Page 16 of Devin (Warriors of Etlon #5)

Val

J ust when Val thought her life couldn’t get any worse, the fates had to show that she still had a long way to go. Being rejected by a husband with an obvious hard-on was bad enough, but crash landing in the jungle with carnivorous creatures right outside the front door was just a little too much.

“Don’t open the door. Really? You thought you had to say that?

” Val said to her prone Mahdfel. Once she’d wiped up the blood, she’d found that the pin pricks of claw marks were already nearly healed.

The bite was a little more worrying, but it didn’t seem to need any bandages or whatnot.

It had already crusted over with a green black scab, which would have been alarming, but his skin was green to start with.

“Really?” Val repeated. She sat in the chair and stared at the dead helm control.

She’d seen enough episodes of Star Trek to get the general idea that whatever was wrong was related to power, but after that, she had no idea what any of the buttons did.

She’d watched him open the hatch by hand, and even that, she thought she’d have a hard time doing by herself.

Open the door? Not likely. Instead, she was trapped inside a box with an alien that hopefully wouldn’t die on her.

“You better have a homing beacon on these things, because if you die, I’m going to need someone to come and get me,” she said. She stood up and sat down next to his form. He was still breathing. “Please don’t die on me.”

The little creature that had come with him scuttled into her lap and settled like a contented cat. She gave it a pet and it actually cooed a pleasured sound.

“You know, I’m not really in a place in my life where I can afford to have a pet,” she told it. “So I’m not going to give you a name, because I have no idea what you even eat, you know, besides Mahdfel. He’s not very tasty, you know.”

The thing blinked up at her with the cutest three little eyeballs, then snuggled in for a nap.

“What are we going to do?” Val said. Talking to the little creature was oddly comforting.

At least it was better than talking to herself.

“I feel like I should call you something. I mean, I don’t even know your species.

I can’t call you ‘dog’ or ‘cat’, or whatever.

I’ve never had a pet. Maybe I can call you Devin.

You at least have the courtesy of pretending to like me. ”

Her stomach rumbled. If she’d been back at camp, she would have ordered something from the replicator and possibly been sitting with Jane and the others, crocheting her heart out.

But no, she was here, wherever ‘here’ was, with a broken ship, no replicator and an unconscious Mahdfel.

It was better to look for food now before she was starving and then at least they’d have an idea of how much they’d have available before they’d have to scavenge or hunt.

Devin was probably the sort to be able to hunt down his food, build a fire and cook it like a gourmet chef, but all the Mahdfel seemed to be able to do that. He’d definitely wielded that knife on his belt quickly enough for Val to know he didn’t wear it just for show.

She very quickly shifted the creature to Devin’s stomach, and though it let out a mewl of complaint, it didn’t move much from the spot. Val wished she had a camera phone to take a picture of the brave warrior, tackled by the ten-legged kitten.

“Right. Now how about finding some food?”

Val began prying open every panel and container she could manage, and she was amazed at how much the little shuttle held.

She found a box of tools, more wiring than she knew what to do with, a set of what she decided were blow up life rafts, and finally, in one of the rear panels, a box of wrapped bars that were probably food.

They were about the size of granola bars, brown all the way through.

She opened one and took a bite and found it tasted like crud.

But at least it was filling. She ate half of one and then pondered the possibilities of a bathroom.

Though obviously not made for long flights, surely it had some sort of facility somewhere.

In an hour, she was just going to have to find a bucket or something to pee into.

Not the best option, but she was alive and fed and Devin’s chest continued to rise and fall under the careful watch of his new pet.

Val now only had to defeat boredom. Usually the computer panels lit up with a variety of options to read or watch, but every screen on the ship was dead.

It was as if the power had just been sucked dry.

It only took an hour or two before the sheer boredom set in and she laid back next to Devin and fell asleep.

“What the fuck?”

Val’s eyes flew open. Devin was sitting up next to her, staring at the creature on his lap. It opened its three eyes and yawned, revealing two rows of teeth.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Val said.

“Is it morning?”

“I don’t know. I just woke up. You’ve been sleeping for a while.”

“Is that why the ship is a mess?” Devin said, glancing around the shuttle.

Val looked around at the panels she’d removed.

“I was looking for stuff,” she explained.

“Stuff?”

“You know, like survival stuff. I figured there was no way I was going to survive here unless I could at least find some food.” Val showed him the container of brown bars. “I ate like half a bar. You want one?”

That seemed to soften him.

“No, I can go without sustenance for much longer than you can.”

