Somewhere in the blackness, I heard a voice. I felt movement. Why did I feel like I was in a boat? And what were those clunking noises?

At one point, I felt my face leaning against something warm and hard, and I felt comforted by it. I thought I saw someone I knew, looking down at me. The face was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Was it my brother? No. Too pale.

I floated. I saw stars. The vastness of space. I saw some ships approaching mine. The lights came closer and closer. They blended together and swirled and formed patterns in front of my eyes. I laughed. Well, at least I think I did.

The swirling stopped and everything was black again. More floating...

A bright light hit my closed eyes, but I couldn’t move. I tried to put my hand over my eyes, but I couldn’t feel my body. Where was I? What was happening? Why couldn’t I move or open my eyes?

Nothing made sense. But then I felt warmth. I felt safe somehow. And that didn’t make sense.

I drifted back into blackness.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

I slowly became aware that something wasn’t right. This wasn’t my bed. I wasn’t in my ship. And I was lying on something soft.

My eyes shot open and I could see a wooden ceiling above me. The room was warm and dimly lit. My eyes travelled around the space, over the bedside drawers next to me, the dresser with a large mirror and a lantern with the flame turned down low, and a chair near the foot of the bed with an alien sitting in it, tense and alert. And then I remembered what happened.

Maybe I should’ve found the fact that Alien Boy was watching me sleep a bit creepy, but I didn’t. I could understand his need to keep an eye on me. Those strange eyes stared at me and despite the weird colours, I liked them.

I moved my arms and legs slowly, expecting to be tied down. I wasn’t. That was a relief. The fact that he wasn’t pointing that primitive weapon at me again was also a relief, but I suspected that it wasn’t far away. Probably within easy reach.

I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in my head had me groaning and lying back down. The alien jumped up as if he wanted to do something to help me, but stopped himself. I laid there watching the muscles in his arms twitching, warring between caution and helping me. He wore short sleeves, so there was a lot of muscle to look at. I gave myself a mental slap.

Get it together, Lilliana.

I had to focus. Clear my foggy mind. I had to be alert.

I couldn’t believe I’d passed out in front of him. He must’ve carried me to this room. I remembered movement and leaning my face against something warm. His chest?

My cheeks heated.

I felt around under the blankets. I still had my utility belt and it felt like I was still wearing the same clothes as before, but my boots were gone. My chest tightened, but I told myself not to panic. Of course he would’ve taken them off to put me in the bed.

A shiver ran down my spine. What else did he do while I was out? All sorts of horrible scenarios played out in my head and I had to stop thinking like that.

Alien Boy was starting to relax a little, but still stood in the same place, halfway to the bed. I opened my mouth to speak, but my stomach growled again — even louder than before. I was already hungry before my brain decided to shut down on me, and if I didn’t get something to eat soon, it might just eat itself.

He moved over to the dresser and picked up a tray. I couldn’t see what was on it until he brought it closer, speaking softly as he approached. Food of some kind.

The smell was intoxicating. My mouth watered and my stomach gurgled. I tried again to sit up, slowly this time, and managed to inch my way up and lean against the headboard on the wooden bed.

He smiled and brought the tray closer, carefully placing it on my lap. I grabbed it to keep it steady and thanked him, knowing he couldn’t understand, but hoping he would guess what I was saying. It was the first time I’d seen him smile and it was intoxicating. His teeth were straight and white. Maybe the aliens on this rock weren’t as primitive as I’d originally thought.

The food smelled amazing. I hoped that it would taste as good as it smelled and that it wouldn’t make me hurl. That was the last thing I needed.

My head went a bit fuzzy again as I picked up a piece of food. It looked like some kind of fruit. I sniffed it and it smelled good. Really good. I took a bite and savoured the taste as the juice burst into my mouth. So much better than ship’s rations. I hadn’t tasted fresh food for months.

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I ate slowly and carefully, even though my stomach was demanding I just shove it all in. I had to take it easy. The drink he’d given me was nice, too. Sweet. There was only one thing on the tray that I didn’t like, so I left it behind. Alien Boy didn’t seem to mind.

I thanked him again and smiled. He returned the smile as he took the tray away and I couldn’t help noticing how well his pants hugged his butt.

Stop it! Focus! You’re still in danger.

I needed to stop thinking about his muscled body. I had to stay focused.

And I couldn’t keep thinking of him as the alien or Alien Boy. I needed to know his name.

One of those problems couldn’t be fixed, but I could tackle the other.

I put a hand on my chest and said, “Lilliana.”

