Base Zero, page 3
part #2 of Captured Earth Series
Lori looks up, confusion on her face.
“Unless you like them.” Adira continues. “As in…enough to have them in your bed.”
Lori’s eyes bug out and she visibly shudders.
Adira chuckles, completely unoffended. “Come on, Sam. Let’s get you stitched up.”
Adira’s mood is light, even though what we just heard outside has visibly sent fear through all of us.
As we walk away, I turn her words over in my head. Anything but to focus on the fear still going through me.
I had no idea offering food to the Vullan was like some sort of Vullan pickup line.
What else don’t I know?
I’m thinking about this as we head toward the ship when my thoughts suddenly falter, my mind snagging on a feeling around me.
It’s like something brushes against my skin. Something that makes the hairs on my arms tingle a little.
I glance at Adira, but she’s not close enough for it to have been her.
I don’t know what makes me turn to peer through the dim green light toward where the mining carts are, only to find eyes so dark they might as well have no color looking my way.
Him.
Burgundy Eyes.
I snatch my gaze away.
Shit.
Everything that’s happened since we encountered the Vullan goes through my mind.
Have I done something that makes this one pay me so much attention?
I’m not sure.
I don’t remember ever offering him food.
And then I have to hold back a groan. Memory of how alert he became when I stuck my tongue out at him comes rushing back.
Stupid Sam.
I want to ask Adira if what I did means anything in Vullan culture, but I sort of think I already know that it does.
Her confirming it will only make me more aware of the huge male and although he stares, he still hasn’t come close enough to bother me.
That’s good enough, right?
Has to be.
Because serious things are happening outside of this cave, our civilization is experiencing an extinction event, and I have to focus on building our little camp within the base.
I don’t have time to think about alien men or their peens.
I feel my cheeks blaze at the thought, and I glance at Adira again.
She doesn’t seem to notice, and I take the moment to allow my gaze to travel over the side of her face.
Maybe I should ask her about her…experiences.
I’m just not so sure I’m ready to hear—or why I want to hear about them in the first place.
Chapter Four
SAM
The medic’s gaze flicks to mine before settling back on Adira’s.
“Will that be a problem?” she asks him. “If I use some of your tools, that is. The cut is deep but nothing I can’t handle by myself.”
The medic’s gaze flicks back to mine, his ice-blue gaze somewhat chilling.
Of all the Vullan, he is the only one with a white suit and light eyes, but his differences don’t make any him less frightening.
His mandibles curl a little as his gaze falls to my bloody hand and I close my palm so he’s not looking at the wound.
He sniffs and his mandibles curl a little more.
That’s another difference about him. He’s the only one with mandibles.
“There is a strange scent to hyu’man blood…” is all he says, and I stiffen.
The way his words come out.
Slow. Measured.
It’s exactly the way I expect a vampire to speak.
I have to give myself a mental shake.
This is why I need to ask Adira about her experiences with Fer’ro.
Does he bite?
Is he gentle with her?
What does he use those fangs for?
“I know,” Adira says. “Fer’ro mentioned the same.” She gestures toward the wall in front of us. “Look, you have Mina to tend to…and that other thing. I think Sam trusts me enough to let me take care of her hand. Right, Sam?”
They both turn to look at me and my eyebrows shoot upward at the sudden attention.
“Y-yea. Of course.” I know Adira can do it.
She was a vet before all this.
My skills though…I did horticulture.
I’m not sure how those skills are going to be useful since we live in a cave now.
The medic eyes me for a second before making a sound in his throat.
“Fine.” He turns and heads toward the wall and a door materializes in front of him, creating an opening that he steps through.
Adira smiles at me and beckons me to follow as she heads in the same direction.
It’s well-lit in there and I’m not surprised when I step in and see the female floating above the table in the center of the room.
Mina.
Along with Adira, we’d been the last three survivors in the machine’s belly…just waiting for our turn when the machine would take us…breed us.
That would have been our fate if the Vullan hadn’t arrived.
They got us out, but not before Mina had been impregnated.
She’s still healing from the fact even now.
I step toward her, forgetting the two other people around me for a minute as my gaze runs over her form.
She looks peaceful. Asleep.
There is a gentle hum that is coming from near her and when I reach my hand out to touch her, light shimmers over my skin.
“The light keeps her body in a steady state of balance,” the medic says.
When I glance at him, those blue eyes are searching my soul.
“It keeps her floating,” he says.
I nod. “Kind of like a tractor beam?”
His mandibles twitch and he tilts his head at me a little, but he doesn’t respond verbally.
My cheeks burn, and the hair on my skin stands up.
The Vullan make me feel uneasy, but this one and the burgundy-eyed one? They make me feel like prey.
At the thought of Ga’Var, I scowl at myself.
“He’rox, you say this has shown good results?” Adira holds up some transparent jelly on her finger.
