Caveman Alien's Secret: A SciFi Alien Fated Mates Romance (Caveman Aliens Book 6) Read online

  Sophia adds a piece of wood to the fire. “Electrical light and heat. Coffee. Books. Tacos. Beer. Disposable diapers and wipes. But yeah, it’s not a totally bad tradeoff. This is neither here nor there, but when I see my reflection in the bottom of a cup, my skin is clearer than it ever was back home.”

  “The whites of my eyes are whiter,” I say slowly. “Before, they were always bloodshot. I can walk for hours in the jungle without getting tired. I have a home and friends. Actual, real friends that I depend on to stay alive. This is how mankind lived for a thousand generations. In close-knit tribes with zero modern conveniences. It’s how we’re made to live, and I’m starting to feel it.”

  “We’re slowly finding our way back to it,” Aurora yawns. “But yeah, coffee would be nice. Like, right now. You’re an army brat, right, Delyah? So you moved around a lot when you were a kid?”

  “A whole freaking lot. New school every damn year. But it’s okay. My dad got his full bird in the end, so it must have been worth it.”

  Sophia and Alice come back out. “Delyah, you want to check on Emilia? Looks like the action is starting. Okay, Alice, bye bye. Come back anytime.”

  The gray ghost bounces contentedly off to the edge of the jungle, there she joins up with another, similar shadow that must have been there the whole time, but which was keeping so still I didn’t see it.

  “Yeah, she won’t be back for a while,” Heidi says. “Looks like she’s got a boyfriend now. Yeah, you go, girl! Get that alien monkey D.”

  The two creatures bounce over our fence like it isn’t even there and disappear into the dark jungle.

  I get to my feet. “If she gets pregnant, she’s on her own. Okay, time to deliver another member of our tribe.”

  I walk into the cave with Sophia in tow, not feeling nearly as confident as I try to look. I’m trembling on the inside. But the girls elected me their leader, and I’ll act the part as long as I have to. Like my dad said, a real leader puts herself first in the line of fire and last in the line for chow.

  Hey, it worked for him.

  - - -

  The birth takes all of ten minutes, and Trak’zor’s miracle gel isn’t even needed before Emilia and Ar’ox have their new daughter in their arms. I wait a few minutes, snip the umbilical, and then we wash our hands and we’re done.

  Sophia raises her eyebrows and squeezes my wrist. “That was easy. I should be envious after my own near-disaster, but fuck it. I love this. The fewer difficult births we have to deal with, the better.”

  I grin with relief. “Tell me about it.”

  “Delyah,” Emilia says from her heap of soft furs, her face pale. “Sophia. Trak’zor. Thank you all so much.”

  Sophia walks over and kisses the new mother on the forehead. “Anytime. We all got each other’s backs here. You know that.”

  The child will be called Ariana Carol, in honor of her father and Caroline, who helped kill Troga the dragon and so saved us all from a pretty bad fate.

  Caroline weeps like a baby when she hears it, and that’s as it should be.

  “All girls born here so far,” I ponder as we walk back out of the cave and meet the rest of the girls, on their way in to greet the new chick. “It’s like the planet wants to catch up after only having boy babies for a century. Probably a coincidence. There’s only been two births.”

  “Probably,” Sophia says. “But this planet is so weird, I don’t really know what to think. About anything. Least of all that shit right there. Yeah yeah, huge mountain that dominates the landscape. We see you.”

  Bune is doing its light show again, and again I demonstratively turn my back to the spectacular display of alien high-tech on this jurassic planet. “We’ll find out. I’ll get a couple of hours’ sleep, and then I’m going there. With a crossbow and twenty arrows. It looks so much like a signal, and I can’t help but think it just might be for us.”

  “Can’t you bring someone? I hate thinking of you alone up there.”

  I shrug. “All you girls are either pregnant or new mothers. The new girls are not in any shape to go to Bune. And I’m not bringing one of your cavemen.”

  “Borrow Heidi’s dactyl to ride on?”

  Just thinking of that freaking monster sends a cold shiver down my spine. “No chance. Just no.”

  “She or Dar’ax will fly you there. And back again.”

  I think about it. “I don’t want to spook anyone who might be there. I’m just going there to see if there’s a reason for this ridiculous look-at-me-I’m-a-giant-spaceship behavior. Okay, he can take me part of the way there. But the last couple of miles I’ll walk on my own.”

  She squeezes my arm again. “I guess that’s the best I can get you to agree to. Never met a more stubborn chick than you. Okay, I’ll make you a packed lunch. And you’ll bring a good crossbow. And the bolts with iron tips. And you’ll wear armor. And also, you’ll promise that you won’t be abducted. It freaks me out when a girl is gone for weeks and weeks with no sign of life.”

