Drelloc gave a start as she realised that Donner was speaking to her again. She waved a hand and apologised. “My mind was elsewhere, I must apologise and ask that you repeat that. Please.”
Donner cleared his throat and kicked his alien feet in the water a little. “I said that we should probably start heading out soon. We need to make a few more kilometers before nightfall, if you feel able.”
She made an affirmative gesture and he nodded again in return. “I am feeling much better now, I think that as long as we take more frequent breaks I shouldn't have any more issues.” She was a touch embarrassed still, she had been too stubborn to simply ask for him to stop earlier and had nearly paid for it with her life. Her pride was wounded, but she had learned a valuable lesson.
Donner finished the last of his food and stood, she followed suit and he once more looked away. She smiled with her eyes, the skin wrinkling slightly as she was compelled to chuckle. “Well, I guess I will get ready and meet you in the clearing.”
Donner spared her a glance, “Yes. Um.. I will carry the survival pack again, it’s not too heavy. Make sure you refill your water pack from the spring head.” And with that he was gone.
She shook her body off, feeling the heat of the air seep into her skin once more. Even for her species the spring water had been rather cold. She shivered slightly as her body adjusted to the temperature difference by decreasing her heart rate and blood flow. It was then a simple matter of pulling her bodysuit back on over her damp skin. The suit was porous and would allow her to dry underneath it. She didn’t sweat in the same way that humans did, but it was still important for her skin to breathe.
Drelloc put her arms through the sleeves of the bodysuit and sealed it again with the tiny magnetic teeth of its zipper. Once more fully clothed she stepped through the brush and entered the clearing as Donner was finishing packing. He huffed slightly as he lifted their assorted items and his gun before gesturing towards the small hole they had entered from.
“After you, ladies first.” He said and she complied. She didn’t necessarily understand the meaning of the comment, but it was nice that he trusted her enough to take point. Even if only briefly.
She pushed out into the relatively barren rocky landscape outside the small glade oasis and had to shield several eyes from the sun’s harsh glare. She glanced backwards and watched as he exited too. He stepped to her side, much closer than he would likely have done before, and spoke. “We need to make another few kilometers before we are truly in friendly territory.”
Drelloc understood. He was reiterating for her benefit as he was telling her that they had only gone a part of the total distance, they still had a long way to go. She squared her shoulders and took a small drink of her water. The liquid soothing her apprehension almost as much as the look of kindly concern that crossed Donner’s strangely cute alien face.
**********
Donner and Drelloc had been walking for hours now. He made sure that she took regular breaks, even when she raised her arms in protest he made sure she stopped and drank some water. It was funny, he had almost died many more times than he could count. Lived most of his life around dangerous conditions.
Now here he was, in as dangerous a situation as he had ever been in and all he could think about was the health and safety of another. The alien woman was far older than him he had found out while chatting idly with her, he knew that the razah’vool loved long lives. But still, to hear that Drelloc was more than one-hundred standard years older than he was. Well, it had been a bit of a culture shock to admit.
He had at once wondered in his mind why she was acting the way she was then, then part of him remembered that as a transitory species she had probably only been a mature female about as long as he had been alive. It was weird, her species having two distinct biological clocks as opposed to his one. He would probably die of old age before she did even with her already advanced age. It was a surreal feeling.
She was keeping up well though. The frequent breaks combined with the setting sun and slowly cooling temperature had invigorated her he had noticed. They were making better progress and she seemed to be handling the walking a little better.
He heard her pant, “Hold on.. another moment.. Donner.” He stopped and turned to lean against a medium sized boulder. She was hunched a little lower than usual, her arms resting on her body's strange flared hips. The sight made him wonder once more what strange evolutionary path had led to her people having radial symmetry instead of the vastly more common bilateral.
At least she was not entirely dissimilar to him. She had a face of sorts and a head atop a body that seemed to follow at least the basic model of animals he was familiar with. Though he had yet to work up the courage to ask her about her more unknowable anatomy. He was pretty sure she had some version of lungs and gills, and he knew that her people only had a single heart. But aside from that most basic of knowledge he was almost entirely in the dark.
