Page 51 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars

Zil frowned at the rough black terrain surrounding them. This was the planet that the life pod had determined was capable of sustaining them until rescue arrived? Was the pod’s AI irreparably damaged? The planet did not appear to be remotely hospitable. It looked volcanically active, like some primordial soup of condensation, lava, and jagged formations of stone. How was he supposed to keep a fragile human alive in this ?

His ear twitched at the sound of Daisy’s labored breathing just below his position. He glanced down curiously and struggled not to smile at the sight of the small female clinging tenaciously to the rocks as she attempted to follow him despite being told to stay put by the pod. She was clearly not accustomed to such an activity but perhaps she was not as soft as he previously believed.

“Ouch! Damn it!” She hissed.

His long ears twitched at her sound of pain, and he squinted down at her hand, worried that she may have cut herself on the rocks. He regretted that they had not had the time to search for the gloves that humans customarily wore with their TRS.

“Have you injured yourself?”

“No.” She sighed with a little whimper and shook her hand before glancing morosely down at it. “I broke a nail.”

“I see.” He could not think of a better response. Human nails were notoriously thin and delicate, not like the talons possessed by the Daranthiki and other species. Turning away, he chuckled quietly to himself, not wishing to injure the female’s pride. No, he was correct in his original assessment—she was very soft. “It will be a challenge protecting you from physical harm if you are harming yourself this easily,” he pointed out as he bent, took her hand, and carefully hauled her up onto the rock beside him.

He did not expect the small grateful smile she gave him. It sent a strange fluttering feeling through his chest that he could not define. The unrecognized response of emotion disturbed him, and he quickly released her hand and acknowledged her gratitude with a nod. His reaction was unfortunately not missed. She raised an eyebrow, but he was surprised anew when a rueful chuckle escaped her.

“I will work harder to not damage myself,” she said so brightly that he wondered if she was aware of how precarious their situation was. Perhaps humans were not so much a brave warrior race but rather a species comprised of utter lunatics. “And if I do, we just won’t count that against you.”

He peered at her speculatively. That was surprisingly generous compared to the terms she offered in the life pod.

“What defines the point at which I am responsible?”

“Oh, well, anything that I’m not directly responsible for. If I willfully eat something that makes me sick, that’s on me. If you give me something that makes me sick, then you take the blame. If I fall down a cliff because I decide not to follow the path you set out, then that’s on me. If I fall down a cliff because you did not check to make sure it was safe, then?—”

“Your point is clear,” he rumbled. That was fairer than he expected. “Just try not to damage yourself to the point of making it difficult for me to keep you safe.”

Her laughter echoed among the surrounding rocks, and she grinned over at him. “I think I’m going to like you after all. You aren’t the politest, and you seem to enjoy ignoring conventions that inconvenience you, but you are surprisingly amusing.”

His lips twitched faintly. He did not think he was so humorous, but he felt another warm flutter in his chest, and he wrenched his gaze away from her to scan their surroundings once more. Perhaps his systems were malfunctioning. He would have to run full diagnostics on himself at the first opportunity once they got off the planet and he could hook himself into a med unit. His eyes narrowed as he focused on a tall peak in the distance that his processors confirmed was the location of the beacon on Habtal. The irony of the planet being named Glory was not lost upon him. Despite being a source of mineral wealth for the Daranthiki Empire, there was nothing objectively glorious about it. The beauty of his home planet with its vast farms would have been better suited to the name.

“This place is pretty dreary,” Daisy quietly observed at his side.

“Its aesthetic does not matter,” he argued. It did not matter that he agreed with her. His own opinion of the planet did not matter either. All that mattered was surviving. Focus on the mission—that was all that was necessary. Facts would keep them alive. “The life pod would not have chosen Habtal if we could not survive on it until retrieval. It may not be pleasant but not impossible.”

Daisy grimaced in response. “It certainly isn’t anyone’s idea of a dream vacation, that’s for sure. Someone ought to have recalibrated those things to at least some minimal measure of comfort. Clean, plentiful water would be a good starting place.”

He fought the urge to smile and directed an annoyed look at her. “Survival is what is important. Save your comforts for when you can afford to have them,” he growled as he released her hand and began walking.

Silence followed him instead of the female, and he was about to turn and demand to know what she was waiting for when she chose that moment to shout after him.

“Honey, there isn’t much that I can’t afford, but if I’m buying your company, at least try to be a little more pleasant. I think I can afford that at the very least.”

He stumbled in surprise and stopped to turn and glower back at her. She met his glare with a far too sweet smile as she casually walked toward him. The female had claws after all, but hers were all the verbal kind that sank into a male’s mind unpleasantly. He was beginning to believe that he would rather be flayed by the claws of an enraged Daranthiki female than suffer the barb of Daisy McGillin’s tongue.

“Our agreement did not include this stipulation. For another million credits, I will utter all the sweetness you desire. Otherwise?—”

“Done,” she agreed and gave him a broad smile. “There, that wasn’t too hard, was it? I don’t suppose you have any water and food on you? I haven’t had anything to eat or drink since waking up from cryogenic sleep. Or do I have to buy that from you too?”

