ALIEN’S TREASURE

OUTLAW PLANET MATES

ELIN WYN

CONTENTS

The World of Outlaw Planet Mates

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Epilogue: Kyla

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THE WORLD OF OUTLAW PLANET MATES

Reazus Prime is a hard planet. Once a prison, it was abandoned once the mines dried up and the Overlords could no longer turn a profit off the prisoners. Now it’s a haven for outlaws, pirates, and anyone holding a grudge against authority.

It’s isolated, alone, and the only ships coming are the worst sort. One such ship carrying a cargo of abducted human women, explodes in orbit. A lucky few were ejected in pods, only to crash on the outlaw planet.

NOW THE RACE is on to find and claim the human females…

GIR

Tightening my muscles, I sprang through the jungle from branch to branch. My occupation as a treasure hunter had brought me to many different worlds, but this was definitely not one of my favorites.

Not that in general I had a problem with a planet full of outlaws, rogues and criminals, but at the moment my plans didn’t involve dealing with anyone else.

Call me greedy.

Part of that whole ‘treasure hunter’ deal, I’m sure.

This uninhabited section of the continent was hot and humid, and it seemed as though bugs wanted to burrow under my fur, straight into my flesh.y

I landed on a thick branch and flicked my ears to dislodge a particularly annoying stinging insect.

Reaching for my belt, I toggled a small personal force field. This particular force field was one I’d picked up in a marketplace two hunts ago. It was small and had a low yield – not strong enough to stop a fast-moving object like a ballistic weapon that some of the primitive planets wielded, and it might’ve only turned away a glancing blow of a blade.

No, this force field’s most important and valuable function was the ability to repel insects.

I pressed it and a low hum filled my ears. Slightly annoying, but something I’d learn to dismiss after a few minutes. The batteries didn’t last long and I’d have to turn it off and allow the device to recharge once night came.

However, the days here were long. If luck was with me, I wouldn’t be on this planet come nightfall.

I heard a low-key ding between my ears, then through my implant came the professionally concerned voice of my AI.

“Is everything okay, Gir?”

“Yes, of course it is.”

My AI was relentless. “I’ve detected the activation of your personal force field. Are you in any danger?”

“You’re my AI, not my mother.”

I rolled my eyes.

I once had a partner who’d called my AI the equivalent of a nanny bot. It wasn’t a direct translation from his species, but close enough.

I’d always reduce the settings so the AI wouldn’t be as annoyingly worried about me. That way, it wouldn’t have the ability to check in on me at random times. But it was nice to pretend somebody else cared, even if it was annoying and was actually a computer function only following its programming.

I’d been lonely for a long time. I’d learned to deal with it.

“I’m fine,” I repeated, annoyed but secretly pleased, then aggravated at myself all over again. I shouldn’t have to rely on an AI computer system to check in on me.

Wasn't that the duty of one’s mate?

Ah, but in order to acquire a mate, I’d first have to slow down enough to court one. I was busy and although I’d had some relationships, nothing had been serious. My constant travel wasn’t appealing to a potential mate from my species.

I glanced up at the sky. The thick jungle had an overabundance of chlorophyll, which seemed to permeate the air. As a result, the sky held a greenish cast to it, interacting oddly with the blueish sun.

I squinted, looking up in vain for the slight glimmer that’d indicate my ship. It was parked in a stationary orbit and should’ve been directly overhead, but try as I might, I couldn’t see it.

Perhaps it was something to do with the many moons.

“What’s going on up there?” I asked, knowing the force field wasn’t the sole reason why the AI had reached out to me.

“The designated orbital shift will occur in ten galactic minutes,” the AI said. Was it my imagination, or had it actually sounded a bit frustrated I’d forgotten about that?

No, it had to be my imagination.

I cursed under my breath.

In ten minutes, my ship would break out of its geosynchronous orbit and fly off under the AI's direction. Then it’d pass behind the sun, seemingly on a path that’d take it out of the solar system altogether.

The reason why it would do so was threefold: First and most importantly, it’d throw any competing treasure hunters off my trail. It’d give the appearance I’d searched the planet, found nothing, and moved on. Anyone following me would be led away.

I’d grown quite a reputation for myself over my last few scores. I knew for a fact there were less successful hunters watching my moves closely.

The second reason was because having your ship stay stationary in space was like waving a giant flag for any scavenger looking to add your ship to their collection.

A moving ship was much harder to locate and capture. They wouldn’t realize it was completely empty and they’d assume I was on board, ready to fight for my ship and my freedom. Most of the time, it just wasn't worth the effort.

And third, I really, really didn’t want anyone else on the planet getting curious as to what I was doing down here.

“Of course, I hadn’t forgotten,” I lied irritably to the AI.

The AI paused for a few galactic seconds. I didn't think I’d read into it too much. It’d definitely displayed its disbelief. “Then are you close to finding the obelisk?”

I growled under my breath and reached into my pocket to pull out a round pendant. It wasn’t large – the size of a timepiece my father, who loved old-fashioned things, used to carry in his pocket.

The pendant was a dark jet-black stone and etched on it was a representation of the obelisk I was searching for.

“I’ll locate it soon enough.”

The AI's reply was crisp. “Do you need assistance?”

“It depends. Have you verified the that latest scans show the starting point?”

“Affirmative.”

I shrugged. “Then there's nothing more you need to do. Searching for this obelisk is just a matter of following the dots, easy as falling off a Prolixian log.”

Again, the AI paused for an extended period of time. I was just about to check the connection before it spoke again.

“Your ship is due to break orbit in T minus 2.56 galactic minutes.”

“Well, don't wait around on my account.”

“Once the ship leaves orbit, you’ll be out of communication range or assistance, should you need it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Keep my ship safe. I'll do my part here on the surface. When you return, I'll have the treasure in hand.”

“Then tradition dictates I wish you good luck.”

“Thanks.”

Seriously, I knew perfectly well that the AI had only responded as programmed.

Its actual conversations were formed from a tree of programmed responses.

But still, I couldn't help but feel good about it.

I really needed to get out more.

“Good luck to you and keep my ship safe for my return.”

“Affirmative,” the AI responded.

I cut off the communication, ignoring the pang of regret.

After all was said and done, I had to seriously look into making some new friends.

The only real conversation I’d had in weeks was with my own AI system. That was sad.

Shaking my head, I ran along the length of the branch and jumped into the air.

My species were natural climbers and jumpers. I’d be able to cross more of a distance in one leap than most could sprint in the same number of seconds.

I hit the trunk of the next massive tree, digging my claws in, and scaled up to the next large branch. When I got there, I ran along its length, using it as a sturdy pathway.

I wasn’t afraid of heights, knowing that when my people fell, we always landed on our feet.

Thanks to the force field, the bugs had finally left me alone. But there wasn’t anything I could do about the heat and humidity, that made my fur itch.

After an hour of hard running, pausing only to check the dots on the map, I found what I was looking for.

There it was: the obelisk, rising from the jungle floor.

I’d traversed this section of the jungle for some time, and it was the first created artifact I’d seen.

It was as jet-black as my pendant, rising straight and true nearly twenty meters from the jungle floor. Vegetation had been cleared around it in a large circle, and some aspect of the obelisk kept it from growing back.

Interesting.

From this vantage point, looking down at the obelisk, I identified several markings on it. I stared for a moment, cocking my head in consideration. From that angle, I couldn’t read the markings, not even enough to tell what language they were in.

There were plenty to choose. I wasn’t fluent in all of them – you’d have to be an AI. But after a lifetime of hunting, I could recognize most.

The jungle was silent, with no hint that I’d been followed, so far.

I took a step, intending to drop off the side of the branch and fall all the way down to the forest floor. A ping from a sixth sense made me stop in place.

I whipped around, my ears swiveling back and forth trying to identify sounds, the hair along my spine rising as my instincts screamed at me that something wasn’t right.

Finally, my mind caught what my senses had been trying to tell me. There was a high-pitched whistling noise in the air, and it’d only grown louder.

Once I became aware of it, I was able to pinpoint it. I looked up to see a burning streak — a meteor?

No. As the object drew closer, I realized it wasn’t a meteor, not even ship debris. It was too regular, and oval shaped.

An escape pod?

I barely had time to come to that conclusion before I realized the pod had dropped from the sky and was headed straight toward me.

Of all the bad luck!

Immediately, I jumped to the next branch, then the next, trying to get out of the trajectory of the descending pod.

But it fell shockingly fast. And I realized with horror it wouldn’t land on me at all.

No, in fact, it was aimed straight for the obelisk.

“No!” I yelled, but completely powerless to do anything about it.

The sound of the descending out-of-control pod grew into a scream of air as a plume of fire lit from behind it.

It crashed straight into the obelisk, sending it toppling over into pieces on the ground.

KYLA

All my life, I’d been plagued by anxious dreams, the type where you arrive at a classroom naked or have to sit down to take a test you’d never prepared for.

Or, after I grew up a little, I used to dream of returning to a hated job and having to log into a computer system where you didn't know the password and were under a time crunch, stuff like that.

The thing about those dreams? Some part of me always knew they weren't real. It was always a relief to wake up and escape them, but not a surprise.

This time… This time was different.

Not only was I unsure what was real and what wasn't, but the dreams also seemed to stretch on and on. It felt like I’d drifted in and out for weeks… but that couldn't be possible.

In my dreams, I’d worked my real-life job as an assistant in a small publishing house.

Being a grunt meant I got to do all the dirty work. That meant going through the slush pile — an industry term for reading through manuscripts submitted by hopeful writers. It would seem like a dream, especially for someone like me, who loves to read.

But the dirty little secret was that most of the hopeful authors submitted incorrectly formatted work with… extremely questionable uses of the English language. That was if they hadn’t mailed outright insane manifestoes. I got my share of those, too.

And sometimes the cover letter was written in crayon.

The way my particular publishing house worked was I received a cut of every good selling book that’d made it up the ranks. It was a great idea in theory, but a bad one in execution.

Not only did I have to find a worthwhile story in a literary pile of crap, but if it didn't sell well on the market, I’d also be out some much-needed money.

In my dreams—or were they reality? I couldn't tell anymore. My memory seemed to fade in and out, punctuated by things which couldn’t be real.

Anyway, in my dreams, I went through one manuscript after the other, frantically searching, searching, searching for any hint of something that could be pounded into publishable shape.

Did this person submit their manuscript in wingdings?

I blinked and looked outside. The San Francisco skyline had gone as dark as it did every evening with the bright city lights illuminating the foggy air. I blinked my tired eyes, then reached up to rub the bridge of my nose.

Was it ten o'clock already? I could’ve sworn it was only six a couple of minutes ago, and I’d just thought about taking a break. But then I became obsessed with finding that one good manuscript…

I had to get home. My office was okay, but I didn’t want to make the trip home too late at night.

Shoving the thick pile of manuscripts into my huge tote bag, I packed up and headed home.

Even then, I couldn't help myself and plucked out a manuscript at random to read on the bus ride back to my cramped little studio apartment.

The best I’d say about this one was that it was written in English.

But… it appeared to be a philosophical tome about herding cows, when we were a romance publishing company.

“Yee haw,” I muttered to myself, slipping the manuscript to the bottom of the bag.

Once I got home, I made myself some cereal — the dinner of champions— as well as a mug of hot tea. Then I changed into my pajamas and sat beside the lamp at my desk to continue reading through the pile. My muted, forgotten TV provided the only other illumination.

That part of the dream seemed normal. Almost like a memory that I’d had a long time ago.

It even included the part where I fell asleep at my desk. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. I liked to consider myself a work-hard, play-hard type of girl.

But also unfortunately, the only thing I’d done recently was work hard.

The next thing I knew, I was flat on my back, still in my pajamas, surrounded by little green aliens.

That part… had to be a dream. Maybe Close Encounters of the Third Kind had been on my TV, or those little green beings had popped out of some broken part of my psyche.

I’d experienced sleep paralysis before and although I was “awake”, I couldn’t move, couldn't even scream. In the spirit of every nightmarish alien abduction story, the little green aliens seemed completely uncaring about my terror and discomfort. They were the classic ones you saw on TV: dark forest green skin, big heads, and large black pupilless eyes.

And they’d poked and prodded my pajama clad body with various instruments.

I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting it to end.

And that's when I felt the pressure on my head, right on the side of my skull. My eyes flew open and I let out a scream that came out as a grunt as one of the aliens stuck something straight into my brain which looked far too much like a syringe for my liking. And it hurt!

This is a dream… This is just a dream… I told myself, hoping, praying, trying to convince myself that if I fell asleep, I’d wake up back at my desk, or better yet, safe in my bed.

But no, instead everything went fuzzy again. The next thing I knew, I was being shoved along, hazy and confused, still in my little pajama pants with the cute teddy bears on them and shuffling in my fuzzy bunny slippers.

There was a… Well, it kind of looked like one of those delivery tubes that old-style banks used to collect checks and stuff from drive-up windows, the ones that were vacuum powered. Only this one was easily six feet high and I was about to be the contents of it.

It was some kind of pod. They loaded me in, and I turned around just as the glasslike substance sealed around me. Gas hissed and I felt my eyes grow heavy.

What’d felt like a long, long time later, I was vaguely aware something was going on around me. I heard yelling and screaming… But it was far away and in my exhausted, dazed state, I couldn't find it in myself to care.

The world shattered and jolted around. I felt like I was on a carnival ride, flipped end over end. Or maybe a washing machine on the spin cycle.

Then it finally ended.

The next thing I knew, I blinked my eyes open.

My first thought was: Finally. Those terrible dreams, nightmares, hallucinations, whatever were finally over with. I’d wake up and see everything was okay.

What was that smell?

It wasn't bad. It was a lot like dead vegetation. Not terrible, but unusual considering my apartment didn’t have so much as a potted plant. I had a black thumb and learned long ago I’d kill anything I tried to grow.

