvorkt. They’re going to need all the help they can get…”

With not another moment to think, I smiled at Lena.

“Excuse me for a moment. I’ll be back.”

I bounded to the top of the first boulder without a moment’s more hesitation.

There is not that far to go. There seem to be plenty of boulders across the river…

I leapt to a second boulder, then a third. Confidence bolstered my leaps. I grew bolder and bolder with my jumps. I landed on a patch of uneven terrain. My foot slid. I caught myself on a pointed, rock outcrop and scrambled back to the top of the boulder.

This rock feels very strange for stone…even a river stone…

My instincts screamed alarm. The rock on which I carefully balanced trembled. I leapt to the next rock as quickly as I could spring away. What I had been standing upon turned and was most definitely not a boulder.

I scrambled up to the top of the next boulder, knowing I needed to get across this river as quickly as possible. The creature upon which I had recently stood opened three-foot-long, tooth-studded jaws and hissed at me.

The thing Lena had called a space crocodile rushed up the boulder I climbed in one, explosive charge. Through the frantic splashing and scrambling of my booted feet, I reached the top and leapt to the next boulder.

I hope it’s a boulder…

The space crocodile’s jaws snapped at my heels as it mounted the previous boulder’s summit, yet I already flew through the air to the next. Fairly certain I landed on actual stone, and not another space crocodile, I glanced back.

The space crocodile hissed at me, then emanated waves of vocalizations which resonated so deeply, I felt them rather than heard them. My danger sense pushed me to jump further and faster. The thought of the space crocodile calling in its friends pushed me to move faster than I ever had before.

I leapt again, nearing the river’s opposite bank. A new space crocodile surged up from the waters below me. Mid-leap, I twisted, drawing in my limbs and arching the core of my body just out of reach of the space crocodile’s jaws.

The massive beast fell back into the haze-shrouded water between the boulders. I landed on a boulder long enough to draw in a deep breath then leapt across to shore. Deep in my gut, I knew I was not, yet, safe. I bounded over to the code, snatched it from the pedestal and jumped twenty feet up a tree.

Chest heaving, heart pounding, instincts on high, I glanced down. A space crocodile snapped its jaws three feet below the branch on which I crouched. The pedestal from which I had snatched the code erupted in flames less than a foot from the space crocodile’s tail.

The beast twisted on itself with a roar and snapped at the flames. Chasing me forgotten, and entirely disturbed by the flaming podium, the space crocodile slithered back into the river.

LENA

Knee-quaking fear shot through my body with each snap of that space crocodile’s jaws. My heart pounded in my ears. I clamped both hands around my mouth, lest I cry out. I rode a rollercoaster of gut-wrenching fear and joyful exhilaration.

Seeing Zelgor leap through the air like he had grasshopper legs filled my chest with pride and joy. His physical grace snatched my breath from my lungs. Watching the space crocodiles nearly catch his foot, leaping rush after rush...nearly drove me to a heart attack.

Jump, Zelgor! Jump!

Zelgor bounded from the river, grabbed the code, and jumped up a tree. One of those space crocodile things tried to chase him, but the podium caught fire and the beast slid back into the river.

I hope none of those come over this way…

I scanned the area, saw a likely bush, and crouched behind it.

Just in case.

I watched the river. The sun rose. Rays of light burned away the lingering fog. Seconds ticked by. Seconds ran together into minutes. I grew more bored and restless with each moment.

I really thought he made it—

Zelgor dropped from the tree. He grabbed a broken branch and lit the end in the podium’s flames. He approached the riverbank with observant caution. The morning fog having lifted, I appreciated the size of the boulders across the river.

As intimidating as Zelgor could be, he leapt back across the river with as much grace as power. This time, he easily avoided the predators lurking in the river below. He bounded onto the riverbank and stopped to catch his breath.

I burst from the bushes and ran to him. I leapt at the last minute, wrapping my arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around my legs. I squeezed his head.

“That was so scary! You were so magnificent! Watching you move is one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen!”

Zelgor’s tense body seemed to melt just a little.

“BI wab fi—bour boobsh are shuffocating—”

I leaned back and looked at his face.

“What?”

“I was fine and your boobs were suffocating me.”

“Oh, sorry about that—”

“Make no mistake, Lena. That is exactly how I want to die…”

I giggled. I traced a finger down the side of his face.

“Too bad you’re not allowed to die.”

“Yet. I’m sure there will come many days you wish to kill me. At least my mother thought so. She did frequently say ‘don’t make me kill you today’.”

I laughed. I pressed my forehead to his and closed my eyes. I took a small moment to wallow in the comfort of Zelgor’s living, uninjured arms.

“For some reason, I believe you. Let’s see what we’ve won. Maybe it will be a shower or something. You don’t know what I would do right now for a hot shower.”

Zelgor placed me on my feet. I heard reluctance to part in his wistful sigh. We walked over to the caged contraption. Zelgor zipped open a pocket on his combat suit and pulled out a small, glowing crystal.

“Is that the code?”

Zelgor nodded. He placed it into a depression on the cage’s lock. Several points on the cage whirred. The drones lifted the cage into the air and flew it away. A brochure tied to one of the trailer’s many knobs fluttered in the wind.

I untied the brochure and read it aloud.

“Congratulations on your new Multi-Tool Mini Factory, from ColonyMaster. Complete with exclusive CleverPursue™ technology, fully compatible with SurvivalCorp’s exclusive SmartFollow™ technology. This is pretty cool. It says it can follow you anywhere.”

“Convenient, how they print those brochures in our native languages.”

I turned a page, absorbed in the trailer’s features.

“It really is, Zelgor.”

Zelgor explored the menu on the trailer’s console while I opened the brochure.

“This is pretty cool. It comes fully stocked, but you can feed it raw materials, too. Oh, Zelgor! This is perfect! We can make a pot and some canteens…It even produces and stores up to ten gallons of potable water!”

I stopped for a moment. Tears welled in my eyes. I looked up, trying to hold them in. Relief flooded me.

Potable water. We may live, after all.

“Lena, I think we can make rope from the reeds. I could make one long enough to tie across the river…”

“Really? That’s great. That much rope will be really heavy, though.”

Zelgor grinned. He puffed out his chest.

“Good thing Kirtax are strong. We just have to feed the trailer enough fibrous plant matter.”

I hooked my thumb towards the river.

“Good thing there is a lot of reedy stuff in the marsh. Just need to avoid those giant space crocs.”

“Luckily, I sense danger before it arrives.”

“Precognitive danger sense? You know, that explains a lot about how you move in a fight. You always look one step ahead, like you knew the next move was coming.”

“More like, I can see the least dangerous response and go with that.”

“That’s incredible, Zelgor. I wish I could do that.”

Zelgor looked happy enough to burst.

“Do all Kirtax have this ability?”

“No. After the Snaughians polluted Kirtax, we began to mutate. Some of us developed senses like this. Others developed other mutations.”

That thundercloud of brooding floated back to his brow. I changed the subject.

“Well, let’s start this rope, then.”

Zelgor nodded. He pressed a series of commands and the trailer whirred to life. I stepped over and added a Dutch oven and a sauce pot to the production queue, and we began feeding random bits of things into the machine.

I cleaned out my purse, dumping every single scrap of what I had believed to be junk, before surviving off of it, into the trailer. Zelgor fed it the various claws, spines, and bones he had collected along the way.

When the machine indicated the need for more material for the rope, we fed it armful after armful of reeds from the riverbank. Then I stopped in my tracks. I turned to Zelgor.

“I can just ride on top of the trailer while it follows you across the river.”

“Then what do we do with all this rope?”

Several entirely inappropriate responses chased each other through my head.

“Tie all our supplies to the trailer. We have made just about enough for that. And let’s get to it. The space crocs have drifted off and I want to get across before dark so I can use those new pots.”

ZELGOR

Lena made a much larger mushroom and space weasel stew. I had no idea what any of these animals were named, so I called them what Lena called them. Even if I had never seen an Earth crocodile, I believed Lena that the two creatures must look similar. I trusted her.

When did my thoughts get so deep? I thought only rage filled me. When did that change?

We camped in a nice spot south of where we had crossed earlier that morning. Lena made bowls and utensils with the mini factory. She chuckled with such delight at all the things she could make, her joy soothed my soul.

We watched the broadcast, and the replay of our day’s adventure together and slept in a tent Lena made from reeds, tree rosin, and some of the rope. I curled my exhausted body around her and drifted off into dreams of futures with her.

I woke, longing for the wisps of those perfect dreams to remain when my eyelids rose. When I opened my eyes, the sweet and passionate moments of my dreams faded, and Lena’s perfect face remained. We rose and ate, put out our fire, and strapped our supplies to the trailer.

Lena engaged the mini factory’s CleverPursue. We set off much lighter than the day before. Without the heavy pack on my back, I hunted as we walked.

I wish I had a blaster…or, at the very least, a ranged hunting weapon…

“Hey, Zelgor. Would you be interested in a bow and arrow? They aren’t the easiest weapon to master, but I think we will soon have the supplies to make one. I mean, I know they are primitive…”

“I was just thinking something very similar. We don’t have the parts for a blaster. I looked it up on the menu. I have no idea where we could get supplies for that, so a bow sounds like a great idea.”

Lena stopped walking. I halted and turned back to her. She held her arms out, opened wide.

“Pick me up and hug me.”

“What?”

“Just do it, Zelgor.”

I gulped.

Sex in the middle of the day in the middle of a forest with drones flying around must be a Human thing…

I gripped her about the waist and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around my torso, though they couldn’t make it all the way around. She slid her arms around my neck and leaned close to my ear.

My cock stiffened. My heart pounded. Her heady, Human smell enveloped my nose. My head spun and the world looked bright and dream-like. She whispered the barest of whispers into my ear.

“Find an excuse to take out the broadcast drone each night and we will feed it to the mini factory. I’m certain you will get enough raw materials from them to make an energy weapon.”

“You are the most brilliant, devious being I have ever met.”

She giggled in my ear.

“Good thing I’m on your side.”

She demanded I set her down and I loosened my grip. She slid down my body to the ground—directly over my rock-hard cock. She grinned, far more smugly than my sense of danger appreciated, and…winked.

She turned and strolled upriver. The mini factory followed her, leaving me behind. I walked with great care ‘til my erection subsided.

Forget all the things I said before…Lena is in charge.

My pride rebelled, but my cock wanted to chase her down. I pushed the debate aside and caught up.

Something to think about later. When I can’t avoid doing so a moment longer.

We spent the remainder of the day strolling along the riverbank, feeding the mini factory. As the sun began to set, the mini factory completed the bow and arrow. Lena showed me how to use it and I took the time to learn to use it.

We camped and ate and watched the broadcast. Lena adjusted the mini factory’s production queue and we prepared for the night. On the excuse I wished to hunt while the night animals seemed most active, I disappeared into the trees.

I crouched behind a bush, certain I had escaped the detection of any of the drones, strung my bow, and waited. Lena walked over to the river to wash up. A drone flew in to record her undressing.

I knocked an arrow and drew it back to my cheek. The drone levitated close, making the shot easy enough for any novice. I released a breath as I released the bowstring. An arrow sped into the night. I heard a metallic thunk and the drone fell to the forest’s floor.

I chuckled and gathered up the broken, sparking pieces of electronics and fed them to the mini factory. I checked the recipes listed under the Energy Weapons menu.

I only need three more drones and I’ll have a real surprise for the Snaughians when I get out of here.

Lena returned from the river. She seemed to glow. My breath caught in my chest. She held up a space-weasel-fur bag.

“I convinced the mini factory to create soap from a few of the aquatic plants and some ash from the fire. And, it turns out, space weasel fur is hydrophobic! That means it repels water. So, now we have a water-proof bag, too.”

“Perhaps I will try it.”

I took the bag and bathed in the river. I felt refreshed and relaxed. Lena took my hand and led me to a blanket stretched out by the fire. She took my face in her hands and kissed me. We made love, slow and sweet long into the night.

We passed the next day much the same way. We traveled South along the path of the river, feeding random items into the mini factory. Lena stopped to pick some berries. I thought they were for a snack, but she poured them into the mini factory, too.

That night, we slept on pillows dyed the same purple hue as the berries. The next day passed much like the previous two, except for the landscape. The needle-leaved trees thinned, replaced by broad-leafed giants.

The air warmed and Lena stowed my coat. Neither of us would need it in this weather. When we camped that night, I dreamt of futures with Lena.

I wonder what she wants in the future. I will have to ask her tomorrow.

LENA

I woke in Zelgor’s arms, a content smile forcing itself upon my face. I fought it for a moment before giving in. I crawled out of Zelgor’s arms and banked the coals still burning in the fire pit from last night’s fire. I gathered up my water-proof toiletries bag, stuffed full of every bath-related thing I could justify using resources to make, and walked to the river.

I must have acclimated to the colder climate of the Northern Forest, because I didn’t even shiver in this river’s waters while I bathed. Having gone without for so long, I luxuriated in the familiar bathing ritual.

Not that I bathe in rivers on a regular basis. Not that I used to…I suppose, for the duration of this game, I do bathe in rivers regularly. Here’s to new traditions!

I bobbed under the water to rinse my hair. I swished my fingers through the long tresses. The river’s current rinsed the shampoo, carrying it downstream.

I swam a few laps to ease my travel-weary joints. They had grown stiff and painful since we had arrived—and food had been so scarce. Since Zelgor began hunting, the aches of slow starvation had eased.

Placing my feet with great care, I climbed out of the river. I wrung the water out of my hair and dried myself with a towel the mini factory created from some type of cane-like plant I fed it last night.

I wrapped the towel around me, slipped on my shoes—

I can make new shoes! Rubber comes from trees…fresh, soft, socks…

I gathered the rest of my worn clothes, contemplating how I could program new clothes into the mini-factory, and returned to camp. I manufactured a griddle and placed it on the fire. A few minutes later, I added some space-weasel fat.

