Chapter
Six
N oelle jerked away at the sudden sound of something pounding with an irregular rhythm at her door. It wasn’t the brisk tapping of a human, but it was clearly intentional. Gripping her blanket to her, she scooted warily back on the bed, her eyes going round as she stared at the entrance to the bedroom. She half-expected something to explode through the front door of the trailer and come tearing back to the room for her, but after several minutes the commotion subsided, and gradually she was able to relax.
That was until something landed heavily on the roof above her head.
Choking back a scream, she scrabbled from the bed, her heart leaping into her throat. A series of small scratching sounds rose from overhead, but they were rapidly getting louder and faster as if something was trying to tear its way through the roof.
“ Go away! ” she screamed, and the sounds above immediately fell silent.
It was an eerie silence—a complete lack of sound as if everything were holding its breath as a predator passed. But it was somehow worse than that because whatever it was had reacted to her scream in a way that few animals would have. Most animals would have bolted at the unexpected sound, but there were some that would have grown more excited at the sound of frightened prey. Whatever was on the roof knew she was in there and was listening.
She bit back a cry but jumped with a whimper when a familiar sound sang above her. “Jymlina.” But then it somehow got worse when it sang again and this time her translator kicked in as words entwined with the song in her mind. “Come out and come to me, jymlina.”
She was right. It was worse. It was not just a cunning predator; it was an alien stalking through the swamp around the camp, hunting her. The same one she heard night after night, calling to her, insisting that she leave the trailer with words that became more and more frustrated. Did it see her as prey or an intruder? Some aliens were highly territorial and didn’t react well to strangers invading their homes. Whatever its reason, it was one that she didn’t even want to imagine.
“Please,” she choked, this time unable to hold back her sob when the word fell from her mouth in an alien dialect. “Please do not hurt me.”
“Hurt you?” it echoed in a quizzical tone. “I would never hurt you.”
She shook her head, terrified at how clearly the alien’s words flowed to her. Even its tonal inflection. It made her want to trust it, and blindly trusting and unknown alien was perhaps the stupidest thing she could do, especially considering the missing exploratory team. And what of her own team? Were the aliens luring them out one by one as they had with the previous team?
It was a situation she had never dealt with before. All the planets she was sent to had been unoccupied by sentient beings. She had never met an unknown alien. Truth be told, as a non-gratas who was not permitted to mix in open social atmospheres designated for citizens, she had never even met an alien before outside of seeing a few at a distance. Hearing alien words coming out in her own voice terrified her with its uncanniness from the knowledge that it was unnatural sounds forced through her.
“Come out, jymlina,” it crooned, and she gave an aggressive shake of her head.
“No!” she shouted as she scurried over toward the door of the sleeping quarters to put more distance between herself and the alien. “There’s no chance that I’m going to just walk out there for no other reason than because you say to.”
It fell silent again as if considering her words.
“You do not wish to remain here, jymlina,” it said thoughtfully after a long moment. “It may feel safe for you to be surrounded by familiar walls and items, but it is not good for you to remain trapped in here. Especially not since a cazka has claimed this abandoned place. This place no longer belongs to your people. It is his now, and you are neither quick enough nor do you possess enough natural defenses to protect yourself from such a predator.”
“I… I haven’t seen anything,” she replied uncertainly.
“Naturally,” it hummed in agreement. “I have been luring it away from here at night in the same manner I distracted other predators who caught your scent when you were traveling, but you will not be able to evade it forever. It is already returning more quickly now and drawing closer to this place. It will eventually find where you are hiding. Once I continue north, your protection leaves with me. It is better that you leave too.”
It had been… watching her? Her throat constricted, cutting off much of her air supply as panic rushed through her, making her lightheaded. Or maybe that was because she simply wasn’t getting enough oxygen? It didn’t matter—it was natural to panic upon discovering that her easy trip through the swamp hadn’t been so easy and that she had been hunted and nearly ended up something’s dinner many times before the alien on her roof intercepted them. Not only had she not seen any of the predators it spoke of, but she also had not seen the alien either outside of the galaxy of markings on it as it lurked outside the trailer. How had she not realized it was following her? Where had it even been hiding all this time that she hadn’t seen it?