The air was stiflingly warm, too, and humid, way too humid for San Francisco. Yes, it got foggy, but it hardly ever got hot and foggy.

My eyelids seemed to weigh a million pounds apiece. I cracked them open and focused my vision.

A cat stared down at me.

No. Not a cat. A man in a catsuit. No, a furry?

No… If that was a catsuit, it was the best I'd ever seen. It — he? Maybe? — was covered in gold fur with brown tabby markings over him.

He. Definitely a he, if those broad shoulders and narrow waist were anything to go by.

Despite the fur, he had a square jaw and beautiful green eyes. The rest of him was very human-like from his sharp nose to his pointed pricked ears that came up from his skull. He also wore a khaki-colored shirt, a bandolier with a number of tools, and pants.

Oh and also, he looked really, really pissed.

“Warxle blag fand sthreb.” Something stuttered and sparked in my head. “What the hell do you think you're doing?” he demanded, the words now suddenly all in English. “That was the worst flight I’ve ever seen in my life. Did you come down blind?”

I opened my mouth, but had no words. There was a cat-man… yelling at me.

And he had a lot more to say.

“Why in all of the seven hellish planets did you have to crash your escape pod on the one part of the planet that actually matters?”

I screamed.

My shriek of fear cut through his tirade, and he stepped back long enough for me to scramble out of the tube and stare around. I was in a jungle. The rainforest?

Where in the world was the closest rainforest to San Francisco? Was I in Central America?

The trees and leaves all around me were broad and… giant in a way I’d never seen before. One of the heart-shaped leaves was blue and purple and just about as wide as I was tall.

That wasn't normal. And of course, I hadn’t forgotten about my friend, the cat.

He spoke English, even though I was in Central America or somewhere. That wasn't right, was it?

None of this was right.

When I turned to him, my mouth opened to ask questions. However, he’d looked away, scowling at…some sort of broken object. It seemed to be a pillar of some sort, now lying in pieces on the ground. It looked like it had taken down a few trees when it fell.

I followed the line of sight from the shattered pillar to a few skid marks ending at the tube-like thing I’d been encased in.

I’d seen it before — in my dreams.

“What happened?” I asked.

He whipped around to me. “You tell me, human!”

“What are you?” I whispered.

He seemed to be too angry to hear me. “What is one of you doing all the way out here? No, don't answer that, I don't care. Why’d you feel the need to fly your pod right into the one artificial structure on this entire continent?”

He looked just about angry enough to want to tear his hair out.

“I didn’t fly anything!” I yelled.

“No, that's obvious. You just fell out of the sky. There was no flying about it.”

I’d had enough of this.

Maybe I was still dreaming.

Maybe I’d hit my head on something.

But either way, I was done being yelled at.

“Well? What’ll you do about this?” he demanded.

“I don't know what the hell you're talking about,” I snapped.

“The obelisk, my treasure!”

It was a weird dream and I’d had enough of it.

With a sniff, I turned from him and stomped away in the opposite direction. Maybe there was a road or something somewhere.

I only took a few steps before I looked down and sighed.

I was still in my pajamas and bunny slippers.

This was going to be a very, very weird day.

GIR

I watched the woman, the human woman unless my senses had completely left me, stomp off.

I never thought I’d see one of those with my own two eyes. Usually, lowly treasure hunters like myself didn’t run in the same circles as those who kept actual human women as mates.

And what in the world was she wearing?

I frowned after her, but she’d chosen her own path through the jungle. Besides, I was too irritated to think straight. I turned again to the obelisk, noting with a sigh that not only had it broken into several dozen pieces upon impact, but it’d sunk into the soft, sandy soil.

Within a few galactic minutes, it was sure to be completely covered. From there, deadwood from the trees would obscure any evidence of impact and, depending on how far it sank after that, nobody’d be able to decipher the markings all over it. In fact, nobody’d know that it had ever been here at all without some serious sensor equipment.

I reached for my bandolier and pulled out my communit.

I sent a signal up to my AI, hoping against hope that somehow it was still within range.

But my query returned no answering beep.

Well, I’d been warned I wouldn’t be able to reach it until the ship came back from out of orbit.

Whatever happened next, I was on my own.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out again, I stared at the obelisk, watching it settle into the damp jungle floor.

Why in all the worlds did that infuriating human have to crash straight into the object I needed for my treasure hunt?

She hadn’t even bothered to apologize, either!

But now that the initial shock and anger had passed, I had to admit to myself it clearly wasn’t something that’d been done intentionally. In fact, that model appeared to be the most basic of escape pods.

It was there only to provide life support to its inhabitant, but nothing else. In fact, as I looked over it again, I realized there wasn’t any navigational equipment, either.

Well, that was another sign that the human woman hadn’t been brought here under her own will.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t uncommon for that species. Human females, being universal breeders, were often tracked across the galaxy. It was a sad fact of life and not one I liked to think much about.

My hearing was sharper than that of most species, and I could still hear her stomping away.

I thought she’d been being belligerent after the awful landing that would’ve made anybody cringe.

But now I wondered if she’d just realized she’d woken up in an entirely different place on an entirely different planet from where she had fallen asleep.

Did humans have spaceflight yet? I couldn’t remember. The study of other species wasn't my specialty.

As much as I dabbled in archaeology and dead cultures, the study of living, modern species wasn’t my particular forte.

It didn’t matter.

She wasn’t my problem.

I didn’t care about that lost, confused look in her eyes. It wasn’t my problem that she was all alone and obviously unprepared for what this planet had to offer.

Whoever had harvested her from her planet would no doubt be searching for her soon. They’d know her species’ needs.

And if they locate her, they’ll recapture her and sell her to the highest bidder, a voice inside chided me.

I shook my head.

Again, not my problem. Not even if she was so soft looking… so tempting to touch…

I shuddered, trying to pull my thoughts back into order. There was a reason why that particular species was so popular throughout the galaxy. They were alluring to any species who had eyes.

It was a shame humans had no natural weapons. There were dozens of creatures out there in this jungle that’d find her a tempting snack.

On the heels of that thought came a piercing scream in the direction where she’d gone.

I didn’t think. Turning, I ran after her.

KYLA

I stomped through the jungle with no direction in mind other than ‘away’.

“This is a dream. This is a dream. All of this is just a weird, crappy dream,” I muttered to myself, though I wasn't sure who I was trying to convince.

The evidence was all around me, from the sky that was way too green, to the too blue sun—wait, were there actually two suns?— to all of the very, very alien plants surrounding me.

Oh yeah, and the huge hunky cat-man who’d yelled at me in a language I didn’t know and yet had fully understood.

The day had been chock full of weird stuff, but that had struck me as one of the most bizarre of all.

My ears had heard sounds like no other language I’d ever heard before. He was a cat-man. The noises coming out of his mouth were unlike anything the human throat made.

And yet, something deep in my brain took those sounds and turned them into English.

I'd had high-school-level Spanish, so I was familiar with the concept of grammar and syntax not being the same across all languages.

Surely whatever weird language the hot cat-man spoke hadn’t followed the same weird rules as English. And yet, in my brain, it had made perfect sense.

Side note: Why was he so ridiculously hot?

I’d spent my fair share of time on the Internet and I’d seen quite a few…things in communities. None of them appealed to me, but man, if that guy was a human being, he’d easily be the most built man I’d seen in my life.

I would’ve drooled, my tongue on the ground.

I would've tried to climb him like a tree.

Anyway, I hadn’t failed to notice those “dreams” I’d had of the little green alien men sticking needles into my head happened to correspond with the fact that I now understood another alien.

And he’d totally understood me, too.

What was even stranger was, he seemed used to me.

No, not me.

Humans.

There was no, “What the heck are you? Oh my God, oh my Gods, I'm seeing an alien. Where’d you come from? Let me call the alien police!”

No. It’d all been yelling and blaming because somehow, he thought I’d crashed that weird tube-thing into a weird obelisk-thing.

Oh boy, I hope that wasn’t a religious statue of some sort and I’d just started an interstellar war.

As I walked, my stupid bunny slippers caught on a low root and I stumbled. I threw out a hand to catch myself against the tree trunk, only for my hand to sink up to my wrist. The trunk was a lot softer or a lot rottener than it’d first appeared.

I made a face and pulled back my hand. It was covered with bark dust of some sort but didn't sting or hurt. It was just weird. This whole jungle was weird.

And if it was a dream, it was the most vivid and long-lasting I’d ever experienced. And I’d had my share of experimentation in my college days, so that said something.

What if it was all real? What if I really, really wasn't on Earth anymore?

That’d mean I was trapped on an alien jungle planet with no idea where I was in the galaxy, much less how to get home.

Oh yeah, and I can't emphasize this enough, I was in my favorite teddy bear pajamas and fuzzy bunny slippers.

Why, oh why did the green aliens (who had abducted me? Alien abduction? Really?) feel the need to inject something into my brain and plug me into a tube-thing only to shoot me to a jungle planet, but then conveniently forget to take off my footwear?

“They are aliens, Kyla,” I muttered to myself. “Who knows what kind of weird alien thoughts went through their weird alien brains?”

That didn't matter. My first and greatest priority was to get the hell out of Dodge, find a space launch-pad-thing, and somehow hitch a ride back to Earth.

There. Plan set. It wasn't a good plan, but it was some sort of plan.

Instantly, I felt better. I was the type of person who liked to have to-do lists and got real satisfaction out of checking off items one by one.

My last roommate said it was some sort of sickness, my little obsession with lists, but she never paid her rent on time, so she could kick rocks.

A soft, frantic noise broke through my angry ruminating about my roommate.

I tensed, turning my head this way and that. Was it a predator? Was I in danger?

Stupid question. Of course I was in danger.

But the sound was…tiny and frantic.

It tugged all my instincts. And although it wasn't in English – wasn't words at all, it was a universal cry for help.

It’d come from my right.

There was some thick brush past there, but again, it was surprisingly soft to the touch, kinda like pushing back leaves made of velvet.

I strode forward, kicking aside stray vines with my bunny slippers when the going got too rough.

Then finally, I found the source of the noise.

It was… Well, I'm not sure what it was. Some kind of chick? Like, a baby chicken.

But not exactly.

The chick stood maybe five inches tall from its chicken-like little feet to its adorable fuzzy-wuzzy head. It even had a cute little chicken beak. The main difference was that it was a shocking lilac purple and for some reason, it also had stand-up ears like a bunny rabbit.

This thing was like the Cadbury Creme Egg mascot in reverse. Instead of a bunny rabbit sitting on a bunch of eggs, it was a baby chick with the ears of a bunny rabbit.

And it was clearly in trouble. It bounced around, fluttering its tiny purple wings anxiously. I didn't know if it was too young and fell out of the nest, or if it was just unable to get into the air.

And crawling around, like snakes, were vines with thorns on the end. Every time the little chick would land, a vine would sneak over and try to wrap itself around the tiny creature. The chick peeped again, hopping out of the way, only to be struck at by a new vine.

They were everywhere and more were slithering out from the underbrush.

The chick had been lucky so far, but it couldn't stay lucky forever. Plus, the vines would only need to get lucky once.

I didn't think, only acted. After all, I had footwear… Even if they had funny fuzzy rabbit heads on top of the toes.

“I'm coming!” I called. Hey, I had a universal translator, maybe it’d work the other way, too. “I'm coming. Hold on!”

I stepped toward it, but the moment my foot trod in the clearing, half the vines slithered toward me.

I picked up my feet in quick, mincing steps, making my way to the desperately peeping chick.

It fluttered up to escape a vine and, cupping my hands, I caught it from the air.

It peeped again, equally as surprised and scared by my presence.

“It's okay, little guy.” I clutched it close and held it to my breast.

It stopped struggling, and I felt it trembling between my cupped hands.

The vines were all around me.

I’d taken their prey, and in doing so, turned myself into their number one target.

Stepping quickly, I tried to avoid them, but they were thick on the ground. My left foot struck a vine and it coiled instantly, wrapping around my ankle. The hooking thorns found my flesh and sank in deep.

I couldn't help it. I screamed, trying to jerk away, but that only made it hook in deeper.

In an instant, the vines moved even faster, wrapping loops around my leg.

I bent down to pull them away, but they were shockingly strong.

And there were more coming. I hadn’t paid close enough attention and within a few seconds, my right ankle was hooked, too.

More vines came to join the party, and it was all too easy to imagine them making their way up my legs, coiling around me and taking me down to rip me into edible chunks.

“Help!” I screamed, knowing I was all alone on this planet, with no one to save me.

Too far from home.

I clutched the little purple chick tighter. It shivered. If I died, it’d go down with me and I had the feeling we both knew it.

“Help!” I yelled again.

Then, with the sound of snapping branches, the cat-man arrived.

“Watch out!” I yelled. He’d come through the brush so fast, he was in danger of stepping on the vines and getting himself ensnared. “Man-eating vines!”

My would-be rescuer snarled, showing very sharp pointed eyeteeth between very human-like teeth.

Then he reached into his bandolier-belt-thing and drew a laser sword weapon of some sort.

Okay, I'll just call it like I saw it: it was a very thin lightsaber.

Nope.

Can’t do it.

Just can’t.

Laser sword it is.

The blade itself was the width of a pencil, but as he brought it down on the first of the vines, he proved it was an extremely effective weapon. The laser sword sheared through the first of the vines and set the remaining halves on fire.

The vines screamed. Yes, screamed.

Some of them tried to recoil, but my rescuer was too fast for them. He brought the sword down in graceful and efficient arcs, cutting and burning through the vines as they tried to slither away.

The vines wrapping around my ankles twitched futilely as if trying to run too, but they just sank deeper into my skin. I screamed in pain, then screamed again as my rescuer knelt down and ripped them away all at once.

Sort of like ripping off a Band-Aid, but a lot more painful.

I hadn’t had the strength to remove one of those vines, but he simply ripped them apart like they were tissue paper.

