Zern Read online

  She hesitated for a moment, her dazzling eyes flickering to the ground a moment before she answered.

  “Lila,” she said finally. “Dr. Lila Andrews.”

  Chapter 2

  Dr. Lila Andrews

  The Raither stared at me after I introduced myself, and I had the distinct impression that he was waiting for something more. I frowned, feeling more than a little self-conscious. Not only had this freakishly handsome blue man just burst in on me while I was getting ready for a nap, but he seemed to expect me to understand the laws and customs of a planet I had never even been to.

  “Dr. Lila Andrews of Earth?” I tried, hoping that if I gave him a more official title he might leave me alone and stop looking at me as if I were the one who had interrupted his beauty sleep.

  “I know where you are from, human,” he said impatiently. “I was waiting for your rank.”

  “My what?” I asked, snorting. “I’m not in the military or something, guy. But I am the second leading researcher in my country. And that’s a big deal.”

  It was such a big deal, in fact, that I had nearly turned the opportunity down. My family had always placed ridiculously high standards upon me. I probably would never have been considered for the position if they hadn’t pushed me so hard to excel academically. But since they had, and I had managed to use my mind successfully…apparently more successfully than most people were capable of…it had caught a few people’s attention. One of those people being the president of my country.

  It was terrifying, actually. The last thing I wanted in life was to be chained to a position I might not enjoy. I had gone into science because I was good at it, not necessarily because I loved it. I loved puzzles and figuring things out, but I wanted to be an inventor. Not a fact monger. I wanted to apply new functions and uses to old things and pave the way for future technologies. But that required creativity and innovation. Neither of which were exactly buzzwords in the dormitories of the elite research team I had been drafted into.

  “Well then, Dr. Lila Andrews, head researcher of Earth, I am going to have to ask you to leave now or face the penalties of Raither law.”

  I quirked my eyebrow at him. “The penalties of Raither law? You mean it can get worse than being trapped on this hell planet with the most bloodthirsty demons in all the universe? That’s good news.”

  The Raither looked dumbfounded for a moment, and furrowed his brow, his dumb, perfect mouth gaping open for a moment as he considered his response.

  “Well, for one thing,” he said finally, “you could be stuck here while the other humans are found and relocated to a safer planet.”

  “Is that the best you can do?” I asked, though frankly, the threat left me feeling unnerved. If I had to be trapped here while the other humans were going to be somewhere safer, that would really be the icing on the cake, wouldn’t it?

  “Human, you really must leave now. I have work to do, and it is very time sensitive. You cannot be here.”

  “But I am here. And frankly, if you make me go out there, it’s a death sentence, and I don’t think you really want to be responsible for that, do you?”

  I couldn’t believe the way I was speaking to this man. He was ridiculously well-built. He looked like he would be able to lift me over his head and chuck me out of the craft with one hand, easily. And to top it off, he was hot. The kind of attractive I had never even dreamed to see up close and in person. It was kind of obnoxious, really, because he was also kind of an asshole.

  “Your fate is not my concern, human,” he said, his face turning stony and his voice taking on an authoritative tone that made my skin crawl. It didn’t suit him in the least. It was like he was quoting some archaic instruction manual or something.

  “Well, that’s tough because I’m not going anywhere. I claimed this spot, and I’m going to keep working on that control panel. I know I can make it work. And I’m going to fix it. You’ll see.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was saying. Being stuck on that planet for so long must have messed with my mind because the idea of being so bold with someone who could probably snap me in half with just a look would not have been quite so appealing when I had first arrived on the planet.

  When we had first arrived on Hexa, I had been terrified. That feeling had only increased as the days wore on and I saw girl after girl disappear. Whether they were killed or lost was impossible to say. But the chances of their survival were unlikely.

  “Human…” he said slowly. “I have to work here. There is nothing more I can do about that. You must leave.”

  The tone that my voice took on seemed to surprise us both because the Raither looked startled when the word I hadn’t planned to say escaped my lips. “Please…”

  He seemed tormented then, his brilliant, multicolored eyes flashing as if the sun had just risen over an iridescent puddle of oil. I wanted so badly to finally be around somebody I could trust again: someone who was not after my organs or my body or even just a human who was paranoid that I was trying to hoard all the good fruit for myself. And for some reason, I wanted that person I could trust to be this alien. An alien I had never even met before, who gave me no reason to trust or even to like him. And yet there was something about the way he looked at me that gave me hope…

  “Fine,” he said quietly. “You may stay until I have finished disassembling the control panel. But only until then. When I am through with this stage of my work, you are going to have to find somewhere else to go. This is no place for a human, and if my superiors were to find out about this, it could mean trouble for the both of us. Is that understood?”

  I nodded eagerly, relief flooding through every inch of my body. I would get to keep my temporary shelter. At least for now. But one thing troubled me.

  “Why are you disassembling the control panel?” I asked. “I’ve been working pretty hard on reassembling it these past couple of weeks. Ever since I found this place, all I could think about was getting it fixed up, so I could get the hell out of here.”

