Bounty, page 14
part #1 of Barbarians of the Sand Planet Series
“That turns you on?” she asked. “Seriously?”
She slid her ass closer to him and let out a sharp breath as she felt his hardness pressed against her. Now it was her turn to shift uncomfortably. Well played, she thought.
He gave a small laugh before he turned his thoughts to the line of jebels in front of them. They rode single file behind his friend Kush, who twisted around every hour or so to look at them. Danica had a feeling that he and K’alvek were communicating, but she couldn't pick up specific thoughts.
“So can everyone on this planet read minds?” she asked K’alvek.
“Only the Dothveks. And we do not read minds. We sense emotions.”
She thought for a second. “And your enemies can’t do that?”
She felt his confusion over that word. Maybe they didn't have enemies on this planet, although after watching him with the Cresteks, Danica sure wouldn't have called them friends.
“We used to be one people,” he said, “but we broke away from each other.”
“How long ago?”
“Over a thousand solar rotations ago.”
She guessed that a solar rotation was the same as an astro-year, but she wasn't sure if it was the same length. Especially since they had two suns. Still, that sounded like a pretty long time.
“So the Dothveks and Cresteks don't have anything to do with each other anymore?”
Another burst of anger. “We avoid contact.”
She was curious about the Cresteks. They had some fancy gadgets, but the ability to read people’s feelings seemed much cooler than being able to work a scanner or shoot a blaster. Just about everyone in the galaxy had blasters. She'd never encountered a species that was empathic.
Danica noticed the procession had slowed to a stop, and she leaned to the side to see why.
“Scavengers,” K’alvek said, and she felt the distrust in him.
Straining her eyes, she saw a group of a dozen or so squat, potbellied creatures holding spears larger than themselves and riding what look like long, gray centipedes that moved across the sand like snakes. She couldn't help but shudder.
The scavengers themselves had skin as white as an albino, tiny eyes glowing blue in their wrinkled faces, and short, pointed horns that protruded from their foreheads. They appeared to wear layer upon layer of clothing, and Danica wondered if they wore everything they found.
The lead scavenger waved his hands and gestured behind him. He seemed angry to see their group and scowled down the line, jerking his centipede's lead and making it slither back and forth.
“Is there a problem?” Danica asked.
“With scavengers, there is always a problem.”
She saw the lead Dothvek toss something down to the scavenger who spoke for his group. He opened it and passed it back so every other scavenger could inspect it before sending it back up.
She looked up at K’alvek. “What is it?”
He shrugged. “Could be anything. They rarely care as long as you give them something.”
It reminded her of an old bounty-hunter trick her father had used when boarded by inspectors or hostile competitors. Leave something easy to find for them to take while hiding your real valuables somewhere else.
The scavenger said something, but he was too far away for her to hear. Danica felt K’alvek's interest. As the scavengers moved off over a sand dune, the energy in the group changed. Before she could ask K’alvek what was going on, he urged his jebel into a trot.
“The scavengers claim they saw a pair of females on the sands earlier,” he told her as their jebel shifted into a gallop. “However, they often lie, so we cannot know for certain.”
She held tight to his arms to keep from flying off as she was jostled back and forth. If she weren’t so worried about Tori and the rest of the crew, she would have begged him to slow down.
They didn't slow until her teeth had nearly rattled out of her head, and they'd reached the edge of the mountain range. The lead Dothvek turned and rode back until he was beside them. Danica noticed that nothing lay ahead of them but undulating, glittering sand.
“This is where I found you,” K’alvek said. “Do you know where your ship crashed?”
She scanned the horizon. Nothing but sand. She looked up at the two suns, one glowing more orange than the other, which was paler yellow. They were lower in the sky when she'd left the ship, but that was all she knew.
She waved her fingers vaguely in the direction away from the mountain range. "It was over there somewhere. Maybe seven or eight dunes away."
The head Dothvek looked at K’alvek for explanation. She knew her information wasn't much help.
“Maybe you can reach out with your minds and sense them,” she suggested. Her own new-found empathic power seemed limited to K’alvek, but she was sure his people could sense a few women. There couldn't be many other brain waves bounding around out there in the desert, right?
“We will try,” K’alvek said.
The other Dothvek nodded and rode back up to the front of the line and the procession began moving again, but this time, they fanned out into a horizontal line as the caravan trekked out into the open expanse of sand. She knew enough about tactical maneuvers to know it was to cover more ground and get a better view of the desert.
Danica felt a flutter of excitement. They had to be close to her friends.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
K’alvek sensed Danica's eagerness as they extended their search out into the sands, and fought back a twinge of panic. Of course she was anxious to see her friends and crew. He tried to ignore what he knew to be true—she wanted to leave his planet.
But that was what he wanted, wasn't it? To be free of the distraction of her so he could focus on avenging his father? Hadn't that been what he'd been telling himself, that she was nothing but trouble? He refused to admit that mating with her had changed anything, even if he had felt a bond with her he'd never felt with anyone before, including his own family. His mind flashed back to the feeling of being inside her, and he let his eyes close as he savored the memory.