I collapsed, falling on my butt and only just managing to shield the little cute critter from the fall. Luckily by then, the ground was clear and my rescuer dispatched the rest of the living vines.

“Idiot!” he snapped, turning back to me. “It's easy enough to avoid bloodsucking vines. Did you just waltz right into a whole pack of them?”

Stunned, I looked up at him, unsure of what to say.

“Did you just say… waltz? You're an alien. You waltz?”

He frowned down at me.

“I know the vines hadn't gotten enough thorns into you to start the bloodsucking process, so I’ll assume your foolishness is due to shock.”

“Hey!”

He reached and pulled something else from his bandolier. It was some sort of hand-held can.

I flinched back, but once again, he was too strong for me.

Thanks to my experience with the little green aliens, I’d developed a phobia of alien technology I didn’t understand.

“No!”

“Hold still,” he grumbled, then shook the little container and something inside it sloshed. Gripping my bare calf in one strong hand, he sprayed the solution over my bleeding ankle.

The vines had made a disgusting bloody ring around my leg.

It stung for half a second, but was followed a moment later with a sense of relief. Before my disbelieving eyes, my skin repaired itself. The bloody punctures filled in and within a few moments, the holes were sealed.

I reached down and touched the new skin. It was a little paler than the skin around it as if it’d never been exposed to light before, but it was whole and new and most importantly, didn’t hurt.

“How’d you do that?”

He didn’t answer for a few seconds, turning his attention to spraying my other ankle. Hey, I wasn’t about to complain as long as I was fixed at the end. The second ankle healed just as quickly as the first.

“Humans are universal species,” he grunted.

“A universal… what?” I asked.

He shrugged. “You’re compatible with the vast majority of the other species in the galaxy. So most medical solutions work well on you. It’s why you were captured.”

“You know why I was captured?” I asked, shocked.

He looked at me, his very bushy eyebrows pinched. “Don’t you?”

I shook my head. “I was at home. Then the next thing I knew, you were yelling at me.”

It wasn’t strictly the truth, but close enough.

And was it my imagination or did he look a little shamefaced at the way he’d acted? “I… see.”

He rose to his full, very impressive height and reached down a hand.

Perhaps I was in shock because it took me a few seconds to realize what he was doing. He’d offered me his hand to help me stand up. Reluctantly, I took it and he pulled me back up to my feet with shocking ease.

“And I didn’t just stumble into those terrible vines,” I felt obliged to say. I opened my hands to reveal the little purple critter.

It blinked against the sudden light, peeping at me. Before I could do anything or explain myself, it jumped to my shoulder, reached up, and nestled against my cheek.

Then it started peeping happily in a singsong sort of voice.

I giggled and reached up to pat its downy little head and it nuzzled my fingers.

I glanced at my rescuer, fully expecting him to be as charmed by the little purple critter as I was, but he only looked vaguely uncomfortable.

“Useless creatures,” he muttered, turning away.

I wasn’t sure if he meant me or my brand new little friend.

I decided to play it like he was talking about my new pet. “I think he’s cute,” I said. “And I’m going to name him Bob.”

“Do what you want,” he said, stepping away.

I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should continue my path through the jungle of man-eating vines and who knows what else, or follow the grumpy stranger with the magic healing spray and laser sword weapons.

Okay, it wasn’t a decision at all.

I followed the hot guy.

“Thanks for your help back there,” I said, panting as I caught up to him. He glanced my way, making no other acknowledgment.

“My name is Kyla,” I said. “I didn’t catch your name.”

You never gave me your name because you’ve been nothing but rude except when you just saved my life back then, I thought to myself.

He looked at me, considering.

“I am called Gir Lya’sek,” he said.

I started to repeat his name, but despite my new translation prowess, my tongue tripped on itself halfway there. “Is it okay if I just call you Gir?” I asked.

“Most people do,” he confirmed.

“Cool.” I paused for a second. “Okay, Gir, can I ask you a few questions?”

“You’ve done nothing but ask questions,” he grumbled.

“Well, I’m sure if the day ever comes where you find yourself waking up on a completely alien world in only your pajamas and slippers, you’ll have a lot of questions yourself,” I said tartly.

His lips curled up into a slight smile.

“Anyway,” I continued, “I don’t know if I’d been dreaming or whatever, but I swear little green men kidnapped me from my home and injected my head with something. You know, big heads, big black soulless eyes. Do you know them?”

“Yes,” he said, the smile gone and now he made a face like he’d tasted something terrible. “I am aware of that species. They are… traffickers, for lack of a better term.”

“Okay, new question.” That was shocking but not entirely surprising. I’d halfway figured that stuff out myself.

“Why would traffickers go through all the time and trouble to kidnap little ole me, pump my head full of stuff that I assume lets me understand aliens —” I paused for a second, noticing his nod to confirm my theory. Cool, cool. Two out of two. Go, Kyla. “Then drop me into a jungle of man-eating vines. Is this a Hunger Game situation?”

“I don’t understand,” he said. “Are you hungry?”

“Not yet. Did they put me into a dangerous environment just to get entertainment out of watching me die?” I clarified.

Gir looked at me. “Is that a form of entertainment in your world?”

“Yes, but no. It’s fiction, not real, so kind of yes, kind of no. You aren’t involved with the alien traffickers, are you?”

He jerked, and I knew I’d possibly made a mistake and let my mouth get away from me when he turned to face me with an angry growl. “I’m not involved with the traffickers,” he said. “I am a treasure hunter, which is a distinguished career.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, holding up my hands. “You can’t fault a girl for asking.”

Gir looked at me as if he’d very much faulted me for asking, but then decided not to bother.

He continued walking for a few steps. After making sure he wasn’t too angry, I followed.

“I don’t know how you arrived on this planet,” he said. “But I do have some theories.”

“Oh?”

He nodded. “This planet is filled with thieves and outlaws, which means the authorities don’t often visit it. It’s likely very close to some sort of black-market trade route, if it doesn’t have an entire hidden base on it already.”

Makes sense, I thought, thinking of the bad parts of town where you could get basically anything and the cops looked the other way.

“And that was an escape pod,” he said, then paused. “You do know what an escape pod is, don’t you?”

“Kind of like a life raft in space?” I guessed.

It must’ve translated correctly – man, this translator thing was pretty good — because he nodded. “Just so. My theory is your captors met with some kind of problem within this solar system. The escape pod launched and you were taken to the closest habitable planet.”

“Is space really that dangerous?” I asked. That was probably a stupid question, too. It was space. Of course it was dangerous.

Gir smirked. “It can be when you’re an illegal criminal ring running trafficked goods. Maybe it was the authorities cracking down on them and they’d just sent the pods in order to either obscure their crime or stash you somewhere to pick you up at a later time.”

I shivered. “Or…?”

“Or they got into a battle with a rival faction and the ship was either disabled or destroyed and the pods deployed themselves. Either way, they or the people who tried to blow them out of the sky will be after their lost goods.”

And again, he glanced at me.

“So, you’re saying I should be on the lookout,” I said.

“Humans are a popular trafficked species,” he said.

I fell silent for a few minutes, mulling it over.

“Can I ask another question?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes — oh my god, an alien just rolled his eyes at me. And he’d only known me for a couple of minutes. It’d be a great friendship, I could tell.

“Go ahead,” he said.

“Where are we going?”

This time, he growled under his breath. “I’m getting back to work.”

“And your work is…”

“Treasure hunting.”

Like Indiana Jones? I thought to myself but managed to keep it to myself. I knew he wouldn’t get the reference.

Oh hell. No one was going to get my references ever again.

I petted Bob frantically as I tried to calm my heartbeat.

“I’ll try to salvage...” I heard his teeth grind together. “The situation. Your escape pod crashed right into one of the most important artifacts in the jungle. I’d searched for it for months.”

“I’d apologize,” I said, “but I was unconscious at the time.”

Nevertheless, I could tell when I’d annoyed somebody and pushed my luck. I fell silent as we trudged through the thick jungle. I didn't remember taking this path the first time, but I’d been sort of stuck in my own head, boggling about aliens.

Come to think of it, I still wasn't over the whole oh my god, we're not alone in the universe, and I'm millions — maybe trillions – of miles from home thing, yet. It’d take more than an hour.

Bob, the cute little critter, sang another few notes and I reached up to pet his little head. I’d have to figure out what he ate.

Oh boy, I’d have to figure out what I’d eat around here. Maybe the grumpy hot guy would be okay with sharing his supplies.

My thoughts came to a halt when we stopped in front of the escape pod and the remains of the obelisk.

Now that I was mostly out of shock… Yeah, I could see my escape pod had done a number on the stone artifact. In fact, I was very lucky it’d been the stone that’d given way and not the escape pod I’d crashed down in. Those things were tough.

I stepped forward.

“What are you doing?” Gir asked.

“I am…looking over the ancient alien artifact?” I cocked my head. “It's safe, right?

“It's safe,” he grumbled, stepping to my side. “And I suppose you can’t damage it any further.”

“This thing is really crazy looking,” I muttered, reaching out to touch the obelisk. It was…cold, weirdly cold. Like, it’d just come out of a refrigerator cold. Was that normal? It’d also sunk into the ground. Apparently, the soil was really soft here and it didn’t like the new weight of the obelisk.

“So… I suppose the treasure you are looking for isn't inside the obelisk?” I asked, looking over the thing again. It was cracked open, but unlike a piñata, no coins or candy spilled out. It seemed to be rock all the way through.

Gir's voice was grave. “It was supposed to lead me to the treasure.”

I turned to him. “So… Why can't it now?”

“Because you knocked it over.”

“Why should that matter?” I asked.

He ran his hand over his head in a startlingly human gesture. Then, to my surprise, he reached for his belt and showed me a dark little pocket-watch-sized pendant.

In fact, it looked a lot like the obelisk.

“This was supposed to scan the obelisk – all four sides of it,” he said, nodding down to the obelisk which currently lay on one side, obscuring it. “I can’t continue with partial information, and my ship is well out of range, so I don't have the tools to lift it again. Even if I did…” He sighed. “By the time my ship arrives, it’ll surely be sunken into the soil. It may be irretrievable by then.”

“Bummer,” I said, holding out a hand. “Can I see your device?”

He hesitated, but as he’d already said, what else could I do to it?

He handed it over. It was just as cold as the obelisk and unusually heavy, like I held a brick of gold instead of a tiny alien pendant.

Turning, I located an imperfection in the obelisk and studied it for a moment. Then I studied the pendant in my hand.

The imperfections looked to be the same size. And I’d seen enough movies to know how this went. I slotted the pendant into a carving that seemed to be perfectly sized for it.

“What are you —” Gir stepped forward, alarmed, but then stepped back again as the entire obelisk activated.

GIR

Within the space of a heartbeat, I had been shocked beyond all words.

How in the world did this clueless human being, who’d never so much as taken a step off her own planet before, figured out a piece of technology eluding even me?

I must truly be off my game.

She stared at the rapidly activating obelisk, a brilliant grin stretching across her face. It made her look even more beautiful than she had before.

The light of discovery seemed to make her glow from within.

And her glow was rapidly increasing.

The obelisk had cracked in several places when it’d fallen, but that hadn’t seemed to impede it in any way. In fact, light shone out of the large and tiny cracks — more and more every second.

Soon, I was worried something inside would rupture. Without a word, I scooped Kyla up. She yelped, clinging to me, the little creature on her shoulder still singing merrily and unconcerned.

“What do you think you're doing?” she cried.

“Making sure we don’t get caught in the blast,” I panted, jumping to the nearest boulder to duck behind it with her. When we were safely on the other side, I set her down.

A low hum had started up from the obelisk, barely at the edge of my perception, and judging by Kyla's reaction, only perceptible to her once it really started going. Apparently human ears weren’t as sensitive as my own.

The light was so blinding that even squinting, I barely saw the obelisk. Either that was normal, or it was about to rupture.

I ducked back behind the boulder. “What do we do —” Kyla started to say, but then frowned as the intense humming suddenly dropped off.

I gave it a breath of time, but when no large explosion happened, I risked looking around the boulder. The light had spread from the obelisk outward into a detailed holographic image.

A complex series of wavy lines stood out in the middle of the air, completely surrounding the entire area. I suspected with the force of this projection, some of the lights shone below the soil too, but of course, we couldn’t see them.

Kyla glanced around the boulder and broke into another wide, brilliant smile when she saw the hologram.

She thumped my chest with a small, delicate hand. “Is that what you were worried about?”

“I wasn’t worried,” I lied, rubbing my chest.

She laughed lightly and stepped fully around the boulder to approach the obelisk. “Do you think it's safe?”

“It's only a hologram, it should be,” I confirmed, keeping an eye out just in case.

“What’re these things?” she asked, echoing my own thoughts. “Some kind of language? Can you read it?”

“It’s no language that I've ever seen,” I said, remembering I was speaking to an ignorant alien and knew I must clarify.

“The universal language implant would allow us to translate any visual language as well as the auditory speech.”

“So, you mean I can read every language now?” she asked, delighted.

It was so odd to be happy about what I’d considered to be normal things. “Of course,” I said. “How else can many species across all the different intelligent worlds possibly communicate with one another?”

She shrugged. “To be honest, languages weren't ever my thing. I had trouble communicating with other people who spoke English, you know what I mean?”

I stared at her. “No?”

She just smiled brightly at me and turned to examine the wavy lines once more as if hoping to glean something from them. “I have a question.”

“Why am I not surprised?” I asked the empty air.

I pretended to be annoyed, but I found her constant questions to be endearing.

It was fascinating watching somebody see something that I’d found utterly mundane as new for the first time.

“Okay, so does this universal translator automatically translate every language ever, or only the languages it’s been updated with?”

I blinked. “What’s the difference?”