  The Raither chuckled. “That’s absurd. A human would never be able to fly a Raither craft. To think you could shows what deep ignorance your people live in. I would never subscribe to such ridiculous notions.”

  Blood boiled in my veins, and any intelligent, reasonable person probably would have stopped there. But of course, I was apparently beyond that ability to reason, because the Raither’s smile was wiped off my face when I fixed a look of fury upon him.

  “I bet you I can. And when I do, you will regret ever saying that to me.”

  He scoffed but looked at me, curiosity, and maybe a little bit of awe etched in his handsome features. “As you say, human.”

  “But please, if you take apart the control panel, I will never get this ship to fly again. How would you even know if I am telling you the truth?”

  “You are not authorized to repair this ship,” he said with a heavy sigh. “And even if you were, I would have a hard time believing that Raither technology is within the grasp of anybody but a Raither. Still, I am curious about your claims. I will leave the control panel for now. But I must take apart the rest of the ship’s interior and get them back to headquarters. If this ship fell into the wrong hands, do you have any idea what kind of damage it might cause?”

  I looked at him blankly, unsure of whether to hug him or to answer his question. The Raither sighed.

  “Leave me now, human. I suggest you find yourself a room to settle in that is a little more comfortable for now. I will leave the control panel alone. It is the weapons on this ship that are the most dangerous. I will get to work on them now.”

  And with that, the Raither dismissed me, leaving my mind whirling as he strode past me and set to work.

  ***

  As the days wore on, I learned that the Raither’s name was Zern. He was a commander of some sort and had been sent to this ridiculous planet probably as a punishment, judging by the bitterness in his voice when he spoke of it. I knew better than to ask questions, tho
ugh. I wanted to be able to squat in the ship for as long as possible. There were many untold dangers out there, and the thought of having to face them again, without the comfort of a shelter or a warm bed to sleep in at night, left me feeling more than a little bit unhinged.

  We had fallen into a kind of quiet routine. Zern worked to disassemble the laser weapons that had been set up in the two extreme corners of the control panel, while I did my best to make sure that he was well-fed. I had accumulated quite a stash of fruits and nuts and berries from Hexa and had learned how to spice up my meals with some of the seasonings that the Raithers had left behind on the ship.

  I had even begun to teach myself some of their language using what I had found on the ship’s control panel and what literature I was able to scrape up in the many dormitories that had been abandoned. It was quite a beautiful language, really. Lyrical in a sense. I had been anxious to hear it spoken ever since I had picked up the books and learned my first few words. Now, maybe with Zern there, I would finally have my chance.

  But that likelihood seemed grim, and I found myself disconcerted anytime I was near him. He was dark and brooding, and left me wondering if he had any joy in his life at all. And yet there was something sweet about him. Almost harmless, despite knowing that, should he have the mind to do so, he could probably single-handedly take down the freakish elephant monster that had dismembered my coworker.

  Whenever he was taking a break to explore the area around the ship, I would sneak back into the control panel to work on the engine, because I found it impossible to work with him around. The way he looked at me while I was working never failed to make me nervous. I hated working around men who had expressed any disbelief in my abilities, and I didn’t feel any differently about aliens either.

  I was glad to find that he was gone for the afternoon when I stepped in to check on him about having breakfast. Usually, he wasn’t gone so early, but since he was, I felt a little thrill. He had left his tools on the floor of the control panel, and he had just what I needed to make real progress on the control panel.

  I glanced around the room, just to try to make sure that the coast was clear before digging into it. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, and it wasn’t welcome at all, but I had to do something to make progress. If that meant bending the rules, then that was what I was going to do.

  I went to the bag, my hands trembling as I searched carefully through the strange devices that the Raithers used to work on their ships. Alien technology was completely different than that which was used on Earth, and I had to do my best to make sure that I was getting everything right before I tried to use anything. My mind was processing information rapidly as I analyzed the purpose of each tool, until I finally came upon the one I knew I needed.

  “Aha!” I said victoriously, studying the sleek tool in my hands. It was shockingly lightweight, made of some type of metal we either didn’t have on Earth or still hadn’t developed yet. I was rapidly making notes inwardly, just in case I ever made it back to my own planet, where I had been a member of the most prestigious research team on Earth. If I was too busy to be a scientist, I would never forgive myself.

  There was so much we could learn from the alien races out in the universe that I was shocked and outraged by the way the male scientists on Earth were given an exclusive allowance to travel the galaxy. Then again, after being abducted from Earth and dumped on this hellish prison planet because human females were incompatible with Petchuvian males, to the point where the male that had attempted to mate with one of us had been killed by it, and we were left here to rot. Females were highly valued throughout the galaxy, and even I had to admit that we were safer on our own home planet, no matter how intriguing the rest of the universe happened to be.

  I was hard at work, happily putting a piece of the engine back into the place where it belonged, when I froze, the sound of heavy metallic footsteps startling me out of my trance.

  “What are you doing, human?”