“But if your body’s been healing, I’m sure you need food. At least eat the other half of my bar. I counted them. Between the two of us, we should be good for at least a week.”

Devin took the bar and practically swallowed it whole. He was starving for food, but she’d bet he’d cut his own arm off before complaining.

“This thing is venomous,” Devin said as he stared at the creature in his lap. Despite that, he stroked a few legs and it woke up.

“It loves you, though,” Val assured him.

“We can’t keep it.”

“Of course we can’t keep Nivy. I mean, we don’t even know what he eats, besides you of course.”

“If we can subdue the mother without injuring her, I think we should be able to return it and see what we can do about repairing the craft.” He paused and wrinkled his nose. “Nivy?”

“I had to call it something.” Val left off the part that she’d named him that because it was Devin spelled backward, except Nived was too weird for such a little fluffball, so she’d shortened it already.

“It is not a pet,” he reminded her.

“I know that.”

Devin gently lifted Nivy off of his lap and placed it on the bench. The fluffball took that as a sign that it was time to wake up and started exploring the cabin, tumbleweed style. Each of its little feet had two or three cat-like claws that allowed it to climb on most surfaces.

Devin stood up and began reassembling the ship panels and putting everything efficiently back into place.

He left out the tools and the rations, but packed everything back neatly in its place.

Val just tried to stay out of the way. The place was claustrophobic enough without her trying to meddle and help.

“So, did we blow a fuse or something?” Val said when he finished. Electrical issues were somehow always tied to a fuse.

“Mahdfel technology is a lot more complicated than that, but I’ll have to check the outside panels before I know for sure what’s wrong.”

“Last time you went out, it didn’t go so well for you,” she reminded him.

“This time I’ll be prepared. It’s also possible that my body will have built up an immunity to that particular toxin and it will not affect me as much.”

“That’s pretty cool but be careful.”

Devin nodded and pointed toward the copilot chair. “Just in case, I want you as far away from the door as possible.”

“Okay.”

She watched as he slowly cranked the door down, trying to make the least noise possible. Unfortunately, Nivy got a little excited when he saw the crack of freedom and scrambled for the corner. Val wanted to catch him, but realized it was better if he was reunited with his mother.

After he cranked the ramp about a foot and a half open, Devin gracefully swung up and out.

A breeze flew in and Val breathed deeply.

She hadn’t realized how stuffy it had really become.

Val suddenly realized they probably would have run out of air long before they ran out of food.

There must have been some backup system cleaning the air, but it didn’t quite do the job of the main.

All was quiet outside for a good thirty minutes before Devin lowered the hatch fully. Nivy was sitting comfortably on his shoulder.

“I don’t know what happened to the mother or her infants, but they seem to have moved on. I’ve done surveillance around the general area and don’t see anything immediately dangerous.”

“Does that mean I can pee?”

He looked stunned at that question but waved his arm to indicate she could come out. Val scrambled out and down the drop. It looked like it was near evening and the jungle around them creaked with the noise of unfamiliar insects.

“Don’t go far,” he warned.

Val had no intention of going any further than she needed to. She squatted by the nearest tree truck and let fly. Modesty was not going to stop her from feeling relief. Devin tried very hard not to stare.

“It’s okay, I know this is all very weird,” Val said as she hiked up her pants.

“It’s not weird, it’s sabotage.”

“What?”

Val turned toward the ship and looked at the panel that he had taken from the back side. Half of it was black.

“We were flying with only one convertor. The other blew from the load and all the spares have been taken from the repair kit.”

“Maybe someone forgot to replace it?”

“Maybe Kavendish is going to get punched in the face again. I smell another one of his ridiculous ruses.”

“You shouldn’t punch him. Apparently, you came out of the last fight the loser.”

“It is the Mahdfel way. If I had won, I would have had to take command. I do not wish to be a warlord, although from what I’ve seen, he’s a poor excuse for one.”

“So you lost on purpose?” Val asked.

“Yes,” he said matter of factly, as if it was obvious.

“Then why did you start the fight?”

“Because it felt good.”

Val stared at Devin in amazement. The green alien was actually cracking a smile. It was the first time she’d ever seen him do so. Val opened her mouth and laughed loudly. She tried to smother it with her hand when she realized how loud it sounded.

“I’m going hunting,” Devin said abruptly. “If not to find you something to eat, then to find something for Nivy and me. I know our stomachs can tolerate most of the meat around here. Yours I’m not sure about. Wait inside. Remember, Nivy’s mother is on the small side for creatures around here.”

Val climbed back into the shuttle and Devin shut the door behind her.