“It seems to have the best healing effect when applied to the previously infested female.”
Adira narrows her gaze at him. “Mina. Her name is Mina. If she’s your patient, you have to start saying her name like she means something to you. Otherwise, I and the other women are going to think you’re not taking good care of her.”
I could swear the medic’s suit turns a shade of gray.
“I would do no such thing. A Vullan would never harm a female.”
Adira smiles at him. “I know.”
My gaze moves from one to the other.
I don’t get how Adira can joke at a time like this. When the world outside these walls is ending.
She’s been…confidently peaceful, for the most part.
A string of jealousy shoots through me and my eyes widen as I lower my gaze, searching my thoughts for the source.
I mean, I envy the fact that Adira has found some happiness in all this. I’m happy for her, but I guess I wish I had something to be happy about, too.
All I feel is growing sadness inside.
I keep thinking about my family…
I had a little sister.
She was to graduate high school this year.
She’d been so excited…
“Sam?” Adira is looking at me with a question in her eyes and I know she’s asked me something that I did not hear.
“If you’re worried about the meal, I’m sure Lori can take care of it.”
I smile a little and nod. “I know, I’m just…”
Just what?
Falling into a pit of depression?
“Probably, she needs sustenance.” The white Vullan’s voice pulls me from my thoughts.
“What?”
“From the outside.” He looks across at the wall as if he can see right out of the ship, right out of the cave. “Your food stores are almost diminished. You worry about sustenance.”
I shoot a glance at Adira and find she’s frowning at him.
“He’rox, there’s no need to worry Sam about that. I’ll handle it.”
I glance from one to the other and they seem to be having some sort of staring match I’m not a part of.
“He’s right though…” My words make them both turn their gazes on me. “We have to go out there soon. Try to forage. Unlike the Vullan, who I assume have food stored on this ship, we have to restock.”
“Our sustenance stores should last us for a while,” He’rox confirms.
As I thought. And we can’t expect them to catch and store fish for us like they have done before.
I glance at Adira and raise my eyebrows.
She shoots him a glare, then turns and smiles at me. “Nothing to worry about, Sam. I’m planning on going out there soon, anyway.”
Her admission makes me jerk awake, as if I’d been falling into some daze.
“What? When?”
She glances at He’rox. “Today. Later? I’m not sure. It all depends on when He’rox finishes. He’s been working on something that can mask our energy signature similarly to how they can mask themselves.”
“Ah.” The word comes out calmly, but my heart is suddenly beating hard.
Venturing to the outside.
It’s both a terrifying and exciting prospect.
“I want to come with you.”
Adira is shaking her head immediately.
“No. I don’t want to risk anyone dying. It’s too dangerous.”
“But not too dangerous for you?”
Adira’s mouth tightens a little. “It’s not the same. You don’t,” she closes her eyes for a moment, “you don’t understand.”
“Maybe if you explained, she would.” The medic is observing us and, for once, I’m not uneasy around his gaze.
If anything, he seems completely enthralled by our exchange.
“You know I can’t do that.” Adira’s words are tight. Controlled.
She’s holding herself rigidly, and for the first time, it’s like I can see just how much pressure is on her shoulders.
I reach out with my good hand and touch her arm. “It’s okay, Adira. You’re not alone in this, you know.”
Adira nods before darting an angry look in He’rox’s direction.
“Do you want to sit down over here?” She gestures to the empty table beside her and I realize she’s changing the subject. “Or do you want to go to another room since Mina is…”
Right. It is weird being in here with Mina.
She’s essentially in a coma and we don’t know how much she’s aware of, but I don’t mind.
I shake my head. “It’s fine, we can do it here.”
As I move over to the table and hoist myself up with Adira’s help, I barely see the medic slipping from the room.
We’re practically alone now.
My gaze flicks over Adira as she takes my hand and begins to clean it.
“You cut yourself really deep here,” she says. “You’ve been having a few accidents like this lately.”
She glances up at me and I look away.
She’s right, of course. The other day I had a blackout, fell, and scraped my knees pretty badly. I was just lucky one of the Vullan caught me before I hit my head.
“He’rox is right. You’re right. We need better food.” Adira sets the gauze down and takes another to continue cleaning the wound. “And some form of sunlight. Lack of Vitamin D and most vitamins and minerals we need isn’t helping.”
“Well…you’re right, of course. I assume that’s the whole reason you’re planning a trip out there. Food we might find…but sunlight…we can’t carry that back.”
“I know…I’ll think of something.”
A moment of silence passes between us as I watch her work.
If she thinks she’s going to venture out there alone, she has another thing coming.
I mean, just a few minutes ago, we heard one of the terrible machines passing.
We can’t go out until we can fight back somehow.
She’s been the first person I can call a friend through all this. I’m not about to lose her too.
“You don’t have to work so hard.”
