Dekkir: An Alien SciFi Romance (Galaxy Alien Warriors #1) Read online

  DEKKIR

  GALAXY ALIEN WARRIORS #1

  Lara LaRue

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  CHAPTER 1 / GRACE

  “All right, Grace, you’ve entered the atmosphere. If you check out your left view-screen, you will notice the main continent coming up quickly. You will need to hit the braking jets in sixty seconds. Just keep calm and get ready to go on my mark.”

  “‘Keep calm,’ he says.” Cradled in the control chair of my dropship, I hovered my hand over the ignition switch, watching the growing broad swath of green and brown landmass through the view-screen. My heart pounded as I waited. This was my first live drop onto Planet Lyra. My instructor, Chief Science Officer John Stirling, had run me through dozens of simulations; by now, I could do them in my sleep. The difference here was none of the simulations could have killed me. “Ready when you are, Dr. Stirling.” I hope.

  “Right, then, here we go. On one. Three . . . two . . . one . . . Go for rockets!”

  I hit the switch and felt my stomach lurch. The red edges on the view-screen retreated as the rockets shook the ship around me, easing my catastrophic drop toward the forested land below. Soon, the dropship’s wings would deploy automatically, and I would be able to fly the rest of the way in. Meanwhile, I had to trust the onboard computers to slow my descent enough that I wouldn’t splatter all over the landscape.

  It was the most nerve-wracking part of the entire descent: twelve long minutes of sitting there doing nothing, hoping all the calculations the programmers had made back at base were correct. I trusted most of my fellow personnel at Command, but that was hard to remember when I was rocketing toward the surface of a foreign planet.

  “Are you still with me, Grace?” Stirling’s voice probed gently, the tiniest touch of concern coloring his tone. John Stirling, the only other human to make contact with the Lyrans, had a talent for putting me at ease. So much so that I had fought a totally inappropriate crush on him for nearly as long as we had been stationed together. Tall, lean, and pale, with white-blond hair and strangely impenetrable blue eyes, he had a velvet voice that soothed me as much as it got my attention.

  “Oh, yes, Doctor, sorry about that. Descent rockets appear to be functioning normally. I’m just waiting for the wings to deploy.” I glanced nervously around the tiny cocoon of a cabin. Had I left any of my needed gear behind? Am I really ready for any of this?

  “All right, then, we’ve got a little bit of time to go over your orders. I’ll be available to coach you if things get tight down there, but remember the Lyrans don’t trust our technology, so it’s best if they don’t see you talking to your earbud too much.”

  That had been the biggest barrier to creating a treaty with the Lyrans: their almost superstitious wariness of our technology. Stirling had warned me that the first two dropships to approach one of their walled towns, known as forts, had been attacked on landing, mistaken for an invasion. Even now, even he had to land well off from any settlements and meet a guide to help him hike to civilization safely. I faced the same as soon as I disembarked.

  “Understood, Doctor. Okay, so I’m supposed to meet this Chief Dekkir once I land, right? The briefing sheets Norcross gave me weren’t very complete.”

  He snorted. “Well, that’s because it came from Damon bloody Norcross. Everything’s need-to-know with him, and in his mind, nobody needs to know. There are reasons I try to get you your data without his added filters, especially now that he has that grudge against you.”

  My lips twisted. Norcross, my immediate superior, was dark-haired and handsome in that plastic way that spoke of a rich family and customized genes. He fancied himself a ladies’ man and had approached me with the most disrespectful case of jungle fever I had ever seen. At this point, I really could go my whole life without ever hearing a white man call me “exotic” again.

  I had politely put him off, citing fraternization laws, while my stomach had churned with disgust. He had sulked ever since and kept doing childish things to trip me up—like supplying incomplete briefings on crucial missions. His hope seemed to be I would go directly to him to be filled in, but I always went to Dr. Stirling instead.

  “Yeah, well, we may be out by the Crab Nebula right now, but Command rules still apply.”

  “Actually, if the lieutenant doesn’t improve his behavior, a little bird may soon whisper in Commander Wickman’s ear.”

  “Thanks for that, Doctor.”

  “Thanks for what?” came the reply, so smoothly I giggled a little. Wow, that’s not professional. I need to do something to get rid of this crush.

  Stirling sobered and went on. “War Chief Dekkir is the high chieftain’s son, Grace, and he is likely to be a little bit brusque until he knows you. They are very suspicious of outsiders, understandable, being that we are the first space-faring race they have ever had contact with.”

  “If I were studying some lost Earth tribe instead, I would expect them to be wary at first as well.” Though all the “lost tribes” of Earth were truly lost now. My home planet was struggling along with massive overpopulation, resource depletion, and air that required breathers anywhere outside. Welcome to the twenty-fourth century, where you have to go off-world to see a real forest. Like the shimmering green canopy below me, growing vaster in my view-screens with every second. I would have marveled at its beauty if I weren’t busy hoping I wouldn’t crash into it.

  I checked the chronometer: eight more minutes. Were the rockets stuttering a little? Could there be a fuel line problem? Is this crate slowing down fast enough?

