Chapter Ten
Zhor’s attention was caught by something bright, high up in the sky, and moving stunningly fast.
At any other time, he might have dismissed it when the light winked out—might not have noticed it to start with.
But Ah-na had come from out there and he had been dreading the arrival of her people and watching for them either consciously or unconsciously almost from the time he had found her.
It was worse now because he had allowed himself to think that he had a chance to convince her to stay with him, to be his woman, his mate, not just his temporary companion, a visitor who would vanish as abruptly as she had appeared.
He had begun to get used to having her around.
And despite the despair and misery that had dogged his days from his isolation and solitude, ithadbeen difficult to get used to having someone around. He had felt … crowded, distracted to the point where he could barely think straight, even imposed upon because he had given her his bed and he had to work twice as hard to feed two as he had had to work to feed only himself.
The sound of a voice in his ears that was not his own was both a pleasure and an irritant. It did not matter that he barely understood three words of it out of ten even after weeks with her—had not understood anything at all in the beginning. The sound of another being much like himself—but female—was almost magical when he had heard little beyond the sounds of animals, wind, rain, and thunder for so very long.
Yet at the same time it was not a sound he was accustomed to and that was enough to shatter his peace.
He was so distracted by the thing he had spotted high in the sky that he damned near flew right in to his favorite tree, had no idea he had gotten so close until he felt the brush of the canopy against his shoulder. He jerked away, dropped nearly a hundred feet while he was trying to regain his flight rhythm and or catch a current of air beneath his wings that was strong enough to lift him again. His heart was racing with exertion and fear by the time he caught himself, flew upwards again, and managed to set his feet solidly on the canopy.
By that time, he had to search to find the object.
Because he was expecting to see that it was much further away.
Instead, he discovered that it seemed to be coming almost directly toward him and it was not justanit, not a single thing. It had either broken up into many pieces or it had arrived in a formation and it had simply been too far away to determine that when he had first spotted it.
The things did not crash into the ground as Ah-na’s craft had. These slowed, almost seemed to hover for several moments, and finally settled with a solidness that suggested they were far more substantial than they appeared from his distant observation, slapping against the ground with a sound that echoed across the plateau almost like a thunderclap.
Zhor stared at the point where the things had settled until his eyes were burning, but he was too far away to see what, if anything, was happening. Finally, after a brief debate, he took flight and moved a little closer, approaching cautiously.
There were around a dozen objects, he discovered when he had gotten close enough for a clear view. They looked solid in the sense that they did not have the appearance of being damaged despite the loud crack of sound they had made upon landing. He could not detect any movement nor could he hear anything beyond the hiss and tick of cooling metal.
Frowning, he debated briefly whether to stay or not, but curiosity got the better of him.
After scanning the plateau to make certain no one was close enough to attack him, he settled to watching the objects, trying to decide what they were, what their purpose was.
They were large objects, but he was fairly certain they were not as large as the ship Ah-na had come in—perhaps half the size—and that defied logic as far as he was concerned.
Why send a dozen crafts that looked to be only large enough to house one individual when they could have sent one ship perhaps a quarter of the size of all and it would have been large enough to carry all of the occupants to his way of thinking?
Or perhaps there was no one inside them?
Maybe they were some sort of mechanical thing sent to … collect images or other information like the things his own people had built in the past to explore places they could not go to themselves?
When he grew bored watching the things and waiting for something to happen, he finally decided to move a little closer to see if he could hear anything going on inside of the things or perhaps find a way to climb inside for a look.
He had nearly reached the closest one when an ear-splitting noise abruptly erupted from it followed by a strange voice bellowing words he did not understand but that vaguely reminded him of Ah-na’s speech.
“Perimeter breach! Perimeter breach! Halt! You are not authorized to approach within twenty meters! Repeat! You have been assessed to be a hostile primitive! You are not authorized to approach within twenty meters. Warning shots will be fired in five … four … three … two …”
Zhor stopped, covering his ears with his hands, trying to decide whether it was safe to move closer or if retreat would be the better part of valor.
Retreat, he decided, definitely was the better action. He took no more than a single step closer and the thing shot a series of blue-white streams of light straight at him that missed only by inches, cutting blackened holes in the ground.
“Warning! Warning! Stand back or the next shot will not be a warning shot! You will be fired upon! You will be killed! Warning! Warning! Perimeter breach! You must leave this area. This land has been claimed by Mertz Inc. for the purpose of building a colony and ore processing plant!”
Zhor moved to a safer distance, staring at the thing that had tried to shoot him with a mixture of anger and uneasiness.
Clearly, the thing had claimed that spot and meant to defend it.