He leaned down and brushed his lips over the top of her head. Her hair was soft under his lips. All of her was soft. Too soft for his world. The last thing he needed was a tiny alien to protect, even if she was his mind mate.
He glanced down at her leather pants and the straps crossing her breasts. She already looked more like a Dothvek than she had in her other clothes. And he knew from sharing her thoughts that she had the heart of a warrior. A captain, was the word she'd used. He did not know what that meant, but he knew she was important in her world. Perhaps she could adapt and use her skills to help him seek revenge.
He pulled his thoughts away from her as Kush reached out. He felt nothing. None of them did.
K’alvek masked his worry from Danica, although he doubted she was aware of the flurry of thoughts among his people. If so many Dothveks could not sense these females on the sands it meant either they were all dead or no longer there. Either way, Danica would be devastated, but he did not want her to know yet. They could be mistaken, though the chances were small.
The jebels continued their rhythmic march up and down the dunes. He held Danica tightly as the creatures ran down the steepest slopes, their bodies lurching back and forth for balance and the wide pads of their feet kicking up soft clouds of sand. He heard her sharp intake of breath and felt her muscles tense against him.
The suns were beginning to sink lower in the sky, and K’alvek worried they would not find the ship before dark. After they traveled a few clicks, he spotted a glint of metal. The excitement of the group was palpable as first one then another and another saw it in the distance. Even Danica sensed the surge of excitement, and her mixture of relief and happiness filled his head.
She was happy to see her friends, he reminded himself as they urged the jebels to move faster over the sands. By the time the group reached the ship, its metal hull almost blinding in the sun, the beasts were trotting and sending a fine, grainy mist of sand behind them that pelted his legs.
The rest of the Dothveks dismounted before K’alvek and were running toward the ship as he pulled his animal to a stop. Like the others, he felt no thoughts coming from inside the massive gray beast sunk halfway into the sand.
He slid off his jebel and reached up to lower Danica to the ground.
Her face shone with excitement, and she took his hand, pulling him forward. “Come on.”
His stomach clenched with dread as he followed her. He feared what they would find inside, because he knew there was no one alive.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
As Danica let K’alvek hoist her up to the bridge entrance several meters off the ground, she steadied her breath. She wasn't sure how she was going to explain the fact that she'd hooked up with a giant alien, or that she seemed to have become an empath. She was too relieved to be back to worry about that. She'd been so scared that the ship wouldn't be there, that they would have been rescued already, that she'd almost burst into tears when she'd seen the flash of metal in the sand. Not that she thought her crew would abandon her, but they also didn't know she was alive.
Danica balanced herself in the doorway, letting her eyes adjust to the low light inside the ship as K’alvek jumped up beside her. The air smelled stale, but cool, and held a hint of char, no doubt from the fire they'd escaped. They were the last ones inside, and she fully expected to see a bridge of her shocked crew surrounded by huge bare-chested aliens. She scanned the room where she and Tori had left Holly, Caro, and Max. The ambient lighting still flickered, and the consoles blinked red and emitted a low hum that told her they were working, but there was no sign of her crew.
She took a few steps inside, looking around the hulking silhouettes of the Dothveks who stood around crowding the space, their heads nearly brushing the ceiling.
"Tori?" she called in case her friends were hiding, although she couldn't imagine where. "Caro? Holly? It's me, Danica."
Silence, save for the shuffling of the restless Dothveks.
“They were all in here,” she told K’alvek, as she swept an arm wide.
He approached one of the standing consoles and touched a finger to it. A series of beeps issued from the machine, and he jumped back.
Danica put a hand over his and shook her head. Now that she focused on his thoughts, she could sense his worry. She could also sense the frustration of the rest of the Dothveks.
She crossed the entire length of the bridge and let her eyes scour every inch, even though it was clear there was no one on board. She balled one hand into a fist and slammed it against a metal support beam, feeling grateful for the sharp pain that shot up her arm.
Where were they? Had they ventured out into the desert to look for her when she didn't return? She'd been gone for two days. Had Tori ever found her way back? She imagined Holly, Caro, Bexli, and Max waiting inside the fragment of their ship. If neither she nor Tori had returned, would they have left to search for them? Part of her hoped they would have been practical enough to stay put, but she suspected someone would have gone out to rescue them. But all of them? And Pog? As annoying as she sometimes found Bexli’s pet, she felt a pang of worry for him. Thinking of all her friends wandering across the desert, made her feel sick.
If they did go searching, Danica had no way of knowing in what direction they'd gone. She pushed down a wave of nausea at the thought of her crew wandering in the scorching desert, telling herself that they wouldn't have all gone off. It didn't make sense. Someone would have stayed behind, wouldn't they?
Her eyes went to the storage cabinet. Still locked. She crossed to it and ran her fingers over the top ledge until she found the spare key. She looked over her shoulder and saw one of K’alvek's eyebrows rise.
"Not the best hiding place, I know," she said as she put the key in the lock and jerked open the metal door. She let out a whoosh of breath when she saw two blasters still hanging on hooks. Why wouldn't they have taken all the weapons if they'd left the ship? She knew if Tori had been in charge, they wouldn't have taken a step off the bridge without being armed to the teeth. She felt her skin go cold. That must have meant Tori never made it back.
