Hunted: BBW Alien Romance (Warriors of Karal Book 4) (11 page)

“Oh, there it is,” she said suddenly, a triangle of beacons catching her attention from the corner of her eye.

These beacons, and the wormholes they opened, absolutely fascinated her. That they could travel from one part of the universe to another in a matter of minutes was incredible, and she still couldn’t get her head around it, despite having now travelled down five of them already.

“Yes, once on the other side it is a short journey to the planet K23RT.”

“That’s its name?” she asked.

“Yes, it indicates the sector and the planet number.” He pointed to it on his screen.

“Aren’t you organised,” she said. “How much of the universe have you mapped?”

“A very small amount. But we keep records of everything we discover.” As they approached the wormhole, the computer screen flashed. “We are receiving an update.”

“What kind of update?” she asked, excited that they might be in touch with other ships, or that they could contact Karal; it made the universe feel smaller somehow.

“It is the mission details from other deep space missions.” He waited for the light to flash off, and then said, “Here we go. I can look at the update later.”

He steered the ship towards the beacons, waiting for it to be completely central before tipping the throttle forward and taking them into the tunnel of swirling light.

Down, as if the bottom had fallen out of space. She felt the fruit juice rise in her stomach but was determined to keep it down. Apart from anything, she did not relish the thought of having to clean the mess up, and there was no way she could get to the bathroom with the ship at this angle.

Glancing across as Garth, she was at least pleased he was not phased by the angle of the ship. “Is this normal?”

“Yes. All wormholes are different; this one is almost vertical.” He leaned forward and tapped something into the computer. “I have updated the wormhole description; I think the angle has increased.” He took another reading. “I am surprised, they don’t normally change.”

“But we are going to come out in the right place?” Her voice wavered with concern.

“We should do. The readings are the same.”

She looked out of the window, determined to let her nervousness pass. There was nothing they could do about it, they had reached the point of no return as soon as they entered, so they would have to journey to the end and then see where they were.

Lights flashed, pinpricks of stars appeared, and then it went dark. Only distant planets, like dark shadows in the night, could be seen circling a dim star. It was like a planets’ graveyard. And then there was a bright flash, as if lightening had struck, before they burst out into normal space.

But was it the right space?

Garth took a reading, and looked puzzled.

“Are we lost?”

“No. But the wormhole has definitely moved. The end has, anyway.”

“So where are we?” Her stomach threatened to spill its contents once more, but she breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, knowing she had to keep it together, for Garth’s sake.

“About two hundred light-years off-course. It’s as if someone tried to yank the beacons free and moved the end instead.” He pressed more buttons on the monitor.

“Are we still going to the planet?” she asked.

“Yes. It could have been some kind of anomaly,” Garth said, but he didn’t convince her.

“Then set a new course, and let’s go.” She raised her eyebrow, waiting for him to argue, to tell her they should turn around and go back the way they came, and she would have been relieved, despite wanting to see a new planet.

But the change in the wormhole bothered her. “What if it collapses, or changes while we are inside it? What would happen to us?”

“Hypothetically, we would just be spat out into space somewhere along the length of the wormhole.”

“Hypothetically?” she asked, not liking the sound of that.

“Yes. It is not a thing that has ever happened, so no one can say for sure.”

“Great. I don’t mind being the first person to set foot on a new planet, but I don’t want to be the first person to break a wormhole.”

“Don’t worry, we will be fine. Now let’s get to this planet and see what is there.”

“Hopefully there isn’t another alien race there waiting to ambush us.” She half laughed, but really she was scared. Maybe it was being a human, who up until eight months ago had thought they were the only sentient species in the universe, how short-sighted they were. Now, here so deep in space, she was beginning to feel space was a little crowded, and that she didn’t want to meet any more aliens today, or any day, while they were so far from home.

Garth plotted the course, and the cruiser moved away from the wormhole, and she felt as if they were being separated from the last thread of contact with Karal.