She paused for a moment, her hip cocked and one hand on her tiny waist. “I don't know anything about this technology. Maybe it’s telepathic. Maybe it reads the intent of the person speaking and translates it literally to me. I don't know how that’d work for written words, but maybe it's possible? I didn't think it was possible to go to another planet before yesterday. So… there you go,” she shrugged. “Tell me more.”

I blinked. “No, it’s not telepathically reading thoughts. It translates all written and spoken versions of any language into terms your brain would recognize.”

“So, if you guys discovered a new planet in the galaxy, it wouldn’t automatically just translate that new language, right?”

“That is correct,” I confirmed. “And that does happen, but once the new language is deciphered, an update is broadcast out through any civilized locations. Once you reach your first city, you’ll receive notice from the implant about a standard update. It’s common.”

“So, this could be a language nobody’s ever seen before,” she said, returning her attention back to the holograms. Then she pressed her fingers to her bottom lip and thought. “Though, it doesn't look like a language, does it?”

I realized I’d spent much more time studying her than I had the actual holograms coming out of the obelisk.

“I don’t believe I’ve seen this language, either,” I admitted reluctantly.

“Okay, then it's experimentation time.”

And without any hesitation at all, she strode forward and removed the pendant device from the slot.

“Wait —” I started to say, but it didn't matter. Then she held the device in her hand, but the holographic image still showed.

“That's interesting,” she said, looking down at the pendant. “This is kind of like a key and once the door is unlocked, it stays unlocked.”

“More likely, that bright light was the ancient power system cycling up,” I said, stepping forward, holding out my hand. She placed the pendant in my palm, and I tried not to think too hard about her soft skin meeting the calluses of my hand.

“So, it’ll fade eventually,” she said, turning back to the lines. “Maybe the number of dips and arches are meant to mean something. Like Morse code…” She brought her hand up to nibble at her lower lip again, and the little creature on her shoulder trilled as if in agreement, although I was fairly certain it wasn’t intelligent enough to have a language of its own.

I turned to study the lines, and we passed the next few minutes in silence.

For a woman with so many questions in her mind, she seemed to know when to settle down and take things seriously. I was impressed with her.

Not only was she strangely fascinating, but it was also clear she was smart and resilient. Had I been kidnapped by alien traffickers and brought to a new world, I wasn’t sure I’d have handled the situation with so much grace.

Yet there she was, trying to puzzle out an alien language with someone whom she must have thought was very odd indeed… And she was not falling apart.

Were all humans like that, or was there something special about her?

“Hey,” she said abruptly, and I blinked out of my musings, realizing that once again, I’d gotten myself caught up in thinking about her rather than the mission ahead.

She stared at the obelisk, her head cocked to the side. “You know, this looks a little bit like a map of the currents, you know, for ocean navigation?”

“I'm not sure what you mean,” I said.

“Maybe it's a human thing,” she allowed, her head still cocked. “And normally this obelisk is upright, correct?”

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“So maybe we’re actually reading this sideways.”

Then she stepped back, looked at the obelisk, and looked at the sky.

This was a thick jungle and the horizon wasn’t often seen through the tall canopy. However, this area had been cleared out due to the obelisk. I’d already noted that no vegetation grew around it.

Kyla pointed. “Do you think these wavy lines might match up with those mountains out there?”

I squinted.

She was right. The top lines perfectly matched the curve of the mountains along the horizon.

Not only that, but the lower lines also matched a shadowy line on the face of a nearby mountain — or it would, if the obelisk was vertical.

Quickly, I took out my communit and snapped a picture of the wavy lines, then the obelisk. Then the wavy lines of the obelisk, then the mountainside.

Then, with some digital manipulation, I combined the two images.

Kyla came to my side and looked over my shoulder, nodding along. “They match up.”

“They match up,” I confirmed, pointing. “Our next destination is that way.”

KYLA

So just like that, Gir and I set off through the jungle on a path that’d take us to a shadowy mountain of (hopefully not) Doom.

It wasn’t easy.

There weren’t any roads through the jungle, and Gir gave me a weird look when I asked about it. Apparently, aliens didn't do roads. Maybe they all had hover cars, or they were really big into getting their steps in every day, or whatever.

And I was still in my pajamas.

I trudged along after Gir. It was a jungle, meaning everything was sort of misty and really wet. My bunny slippers were soaked through and made unpleasant squelching sounds at every step.

Kind of embarrassing, but I wasn't about to kick them off my feet and go barefoot through the jungle.

Now that I wasn't completely fascinated by studying an ancient alien artifact, my new reality tried to rear its ugly head in my thoughts once more.

What the heck was I doing right now?!

Why’d I follow Gir around on a treasure hunt of all things, when I should be — I don't know, trying to find my way back home?

Or maybe take revenge on the aliens who’d kidnapped me? Or something?

That's what a protagonist in a novel or an exciting action sci-fi movie would be doing.

But, in the safety of my own head, I had to be honest with myself.

There just wasn't much for me to go back home to.

A dead-end job that paid me too little and stressed me out too much.

My parents had died in a car crash when I was in college.

I’d spent so much time working, I had colleagues rather than friends.

Granted, I’d been off Earth for maybe a day, but I wasn't chomping at the bit to go back there anytime soon.

The last few hours with Gir had been more exciting than the last six months of my existence back on Earth.

On my shoulder, critter Bob cheeped and rubbed his head over my cheek again, singing a little happy tune to himself. Maybe he was part canary as well as purple chicken-bunny.

I smiled to myself and rubbed the top of his head.

I’d always wanted a pet, but my apartment had been too small, and I worked too many hours to devote enough time to an animal.

Now, I’d found myself a little friend.

Maybe two friends, if I counted Gir.

Though he certainly wasn't little. He was built like a brick wall, and I was shocked a guy like him would give a girl like me the time of day.

Sure, he was grumpy, but he’d come to my rescue at a moment’s notice and had totally not expected payment or anything else afterward.

In fact, he’d been downright heroic. And strong. He had ripped those vines apart like they were no big deal.

If I had to be trapped in a scary alien jungle, he was a good partner to have. On top of that, he’d been kind to me, in his own way. And he certainly was attractive.

Again, in his own fuzzy way.

And brooding and mysteriously quiet.

Maybe I could change that.

“So, Gir…” I started, purposefully chipper.

He barely glanced at me. “You have more questions,” he said with a sigh.

I beamed at him, brightly. “I just realized you haven't told me a thing about this treasure.”

He stiffened, and I read his hesitance.

“I don't want any of it,” I said. “Though I wouldn't say no to a finder’s fee. Hopefully, whatever you're looking for doesn’t weigh much.”

I made a point of patting my shorts. “I don't have any pockets to carry anything out with me. Or anything to my name, really. Did I tell you these aren't the clothes I usually wear?”

He blinked. I was pretty sure I’d lost him somewhere, but he’d never admit it.

“What style of clothing do you normally wear?”

“Not pajamas,” I said. “At least, not outside of my house. I'm not one of those women who wears lounge pants to the local Walmart either, if you know what I'm saying.”

“I assure you,” he said blandly, “I don’t know what you’re saying.”

“That’s probably for the best,” I said. “But you should probably tell me what we're looking for at least, just in case if we end up finding it, I don't overlook it as something else.”

“The treasure will be easy to spot, once we find it,” he grumbled. “It’s reported to be vast, and yes, I’ll share a portion of it with you.” He paused. “A small portion.”

“Okay. As long as it's enough to buy me a ticket back home. Maybe first class?” I asked. “That's all I need.”

“You ought to take more than that,” he rumbled, thinking.

I liked that he took me seriously. Most guys tended to space out when I really got rolling, but Gir treated my words with care and consideration, as if they’d had weight.

As if they mattered to him.

“That may or may not be possible,” I said, “depending on what the treasure actually is. It's not like I can go to the nearest pawn shop on Earth and tell the guy behind the counter, ‘Oh yeah I got these alien gems. How much can you give me for them?’ People will ask questions, and I won't have any answers they’d like.”

“I see,” he said.

I waited for a moment, but it was all he said. So I made a rolling gesture with my hand. “So… spill. Tell me about this treasure. All I know so far is that there's going to be a lot of it. “

“Rumor says there’s a lot,” he said, gesturing for us to sit down on a mossy rock in a clearing. I did, happy to rest my bunny-slipper-clad feet.

Gir dug in his bandolier and pulled out what I swear to you looked a lot like a chocolate bar.

He broke it into two pieces and offered me one. I took it and nibbled. It looked like chocolate, but it tasted just like beef stew. I’d walked for hours and I was totally in the mood for beef stew!

I took a larger bite and tried not to moan around the delicious flavors slipping down my throat.

Bob peeped at me, and I broke off a crumb to feed him. He pecked at it eagerly.

Two bites in, and already I was surprisingly full. What was this stuff? I gave Bob another crumb and he only ate half of it. Apparently, this stuff was ultra-dense for him, too.

Gir had finished his entire half of a bar and leaned back with a satisfied expression as if he’d just downed a whole meal.

“The treasure,” he said unexpectedly.

I sat up, interested. “Yes?”

He eyed me. “It’s said to come from an ancient pirate king. He was a criminal, or so some said. Others called him a liberator of the poor and downtrodden.”

I perked up. “So, was he a ‘steal from the rich and give to the poor’ sort of guy?”

“Yes and no,” he said after some deliberation. “He most certainly stole from the rich and powerful, and some of his wealth found its way to the poor, though most of it simply disappeared.”

“The pirate king had stashed it away,” I said, liking the story.

Gir gave me an odd look. “Indeed.”

“So, what happened to him?”

“Eventually, the Alliance, the main governing body in this sector of space, brought together all of their resources to capture him. A massive space battle that turned into a chase that spanned several solar systems. Finally, the pirate king was captured and executed by the Alliance, but he never gave away the location of his treasure. Those of his subordinates who survived the battle claimed he didn’t give away all of his loot. Not even half.”

“Wow,” I said. “And now you think you’ve found the location of his stash?”

Gir nodded and once again brought out the pendant. “There’ve been rumors for the last half-century of different locations of the treasure. Most were garbage, as those stories always grow in the telling. However, I knew I’d found something special when I discovered this.”

He held the pendant up for me to see. “I bought it from a washed-up old spacer at a bar. He’d scavenged the pirate king space battle zone — many ships were left derelict afterwards. He didn’t know what he had, though I suspected he’d picked up something that’d set adrift from the pirate king’s own ship.”

“Wow,” I said again. “No offense, but that’s a bit of a leap. What makes you so sure?”

He shrugged, not taking offense at my question. “It’s speculation, but I’ve studied everything I could find about the pirate king since I was a young cub. It’s been somewhat of an obsession of mine for a long time.”

“So, finding this treasure has been a dream of yours.”

He nodded. “You could say that. It’s what originally led me to take up treasure hunting to begin with. I’ve been somewhat successful, but this… this would be a score beyond all imagining.”

I sat back, considering him. Honestly, I wasn't sure if he was brave for following his longtime dream, or an idiot.

I’d followed my dreams, which had led me to a publishing company.

It’d given me nothing but grief.

“We have a saying on my planet,” I said. “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.”

He snorted at me. “I’m not naïve. I know that if I should ever locate that large cache, other people would kill to find it.”

“At the very least,” I agreed. “I've only been out in the wider galaxy for like a day, but I know it's a dangerous place.”

“It is,” he confirmed. “But on the bright side, I’ll have the funds to protect what I’ve found.”

“You're absolutely right,” I said, and we exchanged a smile. “Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?”

That was the very second when the loose soil caved under our feet and we plunged down below the jungle floor.

GIR

As we fell, my body automatically twisted itself in the direction of gravity. It wasn’t something I had to think about. It was completely subconscious — an innate ability of my species.

I’d barely righted myself before we landed, hard.

Naturally, my feet took the bulk of the hit. I felt the impact all the way up my legs and through my spine.

It seemed humans didn’t have the natural fall reflex, because Kyla landed half on her side, half parallel to the ground, catching herself on her arms with a resounding ‘oomph’.

It looked painful.

I bent to her. “Kyla, are you alright?”

She wheezed, shook her head, wheezed again, then nodded. I knelt next to her, examining her for any bone breaks. As far as I could tell, she hadn’t hit her head, but one couldn’t be too careful with brain injuries, no matter the species.

However, it seemed as if nothing more than her breath had been knocked out of her.

“Bob,” she wheezed.

I paused for a moment, confused. Who was Bob? Then I heard a soft peep from a few feet away. I glanced over, to see the small jungle creature righting itself using its stubby, pointless wings.

Why would a creature evolve something that he couldn't even properly use?

Kyla mustn’t’ve been too injured because she reached for the creature.

However, it must’ve had other ideas because it ran off, agitated.

“Bob!” she called, her voice wobbling. “Bob, come back!”

However, Bob was long gone down the empty tunnel system we’d fallen into.

“Kyla, can you stand?” I asked, still trying to assess her. My hands skimmed over her body in what I hoped was a professional manner.

Yes, the woman was attractive, but she might be hurt and —

To my shock, she burst into tears, heart-wrenching, broken weeping.

“Kyla!” I said again, shocked.

She shook her head, trying to hiccup something out, but seemed completely unable to speak. I couldn’t do anything but gather her into my arms.

“Are you hurt?” I asked anxiously.

“No!” she sobbed. “It's just… It's just too much. I'm so far away from home… I'm on a strange alien planet, in a deadly jungle, and now the only friend I have in the world hates me. He ran away!”

She completely dissolved into tears again.

The only thing I could do was hold her close and smooth back her hair, muttering little nothings.

The poor woman. I couldn’t blame her. By any reckoning, she’d had a terrible day.

And I couldn’t even promise her it would get better.

Finally, her tears eased and she slowly pulled herself together, wiping at her face and sniffling aloud.

“I'm so sorry,” she apologized.

I shook my head and relaxed my grip on her. Unfortunately, she took that as a sign to move off my lap and away.

