Page 10 of Married to the Alien Mountain Man

“What do you mean, ‘This isn’t a normal planet?’” she asked warily. Her eyes flicked to me now, as if to seek some sort of reassurance. It made me happy to see that she trusted me enough to look at me for explanation, or for comfort.

But that happiness was snuffed out when I realized I would never be able to keep that trust. Once she knew why I was here, she would no doubt recoil from me.

“This is Zabria Prinar One,” the warden informed the pilot. “A penal colony for convicted murderers under the control of the Zabrian Empire.”

I was right. She did recoil. She shot me a look that almost looked like one of betrayal.

It felt rather like a knife.

Or a hammer to the head.

“So you’re saying,” she cried, her voice rising higher and higher, “that I’ve just landed on a planet full of convicted murderers? And you’re tellingmeto put my weapon down?”

“I am,” Warden Tenn answered calmly, despite her obviously growing anxiety. “No one but a warden is allowed to carry a blaster-style weapon in this world. And no one but the wardens, the convicts, their brides, and liaisons under contract with the empire are allowed to remain on-world for any significant length of time. Whether you drop your weapon or don’t, either way, you must leave immediately.”

“But I can’t!” Raw panic ripped through her voice. It ripped through me, too, and without my brain telling it to do so, my body moved towards her.

But she did not like that, as evidenced by her weapon, which she now aimed squarely at me.

I supposed the warden had more patience for a weapon pointed at himself than at one of his convicts. As soon as the pilot changed her aim, Warden Tenn’s tail snapped forward lightning-quick. Using his tail, he seized and then snatched the stunner away before the pilot even had a hope of activating the trigger.

She stared at her stunner, now being transferred to the warden’s free hand, with a mixture of shock and horror. Then, rage was added into the mix, obliterating everything else.

“He’s the one who told me to go get my stunner in the first place!” she shouted, pointing a delicate finger at me.

“Yes. Well.” The warden shot me anof-course-he-did-the-absolute-fool sortof glance. “Clearly, he has taken a blow to the head.”

“It’s a scratch!” I retorted. “And it has already stopped bleeding!”

“I can’t leave,” the pilot reiterated. The panic was still there in her voice. In her eyes. But so was the rage behind it. “It’ll take at least fourteen days for the part I need to arrive out here.”

“I am sorry,” Warden Tenn said. “But I cannot allow you to stay here that long, unless you apply to the empire for special permission. But I can already tell you, they won’t provide it. If your ship is inoperable, then I can arrange for a transport to take you off-world. The ship can remain here until you can have it hauled away.”

“I’m not leaving my ship.” She said it so fiercely, it was as if the warden had suggested she leave behind some beloved living being. “And there’s no way I’d be able to pay for my own transport on top of having my ship hauled out separately. That would cost double the price of the part I need. I don’t have the credits!”

I would have offered her a share of my own meagre collection of credits – all of them, if she wanted – but I had a feeling that would not be enough.

But perhaps… Perhaps there was something else…

“Well, I’m sorry, but-”

“Warden,” I interrupted with a hiss.

Warden Tenn’s brows came together as I moved closer to him. A plan was taking shape inside me with a swiftness that made my pulse buck beneath my ribs.

“You said before that she cannot stay here.” I spoke in quiet tones.

“Obviously, she can’t,” he replied. “The only ones allowed are the wardens, convicts, liaisons-”

“And brides.”

“She is not a bride.”

“But she could be.”

I only barely stopped myself from adding the word, “mine,” at the end of that sentence.

Warden Tenn’s eyes went briefly white with surprise beneath the shade of his hat’s brim.

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