Danica fought the urge to slam the door. Her eyes caught on the box of temporary universal translator devices, and she pulled it out. “At least we can put these to good use.”
K’alvek came up behind her, his eyebrows raising when she turned and opened the box of devices. “For everyone?”
“Why not?” Danica said. “It might be nice to be able to communicate with your friends, and it will help when we find mine.”
K’alvek took the box, gave some orders in his language, pointed to the device behind his own ear, and passed the box around the group of hesitant Dothveks.
As the warriors pressed the translators behind their ears, he put a hand gently on the small of her back, sending her frustration. She slumped against him. This was not the homecoming she'd imagined.
“We have to find them,” she told him, looking up into his eyes.
He met her look of determination with one of his own. “We will.”
"They're smart. Maybe Holly or Caro left a message in case I came back here." She moved back to one of the consoles and squinted down at the readouts.
From what she could tell, Holly had been working on the comms systems. Trying to find a way to send out a distress call. It didn't look like she'd been successful, though, as the communication system still showed major malfunctions.
Danica heard a growl from over her shoulder and turned to see Kush. He held out a scrap of fabric to K’alvek. What did that have to do with finding her people?
K’alvek took it, rubbing the material between his fingers before holding it up to the white tunic she wore underneath the crisscrossed straps. It was an exact match.
They both stared down at the fabric as Danica remembered the alien she'd taken it from, her mind flashing back to him dragging her across the floor of the cave. She sensed the rage building in K’alvek and knew what he would say before the words left his mouth.
“The Cresteks were here.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Holly stumbled, and Max grabbed her before she fell into the sand. The cloaked aliens in front did not pause, but the ones behind stopped as the women steadied themselves.
"Are you okay?" Max asked, making sure not to touch Holly's injured arm as she regained her balance.
Holly nodded, but her face was flushed red and pinched from exertion. "I'm pissed, but fine."
Max couldn't help grinning at the answer. In her short time working with the engineer, she'd come to realize that the redhead's feminine appearance was a decoy. Holly may have favored flower prints and long flowing hair, but she was as tough as any woman on the bounty hunting crew. And cursed as bad as any man she’d ever met.
"What do you think they want with us?" Max whispered, as they fell in step with the aliens again. "Are they competing bounty hunters?"
Holly gave a derisive snort as her eyes flicked to the tall creatures. "These guys aren't bounty hunters. I don't know what exactly they are, but they aren't after either of us for the money."
Neither woman wanted to think about what the aliens might be after as they moved up and down the sand dunes, but both were aggravated that they'd been taken before they could get the comms systems up and running and send out a distress signal.
Max pressed her lips together as she remembered how close they'd been when the door had slid open, and the four towering creatures had rushed onto the bridge with blasters drawn. There had been little conversation, but the aliens had made it clear she and Holly had no choice but to come with them.
Max could have kicked herself for not having a weapon nearby as she and Holly had worked on the ship. She might not have been able to kill them all, but it would have felt good to put up a fight. As it was, she and Holly had been dragged away from the console before they could leave a message to the others. Holly had struggled with one of the aliens and managed to rip his clothing, which had earned her a shove out the door and onto the sands below. Max had jumped after her, hoping they might be able to outrun their captors, but she hadn't counted on how soft the sand was. It was hard enough to take a step in it, much less run.
Wide, flat discs had been strapped to her and Holly’s feet and blasters jabbed into their backs as they were directed to proceed across the desert. The only saving grace had been the fact that the suns were low on the horizon and not beating down on them. Max wouldn't have minded some water, though. As she swallowed her own spit, she wondered if these aliens were like camels and didn't need to drink for days.
One of the aliens in front turned and spoke to the ones in the back, gesturing ahead of him. Thanks to her universal translator implant, she could understand some of his language, although it sounded choppy to her ears, and not all the words made sense. Something about shelter.
Max followed his hand and saw that they had almost reached the rocky range. Jutting out from the sand, the rocks glinted in the fading light, and she wondered what kind of minerals or crystals made the stone shimmer like it did. What she wouldn't give to be able to take some samples and study them. She turned her head and saw that the mountains stretched quite a distance across the desert. Was this the beginning of the desert, or did the peaks merely break up a larger expanse of sand that extended on the other side?
"You don't think we have to climb those fuckers, do you?" Holly asked, her breath shallow as she spoke.
Before Max could answer, the woman swayed where she stood, and Max caught her under the arm before she hit the sand. One of the aliens took her by the other arm and swung her up so that he carried her like a baby, her head flopping back and her eyes closed.
"She needs water," Max said to him, as he continued walking.
He didn't slow, so she jerked on the sleeve of his tan-colored robe. "Water. She's dehydrated." When he looked down at her, she made drinking motions with her hands and tilted her head back as if she was chugging from an imaginary bottle. Clearly, he didn’t have a universal translator implant. From the looks of things, the aliens on the planet didn’t often have dealings with other species.