He pulled out his pocket knife and the stick he had cut from one of the trees earlier and began to whittle on it again. It was mainly a way to help pass the time while Drelloc took her little rest breaks, of which she had to do every half kilometer or so. One of the downsides of not being evolved to operate in a purely terrestrial environment. Unlike him. Humans were uniquely suited to extreme endurance it seemed amongst the races of the Union. The vinarfel might be faster, the yeown might have quicker reaction speeds and the slaaveth might be much more adept swimmers, but a fit human could happily keep moving for twenty or more hours without rest or respite. A task that was unique to their evolutionary path as persistence hunters.
He smiled at the thought, the idea that he could eventually outrun any other species in the Union had always been a point of personal pride to him. But until now he hadn't realised just how much farther his own mediocre endurance was over some of the less combat inclined species of the union. From what he had heard, even the powerful gre’vahn required regular breaks to help lower their body temperature when working for longer than two hours at a stretch.
Donner flinched as something landed on his head, causing Drelloc to jerk back as well. He brushed his head and found it was just a driftpod, likely blown about by the wind from a nearby plant. He watched as it was picked back up by the near constant wind and blown away.
He chuckled, prompting Drelloc to ask, “What are you working on by the way? I have been watching you carve that piece of wood and have been wondering its purpose.”
Donner looked down at the unfinished piece in his hands. It looked unimpressive now, but he had a vision in his head of what he wanted the wood to become. Now it was just about using his skills with a blade and some patience to draw out the form hidden within the grain. Looking from the small somewhat squared off chunk of wood to the curious alien he answered in the simplest way he could.
“Well, I grew up in a poor part of the Union. Frontier planet and the like. We didn’t have much in the way of money growing up, me and my three sisters. But our father was a master at carving and whittling. He would make the most fantastic creations using only his imagination and a blade, things that my sisters and I cherished. They were more than simple figurines and toys, they were a pure expression of his love for us.” Donner stated as honestly as he felt he could.
She made another strange gesture, her eyes crinkling in a manner that he was beginning to associate with happiness. “So your father would carve things for you out of wood as a show of love?” He nodded to her. “What a novel concept. As a spawn, my clutch mates would sometimes gather smooth stones from the riverbeds to use in stacking, but never so much for that reason as to see who could stay under the longest and find the best stones.”
She said it almost sadly. He wanted to ask more but checked his assistant. They need to get moving soon or they would never reach the safety of the Union’s forces. As it was, it was going to take at least another day or two before they arrived, and by that point there was every likelihood that they would become discovered.
He sat upright and placed the small token back into his pocket along with the folding knife. He looked up towards the setting sun and gestured towards a nearby hill. “Ok, let’s try and make it to that hill over there and then find a nearby spring to camp at. I really don't want to have to try and stay warm out in the open with no wind cover, done that enough to tell you that it is not an ideal situation.
She made that same old affirmative gesture and bade him to lead on. He did so without hesitation, waiting just a minute for her to catch up and walk by his side. He glanced at her, the shorter alien was keeping pace with him, he had learned that she was a bit slower than his normal walking pace and so had adjusted accordingly so as to not push her too much.
She seemed to hesitate, he could see the muscles that ringed her mouth working slightly as if she were chewing on her words before she spoke them. After another moment of this she finally relented. “I am afraid..” She stopped talking and he could see at least two of her primary eyes focus on him, awaiting his response.
He rolled his head on his neck and tried to think of what she was trying to get at. “Well, that is perfectly natural. You aren't used to this kind of prolonged dangerous activity. So I can well understand that you must not exactly be flourishing in it.” It was a good response, at least he thought so.
She made that gesture for displeasure again and he frowned. “Not exactly what I meant. I was trying to say.. I don't know how to put it.” She stopped again and he slowed slightly.
He looked into her face again and shrugged. “Just say it in the way that works I guess.”
Simpler said than done he was sure, but he wasn’t sure what the point she had been trying to make was and so he had decided that he was going to just wing it and see where they got from there. After all, they were so different. How could he hope to follow the patterns of her strange alien mind.
They walked another dozen meters in silence before she again spoke, “I am afraid that.. I.. we rather. I mean, we might not make it back. At least not in time for the information I have to save lives.” She seemed genuinely concerned about it.
He looked at her again with a realisation. “You know, Drelloc. I don't actually know what it is that's so important about getting you back to headquarters. Is that something I am allowed to know in this situation.. or?”