  “Anyway, I’m trying to figure out what my relationship with this Dekkir guy is going to be and how I should address him.”

  It was standard issue for all personnel working for Earth Military Command to have a universal language translator embedded in their neck just below the ear. The translator automatically interpreted alien language, in addition to converting English to the alien’s native tongue, but I was wary of screwing up such an important introduction.

  “Dekkir will be your guide and guardian while you are on Lyra. He will be responsible not only for your safety and basic needs, but also for any diplomatic situation that may come up. He will help you to connect with whatever goods and services you may need and will advocate for you among the other chiefs. You will live in his household, and if Highfort should be attacked, he is obligated to protect you.”

  “Wow. Okay, well, that’s a lot. Guess I had better be nice to this guy.”

  “To a point. Lyrans tend to appreciate it more if people are assertive and honest with them. ‘Honeyed words often carry poison’ is a rough translation of a local proverb.”

  “They’d really hate Norcross, then.”

  Stirling chuckled. “Yes, I dare say they would. Anyway, just use his title in any formal situation and follow his lead otherwise.”

  “Got it.” I looked back at the rear view-screen, where Lyra’s third moon shone a pale blue-green as it dwindled. The Earth base clung to its surface like a silver blister. That base had been my home for eighteen months, and though I didn’t always like the company, I was going to miss it now that I was about to spend two years as the only human on Lyra.

  I was the daughter of fourt
h-generation soldiers, and though I had gone for a doctorate instead, I still ended up working for Earth Military Command. I had spent my training period at the base eagerly looking forward to my first big assignment: the cultural evaluation of an entire species, which could lead to a possible trade alliance. I was proud to be part of it. But all I could think right now, as I waited for those wings to finally deploy and give me back control of my dropship, was I might be making a huge mistake.

  I tried distracting myself again. “Do you have an image file of Dekkir?”

  “Well, it’s not likely you’ll run into anyone else out there, but I did take a few images during our meetings.” The forward view-screen flickered, and a secondary window popped up, showing an enormous, armored man bent over a stone table as he spoke tensely with a group of others.

  I stared. He was well over two meters tall, with a long, top-knotted mane of white-blond hair and shoulders that could block a doorway. His scaly black armor contrasted with smooth, milk-colored skin that lay over massive muscles. His face was long and strong-featured with large, tilted eyes, pointed ears, and a wide mouth set in a focused line. His eyes caught my attention the most: almost metallic gold with a fierce wildness to them, like the eyes of a raptor-preserve owl. A black, long-bladed spear leaned against the table beside him; he kept one hand on its shaft as he pointed to a map on the table in front of him.

  “All right,” I managed breathlessly. “I don’t think he’s going to be easy to forget.”

  The image flickered out as the doctor chuckled. “Good. Now, once you make landfall, Dekkir should meet up with you within the hour. They are very careful not to leave people out in the wilderness too long. That would essentially be a death sentence, thanks to all of the hostile flora and fauna around.”

  “Yes, I studied up on your ecological reports. I still don’t understand why I can’t bring my rail gun.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about security too much. Dekkir himself will be acting as your bodyguard. Believe me, he is very competent and highly respected.”

  And a total stranger. “That’s fine, but I really would feel better if I were able to protect myself.”

  “I have included a selection of combat blades in your gear.”

  I sighed. Knives . . . against predators that grow to the size of old Earth dinosaurs. “I guess it will have to do. I just wish I understood why the Lyrans are so backward about technology.”

  “Grace. If aliens came to your world, would you be comfortable with them wandering around carrying weapons capable of leveling your cities?”

  “No, of course I wouldn’t. I’ll . . . try to adjust.” And hope I survive. “You’re sure this Dekkir guy is that good?”

  “He’s the war chief for the entire planet. I think he probably knows what he’s doing. Anyway, stay inside the dropship until he arrives. He will probably have some riding beast you’ll have to get used to. Personality-wise, he is honorable and considerate and quite intelligent, but rather hardheaded. Fortunately, he is less so than his father, the high chieftain. I’m afraid that one is going to be a little bit difficult to win over. He is still convinced the humans from the sky are planning to take over his planet. Nor is he alone in this concern.”

  “I hope I can convince the Lyrans that’s not true.” Otherwise, studying their culture was going to involve a lot of tension.

  “You may be successful in convincing them it is not your aim, Grace, but I am afraid convincing Lyrans to trust humans in general may be beyond your power. It certainly was beyond mine. Now that I have been promoted to chief science officer, I’m hoping you’ll be able to otherwise continue my work fairly seamlessly. If we can make a good case to Command for creating this alliance, it will benefit both our worlds.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Just one more thing before you take over the controls again. Do you remember the emergency medical vial I gave you before you left?”

  I reached up into the collar of my pale-gray flight suit, my fingertips finding the narrow steel pendant. “Yes, Doctor, I have it with me. What’s in the vial, anyway?”

  “It’s nanite medicine of my own design. If you find yourself falling dangerously ill or are seriously injured, I want you to take the contents of that pendant. It will likely save your life, so keep it close.”

