Page 10 of Argurma Warrior (The Argurma Chronicles #1)
M eg lifted a hand to her forehead and groaned at the pain that lanced through her skull. She blinked, nausea roiling in her belly. What the fuck happened? She snorted and winced as the sound jabbed painfully through her head. It was clear that they had crashed. But where? Were they even still on Earth?
She shifted, groaning at the aches that made themselves known as she gradually became aware of the uncomfortably pressure from the straps confining her to the emergency chair. She craned her head to look around. Her body armor seemed to have protected her from the straps digging in painfully while at the same time keeping her pinned in place on the seat that was currently skewed at a steep angle so that her legs dangled sideways in the air.
“Shit,” she whispered.
Her hands immediately began fumbling with the straps until she hit the release mechanism and slipped free from the chair, her feet hitting the sloping floor with a dull thud as she continued to cling to the chair’s side. She glanced up to the dim, flickering lights on the ceiling.
“Hello?”
She jumped as a rain of sparks suddenly cascaded down. That wasn’t good. Reaching for the wall, she slowly inched her way around the room until she got to the panel that had allowed her to contact the alien before. She pressed her hand against it and waited for the responding chime. Nothing.
“Not good. Not good,” she mumbled as she turned away from the wall and surveyed the room, her gaze ending up at the door.
She stiffened at a deep squealing sound of metal just outside the door. It was long and drawn out in a way that sent ice running through her veins. There was a shift and another soft squeal that sounded inexplicably closer. Her heart rate picked up though she shook her head at her own silliness. It was probably the alien making his way to her. To even think otherwise didn’t make sense. Still, her tongue glued to the roof of her mouth as she stared at the door, unable to convince herself to call out for help or draw any attention to herself.
Her overactive imagination insisted that it didn’t sound like a rescue. It was too quiet. Her pulse thudded louder in her ears as the soft sounds of metal on metal got progressively louder as if blades were being tested along the walls. She jumped at the sound of metal on metal shrieking with a loud suctioning sound as if something of enormous size inhaled sharply. It was accompanied by a longer, louder shriek of metal grinding deeper against the door and then a sudden bang of something heavy being thrown into the door, making the metal visibly vibrate. Meg scrabbled back from it, her eyes widening.
A chittering growl erupted as the bangs became harder, more insistent. Some desperate part of Meg’s brain tried to reason that maybe there was something blocking the door and it was just the alien trying to get through to rescue her, but there was something so violently vicious about the sounds that she couldn’t help but to inch back further, her hand dropping to her blade at her side, as the door vibrated with each impact that sent huge dents forming along its surface. An enraged shriek filled the air that made her drop into a crouch beside the bed and then there was blessed silence.
Meg slowly straightened and then jumped, a silent cry sticking in her throat when the bangs started again, these quicker in tempo and with an intentionally set rhythm rather than the blind powerful strikes that they were before. The side of the door crumpled inward and dark claws pushed their way through, wrenching back the door with one powerful thrust.
Her shoulders dropped as tension flooded from them and she mentally rolled her eyes at her paranoia as her alien captor stuck his head in. His strange visage suddenly very welcome compared to the weird scenarios her imagination was coming up with. There were no monsters on this ship, just an alien who clearly was strong enough to wrench a disabled door open. That probably should have alarmed her more than it did but compared to the direction her thoughts had been taking, it was a relief.
Glowing eyes sought her out and latched onto her. His eyes slowly ran over her as if searching for injuries and the male exhaled, the tendrils extending from his head lowering and calming as he extended a hand toward her and gestured with a small flick of his fingers.
“Come, female.”
“Where are we going?” Meg asked warily as she straightened and stepped around the bed just as another shower of sparks fell from the ceiling.
His head cocked, his glowing eyes narrowing very slightly as if her question caught him off guard. At the change of angle, she could see a discoloration forming along the side of his face beneath the ultra-fine, small scales that covered his skin.
“Degarath is malfunctioning, and on-board security has been compromised. We are required to seek out shelter elsewhere until repairs can be made.”
“Required by who? Wouldn’t it make more sense to stay inside while you make repairs? It would certainly be safer to stay in here than be traipsing around out there on an unknown world,” she observed, her brow lowering in a puzzled frown.
He gave a series of clicks from within his throat, his sharp black mandibles attached at his jaw joints just below his cheekbones moving subtly with the sound. Suddenly he chuffed and she got the distinct impression that he was laughing at her.