The fat hissed, simmering across the griddle. I cracked some eggs I found yesterday on the trail onto the griddle’s sizzling surface. I flipped them over with a spatula I manufactured from some of the pre-stocked metal and a sturdy branch.

I heard the shuffle of sleepy feet behind me. Zelgor grunted a good morning and disappeared into the woods. When he returned a few minutes later, I handed him a plate topped with a fried egg.

I convinced the mini factory to create a pair of trousers. They looked a lot like basic hospital scrubs, but they were clean. I also convinced it to create a simple tunic and cloak.

Now I’m ready for the renaissance faire.

Clean and dressed, I returned to the fire and ate my egg. I daydreamed of coffee for a second.

If I’m wishing for things I don’t have, let’s start with a toilet.

We packed camp and continued our trek. Watching the trailer navigate around the trees amused me for a good hour. Then the trees thinned. Soon, the trees gave way to rocky terrain blanketed in low, scratchy brambles and bush.

An hour later, the scraggly brush gave way to hard, scrubby grasses. I tried to feed the mini-factory bits of everything I came across. I fed it rocks and sand, stones and whole bushes. Zelgor fed it the trimmings and leftovers from lunch and bones we happened by.

We found the skull of a massive, deer-like creature. With Zelgor’s help, and the reach of his giant arms, we tied the skull to the trailer. The antlers spread twelve-feet wide. Amused, I turned and scanned the horizon.

Zelgor joined me. His eyes glanced down. The features of his face had grown softer since we met.

“What do you see?”

“We’ve moved further South than I expected is all. Central Mountain lays further East.”

I pointed toward the spire jutting into the sky behind a ridge of mountains along the Eastern Horizon. Zelgor scanned the terrain to our left.

“I would like to get away from the river for a while. Every time we camp so close to the river, I worry one of those space crocodiles will crawl up the bank and visit us.”

I shivered.

“Now that we have a way to store clean drinking water, and don’t have to spend so much time boiling and filtering it, we can afford to range further. Let’s follow those mountains East of us. Maybe we can find a cave, or something.”

Zelgor nodded.

“And who knows what the mini factory can make with what we can find over there…”

I grinned.

“So, we’ve agreed on a plan, then?”

Zelgor returned my smile.

“Looks like I can cooperate. When I try. Even a stubborn Kirtax can learn new things.”

I laughed. I waved at him ‘til he bent over. I grabbed his face in my hands, and kissed him. I refused to stop ‘til his knees wobbled.

“Maybe we’ll find one of those things. I bet they taste good.”

I pointed at the skull tied to the trailer.

“I can practice with my bow.”

We maintained a steady pace over the rocky ground. We fed random nuggets of rock, stones, crystals, and everything else which caught our eye, into the factory. I looked forward to discovering what the mini factory would soon be able to make.

What can’t I make? If I can make all the pieces for, say, a bathroom, then I could have a bathroom. I want a bathroom. With a shower. And a mattress. But I don’t want the mattress in the bathroom. So I need a bedroom, too.

“This whole thing might have been fun, if there just wasn’t the constant threat of dying, and the abducted-against-my-will thing. And if there was a bathroom, bedroom, and shower. Refrigeration is always nice.”

Zelgor blinked.

“I, uh… I have made my peace with our situation, as well, Lena. And, yes, I also would appreciate some sort of cold food storage.”

“Before this, when I thought I wanted to design cities, I had the wild notion that I needed to go back to basics to understand the difference between what people really needed to live and the things they thought they needed.”

Zelgor laughed.

“My priorities have certainly shifted during our adventures.”

I chuckled. I reached out and slipped my hand in his. We strolled through the forest, hand in hand. We lost ourselves to the easy sense of companionship. When we walked into a field, strewn with large boulders, Zelgor leapt over them, carrying me in his arms.

We found a cave just before nightfall and set up camp. We curled up to eat dinner and watched the broadcast. I snuggled into Zelgor’s meaty arms while Plabz and Kvorkt played a series of clips of a blue-scaled, brute of an alien dismounting a giant deer-thing and falling to the ground…from six angles.

Zelgor and I laughed at the poor fellow’s harmless misfortune. I imagined I knew how he felt, suffering for his adjustment to life on the Intergalatic Love Death Match. Emily, the Texan’s, cool-as-a-cucumber reaction only made me laugh harder.

Zelgor and I fell asleep in each other’s arms.

ZELGOR

I floated in a dream of Lena. Her perfect laugh surrounded me, enveloping me. My dream had woven a body from my rage, trapping my mind inside the construct. Lena stood outside my prison, a vaguely Human-shaped glow. I could almost make out the words she spoke, but the raging inferno of my anger kept getting in my way.

The flames of my own rage lapped at my feet, threatening to engulf me. I glared at the embodiment of my rage threatening to consume that which it had not already eaten away. I looked more closely at the weave of anger.

I could see it was made of tightly woven strands of pain, fear, and hurt. The weave throbbed, stinging my soul. The moment my rage would fully consume me loomed.

I don’t want to go.

Dream me reached out to glowing, dream Lena.

Don’t let me go, Lena…

My eyes snapped open. I felt a heavy cloud of impending danger approaching our cave. I leaned my mouth close to Lena’s ear. I whispered low, nudging her with a hand. Her eyes opened. Her body grew still.

“Lena. Lena. Wake up. Get your knife…”

Lena rose into a low crouch. I pulled on my combat suit and detached the knives, then rolled into a crouch, as well. Lena glanced at me. I pointed toward the cave entrance.

“What is it?”

I shook my head.

“Don’t know, yet. Find some cover.”

I melted back against the cave wall while Lena crept into a shadow. The fire had burned low in the night, leaving only dim, glowing coals. A large shape stepped into view at the cave’s entrance. The massive, hulking shape loomed, dark against the starry twilight.

I felt the creature’s low, deep growl reverberate through my core. I set myself to spring at it. It sniffed, head weaving back and forth. Sparks of light glinted off the creature’s eyes. I counted six eyes in a long row across the front and sides of its skull.

Ok, that thing can probably see in a 360-degree field of vision…possibly with depth perception, too. That thing will spot me as soon as I move.

The creature stepped into the cave, bending nearly double to enter the cave’s mouth. It stood taller than even I. The creature crept close to the remains of the fire and poked the ashes with a finger the size of a Sataxian sausage.

The creature must have hit a hot coal because it jerked back with a roar. It sniffed at the bedding. Big hands, on long arms, poked at our supplies. One of the creature’s shoulders nudged the pans hanging from the travel-pack framework Lena had made when we first arrived.

The pots and pans clanged against each other. Startled, the creature swung an arm and spun to face the cacophonous din. It grabbed the swinging sauté pan and brought it to his mouth, biting down.

Don’t break that! I’m just learning to use it…I like that sauté pan! Lena made it…

The creature removed the pan from its mouth. It examined the now twisted and bent tool with all six of its eyes, then roared at the pan and tossed it across the cave. My heart pounded.

Everything seemed to slow as my battle instincts roused. Everything I saw looked sharper and more precise. The creature’s pungent, musty smell slapped my nose. My mouth watered. My body tensed.

The creature turned away from me. It sniffed in Lena’s direction. It shuffled a step forward, following the scent. I leapt from my hiding place. I slammed a shoulder into the beast with the full force of my Kirtaxian power.

My muscles and bones—far stronger than any Galactic-Standard-grav species could ever evolve—gripped the far larger monster. I heard its small bones crunch under the force of my might. The creature bellowed. It twisted in my arms, punching at me.

I leaned away from its punches, gripping the thick hair of its shaggy hide in a fist. The other hand stabbed my combat knife into the beast’s body. I stabbed as rapidly as I could, hoping to hit a lung.

The beast snapped its body back and forth in violent jerks. One of its jerking movements caught me between thrusts, flinging me against a thick stalagmite reaching up from the cave floor.

I oofed on impact. My body slid to the floor. I kept my eyes on the creature as I scrambled to my feet. I could see the whites of its six eyes and knew the creature was beyond thinking.

Now, it reacts by sheer instinct and panic.

I hoped it would leave, having taken injury, but the creature roared instead and set its feet for an attack. I set my feet to meet the beast’s impending charge. The thrill of combat sang in my veins. I felt alive.

To my horror, Lena dashed in at the beast’s back.

Lena, no! It is too dangerous! Don’t risk yourself. Humans are so delicate…

A knife manufactured from one of the otyik spines flashed in one of her hands. She dashed past the monster’s legs, slashing low as she passed. The monster spun to follow her, but fell to the side, crashing into the remains of the fire.

The creature kicked, roaring. I looked at its legs where Lena had cut. She had severed the beast’s thick tendon!

It can’t walk…but those claws are still dangerous.

Mindless rage making all the monster’s decisions at this point, it struck a long arm at Lena.

“No!”

I leapt at the downed beast. My body slammed into it, head-first. The beast bellowed. I heard something crunch in its chest. It flung an arm wildly. The arm slammed into me, knocking me across the cave.

The beast pushed itself to its hands and knees. Bloody foam dripped from the corner of its wide mouth. It huffed, breath catching.

Lung damage. We may have a chance now.

It threw itself at Lena, arms wide. I gasped. The strongest sense of danger I had ever felt split my heart in my chest.

I have only ever felt danger for myself, before…yet I feel that same sense of danger for Lena, too—only, so much stronger than ever before. It takes my breath away.

Without another thought for my own safety, I charged the beast.

You will not harm her. I will not let you, beast. I will never let you hurt…my mate.

LENA

A gigantic, six-eyed, shaggy, brown, yeti-thing lunged for me. Terror shot through my gut. My legs trembled. My heart raced. Even though I slashed through at least one of the beast’s Achilles’ tendons at the back of one of its ankles, the thing still moved faster than I ever wanted it to move.

I never wanted to fight you. I wish neither of us had to die, but, if you are going to make me choose which of us lives, I choose me. Me and Zelgor.

I dashed in, sliding under the beast’s outstretched hands. I drew the knife behind me and sunk it into the beast’s inner thigh.

Here’s hoping I hit the femoral artery—or whatever it’s called in this creature. Basic anatomy of a bipedal animal has to follow a similar pattern, right? Ok, stop panic-thinking, and get out of the way…

I tried to leap to the side, but the beast caught my arm in a bone-cracking grip. I cried out. I felt my bones strain. Pain radiated up my arm. I felt my bone approach the breaking point. The creature’s grip loosened. It shook its head, as if confused. It looked around and stumbled like the first drunk guy at a party.

Zelgor appeared, as if from nowhere, and slammed one of his combat knives up, into the beast’s jaw. The beast’s body relaxed. Its hand slid off my arm, limp. The creature crashed to the cave floor.

I dove out of the way just in time to avoid becoming a Lena pancake. I rolled over onto my back, stretched out, and focused on breathing.

“Lena! Lena! Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. I’m just recovering. That was far more excitement than I had planned to wake up to. I’m not even dressed. I just need to breathe.”

Suddenly, Zelgor knelt beside me. I giggled at the worry on his face.

Oh, look, he forgot to brood. He is so handsome when he forgets to brood.

“Why did you jump out there? That creature, whatever it was, was so dangerous! I could have taken care of it—”

“I had a good opening to help, and I have no doubt you could take care of it by yourself. What’s so wrong with taking care of it together? This way, neither of us got too hurt.”

“What about your arm?”

I shrugged. Dull pain radiated from the tissues, but the joint moved fine.

“Just a big bruise. I’ve gotten worse picking fights in Kindergarten.”

“What’s Kindergarten?”

“School for small children.”

“Oh, a creche. Yes, small Kirtaxians are vicious, as well.”

I cradled my bruised arm against my boobs and offered Zelgor my other hand.

“Help me up?”

“Certainly.”

He took my hand and helped me pull myself from the floor. I carefully stepped around the beast. We stared at it for a few minutes.

“We should really start moving, Zelgor. This much blood will have the scavengers here any minute. Scavengers can smell blood for miles.”

I heard the familiar sound of drones. I walked out of the cave, Zelgor following. We watched the drones deposit a new trailer in the clearing just outside.

That thing’s the size of a decent RV…

The trailer landed and the drones flew away. Zelgor watched them go, then took the brochure dangling from the trailer’s door handle.

“Congratulations on your new Deluxe Edition Camp Base Station survival trailer by SurvivalCorp. Complete with exclusive SmartFollow™ technology. Simply set your camp trailer’s SmartFollow™ setting to the ‘ON’ position…”

“Ooh! This is cool! What are the features?”

I opened the trailer’s door and looked inside.

“Looks like a bed, shower…a galley…it’s basically like a cabin on a starship…”

Zelgor followed me and I saw the bathroom door and froze, hands over my mouth. Tears welled in my eyes.

“Lena, what’s wrong?”

“I can shower properly.”

“Yes, we have a sanitation area now. But shouldn’t we move camp first? The scavengers…?”

“Yes! Yes, of course. Let’s skin that monster, first. I’m hoping the factory can make me a nice rug. Central Mountain looks cold. Besides, predator meat might not be the tastiest, but I hate to pass up easy food supplies.”

“Our new Deluxe trailer has cold storage, too.”

I squealed in delight and flung my arms around Zelgor’s neck.

“Looks like we have some fans.”

“And I appreciate each and every soul who helped send us this.”

I packed camp while Zelgor skinned the beast. He shoved the hide into the mini factory and carved off a few chunks of monster to shove into cold storage. I set the mini factory to follow the Deluxe trailer and joined Zelgor at the front. As quickly as we could, we returned to the trail.

We travelled a few miles before we stopped. Delighted with our new trailer, I disengaged the SmartFollow, set the trailers to Park, and dashed into my new bathroom. I tossed my clothes in a wash cycle, then turned to the shower.

