The Short and Long of It

Sample

Author's Note: This chapter, unlike the other ones I've written so far, isn't a piece of flash fiction. Instead, the following is a sample of  of  a story I'm currently working on. Apparently, this book is ranked 300-something in "Feedback" out of  roughly two-thousand, and that's what I'm hoping to get: feedback.

Walking back into the cabin of the ship, Kara felt exhaustion flood into her limbs. She had been running on empty since that morning and with the adrenaline in her system slowly starting to die down, all the little bumps and scratches that she had been ignoring began to make themselves known.

She was also acutely aware of the other presence of the ship. The alien in the room, so to speak. Kara was familiar with his species, she had lived among the Caseun for a considerable amount of time, but since then she had gotten used to being alone. Simply having him in the room, made the gravity on the ship feel different.

The alien had his eyes closed, but every few moments he would shift uncomfortably in his seat. Kara felt a twinge of sympathy. She had never been shot herself, but she could imagine he was in excruciating pain. In her experience in intra-galactic travel she had found that aliens typically had a lower pain tolerance than humans. Maybe they didn't produce adrenaline or their nervous systems were wired differently. In truth, Kara didn't rightly know. There had only been one biologist in the group of humans that they sent to explore life in a neighboring star system, and to the best of Kara's knowledge she was dead.

Kara kicked aside the first-aid supplies she had left strewn on the floor. One of the towels left a brown streak of alien blood behind, which she wiped clean with a slightly less bloody cloth. After the miscellaneous supplies, including the mini-blowtorch had been stowed away and the floor was decently clean. Kara pulled out her bedroll and spread it out.

"Wake up," she prodded the alien's shoulder roughly.

"I'm not asleep." He grumbled with his eyes shut.

Kara unbuckled the safety straps that were keeping him up-right. The solider began to slide to the right but Kara caught him before he could hit his head against the metal seat.

"Ok, I'm going to need you to move with me."

"I can't," The solider groaned, "I can't even open my eyes."

"Fine," Kara grumbled as she braced her feet and stuck his arms around her neck, "Just try to hold on."

With a grunt, Kara lifted his torso off the seat and dragged him towards the bed roll, his limp legs dragging along the ground behind him. She lowered him to the mat slowly, her thighs burning as she technically squatted more weight than she had in years.

"How much do you weigh?" She grunted as her knees hit the mat.

"I'm actually on the skinny side where I come from," He mumbled back. Kara started to lean backwards, like she was going to pass under a limbo bar, but the weight of the alien on top of her caused her to lose her balance and her back slammed onto the mat.

"Jesus," She cursed and groaned.

"Well, this is certainly intimate." The solider mumbled into her neck. Kara would have laughed if it wasn't for the seven-foot alien crushing her lungs.

"Maybe, this wasn't your brightest idea," He suggested as she squirmed underneath him, trying to find a way to wiggle herself out from under him.

"Shut up," she grunted as she slid her hips out from under his belly, "I figured you'd rather sleep on an uncomfortable bedroll than uncomfortable metal chairs."