Page 25 of Protected By the Alien Commander

The weight of the restraint system keeping me in my chair while the ship fell to the planet was comforting. I could focus completely on flying the ship. I wanted to put the ship down in the same area of the planet that I was already familiar with, and close to my ship and where I believed my squadron crashed, but I would take anything as long as we landed in one piece.

The ship’s shuddering grew stronger, groaning against the powerful forces of re-entry. I kept the nose slightly up and as steady as I could. Thank the Goddess the IGS gave their pilots training for every eventuality. Even ones so rare they never happened, like landing without power.

It was time to lower the nose and hopefully glide the ship to a controlled crash. We glided above the surface, the orange ground rushing so fast underneath that I could not make out any features. As long as we did not hit the cliffs, we should be fine.

The underside of the spaceship hit the planet hard, bounced, hit the ground again, then slid along the ground with loud grinding, screeching noises until the ship finally stopped. I was thrown forward against the chair’s restraint, my head whipping above the dashboard.

The silence was deafening. Gingerly, I raised my head and looked at Ohliveah. If anything had happened to her… but she looked uninjured and was sitting up, rubbing her neck.

I unbuckled my restraint system as fast as my fumbling fingers could move and pulled Ohliveah onto my lap. I held her tightly, trying not to crush her, but unwilling to let her go. My quills had risen during the controlled crash, and they had not gone down yet. They would soon though, now that we were safe and I was holding Ohliveah.

“Doshax, I’m fine! We’re fine, you did a great job landing the ship. I knew you would.”

She squeezed me as well, while I did not sniffle that she was uninjured. The throat clearing was because of all the dust kicked up by the landing. “Are you injured?”

Ohliveah shook her head, then winced. “I think I’m okay. My neck does hurt, though.” She looked up at me with a smile. “You saved our lives. I don't know how you managed to do that and keep the ship in one piece. You’re amazing.”

She placed her hand on the side of my head, then leaned in and kissed me, her lips soft and supple against mine. Her fingers traced lines of my face as if memorizing each feature. I deepened our kiss with all the relief and love I felt for her.

We released each other and Ohliveah pulled back, her face flushed and lips swollen. Pride and satisfaction filled me at her dazed expression.

“Wow. That was some kiss.” She blinked.

“Hey, nice flying!” Miranda leaned around my chair. Saving her life must have gotten rid of her fear of me.

Ava stood, then fell back down in her chair. “Yeah. I can’t believe we’re alive. I thought for sure we were goners.”

Ohliveah slid off my legs and stood, pushing her hair out of her face.

I missed her already.

She hugged her friends and I turned back to the dashboard. The ship was still dead. There was no way to tell if there was a leak in the engines or if the life support system functioned. But at least we had shelter.

“We’re never going to get off this planet, are we?”

One of the females voiced my exact thoughts, but I did not want to think that way. A warrior never gave up.

I stepped around the females and walked down the corridors to the medical room. The medpod had survived the crash landing. The bolts holding it to the ship had not rusted or weakened with time. A glance inside showed the horizontal straps still held the female snug. The medpod’s screen displayed that it had identified the female as a new species. I typed in the species name Ohliveah had said they were, hyumin. Then the medpod showed the anomalies it had found in the brain. There was a flashing button to proceed with treatment.

I could not make that decision. There was a risk that this medpod could make things worse instead of healing her.

I found Ohliveah and the others still in the cockpit. “Your friend is stable, but the medpod identified brain issues. Do you want the medpod to try to heal her?”

Ohliveah jumped up and wrapped her arms around me for another hug. “Thank you for checking on her. Yes, I think it should definitely heal her.”

“Wait,” said one of her friends. “Hold on. We don’t know anything about this technology. What are the possible problems? Could it harm her?”

I did not like the tone of her friend’s voice. “We could wait until we find another ship that works and fly off the planet. I do not think that is the best course of action. The delay would not help your friend.”

“Isn’t there someone here, though?” The female turned to Ohliveah. “Did you find anyone when you were out?”

“I found Doshax. That’s it. There was no sign of anyone, or any city either.”

This was not the right time to tell them that I believed the planet was uninhabited. And that it was most likely the legendary planet Yazell of technological interference and strange disappearances.

Ohliveah looked up at me. “Let’s start the healing process for Emma.”

They followed me to the medical room. I was glad this ship had a medpod and that it might heal their friend. That was one less thing to worry about.

There was one worry that I did not plan to share with the females. Pirates were on the planet, and I did not know if I had landed us close to them.