I could tell by the way he looked at me. He was afraid.

I was totally alien to him. And I guess, he was totally alien to me, too.

His skin was pale. His hair was fairly short and a rich, deep brown. His eyes were mostly brown, with a little black circle in the middle and white around the outside. That was weird. But as far as the shape of his body went, he was okay. Well, maybe more than okay — for an alien. I mean, he was a carbon life form with two arms, two legs, one head, and a whole lot of muscle under those primitive clothes.

He stared at me, his back rigid and his face a mask of forced calm.

This was a dangerous situation. I was on an unknown and possibly hostile planet with an inoperable ship and had been caught red-handed sleeping in this alien’s animals’ quarters. And all I could think about was how well-muscled he was.

I must’ve hit my head a lot harder than I thought. I was losing it. How could I be attracted to an alien? I mean, I didn’t even know if our species were compatible. Agh! Why was I even thinking about this?

Get it together, Lilliana.

This was serious. I needed to focus. What was his next move? One hand held a lantern, but I couldn’t see the other one. He could be hiding a weapon.

I had a laser pistol on one hip and a stunner on the other, but I didn’t want to use either of them if I could help it. I needed this alien, as much as I hated to admit it. There were no other dwellings in the area, and I was cold and hungry and nauseous. I’d eaten the rations I’d brought with me before I’d fallen asleep. There were more in my ship, but I couldn’t limp back there tonight. I might just pass out on the way.

“Greetings,” I put my hands up, palms out. “I am not your enemy.” I wondered if he spoke any of the languages I knew. Probably not. I was way out in the rocks here. I tried a few just in case, with no luck.

His eyes widened and he said something, but I didn’t recognise the dialect. Great.

I took a step forward as my head became fuzzy. “I am peaceful. I need food and warmth.” I mimed putting food in my mouth and rubbed my upper arms to show I was cold.

He responded by showing me the weapon he’d been hiding. Just what I needed.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

I didn’t want to hurt him or scare him off; I just wanted to try to communicate enough to get the things I needed. I moved my hands so that they were slightly raised and away from my body, so he could see that I wasn’t going to try anything. “I don’t mean you any harm, but I cannot let you hurt me. I’m sorry.”

He said something else and pointed the weapon at my chest, which made me look at his chest. It was broad and I could see the muscles bulging a little under the clothing he wore. I cursed under my breath. I was crazy.

I had to try to focus through the fuzziness. How could I remove the weapon without freaking him out? This would take some doing.

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If I knew how it worked, I could disable it. He wasn’t going to show it to me, so I’d have to feel for it.

I reached out with my mind, stretching out invisible tendrils until they reached the weapon.

Huh?

It was so primitive. Just a simple projectile weapon. Easy to fix. I started by teleporting the powdered substance from all of the projectiles inside it to a place on the ground nearby. I really didn’t want the whole thing to explode and blow his hand off. That would be disastrous. And a damn shame. He would be damaged. And I liked looking at him the way he was.

Stop it!

He said something else, but I had to keep my attention on the weapon. I concentrated on the barrel section and focused my mind. I created some heat in the right place, but I had to keep it localised so he wouldn’t feel any heat in his hand.

I relaxed once it was done. I’d fused the projectile to the barrel. It wasn’t going anywhere. He wouldn’t be able to remove it to load any other projectiles into it either. Good.

Now I needed to focus on him. I needed to gain his trust somehow. I slowly reached for my laser and he tensed up, holding the weapon out further from his body. The awkward way he held it told me he was a novice shooter and I could tell he didn’t really want to use it, but he would if he had to. Fair enough.

“Uh…” Words escaped me as I nearly lost my balance.

My head hurt. Using my mind like that wasn’t such a good idea. The dull ache I’d been feeling turned into a full-blown headache of migraine proportions.

I gritted my teeth against the pain, pulled the laser pistol out of its holster and held it by the butt with two fingers. I lowered it to the ground and stepped back. Then I did the same with the stunner. Maybe that would help.

Oh, no. Bending over like that was not a good idea. I fought to stay conscious as I straightened up again.

He seemed pleased that I’d relinquished my weapons and he stepped forward cautiously and picked them up. I managed to smile at him.

How could I make him understand me? My stomach gurgled and growled so loudly and his eyes widened almost comically. I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. Now that I was focused on my hunger, I felt so much worse.

He looked into my eyes and made a hand gesture as if he was eating something. I nodded vigorously, making the same movements. “Yes. I’m very hungry. Can you help?”

I immediately regretted nodding my head like that. My head throbbed even more. This was not good.

I wasn’t sure if I could eat the same food as him. The ship’s computer hadn’t been able to provide enough information about this planet before it died. I knew that it had a similar atmosphere to home and carbon-based lifeforms and a few other details, but not really anything about culture or food or more detailed anatomy.

That got me thinking about the alien’s anatomy again. I was really messed up.

Pain shot up the back of my head. Yep. I must’ve hit it pretty hard. I’d treated my leg injury and not checked out my head. That was a dumb move.

I could just hear Laith now, giving me a lecture on the correct procedures in an emergency. My chest tightened. Did he know I’d crashed?

I gingerly touched the back of my head, toward the right side, and found a large lump. The pain spiked and my legs wobbled a bit. When I pulled my hand away and looked at it, my fingers were covered in blood.

I looked up at the alien; he looked concerned. That was weird. He held a weapon on me and he was worried about me. Go figure.

Wait. Something was wrong. I didn’t feel right. My head tingled. The tingles spread all over. The room tilted and blackness clouded the edges of my vision. This was so not good.

I had no idea what the alien would do to me if I fainted…

Oh… no…

Blackness washed over me.