A glass door with just enough warping to obscure any detail more than a person’s shape filled one wall. I waved my hand over a blinking switch. The glass panel retracted. Big enough for six full-grown Humans, or Zelgor and I with room to move, the shower sparkled.

I reached in and engaged the shower. Perfect, steaming, hot water flowed from everywhere. I squealed in delight and stepped in. I waved my hand at the door and it slid closed behind me.

“Ahhhh…”

All those TV home renovators I used to watch would shit themselves for this.

“Lena? How is the shower?”

“I just got in. There’s enough room for two.”

Silence answered me.

“Zelgor?”

“Lena?”

“Are you anti-shower?”

“No…I just…wasn’t certain how you meant that offer…”

I waved my hand in front of the door. The glass slid away. Naked, wet, and dripping I smiled at Zelgor.

“You are thinking too much. For once, just be honest. Do. You. Want. To. Join. Me?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

“See how easy that is?”

ZELGOR

Lena stood before me in the doorway of the shower, wet, naked… My cock knew immediately how it wanted to respond, but my mind froze for a second. Lena’s perfection hit me like a missile, a bomb, the slap of a Hrlax giant…

I gulped and stripped.

“Stick your outfit in the wash cycle.”

“Bless our fans! This combat suit was getting—”

“Rank. It’s rank, ok? Like, you leave it in the yard and spray it down with a hose, hoping it will eventually get better kind of rank.”

“You Humans have such colorful ways of describing things.”

I stuffed my suit in the wash and stepped into the shower. I towered over Lena. She stepped back into the water, and I followed. She explored the dispenser on the wall, ordering different substances to try out.

She found one she seemed pleased with and started rubbing it on my chest. It lathered and smelled like flowers, and I cared not at all for any of those details. I could only think of the feel of her hands on my skin.

My heart pounded. No matter how much I resisted, my cock refused to listen to my brain.

How does she so easily turn me into…goo? Do I really care? As long as we are together, no, no I don’t care. Nearly losing her to that monster…rattled me to my bones. I can’t survive this game without her, but this feeling…this is more than just needing her to survive and win.

I gulped. The depth of how fundamentally Lena had changed my life, my perspective, rang through my soul. My mind calmed. My fury subsided. The rage I had so carefully tended all these years into an inferno calmed. The fires of desire replaced my rage.

I cupped her face in my hand and gazed into her eyes. I felt like I fell into their depths, as if I shed my body and floated in the infinity I found with her—with Lena. I realized her hands had stopped moving. They laid on my chest.

I might not have had the words to speak out loud how I felt, but I put every scrap of appreciation and desire into my face. I wanted her to know, even if I could not, yet, speak the words. I watched whatever walls Lena had erected between her and the rest of the world crumble.

She drew in a jagged gasp. I must have gotten lost in her sudden, breathtaking vulnerability because she pressed her body against mine before I even realized she had moved.

“Zelgor?”

“Yes, Lena?”

“Kiss me.”

“I would be a fool to ignore such a request.”

“So, don’t be a fool.”

I leaned down, slow and soft, as if afraid a quick movement would break the enchantment between us. Lena’s eyelids slowly closed. Our lips met. The power of Lena’s kiss streaked through me, awakening every nerve.

She released a gentle moan. My cock twitched at the deeply personal sound.

I love her moans… I love each and every one of her little expressions of pleasure.

Her heady smell enveloped me, even in the shower. I growled low. My eyes glazed and my head spun. Her lips parted. Our tongues sought each other out, meeting, touching, tasting each other over and over again.

The world around us faded. I wrapped my arms around Lena’s waist and lifted her so I could stand upright and still kiss her. Lena wrapped her legs around my torso. She leaned back, breaking our kiss.

I panted, looking at her. She smiled the most delicious smile I had ever seen. She looked like she wanted to devour me and I was ready.

“Let’s break in that bed. Dry off first, though. Wet bedding is the opposite of sexy. Well…let’s go with the theory that we shouldn’t start with a wet bed…”

I chuckled. She had such a delightful way of seeing the world. Lena turned off the shower and grabbed a towel. I couldn’t remember if I was actually clean, but toweling each other off was nearly as much fun as rubbing soap all over each other’s bodies.

“And, after?”

“Oh, after…Kinda think we must not have done a very good job, if the bed isn’t wet after.”

“Logical—”

Lena kissed me again and I forgot how to speak. We arrived at the bed. I tried to put Lena down so I could sit. She refused to let go of me and dragged me down atop her. The world around us faded.

I crawled back, breaking our kiss, determined to taste her sweet nectar. I kissed a trail from her neck down her chest, between her breast, and over her stomach. I stroked my fingers through her dripping folds.

Lena moaned, lifting her hips up. I dove in, nuzzling my mouth into her perfect pussy, letting her smell intoxicate me. I worked a finger into her, while lapping at her swollen clit. I searched her inner tunnel with my fingers ‘til I found her G-spot.

Lena screamed. I licked, suckled on her clit, and pounded her G-spot with my fingers. With one, last, primal scream, Lena came. Her orgasmic juices flooded her face. I tried to lap up every drop of the sweet nectar, but Lena had other ideas.

She whimpered and moaned. Her hands grabbed at me, insistent. She mumbled little pleas.

“Zelgor, please… I need you…”

I shuddered. Never had I heard more beautiful, or timely, words.

“Oh, Lena… I need you, too.”

“Please…”

I pushed myself up to my knees. I gripped her perfect legs in my big hands and pulled her tight against my rock-hard cock. Her hips bucked against me. I knocked the head of my cock at her entrance.

I drew in a deep breath, preparing myself to enter her. She bucked, sliding over my cock, engulfing me, before I could even complete my breath. Pleasure shot through my entire existence. Lena rocked her body onto me, over and over, working me all the way inside.

I felt my hard cock stretch her tight walls. She moved with greater and greater urgency. I met her with every thrust. Lena cried out. Her body convulsed. Her eyes rolled back. She looked so beautiful, lost in her pleasure, that I could hold myself back no longer.

I came, filling her with hot come. I roared with my release. Lena cried out again. I watched ecstasy dawn across her face like a rising sun.

LENA

I woke on a perfect mattress, relaxed, refreshed, and delightfully sore after last night. Life felt almost normal. Here I was, surrounded by walls, in a real bed, with a real kitchen, dining table, a small lounge, and a bathroom.

Were a giant brute of a striped alien not snoring in my bed, I might have convinced myself Garglax II and Intergalactic Love Death Match were just a dream. Had my time here been a dream, I would have kicked myself for creating Plabz and Kvorkt.

I got up and shuffled to the bathroom. I got myself ready for the day and explored every cabinet and storage area for unexpected loot.

If only this didn’t feel like one of those video games Chelsea used to play in High School, where you break and loot everything. I wonder how Chelsea is doing. I bet she’s not on an alien planet. I wonder what she would think, if she could see me now.

I realized I had forgotten to dress. I hated clothes, to be honest, and rarely wore them in my efficiency apartment back on Earth.

Are Zelgor and I at the walking-around-the-house-naked stage? More importantly, is this actually a real relationship? Why not? He’s an alien, for one. And, it’s not like we were matched through some app or introduced by friends. We are literally just a couple of people thrown together.

I found some frozen dinners in the freezer. I pulled two out and examined them, trying to parse through the enthusiastic sales copy printed all over the packets.

Tasty!

Fabulous!

But they missed one important detail… Safe for human consumption?

Reluctant to dress, I put on my clothes anyway. I might detest clothing, but I certainly did not want any more naked shots of me broadcast across the galaxy. I grabbed one of the new knives we had manufactured from oytik spines and slipped out of the trailer. I shouted into the air.

“Plabz? Kvorkt? I have questions!”

A drone buzzed from seemingly nowhere. It stopped in front of me. The display screen blinked to life. Plabz and Kvorkt’s lumpy, green, goblinesque faces smiled.

“Good morning, Lena. You look refreshed. Doesn’t she, Kvorkt.”

“Yes, she does, Plabz, yes, she does. Considering how much your new Deluxe Edition Camp Base Station survival trailer rocked last night, Zelgor must be quite the ride! This taunt has been brought to you by Survival Corp. SurvivalCorp, you might survive without us, but why bother?”

“Haha, Kvorkt. That’s an interesting new SurvivalCorp motto.”

“True, Plabz, true, but I think they have a point. From what I’ve seen this season, SurvivalCorp and ColonyMaster products have made all the difference.”

“That they have, Kvorkt—”

“Back to my question, please? Or do you want to spend the entire morning plugging SurvivalCorp and ColonyMaster? Don’t get me wrong, the Deluxe Camp Base is amazing and I thoroughly appreciate it.”

“Do you, Lena? Tell us all about your new SurvivalCorp Base Camp…”

“I, Lena, competitor on season 34 of Intergalactic Love Death Match, whole-heartedly endorse SurvivalCorp’s Deluxe Camp Base trailer. The sex was great. You should get one. Even if you don’t need to survive, get one just to have sex in one. Once-in-a-lifetime experience. Now, let’s get back to my question. Is all the food that came with the trailer safe for both Zelgor and I to consume?”

After another fifteen minutes of Plabz and Kvorkt torturing me with ridiculous interview questions, they finally answered my question.

“You could have just said ‘yes’ to begin with.”

Before Plabz or Kvorkt could respond, I whipped the knife from behind my back and stabbed the drone through Plabz’s lumpy face. The screen cracked and blanked and the drone sparked. I caught it with my off hand as it fell and I fed it into the mini factory.

Zelgor woke. We ate and packed, though there was so much less to do, now that we had the Deluxe Base. We returned to our journey far more quickly that morning than any previous morning.

I felt good, maybe even a little giddy. Last night with Zelgor was…different than with any Human I had ever boinked before.

Maybe it’s more than boinking, Lena… No. Nononono. This is nothing more than a tryst with an alien because... Because why? Why is that all it is? Because this relationship looks nothing like any I’ve seen before? Because, at the end of this, there’s no 2.5 kids, dog, or white, picket fence?

I giggled at the thought of trying to live the generic life with Zelgor.

Every day would be an adventure with Zelgor back on Earth.

Merely thinking about Zelgor trying to navigate the DMV and getting a driver's license forced tears of mirth from my eyes.

Zelgor at the bank. Zelgor at a museum… Zelgor goes to the zoo…

“What is so funny? Are you ill? Did you find berries we shouldn’t eat? Are you suffering from an allergic reaction or are you having a medical episode?”

“Stop, stop, you’re only making me laugh harder. No, I’m fine. I was just thinking about what life would be like for you on my home planet. The mere concept of big aliens trying to deal with Earth really tickles my sense of humor.”

Zelgor halted, scanning the landscape.

“I’m certain I would fare just fine among your people. You are all very small and squishy, comparatively. Listen, I think we should cross the mountains here. That pass looks nice. I’m hoping this will bring us closer to Central Mountain.”

“Sounds good to me. If I get tired of climbing through all that terrain, I can always go nap in the trailer while you walk.”

Zelgor’s face lit in excitement.

“We could cover a lot of ground that way, Lena. I would walk much further at my full speed.”

“I can’t express how grateful I am that you are comfortable with the idea. That will make a lot of things run more smoothly. We won’t have to make a fire at night. I can slip into the trailer and cook. We’re a lot safer at night. No more monsters creeping up on us while we sleep...”

Zelgor looked at me with such intense longing I had no idea how to respond.

I…think he must really enjoy the thought of domesticity… Turns out, I really like that about him.

ZELGOR

We followed the path through the mountains. We camped in a cave near the other side of the mountain pass. I tried to be good that night, but neither of us really wanted to resist each other. We made love long into the early hours, falling asleep in each other’s arms.

I woke to the smell of breakfast. The shaggy yeti-thing turned out to be delicious. Lena fried long, thin strips I cut from it with the oytik-spine knife.

If we manage to get out of here, I’m taking this knife with me. Not only is it really cool looking, it has the most amazing edge.

“Good morning, Zelgor.”

“Good morning, Lena.”

The simple, domestic bliss of the morning greeting pleased me far more than I expected. I ate, showered, and began washing dishes.

“Wow. I didn’t expect to see that.”

“See what?”

“A man washing dishes.”

“I don’t understand. We ate. We dirtied dishes. We have to clean them before we can put them up or use them again. I have time. I don’t understand why I wouldn’t wash dishes.”

Lena blinked at me. I couldn’t fathom why this was such a profound experience for her. Washing dishes was simply a practical task anyone could do.

“I agree, Zelgor. I think this is one of those Human things. No point in explaining, though.”

I shrugged and finished up my chore. We set off in record time that morning.

“I love this Deluxe Camp Base trailer, Lena.”

“I hope SurvivalCorp hears that. Maybe they will send us something else.”

“ColonyMaster must be jealous.”

“Not jealous enough, if they don’t send us things to try, too.”

I laughed.

“Lena, you may be one of the most devious people I’ve ever met.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

I smiled. We turned South and left the mountain pass behind. We followed along the bank of an entirely new river. I wondered, for a moment, if the rivers had names. Then I realized I didn’t care. Growing attached to Garglax II felt like a risky bet.

“Let’s feed the factory more reeds while we’re here, Zelgor. The mini factory claims it needs more to complete that rug.”

“Did you have a plan for it, yet?”

“I was thinking it would look great in the sitting area.”

“Will it fit? It’s huge…”

“It will when I’m done with it. It’s so big, I thought I’d make a cloak out of the parts which won’t fit in the trailer. That way you can get your coat back. I’d make more complicated clothing, but the factory isn’t really designed for that.”

“We could ask the fans for sewing supplies.”

“You’re a seamstress in your spare time, Zelgor?”

“Uh…no. I just thought, since you said you would make better clothes…”

Lena laughed.

