Eden (9 page)

Jenny grimaced and scrambled to her feet. “I wasn’t scared,” she said to his back. “Just startled a tiny bit. A very tiny bit.”

Beside the river, Jenny washed the foil fabric covers while Fly roasted a large, fat-bellied creature over a fire.

As they worked, he explained that an immense herd roamed the plains at night, looking for vegetation to eat. They were nocturnal and that
’s
why Jenny had never seen them. His description reminded her of oxen. Another herd, which Jenny had seen already, was the brown
woolen
-coated animals. They were omnivorous, but harmless, and spent most of their time wading in swamps and rivers for their food. The native-wolves did appear to be the dominant animal but had a fear of water, which the rest of the creatures had noticed.

There was a roaming herd, which would present themselves in the summer - bigger and stronger than the ones that roamed at night time. The insect-like creatures were harmless vertebrates. Tasted disgusting. Jenny had wrinkled her nose at this news and Fly had been amused.

The monkey-animals that lived in the trees were vicious and extremely territorial. They moved so fast that Fly hadn’t been able to catch one alive. There were many more animals still in hibernation. This brought Jenny to her final question. How had he made the natives submissive?

The explanation chilled her bones.

He was venomous.

At the back of his throat was a small sac, which contained a poison that continuously replenished itself. A sinew carried the venom along to be ejected at will from a tiny duct under his tongue. Death was painless in its speed.

He had spoken matter-of-factly, and why shouldn’t he? His being venomous was as natural to him as breathing was to her.

“Isn’t having such a poisonous toxin in your system dangerous to your kind?”

“We have natural antibodies to counter-attack the toxin. The meat is done,” he said.

She hurriedly flattened the covers over the boulders to dry. Without soap, the wash wasn’t as effective as it might have been, but at least it washed out the lingering smell of ashes.

She crossed towards Fly, watching as he bent over the meat and cut it thickly onto plates. Gratitude overwhelmed her, and breath fled her body in its intensity: here was a member of an unknown species, who had saved her life more than once; giving her food, and was now offering her shelter and all the protection he could provide.

It humbled her. And she knew she couldn’t board Taurus XI and leave him behind. Bodie
had
to listen to reason. Even if it meant they convey the craft to a remote part of Mars, and make their way to the Solar Station and wait rescue while Fly was secretly using Taurus to take himself home.

She sat beside him and was offered a plate piled high with roasted meat and vegetables. They drank melon juice leaning against boulders, and nibbled on the crispy vegetables that had fallen in the fire.

“Where’d you find the vegetables?” asked Jenny, inspecting one between finger and thumb. She popped it in her mouth and began to chew. It tasted sweet and juicy.

“They are fungi. Lethal if eaten raw.”

Jenny stopped chewing. She felt his gaze on her and knew he was mocking her fear, even though his facial expressions and body language were non-existent.

Pretending to cough, she spat the chewed vegetable out into her hand, and tossed it into the bush under the
pretense
of stretching.

“Have you explored the planet any further?” she asked, stretching one more time for authenticity.

“Many parts is marsh-land inhabited by animals more ferocious than the natives, although they lack any sort of intelligence and are guided only by instinct.”

Jenny peered behind at the trees, which seemed to take daylight into their claw-like branches and swallow it up. She couldn’t believe there was anything more horrendous than the native-wolves.

“Follow the black river downstream and it will turn into white rapids, which flow into several gorges before emptying into the ocean. There are many rivers, and of course the ocean, which is vast. You
must know more about this planet than me.”

“We
’re
on the outer edge of its pole,” she offered. “The two stars together shine less brightly than our sun, but night time is eternally twilight because of the many moons. And it
’s
mainly water as you’ve already figured, water and forest.”

“You find this planet.”
he consulted his computer, “dark?” “Yes, it isn’t as bright as home and, believe me, it can be unbelievably dim there in the winter!” She smiled, thinking of England. Her smile slipped, and a long silence lapsed between them. Fly closed his eyes.

Jenny chewed on her lip, and tried to turn her thoughts into words. “Bodie, the commander, was concerned you’d force control of the shuttle if he came to collect me. Y-you’ve helped me, and we’d like to help you return home.
I’m
not stupid,” she said in a rush. “I know
I’m
a hostage while I remain with you, but all the same,
I’m
still grateful to you for helping me.”

“Is that why you think I am helping you?” he asked, without opening his eyes.

Jenny looked at him aghast. “Oh no! I - I mean -” She lowered her head. “
I’m
sorry, I didn’t mean to throw all your good intentions back in your face.”

Fly said nothing. He opened his eyes, and stared ahead across the rapid flow of the river. “I take care of you because you are female. Had you been male I would have killed you. “

Jenny dragged her shocked eyes away from his face.

His crooked mouth twisted into a smile. “Sexual craving is the one emotion we have not lost.”

Her face, already pale, became even more so. She touched her temples with an unsteady hand.

“Your ship will not come for you,” he continued in the same flat voice. “They believe you are dead, and I doubt any
civilization
will return for a body. “

Jenny felt her life drain away. She hadn’t thought of that, and as she stared ahead, she saw a door close and bolt on the light at the end of her dark tunnel.

“No, I can’t believe that. Bodie
’s
my uncle - family - he
’ll
come for me.”

Fly shifted forward and threw a stone at the fire. “Your life on Earth has ended, and new one with me has just began.”