“I know.” She gives me a stern look. “But neither do you.”
I shrug. “Well…I have to do it. I have to help somehow.”
“Exactly how I feel.”
The note of resolution in her voice has me silent.
I’ve been so focused on myself, my own mounting sadness and guilt, that I didn’t think the other women were feeling the same.
“Look…I don’t know how soon we can launch an offense,” Adira continues. “It might be a while.” She sighs again and changes the gauze she’s using. “It’s all experimental. The ore they’re drilling doesn’t have the exact properties they need. So He’rox is sort of engineering it to make it work.” She pauses. “It’s going to take some time.”
I avert my gaze to stare at the wall.
We don’t have time.
We’ll starve before they’re finished.
“They shot the machine we were in…took it down…” I murmur.
“Yes. But the weapon they used was kind of like a one-shot thing. They’d hoped to get here before the Gryken, to warn us of what’s coming, so we could prepare. It didn’t turn out that way. So we have to wait.” She sighs again. “I know it’s difficult. Trust me. I know they keep their distance from you guys, so you don’t really know much, but they’re working hard for us. Extracting the ore and bringing it up is a very delicate job.”
My gaze slides back to her as she applies the jelly to my hand.
It stings a little, but I don’t pull my hand away.
Adira’s words repeat in my mind.
I want to ask her about her relationship with Fer’ro, but now that we’re alone, I realize I’m a coward.
I watch as she tends to my hand, smearing the jelly over the wound. It quickly turns into a sort of flesh-like plaster after a few seconds, pulling my broken skin together.
“I can’t get over how amazing this thing is,” she says.
I open my mouth to finally ask her about her relationship when movement catches my eye.
The medic suddenly walks in.
“Oh, come back to tend to Mina, have you He’rox?” Adira doesn’t even turn. I don’t know how she knows he’s entered the room.
The Vullan move so quietly. So stealthily. Fluidly. Half of the time, you don’t know they’re there till you’re face-to-face with one of them.
The large male makes a sound in his throat like a grunt. “No. I brought you these.”
He stretches his hand out toward us. At first, I don’t see what he’s holding out to us until Adira takes them from his hand.
Two transparent disks.
They’re about the size of pennies, and Adira turns them over between her fingers.
“What are these?”
For a few seconds, neither answers me, and then Adira turns and looks at me.
“You sure about wanting to come outside with us?”
“Yes, of course.” I’m not about to change my mind.
“Well, I guess I can’t say no now.” She pauses. “He’rox seems to have completed the cloaking devices.”
Chapter Five
GA’VAR
San’ten faces me, a snarl on his face that pulls his lips back so much I can see his fangs.
“What makes you think I’m unsuitable for going on the outside?”
“Is that really a question?” I make to move past him, but he steps in my way.
Off near the entrance of the tunnels, Fer’ro, his female, and Sa’am are standing, getting ready to leave.
Minutes before, several of my other brethren went out first.
Sentries.
They will let us know if it is safe to go on this mission.
But San’ten is being difficult.
I do not have time to get into a conversation about who or who may not go outside on the surface.
“I can control myself more than you think,” San’ten says, as if reading my mind.
“Right.” I brush past him and he dares to grab my arm.
My ba’clan writhe against me immediately.
If he wants to fight…
But I control myself.
Sa’am’s face appears in my mind. How fear had risen from her when she’d seen my reaction upon hearing the Scrit walking on the outside.
I did not like the way she looked at me.
I don’t know why it matters to me so much.
So, I meet San’ten’s dark gaze with a glare of my own. “It’s not a question of whether you can control yourself, brother. We need someone here to manage the base while we are gone.”
His gaze darts away from me then, and he releases me. Regardless, I can tell that he is not satisfied.
“So be it,” he says, before he brushes past Fi’rox and two hyu’man females that are standing nearby.
Their wide eyes follow him as he disappears deeper into the cave and their unease wafts from them.
Even when we are not being overly aggressive, the females fear us.
“I’ll take care of him,” Fi’rox clicks and heads after San’ten.
I watch them go, my nostrils twitching.
San’ten is bound to do something stupid one of these days.
All he wants to do is slaughter the Gryken. We all do. But his approach will only get us killed.
He needs to remember…he is not the only one who has lost everything.
At least my womb mate has found something new.
Once more, my gaze lands on the small group waiting at the cave entrance, and I head in their direction.
Fer’ro’s mate is by his side, her hand resting protectively on his arm as if she cannot bear the thought of not touching him.
It is…unnerving looking at them.
Strange.
Vullan females rarely wish to feel a male’s touch unless they are in heat, but hyu’man females seem to be different.
My gaze falls on the little one.
Sa’am.
I wonder if she is the same.
Her eyes are dark like San’ten’s and they meet mine as I approach, as if she can sense me. But I know that is impossible.
