The Alien

The Alien - Chapter 7

Found Again

I jumped up out of my seat. "Laith!"

My first instinct was to stand in front of Jarath.

"Lilliana!" His eyebrows drew together. "What are you doing?"

"Making sure you don't shoot first and ask questions later."

"I wouldn't do that."

"Uh, yes, you would." I didn't have to remind him of the Roxette incident. "Jarath is a friend. He helped me after the crash." I could feel Jarath standing behind me. Could feel the heat from his body. Could hear him shift his weight to the other foot.

Laith stepped into the room, followed by two other members of our team, Darx and Kahzidar. My heart leapt. They were really here. I was getting off this rock.

Laith didn't lower his weapon and the others had theirs drawn. "We've been looking for you. Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"Your medi kit was used. What are your injuries?"

"You found the Viper? Good." Relief surged through me. "I, um, I hit my head and cut my leg pretty bad." I turned so he could see the stitching up the leg of my shipsuit and he cringed. "But I'm okay now. The medi kit sorted me out."

He looked skeptical.

"I'm okay." I repeated. "Can you put your weapons away? This is Jarath." I stepped aside so I was only blocking half of their view. "He found me the night of the crash and helped me. I was woozy with the head injury and passed out. He's had many chances to turn me in to the authorities, but hasn't done it. He's looked after me and fed me and I've been staying here waiting for you."

I watched as they lowered their weapons one at a time, but no one put them away. Fair enough. I wouldn't have either.

The tallest of our group took a step forward. "Hey, Wildcat. Ready to get outta here?"

"Hell, yeah! Where's the ship, Darx?"

His smile widened. "Not far away. Hallie is on standby."

My heart pounded as my smile matched his. They were ready to rock and roll. "Good. I'm ready when you are."

I noticed that Jarath was now standing beside me.

"Hello," he offered. I was impressed. They towered over him and were heavily armed.

I looked at the others. "Do you guys have translator chips?"

"Yes," Kahzidar said. He was the science-y one on the team. "The Viper reported two missing, so we stuck some in. They work on him?" He waved a blue hand at Jarath.

"Yeah. I had a hard time getting him to take me to the Viper before we could communicate. It shouldn't take long for your chips to pick up on their language. He said hello."

They all acknowledged his greeting.

I looked at Laith. He was getting antsy. He wanted to leave. I could see it in his eyes. I agreed. We should be moving. We could talk about all this once we were out of here.

He met my gaze. "We need to book it." He frowned. "What were you thinking? How did you end up crashing the Viper?"

Now I just felt stupid. "I wanted to have a closer look and got pelted with a piece of space junk. Hit the engine and made it do a full burn. Straight toward the planet. By the time I got straightened out, it was too late to pull out."

"That's it. I know you're against it, but you're getting a permanent sub-dermal tracker. I'm not going through this again."

Kahz spoke up. "We should all get them."