Alien Freak - Calista Skye Page 0,17
the floor.
The ship hits the surface at an acute angle, which also helps save us. Even so, the jolt is so hard I black out for a split second while we’re being thrown right back up in the air.
I lose the tension in my limbs and we’re shaken loose. For the next several crashes we’re bouncing around inside the ship, my body hitting every surface and every edge, until I can wedge myself between two consoles.
The ship bounces around for a long time before it comes to rest, right side down but at an angle.
It is very quiet.
Averie is squirming and thrashing in my arms.
I loosen up my muscles, allowing her room to breathe.
She takes a big, wheezing gulp of air as if emerging from a deep dive in water.
I’m relieved. She’s alive, even though I squeezed her hard to keep her in place. If she had gotten away from me during the landing, she would have been tossed around without me to shield her, smashing every bone in her body on the consoles in here.
I leave her on the floor and get to my feet. I’m sore everywhere. If I didn’t break any bones from that landing, it can only mean that Fate has even worse things in mind for me.
The instruments are mostly dead, and the ship is totally silent. Any hope I may have had for a quick launch back into space is dead.
Outside the viewscreen, it’s all a uniform green.
I take Grandmother out of my pocket. “We’re crashed on Brems. Please use your data banks to tell me it’s just as bad as I suspect.”
“Crashed, huh?” Grandmother replies, a little too chipper for my liking. “And on Brems, too. It could have been worse, Zaroc.”
“Yes?” I say, hopeful she has some good news.
“Yes. You could have landed in the middle of the Royal Square on the Gurandu home planet in plain daylight, and then gone out of the ship with a big bullseye painted on your naked body. That’s the only thing that comes to mind that could be worse.”
“You’re a great help,” I grunt. “We were shot down by a Bululg ship. They must have followed us from Earth. Which is no surprise, given the terrible stealth qualities this old heap of trash is designed with. How do we survive here?”
I glance at Averie. She’s still panting, but at least sitting up. Her disarrayed hair makes her as close to irresistible as anyone could be.
“In short, you don’t,” Grandmother replies. “The average life expectancy for an alien on Brems is less than a day. You’re not average, of course, so I’d say maybe double that estimate for you and halve it for the female.”
“Her name is Averie,” I state absentmindedly. “What do people die of here?”
“They die of the Fentrat, of course. One way or the other.”
I frown. There is definitely movement outside. “Could you be more specific? I’ve heard of Brems, but only vaguely of the Fentrat.”
“The Fentrat is the single plant, organism and sentient being that covers all of Brems. It’s just one individual, probably the only one of its species.”
“And it covers the whole planet?”
“I just said that,” Grandmother quips.
I stare out at the green hell. “I saw oceans.”
“Where you see bodies of water, the Fentrat lies underneath. It covers the entire planet. One hundred percent. Trust me on this.”
“How does it kill?”
“It varies. It can tear you apart. It can poison you. It can suffocate you. It can skewer you. It can burn you. It can freeze you. It can strangle you. It can slice you into ribbons. It can slice you in half. It can drown you. It can rip you up. It can dissolve you in acid. It can starve you. It can blow you up from the inside. It can fry you. It can electrocute you. It can make you kill yourself.”
Sweet Fate, this is bad. “Oh, is that all?”
“It is an extremely complex being with clear signs of sentience and a vicious, angry disposition. If you’re lucky, it kills you the second you arrive. If you’re not, it decides to toy with you for a while. And that’s just the Fentrat itself. There are billions of parasites and other beings that thrive under and above it. They are all somewhere between unpleasant and totally deadly. The best way to look at this is that the entire planet wants you dead and will do its best to make it happen. Do you want to know more?”
I’m overwhelmed by