She made a series of gestures as she seemed to war with her orders. “No, I can't.” He shrugged at her response. That was about what he had been expecting anyways.
He decided not to push the subject further. It seemed to cause her distress just asking about it. He was curious, but not so curious that he had forgotten that she was still a special agent with the UIA and many, many layers above him in the Union’s little military hierarchy.
They walked for a while longer, few words being exchanged in the ever dwindling daylight. The air began to cool subtly as the violent sun sank closer and closer to the horizon. By the time it had begun to reach twilight they had arrived at the small hill he had been aiming to reach and stopped.
Drelloc looked absolutely beat. Her body was slumped and her arms hung limply by her sides. He was impressed that she was even able to still remain standing. Donner looked out into the middle distance. Looking for anything that they might be able to use as shelter in the coming night.
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He saw nothing, no glades, no trees. Not even any large rock outcroppings, at least not any that stood out as obvious. He glanced over at Drelloc, the shorter alien woman was already hunched over slightly from the growing chill. What felt cold to him must have been approaching frigid in her eyes, her higher body temperature adapted to much more stable conditions on a planet whose sun never set. What's more, the wind had begun to pick up as it always did at night. The distant howls sounding like damned souls as the rapidly cooling air whipped over hills and through gulleys.
Donner nodded towards a series of medium sized boulders in the near distance, the apparent rockfall looking as if it had once been some manner of upright stone monolith in its ancient past. It was now cast down upon the face of the land, its shattered form broken and lying in fragments. Half buried in sand and wind blown detritus, there were the scraggly growths of a few windswept bushes that grew from the side he could see. They may just help to provide the cover he was seeking.
“Drelloc, just another hundred meters. Come on, you can do it.” He prompted her. She made a tired gesture and he smiled, not sure the exact meaning. Her body language was clear enough however, she was tired and not exactly in the best of moods. But she understood the importance of setting up camp so they didn’t freeze in the frigid moonless night of the world.
She remained silent as she stumbled along just beside him, he reached out and offered a steadying arm which he was mildly surprised she accepted. Again, she must be very tired indeed. As they walked a little farther she leaned more and more upon him till she was practically clinging to his shoulder by the time they reached the rock pile.
He allowed her to cling for another moment, part of him enjoying her closeness before he nodded and shrugged his shoulder meaningfully. “I understand you are tired Drelloc, but I am going to need that shoulder to set up camp.” He chuckled as she released him with a small grunt.
She moved towards a small clearing in the dust and hunkered to the ground, her round head unable to bend in the same way a human could. Still, she seemed to slump from near exhaustion as he groaned a little and slipped off the survival duffel. The bag landed on the dry ground with a quiet thud, the jangle of metal clinking just apparent over the growing winds. They had water still to last them till they next found a spring, but he was a little worried about her still. She had gone through a lot of water and yet he had not seen her stop to relieve herself. She didn’t sweat as far as he noticed, and so a part of him had to wonder where she was putting all the water. I wasn’t important at the moment, he rubbed the back of his neck and crouched by the duffel.
Donner rummaged around in the pack and grabbed out two of the nutri-bars. He gave a small shout to Drelloc and brandished one of the bars to get her attention. She made an affirmative gesture and he lowballed her one of them which she caught deftly in one of her wide ten-fingered hands. He watched in minor fascination as she opened the wrapping with a single hand, her dual opposable thumbs acting like a pair of conjoined palms in one. And she had four of those miraculous hands, no wonder they said her kind were masters of multitasking.
He shook his head, if he had an extra few pairs of arms he could probably get some major shit done too. He unwrapped his own snackbar and popped one end in his mouth as he pulled out the conservotarp. Unwrapping it carefully he searched around for the best spot to put it up. Nothing stood out immediately as the best or most ideal location and so he wandered a little further towards the base of the once great obelisk.
A few meters later he found it, a cleft in the rock where two massive pieces of the stone had separated, likely upon impact all those years ago. The small void it had left was just wide enough for him to set up the tarp.
Before he did it he paused. Now how was he supposed to keep the shelter suspended above the rocks? He looked around and then came up with an idea. Donner grabbed several rocks and wound some rope around the ends before tossing them up and over the fallen boulders. Now he had something relatively stable to tie the ends off to and he took several minutes to do so in the waning light.
