Ark: A Scifi Alien Romance (19 page)

“Whatever happens, my love,” I whispered, “I will keep you safe. We will be together for the rest of our lives even if we have to remain on this planet. Do you trust me?”

Melissa looked at me with those huge dark eyes of hers. “I do, Ark, I trust you with my life. And I won’t let anything happen to you either.”

I pulled her in close and whispered into her ear, “And that is how I know we are truly mates, Melissa Crane of Earth.”

I pulled back and kissed her, and in that moment everything else disappeared and we were one, in peace and tranquility.

Unfortunately for the both of us, we had to come back to reality after only a short time. When I set Melissa down, I saw Makora and Sally watching us, holding hands. Sally had tears in her eyes that she was wiping away with her free hand, and even Makora smiled back at me. “Love,” Makora said as Sally sniffed, “wonderful to see two people meet each other.”

“Let us get on with the plan, Makora,” I grumbled, though not entirely unhappily.

“We are ready when you are.”

Melissa and I nodded to each other and to Makora and Sally, and gathered our supplies. Then we were off, to the right, hiding behind more rocks, moving slightly downward as we inched closer and closer to the center stage of the theater. As we hid behind each rock one of us would peek out over the top and make sure that none of the ghost wolves were tracking us, but they seemed far more interested in the energy chalice than anything going on around them.

The eerie chanting continued, and as we got closer and closer I could make out various patterns among the sounds, but still any meaning eluded both me and the universal translator I had implanted in my ear. It definitely sounded like they were communicating, though what they were saying I did not know.

There would be time to study that later, perhaps, if Melissa and I were to stay on this planet for some unknown reason, but for now, we had to try and escape with as much speed as possible.

I looked back at Makora and Sally, still behind the rock we started from. They were leaning out and watching our progress, and when I made eye contact with Makora, he gave a small wave to show he saw me.

I turned back to Melissa, touching her on the arm. “Are you ready? I will signal for the beacons to start.”

Melissa nodded, stone faced, but I could see her knuckles were white as she gripped the dark and jagged rock in front of us. The sun had begun to set and the wind was beginning to pick up.

The chanting of the ghost wolves grew louder and louder with each passing minute.

Now was the best time to strike. I looked back at Makora behind the rock and gave him the signal we had decided on. Makora nodded and disappeared back behind the rock. As we had decided, we leaned over our rock to watch the effect on the ghost wolves. Makora had said that they would begin dispersing almost immediately.

A minute passed. Nothing changed.

Another minute. Still no change.

Another minute. Still no-

A deafening roar echoed throughout the amphitheater and Melissa ducked behind our rock, clinging to me like she was afraid she would wash away. I held onto her and kept her steady as the roar continued, but I did not look down.

I needed to see what was going on.

As I watched it became clear. The sea of the dozens of ghost wolves parted, opening a path to the energy chalice, and along that path walked…the biggest ghost wolf of them all.

I had not seen more than a hundred of them since we had landed, but this one was clearly the leader, or just some sort of freak of ghost wolf nature. It towered above all the rest, not unlike how I towered above Melissa. It must have been at least triple my height, and as ferocious looking as ten of them put together. Considering the difficulty I had in taking down one of the normal ones, I did not relish the thought of getting into combat with their leader.

Perhaps if Makora and I worked together…no, the best plan was to avoid combat altogether. As Kreossian warriors neither of us were strangers to combat, but the empire did not expand to reach the far ends of the galaxy by engaging in foolhardy and pointless battles. It was far more important to choose the right circumstances than to jump straight in and fight.

Admiral Kaalax’ words about making sure I did not jump to judgement or action without taking full stock of the situation came rushing back to me all at once, and I remembered his lesson to me back in the gymnasium on the flagship only a few days earlier. It felt like that was so long ago, that I had become a completely different man since then.

As I pulled Melissa in close to me, I realized that I had become a completely different man in such a short time - I was now a man in full, made whole by having met Melissa and joining with her, becoming part of her as she became part of me.

Perhaps that was the lesson I had to learn, the lesson Admiral Kaalax had been trying to teach me from the start. I used to be headstrong and without reason, relying on my natural cunning and physical abilities to see me through whatever came my way.

Now, things were different - I had someone else to care about, someone else to protect. Melissa was strong in her own right, but she could not match up to me physically. That, however, was not the point. It was not about physical strength or comparing the two of us.

I was her protector and she was my soul.

It was as simple as that, and I would set the planet on fire and watch it burn if it meant she would be safe. I knew it to be true more than anything else I had ever known in my life.

And she made me think twice about things. She made me consider other angles, she made me look to other methods beyond jumping into combat with no regard for my life. That had gotten me this far, but it would get me no further.

The king ghost wolf continued his slow and confident march toward the energy chalice. I could hear the chanting quiet down from the ghost wolves in front of him, getting louder as he passed by. It was almost a regal procession.

I turned me head to look back at Makora, and he stared at me with a befuddled expression, shaking his head. It was as I suspected, his machines were not working. We would have to do without his beacons.

I grimly looked back as the king stopped in front of the energy chalice. The chanting died down almost to a whisper. The lower sound gave Melissa more courage, and I felt her let go of me and clamber up the side of the rock so she could watch what happened next.

The king reared back, letting out a bellow of such great volume that even I had to hold my hands over my ears. I had no idea why he was doing this, but it clearly had an effect on the other ghost wolves - they scattered, getting into a frenzy and running all around the lower levels of the amphitheater, a few of them getting close to the rock that we hid behind, but none getting close enough to detect us.

I gripped the rock tighter as I watched for their next move. The king, apparently satisfied that he had the others’ attention, began to walk around the energy chalice, which began glowing with even more intensity, throwing off rays of light, as he increased speed, around and around.

