Raven Tide
3: Stranded (Chyani)

Heads up! - This book takes place in the same universe as my book The Hunter’s Song. It is not necessary to read that story or the sequel to enjoy this book, but as this story (in the timeline) takes place after that other story, there will be spoilers for The Hunter’s Song in this chapter and moving forward.

Otherwise, Enjoy! 😁

I’m not sure how but I was still breathing. My face was flush against the alien’s chest and his lungs were functioning as well. Sparks flickered from the ceiling and I was too scared to let go of his torso.

His big hand touched the top of my head.

“Did we land?” I pried my face up and looked around.

The ship was in tatters and smoldering but the hull around the bridge appeared to be sealed.

He deactivated the force shield harness, let me get off his lap then set his attention on the holographic hud, and proceeded to shut down several critical systems.

Where were we? Were we stranded?

The alien stood up and flipped open a panel on the wall to release a squadron of tiny beetle-like drones that skittered from the corners of the floor.

I eeped when they got too close then connected the dots that they were programmed to repair the ship.

“J’uka,” he commanded and waved for me to follow him.

I didn’t want to but at this point everywhere else was a deathtrap and at the bare minimum he’d demonstrated an inclination to keep me alive.

Like the bridge, the rest of the spacecraft was in disarray.

He led the way into the main engineering chamber and began typing on a console connected to a large machine built into the wall. The engine was dormant and there were a dozen differently colored repair drones tinkering with the contraption.

A small door slid up on the machine he was focused on and inside sat a cubby holding a black cylinder. He took the object then he collected several tools and clicked for me to join him in the bedroom.

There he gathered a satchel for the various tools and equipment in his arms then retrieved a folded stack of black and white spotted clothing.

“For me?” I was startled when he thrust the clothing into my hands.

It was a matching set of seal skin, pants, jacket, and boots. I spread them out on the bed and switched out my jogging shorts with the garish pants. They were form-fitting but way too long. I’m five-foot-three and whoever the original owner was they had to be at least six-foot-tall.

Did these belong to someone else he kidnapped and did who-knows-what-else-too before me?

The alien pushed me on the bed and raised my legs over the edge then popped out a nasty serrated blade that was hidden within his gauntlet to deftly slice off the excess leather around my ankles. He repeated the fitting process with the jacket’s long sleeves.

The boots were large as well but they could only be secured by padding the toes with bundled leather scraps and wrapping my feet in additional bandages.

Once packed, we exited the craft. It was nighttime, I think, at least it was dark under the dense forest canopy.

My alien captor led me along an external inspection of his ship. The drones were busy and it was impossible to keep up with him when he leaped up the giant vines coiling around the crash site.

Crash...The word left a bitter taste in the back of my mouth.

The smoke and low hiss of a broken venting system put my nerves on edge.

Even the air smelled the same as that day. Spilled caustic lubricant and burnt wires, right down to the scorched carbon smeared across the ship’s outer hull. Suddenly, I realized my arms were trembling and I couldn’t make them stop.

The alien shouted something at me from an oversized vine above then he stopped, slid down, and craned his head sideways.

“Any crash you can walk away from, right...” I faked a smile and shifted my eyes away while rubbing my arms to hold still.

He lunged at me then threw me over his shoulder and crawled us both up the vine and onto the top of his ship.

“T’kaa,” he dropped me down with a thud.

“Hey!” I glared up at him and did my best not to slip off the slanted roof.

Then he hopped back to the ground and continued his assessment of the damage.

That asshole put me up here to keep me from running!

Not that I possessed any urge to explore. The strange forest was massive and completely foreign. From my new vantage point, I could see a vast dimly lit jungle. There were glowing orange pods hanging from the trees and luminescent streams weaving across the forest floor in the distance. I couldn’t see any wildlife but it was foolish to think that this tranquil rainforest was empty.

It must have been several hours before my captor decided to tote me back to the ground. I was tired and hungry but he was oblivious or more likely, he didn’t care.

“Gkei’moun’ sui,” the alien lit up a map of the terrain on his gauntlet and presented it to me. Our crash site was at the center and there was a settlement very far away.

He pointed and jutted his chin at our destination. Then he grumbled to himself and reached into the satchel but pulled his arm back out empty-handed.

I guess we’re walking...I sighed and let him lead the way.

The sun never rose but my vision was jitty like going to class early after pulling an all-nighter in college. Eventually, after I tripped several times and disrupted his rhythm, he gave in and let me sit while he used two little daggers to impale two birds hiding in the branches above us. Then he decapitated a fat boa constrictor trying to escape the commotion of the birds being slaughtered.

He cooked the two birds on a small portable burner and handed them to me. They weren’t bad. No real flavor but the meat was juicy and tender.