“You… want me to trust you?”
“It would be to your advantage,” the alien agreed.
That was fair. But it wasn’t that simple.
“You can’t really expect me to trust a stranger.” She meant to say alien, but the word stranger came from her mouth instead. She supposed it was close enough. It was clear that the alien had no concept of species from other planets.
“I am a very trustworthy male. I am a healer,” the alien replied indignantly. “There is no one you should hope more to find you in the swamps than a healer.”
A male alien. That didn’t exactly make her excited to go out and make friends either. While she didn’t consider herself one of those humans who stupidly believed any and every alien wanted to get into the pants of human women, males were often unnervingly larger than even human men, much less women. And at five feet tall and boasting a very petite build, she was a lot smaller than many women who voluntarily signed onto the exploratory teams.
Family and old friends, worried that she might get easily hurt, didn’t understand why she had even signed onto the program. United Earth laws prevented Darvel from assigning non-gratas to the exploratory division just because of how potentially dangerous it was—it had to be comprised wholly of volunteers. It was the only real exception made when it came to what the Corp could do with them, but it was an important one and the reason why there was such a big payoff for volunteering service. The opportunity to earn citizenship was a huge dangling carrot and Noelle had snapped it up despite knowing that she was surrendering her life and her last remaining legal protections to them. She’d never had a moment where she’d regretted her decision… until now.
Maybe she should have listened to her family and friends, or even the personnel who had done the necessary paperwork and psych evaluation who had suggested that, given her size, she was a potential liability to the program and didn’t belong there. She had insisted and even demonstrated her capabilities in several simulations. That didn’t stop people from talking, however, and it had been her good fortune to be partnered with William Kim. He never dismissed her capabilities. She wished more than ever that he were there with her. He would have watched her back no matter what decisions she made at such a moment.
But he wasn’t. She was all alone, and so she needed to watch out for herself. She couldn’t take any chances with the alien. She didn’t want to die on this planet. She wanted to go home where she didn’t have to worry about some unknown alien monster killing her.
She swallowed and shook her head, even though she knew he couldn’t see it. “No. I’m sorry, it’s nothing personal, but I just can’t blindly trust someone I don’t know. You may mean well, but for all I know it could be a trap—one that I would be a fool to walk right into.”
A heavy sigh came from above and then silence. “You are correct,” he grumbled unhappily after an excruciatingly long moment. “It would be unwise to simply trust so easily, but I cannot linger too much longer. The little bit of water I’ve been feeding to the nangash will not sustain them long. I must return home. But three days,” he murmured, his voice pitching in a way suggested he was now speaking to himself. “I can spare three days, I think, to convince her.”
Noelle cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Perhaps you can show yourself. This whole thing is a bit disconcerting. First being watched by a practically invisible presence and now talking to one.”
“Ah.” A sonorous chuckle echoed from above, sending a feeling of tiny butterfly wings skittering over her skin. “I did not consider… Very well, I shall drop in front of the looking portal by your entrance. Come see me. Once you see me well, I will go out into the water so you may feel safe opening your door and talking to me.”
She bit her lip as she considered his proposal. It sounded fair.
“Okay, I’m going there now,” she called up toward the ceiling.
She jumped at the sound the metal roof made as he ran across the roof and leaped from it. The splash that followed was like that of an Olympic diver and it brought a faint smile to her face. He was clearly trying to make himself heard for her benefit. That was a point in his favor.
Gathering up her courage, she headed toward the main room. It was a small thing. She was safely inside with a door, four walls and roof, and a floor between them. She stopped in front of the window so close that her breath slightly fogged the glass. There! She saw the water ripple close by, the movement subtle in the morning light but obvious enough that she didn’t jump out of her skin when a lean, powerful male slowly drew himself out of the water. She spotted one hand and then the other; each possessed long fingers webbed at the first knuckle and tipped with brutally large claws slip from the water. They were followed by his wrists and powerful forearms and then the lean, muscular biceps of an athletic swimmer. He gripped the roots, the claws finding purchase, and pulled himself from the swamp.