“I don’t know the first thing about making clothes. All I know is, the mini factory wasn’t designed for the intricacies of clothing manufacture.”

I smiled.

“Who knows, Lena. Perhaps we will get lucky. Though, I must admit, you look amazing in your current outfit.”

Lena winked at me.

“You’re only saying that because it’s true.”

I laughed again.

Have I ever laughed this often? Sober?

I called a halt as the sun approached the horizon and the light began to fade. We camped. Lena surprised me with a couple of folding, camp chairs she convinced the mini factory to construct.

“I made you a Zelgor-sized chair. For when we watch the broadcast. I don’t like the idea of letting a drone in the house.”

I sat.

“It’s perfect. I never even thought of this.”

“Well, they are common at parties on my home world. And I was missing partying. And beer. And coffee. Among other things. I suppose, I was a little homesick.”

“Homesick? Is that contagious?”

Lena laughed.

“Sort of. It means I miss the world I knew. Even if there are things here I…really enjoy, I miss the familiar.”

“Ah, yes. I miss The Snaughians’ Bane. I suppose I miss my home planet, too. Though I never lived on it.”

“I imagine your people must have kept it alive in stories.”

A deep grief settled upon me.

“Yes. Very much so.”

“I can only imagine what it must have been like for you, the child of a heartbroken people.”

Lena’s words cut me to the soul. When I spoke, I barely whispered.

“Yes. Every adult, everyone who had fled our planet and survived…they had this look on their faces—of sadness. No matter how wonderful anything else should have been, seeing their agony day after day…”

“That must have been so hard. Your entire reality must have been overshadowed by your people’s loss.”

I nodded. I dared not trust myself to respond. I felt so close to my grief I feared I would snap and break right there.

I am not ready to face the profound enormity of emotions looming in those memories.

We fell into a heavy silence. We watched the broadcast, but memories refused to let me pay attention. After the broadcast, I retreated, putting myself to bed.

I woke to the smell of sizzling meat and the sound of Lena singing. Her voice soothed my bruised spirit. I got myself ready for the day and joined her at the table. She sat across from me, staring at me, a thoughtful expression on her face.

“Zelgor, I have a suggestion. I believe it will help you, but I want you to listen before you respond.”

“I’m listening…”

“Your home world is gone. Your people grieve without end. On Earth, we have funerals for the dead. They are a way to say goodbye, to take a moment to appreciate that which was lost. Usually, we have funerals for people who have died, but I think your loss is big enough for a formal ritual to help. People need rituals for these things. Is there a ritual your people observe which would be appropriate?”

The concept ran around my head like a wild farkle.

“I…I need time to consider my answer. Many feelings...war inside of me and I think I need some time to sort them out.”

“That’s fair. Let me know when you decide?”

I nodded.

“I can do that.”

Lena nodded and we continued with our day. I thought about Lena’s proposed funeral for the remainder of the day, through camping that evening, and well into the early hours of the night while Lena slept in my arms.

LENA

Zelgor slept in later than usual. He had tossed and turned most of last night. I understood. He had a lot on his mind, between his people’s grief and adjusting to life stuck on this planet. Having to fight the oytiks couldn’t have helped Zelgor’s internal struggles.

He slept through breakfast. Deciding to give him a morning off, I packed camp, and began the day’s walk. The travel might have been quieter, and lonelier, but I had come to terms with solitude a long time ago.

Thinking, planning, and designing structures in my mind had always kept me entertained before, so I imagined the structures I could build here, on Garglax II. Nearing midday, Zelgor shouted from the Deluxe trailer’s open door.

I halted and turned the SmartFollow off.

“Good morning, Zelgor.”

“I am very confused…”

“Seemed like you had a rough night. I let you sleep in. Never had good experiences with tired men.”

“I am much less confused. Good morning, Lena.”

“Did you eat, yet?”

“No. I looked for you first.”

My tummy fluttered.

Butterflies? For real? Wait…I’m falling in love with a hot alien who treats me pretty good, now that he pulled his head out of his ass. Can I…let myself buy into this? Can I let myself…enjoy…what? Catching feelings? Falling for Zelgor?

“Well, I could use some lunch. Let’s see what we can make.”

He smiled and opened the door wide. I smiled and danced up the steps and into his arms.

Fuck the repercussions. After everything I’ve been through lately, is a little happiness really too much to ask for?

We ate and talked, voices low and calm. Fed and in good spirits, we returned to the trail.

“Want to tell me about last night? If you are so bothered you slept that badly, maybe talking about it can help. Maybe it’s a Human thing, but I always feel better about my worries after talking to someone who listens.”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about my people. I… The funeral is a good idea, but it created a conflict inside of me I hadn’t expected. I…think taking the time to mourn my people’s loss would bring me relief…but…”

Zelgor gulped.

Hesitating a little, I ventured a guess at the problem. “But you feel guilty even contemplating giving up your portion of that grief when so many of your people still suffer?”

Zelgor’s jaw dropped.

“Do you read minds?”

I chuckled.

“Not that I know of. But there is a thing called survivor’s guilt. People frequently feel guilty for surviving traumatic events when others like them couldn’t.”

“How do I deal with that? I couldn’t find a path out of that.”

I slid my hand in his. I must have surprised him. His head snapped around to look at me. I smiled. He returned a small, bittersweet smile and squeezed my hand in return.

“Do you think any of your lost people would want those few who remain among the living to hate themselves for living? Do you think they would want you to suffer forever until your pain ate you alive from the inside and left you a hollow shell of a Kirtax?”

He looked like I had stabbed him. He gulped.

“I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

I shrugged.

“Sometimes survival is the best you can hope for.”

“Like now, with us, on this reality survival show?”

“I mean, I see some overlap between the two. For example, and I certainly hope what I’m about to suggest doesn’t come to be true… What if we are the only couple to survive? Do we hate ourselves for it, after we win?”

“You really know how to make a point.”

“My mom watched a lot of Dr. Phil.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I wouldn’t even know where to begin explaining. Let’s say, I was exposed to a lot of advice from a lot of people. Some of that advice I found useful, so I hoped it might help you, too.”

Zelgor fell into a thoughtful silence. We walked between the mountain range we crossed earlier and the new river whose name I had yet to discover. We camped when the light faded. Emotionally and physically exhausted, we fell asleep soon after that evening’s broadcast, cradled in each other’s arms.

The next day, after we woke and returned to the trail, Zelgor looked lighter than the day before. Grim, but lighter. He took my hand, stopped me, and gazed into my eyes.

“I think I’m ready.”

“For?”

“To…to mourn.”

I nodded. Zelgor took the lead. We stood at the edge of the riverbank, staring out, into the water. I made sure to throw in a few rocks to assure myself that nothing lurked under the surface. When nothing jumped out of the water trying to kill us, Zelgor drew in a deep breath.

He opened his mouth and sang. The rich baritone of his voice rolled over me. Though he sang words the translator didn’t even know, I felt their power. I held his hand and listened to the ancient Kirtaxian music of grief, mourning, and sorrow so profound I knew I witnessed something sacred.

Zelgor’s song ended in notes of hope, renewal, and compassion. I stood with him until he turned from the river. We returned to our journey in silence, though the quality of Zelgor’s silence had changed.

He seemed to walk taller.

With all of my heart, I hope he finds some vestige of peace after all of this. Some people have suffered enough.

We strolled back to the trailer.

“I think I need a snack. Would you like something to eat?”

Zelgor nodded. I reached for the latch to open the trailer door. A massive boom in the distance rattled the trailer’s windows. A deep rumble passed through the ground under our feet.

“What the fuck was that?”

Zelgor shook his head, trying to look every direction at once.

“Some sort of explosion? Earthquake?”

“I lived in California. That wasn’t an earthquake.”

“Either way, it came from the direction of the mountain.”

“Oooh, please let that mountain not be an active volcano…”

Zelgor looked up at the looming spire in the distance.

“I don’t see ash or lava.”

“Ok, let’s get back on the trail. I am officially over this planet.”

We returned to our journey. Night fell and we camped. Zelgor chuckled at the broadcast, and I relaxed.

Good. He’s healing. Humor has returned.

Zelgor slept like the dead that night. I dreamt of Zelgor brewing me coffee. Naked. Surrounded by werewolves playing tetherball. I woke, wondering what the hell that dream meant and felt off the rest of the day.

Some people enjoy werewolves. I was never one of them. We talked more. I told Zelgor stories of Earth, though trying to explain Human cultures challenged me and the translator. We camped with the setting sun, settled in our new, intergalactic domesticity.

ZELGOR

I woke with the dawn. Waking with the sun seemed so much easier today than the days which came before. I had never slept on a planet before Garglax II. Living on starships my entire life, I had grown accustomed to carefully regimented day-night cycles based on my lost home world.

Or maybe I am simply lighter today than yesterday, having grieved. Today does seem…easier. Waking seems less of a burden. Is this not the first time I had something to wake to other than rage and vengeance? Some…one…

I glanced at Lena, still slumbering. I drew a deep breath, content.

Have I ever felt contentment before?

Lena stirred. We smiled at each other while her sleepy eyes woke. She stretched and groaned. Her smile turned a little devious. She laid a quick kiss upon my lips then ran to the bathroom.

We started our day—well, I tried to start my day, but every time my eyes met Lena’s, I forgot whatever task I had set myself. Lena seemed charmed with my intermittent stupor, or I assumed so, based on the way she snickered every time I drifted off.

For a moment, I seriously considered taking offense. I certainly was not accustomed to being laughed at, having captained a starship, but I just could not bring myself to feel anger at her joy.

We returned to our journey, ever forward, toward Central Mountain and, hopefully, our freedom. I remained thoughtful, appreciating the beauty of life around me.

Is this falling in love? Feeling intoxicated with another person, down to the last detail? Does this fade? Do I ever want it to fade?

Her expressions of joy filled my spirit like nothing I had ever experienced before. Where I had believed only rage lived inside of me, her joy bloomed. I felt so many new things, and so intensely, my belly tried to flop.

What does this mean? What do I even do? I wanted off this rock. I want—wanted the shared memory of my home world. My people built our entire existence around our shared tragedy.

I stopped, drawing in a ragged breath.

Everything I know of myself is fashioned from our shared sorrow. That is why. I understand. That is why we must grieve. So we can walk forward and live.

I felt her hand on my arm. I opened my eyes, saw Lena, and smiled, bittersweet and honest. Her eyes gazed into mine. Reeds swayed in the gentle breeze which tossed the ends of her hair.

“I realized something. I understa—”

A tentacle the width of a transport shuttle whipped out of the lake next to us. It grabbed a large, horned herbivore from a herd drinking in the lake.

“Fuck that!”

Lena ran. I chased her. The trailer followed.

“Lena, get in the trailer so I can run.”

“I’m not stopping.”

“Jump. I will catch you!”

“Catch!”

Lena leapt. I caught her by the waist and swung her to my back. She clung to me and I ran with all my might. I bounded into the air with each leap. Exhilaration coursed through my limbs. My heart pounded blood through my veins. My lungs drew in great breaths and my muscles pumped as hard as I could make them.

I ran until Lena tapped the top of my head. I slowed.

“I think we outran it fifteen minutes ago.”

“That is from my home world, too! That planet is quarantined for good reason! I hope you’re recording this, you Snaughians! Slàr are the reason no one should ever go there again!”

I breathed deep, as if, with my spontaneous words, I had finally spoken for my people. Even if only in a small way, I knew I had spoken to the galaxy.

If I must be here, at least I can say something the galaxy should hear. Someone must stop the Snaughians. Someone must speak up.

I turned to Lena.

“We are finding a way out of here, Lena. One way, or another.”

“Deal.”

We returned to our journey. So many new thoughts and feelings had hit me that day, Lena and I spent the remainder of the daylight talking about them. I felt odd, but freer, at the same time.

Maybe I didn’t really know what freedom felt like. Why would I? I had spent my life in a cage of misery.

My brain tired and we camped. I set up my folding chair and built a fire. I sat and stared into the flames, putting away all the little, broken pieces of the Kirtax I had been this morning.

I have changed. Though I am uncertain who I have become, I know I cannot return to who I was. I will have to discover who I am now.

Lena brought me food. I ate and went directly to our bed. I slept, grateful for the peace of slumber. I woke the next morning feeling a little more whole. Lena and I said our good mornings. Lena punctuated hers with a quick kiss, and we began our day.

I practiced my bow along the trail as little of the shaggy monster’s meat remained in cold storage. My confidence with the bow grew every day and the mini factory kept me supplied with arrows. I took down three space weasels and four space bunnies before midday.

I… I want to spend my life with Lena.

“Lena?”

“Zelgor?”

“What do you want to do…if we win?”

“When we win. I’ve thought a lot about that. At first, I thought I wanted to return to Earth.”

“And now?”

“Now… I don’t know what I want to do, but I don’t think I can go back and pretend none of this happened. No one back home would believe me. They would think I had lost my mind.”

“So, you’re saying that your options are open?”

Lena laughed.

“Yeah. That’s one way to put it. Why do you ask?”

“I… I think I still want to return to my people, but not to pursue vengeance. I want to help them. I want to find a world where we can resettle.”

I gulped and spoke very quickly.

“I… Lena, come with me.”

LENA

“Come with me.”

“Like, you want to show me something nearby or ‘come with me to my people’?”

The world around us slowed. Zelgor gazed into my eyes. The intensity of his gaze pulled me in. I gulped, heart racing. I felt suspended on the brink of falling off a cliff.

Do I want to fall?

I forgot to breathe.

What do I want?

“I haven’t thought this far ahead, Zelgor. I don’t know what will happen in five minutes, much less if we will even make it to the Altar of Freedom.”

“When we leave this planet, I want you with me, Lena.”

“If.”

“When.”

“I can’t even think straight when you look at me that way, Zelgor. I need time to think.”