  “Of course, Doctor.” I’ll just have to make sure none of the locals get too curious about it.

  “Good. Now, you should be getting wing deployment within about thirty seconds.”

  “Got it.” I grabbed for the steering column grips as they popped out automatically. Outside, the wings spread panel by panel to either side of the cockpit. “Okay, deployment’s going clean, but I’m wondering about my velocity right now. It seems a little high.”

  “All right, let’s have a look.” A pause. When he spoke again, the tiniest note of tension had entered his voice. “You’re considerably over the maximum speed for a safe landing. It looks like entry calculations were off.”

  “Oh, thanks, Norcross, you passive-aggressive pig. Okay. Looks like he expects me to work for a clean landing. How do we correct?”

  “Increase the fuel to the braking jets to maximum. It will burn through your reserves, but we can always send another dropship.”

  “Done.” I started flipping switches. “Let me know if my speed gets down enough, or else I’ll have to pull up and circle back.” The forest flashed past beneath me, and I fought hard to keep the dropship’s nose up.

  “You’re in for a bumpy ride. Tighten your crash harness and get ready for it.”

  “Right.” I adjusted my harness. The dropship shook from the efforts of the braking jets as it skimmed above the surface of an algae-greened lake. “I’m coming up on your landing beacon. Can I stop in time?”

  “No. Looks like you’d best pull up and circle back.”

  I opened my mouth to reply, when I saw a massive green shape uncoil from the tree line ahead of me. The only thing I could think of was an octopus tentacle—except it was the size of a building. It reached for the dropship.

  And I let out a quickly cut-off scream as the impact knocked me out.

  CHAPTER 2 / DEKKIR

  I was waiting near the drop site when I smelled the familiar stench of beastvines coming out of dormancy and saw one’s enormous green hunting tendril shoot skyward from its hiding place in the trees. The heavy thud that followed set my hackles on end. I bolted in that direction, knowing my guest was in deep trouble. Get there fast, Dekkir, or you’ll be burying the new human instead of greeting her.

  I had reservations about receiving another human guest, but my father, the high chieftain, had insisted on it. He claimed it was important for me as the future ruler to understand these aliens who inhabited one of our moons now. I knew he had a point, so I stepped forward. Now I regretted it.

  I had no idea what power allowed the humans to live on our moon or allowed them to fly around in those metal crafts. However, I knew their devices could not be infallible. The sound of the collision and the ensuing crash of the vine and its metal prey to the forest floor only confirmed that.

  Beastvines didn’t move very often, since it took a tremendous amount of energy for them to shift their gigantic bulk. When they did, it was a well-timed ambush, usually taking out some large land beast or as many as an entire flock of avians at once. Their skin and leaves were very sticky, helping them keep hold of whatever they slammed into. Unfortunately, that meant my visitor was probably trapped by the vine, no matter how wounded it was. If I did not get to her quickly, either the vine would crush the ship or scavengers would arrive and tear into it. Either way, she would die.

  Spear in hand, I bounded over deadfalls and dashed through a shallow stream on my way to the crash site. I could smell the wounded beastvine up ahead, as easy to follow as a flaming beacon.

  I hadn’t even run more than a minute before I saw part of the damaged vine sprawled out before me. The rotten green stink of it filled my nostrils, and I gagged a
s I hurried toward its far end.

  In over a century as my father’s war chief, I had faced many crises. Battles between villages, plagues, floods, hundreds of predator attacks. I had met all these challenges with distinction. I did not intend to do any less for this stranger, even if she were from a completely alien race. It was a matter of honor and pride as well.

  Finally, I saw the gleam of crumpled metal up ahead and slowed down to take in the wreckage. The craft was very small compared to the one the doctor had used. It looked barely larger than a two-man handcart. The rear portion had ruptured, spilling a tangle of strange tubes and blocky instruments down the length of the vine, where it leaned against the splintered trunk of a massive tree. A sharp scent cut through the beastvine stink, and I saw amber liquid drizzling from the vehicle’s rear.

  Collapsing the shaft of my spear to a short grip, I dug the blade into the side of the tree, pulling myself upward and then using the deep notches it left as footholds. Eventually, I reached some of the remaining branches and pulled myself onto them. Above me, I could see through the windows of the strange craft; I felt a surge of relief as I noticed someone moving around inside. The impact had shattered some of the windows, allowing me to hear the person talking as she tried to salvage what she could from that small chamber. I listened closely. The alien female was speaking fluent Lyran. I’d learned from the doctor that their strange human technology automatically deciphered their speech to Lyran and my words to their alien tongue.

  “No, Doctor, thanks to the harness, I’m only bruised, but I’m halfway up a giant tree, the vine’s still wrapped around the ship, and I think we’re leaking fuel. I’m trying to salvage what I can of my gear.” She paused, bending over next to one of the two throne-like seats, and I peered in to get a better look at her. She was small and fetchingly curvy, with dark-brown skin and fluffy jet-black hair. Even in bad circumstances, I had to admit this alien female was really quite beautiful.