Then my captor removed his helmet.

He was beautiful... if that made any sense. He wasn’t human by any stretch, more reptilian, but his smooth-scaled features were captivating. Also, his mouth was a crisscrossed nest of four white tusked mandibles.

Like his chest, his face was solid monochrome-white with little iridescent scales speckling his forehead and cheeks and he had brilliant silver eyes with tiny black pupils.

I was definitely staring.

“Bpi-de ju’amedha,” he scowled and pointed his elbow at my food.

Behind his four tusks sat a mouth full of white fangs and a flat-forked pink tongue.

I took another bite but kept my eyes fixed on him.

What in the endless stars was he?

Then he opened his wide webbed mandibles and sharp-fanged mouth to devour his snake meat raw, bones and all! The crunching sound pierced my ears like shards of steel getting dragged across a chalkboard.

Shortly after decimating his meal he rose to his feet and turned around to a nearby tree, and then abruptly displaced the cool night air with the crude sound of a heavy stream of liquid hitting the ground.

Is he peeing?!!

The flow ended and he shook his arm then he wiped his hand on his thigh and gestured for me to do the same.

It made sense, I needed to go, but where?

I got up and made for a line of trees across the way that looked promising.

“H’ko,” he blocked my path.

“I need privacy.”

The big whatever-the-hell didn’t budge.

“You at least got to turn around,” I jabbed my finger at his chest and then waved at the damp tree trunk he’d used a toilet. “Anatomically, I don’t have the luxury of letting loose wherever I want.”

His silver eyes narrowed but he ultimately backed down.

“Here?” I decided to compromise with a large fern on the opposite side of the clearing.

He didn’t answer but returned to his seat.

“I hope these leaves aren’t poisonous,” I mumbled to myself while trying to squat inside a giant bush.

This was mortifying. I couldn’t go. Even with the plume of leaves around me, I knew he was watching and listening.

Focus, Chyani, where are you?

I closed my eyes and tried to picture another location I found calming.

It’s morning, I’m camping with Hecte and his fiance... He’s cooking fish. Heather is in a lake swimming. I’m going to go hiking later... yeah, I’m going to take some great reference pictures of wildlife.

My muscles relaxed.

Suddenly, my serene moment was shattered by the big alien leaping and charging at me.

“What the-!” I screamed when he yanked me up.

Out of nowhere, a crocodile-sized centipede unearthed from below the fern. Then it was dead. He’d impaled and decapitated the creature with the pair of wrist blades hidden in his gauntlet and dropped the goopy mess on the jungle floor with its pincers still twitching.

I laid there on my back in the dirt panting in horror then panicked when I realized my pants and underwear were around my ankles.

“Yahh!” I scrambled to pull my clothes back on.

“H’ko,” he grabbed my leg and tugged down my underwear.

My heartbeat jumped into hyperdrive as he crouched over me and prowled up my naked pelvis. Then he handed me a small canteen from his belt and simulated pouring the contents on my abdomen.

In the mayhem, I splattered urine all over myself.

“Fine,” I begrudgingly accepted the water. “Only if you turn around.”

I spun my finger at him aggressively and he shook his head and long mane of white quills.

“Where exactly do you think I’m going to run to?” I snapped at him.

He leaned off me and then picked up the centipede’s head.

I didn’t have a counterargument.

Resigned to my humiliation, I huffed out my nose and wiped myself clean then carefully redressed myself.

“J’uka,” he chittered at me with a nod and put his helmet back on. Then he pointed for me to help gather his cooking equipment and insisted that it was time to get moving.

All I wanted was sleep.

My feet were blistered and my calves were aching.

Even if I hadn’t been short of stride and utterly exhausted his pace was grueling. Hell, genetically engineered super soldiers would have struggled to keep up with him.

But in the end, he had no choice but to succumb to my weakness and put up with giving me a piggyback ride while I napped.

“Nan’va,” his voice boomed in my ear followed by my rear landing on a jagged fallen tree trunk.

“Hecte!” I yelped then recoiled upon opening my eyes and finding my hands clinging to his arms. “Oh...” I let go and took in the new scenery. We were in a clearing looking out over a seedy industrial town. Still no sun but the cloudy sky radiated shades of violet.

I wiped the sleep from my eyes and stretched my legs.

I hope I didn’t drool.

No wait, I hope it did... A Lot.

The tall alien focused on rummaging through his satchel and then retrieved three items. A flat black ring, a little rubber nub, and a black glass tablet.

First, he put the ring around my wrist and tucked it under my long jacket sleeve.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t jewelry.

Next, he held out the nub and pointed to my ear.