A grin spread across Zelgor’s face. He looked so calm, so sure, so…confident.

“Take all the time you need. Of course you will come to see I am a superior mate.”

“We’re just…still slaves in this game. How can anyone make promises of what will happen after we get there, if we even get there…”

“I fully understand. I spent much time thinking lately. I know what I want. I want to be with you. I will wait.”

Wow. Breathe.

I blinked and sucked in a breath. Zelgor chuckled. He turned and strolled down the trail. My feet followed him, though my mind spun. We passed the remainder of the day in thoughtful silence. We camped and ate and watched the broadcast by the light of a fire. The night grew chillier as we approached Central Mountain.

I searched my heart and soul for a good reason to convince myself that Zelgor and I could never really be together-together. I found none. Wrapped in Zelgor’s arms, I fell asleep to a single thought.

Is being with Zelgor really the worst idea? Forget what people would think. People aren’t here. Zelgor and I are here. Do I really want to let go?

After a night of dreams handcuffing myself to Zelgor. When I woke, I decided my mind must have made itself up. My belly fluttered.

Why even try to lie to myself? I’m in love with a striped, alien, Captain. He’s hot, he’s good to me—once he stopped being a jerk…but I have been a bit of a jerk, too, and he had really good reasons for his jerky behavior.

We breakfasted and returned to the trail. We walked in thoughtful silence, hand in hand. I darted a few glances at Zelgor. He looked as smug as I felt when I teased him earlier.

“Lena?”

“Yes?”

“I have seen enough death and sorrow in my lifetime. I want to find a way to get us all out of here. Perhaps we can work together. From what I have seen of the other couples over the broadcasts, they seem nice.”

“I agree. I think I have part of a plan, too. But I need to think about it more.”

“I look forward to hearing your plan. You have been very clever so far and you know much more about actually living on planets than I do.”

“You can be my first minion.”

Zelgor chuckled.

“I dedicate my might to your cause, Lena. If you ever have need of me.”

I slapped his arm. He chuckled harder.

“Stop saying things like that, Zelgor, or I’ll stop this trailer here and jump you right now.”

“How is this prospect a deterrent?”

“Because we will never get to that damn mountain looming over there if we spend our entire day shaking the trailer.”

“You have a point, but only because I want our freedom as much as I want to throw you over my shoulder and carry you into the trailer.”

I blushed and laughed.

“You’re so tall, I’d hit the top of the door frame. It may be a Zelgor-sized door, but you only clear it by an inch.”

“I am an exceptional example of Kirtaxian superiority.”

A deep, satisfying laugh rumbled up from my core.

“Oh, Zelgor. Whatever will I do with you?”

“Love me.”

My breath froze in my chest.

I think I already do.

I smiled. The words rested there, in my mind, in my heart— I feared unleashing them now. I feared that, once they began to tumble out, they would never end. My head spun. I couldn’t quite catch a breath.

I want to be with him, but…what if I take this step, now, and lose him? If I commit, and don’t survive, will it break him? He is more delicate right now than he realizes. His entire concept of life is changing as he heals and grows…would my loss break him? He obviously feels things so deeply.

I can’t hurt him. I can’t bear even the thought.

I knew I must decide to choose such a profound risk or run. I couldn’t decide which would hurt worse—for both of us.

Do I let either of us take the step? To commit to risking our hearts?

The light faded behind the mountain range on our right, casting us in shadow. The trees cleared and soon we came to another river. On the other side, lay the tail end of another mountain range. Beyond that, Central Mountain jutted into the sky.

Birds flocked through the fluffy clouds, swirling about in spiraling feats of acrobatic dexterity. They moved together as one entity. We camped far enough from the water to avoid anything resembling a Slàr, started a fire, and ate.

We sat in our chairs near the fire’s comforting crackles and watched the broadcast. Not even Plabz and Kvorkt’s green, goblin faces penetrated my profound reverie.

“IS she going to say ‘yes’, Kvorkt?”

“Let’s poll the audience, Plabz. That’s right, vote now! Will she say ‘yes’ and choose to stay with Zelgor? Or will she reject him and break his heart all over again, just as she has put it back together?”

“That is the question, Kvorkt.”

“See, this is a pivotal vote, Plabz. Pivotal! Not only will the audience be able to tell us what they think Lena should choose, but they will also vote on a second issue.”

“And what is the second issue? Tell us! Don’t keep us in suspense. I might die right here.”

“Each team will vote amongst themselves to determine which gift Lena and Zelgor will receive.”

“Wow, Kvorkt. I’m floored—”

Zelgor jumped to his feet. He shook his fist in the air, face a mask of rage. His intense ferocity startled me. My hands flew to my mouth. I could barely breathe. He bellowed at the broadcast drone.

“That is her choice and a sacred choice to make. You have destroyed my people, my home world, and you would turn Lena’s love into a game. You should be ashamed!”

He stabbed the drone with a knife, turned back to me and winked.

“I got you a present. We only need two more and we have a blaster.”

I love you.

ZELGOR

We fed the broadcast drone to the mini factory. We checked the progress of our most recent additions to the factory’s production queue. The factory demanded ash, and I brought it a scoop from the fire pit.

The mini factory began to whir and I joined Lena in bed. I slid myself under the blanket and crawled to my place, next to her. I slid my arm around her waist the way I had when we met and she needed my body heat to survive the night.

I want Lena in my arms every night, too. I want her Human body snuggled close to my Kirtaxian heart. My Lena, with all of her strange, Human quirks, may you bless me for the rest of our lives.

Though Lena had not yet answered my question, I remained at peace. Lena soothed my battered soul. The rage which once burned in my chest had transformed into ferocious determination.

I will give her anything she needs to choose. I will have my answer, even if I must wait. She will choose me, for I will give her no reason to run. If I must survive Garglax II, Intergalactic Love Death Match, and escape this planet, or dig in here, claim this planet in the name of my people, and hold back the entire galaxy, Lena will have all the time she needs.

This I solemnly vow, Lena. Even if I do not speak my vow, your heart will know my vow in every choice I make.

I drifted into restful sleep soothed by my life’s new purpose. We rose with the sun. We found the Deluxe Base trailer’s window settings and tried them all. We settled on the setting which made the windows seem to fade and we could see the world outside the trailer as if we slept under the stars.

When the sun rose that morning, life felt like a dream—a good one, unlike the nightmares which had tormented me for years. I felt more whole with each passing dawn. We rose and discussed that day’s plans over breakfast.

Lena had been cooking meals before I ever had a chance, and I insisted breakfast was my chore that morning. Lena wore the strangest smile and I had no idea what her face was trying to say. Rather, she looked conflicted.

I smiled. I gave her that look she swore turned her knees gelatinous and wobbly. She glared at me until she turned her head away. I glimpsed a smile creep up when she thought I couldn’t see.

Oh, yes. I will win any Galactic Standard day. She already succumbs to my natural, masculine strength.

“Stop it with the look. You know it’s my weakness. Focus. We need a plan to get over that river with both of us and the two trailers.”

“You ride inside and the trailers follow me as I jump over.”

“Ok, but, what if something goes wrong? We didn’t have two large trailers last time and we also didn’t have any options for safety. Now we can make any tool we can design and find materials for. I think we should explore our options.”

“Fair point. I wish we could both ride across. Normally, I would call the ship’s Systems Administrator, a Hlibinian hacker named Toc I met at a backwater cantina. He smelled funny, but he could have hacked these trailers to drive themselves, right now, and really save the day.”

“There should be a mod for that, Zelgor.”

“I imagine that would be a very popular product.”

“I wonder if such a thing exists.”

“Or if it could be created.”

“If it could just be designed like downloadable content for the mini factory, Zelgor! Then all we would need would be supplies to make one and instructions on how to use and install it. A simple software update wouldn’t do. We would need steering and breaking, too.”

Our eyes flicked about. I listened as hard as I could. A drone flew in. Plabz and Kvorkt grinned at us from the display.

“Welcome back to Intergalactic Love Death Match. The votes have been tallied and we are back with Lena and Zelgor.”

“That’s right Plabz, and it was a close one. In fact, the winner was decided by a mere eleven votes.”

“Wow, Kvorkt. I had no idea these two had gained so many fans over the course of their journey.”

“I’ll tell you, no one expected this outcome. This was the upset of the season, Plabz. Fortunes were made and lost last night.”

“Would you two get on with it already, or do I need to come find you and straighten you out?”

“Hahaha, look at that Human spunk, Kvorkt.”

“You really must appreciate their tenacity and fight. And now, for the results. By the slim margin of a mere eleven votes, the winner is…”

“Team Yes!”

“And the top one-hundred contributors, voting with their hard earned dollars to spice up this game for the galaxy, will receive complimentary, all-expense-paid trips to see the opening broadcast of Intergalactic Love Death Match, season 35.”

“Congratulations, fans! Thank you for the vote of confidence. Now, what did Team Yes send us?”

“Ah, Haha, nothing gets past you, Lena.”

I looked up at the sound of incoming drones. They carried a small crate.

What could this be?

The drones set the crate on the ground. I knelt and opened it. Inside the crate, I found a device with switches, knobs and joysticks. Next to it lay a book with glossy pages. I read the title.

“SurvivalCorp Products: The Definitive Guide. Oh look, there’s a bookmark…”

I opened the guide to the marked page. Lena stretched up on the tips of her toes to get a view. I lowered the manual so she could see and she read the chapter title.

“Using Your Trailer’s Remote Control.”

“Wow. And after we had so many good ideas.”

“I’ll take it, Zelgor. Boost me up top. I want a chance to drive this thing, too.”

LENA

I scanned the manual while Zelgor strapped our lawn chairs to the top of the deluxe trailer. According to the simple, clear pictures, the remote worked much like a radio-controlled car on Earth.

Ooh…I always managed to crash those cars…but I was never riding on top of those cars. I wonder if I can manufacture some side mirrors…

I crawled down and walked over to the mini factory’s console and hunted through the menus. The factory insisted it required more sand to manufacture two side-view mirrors and the frames to attach them to the Deluxe trailer.

Zelgor called to me from atop the trailer, drawing my eyes.

“I believe I have properly secured our chairs.”

“Great news! Hold on one second.”

I took one of the shells we never used for food anymore and scooped some sand from the riverbank. I ran it over to the mini factory and poured it in. I turned to the factory and punched the display screen. The factory whirred and I turned back to Zelgor.

“Stay up there for a second, will you? I have two side mirrors I would really like you to install before we try this crossing. They are a feature required on Earth ground vehicles and I would feel a lot better about this entire thing if we had some before we started.”

“Your suggestion relieves much of my trepidation. Though I am brave and willing to face danger, too much of it irritates my nerves.”

He lifted his hands, circling his head with them. I cocked my head to the side. A smile tried to creep up my face. I chewed my lip, waiting for him to put into words whatever rattled around in his mind.

“Danger feels like experiencing a starship’s rapid decompression alarms, you know, like when a ship vents atmosphere?”

He so genuinely wants me to understand.

“Zelgor, I have never been conscious during space travel, though I know I must have been transported to this planet somehow. But! My people fantasize about that kind of thing a lot and I watched a lot of that kind of entertainment.”

“So, you understand?”

“I imagine it is very irritating to always be so aware, though it has helped you survive? I think that is how I would feel. In your place.”

“Yes, Lena. I knew you would understand.”

Stop it. Stop being so sweet. Neither of us is in a position to take any more risks. How can you not sense how dangerous it could be to…submit to what we want with such desperation? Why doesn’t that prospect ring your damned alarms?

My knees quaked. Zelgor set off all my alarms, but his presence pulled me in. I wanted to jump into his arms, but fear gripped me.

What is so terrifying about getting exactly what I want, even if only for what little time we have together?

My tummy fluttered.

When I calm down. I can’t possibly be thinking clearly.

I gulped. The factory dinged and I jumped.

“Hey, would you look at that? The mirrors are done.”

Was I just staring up at him with my mouth open?

My cheeks burned. I scurried over to the factory, determined to use the mirrors’ arrival as an opportunity to catch my breath. When I glanced at Zelgor over my shoulder, he wore an amused grin on his face.

I’m even starting to like that facial hair…

I retrieved the mirrors of the mini factory and handed them up to Zelgor. He looked entirely too smug for my good.

Why isn’t it good? He is smug about…declaring his love and dedication…

My head spun and I fled the implications of my cascading realizations. My subconscious mind and my heart seemed to have teamed up against my fear. My fear dreaded the next volley against my internal defenses.

I pushed aside the warring thoughts waging battle for my heart and soul.

I need a break before I fall apart. Breathe.

I crawled up the ladder we manufactured from reed rope and wood.

Look at us, the height of fashion—we made almost everything we have. Everything is nearly bespoke. Who knew I would ever live so lush.

I giggled.

The height of glamping. All those Influencers back on Earth…they would kill for this kind of exposure. Everything else we have, we won…together. When have I ever loved life so much?

Zelgor lent me a hand at the top and I sat in my chair and placed the SmartFollow remote control on my lap. It tried to slide down the side. I wiggled and adjusted the device until I thought it would behave and opened the instruction manual.

Zelgor plopped into his chair, strapped next to mine.

He looked at me. His face looked so concerned. For a moment, I considered melting under his smoldering gaze, but we had already spent so much time preparing to cross the river, I hesitated to delay any further.

“This is quite high off the ground, for a species who evolved on a Galactic Standard Grav world. If I fall off, I am more likely to crush whatever I land on than take injury. Perhaps we should make the time to rig some safety lines, like we do for space walks on a starship.”

“What if something happens? What if one of those Slàr grab this thing and toss it? Or one of those space gators bites it? I don’t want to be tied to it, under those circumstances. As far as I can tell from the sci-fi movies I’ve seen, the larger danger in the vacuum of space is floating away into the void to die by hypoxia if you become detached from your starship and that no one is ever likely to pinpoint your location.”