The odd emptiness in my chest was strange and unfamiliar.

I’d liked having her in my arms, pressed close to me.

Far more than I should.

Kneeling to face me, she rubbed at her cheeks. Her skin was blotchy from the crying, but anybody with eyes could see there was also high emotion there. She’d gone through a traumatic experience, and crying was the body's way of helping to release some of that stress.

“I feel so stupid,” she said. “Here I am, falling apart all over you. Are you hurt? I didn’t think to ask…”

“I'm fine,” I said. “My species can take falls from a much greater height than that without any injury.”

“Don't tell me that you land on your feet,” she quavered.

“How’d you know?”

She stared at me for a second as if wondering if I was joking or not.

I stared back, utterly serious.

Kyla snorted and wiped a lingering tear away. “It’s just a guess. But I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. I've never been on an alien planet before. Is falling into caverns opening up under your feet normal?”

“It can be,” I said. “Every planet is different, and the first thing you have to expect is the unexpected.”

“I've lived in the same city all my life,” she confessed. “And our people don't know anything about the rest of the galaxy.”

“I know that.”

“You do?”

I shrugged. “I’ve heard about your people. I told you before that you are a universal species. That makes you special. And that makes vested interests want to make sure your people stay ignorant of the rest of the galaxy.”

She scowled, and I was glad to see it because it proved she’d pulled herself together, emotionally as well as physically. She was thinking again. “Because it makes us really easy to kidnap, right?” she said.

I nodded reluctantly.

She snorted. “You know, we have stories of alien abductions on our planet, but most of the time they’re passed off as fake or conspiracy theories.”

“I’d wondered,” I said. “Surely your people must’ve noticed when their women went missing.”

She stared at me, then in her eyes, I saw a new light of sick revelation. “Women do, but people just assume it… I don't know, they happened because of murderers and stuff? Maybe serial killers? Nothing like out of the X-Files.” She sighed and looked around. “Where are we?”

“Tunnel system,” I said dryly. “There are extensive tunnels all around this jungle.” I knew about it, but they're hard to avoid. “Some large animal digs out the soil underneath the jungle.”

“Great,” she sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Nobody’ll ever believe me when I get back home,” she muttered to herself.

Are you sure you want to go back home? I thought, but didn’t say.

It wasn’t my place, and besides, why had I allowed myself to become so attached to this human woman?

Oh, I knew why.

Once again, humans were a universal species, which meant universal breeders.

But this was something more.

Something that wasn’t about her just being human.

This was all about Kyla.

I leaned closer to her than was strictly necessary. I hadn’t realized I was doing it until she looked up and met my eyes.

As usual, there seemed to be a question on her lips. But then she thought twice about it. Her little pink tongue peeked out and licked at her bottom lip.

“Kyla?” I asked.

“Yes?” Her gaze never left my own, and her voice was breathless.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I closed the distance between us.

I pressed my lips against hers.

For a second, I thought I’d made a terrible mistake. She was frozen, and I cursed myself unto my third ancestor.

Kyla was a human fresh from Earth. She hadn’t been off-planet before, had never been aware of any species other than from her own world. She—

She made a little sound of pure want in the back of her throat and pushed into my touch.

Her lips parted for me and my tongue swept in to caress hers. Again, she hesitated as if surprised – did humans not kiss each other like that?

Then she shivered and seemed to melt into me, tilting her head to the side to give me access.

I took full advantage. My hand rested on her tiny waist, which was devoid of fur and had only soft, silky skin underneath her clothing. She smelled amazing, like the finest flowers on my home planet.

Our breaths mingled between us. Kyla took a sip of air and murmured one word, “Gir…”

There was a pleading note in her voice, dazed with pleasure. She wanted more and I wanted to give it to her.

With a surge of strength, I pulled her back into my lap. She came willingly, her knees falling to either side of my hips to straddle me as we kissed.

She gripped my shoulders, her small hands running over the muscles of my shoulders and down my back.

My own hands weren’t idle, either. During our journey together through the jungle, I’d done everything I could think of not to stare at her hungrily. I didn’t want to intimidate her in any way.

Now, all those repressed emotions seemed to bubble back up at once. I wanted this woman, wanted to possess her, to dive into her and hear her pleasured little sounds.

I wanted to feel her, touch her, possess her…

My hands slipped under her odd clothing, past the firm, flat skin of her stomach to the soft mounds of her breasts. I cupped first one, then the other.

She shivered and pulled her lips from mine to take a ragged gasp of air. Following the motion, I pressed more kisses down her neck, using just the tips of my sharp eyeteeth to trail down the skin. She arched her back into my touch, groaning aloud.

Her breasts heaved under my hands. I used my thumb to stroke a nipple. She wore no undergarments under the shirt. She was open to me as her nipples pebbled.

“Gir,” she moaned again.

Then she took my face between her hands and kissed me, hard, pressing as close against me as she could get. Her hips did a delightful little shimmy as if her body were unconsciously settling down on top of me.

Mentally, I changed tactics. Maybe I wouldn’t lay her down. Fucking up into her delightful heat would be just as nice…

“Peep! Peep!”

Kyla drew back from me and for a moment, I didn’t want to let her go. I followed her with my lips, aching for more, for whatever she’d give me, but she’d already turned away.

“Bob!” she exclaimed happily.

My eyes focused and I realized the little purple creature had returned. “See,” I grumbled, amused. “It seems your little friend didn’t hate you after all.”

Kyla threw a brilliant smile my way and returned her attention to the creature. “What do you have in your beak there?”

My attention sharpened. Kyla held out her hands and the little creature hopped into them. There was indeed something in its beak — a very large something for the size of the creature.

It peeped again through its mostly shut beak, dropping a round red fruit into Kyla's hands. “Is this for me?” she asked. “What a clever boy you are.” She raised the creature to her cheek and nuzzled it.

Meanwhile, my interest was reluctantly turning to the direction the little creature had disappeared to. “If he found fruit, then he must’ve found a way out of the tunnel system.”

“Who’s a clever boy?” Kyla cooed.

The little creature peeped again.

I had to admit: he probably wasn’t as useless as he seemed.

KYLA

Bob was much more intelligent than I’d given him credit for.

He seemed to know exactly what we wanted and was more than happy to lead us out of the complex tunnel system.

He’d even flutter-hop from one shoulder to the other depending on which way he wanted me to turn.

Such a good boy.

It was dark and more than a little creepy in the tunnels. I stayed close to Gir, who held the only source of light in the form of a very Earthlike lamp.

“Where did you get that lamp, anyway?” I asked. “It's large. Don't tell me you've been keeping that in a hidden pocket or something.”

He gave me an odd, but very much amused look. “It collapses. When it's folded up, it's as big as one of your thumbs.”

“Oh.”

Once again, I was reminded I was way out of my element here. There were machines and places I couldn’t even imagine.

I crossed my arms over my chest, trying not to shiver and become overwhelmed.

Gir reached out and rested one of his broad arms across my back.

I leaned into him, instantly feeling warmer and more cared for.

I wasn’t sure what to think about our little make out session before. It’d felt great to be in his arms.

And his tongue had an edge of roughness I’d never tasted on any human before.

It made me wonder how it might feel in other places…

It’d been a while since I'd had a boyfriend back on Earth — work had always gotten in the way, and boyfriends were like needy pets. They needed a lot of care and attention which I didn’t have.

But being in Gir's arms reminded me how much I’d missed simple physical contact.

In short, I was pent-up and frustrated, and Gir promised me a sweet release.

My thoughts were so involved in playing out that little scenario, I stumbled on a half hidden upthrust of rock. Before I tripped, I felt strong hands wrapped around my waist. Gir had caught me, as easily as breathing.

“Thank you,” I said, not quite managing to meet his eyes. I knew I’d be blushing because of what I’d been thinking.

“Make sure you watch your step,” Gir said, but his arm didn’t leave, and I didn’t pull away.

He practically held me against him as we turned the next corner and came out again into the vast jungle.

Pausing, I looked around. This part of the jungle was different from the area we’d been in when we first fell.

Most notably, it was on a steep incline. I hadn't noticed it in the dark tunnel system, but we must’ve been climbing upward for quite a while.

Finally, I stepped away from Gir and looked around. “Interesting.”

“What is it?” he asked, frowning, then pulled out another scanning device from the seemingly endless supply of pockets attached to his belt. He started scanning, no doubt looking to see if he could pinpoint where we were at.

But I suspected I already knew. “I think we’ve made it to the mountain.”

“Already?”

He wasn’t quite arguing, but I sensed he had his doubts. He scanned again, looking at the sky as if searching for something, then returned his attention to the device.

After a few moments and a few beeps, he nodded and returned the scanner to his belt. “You’re correct.”

I looked back the way we’d come. “That’s so weird. Do you think this tunnel system was sort of a warp zone or something?”

“A warp what?”

I waved the question away. “Maybe a fast transit site?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s just easy not to realize how far you’ve walked in a close, dark cave. It’s how many people end up getting hopelessly lost. Plus, our walk topside had been slow due to having to climb over and under vegetation and avoid those bloodsucking vines. We had none of those problems in the tunnel system and were able to move faster.”

On my shoulder, Bob chirped his confirmation.

“We would've never found our way out if it weren't for you,” I cooed, holding out my hand.

Bob stepped in my palm and I brought him to my cheek to nuzzle him and show my appreciation.

Gir cleared his throat. “We’re on the mountain, but I’m not certain where the shadow line is.”

Was he jealous of my little critter? I tried not to grin at him, returning Bob to my shoulder. “Well, I remember it was about two-thirds of the way up the mountain and seemed to stretch across the face of it. I say we climb and find out what happens from there.”

Gir nodded, turning, and we started walking.

We climbed the mountain. It wasn't very steep, but it was unrelenting. In short, even though I lived in San Francisco and was used to dealing with very steep hills, my calves were getting a workout.

Gir and I stopped again for another meal. Once again, he broke a candy-bar-like object in two and gave me half.

“Wow,” I said in surprise after taking a bite of my own ration. “This tastes like chicken.”

“What's chicken?” he asked

“Something that tastes exactly like this.”

I took a second, smaller bite because the first felt like it’d filled me up already.

Bob peeped on my shoulder, and I glanced down at him with a frown. “It might be a little messed up for me to give you a piece of this, buddy.”

Bob seemed to agree and jumped down off my shoulder to skitter into the jungle beyond.

He returned a few minutes later with a ripe fruit in his beak. Placing it down between my feet, he pecked at it with gusto.

I glanced up at the sky with a frown. “It seems like it's been daylight for… days now.”

“This planet has a slow rotational cycle.”

I looked at Gir in surprise. “Okay, pretend like you're speaking to someone who doesn't know anything about planets. I’m a publishing assistant, not an astrophysics nerd.”

“The planet rotates more slowly than the galactic average,” he said. “So day and night cycles also last longer.”

That made sense. “So… What's the average galactic cycle?” I asked tentatively, hoping I’d gotten the phrasing right.

“Twenty-one hours.”

That was close enough to Earth for me to roughly call it a day.

“And how long is this planet’s rotational cycle? Am I using the term right?”

“You are,” he said with a slight smile. “And it’s thirty-five hours.”

“So, longer days.”

“And longer nights, except that currently this hemisphere is in the planet’s summer.”

I gave him a flat look. He explained, “Longer days, shorter nights. Probably only about eight hours or so for nighttime.”

“Seems about perfect for me,” I said, stretching my arms high over my head and yawning. I was pooped already and could’ve gone for a nap. Hey look at that, I’d even dressed for the occasion, wearing my pajamas and all.

I lowered my arms, turning again to Gir to comment something to that effect.

But he stared at me with open hunger in his eyes.

It took a few seconds for me to realize that when I’d stretched, the hem of my pajama shirt had ridden up to expose my belly.

I smiled at him. “See something you like?”

Gir jerked in surprise, as if catching himself. I’d hoped he’d flirt back, maybe he’d pull me into his arms again and kiss me.

Then I’d find out more things about his delightful tongue.

And then…

Instead, he quickly rose to his feet and looked around. “I believe we’re close to the shadowed location.”

All work and no play. Well, discovering this treasure had been a dream of his. I supposed I’d deal with my horny thoughts later.

Finishing my last bite of the chicken-flavored food bar, I rose to my feet. Bob, too, seemed to be done with his meal. The only thing left of the fruit was a gleaming seed pit.

“Well, what’re we waiting for?”

GIR WAS the one who spotted the bridge.

It was quite thin, spanning the width of a ravine that also looked like it’d been cut into the mountain face, rather than a natural occurrence.

Maybe that’s just how ravines looked on an alien planet, but the drop was… deep. So deep, I couldn't even see the bottom from where I stood.

“Do you think it’s safe?” I asked, placing the toe of my bunny slipper on the stone bridge.

It was about as wide as a sidewalk, which sounds plenty big, but not so much when it's crossing over a stupidly deep ravine.

“I’ll go first,” Gir said. “I’m much heavier than you and if it gives way… it's better that it collapses on me rather than you.”

I stared at him. “How do you figure that?”

He smiled at me. “Because I always land on my feet, remember?”

Then before I could object, he strode confidently across the bridge.

There weren’t any railings or safety ropes or whatever. Just a long, thin stone bridge stretching across a jungle ravine.

I watched with my heart in my throat as Gir reached the midpoint, paused, then continued. The bridge didn’t move.

When he reached the other side, he waved for me to follow him.

“Oookay,” I muttered to myself. “Time to put on your big-girl panties, Kyla, and cross that bridge. It’s adventure time.”

Bob hopped to the top of my head as I took my first step.

I know the traditional advice is not to look down, but I couldn’t not look down. It was as if my eyes were pulled to the deep shadows of the ravine.

I stopped midway, my knees practically clacking together, unsure if I could bring myself to take another step. Maybe I should drop on all fours and crawl the rest of the way? That way, there’d be more anchor points if… If…

A light breeze came up out of nowhere, and I staggered in place and nearly screamed.