I pointed at him.

It didn’t take him long to work it out. “Jarath.”

“Jarath,” I repeated. “Lilliana.”

He smiled. “Lilli-ana.”

He might have been primitive, but maybe he was smarter than I’d given him credit for. Maybe we could somehow make this work.

“I thank you for the food and for helping me. I just wish I could get you to my ship so I can get a couple of translator chips.”

His smile faded, and he pointed to my head. Was he asking how my head felt? It had a dull ache and I wished he hadn’t drawn my attention back to it. He pointed at his eyes with two of his fingers and pointed to my head again. He wanted to have a look.

The question was; do I let him?

Another was; could I trust him?

He hadn’t hurt me so far — well, that I knew of. And I had to admit that I wasn’t going to be able to see the wound, let alone treat it by myself. I nodded as I said yes, hoping that he would understand the gesture.

I moved the blankets aside and swung my legs down onto the floor. He stepped closer and leaned over cautiously, but stopped. I looked up; his brows were drawn together. He probably couldn’t see much with my jet-black hair that was probably a matted mess. He’d need a strong light.

“Don’t get upset. I’m just reaching for my torch.”

Slowly, I reached down to the left side of my belt and unclipped my mini torch. He jumped back as if I’d drawn a weapon and I quickly pressed the button and waved it around to show him what it was. The look of relief on his face was almost comical.

He took it from me, looked at it for a few moments, then shone it on my head. It hurt when he moved some of my hair out the way, especially since some of it was stuck to my head, but I stayed silent. I wondered how much blood I’d lost with that injury and the one on my leg.

I needed to know how my leg injury was healing, but since it was a large gash running from my left hip to my knee, I wasn’t about to check it with Alien Boy watching.

A piece of straw fell from my hair and fluttered to the floor. There were probably many more sticking out of it everywhere. I must have looked a sight. I probably looked more primitive than the alien — than Jarath.

He gasped and I cringed. How bad was it?

I didn’t need this. I needed to get out of here. I had to get back to the ship and the medi kit. I had to convince him to take me there somehow. But how?

My head started to feel fuzzy. Well, fuzzier. Like it was reminding me that I wasn’t going anywhere right now. I’d have to recover first, then find the ship. My hand automatically went to my belt. My fingers found the ship’s locator still in place and I blew out a breath.

I managed to sit still while Jarath bathed my head and treated the wound. He put some narrow strips across it to keep the sides together, but I suspected that it needed more than that and I doubted they would stay in place properly with so much hair around the wound. I assumed that he didn’t have anything as advanced as the medical supplies I had stashed in the ship. With the medi kit, I could’ve shown him how to seal up the cut and spray some Skin-Grow on it. But I’d have to settle for what he had to offer.

Once he’d finished, I had to lie down again. The pain was becoming unbearable and I felt sick. I needed the energy that the food gave me, so I couldn’t let myself throw up. Besides, it would be humiliating.

I turned my head to the left as I sunk down onto the pillow. I couldn’t let anything touch that lump now that it was pounding like it had its own heartbeat. Jarath stepped forward and helped me pull the blankets up to my neck. He smiled and I couldn’t help smiling back. I noticed a small dimple made an appearance in his left cheek when he smiled. There wasn’t much difference between our races when it came to little things like that.

I was doing it again. And he’d caught me staring at him. I had to stop myself from groaning.

My whole head pounded along with the lump and I wished I had some painkillers. There was no point asking Jarath for anything. Even if he could understand me, it would be too risky to try to take whatever medicine he might have that was made specifically for his species. It could kill me. So I would have to wait until I could get to the ship — which could be days. I groaned and Jarath stepped forward. I tried to tell him I was okay, but he didn’t back off.

After a while, he relaxed some more. His voice was soft. As he spoke, he put both hands together, palm to palm, and placed them beside his cheek and closed his eyes. He was telling me to go to sleep. Cute. Only, I didn’t know if I could sleep with him watching me. Last time I didn’t have a choice. Now I was nervous.

Jarath moved back slowly and sat in the chair again. He kept his eyes on me. I couldn’t just relax and go to sleep. Not with him staring. And not with me feeling so wide awake and alert.

I suppressed another groan as I realised that I couldn’t lie on my right side because of my head wound and I couldn’t lie on my left because of my leg wound. I just wanted to scream. I hated sleeping on my back. This wasn’t going to work. I couldn’t sleep like this.

A few minutes later, a feeling of total exhaustion swept over me. Maybe I had a concussion. His face faded from view as I faded into sleep.