Page 32 of Stranded with the Alien

“I’ve never had to use one before, okay?Youmight get shot down on a regular basis but this is all new to me.”

“Fine. Let us assume it is producing a signal.” Vahn switched the transmitter off to conserve power.

“It works best on higher ground anyway so we’ll have to take it up into the hills.”

The Vraxian was silent. He turned the beacon over in his hands, looking troubled. Kara tilted her head.

“What?”

“The signal is a distress call, correct?”

“Of course. With co-ordinates of its location.”

“A Terran distress call aimed at Terran ships.”

Kara suddenly understood why he was uneasy.

“You’re worried what will happen when my people come to rescue me.”

“They are hardly likely to drop me back on Vraxos.” He gave a wry smile. “I will be a prisoner.”

“A prisoner-of-war,” she corrected. “With rights guaranteed under the rules of the Geneva Convention. We don’t torture enemy combatants.”

“How noble of you.”

“It’s better than slowly rotting on this fucking planet, isn’t it? Anyway, we agreed to have a truce. I promise I’ll make sure you’re looked after.”

He gazed at her steadily.

“And how do I know I can trust you, human?”

“Because I keep my word,” she said fiercely. “I swear to you, when we’re rescued I’ll tell them you helped me. I’ll protect you.”

He sighed. Maybe she thought she could protect him, but she was naïve. Humans did not treat his kind gently. They were barbaric.

For a split second he considered smashing her beacon and resuming the search for his own. But their supplies were low and time was not on his side.

Better to wait for her compatriots to answer the distress call and ambush them. He would have the element of surprise, after all. They would arrive expecting to find only a stranded human. It would be a simple matter to hijack their ship.

“Let us take one step at a time. Reaching high ground will take several days. We will need to find food and water before then.”

“Agreed.” She motioned towards the green line in the distance. “There must be a water source over there. There’s vegetation and wildlife. And those sulfur pools must be fed somehow. Maybe there’s an underground source.”

“It is a sound suggestion. Let us prepare.”

They ate half the remaining food packs and finished the almost-empty canister of water. Then Kara gathered the last of the rations and put them in the bag along with the beacon and the med kit. As an afterthought, she added several empty canisters in case they found something to fill them with.

Ever the optimist.

It was a wrench leaving the cave. Not that it had been particularly comfortable. Actually, it was pretty damp and inhospitable. But it had been a shelter, of sorts.

They trudged in silence for a while. The Vraxian’s stride was far longer than Kara’s and she had to take two or three steps to keep up with every one of his. It was tiring but she didn’t say anything, determined not to appear weak.

He pretended not to notice her struggling. He would rot in the pit of Xesh before giving any quarter to a human.

But when she stumbled over some loose stones, he forced himself to stop. Nothing would be gained by causing her exhaustion or injury.

“Let us take a break,” he said brusquely.

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