Then I remembered sci-fi/horror.

“And, if you do get rescued, and somehow survive cold sleep, it will be years later and you will have to fight big monsters.”

Zelgor cocked his head.

“Humans fascinate me. Luckily, you will say yes. More of the galaxy agrees with me than disagrees, or we wouldn’t be sitting in these chairs on top of our apartment, reading this manual.”

“The way you see the world fascinates me, Zelgor. Now, watch this.”

I closed the manual and tucked it into my seat under my leg. I turned on the remote and began to navigate. The trailer lurched forward. Memories of whiplash commercials played in the back of my mind.

After a slight learning curve, I drove the trailer across the river. Zelgor white-knuckled the sides of his seat and breathed loudly through his nose, but he never once complained. The trailer wobbled a bit as I adjusted to the controller’s sensitivity.

A few minutes later, we reached the opposite shore and I parked the trailers. Zelgor and I both released the breaths we had held for far too long in suspenseful anticipation of the next wildlife attack…but the attack never came.

We leapt to our feet and into each other’s arms, screaming at the tops of our lungs. Birds streaked from the trees in harsh squawks, outraged by our volume.

Too fucking bad, birds! Things are finally going right!

We laughed, releasing all our built-up tension. I leaned back, grabbed him by the face and screamed directly in it loud enough to ruffle his mustache.

“Nobody died! There was no attack! The galaxy, literally, had our backs, Zelgor. Yes! Yes, yes, yes. I love you.”

Whatever plans I thought I had for what was going to happen next went up in smoke as soon as Zelgor kissed me.

ZELGOR

The next few days passed in a blur. I remember crossing through a mountain pass, and we now approached a land bridge between two, massive lakes at the foot of the monolithic spire of Central Mountain.

I tried to remember every detail, but Lena and I were so lost in each other, everything jumbled together. Our nights of passion merged into one, continuous memory of bliss. The sun rose and set and, with each step we drew closer to the Altar of Freedom and our destiny.

Together. We walk as one.

An instinctive sense of rightness filled me, dulling the blare of caution in my head. Rather than focusing on the danger, I began to recognize the opportunities among all the risks I could sense.

Lena and I can find a path out of anything when we work together. I am very clever to have discovered such a truth.

Pride swelled my chest. I might have wanted to remember so many details of our newfound happiness that I tried to remember too much. My brain felt full—

No. I don’t feel full...I feel satisfied.

The exhilaration blurred the memories of my days into one, continuous memory of happiness.

We stared out, at the land bridge before us, on the precipice of reaching the landmark which had dominated our view since we traversed the last mountain range between us and freedom.

It has dominated our future, too.

Winds from the mountain whipped us, the chill air chapping our faces. I glanced at Lena. She wrapped herself in her cloak of shaggy, brown fur. Fully cured and carefully combed out during all those nights by the fire, the shaggy hair’s gentle curls glistened in the sun.

Her face lit and she smiled.

“So, Zelgor, if I were a Snaughian, I would have dropped a Slàr near that land bridge.”

Zelgor shaded his eyes with his hand, trying to block the glare of the Garglaxian sun.

“Were I inherently evil, and embraced sadism for the sake of profits, I would also stock those lakes with Slàr.”

I chewed my lip, brain searching for a way to defeat a Slàr.

“Let me just thank you for not being Snaughian, then.”

Thumping my chest, I wiggled my eyebrows until Lena giggled.

This must be how those cute, old couples must have stayed happy for so long. They embraced their moments together, as their moments came, staying young at heart. Before…

I reined in my grief.

I will have to tell Lena she has given me hope that my people can heal and find happiness again, no matter the odds.

“Lena?”

“Yeah? Did you think of a way to check for Slàr? Unless you can throw a rock further than a Slàr’s tentacle can reach—”

“Lena, listen. You have taught me to hope when I only believed in despair. I hope my people are watching and also find hope for their futures. If I had to survive Intergalactic Love Death Match to find a way to heal our collective wound, then I am proud, even if I could not win as Captain of The Snaughians’ Bane.”

The buzz of multiple drones flew in, dropping gifts everywhere. Lena looked up, into the sky. Wonder bloomed across her face.

This. This is the path forward.

Certainty settled on my shoulders but weighed less than a feather. Inside of me, among all the danger, I sensed…

I know we will find a way out.

Lena and I ran around, gathering up the presents and throwing them through the Deluxe trailer’s open doorway. Lena pulled at a large gift it had taken four, large drones to deliver. She released a groan, her face strained.

“Lena, let me get that.”

She stood, whipped her brow with her forearm and batted her eyelashes. I immediately knew trouble stalked me. Rising suspicion narrowed my eyes. Anticipation rose. She stretched and rubbed at her arm.

“Wow, thanks, Zelgor. I’ll get these little ones over here. I want to collect them before opening any of the sealed ones. We can do that later, when we camp. Take a good look at the unwrapped ones, though.”

“I’m hoping they sent something to help with possible Slàr.”

“Exactly.”

She bent over, filling her arms with gifts. When she wiggled her perfect behind at me, I stopped paying attention to anything else.

Lena enjoys this far too much for my good.

After her earlier, dramatic display with the large package, I jerked the awkward shape from the ground. I had expected it to be heavy.

The large gift was not heavy. I used far too much force lifting the thing and fell over sideways. Lena cackled behind me and tossed gifts into the deluxe trailer.

“Oh, Zelgor. You are priceless.”

“You may be the most devious person I have ever met.”

“At least I am on your side.”

I laughed, hard and deep.

“This explains much, except why I feel imminent danger. I thought you were stalking me, mentally. Lena, set the SmartFollow and run.”

Her face fell. She spun on her heel and sprinted without question. She ran past gifts we had been unable to collect, stopping only when she caught herself against the trailer. She engaged the SmartFollow and jumped up the ladder.

I ran past, pushed her perfect behind up, helping her scramble atop the trailer. I turned without another word and ran as fast as my legs would carry me. I heard the all-too-familiar hiss of otyiks rattling their tails. I pushed my legs to their limit.

I can’t outrun those beasts. Not after they mutated…

I lost myself in our flight. The lakes sped toward me. I pushed harder, faster, further. Lena’s scream behind me terrified me to my core. I skipped to a halt, reversed direction, and bounded to the top of the trailer.

Lena struggled with a monster who snapped its mouth at her over my Kirtaxian-sized chair. I saw red and roared, launching myself at her attacker. Lena ducked, throwing her arms over her head, trying desperately to stay out of the way and let me kill this abomination who threatened her.

The otyik swiped at her. Sharp talons raked one of her arms the moment before I tackled the beast. I struck with such force, the beast and I rolled over the side of the trailer, limbs entangled.

LENA

Parallel bars of sheer agony burned my arm where the cursed beasts talons had slashed. I hissed, pulled my shirt over my head, and wrapped the wound. The world tried to tunnel and fade, but outrage fueled my determination to stay conscious.

Stay conscious and find a way to bring down upon these misbegotten creatures a wrath they cannot survive. How dare they try to ruin my ride into the fucking sunset?

My knees recovered enough function for me to trust them. I heard Zelgor bellow. I scurried to the edge of the trailer’s roof and peeked over. That damned monster stood on top of my Zelgor, trying to dig its wicked-looking talons into Zelgor’s tough, Kirtaxian skin.

“Oh, no you fucking don’t. I just told him I love him! I’m not losing him now!”

I pulled my otyik-spine knife and leapt on top of the beast. Zelgor held the beast against him, bellowing with the strain. I wasted no time sticking my knife in it, high on outrage and the flood of survival stimulants my body pumped through my veins.

The monster gurgled and fell limp. I leapt to the side. Zelgor pushed it off of himself and scrambled to his feet.

“Lena, there are always more. Leave me the trailers so I can use the weapons. I will hold them back. I saw smoke. Another couple must be close. Run, my love. Run, and don’t look back. Get help. I will be here when you return.”

“Fuck, Zelgor! Ok! Kiss me. I need to leave now, if I’m going to make it before I pass out from blood loss.”

He pulled me to him.

“We will find a way, Lena. We have too much living left to do to die here, today.”

Zelgor literally swept me off my feet and kissed me with all his fiery passion. He returned me to my feet breathless.

I turned and ran. I ran with the power of every molecule of adrenaline searing my veins. I ran with all my breath. I ran for my own heart and for Zelgor’s life. I ran for the hope he dedicated himself to providing his people.

I ran toward the smoke, toward help, hoping with every fiber of my being I made it far enough, though I felt myself fade.

Don’t stop.

Tears streamed from my eyes. A stitch stabbed my side like track season in Junior High PE class. Back then, I had slowed, believing myself spent. Today, I ran until my knees collapsed and my legs crumpled underneath me.

The world spun, trying to fade into the distance. My chest heaved, determined to feed starved, spent muscles. Adrenaline fatigue sapped what little strength remained in my limbs. The hazy outline of a brutishly large, imposing person filled my vision.

“What happened?”

I wheezed the only words I could force from my exhausted existence.

“Save. Zelgor.”

I sort of threw my arm in Zelgor’s direction, then realized I lay in snow.

That shit’s really cold.

The blue figure wobbled in my vision. A second later, I decided he must have nodded. I blinked, eyelids heavy and slow. Some chick in a cowboy hat rode by on a giant-ass, space deer and I nearly convinced myself this was another werewolves-playing-tetherball dream.

I should know these people, right? They were familiar, but I couldn’t make my mind work right.

Contestants. Other contestants.

But somehow it was hard to care.

I wish Zelgor were here. And naked. He doesn’t need to be naked for me to like him, I just really enjoy the view.

Someone propped me up and fed me…the most delicious milk I had ever tasted. That convinced me I dreamt, and I let myself slide out of conscious thought.

I woke to the din of people fussing over me. I tried to blink, but my eyelids kind of stuck together. Something slimy covered my body from head to toe. The gelatinous substance tasted vaguely of grass.

I spluttered, wiping my face with my hand. Zelgor called my name. A Zelgor-shaped presence rushed to my side.

“Lena! Lena, are you well? Lena, talk to me. Say something!”

He slid his big arms around me, pulling my upper body to him. He jostled my body to and fro, fussing over me.

“Stop jerking me around. How’s that for something to say?”

The chick in the cowboy hat laughed so hard, she fell off my camp chair.

Oh, good. Our trailers made it…

Zelgor froze. His eyes, which had been examining my arm, darted to mine.

“I am so relieved you are well, Lena.”

“I love you, too, Zelgor. Now, someone tell me why I’m slimy.”

“Fishguts saved you. It healed you.”

I held up a slimy hand.

“Are you saying…I am…covered in…fish entrails? That this…goo…is liquid fish? I fell asleep in snow!”

“Lena!”

“What?”

Zelgor pointed to a location across the room.

“Fishguts is a syend and it healed you.”

I turned to look, trying to comprehend how the words he told me made any sense together.

“What is a sy—”

My eyes fell upon a plant made of a gigantic mouth on hundreds of tentacle-like tendrils. It tilted its sightless…head.

“Where did you get an Audrey II?”

“I thought I was giving Jasek a therapy plant to help him learn basic social skills.”

My eyes darted to the woman who spoke.

“I think I remember you. From when we first arrived. You were the survivor from last season, right?”

She smiled and stepped forward. She held out her hand. I reached out to take the woman’s hand and shake it, then remembered.

“I’m a little slimy right now. Talk about things I never thought I would self-apply.”

The woman laughed and handed me a hand towel.

Somebody must have had more fans. This is a fine hand towel. Great Aunt Pat would have been livid had I used her good towels…

“Thanks. I’m Lena.”

“I’m Charlotte. Yes, the first contestant in 33 seasons of Intergalactic Love Death Match to be given a second chance, but the fans demanded it. And, ever since Jasek and I worked things out, I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

“I think I completely understand. I think Zelgor and I were having that moment when those monsters attacked.”

The chick in the cowboy hat sauntered up, boots slapping against the cleared, rock floor. A dazzling array of SurvivalCorp and ColonyMaster equipment surrounded us. The parts of the shelter not made of trailers, rock, or lumber, glowed.

And I thought things were strange when this all began.

“Welcome to Base Camp. I’m Emily.”

“The Texan with the sister, right? Have you found her yet?”

The bittersweet strain of long-suffering worry for a loved one pinched the corners of her eyes and strained her smile. She shook her head.

“Not yet, Lena. Charlotte and Jasek were the first couple we ran into.”

Charlotte nodded. “And we only arrived recently.”

Zelgor stoked my hair. I looked up at him.

“Looks like things worked out, after all, Zelgor.”

He nodded, smiling.

“I held back the entire pack. You ran like the wind. I fought them, my heart filled with pride, Lena. Then Ralkor and Jasek arrived. You can watch the entire battle on the next broadcast. By the time Emily rode in with those cubs on her heels... We were glorious, Lena.”

ZELGOR

Lena convinced everyone to wait on more introductions until she and I had the opportunity to clean up. Emily and Charlotte agreed, seeming in good spirits. All around me, I saw all the signs of a good crew shaking out.

With these people, I can feel a path to safety. For all of us. I simply must discover what we have to work with and how the pieces will best fit together…

Once refreshed, and Lena had washed off all of Fishguts’s healing slime, we returned to the collection of random furniture set up into a conversation pit around the fire. Across the fire, sat Ralkor, the Tarek.

Nerves fluttered in my gut. I knew the time had come for a difficult conversation. I sat near him at the fire.

“I am—was—Captain of the Kirtaxian vessel, The Snaughian’s Bane. I was part of the delegation who negotiated the alliance between the Kirtax and the Quislik. I was desperate to destroy those who hurt my people so deeply that I allowed myself to use means I knew were wrong. No one should ever have worked with the Quislik. What they did to your people was very wrong.”