Long dark purple ropes that vaguely resembled hair came into view and they streamed with water as the alien’s head and chest emerged and rose over the edge of the root system. He kept his every movement slow, his vivid green, luminous eyes pinned on her. There were a few species who had bioluminescent structures in the iris of their eyes, but it made sense for a species inhabiting Xal given its gloom. His species clearly needed every advantage evolution gave them to survive there. His dark violet skin was also covered with bioluminescent freckling wherever it wasn’t covered by his strange black netted clothing. He also had a sort of leather bag strapped protectively across his chest. He had mentioned transporting something… maybe it was in there.
He lifted himself onto the massive root system on which the camp sat and slowly approached the window, his gait a graceful slink despite the slight amphibious look to his textured skin. He stopped in front of the window and his full lips turned up in a small smile as he lifted a hand and placed it on the reinforced glass. Three fingers and a thumb. She stared at his hand uncertainly. Did he expect her to lay her hand on the window too? Her brow beetled as she debated if that would potentially cause a misunderstanding by construing an intention that she wouldn’t be aware of. Before she could make up her mind, however, he smiled, revealing numerous sharp teeth, and dropped his hand. He remained in place, standing there for several minutes, allowing her to look her fill as he studied her as well before turning away and dropping back into the water.
He didn’t disappear from sight within the dark water, however. Keeping at the surface, he swam slowly from the edge of the root system until he was in a shadier area some distance away. His bioluminescence brightened, revealing the constellation of lights that she’d become so familiar with night after night. He remained in place, his eyes glowing, waiting.
“I suppose it’s my turn,” she murmured nervously.
Leaving the window, Noelle went to the door and opened it very slowly, just in case he charged from the swamp and tried to rush her. But he didn’t move. He remained still, patiently waiting for her to gather her courage and open the door the rest of the way. She stood there with the door open, unable to move from her spot for several minutes. Eventually, she stepped outside and made her way to a slightly higher root that looked perfect for sitting on. Dropping onto it, she peered at him for a bit as she allowed herself to get accustomed to his presence out in the open.
“What’s your name?” she called to him.
There was a brief pause, and a strange shiver overtook the male but quickly disappeared. “Gwum Narvook Shoowilp Bia,” he replied.
Her lips tipped ruefully. “That’s quite a mouthful.”
His smile flashed, and this time his sharp teeth were a bit less unnerving now that she expected it.
“Bia is in honor and recognition of my species, for we are all one. Shoowilp is my clan. Narvook is my family designation. You may call me Gwum as this is my personal name.”
“Gwum,” she repeated. “I am Noelle. My family… ah, designation is Xander. I don’t have a clan. My species is human, but we don’t use that as part of our names.”
“Like the Gwyr,” he replied as he swam leisurely in place, he leaned back and floated there, the ropes of his “hair” floating around him. “You are very similar to the Gwyr, but also very different. But in this you are the same. They do not even name themselves with their clan.” He shook his head almost mournfully. “This estrangement is odd to the Bia.”
“Gwyr,” she repeated. “Is that what was making those frightening noises?”
A second sentient species to worry about was terrifying enough to consider, but if it was making those kinds of noises, then that just made it worse. It didn’t sound friendly at all. At least Gwum just sang to her. The other thing sounded like it would tear her apart.
He shook his head again and chuckled. “The Gwyr live in the mountains. They seldom come down into the swamps unless they wish to procure something. There are a few clans who have trade alliances with them in exchange for their ore and fibers that we do not have access to in the swamps. Not the Shoowilp or the Warderoon, however, so you have nothing to fear of a Gwyr here. It would be too much effort for them to invade either territory when they can approach a clan that they have an alliance with.” His smile fell. “What you heard—that would be the cazka.”
“And that is?” she queried.
“A very large and very dangerous predator,” he replied solemnly. “They are rare as they are slow to breed, but where a cazka has claimed hunting land, all Bia remain alert and aware, and do not approach. And you… you are right in the middle of its home.”
Fuck.