Starkissed (14 page)

Those on Earth did anyway. She had to assume animals reacted in the same way on Paradise. And she had the laserlight in her hand, set on high, just in case.

No, she still trembled from J’Qhir’s touch. Wouldn’t any male’s touch have aroused her? Steve’s hadn’t. She had always been repulsed by his unwanted fondling and never could pinpoint why. He was handsome enough and, aside from his attempts at suggestive humor, he was pleasant enough. Her parents had trusted him implicitly with major responsibilities in the company. Leith knew now that her instincts toward him had been correct, but she didn’t know
how
she had known.

Which brought her back to another problem… Every instinct told her that J’Qhir was as honorable and trustworthy as he appeared, but the facts told a different story. The facts were that he had somehow manipulated her parents into illegal trading and his warring people were bent on the devastation and destruction of their system’s other world, Crux.

If her instincts had been at odds over the facts concerning Steve Hancock and were accurate, could the same be true of J’Qhir? Should she continue to believe in her feelings toward him until she could investigate further? Then Leith closed her eyes and laughed bitterly. How could she investigate anything? She was stuck here on Paradise for the rest of her life with no hope of rescue!

She didn’t mean to go to sleep, but she kept her eyes closed as her thoughts tumbled and whirled. She tried to relax and clear her mind of everything, and she succeeded all too well. She had no idea how long she slept, but her neck was stiff when a noise awakened her. Her eyes flew open, and all she saw was a huge ursine form filling the doorway. Her mouth opened, but no sound could escape her tightening throat. She pushed www.samhainpublishing.com

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back, trying to scramble away from the beast, but the solid rock wall behind her wouldn’t give.

Bearlike, it reared on its hind legs and raised its forelegs over her, then its peculiar scream pierced her eardrums painfully. With one swipe of its powerful foreleg, it knocked the fire out through the doorway.

Light! She needed light or the beast would kill her here in the dark. She didn’t want to die, not like this, and leave J’Qhir alone. The laserlight! Her hand still clutched the cylinder.

As blinded by the sudden darkness as she, the beast hadn’t moved. She held her breath and tried to inch sideways down the tunnel. It heard her movements and grunted as it slashed a clawed paw toward her. She ducked to the side and felt the wind of the paw as it passed within centimeters.

There was no point in stealth since the beast could hear her every movement. Its eyes would recover faster than hers and would find her any second. Before she could even think through what she needed to do, she plunged down the tunnel, scrabbling on her back. The beast took a few precious seconds to consider what she was doing, and she gained a meter or so away from it. She brought up the laserlight, hit the switch, and cut a swath where she thought the beast’s chest might be just as it turned and rushed her.

She must have missed. She crawled backward as fast as she could and cried out as she lost her grip on the laserlight. The beast moved forward, more slowly now.

Something bumped the ground near her and rolled into the wall. The beast moved even closer, but much slower, and fell toward her.

With the last of her failing strength, she heaved herself backward one more time as the body of the beast crashed into the floor. Gritty dust filled her lungs as a thick spray of warm liquid covered her.

“
Leith!
” J’Qhir appeared in the inner door, using a burning piece of wood for a torch.

The light was enough for Leith to see the headless body of the beast at her feet. A few centimeters closer and it might have landed on her feet and broken her ankles. Then J’Qhir was by her side, staring in wonder at the carcass.

“Leith, are you all right?”

She couldn’t speak, only nod. She swallowed, but her mouth was filled with grit and a sickening metallic taste. She worked up the saliva in her mouth and spat several times, getting rid of as much as she could.

J’Qhir helped her to her feet, but she was shaking so hard she couldn’t stand on her own.

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Lanette

Curington

“I-I ki-killed it,” she finally stammered. Bending over J’Qhir’s arm, she vomited up every swallow of soup she’d had for supper.

”””

Leith sat in the tunnel with the lifeless remains of the beast until she no longer trembled in shock. J’Qhir sat with her and listened as she related what happened.

“You dealt with the sssituation in a courageousss manner, Leith.”

“Courageous?” J’Qhir had brought her the canteen. She used all the water to rinse out most of the grit and blood and half-digested soup, but her mouth still felt dry and tasted metallic. “I was scared stiff. I’m surprised I reacted at all. I just knew I couldn’t die and leave you here all alone.”