“Acknowledged, Zelgor. Thank you. When we get everyone off this survival reality show, I hope to help my clones learn what I have learned since my capture. Your people also need hope and a future to look forward to. If we can accomplish this, perhaps our people can work together.”

“That’s my hope. I mean, I’m a species of one, at this point.”

All eyes turned toward a voice from the livestock pens. Mabel, the Jersey cow, laid there, chewing her cud. She flicked her tail and flapped an ear. Lena gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

“A talking cow! They only showed us glimpses of the other couples! Who are you?”

“Hi. I’m Mabel. They sent me to Charlotte when she asked for milk, and someone thought it would boost ratings if they increased my brain capacity to accommodate the translator.”

Lena crept over to Mabel and crouched down. She scratched Mabel’s neck.

“What is that like?”

“I made peace with it and Fishguts takes good care of me.”

I smiled and spoke from my heart.

“You are more than welcome on our planet, Mabel. When we get one.”

“Thank you, Zelgor. That, of course, leads our herd to the big questions. How do we get everyone up that mountain and to the Altar and how do we all go home?”

I nodded.

“I agree. Lena, you said you had part of an idea?”

Lena nodded.

“Yeah, Babe, but I almost died today. We finally found some safety and support. I need a mini vacation. I need at least one night where I’m not obsessed with survival.”

Emily and Charlotte grinned, then Charlotte picked up a small case and made a tempting offer.

“Wanna get high?”

“Fuck yes, I wanna get high. What kind of question is that? You may be two of the five people who understand what kind of stress this experience has been!”

Emily cut in.

“Are you a coffee drinker, Lena?”

Lena covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders shook. I worried for her. Before I could ask If she were feeling well, she whispered through her fingers.

“Is there…is there…chocolate?”

Charlotte and Emily laughed. Charlotte dug a colorful, rectangular bar from the container in her lap, handed it to Lena and retrieved a thin, white object. Lena tore into the bar, broke off a chunk and shoved it into her mouth.

She moaned in a tone, and with a satisfaction, I had only heard her express at the moment of orgasm. Questions flooded my mind, but I reserved them for later, though I burned to know everything about a substance to which she reacted with such thorough pleasure.

All my senses told me studying ways to give Lena exactly what she wants would lead me out of danger.

I trust her. I love her. I want us both to thrive together. What have I to lose, at this point, other than opportunity?

Charlotte put the other object to her mouth and lit it afire. She drew in a lungful of smoke and passed it to Lena. Lena drew in a lungful and passed it to Emily. Emily drew in a lungful, looked at Mabel, and blew a stream Mabel’s direction.

Mabel drew in a deep breath and thanked Emily.

“What is that stuff?”

I pointed at the object streaming smoke from the lit tip. Lena tilted her head, then attempted to answer my question.

“For some Humans, this stuff— helps us achieve a state of deep relaxation, thoughtfulness, and creativity. I have no idea what it would do to you, but I’m in the market for some deep relaxation.”

Charlotte cut in, smiling wide.

“Humans require mental relaxation on a regular basis or we start causing trouble.”

Emily tipped her hat at me and quipped.

“Which explains where I’m from, actually.”

Charlotte and Lena laughed at Emily’s joke. I shrugged.

Lena’s other ideas have been good.

I opened a hand, took the proffered, possible hit of relaxation, and handed it back. The Humans passed it around the circle. Ralkor and Jasek appeared, carrying piles of food served on large, woven mats.

We ate and laughed and joked. We watched the broadcast and verbally sparred with Plabz and Kvorkt as a team—a cohesive crew—a ‘herd’, as Mabel put it. We laughed every time the Humans tried to explain some Human quirk and heard each other’s stories.

When the fire burned low, to little more than coals, we began to retire by couples. Each of us picked up a little something of our mess on our way to our relative oases of privacy. Deeply relaxed, socially satisfied, and soothed by my newfound community, and purpose, I stepped into the shower to rinse off the vestiges of our incredibly long day.

Lena stepped in behind me. She slid her arms around me and made a tiny groan as she dramatized trying to get her fingers to touch around my thick torso. I laughed. She giggled and slipped under my arm and into the water in front of me.

“I thought you were already clean, after the syend.”

“Yeah, well, I have a dirty mind, Zelgor.”

LENA

I took some of the soap I manufactured from random plants and lathered Zelgor with it. The mini factory’s body products turned out to be superior and we made it together. He gasped and I grinned, nearly purring.

I love hearing how intensely my touch affects him. That sound feels better than heroin. Metaphorical heroin. Shut up, mind. I’m trying to get busy with my big, alien brute. Who really loves me.

Giddy with the beauty we have created together, grateful for the company we have found, more relaxed and open and new than I had ever felt, I surrendered to our love. Every part of him turned me on, and I even meant more than body parts.

I love all of him. The body is icing and it's time to get my damned cake and eat it.

I forgot what we thought we were going to do and pulled him down so my mouth could reach his. Water streamed over us, exponentially increasing the difficulty of kissing without also choking and drowning.

I refuse to lose to a shower.

“Fuck this, Zelgor.”

I drew a breath to explain, but he grabbed my ass, lifted me to his waist, and carried me to the rug. I remembered Emily explaining it was a gaych hide and how she won and lost one, herself, then Zelgor laid me on my back upon the hide rug’s soft hairs and shoved his face into my pussy.

I forgot everything. I let go of all the worries, all the fear, and all the strife I carried. The world around us faded. Where Zelgor and I touched, where we intersected, burned more real than air or Snaughians or otyiks, horror, pain, rage, or lost wars.

Zelgor licked and sucked and stroked my soft, throbbing folds with his lips and tongue. His hands scorched me with white-hot pleasure. My whimpers transformed into cries when I felt his fingers on my wet mound.

“Yes…yes. Please…”

His fingers slid in, slow and sure. We had explored each other enough by then that Zelgor knew exactly how to drive me out of my mind—how to drive me to that perfect place outside of myself.

He played my body like a master musician and I, his instrument. Wave after wave of mind-numbing, soul-freeing pleasure washed over me. Every time I cried out his name, Zelgor’s passion grew. I called his name until I could speak no longer.

Somehow, Zelgor knew exactly the right thing to do to push me over the edge, like he saw every attack before his opponent decided to move. He used every skill on me now. He stroked my G-spot and I exploded in pleasure.

My arms reached for him, desperate to feel his bulk above me. He looked up at me. That smug smile hung on his face. Glassy eyed from the scent of my cunt, he pulled himself up, over me.

“Thank you.”

His soft words startled me.

“For what? You just gave me the orgasm. I should be thanking you and begging for that every day.”

He chuckled, obviously pleased. He stroked a strand of hair out of my face and gazed into me through my eyes. Our souls lost each other in that connection.

“Thank you for all of your patience. I was a real skrak when I woke up on this planet.”

A devious grin spread across my face before I could stop it.

“Well, Zelgor, thank you for paying off.”

Zelgor chuckled. I felt the thick head of his cock press against my still-sensitive pussy. Tendrils of pleasure streaked through my body. I sucked in a deep, moaning breath. My back arched and I grinded my pubic bone along the length of his thick shaft.

He laid kisses along my neck and trailed his tongue across my breast. I whimpered. I wanted Zelgor in me, filling and stretching me. I bounced my hips, teasing him, daring him to resist the certain pleasure of finally plunging in.

I ran my hands all over his muscles. I felt the hard, thick strength of his biceps. He fought back, determined to make me wait.

“Please…”

Hoping my soft whimpers would unleash his passion upon me, I begged over and over. I pulled at him, and pressed my body up, to meet his. Zelgor growled.

He is close. Let go, Zelgor. Let go. Be with me…

Zelgor roared and plunged his fat cock into my throbbing pussy. I screamed. An orgasm ripped through me. Zelgor held me close, riding out my orgasm. He thrust harder and harder.

“Lena!”

Zelgor roared again. He threw back his head and filled my pussy with hot come. I came again and lost all concept of reality. I floated out, in that moment of peace between worlds. When I floated back down and found myself in Zelgor’s arms, I clung to him with the depth of my appreciation.

We dozed there, in each other’s embrace, enjoying the beauty we had created. Zelgor rolled onto his back. I snuggled up to him and sort of laid half-atop his big body. His Kirtaxian body was so large, I kinda felt like I was bent over an ottoman, but I loved it and Zelgor made no complaints.

“Have I satisfied you, Lena? If not, I only need a drink and fifteen minutes—”

I chuckled.

“You’re trying to kill me, I know it. We finally get something good, and you’re going to doom the both of us for pleasure.”

I raised my head and rested upon my hands, which were folded upon Zelgor’s big chest. I gazed into his eyes. My cheeks burned with arousal and my eyelids grew heavy.

I bet my hair looks like I stuck my finger in a light socket.

“Noble way to end one’s days, I think. More noble than dying in an unwinnable war. Better to die for love and giving you pleasure.”

“Can you start a cult? Can we cart you around the galaxy after this and you convert people? Because I love the way you’re thinking right now.”

ZELGOR

We rose earlier the next day and drank coffee. We ate something the humans called a generic breakfast, and I now know I love a dish Emily called huevos rancheros. We met the cubs and the two giant-ass deer, as Lena calls them, then got to work.

Lena squealed over the SewSmart trailer and spent the morning making herself an outfit. Everyone else explored the mini factory, squealing over all the little trappings of civilization they could make.

Ralkor and Jasek invited me to spar, so we could take each other’s measure before any more battles. We thoroughly enjoyed our exercise and we fell into an easy camaraderie. We all gathered together for the next meal.

Emily’s eyes glanced around the circle. She spoke and everyone turned their head to listen.

“I see our greatest issue being the ability to establish campsites along the trail. Nothing I have managed to see of that mountain indicated anywhere wide enough to accommodate everything we will need to accommodate.”

Ralkor spoke next.

“And there is the issue of supplies. I see little on those slopes to feed us or provide materials, yet we will need all of these things for any of us to make it.”

Lena looked around the room and asked the first question in my mind.

“Can we use the bridge panels?”

Charlotte sighed, leaning back in her chair. She punctuated her thoughts with active hands.

“Yes, but we have a very limited number of those, I’m not sure how to really make them float, what if they run out of power, or something takes out even one drone and we’re all falling down a mountain…”

Mabel joined the conversation next.

“You have a factory. Certainly you should be able to make something, like a platform.”

Jasek leaned into the conversation next.

“We can most likely find a route which would allow us to take the trailers. We can make a train. We really only need a temporary platform that way.”

“We need a maglev shipping lift. Like they use in a starship’s cargo bay.”

My words silenced the room.

“I had one, once. When I still had a starship.”

Everyone stared at me.

“Why are you still staring? It's not like we can get one of those. They cost as much as a small starship. Who would ever bother to pay the Snaughians’ premiums on anything so expensive.”

Emily glanced at Ralkor, eyebrows sky high. He shrugged and replied to her silent query. He turned to me.

“We will find a way. For now, let us stock supplies. However we get up the mountain, there is no doubt we will need food. Humans require beaks to acclimate to altitude, so we can’t simply go with nothing and no plan. We will have to find a way to establish an actual camp.”

Seeing all the heads in the room nodding, the collected minds of the ILDM contestants whirred, gnawing at the problem. I chuckled.

“Rest easy. I have a good feeling about this.”

Lena’s face beamed up at me.

“Zelgor appears to have some precognitive powers.”

Emily’s head snapped up.

“Is that so, Zelgor?”

“It is, Emily, but I can’t tell you anything about your sister. We haven’t met. I have also learned never to underestimate Human women, though. If she is half as tough as you, I’m certain we shall soon find her.”

Emily nodded and Ralkor wrapped a big arm around her shoulders.

“Thank you, Zelgor.”

We spent the next week hunting, crafting, manufacturing, preparing, and laying in supplies and creating the parts for more maglev cabins like Zelgor and I’s Deluxe trailer. No one liked the idea of sharing bedrooms, if we could avoid it.

I began to feel cooped up, so Ralkor, Jasek, Emily, and the cubs set off on a hunting trip. Lena and Charlotte stayed behind to work on assembling their most recent project. Lena kissed me until my knees wobbled before sending me off with the hunting party.

We tracked game, intending to circle around the island from which Central Mountain thrust into the sky. Emily and Ralkor had set up some information booths near the other land bridges, and they wanted to check for signs of passage.

By the second day of our trip I missed Lena’s body next to mine at night and longed for our Deluxe trailer, though I thoroughly enjoyed the hunting party’s company. Jasek missed Charlotte, too, and described each nuance to us.

Suddenly, time seemed to slow. Alarms rang in my head. I shouted the first words of warning my brain could make my mouth produce.

“Incoming!”

Everyone scattered and crouched, looking for both cover and the source of danger. I could feel it like a hot knife across raw nerves. I spun to face it. Another couple raced toward us in the distance.

I pointed, shouting to the others.

“There!”

The largest land beast I had ever seen chased the couple running for us. Without another thought or a single hesitation, Emily kicked her giant-ass space deer into a run. She rode directly for the couple.

Jasek, Ralkor, the cubs and I followed, determined to save all of us from the Snaughians.

We will save everyone.

IT’S time for couple number four to enter the games, and maybe not everything is as it appeared…

Click here to get Gamepoint now, or keep reading for a sneak peek!

GAMEPOINT: SNEAK PEEK

Brannic

The universe floated past the projection screen in my office, creating the illusion I looked out of a window into the void outside The Alliance Star, the flagship of my fleet. Profound reluctance weighed on me. Though I wished for a different course of action, battle loomed, and I could not abandon my people to the Snaughian invasion.

For three-hundred and seventy years, my Empire flourished, citizens of a hundred worlds thriving. Then the Snaughians’ fleets arrived in Imperial territory eight years ago, and I had to watch world after Imperial world fall to their rapacious advances.

