“Mmm,” Kenz’ox says. “Why do you want to repair the ship? ThePloodship?” There’s a hint of suspicion in his tone.
I guess I have to explain as well as I can. “The Plood take me and more women. From our home. Our planet. Take to…” I decide to skip the station and all the confusing things that happened before we came here. I couldn’t really explain it to myself. “Take to here. Ship is broken, not can fly. I want repair so can fly back to home. To planet home.”
Kenz’ox goes over to check on Aker’iz. “More women?”
I’m not sure how much to tell him. Should I include Cora and Sprisk? And Dex? That first day, I told Kenz’ox a lot of lies about a tribe with many warriors. Does he know that’s not true? Or is that why he’s behaving so well? Is that why he hasn’t told me to get lost and kept the saucer to himself and Aker’iz? Because he thinks there will soon be fifty warriors here who will ask him some pointed questions?
“Four,” I tell him. “Four women.”
“That fits with the tracks I see here,” he says. “One is the friend you’re missing. Where are the two others? Are they also lost?”
“They go to the tribe. To their village. Callie and I here because want to repair the ship.” I have to keep the information to a minimum.
He takes in the saucer. “Canyou repair it?”
Almost certainly not.“I try,” I tell him. “It is hard.”
He nods thoughtfully. “Many dangers on your home planet?”
I think about it. “Yes. But not like here.”
He fixes me with a blue gaze. “Your planet is safer?”
“Safer forme. Not safer for you.” I try to imagine an alien caveman arriving on Earth, trailed by a baby cavegirl. Being put in a cage and exhibited for money would be one of the more pleasant things that could happen to them.
“Many Bigs there? Smalls?”
“No Bigs,” I admit. “But many chiefs.”
“The worst of all dangers.” He taps his lips. “But no Bigs.”
- - -
I want to take a quick bath before dark, so I grab my spear. I feel Kenz’ox’s eyes at my back when I walk to the beach. I’m close to suggesting that he accompany me, but I change my mind. I should do everything to not start becoming needy. I would feel safer with him closer, but a bath takes maybe five minutes. Nothing can happen to me in that short time.
There are no particular tides on this coast, so the waves usually hit at the same level all the time, unless there’s a storm. But it’s as pleasant an evening as any, so I wander down to the surf and throw a quick glance over my shoulder. Nobody’s watching.
If Callie were here, I’d do the same thing we always did, which was that one girl stripped off and took a bath while the other watched both the jungle and the ocean for dangers. We’ve seen living things in the water, although mostly farther out. There have been tentacles, fins, and weird, dark bulbs that have drifted past against the current. So far, we haven’t spotted anything alive within two hundred feet from land, but I just know it’s going to happen someday.
I ram the spear’s blunt end into the sand, discard my jumpsuit, hang it on the spear, and wade out until the gentle waves hit me at about waist level. I squat down and clean myself quickly. The water is warm, but cool enough to feel clean. Cora left me half a pot of a leaf paste that they use in the tribe, and which has some soap-like effects, but I lent it to Kenz’ox, and I think he and Aker’iz need it more than me.
“I can just use sand to scrub,” I mutter as I grab a handful from the bottom and get to work on that. “Lucky it’s the finest sand in the universe. Real alien sand. Can’t even get it on Earth. All the billionaires in Monaco are lining up their yachts for just a couple of grains?—”
A piercing shriek shatters my fantasy.
My head snaps up. An alien pterodactyl is circling above me. Just as I look up, it folds its wings and dives right at me.
I scream and dive into the shallow water. Ice fills my veins as I immediately hit the bottom, kicking my legs furiously to get asdeep as possible. But I’ve seen seagulls dive for fish on Earth, and they can get pretty deep with those beaks. The beak on this thing is probably as long as I am tall.
I roll around to try to see what’s happening above me. I see a dark shape, big and nightmarish, but it’s so distorted by the water above me I can’t tell what it’s doing. But I’m going to need some air pretty soon.
I hold out as long as I can, using my hands and legs to stay under. My lungs are burning with the need for air, and my throat starts involuntarily contracting. I have to breathe!
My head breaches the surface just as the dactyl screeches again, this time so close it must be right on top of me. I get one panicked gulp of air before I scramble to get back down, limbs splashing. Something hard strokes one of my feet, and I pull it to me. I swear the next screech has some kind of perverted joy in it.
That monster is toying with me, knowing that I can’t get away. It should make me mad, but it just adds to the panic. And I have to breathe again.
As I desperately snatch another shallow gasp of air, my mouth fills with water instead, and I feel like I’m drowning. Fighting for a foothold, I kneel on the bottom with my mouth barely above water. There’s another ear-rending screech, and the dactyl blocks out the sun. I know it’s my last moment alive.