  I sighed in frustration, knowing that now that I had been caught, I was probably never going to get another chance to finish my task with free reign of this burly alien man’s tools at my disposal.

  “I’m doing exactly what I told you I would do and fixing up the engine of this ship. That isn’t obvious to you?”

  “I see what you are doing, human,” the Raither growled. “But I also see what it is that you are doing so with. Those are my tools! I did not give you permission to touch my tools!”

  For the first time, I found myself considering just how dangerous it was for me to be willing to provoke the temper of one of the mighty Raithers. They were a powerful warrior race, and I had been learning more and more about them since living on their spacecraft. I hadn’t really taken the threat of living with Zern seriously, but now that I could see his multicolored eyes flashing in fury at me, I felt suddenly very nervous.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would mind,” I lied, stepping forward cautiously and holding the tool out to him. He snatched it gruffly out of my hand, and I winced, half expecting him to go off on me. I was surprised when he went calmly to his tool pouch and placed it in its rightful place.

  “I had read that humans were dense, especially when it comes to the laws of respect and space, so I will take the fault for this myself this time and explain to you the ways of my people so there are no other misunderstandings. What belongs to a Raither stays with that Raither. It is not to be touched or tampered with by anybody else. That applies to everything: from my tools to this ship.

  “If anybody knew about you being here, we would both be in trouble. So you need to heed my warnings and understand my kind. I am not trying to harm you. I am simply going to have to release you out into the wild of this planet. It is where you belong now. That is nothing I have to do with, nor can I help you out of this sad fate.”

  I felt a sad, agonized tremor in my chest at the mention of being kicked off of the ship. I hadn’t even finished making progress on the engine, though at this point it was really more something I was doing on principle: a puzzle to keep my tired, terrified mind from absolutely losing all touch with reality.

  “I never asked you for your help,” I spat, stalking past the Raither and heading back to the room I had claimed as my own. It was shocking how much his words hurt, as if maybe I had been hoping that this alien would be my way off this horrible planet. I could feel his gaze heavy on my back as I marched down the corridor and found myself back in my bedroom.

  I sank down onto the cot and sighed heavily. I should never have messed with his tools. I was giving him a terrible interpretation of humanity for one thing. But more than that, it was just painful to be reminded that this comfortable little situation I had found myself in with him was going to come to an end sooner rather than later. I wasn’t ready for that.

  The engine I had been wasting so much time fantasizing about finishing so I could get the hell off this planet was going to be disassembled and taken back to Yala on a different ship—not repaired and flown all the way to Earth, where I would finally be able to get my life back and share all of the amazing information I had learned from the planet Hexa with the people of Earth.

  I was startled out of my thoughts by the sound of Zern coming back toward my room. I heard him hesitate outside the door before punching in an override code that let him open the doorway.

  “That’s pretty rude of you, you know,” I said quietly, unable to meet his eyes. His handsome face was drawn and concerned, and he sighed, lowering himself beside me onto the cot.

  “Rude?”

  “Yeah. You talk about how humans have issues with boundaries and space, but you just come into my sleeping quarters without even asking. That’s rude. Humans wouldn’t do that.”

  “But it is my ship now. You have no right to be here in the first place. You have no space on this ship. None of it belongs to you.”

  I gaped at him, shocked by the nerve of this Raither, and yet when I met his eyes, he was being completely sincere
. He wasn’t trying to upset me or make me angry or be an asshole. He legitimately did not understand my claim to privacy on his ship. I sighed.

  “Whatever, Zern,” I said with a sigh. “I guess we will never really understand each other.”

  He looked at me then, a piercing look that held me captive and nearly gave away the forbidden burning feeling this bizarre Raither always seemed to stir within me. I was trapped in the intensity of his shimmering, multicolored eyes, captivated as he stared me down, his expression impossible for me to read.

  “It is not necessary for a Raither and a human to understand each other,” he said finally, though there was a heaviness to his voice that nearly made me want to hold him close to me and reassure him. Over what, I had no idea. “The important thing here is for me to get this ship disassembled and get back to my planet before I am persecuted for not doing my job properly.”

  “Why would they persecute you? None of the other Raithers are brave enough to do what you are doing,” I said.

  It was too late to keep back the words, and he turned to me slowly.

  “My work is my own business, as are the dealings of my planet and the Raithers. You would do well to stay out of it.”

  Zern stood, his powerful body crowding the room, and then he glanced at me from over his shoulder as he turned to leave.

  “You have only two days left before you must leave this ship. Are you prepared for that?”

  My heart sank at the news. The gleam in his eye showed me that he was serious, and there was going to be no changing his mind this time. No matter how much I wanted to cling to the safety of this ship as my shelter, those days were soon going to pass, and I was going to have no choice but to find somewhere else to live, whether it cost me my life or not.

  Chapter 3

  Captain Zern Krechan

  “You mean you don’t like it? This one is my favorite,” Lila said to me, her beautiful green eyes studying me closely. “I thought for sure you’d enjoy it this time.”