Jenny said nothing, but held her head in her hands. Her fingers tightened in her hair as she battled with this extra trauma. Finally, she raised her head. “It
’ll
be stupid of him to come, but I have to believe he will. The new life you speak of will destroy me.”

Fly made no comment, and whether he understood or not he made no move to reach for the computer, but stared straight ahead with great intensity, as if he were mulling something over in his mind.

It was getting colder and Jenny huddled closer to the fire. Even wearing the top half of an alien spacesuit over her own, the cold seemed penetrating. One of the binary stars had set hours ago, and the other was just slipping below the horizon.

A distant howl of the native-wolves caused her to swivel around from the waist towards the noise, her hands flat on the ground to steady her upper body. Her heart gathered speed, and the tiny hairs that covered her flesh became erect with fear. It took long a moment to
realiz
e she wasn’t alone any more. There was Fly. But what was that going to cost her?

She looked over.

He was leaning against the broken boulder; his eyes fixed steadily on her face.

Feeling foolish that her fear was so apparent, she climbed to her feet and crossed towards him, trying to act as if this had been her intention before the wolf-beast howled. As she neared, he held out his
hand to her.

She stopped, mortified.

You
’re
not going to survive on your own, Jennifer Daykin; you’ve become a pathetic excuse for a human.

With the truth of her thoughts buzzing in her ears she allowed herself to be pulled down next to him, and was held so close that she could hear the beat of his heart. She sat tense, aware and afraid. His arm was firm around her middle. His hand, the fingers bunched into a loose fist, rested lightly on her upper thigh.

She could feel the hardness of his body against hers, and she held herself as rigidly as she could. Heat poured off him, warming her and worrying her at the same time.

The light gave way to the dimness of night, and the howling became louder and more frequent. The fire had faded into bright embers, and hardly any warmth came from it. Jenny peered up at Fly, his eyes were closed, but she had never been more awake in her life.

Oh, Bodie, where are you? I always thought I could cope with any situation but I fear
I’m
cracking up. The longer I stay with Fly the bigger the threat of my falling so passive I shan’t be able to pull out again. Don’t give up on me, please, please come. “

She had closed her eyes on her private thoughts, and when she opened them again, she stared hard at the sky and wished her words
kilometers
into space. She hoped Bodie was bearing up. He was more than an uncle. He had become her best friend.

She had been following in her father
’s
footsteps, and he’d been so proud of her when she decided to try and “make it” without the famous Bodie name, and use, instead, her mother
’s
maiden name. It made her efforts of achievement doubly sweet when she met them.

She may have refused her father
’s
help, but she had been fiercely proud of him, and loved him dearly. She had just needed to prove to herself she was just as worthy, and as clever as he. It had been arrogance, on her part she supposed, but it worked, even though it meant hurting the feelings of friends when they found out.

She thought briefly of Matt; he’d taken her real identity badly. Like she had deliberately set out to make a fool of him.

She blinked back a tear as she recalled her father warning her that some people might see it as deception - oh, how right he had been.

She had been devastated when he died on that infamous spacewalk. Bodie had been present when he died, and had blamed himself, and would probably blame himself for the predicament she was in now.

Another sound reached her, and her body reacted fearfully, pulling her sharply to the present. It sounded like braying, and thundering hooves vibrated in the ground where she sat.

“They will not come anywhere near us.”

His voice came low in her ear. She looked up, his eyes were still closed, but she could tell he was no longer asleep, maybe he’d never been.

She glanced down at the hand that lay on her thigh. It was large, the nails soiled. She peered closer and noticed the tiny slits on the tip of each finger - this must be where the claws emerge and retract. He came from such an ugly and violent race; she was extremely lucky she was female and able to provide him with light entertainment, otherwise, as he had already said, she’d be dead.

No! I won’t become entertainment for anyone. I
’ll
die first!

And you will, Jen, you will.

The knowledge was like a presentiment, and she mentally recoiled at the thought of clawed, soiled hands on her body, and of the emotionless eyes that would see her at her most vulnerable. She thought for a moment of his hard, lean body against hers and a shiver, different to her repulsed thoughts, swept her body.

She stared into the fire. After a few minutes gathering courage, she began to move away. The hand on her stomach abruptly splayed out and stopped all movement.

“Where are you going?”

“Nowhere. I th-thought you were asleep.”

“Do not try to leave, the natives have surrounded us.”

Jenny physically cringed. She peered out into the dusk and her eyes saw shapes she hadn’t noticed before.

“W-won’t they attack us?”

“They are curious of you, but afraid of me. If they believe you are my mate they will leave you unharmed, pretend otherwise and they will kill you.”

Jenny swallowed. She was a woman from the 23rd century, and had made mincemeat out of men as big as Fly, yet she was unable to defend herself or seemingly survive without him.

She stared ahead at the shadowy shapes in the distance, and blinked at the rapid tears that had formed in her eyes. She was a hard woman, so why was she reduced to being at the mercy of a man? An alien man?

She pushed his hand off her, and made space between them, but her voice let her down. “It isn’t going to happen, Fly. I w-won’t let you rape me.”

“There will be no need for rape.”

Jenny said nothing, but her stomach somersaulted.

The natives continued to howl like they came from a direct line of wolf descendants, but an unwilling picture popped up in her head of the humanoid creatures, and she knew she could never think of them as merely wolves again.

She closed her eyes, and struggled to regain normality - but there was nothing except a black-eyed alien, vicious animals and deadly flowers in her mind to remind her that nothing would be