Soon he had set up the tarp, the edges touching the ground and weighted on the corners with smooth stones. He had not wanted to risk tearing the fabric but the wind was beginning to pick up and he knew that it would severely degrade the effectiveness of the shelter if they were constantly battling the wind. It had the negative effect of reducing the already cramped interior space, lowering the headroom slightly.
He didn't think it would matter, but they would find out. Donner stood and walked his way back to where Drelloc had been standing. He looked around and was about to climb one of the nearby rocks to get a better view when the alien came into view.
She hobbled over to him and he raised an eyebrow. “Are you alright?”
Drelloc made a nodding gesture with her hands. “I am fine. I just needed to move around so my muscles would not fully stiffen up. I apologise if I alarmed you Donner.” She said his name again, her tone now much less formal and even a little soft in his mind.
He smiled widely without thinking. It was nice to hear she cared what he thought, he was so used to others not giving him a second thought. Even his squadmates could sometimes be a little distant.
His smile faded as he thought of his murdered friends once again. Those rebel dogs, they didn’t fight with a sense of respect or honor. They were little more than state sanctioned thugs, and he hated them. For all they had done to the Union, for all they had done to him.
He nodded to her instead of falling into that thought trap and turned away quickly so as not to let her see. He wasn't sure if her emotional readings were any better than his. But he would find out soon enough he was sure of it.
He picked up the duffel and bade her to follow. They walked around the other side of the boulder pile to the makeshift shelter and he saw her stiffen. “This is it?” She asked him incredulously.
He shrugged. “It was the best I could do in such short notice. Look, we have to use the conservotarp. It just gets too cold otherwise for either of us to make it through the night comfortably. Maybe at all.”
Donner wasn't really pleased with his own efforts here either, but it was much better than his survival training where he had been forced to sleep on the bare rocks without a covering. Bell hadn’t minded at all, her species cold blooded nature simply making her feel more lethargic. Another pang of self loathing tore through him at the memory of her.
Donner tossed the duffel to the ground near the exit and began to take off his armour, unslinging and setting his gun on the ground just inside the tarp shelter. Drelloc skirted by him and stopped at the entrance, pushing one flap of the tarp aside as she asked, “What are you doing?”
He shrugged out of the heavy outer covering and laid it down atop the survival duffel. He cleared his throat and responded dutifully, “Well, there is not much room inside as it is. I'm removing unnecessary bulk so we can both fit inside.”
She made a small shrugging gesture and then skirted inside. He stretched and rolled his shoulders. He might have much more in the way of endurance than she did, but even he had to admit that he was hurting a bit. He stooped and moved inside, it wasn't nearly as dark as it had been the first night they had set up shelter and so he could still pretty clearly see the woman.
Drelloc was sitting in that same hunched posture she had been in earlier, her small frame shivering slightly in the far corner of the shelter. He could hear the faint chatter of her hooked teeth as she spoke, “Well, c-could I borrow your j-jac-ket again-n, Donner?”
Donner smiled and nodded. “Of course, one second.”
He removed his flack jacket once more and this time simply handed it to her. Drelloc grabbed the garment and with a twirl of her four arms she pulled it around herself, but her shivering did not fully stop. Of course the small shelter had not had the chance to fully warm, even with the two of them inside he found himself a little chilled.
He heard a low moaning from outside and saw the tarp stir fitfully in the growing night winds. The change of the atmosphere from hot to cold with the passing of the sun made for planet raging storms that would wrack the world every few weeks. But in between these superstorms the air was never still, gales and roaring gusts were a constant threat to any trying to survive the harsh wastes of Minasdee.
He felt himself shivering slightly as the cold air pushed through the small gaps in the tarp. He shook his head and cursed internally. Even with the conservotarp it was going to be a long and likely uncomfortable night.
He glanced over towards Drelloc, she was hunched inwards as much as possible and looked as miserable as he felt if not more. An idea popped into his head that he dismissed initially as it was simply too ridiculous to consider. Especially with this woman, she was a Union intelligence agent. Likely one of the more senior types too if her multi car armed escort was to be any indication.
He watched her though as she shivered again and tried to pull the jacket closer. No, it was his duty to protect the woman, and if that meant doing the unthinkable then that was just what he would have to do.
