Eban's Command: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Science Fiction Alien Romance) (Survival Wars Book 2) (11 page)

“Wake up!”

From somewhere very far away, a voice pleaded desperately
for her. It was male and strangely accented, reminding her oddly of a man with
impossibly dark eyes and shaggy hair with bangs that fell down over his
forehead. He was a beautiful man, angelic even without the mechanical wings
sprouting from the back of his vest.

Suddenly, there were two patches of warmth on either side of
her face that felt distinctly like hands. That startled her and she cried out,
thrusting out her hands in front of her to try and push away from the stimulus.
After so long without, she didn’t want anything to do with feeling anything. It
was too overwhelming, too distressing.

Then, warmth settled around her whole body and that was
better because there were no confusing contrasts. Held still and secure like
that, she didn’t even really mind when the same voice started speaking to her
again. Not after quite a long time did the words start to make sense.

“It’s okay,” Eban whispered, rocking her very slightly in
his arms. She knew it was him now, was catching up to herself; that rocking was
just as dizzying as her dreams, but she didn’t mind that, either. “It’s okay,
my love. My mate, don’t you worry about a thing. Please, come back to me. I
have you. It’s okay.”

Saffron swallowed hard and tried to speak, but her mouth
wouldn’t quite work properly. Eban seemed to hear her anyway though because he
called out, “Someone, fetch me some water.”

A minute later, a damp cloth touched her lips and wetted her
tongue when she opened her mouth. It was like heaven, and she pulled it into
her mouth to suck on. The water was sweet and tasted like earth rather than a
metal holding port. Again and again, the damp cloth returned to her lips until
after one swallow in particular, she felt like trying to talk again.

“Eban? What…what happened?”

“Why don’t you see for yourself, my Saffron?” he whispered
tenderly. “Open your eyes, and I will show you what you need to see.”

Her eyes felt gummy and swollen, and the light pressing at
her eyes was painful, but she knew if Eban wanted her to do it, she would.

One after the other, she peeled her eyes open.

Greenery.

Blinking, she tried again. The vague sheet of shifting green
in front of her eyes intensified, and then solidified. Details came soon after.

It was a forest before her, wild and untamed with thick
undergrowth. The trees were strange and looked rather more like very tall
bushes, and there was a distinctly musky, ancient feel to the air. Actually,
the sight reminded her of depictions of flora during the rule of the dinosaurs.
The colors were deeper and richer than were to be found back on earth, more
olive and ochre than simple green.

Inside the forest, where she lay against Eban, was a meadow
blanketed with tiny tendrils of a mosslike material. There were other Icari
moving about the meadow, their clothes ripped and threadbare, but the sight of
them up and about was so strange that she started to wonder if she was
hallucinating.

“What…?” was all she could manage.

Eban shifted her around, turning his body slightly.

Focusing herself again, she looked out again and saw an
assortment of slight dwellings, made of wood and twisted scraps of metal.
Catching the sight of an interior as someone opened their door and stepped
inside, she saw a medical bay bed inside and several objects that had once been
on the ship.

“We were so lucky,” Eban whispered, his voice choking. “Not
all of us survived. I didn’t know if you would. When I came to, you were on the
floor and I didn’t know if you’d fallen, and there was blood everywhere…”

That explained the pain in her spine. “How bad is it? Am I
still pretty?” she tried to joke.

“You landed on a broken monitor screen. We didn’t know if
you would make it for the longest time.” Tears streaked his cheeks as he gazed
at her. “But, you did. You pulled through. And you’re so beautiful. Everything
is beautiful.”

Looking around, she noticed a fire blazing in a stone hearth
in front of one of the houses. A pan was set over it, tended by an Icari child.
Further off, she saw a group of men toting hoes behind them with smiles on
their faces. And over there, a woman was dragging an animal behind her. It was
dead, a bloody gash across its neck.

Only then, watching that woman drag the animal so
effortlessly, did Saffron realize how low the gravity was here.

“Eban?” she asked, her voice uncertain. “Are we dead?”

“No, not us. Many of us, but not you and I. The most we can
figure my love, is that we were drawn into the atmosphere of this planet as we
passed it while drifting. We crashed, uncontrolled. The ship is in ruins,
though we have been trying to salvage what we can. There is life here,
everywhere. There is water. There is everything that we could ever want,
Saffron. It’s a miracle.”

She laughed a little. It made her back shriek with pain but
she clamped her teeth down on it. She was still too exhausted to really be able
to think coherently, or feel anything but pure astonishment, but she kept
trying for him. “Not a miracle. I’ve told you all along that everything…turns
out how it should be.”

“I’m sorry I doubted you,” he whispered, and touched his
warm lips to hers. “I won’t do it ever again.”

“Good,” she replied, and kissed him back as best she could.
“That’s no way to treat your mate.” A thought occurred to her. “Karree?”

“Karree will bother us no longer.”

“Oh, no,” she whispered. Karree was dead?

“No no!” he corrected gently. “She is very much alive and
has been a great help to me. Just, I spoke with her and she saw how much I
cared for you. She understands us now, even if she does not approve of it.”

Saffron sighed with relief. As much as she disliked the
first mate, the last thing she wanted was for her to die.

“What do we do now?”

“Now?” Eban looked down at her. Though there were shadows
beneath his eyes, she thought she saw a bit of his old pride and confidence
inside him. “Now, we focus on survival. We strip the ship and see what we can
make here. When you are feeling better, I’ll be counting on you to help us with
your expertise. I have received a report that your lab might still have some
usable parts in it.

“But, for you? You must sleep and I will take care of you. That
is what mates do for each other.”

She hardly needed any urging, and her eyes were already
slipping closed as Eban continued to murmur quiet plans for their future in her
ears. He spoke of farming and hunting, of rebuilding and mapping the
surrounding areas, and creating signals to try and communicate with anyone else
intelligent who might be here.

And she fell asleep fully as he said, “And someday, when all
else has been settled, we will regain our wings again. And this time, I will
teach you how to fly. I love you, my mate.”

I love you
, she wanted to say in response, but didn’t
quite manage. That was okay, however. The way he stroked her hair told her that
he already knew.

The End

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