1
ALISHA
Irun my hand over the smooth hull of the ship; I’m getting to do something exciting after months of hopping around the colony and moving people and supplies to outposts and back. I miss being in space. I don’t like living on the ground.
Not that I will admit that to anyone, because they might think I’ve lost the plot and stop me from flying. Everyone was so excited to land and have a place to call home. But it looks nothing like the pictures of Earth I grew up being shown at school on the ship. Not the old ones from back before the world started to die, when the sky was blue and the oceans were filled with fish, and not the ones taken before we left, where pollution blotted out the sun.
This world has red or purple trees and a greenish-tinged sky. At the moment I don’t care if the sky changes color every other minute, I just want to be up in it. I want to take a lap around the planet.
The need to explore burns within me.
I’m hoping this expedition to what the Honey warriors call the mainland is the first of many. This trip isn’t about making contact though; it’s purely to observe a tribe.
I run through the rest of the visual checks on the ship, and I’ll do it again tomorrow before we take off. As a pilot and engineer, it is been my job to help get the colony running and to maintain the aircraft. It’s only now that the colony leaders feel as though they can spare an engineer to make this trip. Though I’m sure they are also keen to know exactly how many tribes and warriors there are on the other continent as some humans still consider the aliens a threat. They worry about the Honey finding us and kidnapping all the women.
My lips curve.Oh no, I’ve been kidnapped by a big strong alien who mates for life and treats his mate like something precious. However, will I survive?
I’m pretty sure some of the human men are only worried about one particular weapon the Honey have because, from all accounts, they wield their cocks with finesse. With all but one of the warriors mated, the human men need to chill and level up their game, because there are some human women who are joking about raiding the mainland for banished warriors and bringing them here. I try to imagine the look on the leaders’ faces if I brought the small research vessel back full of warriors looking for mates.
It wouldn’t go down well.
Even though some of the women resent the way they are expected to breed for the colony, without babies there will be no colony. Our parents sold our future, and now we must pay up with interest. It’s an argument I’ve had with my parents more than once. My father is anti-alien. My mother thinks we should learn from them.
I grew up surrounded by their arguments, and while the topics have changed, nothing else has. They were pushed together because they wanted to escape Earth; now, they want to escape each other.
My sister is looking forward to having children, but to me that seems like a way to ground me in the colony forever. I can’t imagine the leaders letting me fly expeditions if I have children. Or even one child.
I don’t want to be grounded. I’m more use to the colony in the air.
I make my way to the back of the vessel where the scientists are loading crates of equipment. I oversaw the loading of our food and water supplies this morning. This afternoon, I’ll collect other emergency supplies, including a tent and blankets. “Almost done?”
I met the team I’m flying with three days ago when we had our first face-to-face meeting, which included talking with Tiril, one of the Honey warriors, about the best and safest places to land and observe. There’d been much discussion about what we take, and do while there, and what we bring back.
Charlie, I think he’s the man involved in soils and farming, stands up from where he was strapping in a crate. “One more trip.”
“You’re not sneaking anything extra on? There’s a strict weight limit.”
He laughs and walks out of the vessel toward me. “If we weren’t bringing the alien, we’d be able to bring more.”
“We are required to take him.” I want to take him. I want to know more about Hrad and why he hasn’t taken a mate. If I had a Honey mate, the colony might have less power over me.
“Why? We can understand the language.” Charlie taps his ear where the comms device sits.
“It’s not about a language. It’s about observing the culture and how they farm and everything else. He can help us interpret it. Not only that, but if we do run into one, he can talk to them.”
“They banished him. Don’t they kill banished warriors?”
They do, but I shrug. “He’s with us now, isn’t he? So he’s no longer banished.”
And if he had a mate, he’d be welcome back. For half a second, I wonder what it would be like to live amongst the Honey tribe instead of the human colony.
Charlie grunts. “I don’t trust him. What if he hands us all over to the tribe and we become hostages?”
My eyebrows lift. I know for a fact I wouldn’t be a hostage. I’d become a treasured mate. Charlie though? I have heard about how the tribes capture other warriors and use them for manual labor until such time a deal is made for their return. Would the colony deal with the Honey tribe for the return of their people? A woman, maybe, but a man knowing the Honey might demand women in exchange, probably not. “The warriors are helping us, and we know more about this world and how to survive because of them.”
“And they’ve taken human women as mates.”
“So? It’s not like human men are desperate to settle down.” Though over the last three months more have stepped up because they don’t like the way the Honey warriors have shown them up.
