Page 35 of Gravel and Grit

They inhabit one of the planets in our system. My home, Duras, is harsh.

Over time, resources have become scarce and insufficient to support the population. But, our neighboring planet, Niruba, is lush and has abundant resources. Unfortunately, the Ektops believe they have a claim on Niruba, though being that it is situated between our planets, I have never been able to understand how they came to that conclusion. They are wholly unwilling to share. So, we went to war.”

“That’s awful. I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“The war lasted longer than anyone could have predicted. The situation on Duras was becoming dire, so seven exploratory missions were sent out to find a planet with the resources we need, collect them, and bring them home to tide us over until the war ended. My crew and I did not have success at first, so it was decided we would venture farther out. We finally found a planet that had what we needed, but as we were passing Earth, we were hit by a severe solar flare. Our sensors did not warn us, and the electromagnetic pulse caused catastrophic damage to our systems. We were pulled into your orbit and crashed in the Bay of Biscay, off the coast of France. Many of the crew died that day. That was roughly a millennium ago.”

She gaped at him, and sputtered, “A thousand years ago?”

“Mmm.” He didn’t seem to notice her shock and continued the story.

“The rescue beacon was lost in orbit. We have waited all these years for it to

fall so we could send a distress signal to Duras. Which you did,” he ended with a small but grateful smile.

Mira was stunned. That was not at all what she’d expected to hear. She thought he was here by himself to retrieve alien technology from human possession and assumed the device was comparable to a deep space probe that had somehow crashed to Earth.

“So now what?”

“We need to repair the beacon so it can send out a signal to my brethren’s sigils and alert them to impending rescue. Duras will have sent a return signal by this time with coordinates to the retrieval location, as well as when to expect them, but the beacon must be fixed for me to access that information.”

“That’s… wow. Okay.”

Mira wanted to say the most prominent emotion she felt was sympathy or even horror at what he and all his people must have endured being stranded on an alien planet for a thousand years, but that would’ve been a lie. She did feel those things, intensely, but they weren’t foremost. Even the realization that there was no way she was asking to take the device back to the higher ups at Area 51, now that she knew its purpose, wasn’t paramount.

Understanding she’d have to come up with an alternate plan of survival was beyond daunting, yet, it wasn’t at the top of the pile of emotions making her chest feel tight.

No, what she felt the strongest was sadness, which was almost unbearably selfish and made her feel like an asshole, because she was sad for herself.

It wasn’t until the impossibility of a relationship was revealed to her in inarguable transparency that she realized she was secretly hoping for just that, despite her efforts to convince herself it wasn’t going to happen. She didn’t care if Zaek was an alien. Well, not true, exactly. Him being an alien added to his appeal for her.

She liked him. A lot. She wanted to see if there was something between them, if there was something meaningful in the instant connection she felt.

“Mira?”

Jerking her head up to look at Zaek, she found him leaning forward and frowning at her in concern. Realizing he’d been trying to get her attention for a second, she winced.

“Sorry, I guess I zoned out there.”

“I asked if you were ready to move on.”

“Oh. Sure. Yeah.”

She had more questions for him, including her proposal that he provide her with enough information to appease General Harrison, but they were pushed aside for a later time by the sense of loss that swept through her, however silly and illogical she tried to tell herself it was.

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ZAEK

They traveled most of the rest of that night before they stopped to sleep. At Mira’s insistence, they took turns keeping watch. Late the next morning, they worked on the beacon for a while before walking until night fell. Zaek could tell she was tiring fast, that she wasn’t accustomed to so much activity followed by insufficient sleep. He offered to carry her, but she politely refused. He wanted to slow down for her, but he knew that was dangerous. ThankLar, they were getting close to his cabin.

Better to push on and let her rest in the safety of my home.

He noticed she was quieter than usual during that last leg of their journey and seemed a bit glum. He assumed that was from learning of her people betraying her. He didn’t know how to make her feel better, so rather than possibly saying the wrong thing and making her feel worse, he left her to her thoughts and focused on devising a strategy to convince her to go with him when he left this planet. If she refused, he would have to stay on Earth with her. He was willing to do so, but… he really didn’t want to. He missed Duras something fierce. He wanted to go home, but more than that, he wanted to show her the beauty of his planet.

hey’d been on the run for seven days and seven nights. It was very early

morning on the eighth day that they finally arrived at his cabin. Mira had Tfallen asleep at some point in the last hour. He tried to land gently so as to not disturb her, but she jerked awake with a snort and darted a bleary look around the second he touched down.