Donner swallowed heavily, not exactly afraid to suggest his newest plan, but instead more afraid of what it would do to his own swirling internal emotions. What if he suggested it and she told him to pound sand? He might lose out on that small amount of trust he had gained with her thus far. But he needed to do something, it was only getting colder. The sun had fully set a little while ago and the last vestiges of light were quickly fading away into nothing.
He nodded and then spoke, his voice a little shaky from nerves and the cold. “Drelloc, I have an idea. It may seem a bit unprofessional at first, but I assure you I am only thinking of your personal well being.”
He paused to gauge her reaction. She simply opened an eye and looked at him, no discernible expression on that alien face of hers as he swallowed again. He liked her, and he had a feeling she liked him too. But what if he was wrong? He decided that it didn't matter what he felt, her safety and security was still his primary mission objective. Nothing had yet changed in that regard.
He pushed through the doubt and laid out his plan. “I know this might sound a bit unorthodox to you as you don't have nearly as much field experience as you may like. But in survival training when it would get really cold, sometimes members of a squad might huddle together for warmth..” he paused again, seeing no major movement from her. Though he did notice an unknown expression cross her face, the wrinkles of her grey skin forming a slightly swirling pattern above her eyes.
He wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing and so he just waited another moment. “I am getting cold too. If we are going to make it through the night with any semblance of warmth I think it may be the only valid option. We have nothing to burn, the wind will pull the heat away from the shelter as fast as we can fill it at this rate.”
She spoke, cutting him off. “And so our only option is to put our two bodies together for warmth?” He nodded to the woman, not sure what she was feeling. He thought she didn't sound too upset by the prospect and a small part of his heart jumped when she raised an arm in an affirmative gesture. “Well then, I suppose if it is our only course of action. Then it must be done, for the good of the mission.” She stood halfway from her seated position and moved towards him slightly, the jacket somewhat forgotten and falling open as her focus seemed to be entirely on him.
She crept closer, Donner’s mind racing as he thought about the actual implications of what he had suggested. He didn't know about her culture at all, for all he knew asking to sleep with somebody in such a manner was tantamount to marriage. He chuckled in his mind as a part of him realised that he was overthinking things. Just do what made sense and ignore the doubts his mind urged him, and he agreed.
Donner sat upright and scooted towards her a little, in a moment they were directly next to each other, so close he could feel the heat that radiated from her. Her strange alien scent was not offensive, instead she smelled strangely of decaying wood. Not rotten, more like mouldering pine or dry rotted cedar, it was not unpleasant. The deep earthy notes of her alien musk almost alluring in a manner he could not fully describe even to himself. She looked into his face, her blood red eyes much more expressive than he had noticed before.
Every twitch of her eyelids and flick of her iris stirred something in his own mind. He felt as though he was truly seeing her for the first time, and she was beautiful.
He coughed slightly and broke eye contact. “So.. um. How do you want to do this.” He put his arms out to the sides a bit. Her body was just dissimilar enough to his own to make the objective unclear. He thought hard, but nothing was coming to him.
She shook two arms in an unknown gesture and then grabbed the front of his shirt with the other two. His eyes widened as she simply pulled him against her. “I assume that we press close together?”
He nodded, his chin about level with her eyes. “Uhhh..” he couldn't think straight. Her body was incredibly warm, like a heated blanket or a smouldering campfire. Her heat seemed to soak into his body where they touched. The two arms that had been gripping his shirt now crawled their way around his back and he shivered slightly at her touch.
“What are you.. doing?” he asked her a bit nervously.
She seemed to pause and then hugged him tighter, her wide round head resting against his chest. “I don't really know.” He heard her breath out heavily, almost like a sigh. “I can hear the beat of your heart. It’s so fast, what does that mean, Donner?” She leaned back slightly as two of her primary eyes focused on him.
Donner swallowed and allowed himself to touch her back. “It means..” He moved his hands from her shoulders to her chest. She had four arms, and so she also had four chests as one might describe them. Her body wasn't soft as he had pictured it. He had gotten to feel her mass when he rescued her, but he had not gotten a chance during the struggle to really think about it. She was full of hard muscle, the dense fibers twitching and shifting beneath the thin layer of her dark bodysuit as he allowed himself to feel her.
She reached up towards his face and seemed to hesitate, Donner felt his breath catch slightly. What was he doing?