“Kyla!” Gir yelled from the other side. “Keep going! Listen to my voice. Keep walking. I know you can do it!”

I can't! I thought desperately, but I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of Gir, either.

My chin wobbled and more tears flowed from my eyes, but I made myself take the next step, then the next and the next.

I broke into a run when I was ten feet from the other side, all but flinging myself into Gir's arms.

He scooped me up and hugged me close. Bob gave a twitter of protest, almost being smashed between us.

“I did it,” I breathed.

“You were great,” he said.

And on the heels of his words came a rumbling sound from behind us. We turned to see the bridge shaking ominously. It’d been steady as a stone a few seconds ago.

In front of our disbelieving eyes, it crumbled, starting from the middle and working its way out to the edges. The stone became dust and fell into the deep ravine.

I could’ve been on it when that happened, I thought.

But… Maybe not. The timing was too much of a coincidence. In fact, it seemed the bridge had waited for us to cross before it’d collapsed on itself. That meant…

“We’re stranded on this side,” I said in a hushed whisper. “Somebody meant for that to happen, and they trapped us here.”

Gir nodded. He looked unsurprised, as if he’d reached the same conclusion. “It appears to be a fail-safe of some sort. The pirate king was notoriously tricky that way.”

“I’m starting to not like that guy,” I muttered.

Gir didn’t answer. He turned and examined the path before us.

It was a short path, leading to a sheer stone wall.

“He’s brought us here for a reason. Let's find out why.”

We examined the sheer, rocky cliff to see if there were any further clues.

I wasn’t a rock expert or anything, but I’d lived in California all my life and knew the texture of solid granite.

This looked exactly the same, up to and including little pieces of quartz which caught the sunlight in golden flecks.

My brow furrowed. “That's not right…”

“Have you found anything?” Gir asked.

I shook my head. “Just…something that doesn't make sense.”

Gir looked at me expectantly, so I went on. “We’re in a jungle, and that’s granite.”

“So?”

Biting my lower lip, I reached back to my memories of sixth grade science class. “Granite is formed by volcanoes — or, at least, by magma which comes out of volcanoes.”

I looked around at the jungle. Yeah, we’re currently up a mountain, but the mountain was made of granite, not obsidian or other volcanic rock.

“What I'm saying is, you need a volcano to bake the granite, but I'm not seeing a volcano anywhere.”

I half expected Gir to argue with me. After all, my argument was based on Earth stuff… And might be wrong anyway. It’d been a long time since that old science class.

To my surprise, he nodded. “It’s entirely possible it was artificially made, that this slab of rock was taken from another part of this world and placed here.”

“That doesn't explain the jungle growth,” I said, being the devil's advocate.

He shrugged, unconcerned. “It’s also possible to force-grow jungle vegetation, and the legend of the pirate king is over a galactic century old. The jungle could’ve easily taken over any hiding place during that time.”

I nodded. “Okay, so somebody went to all the trouble of creating a mountain out in the middle of the jungle… Why?”

My eyes met with Gir's and I could tell we’d thought the same thing. “Because putting a mountain on top of a pile of treasure is a good way to hide it.”

He nodded. “Thick rock will obscure orbital scanning systems.”

I tapped my knuckles on the granite. “Yeah, it’s plenty thick. Okay, so I think between the bridge and the fact that this whole mountain is here when it shouldn’t be… it’s safe to say we’re probably on the right track.”

“That doesn’t help us if we can’t find a way in,” Gir said.

“Oh, there is a way in, we just have to use the tools available to us,” I said with more confidence than I actually felt. “Gir, can you give me that pendant thing? I want to take another look at it.”

He furrowed his brows, but dug into his bandolier and pulled the pendant out.

I gripped it and looked over the device for any sign, any clue. Then I glanced up at the granite wall looming above us, and back down to the device again.

“Is it my imagination, or has this device changed shape?”

“What?” he barked, which was funny, coming from a cat-person. Stepping closer, he took back the device and held it up to the waning sunshine.

He frowned. “Perhaps…”

“It's subtle,” I said, pointing. “There are new tiny little marks around the edges, kind of like ridges on a coin. Or… Really shallow gears? No, that doesn't make sense.”

I walked across the shallow pathway, trailing my fingers along the cliff wall, looking for any imperfections.

After a few minutes, I found it.

At first glance, it looked like a crack in the wall, something naturally formed and completely unremarkable.

But on a closer look, in the shadowed area there was a depression; kind of circular. When I ran my fingers around the inside, I found the edges ridged, just like the device.

“Gir! I found something! Bring me the device!”

He did, kneeling and pressing one of his thick fingers along the outer edge in the same way I’d done.

“Good find,” he said. “You have a talent for this kind of thing.”

I grinned at him. “I've always been detail oriented.” I held out my hand. “Device, please.”

He rested it in my palm, and I shoved the ridged top into the strange depression.

It didn't quite line up, so I turned it this way and that, trying to match it.

“Be careful,” he said. “I don't want you to break that, it's one of a kind.”

“Trust me,” I said, but no matter how I wiggled the device in the hole, it didn't do anything or quite seem to fit. Finally, I sat back with a huff.

“Let me try,” he said.

Reluctantly, I handed it over again. He took it into his large hands and twisted the top and the bottom of the device at the same time, like he was unscrewing it from the middle.

A vicious looking spike popped out of the top.

“That's new,” I said. “Looks sharp.”

“I believe it’s a weapon as well as a key,” he said, “which fits the pirate’s personality exactly, now that I think about it.”

I shivered, wondering what that meant for what we’d discover inside.

I held out my hand, and Gir wordlessly returned the device to me. The spike fit perfectly into the circular depression. With a twist, the wall slid open, revealing a dark cavern beyond.

I started to walk in, but Gir placed a warm hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “Wait.”

I looked up at him. “What's up?”

He glanced upwards. “The sky.”

I started to roll my eyes at the stupid pun, but stopped, following his gaze and realizing he was entirely serious. Night had almost fully come to this jungle world. In fact, it was pretty close to sunset, with the sky dimming from green-blue to an orange-pink color. The blue sun was low on the horizon, and birds — or bird-like things, were going completely nuts with the coming sunset.

“Time for a break?” I asked.

“Time for dinner,” he said, and I smiled again, wondering what flavor of weird savory food bar he had this time.

Beef stew again.

Hey, they were trail rations, and I supposed I shouldn’t be too picky.

Gir and I set up camp right outside the open cavern door. Neither one of us trusted the cavern itself not to have traps, and we decided to go in first thing in the morning, when we were fresh and rested.

Bob, the cute little critter, once again pecked at a few crumbs of the bar before he was full. Taking himself to a shadowy corner, he turned around three times, then nestled down to sleep. Within a few minutes, he snored tiny peaceful snores.

My God, he was cute.

I smiled at my little friend and looked up, to see Gir smiling softly at me.

I returned the smile, nodding to the cavern. “I'm surprised you’re the voice of reason here.”

“What do you mean?”

I shrugged. “You told me this was your dream. And now you’re here, sitting right outside of it.”

“We don't know for sure if the treasure is inside,” he said.

I gave him a look. “There is an entire mountain where no mountain should be. Something is definitely in there or down there.”

Gir smiled, and I could tell he was just as excited as I was to find out, but he’d tried to keep a lid on it just in case there was disappointment within.

“I’m excited for you,” I said. “Not everybody has the strength of will and purpose to follow their dreams.”

He cocked his head, glancing at me. “It sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”

I tried to laugh it off, but even to my own ears, it’d sounded strained. “Yeah, well...you know.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “What’s your dream?”

I almost waved the question off, but he looked at me so sincerely I found myself inclined to answer. “I wanted to be a writer,” I said. “But I was never brave enough to take the plunge. So, before I knew it, I found myself in the position of helping other people follow that dream, or most often, denying them,” I said, thinking of the slush pile with the many rejected manuscripts.

Sure, there were reasons why we’d rejected them, but each one represented hours of blood, sweat, tears, and hope on someone’s part.

It was kind of depressing when you thought about it, so I tried not to.

“I think you're brave,” he said.

I snorted.

He continued, “Look at what you've done. You have a talent for noticing small details, and that translates well into treasure hunting. You’re on an alien planet you’ve never been on before, and yet, not only have you kept your head, you’ve helped me discover pieces of the puzzle I might’ve never seen.”

“You're not giving yourself enough credit,” I said.

He leaned in close to me. “I believe it’s you who’s not giving yourself the credit. You’re amazing, Kyla.”

Our gazes locked again, and hot intent passed between us. He shivered. I shivered, and he leaned in close.

He kissed me and I immediately sank into it. Between traveling through the tunnel and crossing the bridge, there simply hadn’t been enough time for us to talk about our hasty make-out session.

But I hadn’t been able to get it – or him – out of my mind. More than once, I’d caught his heavy gaze on me and knew he’d felt the same way.

All too soon, Gir pulled back out of the kiss. I whined in complaint. He cupped my jaw in one of his warm, strong, furred hands and gazed into my eyes.

“I’ve been wanting to do that all day,” he confessed.

“Me, too,” I said, leaning toward him again.

Soon, we moved into a repeat of last time. I all but crawled onto his lap, straddling him. He slid his hands up my shirt – oh my god, his callused hands felt amazing against my skin. His claw-tipped fingers scraped just a touch over my flesh, giving me an extra burst of sensation.

I whined into his mouth, reaching up to undo the buttons of my pajama shirt.

Normally, I was a ‘rip the buttons off and damn the consequences’ type of girl, but it was literally my only shirt. I had to be careful with it.

Thankfully, Gir seemed to know what Earth-like buttons were and helped me out with the top buttons as I worked up from the bottom. Soon, my breasts were exposed to the humid night air.

It felt amazing. Even more so when Gir descended on them, taking first one nipple into his mouth, followed by the other. His roughened tongue lapped over them. I tipped my head back and groaned to the sky.

I felt wet already. I wanted him… I wanted—Oh no.

“Wait,” I breathed.

Give all credit to Gir, he stopped the moment I hesitated. “Is something wrong?”

I hesitated, but I’d always been taught that if you were too immature to talk frankly about sex with your partner, then you weren’t ready for sex with your partner.

“Are we able to do this?” I asked. Then, noticing his confused look, I elaborated. “You and I. Sex. I mean, I’m a human being and you’re a…”

Actually, I didn’t know what his species called themselves. That was embarrassing.

“Krixil,” he said.

“Krixil,” I repeated. “Are we… physically compatible?”

Hell, even if we weren’t, I was horny enough to try it. Or figure out what else we could do together. After all, sex didn’t have to be penetrative.

And I really wanted to find out how good his tongue felt on me.

His smile was both seductive and just a bit wicked. “I told you before, humans are a highly desired species.”

“Which means?”

His smile slipped but his hands didn’t stop tracing up and down my naked back. It felt both erotic and soothing.

“It means you’re compatible – physically, with most other species in the universe. That’s the reason why human women are taken from your planet.”

My mouth dropped open. We’d sort of danced around the point earlier. Truthfully, I hadn’t wanted to think very hard about it.

“So not only can we,” I winced at my phrasing, “have intercourse…wait, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“Human women are universal breeders. Yes,” he admitted. “As you say, not only can you have intercourse…it’s said to be spectacular.”

“Oh.”

He let me think, but still didn’t stop his movements.

“Are you okay?”

I wasn’t sure what to think. I’d thought I’d dodged a bullet with my escape pod crashing near a great guy who gave a damn.

Without Gir around, I would’ve been lost in the jungle, thinking I was in some very remote part of Central America.

Not only had he given me answers, he’d saved me. And now, the sweet guy that he was, he didn’t want to pressure me.

That decided it.

Well, that, and I was horny as all get out.

“Y-yeah,” I said shakily, making the decision even as I said it. “Yeah, so we’re doing this? Out here?”

I glanced first at the snoozing Bob, then to the cavern.

“I don’t know if it’s safe,” Gir admitted. “The cavern, I mean. But you’ll always be safe with me.”

That had the weight of a vow.

I smiled. “Nothing has jumped out of the shadows at us yet. And...” I leaned in and whispered as if imparting a secret. “I want to let loose. Don’t you?”

The answer must’ve been wholeheartedly yes because the next thing I knew, Gir had lifted me in his arms and carried me, bridal style, into the cavern.

I laughed, looping my arms around his neck and enjoying the sheer power of him.

Gir laid me down and hooked his hands under the waistband of my pajama pants. They slid off inch by inch, his mouth following along and trailing kisses.

I slipped my feet out of those damn bunny slippers and kicked my pants the rest of the way off.

There was just enough light coming in through the open doorway for me to see him. Locking my gaze on him, I opened my legs in invitation.

With a predatory smile, he kissed my lower stomach, maneuvering himself downward. His warm breath gusted over my slick folds. I felt how wet I was for him. When he touched me with a pad of his finger, he murmured in appreciation.

I wriggled. Having him so close and not licking me was torture.

“Gir,” I panted, “I need you…”

That wonderful tongue with the slightly roughened surface. I’d thought about it since he’d kissed me for the first time.

With another smile, Gir dipped his head.

Oh my god. The man knew what to do with his tongue. He was gentle and yet persistent, giving me just enough pressure so the roughness wasn’t too much on my swollen clit.

He alternated between laps and pointed pushes, stimulating me in the best way.

I gasped and moaned, not holding back. My thighs trembled and I had to work not to clamp them around his head and push him down to me.

“Gir, I’m going to… to…”

Instead of my warning him causing him to back off, he redoubled his efforts, his tongue flicking the little nerve bundle in a way that sent me rocketing sky high.

I came hard, shutting my eyes against the bright flashes of light. He licked me all the way through it until I began to breathe more easily.

But I wasn’t done yet, and neither was he.