However, as the new planet came into view, all that was forgotten; it was like she was coming home, in a way she couldn’t understand. The planet in front of her was so like Earth: it was blue, with swirling white clouds drifting around in the atmosphere.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Yes, it is,” Garth acknowledged, while taking readings of the air quality and temperatures. They orbited once, and then he set the nose of the cruiser down and they began their descent.

The cruiser was buffeted on solar winds, but Garth managed to correct the angle of descent so that they entered the atmosphere at the perfect angle. Down they went, the planet growing bigger, the land below them green, surrounded by oceans.

“Is it habitable?” Tamzin asked. “Is it possible we have found a new planet?”

“It is suitable for humans, yes, the air is much the same as Earth would have been in the prehistoric times. What we need to know is if there are large predators, which would make the planet too dangerous.”

She looked out of the window excitedly as they passed over large dense forests and skimmed across mountains, one of which looked like an active volcano, a plume of smoke rising out of it.

“Wow. It’s like a teenager, young but volatile.”

He laughed. “I remember those days.”

“You do? I can’t imagine you being a troublesome teenager.”

“It was about a hundred years ago. But I still remember it.”

“Wait, you are that old? I’m impressed,” she added, when he nodded. “You’ve aged so well.”

“From now on I will grow old quickly, once my prime passes.”

“Then we will grow old together. On Karal.”

“We will. First, we need to get this mission completed and head home.” He looked around for a place to land, checking the ship’s computer until he found a flat plain where the forest had been cleared. There he set the cruiser down, and as the engines stopped, it hit her how exposed they were, if there were indeed giant dinosaurs on the planet.

“Now what?” she asked.

“I have asked the computer to do a full scan of our immediate area.”

“In case there are dinosaurs?” she asked.

“In case there are dinosaurs, but it all looks clear. There is plenty of movement, but the animals are small, more like your first mammals.” He undid his seat belt and stood up, stretching. “Are you ready to explore?”

“I am.” She got up too, trying to feel confident and excited, but it wasn’t helped by the churning in her stomach.

Garth walked to the back of the cruiser and opened up a storage closet and took out two masks. “Use this if you feel faint, or dizzy. It will filter the air.”

“OK.” She took the mask and looped it around her neck.

“Here is a kit for collecting samples. We need soil, water, and plants. The plants are put in here so they are sealed in a vacuum and will still be fresh when we travel back to Karal.”

“OK.” Was that all she could say?

Garth went to the ramp and pressed the button. They waited for it to descend, and then he looked at her and nodded, before walking down the ramp and onto the new planet.

Just like that, Garth had become the first person to set foot here, and as she followed him down and stood next to him, she realised she was at least the first human to stand on planet K23RT.

“We’ve arrived.” She looked around her, and breathed in the fresh air, so clean, so pure, maybe even sweeter than Karal’s.

“Yes, we have, so let’s get to work. Once we have everything we need, we can relax and find somewhere to rest for a couple of days.”

“I like the sound of that.” And together they walked across the virgin territory, collecting samples to find out if this was to be the new Earth.

“I think we have all we need.” They had worked tirelessly for three hours, collecting dirt, and fauna. Now, he wanted to get them back to the cruiser, and head across land to the nearest water source. Once that was done, he thought they deserved a rest, and a chance to explore on their own terms, without the packs of samples that they both had slung over their shoulders.

Tamzin stopped and drew in a deep breath. He watched her breasts rise and fall, and his arousal quickened. Whether the fresh air and open space acted as an aphrodisiac, or watching her move, and the way she swept her long auburn hair back from her shoulders, he wasn’t sure, but something made him want to see her naked.

And today, he wasn’t going to fight it either.

She turned to him and smiled, as bright as the sun in the perfectly clear blue sky, and his heart fluttered.
Fluttered
. Did the air affect his heart too? Because a warrior from Karal did not feel things like this. Not without a visit to Darl.