Some kind of comms link? How is that useful? I have no idea what he’s saying.

Then he sat next to me and opened a blank window on the tablet and proceeded to draw several lines with arrows ticked at the ends.

“Ga,” he traced the line leading away from us.

“Ta,” his claw followed the line flowing left. “Rit,” He went right. “Wei,” His hand went backward. “U’sl,” He put his palm up with a bit ofomf.

Directions?

He performed the gestures again and repeated the words.

I glanced down at the bracelet on my wrist and the dots aligned into indignation.

“I’m not your pet!” I jolted to my feet and threw the bracelet in the dirt. “And I don’t take commands!”

The alien roared and loomed over me.

“No!” I stomped my foot.

He picked up the bracelet and snapped it back on, this time latching it on tighter and more forcefully.

“Stop it!” I snatched my arm away, fumbling and failing to remove it. I was too tired to care about my safety anymore.

“H’ko!” He barked and then rammed his finger at the diagram of arrows and started railing off the list of commands again.

“If you’re going to teach me words, then start with the ones that explain why you kidnapped me!”

He snarled and squeezed my hand, forcing my crumpled fist along the arrows, “Ga, ta, rit-”

“Repeating yourself isn’t going to change what you did to me!” I let my arm hang limp in his grip. Fighting back physically was pointless.

He let go and thrummed his chest angrily.

“What do you want from me?!” I leaned at him and poked his tablet. “I’m an illustrator, I’ll accept answers in the form of a drawing. Use stick figures, I’ll understand. People refuse to play Pictionary with me.”

I cut off his incoming roar with a vicious glare.

“What do you think I’m going to do?” I swung my arm at the town. “Run down there and call for help or magically escape through that forest and steal your ship?”

He stood there, wordlessly heaving his chest and fully aware that we were trapped inside a stalemate. Then he unclasped his helmet and raked his claws over the worn metal.

“It is not my ship,” he confessed.

My vision went red. “You could speak to me this entire time?!”

“It is not done,” He glowered at me with those stern silver eyes. “My people do not speak to anyone, however knowledge of other languages is a weapon all its own.”

I was trembling, I was soo mad. “Did you steal it, like you stole me?”

“I’m authorized to fly the ship,” he snapped his fangs at me.

“And me?”

“I was tasked with another mission,” he raised his head haughtily. “You were unexpected.”

“Excuse me?” My eyes went wide with sarcasm. “Kidnapping me was just a happy accident?”

“I did not kidnap you!” He lurched at me. “Your world was under attack by an enemy of the Nexus. You were the only life sign remaining. I disobeyed protocol retrieving you!”

“That’s...” I backpedaled, shaking my head. “...not possible.”

“The archive on my father’s ship contains detailed records,” he paced away with his arms crossed. “You may review them when we return the Venom Heart.”

“Why?”How...? He has to be lying... I lowered my head in shock. “Phirsa 3 is a peaceful colony...”

“They are called the Graven,” he turned to me. “The atrocities they commit contain little logic but their primary prey are the weak and vulnerable. My people are at war with them.”

My eyes stung from picturing the astronomical loss of life on Phirsa 3. “Why didn’t you stop them?”

“As I stated,” he growled in frustration. “I was alone and tasked with a different mission. I only happened to catch the tail end of the attack on the sensors by chance.”

“But you didn’t rescue me out of the goodness of your heart,” I scowled.

“No,” the tall alien endured my inquiries a little bit longer. “Such concepts have no place in the Nexus.”

“Why didn’t they kill me?” I hung my head and hugged my arms.

“Unknown,” he stared down at me with his cold silver eyes. “We’ve observed numerous onslaughts similar to the one that occurred to your colony, your survival was an aberration. They avoided your home and only encroached after I landed. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the surrounding terrain and I performed a thorough scan of you in the med bay. Nothing abnormal and you’re not infected.”

Why couldn’t he have just said so back then? Would I have even listened... or would I have done exactly the same thing and tried to run away?

“The Graven,” I bit the inside of my cheek, forcing myself to confront the ugly details. “That creature attacking us was one of them?”

“No,” he shook his white mane. “It was one of four Graven minions tracking us from the colony.”

“Minions?”

“There’s a hierarchy,” he sighed and elaborated with his hands gesturing the height of their rank. “Graven, slayers, guardians, those only manifest as a last resort, and then there are the mindless minions.”

“That moth monster was the lowest rank?!” I had to sit down.

“Yes,” he took a seat next to me on the fallen trunk. “But all of the corrupted are equally dangerous.”

“Where were the other three... minions?”

“I destroyed them before you woke,” his gaze was somewhere off in the distance beyond the town. “But the weapons designed to kill them take significant time to recharge. Had there been five I would have depleted all of the auxiliary power.”