He’d already lost his shirt while I’d been busy kicking off my pants. Now he reached down to push down his pants – they were secured with an alien tie that looked too complicated for me in my current state.

My eyes widened when he was revealed. He was larger than any other lover I’d had before, but that wasn’t the only difference. There were ridges circling all the way down his shaft.

I shivered, imagining what they would feel like on my clit, sliding into me.

I raised my arms. “Come here.”

He did, crawling up to me to kiss me again. As he did, his hard cock pushed through my silken folds into my tight channel.

Up until now, Gir had held back. How could I tell? Because he let loose now. His thrusts were hard and deep, a rapid pounding of my swollen mound that soon had me moaning all over again.

He was perfect.

All I could do was hold on and roll my hips in time with him, taking him as deep as I could.

My voice rose to a new octave when those ridges hit my clit, burst after burst of sensation as he drove into me.

I clenched around him, shaking inside and out.

My breath tightened in my chest. I was going to come again.

“Gir,” I panted, “Gir…”

He seemed to know what I wanted. Bending, his mouth sealed against mine, his tongue flicking in a parody of what we were doing down below.

A second climax rolled through me. Just as I started to come down, he redoubled his efforts – his thrusts rapid and messy. He came with a grunting moan.

We slumped down together.

As I drifted off, I realized that even though I was far from home, with a man not even from my own planet, I’d never felt safer in anyone else’s arms.

GIR

The moment I woke up, I was aware with a sixth sense that I’d slept in much later than I’d intended.

That was rather unusual, considering we were in a place I wouldn't consider safe. Normally, I was a light sleeper, but then again, I’d been quite sated when I went to sleep.

My arm was still around Kyla and I tightened it slightly, bringing her closer to me.

Her body fit perfectly against mine, and still half asleep, I nuzzled the back of her neck, wondering if I’d get another taste of her before we set out again.

I cracked open my eyes and found only darkness greeting me.

I looked around, to no avail. There was no sunlight, and the distant sounds of waking jungle wildlife were muffled.

Glancing around, it only took a few seconds to realize what’d happened.

The cavern had sealed itself during the night.

I growled low in my throat, moving to a crouch.

Unfortunately, it woke Kyla. I felt her stir and heard her yawn.

Then she went very, very still. “Gir?”

“I'm here,” I said, returning to her side and touching her shoulder. She didn't flinch away. Instead, one of her hands wrapped around my wrist as if seeking comfort.

“It seems the door shut last night and we weren't aware of it.”

“Well… crap,” she said.

“I agree.”

“Do you have a light?”

I nodded even though she couldn’t see it. Fumbling for my clothing, I located my belt pouch, pulled it over, and unfolded the lamp.

Within moments, light flooded the cavern.

Kyla blinked rapidly against the new light and Bob, the little critter, woke with a startled peep.

He must’ve made his way into the cavern at some point after we were asleep.

The cavern walls were bare, without any markings or any hint that it’d been visited within the last hundred years or so.

I wanted to examine the area, but first, I wanted to attend to my clothing. I was still naked.

Kyla and I dressed, only occasionally sharing silent looks with one another.

We’d have to talk about what had happened between us, but now was not the time.

Finally dressed, Kyla stood and bent to place her cupped hands in front of Bob.

The little creature jumped into them, trilling happily.

Kyla turned to the door. “I don't see a way out.”

“No,” I grumbled. “I should’ve guessed this door was set on a timer system.”

I lifted the lamp, casting light down the tunnel. “It appears the only way out is to go through.”

“Well, at least we’ll be together.”

I shot her a questioning look, and she smiled at me. “I'm just glad I got trapped in here with someone who had the foresight to bring along a lamp.”

I chuckled and, holding the lamp up, started down the tunnel.

Kyla did the same, running her delicate human hands across the granite wall in the same way she’d examined the cliff face outside.

She frowned in a way I’d learned to read as her thinking face.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s not natural,” she said. “No stalactites, or stalagmites, no erosion at all. And this entire tunnel is way too uniform to be anything but man-made – or…people-made, I guess, since I don't think whoever made this was human.”

I chuckled again. “It doesn't matter. I understand.”

She shook her head. “Words have power, and I want to make sure I get it right.” She threw me a look I couldn’t quite interpret, but it seemed to be full of hope. “Now that I’ve joined the wider universe.”

I couldn’t keep the smile from my face.

We’d made no promises to one another, but I decided to take it as a positive sign that she wasn’t looking to go back home as soon as she possibly could.

Maybe she’d consider staying with me.

Right now, I didn’t have much to offer any woman, especially one as exquisite as Kyla, but that’d change if I got my hands on even a small portion of the pirate king’s treasure.

We’d be rich enough to buy whatever we needed. Whatever she needed, I corrected myself with a little internal smile.

A home all her own, upgrades to my ship that would allow us to go anyplace in the galaxy she’d choose.

Anything she wanted, I’d be able to give her.

Yes, that was a pleasant thought, Kyla and I exploring the galaxy together. It’d been quite interesting to experience a standard jungle planet through her eyes.

I’d very much like to see what she thought of the wider world in general.

I was so caught up in my own thoughts that, even though I had superior hearing, I was taken off guard when Kyla stopped suddenly.

“Do you hear that?” she asked.

I paused, frowning in concentration.

At first, I thought there was nothing. But then I caught a tap, tap, tap sound of something moving — skittering — down the tunnel before us.

“We’re not alone in here,” I said.

“Do you know what it is?” I could tell she was concerned, but not panicked, not yet.

My estimation of her rose yet another notch.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, allowing my senses to reach out before me.

“It sounds like… metal on stone.”

“Metal?”

I nodded. “Possibly a drone or a robot of some sort.” I glanced at her in warning. “Likely, a guardian of this place. We should be ready.”

“Got another one of those laser swords?” she asked.

“A what?” The translation implant didn't often fail, but it wasn’t good with cultural references.

She gestured to my belt. “That cutting tool you used for the vines.”

“No, I only have one,” I said reluctantly. “And it has a limited charge. If we get in trouble, stay behind me. And if we really get in trouble… Run.”

She looked at me, one eyebrow raised, her hand firmly on one cocked hip. “Even if I could run,” she said. “And even if I felt like abandoning you, which I’d never do, where would I run to?”

She had a point.

“Then stay behind me,” I said, making my way along the tunnel.

Hunching, I crept forward on silent feet, reaching into my belt for the laser wand tool — what Kyla had called a laser sword.

Hopefully, whatever we faced down there could be defeated or tricked.

As I rounded the next corner, I knew with a sinking feeling that I’d come woefully unprepared.

I stopped in place, my mind whirling.

Kyla, who was two steps behind me, stopped, as well. “What the hell is that thing?” she asked. “Is that a spider robot?”

I had no idea what a spider was, but it was certainly a guardian drone.

Made of metal, it stood four feet tall on top of a spread of ten pointed metallic feet — perfectly bladed for stabbing.

Its creators had given it a large, fearsome mouthful of clicking teeth. Two eyes on the top of its head lit up in red warning.

“Stay very still,” I advised Kyla. “It’s guarding that door beyond, do you see? Chances are, it won’t strike unless we get too —”

I never got to finish. The red eyes flashed and I pushed Kyla to the side a moment before two laser beams impacted where we’d stood. “Never mind! It's attacking! Stay back!”

If I’d been alone, I might’ve retreated up the tunnel to see if I could escape out the door where we’d come in.

But by the way the guardian drone was advancing, I knew it would’ve been pointless. It’d hunt us down and slay us as we tried to escape back up the tunnel.

Our only choice — my only choice— was to fight.

With a roar, I ran toward the guardian. Even though, in the back of my mind, I knew I’d lose.

But I couldn’t let it hurt Kyla.

KYLA

Watching Gir fight the metal monstrosity while I couldn’t do anything but sit there and watch was one of the toughest things I’d ever been through.

I’d never liked the damsel in distress stories, and now I was living one of them.

And the worst part was, the fight wasn’t going Gir's way.

There were blades on the end of the robot spider's legs. Every time Gir would get close, he’d have to dodge the slash of a spider leg.

He couldn't keep his distance, either, because the thing shot freaking lasers out of its eyeballs.

It wasn't fair!

How could anything be a good close-range and long-range fighter! That was against the rules, or at least it should be!

Though Gir got his hits in, too.

Using the light sword, he’d gotten close enough to chop off two of the spider's legs.

Unfortunately, it had eight to spare and it hadn’t slowed down much.

The eyes flashed red again and Gir jumped away, but not fast enough.

He cried out as two smoking holes appeared in his shirt.

“I can't just stand here!” I told Bob.

Desperately, I looked around for something to help, maybe a dropped weapon or something?

Anything?

Too bad it wasn't a video game. Usually, the boss monster dropped something right before the battle to help defeat it.

But all I saw was dust from ages of neglect and a pile of scattered rocks that’d broken loose and fallen from the tunnel walls.

Could I do something with the rocks?

Gir roared again as a lucky slash from the spider robot hit him. Again, it didn't look deep, but he couldn't take much more before he started making mistakes. And mistakes could turn fatal very quickly.

The rocks weren't much. They were about the size of golf balls but made of granite, making them pretty heavy.

I scooped up a few in one hand and yelled “Hey! Ugly!”

The spider whirled around, its red laser eyes focused on me.

I threw one of the rocks, which smacked it on the body but didn't do much to damage it.

Then I leaped to the side as a couple of lasers fired my way.

“Kyla! Stay back!” Gir ordered.

“I’ll distract it!” I yelled back, firing another rock.

This one hit true and actually managed to smack one of the laser eyes.

The eye went dim and the next laser blast went wide.

Maybe it needed both eyes to target correctly?

Either way, the lucky shot let Gir run in again. His laser sword slashed and two more spider legs fell to the side.

The spider listed to the right, the other legs scrambling to take up the balance.

I heaved another rock, vindictively trying to distract it while Gir rained down blows on it using his laser.

Eventually, he stabbed it straight through the top, yanking the laser sword away with a burst of sparks.

The last laser beam fell dim and the creature went very still.

“Did we… win?” I whispered, half in shock, half expecting the creature to come alive again like any good monster in a horror movie would.

Gir, holding his side and gulping for air, nodded.

“You're hurt!” I cried, running to him.

His fur was almost covered with small scorch marks, and one of his arms dripped purplish-red blood from where it’d been gashed by one of the legs.

I looked at them helplessly. “You need to see a doctor and get some stitches.”

He shook his head and reached into his bandolier pouch.

“There isn’t exactly a doctor nearby, I’m afraid. This will have to do.”

I recognized the little spray can he pulled out. It was the same one that’d fixed me up after my tangle with the bloodsucking vines.

“Spray this on the cut,” he said, shoving it into my hand.

The cuts were awkwardly positioned for him to try, and it was easier for someone else to do the spraying.

Biting my lower lip, I did, watching as the alien medicine did its magic.

To my eyes, the cut didn’t seal itself quite as quickly as it had with my own, but it still worked. Within moments, Gir was no longer bleeding and the skin had resealed itself, though the fur hadn’t grown back.

He wiggled his arm at me. “Good as new.”

“Your fur…” I said, hoping he wouldn’t have a scar from the experience.

Gir didn’t look concerned in the least. “It’ll grow back after my next shed.”

He shed? Of course he did.

For a moment, my mind was caught up in wondering how much. What would he look like without it?

Smiling, I told him to turn around so I could attend to a couple of the burns he had on his sides and back.

Finally, once he was fixed up, we turned to see what the robot spider had guarded.

Beyond it stood a wide door. And through that was a large room filled to the brim with treasure.

And when I say filled to the brim, I mean it. It was like looking at Scrooge McDuck's vault.

Gold coins were stacked to the ceiling and puddled into messy piles where they’d fallen over during the years. A half-open chest gleamed with a whole rainbow of gems and jewels.

Artwork sat stacked in one corner, and in another stood a huge mound of uncut gems. There was some jewelry too, strung gaudily all over manikins in a variety of shapes, sizes and number of limbs. And heads.

Everything from crowns to hugely heavy-looking necklaces, to rings and bracelets.

And that was the stuff I recognized. There was a whole section of weird alien technology I didn’t have names for, but that made Gir’s eyes glitter.

“Oh my god,” I said. “You did it. It’s the pirate king’s treasure.”

“It is,” he said in a reverent whisper.

I smiled at him. “Last one there is a rotten egg!”

Then before he could react, I ran forward.

“Kyla, wait!” he cried, not excited but alarmed.

It was too late,

I’d crossed the threshold. And before my eyes, the treasure disappeared as I fell down a deep hole.

Shit.

GIR

My heart leaped into my throat as Kyla disappeared from view.

“Kyla!” I rushed forward, stopping just short of the doorway into the room in case there was another trap.

But she was nowhere to be seen.

“I'm here!” she called from somewhere beyond.

I squinted. “Where are you? I can't see you!”

She swore. “I don’t know! I fell down a hole, and now I’m stuck in some kind of shaft or something. I'm lucky I didn't break my damn ankle.”

There was a thump and I imagined her slamming her fist uselessly against the wall. “I'm such an idiot. I should’ve known it wasn't over yet.”

“Well, you're still new to this treasure hunting situation,” I told her. “Can you climb out?”

“No, the walls are too smooth.”

I glanced around the room., looking for some sort of hint or maybe something to help her climb out.

Kyla must’ve been thinking along the same lines. “We must've missed something. My gamer sense says it has to do with the spider.”

“Gamer sense?” I asked.

I heard a dark chuckle. At least she felt well enough to crack jokes. “It's an Earth culture thing. Do me a favor and check on the spider. There must be something there. A clue we didn't see.”

“Because we were too busy fighting for our own lives,” I muttered darkly, but did as she asked. It was a decent suggestion, and I didn’t have any others.

I walked back to the drone.

Though I hadn’t wanted to admit it to Kyla, I was hesitant about approaching it again. Some models of guardian drones had self-repair features. But this was clearly an older model, which made sense because the treasure had been abandoned for over a galactic century.