Something was happening. Something big.

And then, the king reared up on his hind legs and…

He began to dance around the energy chalice. The other ghost wolves went mad. They arranged themselves in circles, concentrically around the rings of rocks, and they all got on their hind legs and began to dance. The chanting picked up again, only now it came with a beat.

It was thrilling to watch these ethereal creatures, pitch black, giving off these laces of white almost liquid that whipped and flew around them like a ghostly energy field, as they held an impromptu but highly regimented dance around this giant crackling energy generator in the middle of nowhere on a jungle planet.

Thrilling, yes, but we could not afford to keep watching. Night was falling, and that would embolden them even further, and if more arrived, we were sunk.
 

Unfortunately, the plan we had was not working, and I had to think of one quickly to replace it.

I looked down at Melissa, and I made up my mind. Despite all the teachings Admiral Kaalax had tried to hard to make me understand, I was going to have to attack the ghost wolves, because otherwise, there was no way we were going to get through this and get the crystals we needed to get out of there.

I was just about to vault over the rock and charge toward them when the dancing stopped.

The chanting stopped too, and as if all were one, the ghost wolves, their king included, went down on all four legs, back to their normal position, and started looking around, as if someone had turned off the music all at the same time.

I looked back at Makora, and he smiled at me, waving just barely over his rock. So his beacons had worked after all!

Then, pandemonium broke loose, right as I turned to look back at the stage. The ghost wolves broke left, right, in all directions, as if someone had tossed a bomb right into the center and they all needed to escape as quickly as possible.
 

They ran without looking where they were going, and more than one crashed into another as they almost blindly tried to get away from where they were.

The king was not immune to the powerful pull of the beacons, though he resisted more than most. It looked like he was trying to figure out which one to chase, before he finally picked one and bounded off out of sight at a pace that outstripped all the rest of them.

Almost as quickly as the amphitheater had filled up, it was empty. It was just the four of us.

I looked back at Makora and waved before taking Melissa’s hand and trying as stealthily as possible to make our way down to the stage, past where the rings of ghost wolves had been dancing not more than a minute earlier.

The stage was eerily quiet, and it smelled like ozone. I kept looking over met shoulders to make sure the ghost wolves were not yet coming back - I had no idea how long Makora’s beacons would work, and I had little confidence that they would keep them away for too long.

We had to get in and get out as quickly as possible.

The energy chalice loomed in front of us, getting bigger as we approached. I had misjudged its size - it was almost as large a small Kreossian land vehicle.

The rays of light it gave off danced around, avoiding us, and while I did not think they were harmful, I did not want to stick around and confirm that hypothesis. The field around the bowl of the chalice looked permeable, and first I slowly pressed the flat of my blade against it, and it resisted, but not enough to stop me from pressing inside.

I hesitated before my hand went in, but after taking a deep breath and looking at Melissa, who gripped my other arm, I pushed in. The feeling on the other side was strange, like the air in there was charged with energy, but I could move around without problem, so I tested out picking up one of the crystals. It lifted relatively easily, but I could tell from its weight that it was very densely packed together.

I nodded to Melissa and drew the first crystal out, looking around to make sure the coast was still clear. Makora waved at me from behind his rock, and I could see Sally peeking over the edge too. I took the crystal and set it inside my pack on the ground, and reached in for the second, and then the third.

We had enough to escape with, but I knew that while we had the advantage I needed to take one further step, and before Melissa could stop me, I reached in and picked out a fourth crystal, adding it to my pack.

“What’re you doing, Ark?” she hissed. “We only needed 3!”

“I know,” I replied, closing my pack and slipping it back around my shoulders. “This extra one is for research purposes. I have never seen anything like this anywhere in the Kreossian Empire. Our scientists will be interested in what is happening here.”

“This wasn’t part of the plan!” Melissa said as we quickly ran back to the rock Makora and Sally hid behind.

“I know, but it seemed like a good idea.”

CHAPTER 11 - MELISSA

I didn’t even have time to get over the exhilaration and the rush of fear from all I had seen at the theater, with the ghost wolves and their leader, and the chanting and the dancing, because as soon as we were clear, Ark and I were off back toward the shuttle and the crash site, with Makora and Sally hot on our heels.

We didn’t have any idea how long the beacons would keep working, and what the ghost wolves would do once they stopped and they found out that their precious energy crystals were missing.

The path back to the shuttle was much faster, mainly because we had done most of the cutting work on the trip over, leaving the path mainly clear. Even then, the trees had already started to grow back, and occasionally it was still necessary to pull out a blade and hack away at some blue or yellow leaves.

Sally pulled up next to me. “It took me a while to get used to the leaves being blue and yellow,” she said, echoing my thoughts like she was in my head, “but now I barely remember what green leaves even look like.”

Makora and Ark walked ahead of us, and they kept glancing back toward us. “We must pick up the pace, Melissa,” Ark called back to me. “We must go faster.”

“I know, I know, I’m trying,” and I picked up the pace a little more. I stared at Ark’s powerful back, and realized that the sooner we got off this rock, the sooner Ark and I could get naked again. It had been a wonderful trek here, walking during the day and making love all night just before we slept, and even though it had been less than a day since that ended, it felt like a lot longer, given all that we had seen since.

I heard Ark ask Makora, “Are you sure you do not wish to return to civilization with us?” He looked back at Sally. “We have room on the shuttle and enough of the crystals to take on the additional weight.”

As Makora turned to look back and make eye contact with his mate walking briskly next to me, I could see that he was considering it. I turned to Sally, and I knew that she was thinking about it too. There was a longing on her face that I knew well. She was wistful for home, for Earth, for being around other humans.