I turned to him. “Were they tracking me or the ship?”

He didn’t respond but I already knew the answer.

“The protocol you broke,” I stammered and strained to look him in the eye. “You were supposed to let me die?”

“The Graven are the source and orchestrators of a sentient contagion,” he explained. “We have personal shields but they’re limited. All of the Nexus has standing orders to observe and record all unintentional encounters. Contact must not be risked.”

“And you risked it...” It wasn’t so much a question but a guilt-ridden lament.

“The consequences are binding,” he exhaled a long breath and brightened his eyes. “What matters now is delivering you to the nearest medical outpost. Our sister clan operates one just beyond this sector.”

“Why?”

“We will know more whe-”

“Why did you risk it?” I interrupted him.

He got up with a snort and clicked his tusks in annoyance. “My mother was taken by them when she was a child and was forced to endure and participate in their barbarism. She eventually broke free but her words about that time stick with me.”

I kept my mouth shut.

“Do nothing and the contagion will spread...” he relinquished this small morsel of personal vexation with disquiet in his eyes. “No matter the species.”

We hovered together in silence for a while until he broke the awkward stillness.

“The market below will be open soon,” he presented the little rubber-nubbed commlink once again. “It’s not safe to remain in this sector.”

I accepted the device from his palm. “Who controls this planet?”

“The Iddrill,” he knelt and rummaged through his satchel again. “In the battle, I had no choice but to eliminate the minions. I couldn’t risk those fuckers locating our nearest jump point. So I led them away and into one of our enemy’s territories as there is already a Graven presence in this star system.”

“How many wars is the Nexus waging?”

“Only the one,” he chittered. “The Iddril are unworthy, but they are openly hostile with my people.”

“So the people in this sector want to kill you,” I inserted the ear comm. “And probably me by proxy.”

“Yes.”

“And how exactly were you planning for us to enter that city with no means of communication?” I sharpened one of my eyebrows at him.

“I would cloak,” he flickered his active camouflage. “You were to follow my directions and misdirect people’s attention while I claimed the supplies that were needed.”

“Hahahaha!” I had to wipe the tears from my eyes, his plan was soo stupid.

“I am fast and I would not have been detected,” he frowned. “I’ve already violated Nexus law. Speaking to you and letting you see me without killing you puts us both in jeopardy. There were limited options. I must repair the ship quickly. The cloaking system is damaged and I require specific materials from this town to fabricate replacement parts.”

He yanked out the cylinder from his satchel. “I brought the portable synthesizer. It will only take a minute or two to print what is necessary.”

Listening to him made the figurative gears in my head grind in agony.

“Since you’re already treading in hot water,” I straighten out my arms. “Am I allowed to know your name?”

“Raven Tide.”

“And how old are you, Raven Tide?”

“Irrelevant,” he reared his head back at the impetuous offense.

“My name is Chyani,” I swung up off the trunk and sauntered up to him. “I’m twenty-six.”

“I am a Blooded member of Jahaa,” he pointed to a three-lined scar on his forehead. “The number of my cycles is trivial, I could participate in the Joust if I desired to.”

I locked my eyes on his.

He fidgeted his mandibles and eventually hissed, “Nineteen cycles.”

Do not scream Chyani...!

“And who issued your original mission?” I strained to keep my voice slow and measured.

Remember, you would be dead or worse if he hadn’t intervened...

“My father,” Raven Tide admitted reluctantly.

I abstained from rolling my eyes.

“And you broke his ship?”

He nodded quietly.

Oh for fuck’s sake!

This is why I gave up on dating and avoided meeting new people!

Hecte gets annoyed that I live alone and never go into town beyond the necessities but people are magnetized to him and never expect him to solve all their problems. I have no idea what that feels like. Even stranded out in the middle of nowhere I’m still getting shunted into the role of a responsible adult!

“Ok,” I let out a long exasperated exhale. “I realize time is against us but now that we’re talking. Let’s take a few minutes to reassess our situation. What materials do we need and what are our options for getting them?”

Raven Tide pinched his tusks together then sat down next to me with his tablet.

I wanted to take hold of that glorious mane of quills and shake his handsome scaley head off but venting was useless.

The only imperative was getting off of this planet.

.

.

.

TRANSLATIONS:

J’uka = Come/Follow

T’kaa= Stay

Gkei’moun’ sui= easy march

Bpi-de ju’amedha= finish your meat

H’ko= no

Nan’va= wake up/time to wake

Ta = Left

Rit= Right

Ga= Forward

Wei= Backward

U’sl= Halt

The Joust = The main event in the yautja mating season. Learn more in The Hunter’s Song.

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