Turning, she came to him, falling into step, her body pressing against his, and she searched for his hand, holding it in tightly and swinging it happily. Close up he could see the radiance in her blue eyes. They sparkled like the clearest pools, glittering with happiness, and he wanted her to be like this forever.

“It is amazing here,” she said. “Humans would be very lucky to have a colony here.”

She breathed in again, and he couldn’t help doing the same. The tang of pine forests, mixed with the scent of warm grass, hit him, but there was another scent underlying it, one he couldn’t place.

“It is one of the most beautiful planets I’ve ever seen,” he agreed. “We need to go a little further, sample the water and also look for any signs of life. I mean, life like you or me. Only then can we know for sure we are not about to ruin an indigenous species.” He didn’t explain why: that the Karal would want to leave them to evolve, and mark the planet as one with a possible female population for future generations to use. And yet this planet had been surveyed briefly before, he was sure, that was why it had been set as a possible colony.

Her voice brought him out of his reverie. “I can understand that. I supposed there may be creatures here on a lower evolutionary scale.”

“Yes, like my mother. She and the other mothers were more like your prehistoric people.”

“Really. I only ever think of aliens as being advanced, but we all had to start somewhere.”

“Indeed.” He breathed in again, and this time he was certain of what he smelt. Very faintly, on the breeze, there was the scent of wood smoke. Turning his head, he looked up to the sky, but the trees obscured any view he might have of where a fire might be coming from.

“What is it?” she asked, tried to follow his gaze.

“I think I smell smoke.”

“Smoke?” She took a deep breath. “Yes, I think you are right.” Her face fell. “Does this mean we won’t get to build a colony here?”

“That depends on where the smoke is coming from. It might not mean there are people here.”

“You mean it might just be a natural fire?” She had never known forest fires, because there were no longer any trees on Earth.

“It might be.”

“But you don’t think so.” Her voice filled with disappointment.

“Let’s take a look.” He pulled her towards the cruiser, knowing this was important. That this planet would be out of the question as a colony for Earth, if there were already indigenous people living here.

Climbing up the ramp, he turned to see if he could get an idea of where the smoke was coming from, but there was nothing. They would have to fly low over the forest, and hope they weren’t seen. But if they were—well, the space cruiser would just go down in the history of these people as a myth or legend.

“Buckle up.” He smiled, trying to make her cheer up, but she was terribly disappointed.

“The samples we’ve taken will all be for nothing.” She sat down heavily and did up her seat belt.

“We can still take them back to Karal. They will tell us much about the planet.”

“But you won’t come back here.”

“Not unless we are desperate for any reserves the planet holds.”

“So you would use the planet, even with the people on it, but we are not allowed to colonise it.”

“Yes.” He knew it sounded hypocritical, and maybe it was. “For our survival, we take what we need.”

“Like females.”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“So tell me, is the reason you won’t let us colonise the planet because you would rather leave the indigenous people to evolve, in case you need to farm them for later generations. Keep them separate from the human race, a nice clean gene pool, not contaminated by a sick planet.”

He paused, turning to her, as tears sprung into her eyes; he wasn’t sure where this outburst had come from. “Tamzin, it is who we are. But hopefully that is not an issue now, we will never have to take females again. For the people here, that is good, and surely you can see that this is their planet, and for humans to come and live here might mean death for them.”

She frowned, her tears trickling down her face. “I know. I’m sorry, I’m just so disappointed.”

“We can still spend time here, once we know where the smoke is coming from.” He pressed a button and the engines sparked into life, Garth switched it over to solar power, and the engines ran so quietly they would be able to get within a hundred feet of anyone and they wouldn’t be able to hear the alien cruiser.

“Let’s just go and find out one way or the other.” She pouted a little, and despite her bad mood, he found her adorable and longed to kiss her lips. Garth hoped that even if the planet was inhabited, they would still be able to spend a day or two here.