“Courage,” J’Qhir explained patiently, “hasss nothing to do with lack of fear. Only one who isss unwissse would not feel fear. Courage isss doing what we mussst even when every inssstinct tellsss usss we have no hope of sssuccesss.”

“Instinct…” Leith repeated.

“You reacted inssstinctively. You have good inssstinctsss, Leith. On Zi, you would be consssidered a great sssoldier…if you were male.”

Leith ignored the insult. The Zi culture was different, and J’Qhir looked at things in a different way. She would just have to accept him the way he was.

Twice now, her instincts had been proven correct. She looked at J’Qhir as he stared at the head of the beast. Later, she would talk to him about her parents, about Crux. She would find the truth in him because here, as he had said a few days ago, he had no reason to ever speak falsely to her. She had a feeling she was going to hear a very different version of the reason for the Zi-Crux wars. And she hoped she would hear a reasonable explanation for the actions of her parents. Until then, she would go with her instincts and trust in J’Qhir.

After the shaking stopped, Leith asked J’Qhir to bring her jacket to her. She carried it out with her to the stream. She became chilled again instantly, and the water was icy cold, but there was no way she was going to let the splattered blood of the beast remain on her. She held her breath, dunked her head in the water, and nearly screamed from the cold. She scrubbed hair, face, neck and arms as quickly as she could, then squeezed out water from her hair. At this moment, not having hair like J’Qhir would have been preferable.

She removed her shirt and bra, donned her jacket, and rinsed her underclothing with numb fingers. She noticed that the fabric, treated with a stain-resistant compound, really did resist stains, even blood, as advertised.

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Leith refused to remove her trousers. They too were stain-resistant and she grabbed up handfuls of grass, dipped them in the water, and washed down her trousers and boots.

Clean enough for now.

When she turned back toward the cave, she saw movement. For a moment, her heart raced. What if the beast had a mate who had come searching for it? Then she flashed the laserlight. It was J’Qhir dragging the carcass closer to the cave entrance. He motioned for her to come to him.

“We have food and another blanket,” he announced as he released the body and tossed the head to the side. “I usssed your analyzing device. The meat isss good.”

“Can’t this wait until morning,” Leith protested. “You have to rest.”

J’Qhir shook his head. “Leith, the sssmell of blood will draw other animalsss and the meat might go bad if we wait. I ssslept a while and feel much better. Build the fire again ssso that I can sssee and have warmth.”

“But—”

“Do you know how to ssskin an animal? Do you know how to carve the meat?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Then do asss I sssay.”

Leith did as he said. By the time her hair and clothing dried and, through trial and error, she erected a spit over the fire in their living quarters, J’Qhir had skinned the beast and cut the first slab of meat. She put the roast on, and soon the delicious aroma of cooking meat filled the cave.

Using deft, quick strokes, J’Qhir sliced the rest of it thin, and Leith used the laserlight to quick-jerk the meat. Soon a pile of jerky nearly covered the flat stone Leith had dragged from outside to work on.

“How are we going to store it? To keep it away from bugs and small critters?”

“Tomorrow we make basssketsss,” J’Qhir said.

“I think you mean today.” Leith nodded sleepily toward the opening where dawn had lightened the world.

“Good! You will be able to sssee to cut tall grasss and vine. Or young sssaplingsss sssince they are plentiful here.”

Leith just stared at him. “How do you know how to do all this—this survival stuff?”

J’Qhir stabbed the knife into the remains of the beast carcass and leaned back against the rock wall, resting the backs of his bloodied hands on his thighs. “Thisss isss our way of life, Leith. Only three generationsss ago we had no idea anyone elssse in the universsse exisssted. When the Cruciansss came, our culture wasss very primitive. The Cruciansss claimed to come in peace. Sssince we knew no other way, we believed them.”

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Lanette

Curington

“You didn’t fight among yourselves?” Leith asked incredulously.

“Not for many centuriesss. There are talesss, of courssse, of battlesss fought between desssertsss, but we overcame our belligerent nature long ago. Until the Cruciansss came.