“We have not left your world, human. If we had, we would not have traveled far enough to find a life-supporting planet to land on in the event of system failure. Such as you can see that we have.” He inclined his head toward the damaged room
“Not much of a landing,” she muttered, giving him an arched look. “Doesn’t landing imply safely stopping?”
“You are still alive. Safe enough,” he retorted flatly, withdrawing from the doorway as he spoke to give her room to step out beside him. She forgot how tall he was until he was looming over her at his full height when she slipped out past the peeled back door and peered up at him. “There was an incident requiring emergency landing on a small landmass. Alpha protocol in an emergency landing does recommend staying on board but there are extenuating factors involved that override that protocol.”
He gave a long look toward the door as he spoke and Meg glanced over at it, blood slowly draining from her face as she saw the deep gashes in the metal as if something had tried to claw its way through the door nowhere near the centralized area at the corner where she could see the concentrated damage of smaller scores where he had pried his way through.
“What?” she whispered; her voice hoarse around the sudden thickness in her throat. “Please tell me that was you the entire time. That you did all of that.”
His eyes slid back over to her, his tendrils puffing slightly around his head. They whipped around him faintly, but he gave her no reassurance. Instead, his silence spoke volumes. Her stomach dropped. Fuck, she felt sick.
“Did whatever did that cause the ship to crash?”
Gods, why was she asking? She didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to be stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere with a creature that could take down an entire fucking spaceship.
“A miscalculation,” he rumbled at last as he stepped back, withdrawing from her.
“What does that mean?” she demanded, panic crawling up her throat. “That’s a pretty fucking big mistake if it did all of this!”
His head dipped, a faint clicking vibrating in his throat. “It is inconsequential for the time being. The creature, E302, has fled the ship through a tear in the hull. It has moved out of range of my short-range bio-scanners but the ship’s security has been compromised by the damage. We cannot stay here.”
She shivered. She had so many questions about whatever this E 302 creature he was talking about was but it was clear that she wasn’t going to get any answers while he was trying to move them to safety. In any case, she didn’t have a death wish and what he said was making a lot of sense. If the ship was that damaged that there was a fucking hole in it, she wanted to go someplace with secure walls where that thing—or any other predator presumably living on the island they crashed on—couldn’t get to her.
“I assume you have a place in mind then because wandering around out there with a monster on the loose doesn’t sound like a better alternative.”
He dropped his chin again in a gesture that was close enough to a nod to be recognizable. “My general, long-range block scanners detect a large structure further inland and an energy signature. There is an eighty percent probability of being a power source located within it. We go there.”
She swallowed and attempted to dredge up a smile to reflect the confidence she did not feel, no that the male facing her seemed to react either way. “A whole eighty percent, huh? Well, what are we waiting for? Lead the way.”
He gave another rumbling series of clicks in his throat as he dipped his head again and turned away from her, his long legs carrying him effortlessly into a ground-eating stride. Cursing under her breath, Meg hurried after him, her eyes flicking occasionally around her. Although he said that the creature who had caused the damage fled, she couldn’t help but to feel hunted as she jogged to keep up with him.
“Hey, not so fast,” she panted. “Not all of us have legs like you do and I don’t want to get left behind.”
He didn’t appear to react except for his head tendrils shifting to lift slightly at her words but he stride shortened and slowed so that she closed the distance between them.
“Thanks! What do I call you anyway?”
“Why?” he rumbled.
Her brows dipped lower, but she gave a strained laugh. “You may not mind calling me human at every turn, but it’s pretty inconvenient having to always refer to you as the alien. Besides, humans like names. Call it a comfort thing.”
The male chuffed as if that amused him, but he dipped his chin again. “Humans struggle with our formal designations, but you may call me by its informal form, Kaylar.”
A smile stretched across her face. Finally, they were getting somewhere and establishing communication. Perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad.
“Thank you, Kaylar. I’m Meg.”
“I did not ask,” he returned evenly as they turned down a corridor.
So maybe they weren’t progressing, after all. Biting back her irritation, she hurried after him. She certainly hoped that he could fix that ship soon. She had an idea that being stranded on an island with him wasn’t going to be pleasant. She really was going to have to have a discussion with Terri about sending an asshole after her. Not that she wasn’t thankful for the pickup, but this was ridiculous.