The drone was completely inert, with the burned hole I’d put into it on the top, as well as several missing limbs.

Now that I was no longer fighting for my life, I was able to examine the drone much more closely.

Sure enough, there was a depression on top of its head.

In fact, it was the same exact size as something very familiar.

I felt in my pouch for the pendant, the same one that’d led me originally to the obelisk.

I placed it on top of the depression. It slid in and something clicked, attaching to the pendant.

I glanced around, but there weren’t any changes that I could see.

“Any luck?” Kyla asked.

I heard an answering peep from far below.

At least she wasn't alone down there. Bob, the little critter, had fallen in along with her.

“I'm not sure,” I said. “I found something, but I'm not sure how it works yet. How are you doing? Are you in any danger?”

“No, I'm just waiting here at the bottom of the hole…” Her voice came caustically, and I smiled to myself, admiring her bravery once again. Not much got her down. She might not’ve believed it, but she’d been born for the treasure hunting life.

Something had happened, and it took a few more moments of my searching to find out what it was. The treasure room beyond the hole in the floor looked more real somehow.

I couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but it was as if the shadows were deeper and the mass amounts of jewelry and coins glittered within the light in a way they hadn’t before.

I had the bad feeling that what we’d seen before had merely been an illusion.

This was reality.

There was only one way to test my theory. I strode forward, holding my breath as I stepped through the doorway.

The toes of my boots clinked against golden coins. I was through the door and actually in the treasure room.

I looked around, my throat going dry. I’d told Kyla the truth when I said it’d been my dream ever since I’d been a cub. Now I was here. I’d actually discovered the treasure!

It was all mine. I bent and picked up a coin. It sat golden and heavy in my palm.

I was here, but my task wasn’t done yet.

For experimentation, I picked up a couple more coins and went back into the main room where the guardian drone had been stationed, and removed the pendant from the drone's head.

Another twist and click, and the treasure room beyond shifted, looking flatter than it ever had before. I tossed one of the gold coins inside.

“Ow!” Kyla said. “Did you just throw a gold coin at me?”

“Sorry,” I said. “I had to see if my theory was correct. I found something —” I quickly explained to her what’d just occurred. “I believe when the pendant isn’t placed in the drone's head, there’s no illusion obscuring a pit trap. Perhaps it’s covered by a force field.”

That was well within the possibility of last century’s technology.

Kyla fell silent. “Okay, so if you have the pendant, then you can access the treasure. But if you don't, you’ll fall in with me.” She gulped. “That means it's one or the other, isn't it? Me or the treasure?”

I was silent, thinking over my options.

“Gir?” she asked, her voice raised in concern.

“I have an idea,” I said.

KYLA

I had to admit it to myself: I was scared.

Gir was a good guy… Right? He cared about me… Right? I thought he did. I thought he’d shown me he had.

But we hadn't known each other for very long.

I’d been nothing but useful to him this entire trip. But what if he’d just used me for my good ideas and a little fun on the side?

He’d said it himself:

He had the pendant now, which gave him full access to the treasure. And I was stuck at the bottom of the hole.

He could just walk off and forget about me.

He won't do that, I told myself fiercely.

Maybe if I kept thinking about it, I’d make myself believe it.

And the fact was, after he’d said he had an idea, he went completely silent.

I suspected he’d gone out of range, leaving me to wait and wonder, getting more and more frightened.

Eventually, I’d tried to climb the walls of the pit, but they were smooth metal, much too slick to get any purchase.

It was clearly a place meant to secure someone. I supposed I was lucky I was the only one down here and I wasn't sharing my new space with, like, skeletons or something.

I looked at Bob. “Do you have any ideas?”

He chirped and fluffed his feathers, the little bunny ears on the top of his head swaying gently.

He didn't seem concerned, but he had a brain the size of a pea, so I couldn’t exactly take his word for anything.

Or even his chirps.

Suddenly, from somewhere above I heard a crashing noise, the squeal of metal on metal.

“Gir?” I yelled.

“Stay back!” Gir yelled.

The top of the pit shimmered and…

It took a few seconds for me to understand what I was looking at. The spider was crawling down the side of the pit, its pointed feet sticking into the wall like it was made of soft cheese. And on top of it, riding the thing like it was a horse or something, was Gir.

He reached the bottom and jumped off, smiled, and swept me up into his arms for a fierce hug. I hugged him back, chastising myself for ever having doubted him.

Finally, I pulled back. “What’d you do?” I asked, shocked. “What am I looking at?”

“I reprogrammed the robot,” he said. “Basically, I put it into manual mode to bypass the AI system.” He tapped the top where I saw the slot for the pendant.

“Now we just ride it up out of here and I insert the pendant, and we can safely move around the treasure room.”

I grinned at him. “What are we waiting for then?”

I’d thought yesterday had been the weirdest day of my life, but being held closely in Gir's arms, riding on top of a metal spider into a gleaming room of treasure…

That beat yesterday by a mile.

Bob rode on my shoulder, singing a little trill of triumph as we emerged. He hopped off and danced around the treasure room, then tried to pick up one of the heavy coins in his little beak before falling down.

I laughed, and scooped him and the coin up.

“I think somebody's hungry.”

Gir started to reply, but then stopped as we both heard a mechanical chirp.

I looked around, confused, half afraid that there was another guardian spider on the way. Instead, he reached into his bandolier and pulled out what I swear to you kind of looked like a cell phone.

“Yes?” he asked, holding it out in speaker mode.

A crisp but plainly artificial voice spoke. “I’ve brought your ship back into orbital range as we discussed, but there’s an issue.”

Gir nodded as if he’d half expected a problem, then glanced at me. “This is my ship's AI,” he said before turning his attention to the communit. “Let me guess, there’s a bunch of smugglers orbiting the planet looking for debris?”

“Yes,” the AI said, managing to sound surprised. “How’d you know?”

Gir shot me a look. “Because one of the prisoners they’d tried to traffic across the galaxy crash-landed, and I partnered up with her.”

I felt the blood drain from my face. “The little green men are looking for me? What do we do?”

“We’ll be fine,” Gir said. “I have another idea.”

Considering his last great idea consisted of him riding a mechanical spider to my rescue, I couldn't wait to see what he’d come up with next.

EPILOGUE: KYLA

After stuffing our clothes as full of gold coins as we could manage, we walked back through the tunnel system and out to the ledge. The wall opened at our arrival and politely closed after us.

“I wonder…” He walked back toward the cavern, and it opened again.

“Well, that’s handy,” I exclaimed. “Would have been nice if it had done that before.”

“I don’t think it could have before,” Gir mused. “If this had a rudimentary AI keeping the treasure safe, it might have been unsure about us, even when we were carrying the pendant. But since we’ve been in the treasure room, maybe it knows it’s ours now.”

As long as it didn’t send any more giant metal spiders with lasers for eyes after us, I was good with it.

And look at that!

The stone bridge had rebuilt itself. Nifty!

That was a relief, because we’d only been able to carry a fraction of the coins out by hand.

We’d have to get his ship to land so we could shovel treasure out. Even then, it was doubtful we’d do it all in one trip.

“The pirate wasn't called Montecristo, was he?” I asked, turning to Gir.

He gave me a look. “No, why?

“It's an old Earth story. Never mind.”

I looked toward the sky, worried that the nasty aliens who’d captured me before would be on the lookout again.

Perhaps sensing my discomfort, Gir rested his arm across my shoulders.

“Trust me,” he said.

“I do,” I said.

He nodded and flipped open his communit to contact his AI, which apparently was flying his ship around in orbit.

“Contact the head of the current salvaging operation.”

“Are you sure, sir?” the AI asked. “It may reveal your location.”

“Then do your best to obscure my exact location on the surface of the planet.”

“Understood. Connecting…”

A new voice came on, harsh and strangely familiar. I had a flashback of lying on a table and feeling a needle push against my head.

I felt this guy had been there.

Knots formed in my stomach, and suddenly I felt sick.

“Who’s this?” the ugly voice demanded. “What you want?

“I found one of your prisoners,” Gir said. “She crash-landed in a pod here on this planet.”

There was a pause. “Return her intact and we’ll provide a reward. Stand by and we’ll send the coordinates for the transfer.”

“No deal,” Gir said. “I wish to buy her, transfer papers and all.”

“Buy me?” I repeated.

Gir winked, and I swallowed hard.

He’d asked me to trust him, and I would.

He hadn’t given up on me in the pit.

He could have just taken the treasure and left.

But still, a vise wrapped around my chest, waiting for my fate to be decided.

The harsh voice laughed on the other end. “You’d never be able to afford her.”

“Try me. What's the price?”

He named a price which didn't mean anything to me, but made Gir wince before he said, “Deal.”

The AI broke in. “Sir, may I remind you that amount will drain your current funds.”

Gir didn’t flinch. Then again, he stood in front of the entrance to a fortune. “Do it. Initiate the transfer.”

“Understood,” the AI said again, on a sigh.

There was a long pause and the harsh voice said, “Your AI has contacted mine to initiate the transfer. Once this is complete, I’ll send the paperwork.” His voice had become much more jovial. Apparently, he’d gotten a good price for me. “It's done. Contact me if you ever want another.”

Gir shut the communit off and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that won’t happen.”

I stared at him. “What just happened?”

“Officially, I just bought you,” he said. “Unofficially, the only reason I went through with that was to get your transfer paperwork. Without it, traveling the galaxy is a hassle. As soon as I get it, I’ll amend the paperwork to make sure it shows you as a free woman. Trust me, you’ll need that to go anywhere in the galaxy…”

He paused. “Unless you just want to go home. The paperwork will take you there, too.”

“No!” I said, shocking myself as well as him.

What was I saying?

What was I doing?

I stopped and thought about everything I’d be giving up on Earth.

Which… wasn’t a lot, was it?

Nothing compared to what I’d found out here.

“Gir, these two days have been the most amazing of my life. I don't want to go home. I want more of this —” I waved a hand around. “I want more adventures. I know you’ve just found your treasure, but surely there are other secrets within the galaxy…”

His eyes gleamed and he pulled me close. “More secrets than there are stars in the sky,” he said. “And there is another treasure I've had my eye on.”

“Oh?”

“Yes,” he said. “This one was stashed by a pirate queen.”

I grinned. “That sounds perfect. I want to go after it.”

He held me close. “Only if you want,” he said. “I already have all the treasure I need.”

Then he sealed his words with a kiss, and I leaned into him, tasting on his tongue all the wonder and excitement of the future.

Whatever it was, we’d face it.

Together.

I HOPE you enjoyed your time with Kyla and Gir on Reazus Prime!

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I APPRECIATE you all so much. Thank you for coming with me on these incredible adventures!

XOXO,

Elin

WANT MORE OUTLAW PLANET MATES?

Don’t miss out on the rest of the series! They are standalone books and can be read in any order.

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ALIEN’S MERCY - Leslie Chase

Alien’s Treasure - Elin Wyn

Alien’s Jewel - Ava York

Alien’s Challenge - Nancey Cummings

Alien’s Stone Heart - Lynnea Lee

Alien’s Fate - Eden Ember

Alien’s Sacrifice - Cady Austin

Alien’s Bounty - Lena Grey

Alien’s Surrender - Harper Rosling

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DON’T MISS THE STEAMY SFR ADVENTURES OF THE STAR BREED!

Given: Star Breed Book One

When a renegade thief and a genetically enhanced mercenary collide, space gets a whole lot hotter!

Thief Kara Shimsi has learned three lessons well - keep her head down, her fingers light, and her tithes to the syndicate paid on time.

But now a failed heist has earned her a death sentence - a one-way ticket to the toxic Waste outside the dome. Her only chance is a deal with the syndicate's most ruthless enforcer, a wolfish mountain of genetically-modified muscle named Davien.

The thought makes her body tingle with dread-or is it heat?

Mercenary Davien has one focus: do whatever is necessary to get the credits to get off this backwater mining colony and back into space. The last thing he wants is a smart-mouthed thief - even if she does have the clue he needs to hunt down whoever attacked the floating lab he and his created brothers called home.

Caring is a liability. Desire is a commodity. And love could get you killed.

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DON’T MISS THE CONQUERED WORLD!

He shattered her world. Can she trust him with her heart?

Giant spiders, walking trees, bloodthirsty vines.

For Jeneva, it's just another day trying to survive in the jungles of Ankau.

Until the sky ripped open, and the true monsters came through.

Now her world is under attack, and the only place of safety may be at the side of a rock-hard scaled alien.

But he's filled with secrets - how can she trust him?

Vrehx cares for nothing other than the destruction of the Xathi hordes who burned his home and killed his family.

But when a weapons test goes horribly wrong, the battle spills over to an uncharted world.

The planet is filled with lethal native life...but nothing is more dangerous than the human woman who obsesses his thoughts.

When war rages around them, can they fight together, or will his burning need for her drive them apart?

Vrehx is the first book in the science fiction romance series Conquered World. Each book is a new romance with alpha male alien warriors and women who don't put up with their nonsense. No cheating, no cliffhangers, HEA guaranteed!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I love old movies – To Catch a Thief, Notorious, All About Eve — and anything with Katherine Hepburn in it. Clever, elegant people doing clever, elegant things.

I’m a hopeless romantic.

And I love science fiction and the promise of space.

So it makes perfect sense to me to try to merge all of those loves into a new science fiction world, where dashing heroes and lovely ladies have adventures, get into trouble, and find their true love in the stars!

Copyright © 2021 by Elin Wyn

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

The World of Outlaw Planet Mates

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Gir

Kyla

Epilogue: Kyla

Want more Outlaw Planet Mates?

Don’t miss the steamy SFR adventures of the Star Breed!

Don’t Miss the Conquered World!

Please don't forget to leave a review!

About the Author

Copyright