I closed my eyes, covering them with a hand. I massaged my forehead, hoping to relieve at least some of the tension plaguing me, but it was no use. Rubbing my forehead would not improve our coalition’s odds of pushing back the most recent wave of the Snaughians’ advance.

I will do what I must and continue to look for new ways to resist. I refuse to believe the Snaughians are inevitable. There must be a way to resist them, and I will find it.

A ding from my desk pulled me from my dark thoughts. I dropped my hand from my forehead and glanced at the message blinking on the display. I pushed a button, opening the comms channel. Captain Plorik’s voice buzzed through the comms.

“Emperor Brannic, Captain Zelgor of The Snaughians’ Bane and Quislik High Commander, Flupil Tanack await you on the secure channel.”

“Thank you, Captain. Put them through to my office.”

“Immediately, Emperor Brannic.”

I stood from my desk and straightened my battle suit, then turned to face the projection screen. On the left side of the screen brooded the red-and-orange-striped, Kirtaxian Captain Zelgor. I had met many beings in my five-hundred and Fifty-two years of life, but none so consumed by rage.

Guilt stabbed into me. The combination of frustration, pain, and fear swirling inside of him was far too easy to exploit and turn in the direction of vengeance. Even though I knew he fought for the cause of his people, I had already seen countless beings across the galaxy consumed by exactly such rage.

How does one heal such a man? How does any leader find a way to make such a man whole? But, what choice do I have but to utilize the beings before me. Captain Zelgor leads a fierce fleet of pirates, and I need his ships if we are to have any chance of holding the Snaughians back.

The Quislik, displayed on the right side of the screen, was an entirely different matter. Tall and thin, long-limbed with a large ribcage, the teal High Commander Flupil Tanack blinked the eyes at the tips of his two eyestalks.

If only I had any other alternative than the Quislik…

“Greetings, Emperor Brannic, Supreme Leader of the Draksian Empire, first of your line. May your reign never—”

I raised my hand. High Commander Tanack fell silent.

“High Commander, you know I do not appreciate such pageantry. Flattery gains you nothing. Let us move onto another concern…your Xunon units—”

“Our Xuno—”

I narrowed my eyes, interrupting his words.

“Do. Not. Interrupt me again, High Commander. I am already uncomfortable with our arrangement. I have heard disturbing rumors about your Xunon units. Are they, or are they not capable of intelligent thought? I will have an answer, and do not lie. Your race would not appreciate the consequences.”

The Quislik High Commander paused. Quislik had tiny skulls with few features, making them difficult to read. I had not been in contact with their race for long.

“I also have heard rumors, Quislik. I, too, have reservations about your troops.”

“Let me assure you both our Xunon-class Combat Units are not capable of independent thought. The cloned bodies are not capable of living independently of their computerized components. They are drones, Emperor Brannic. They are not capable of life beyond their designed use.”

A worry settled into my gut, screaming at me not to trust the Quislik.

But what choices do I have?

Captain Zelgor sighed, and he looked as trepidatious as I felt.

“What choice do we have, Emperor Brannic? Without the Xunon Combat Units, we cannot even hope to hold the back, and we all know that, if the Snaughians break past us now, there will be nothing left to stop them from gobbling up every planet within reach.”

I nodded at Captain Zelgor’s words. Resigned to the unavoidable reality the entire galactic sector faced this day, I held up a hand for silence.

“Captain Zelgor, I wish your words were not so true. I wish there was another way. I founded the Draksian Empire on the belief we could all mutually prosper through peace and cooperation.”

“And that worked for three-hundred and seventy years, Emperor.”

“Thank you, Captain Zelgor, I just wish we had been able to keep the Snaughians at bay outside of the Empire’s borders.”

We stood in silence for a moment, until my desk dinged and interrupted us. I pushed the comms button and Captain Plorik’s voice spoke with the gravity I felt deep in my soul.

“Emperor Brannic? The Snaughian fleet has arrived. They will reach engagement range in one galactic standard hour…”

“Thank you, Captain Plorik. Battle stations, Captain. Today, we either stop the Snaughians’ advance…or we will die defending our Empire.”

“Yes, Emperor. Our people understand, Emperor.”

I closed the channel with Captain Plorik and returned my attention to the projection screen.

“Best of luck, High Commander. Best of luck, Captain Zelgor. One way or another, today we meet our destiny.”

“Best of luck, Emperor. I could not think of a nobler way to die, than fighting to protect the galaxy from suffering under the hands of the Snaughians as the Kirtaxian people have.”

“Do not worry, Emperor, Captain. My Xunon Combat Units will turn the battle in our favor.”

I closed the comms channels.

One way or another, today we meet our destiny—and determine the future for all the worlds remaining in the Draksian Empire.

Sophia

“Hey Mel, I need four heart-attack specials with sauce, two princess melts—naked—and a Thursday special.”

I slapped my food ticket on the stainless-steel line for Mel to pick up. Mel yelled his response from the other side of the kitchen window.

“Heard! Is there a full moon tonight, or some kind of burger shortage we don’t know about going on?”

“Fuck if I know, Mel, I haven’t had a break since lunch. Hell, I’ve barely had time to keep my tables bussed right all day.”

Someone shouted across the diner, interrupting my conversation with Mel.

“Hey lady! I could use some service over here. This table is dirty.”

I rolled my eyes and scrunched my face so only Mel could see. He laughed and added my ticket to the rotating wheel just over the smoking, flat-top grill. I grabbed the tray of plates for table eight, turned around, took a deep breath, and shouted my response in my sassiest voice.

“Well, toots, why would you want to sit at a dirty table? I woulda sat you at a clean table—if you’d’ve waited—like the sign by the door says to.”

I smiled nice and big at the loudmouth trying to make my day harder. Loudmouth’s face turned bright red as all eyes turned to look at him.

“Aw c’mon now, lady. I didn’t mean nothing by it. Looks like you’re plenty busy, so I figured I’d just take a seat on my own and…”

“Wait for me? Why, that’s so thoughtful of you. Why don’t you do just that and I’ll see you in two shakes.”

Loudmouth sat down and quietly stared at his dirty table while I dropped table 8’s food.

“Long day Sophia? Need help taking care of that?”

Regulars are such a blessing!

The good ones always made sure you were looked after and safe. The real good ones made sure no one messed with you. One step too far and any of my regs would take care of business mighty quick-like. I loved them and they loved me back.

“No worries sweetie, I got Loudmouth read like a book. But I’ll let ya’ know if he gets out of hand.”

I shot my regular a quick wink, and walked past the serving station, grabbed a tea pitcher and extra napkins for table 10, before wiping table 13 where Loudmouth sat. My mental list of things to do whirled through my mind.

Table 8 needs their check soon. Check on table 7’s appetizers. Table 10 was ready to order, table 5 needs ranch dressing. After that, Loudmouth can order, but I’ll drop him the last of the coffee pot—before taking his order and starting a new pot.

Halfway through my list, I heard Mel’s voice in the ruckus.

“Hey, hey! Look at what just came in the door! Jakey, my man!”

A chorus of regulars greeted my brother as he walked into the diner and sat at his regular place at the end of the counter. His smile always made my day. It reminded me that deep goodness and innocence, which couldn’t be spoiled, remained in the world.

The regulars knew and loved Jake and they made sure strangers didn’t mess with him, either. They all knew about his autism, and they all had a special place for him in their hearts.

Jake smiled and waved at all of them as he passed before starting his evening routine. He wiped the chair, opened his backpack, and took out his placemat, special silverware, and cloth napkin roll.

Next, he wiped the counter, put down his placemat, and arranged his silverware just the way he liked. Satisfied, he closed and hung his backpack on the special hook under the counter which Mel had installed just for him. With a smile, he sat and clasped his hands while he waited for tonight’s dinner.

I walked over and stood on the other side of the counter and handed him a menu.

“Good evening, sir. May I suggest today’s special? Every Thursday night, our special is chicken fried steak with cheesy grits and green beans.”

He nodded and leaned in so I could give him a quick peck on the cheek. I smiled and mussed his hair before going to put his order on the line.

“Love you, kiddo”

“Love you too, Sophia.” Don’t forget you owe me a rematch on our game, tonight!”

“I didn’t forget. Just remember to charge the controllers before I get home, ok?”

“Ok.”

I hoisted the tray of food for table 4, grabbed two extra sides of ranch for table 13, a slice of apple pie for Loudmouth, and headed back out onto the floor. The diner closed in three hours and I hoped Loudmouth would be the worst of the day’s surprises.

An hour before closing time, I wished I had a diner full of Loudmouths.

I wondered if Mel had been right about a full moon. Our diner sat just off a main highway and, as one of the only places open until midnight, we got our fair share of the I-was-only-going-to-have-a-drink-or-two-at-happy-hour-but-oops crowd. Most of the time, it wasn’t too horrible and nothing a little sass and some tough love couldn’t handle. Not tonight, though.

Tonight, I struggled to keep from killing someone. It was all I could do not to use heads to open doors as I tossed their drunk asses out. Not even the local officers showing up for their graveyard-shift coffee and pie helped. The dickhead comments were beyond absurd—

“You’re so pretty. Bet you’d be even prettier if you smiled.”

“Hey beautiful, what time do you get off tonight?”

“Can I get your number?”

“Baby, you’re prettier than a new set of snow tires!”

“Are you wearing space pants? Because your ass is out of this world.”

“Hey bitch, don’t talk to him. He’s mine.”

“I don’t tip because it’s their JOB to wait on people. I don’t get tipped for doing MY job.”

By the time we closed, I had slapped hands away from my ass—and invented some new curse words to describe the worst of that night’s League O’Dicks.

Taintscum was tonight’s special-feature dickhead who’d actually managed to grab a handful of ass, before getting kicked out of the diner. The guy had meant to grab mine, but got a handful of Mel’s by mistake.

Priceless.

I finished up my side work and headed out, locking up the diner for the night. This was the best part of these nights for me—the world quiet and the stars bright. I could be with my thoughts and the gentle breeze, and no one wanted anything from me. I took a long deep breath of fresh air and started walking.

Our little, two-bedroom rental wasn’t far from work. I had deliberately picked it just for that reason. If Jake was having a bad day, I could run over for a few minutes during a break to check on him or take care of him. It wasn’t the nicest place in town, but it was ours, and we had made it comfy and cozy for the both of us.

I’m so hungry. I hope Jake left me the piece of pie I sent home with him earlier…

A bright light came up behind me, interrupting my thoughts. Thinking it was a diesel rig attempting to park away from the truck stop, I turned around to wave it away.

Weird. I can’t hear the engine…or even see where the light comes from.

I put my hand in front of my face and tried to move to the other side of the street.

Wait a minute…I can’t feel the ground underneath my feet anymore. I looked down and saw nothing but the light and panicked.

Did I just die? Oh shit! What about Jake? Who will take care of him?!

A strange, sleepy calm descended on my limbs and the world grew fuzzy at the edges, like an old photograph.

I just want pie, dammit. Without any dickheads to ruin it. I think I forgot table 5’s ranch.

CLICK HERE to get Gamepoint now!

REKKER

Rekker wasn't expecting to be matched.

On the eve of being sent to retrieve a mysterious artifact, he's sent something just as enigmatic.

A HUMAN WOMAN, lush and curved.

His mate.

Even worse, she wants nothing to do with him.

His blood burns for her, but the need to make her happy overrides everything.

He'll find a way to set her free, even if it means he'll be alone. Forever.

But when danger comes from an unexpected source, they're thrown together. And when his mate turns to him, he'll protect her.

KEEP HER.

Claim her.

Lila Kanes never wanted any thing but a quiet life on her family farm. She certainly didn't want to be claimed by a massive alien mate.

THROWN INTO THE STARS, she'll do whatever it takes to find a way home.

BACK TO EARTH.

Back to her family.

SHE COULDN'T POSSIBLY WANT to stay with the hot, horned alien with the amazing body, who made her feel like the most precious thing in the universe, could she?

RIGHT?

REKKER IS the first book of the Warriors of Vaznik, a stand alone series in the Warlord Brides universe. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each couple!

CLICK HERE to keep reading Rekker, book one of the Vaznik Warrior Mates!

ROGUE MATE

Science fiction romance is the destination of the Rogue Star…. Hop on board!

OUR RESCUERS ARE a group of pirates. Or smugglers. They're not exactly answering questions, either.

More importantly, they're giant, golden skinned aliens...

And their rogue of a captain seems very interested in the little human commander.

Me.

ROGUE MATE IS the first in the Rogue Star science fiction alien romance series. Click now to start the adventure!

RESCUED BY HER ALIEN MATE

I thought being kidnapped by four-armed blue apes was as weird as life was going to get.

Boy, was I wrong...

We've crashed, our captors have fled, and now we've been rounded up by a group of tall, horned men. With scales. Who don't understand a word we say.

So why does my heart flutter when their leader touches me?  When his eyes flash silver, something deep inside me answers.

But if I lose my heart, how can I keep myself and the other women safe?

Rescued by her Alien Mate is the first book of the Warriors of the D'Tali science fiction romance series. Each book contains a complete HEA for our couple, and lots of steamy SFR fun!

Click to start the adventure!

KAZAN

A mate is the last thing on my mind.

Especially one as sassy as the human female they say is my match.

Even if her lush curves call for my touch, and her fiery spirit is equal to my own.

I will endure the thirty days demanded by the Protocol.

But with every look, every word, I can feel us bound closer together.

Will I be able to leave her, even for her own safety?

KAZAN IS the first book of the Jorkan Protocol Mates. Click now to spend the night with this perfect steamy, funny science fiction romance escape. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each alien warrior and his mate!

Copyright © 2021 by Ava York

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Contents

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Lena

Zelgor

Gamepoint: Sneak Peek

Rekker

Rogue Mate

Rescued by her Alien Mate

Kazan

Copyright