They took our young and ssstrong, male and female. The Cruciansss promisssed them a visssit to a world of lusssh abundance and proposssed sssettlementsss if they found it agreeable. They would only be gone a ssshort while, the Cruciansss sssaid, but it wasss many yearsss before the Cruciansss returned without our people. Both of my grandfathersss had gone with them.”

When J’Qhir seemed to be lost in thought, Leith asked quietly, “What happened to them?

“The Cruciansss never intended for the Zi to sssettle on their planet. They enssslaved usss, to work their crysssium minesss. They returned for more ssslavesss. We fought them and thousssandsss died, yet they captured thousssandsss more to carry back to Crux.” J’Qhir shook his head and hesitated. “Perhapsss we have not evolved enough, Leith. The Cruciansss had never intended to return to Zi. Their plan wasss to breed thossse they captured the firssst time, but they found we do not breed in captivity. Our reproductive sssyssstemsss ssshut down when threatened.”

“I am so sorry,” Leith murmured, fighting back tears. He wouldn’t appreciate what he might interpret as pity. “The Crucians tell a much different story. It was what I tried to make you understand before. Why haven’t you ever told anyone what really happened?”

“It isss our fight,” J’Qhir explained. “Our duty. No one elssse’sss. We are resssponsssible for our own.”

“Sometimes it’s all right to ask for help. It doesn’t mean you relinquish the responsibility or sit back and let someone else take over.”

J’Qhir nodded and sighed. “Of courssse, you are correct. Perhapsss it isss time to asssk for help. My people are very weary of fighting—and losssing. If we find sssome way to essscape thisss planet, I will approach the Council of Eldersss.”

“Since the Crucians just came to capture your people, how did you attain space travel? I’m sure they didn’t give you ships and teach you how to fly.”

“It isss, in effect, exactly what they did,” J’Qhir said with a trace of humor in his voice. “About the time my father reached maturity, the Cruciansss began to ussse Zi as a refussse dump. Mossst of it wasss ussselesss trasssh, but they alssso left behind old warssshipsss and broken weaponsss. Leith, my people learn quickly when they mussst, and it helped that we had a few captivesss of our own to teach usss. We rebuilt warssshipsss and weaponsss from the ssscrapsss they dissscarded. Many died in the firssst attemptsss, but we finally moved out into ssspace and learned how to trade for www.samhainpublishing.com

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what we need. By the time I wasss born, ssspace travel had become common and we were no longer at the mercy of the Cruciansss. We have not won, but we have not lossst either.”

He straightened and, grabbing the knife, started slicing strips of meat. “Go, Leith. I have hunger enough to eat the ressst of this beassst raw. We cannot eat until our work isss done.”

Leith left the cave and did as J’Qhir said. She mulled over what he had told her about the Crucians as she searched for the basket making materials he wanted. Part of her problem was resolved for she knew he had told her the truth of the Zi-Crucian conflict.

Now, all she needed to learn was the truth about her parents.

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Lanette

Curington

Leith added to the twist of grass and secured it to the side of the misshapen basket with a narrow strip of bark. Surreptitiously, she watched J’Qhir seated on the other side of the fire. He had already finished one basket while teaching her the technique and had another half completed.

He made short work of the basket as he had the beast. His large hands worked quickly, efficiently, wasting no movement or effort. She wondered where his thoughts drifted. Did he think of Zi and wish to be home as much as she?

Leith sighed softly and looked down at her basket. After learning the basics she had quickly grown bored with the process. She had always needed to keep her mind busy, not her hands. She tried to concentrate on wrapping the bark around the grass, keeping it smooth and even, but her thoughts wandered again.

“I have been thinking,” J’Qhir said suddenly.

Leith perked up. Neither of them was prone to small talk. He had sat close to her, showing her how to begin with a hank of grass as large as his thumb. He had patiently explained every step in his quiet, soothing tones. He told her how to create the circular bottom, weave the strips of bark around the grass, catching the previous round of grass to bind the two together, then how to begin making the sides when the bottom was as large as she wanted it to be. After he was sure she had grasped the concept and could continue without him, he had moved to the pallet on the other side of the fire, and they said little else.