Throwing on his boots in record speed, K’vyn raced down the stairs and headed across the field, followed closely by the mogha. Another hellbat dove by the human ship and his jaw dropped in open astonishment as the molk took both beasts down in the time it took him to cross the popsies. The little varmint appeared to be guarding a chicken that somehow wondered out.
The ramp of the freighter was closed.
C’hase stopped where the ramp would have been resting without so much as a second glance at the molk or the chicken, fingers extending, grasping at what appeared to be a crank. He barked loudly, executing several quick glances between the crank and K’vyn, antennae pointing.
Then it hit him like lightning, Dani’s terror infusing his muscles with adrenaline.
Help is on the way, he called through the bond. Hang on!
Grabbing the crank, he unwound the ramp until there was just enough room for him to jump through the opening.
Once inside, the sound of flapping leathery wings and a hair-raising shriek directed him to Dani’s location.
The human was crouched on the floor, arms flung protectively over her head, eyes squeezed shut. A blaster lay out of reach, apparently ripped from her grasp as the sharp talons of a hellbat snapped around her.
Lunging forward, he pulled the beast from the air by its wings, plunging his knife into the base of its neck as it hit the flooring in a flurry of frenzied movement.
As the hellbat writhed in death throes, he picked the trembling woman up from the floor and carried her out of there.
“Come,” he said. “We must stoke the fire back to life.”
Guilt ate at him. He would not let his guard down again.
Dani couldn’t stop shaking as K’vyn stoked the flames, large log he threw in popping, embers rising high into the sky. Hellbat impaled on a spick, he raked aside several coals to roast it upon.
She had no appetite whatsoever. The encounter with the hellbat was too close. And finding a way into her ship when the ramp was raised—
Another tremble wracked her body.
Warm fur brushed against her leg as C’hase lay at her feet. Reaching down to pat his head, an orange flower opened. She picked it, studying the patterns on the pedals. Something so beautiful was a nice distraction from the ugliness of the attack.
She wanted to thank the little flower for opening in the dark. Come to think of it, she’d seen them open at night quite a bit.
“Popsies only close when there will be wind,” K’vyn’s rumbling voice sounded next to her.
Under the impression he was trying to get her mind off the hellbat, Dani welcomed conversation.
“You call these flowers popsies?’” she said. That didn’t sound like a Korthan word. She’d have thought there would be a harsher term for the orange blossoms.
“Yes,” he said, holding up his left hand. “Because they popsy open.”
Palm up, fingertips pressed together in a cone above it, he spread his fingers from the point.
She smiled, the word combined with the action comical coming from a big bad Korthan warrior who ate hellbats for breakfast.
The expression on his face lit up and she felt warm all over.
“I don’t hate all humans,” he said.
Her eyebrows furrowed. That was abrupt—
“What I mean to say is, I received an elementary education from the Human Colony Alliance,” he amended.
So, K’vyn had been in the exchange program. No wonder he could speak perfect Standard.
“I have a lot of human friends,” he said, pulling a cut of meat from the roasting beast. “But the treaty was simple: Only terraform worlds without life. Breaking that treaty doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Korth started a war,” she said.
“We are not at war,” K’vyn scoffed. “You would know if we were in all-out war.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” Dani said. “What would you call it, then?”
“Conflict.”
“Conflict? You make it sound as if we’re just exchanging punches in a fist fight.”
There were vicious dogfights, space battles, and turf skirmishes on numerous planets.
“Solving our differences with a fist fight would’ve been acceptable,” he said. “Loss of life on both sides is a tragedy we could have avoided.”
“There’s a term for that,” Dani fought from rolling her eyes. “It’s called ‘war.’”
“Korthan farming worlds do not need to be terraformed to support human life. We can co-exist.”
Sensing the truth of that statement, Dani thought of the widespread human belief that Korthan food was poisonous to humans. From experience, that wasn’t true. Why would the Human Colony Alliance actively spread such lies when co-existence was possible?
The otherness that lurked within didn’t comment on that thought, but it was there.
Looking across the dark landscape, then back at the fire, Dani said, “The Earth Council of Habitable Worlds would be interested in this planet.”
K’vyn stiffened. “That’s not amusing.”
“It would not need to be terraformed. Although,” Dani threw a sidelong glance at K’vyn. “Would you miss the hellbats?”
The Korthan bristled. “Hellbats are not the most desirable of creatures, or the tastiest.” He threw a bone in the fire after devouring the meat. “But they are still life. They have a place in the ecosystem of this planet.”
Dani looked at C’hase, who raised his head with an attentive gaze.
“I guess that means he would miss them,” she said, touching her nose to the mogha’s.
K’vyn leveled a measuring gaze, the woman talking about him to her companion as if he wasn’t sitting next to them.
But he wasn’t bitter. The true marvel was how much he tolerated this particular human. He’d have fought his human friends for saying the same things.
Was it the mate bond that made him so accepting? Was it possible to truly have unconditional love?
Judging by the mogha and his all-encompassing devotion to his human Alpha, especially after the mistreatment he suffered from humans—
“How did you find your mogha?” he asked.
A dazzling smile lit up her features as she scratched behind the mogha’s ears.
“C’hase found me,” she said.
“How?”
“I was between cargo runs on Station 12 when he started talking in my head.” Turning towards him, her eyes met his, a slight frown on downturned lips. “He was in a lab.”
Mirroring her frown, he said, “A lab?”
“Yes. He and Hedge were both in there. Basically, I stole them and hid them in a cargo of chickens.”
His heart felt full. A human rescued two Korthan creatures, even if one of them was just vermin.
“I’m supposed to deliver them to Colony 739. They are very expensive. I will lose my license if they don’t make it.”
K’vyn gazed at the dilapidated freighter. “I don’t think you’ll be making that delivery.”
She let out a big sigh. “They’d probably arrest me as soon as I got there anyway. Not my smartest move.” A chuckle. “I honestly don’t even have a plan.”
The red feathered avian rushed passed, followed closely by the molk, and C’hase jumped to his feet, letting out a happy yap before taking off after them.