Zil chuckled quietly, which made her smile widen even further as he dug into his uniform to draw out the sole water pellet and one of his protein bars and handed them to her. Sucking the water pellet into her mouth, she tipped her head back as she broke the membrane with her teeth so that the liquid could run down her throat. Her sigh of pleasure sent a bolt of interest down to his cock that had the muscles in his thighs flexing in reaction and his belly quivering. She did not appear to notice the effect her simple action of drinking had on him as she unwrapped the protein bar and bit into it with a satisfied grown that sent a tightening sensation through his scrotum and cock. He cursed silently to himself. He had not anticipated that by providing for her he would make his ability to walk uncomfortable.

“Thank you, that hit the spot,” she murmured with another sigh. Her eyes opening, she grinned over at him. “Now smile and let’s get the hell out of here. I don’t know about you, but I want to get to that beacon ASAP and get the hell off this planet.”

The corners of his mouth curled. He did not even have to entirely fake it. Outside of being pleased with the prospect of credits flowing into his account—enough to allow him to enjoy a well-earned break for several revolutions before resuming his work as a mercenary again—he was amused again despite himself. Being aroused was not so funny, but even that was not what he would call intolerable, especially not in the face of her determination.

Nodding in agreement, he started off into the harsh landscape. Daisy chattered as they walked. Sometimes she commented on the unbearable heat of the sun that she still suffered on her exposed head and hands, but often it was just commentary about the landscape, especially observing the way certain formations appeared like Earth lifeforms he had never seen before. It should have been annoying—and normally it would have annoyed him—but he found himself asking questions about plants and animals she mentioned and amused by the random facts and descriptions she offered. He doubted his mental visualizations he formed from her description matched reality, but some of the absurdities of Earth’s lifeforms was a pleasant distraction. It was only after a few hours that he became increasingly aware of another absurdity of Earth life forms—their high water requirements.

Daisy stumbled a little. The clumsiness that had entered her gait was noticeable. He was about to comment on it when she lifted her hand and rubbed her head for what had to be the hundredth time in the last hour and he frowned in concern.

“McGillin?”

She waved away his question and gave him a tired smile. “Just a headache. Probably from the heat. Once we find some shelter for the night, it will get better.”

He nodded, not entirely convinced, but slowed his walking pace and kept an eye on her as they continued to inch their way across the vast landscape. The mountain was far enough that it would take them several days just to reach its lowlands, never mind getting to the beacon tower on its upper slopes. It would delay them even longer when he could have easily been moving at a quicker pace than one that he had originally set, but it was clear that she could not even sustain that without suffering some kind of harm to herself.

The beacon could wait. He could afford to be patient.

Even with the reduced pace, she was walking slower and slower as Habtal’s long day wore on. He continued to glance back and check on her, his concern growing greater by the moment. She was now lagging dangerously behind and Zil was forced to double back to meet her.

She was stumbling with every step as if suffering from excessive fatigue; her customarily damp, soft lips were dry, and her skin as well as far as he could determine. She had even stopped perspiring, which was not a good sign. Although the manner in which the human body released moisture was odd to him when Daranthiki possessed vents in their mouths that helped cool them with every breath, he understood that the lack of dampness on her skin was worrying.

By the time he got to her side, she stumbled again, this time over her own feet rather than any rock in her path, and Zip wrapped his arms around her before she had the opportunity to hit the ground.

“What is wrong with you?” he demanded. His voice was a little sharper than intended, and he felt something shrivel within him when her face crumpled unhappily. He expected tears but none came, for which he felt both relief and even greater concern when she started to make raspy little sounds of distress. “McGillin?” He gripped her firmly and peered down into her face. “Why did you not speak sooner and tell me that you were so tired?”

She didn’t reply but moaned pitifully, forcing him to take a closer look at her for any clue at all as to what she was suffering from. Her eyes appeared to be unnaturally sunken and that sent a small chill up his spine. How had all of this escaped his attention until now? She whimpered miserably and pressed her cheek against his armor. A tiny sigh escaped her, and he frowned down at her worriedly.

“Daisy?” he murmured, although it broke the boundaries the politeness. He continued to break another boundary as he cupped her face within hand and tipped her head to look up at him once more. “How can I help you?”

A raspy sound gurgled in her throat and her mouth moved. He leaned in closer so that his ear was nearer to her mouth. It was only then that he caught the faint single word.

“Water.”

He blinked in surprise as he straightened. Water? Already? It had not even been a full day cycle. Had he ever met another species who required so much water? He did not think so, at least not from species who lived within aquatic environments. Concern filling him, he lifted her effortlessly into his arms and sprinted for a heavily shaded area created from a partial enclosure of rocks. He laid her in the midst of them in the softest spot he could find—which was still hard even by generous calculations—and patted his uniform fruitlessly. He did not know why he bothered. He had only one hydration pellet when they arrived, and he already gave it to her.

He ran his hands along her face and neck, allowing his implanted sensors to get a reading on her basic medical requirements. Severe dehydration. Hissing at his own ignorance, he quickly turned and reached for the storage pouch on the leg of his uniform and removed his hydration acquisition unit. Thankfully, he had never fallen out of the habit of carrying it after he left the military. Being prepared for the event of being stranded in just about any environment was going to save her life.

Setting it on the ground in front of him, he initiated the scan for a water source. It found one surprisingly quickly, though it was hardly what he considered an ideal source. Overturning a large rock, he found a sort of fungal lifeform beneath them retaining huge pockets of water collected within them. He peeled the semitranslucent gray fungus from the rock and grimaced as he glanced over at her. She was not going to enjoy this.

There was another way, but he suspected that she would enjoy that even less.