  “Yes, mommy.”

  She slaps my shoulder. “Hey, I can be motherly if I want. I’ll have you know I actually have a kid now. If you don’t watch it I’ll show you my sore nipples to prove it.”

  I chuckle. I’ve hardly ever had friends I knew well enough to joke with like this. “Fine, you can mother me. This once. I actually kind of like it.”

  “You better,” Sophia says. “On the Pleasures of Mothering Girls Your Own Age Who Don’t Need Mothering at All: A Super Short Essay.”

  The light show settles down, and as my eyes get used to the darkness I can see that there’s a slightly brighter stripe on the horizon. Daylight is only a few hours away.

  Sophia is still holding onto my arm. “Delyah. I know you want that old spaceship to be our way home to Earth. We all want that. But don’t risk your life for this. Not alone. In just a few weeks from now, we can all go up there and raise some hell. Armed to the teeth. Like we talked about.”

  I squeeze her back. “I won’t take any unnecessary risks up there. Think I want to give Bune the satisfaction? I’ll go up there, see what’s going on and then come straight home.”

  A thin little cry reaches us from one of the wooden huts we’ve built for the twelve new girls, the ’dragon girls’, and which is housing some of the old ones just for tonight.

  “That sounds like my boss,” Sophia sighs. “Ready for her first meal of the day. And it’s like she won’t even consider just fixing herself a sandwich. I mean, seriously? Yeah, I’m coming, you spoiled little princess. Pray for my nipples, Delyah.”

  She walks across the yard, and I follow her easy, happy gait with my eyes until she’s inside the hut, safe at home with her husband and baby.

  I wipe some sudden moisture off my face.

  Sophia will never see Earth again.

  2

  - Delyah -

  “Oh, just kill me now,” I hiss with my eyes clenched shut.

  I was never a fan of the not-dactyls in the first place, and riding on one is as close to triggering a panic attack as I ever want to get.

  The flying horror moves underneath me like a gigantic snake as it beats the air with bat-like wings. I’m not looking, but I know from the wind in my face that we’re high up and moving fast. The rancid smell of the giant dinosaur doesn’t help, either.

  But it’s a mercifully short flight, and soon the dactyl is beating its wings fast as it lands clumsily in a clearing halfway up the side of Bune.

  “What? You okay there?” Heidi asks as she takes my hand and helps me off the monster’s back. She insisted that she fly me here, pregnant or not.

  “I hope so,” I reply, feeling firm ground under my feet again and trying to stand straight on trembling knees.

  “Cool. You got everything? Crossbow, bolts, armor plates, food?”

  I do a quick check. My sharp little knife is in my pack, and I’ve also brought the translation device, just in case this spaceship contains someone who doesn’t speak English or cavemanes
e. “Uh-huh. Looks good.”

  She hugs me. “Don’t stay too long, okay? We need you.”

  “We need all of us,” I counter and hug her back.

  “If you’re not back in three days, I’ll start flying around to look for you.”

  “Deal.”

  She keeps hold of my hand, forcing me to look her in the eye. “Don’t take any risks, Delyah. I don’t think you’ve told us the full story about why you’re going to Bune. It’s okay, you have your reasons. But I sometimes think you’re putting too much of a load on your own shoulders.”

  I look away. Am I that easy to read? “I’ll be as safe as I can.”

  She hugs me, then climbs back on her monster with cautious confidence and takes off. She circles once to check my surroundings for dangers she can warn me of, and then sets a course back to the cave. The dactyl’s giant bat wings flap calmly as it rises.

  I’m alone in the jungle, and I don’t mind it too much. I’ve been alone many times before. It holds no anxiety for me.

  I walk up the hill. The crossbow is heavy, but it’s the best weapon we have except for the gun, which has been out of ammo for months. Aurora has a very fancy crossbow with the bow itself made from high quality steel, and mine is the best our cavemen can come up with. But they’re clear about it not being nearly as good as Aurora’s. The bolts are good, though. They’re forged and hammered to a dull sheen.

  The “armor” is something that we came up with after seeing how thin the cavemen could hammer the iron they make. It’s just about the thickness of five sheets of paper, but we think it will repel arrows, most spears and probably a good amount of dinosaur teeth and tentacles. Despite the thinness it gets heavy fast, so I’m only wearing plates over my heart and lungs on front and back, supported by a dinosaur skin harness. I’ve experimented with helmets and even classic medieval chainmail, but it’s hard and time consuming to make. I suppose my plates are better than nothing. After today I think I’ll know if it’s too heavy to use, but we’ll see.

  Some of the girls don’t approve of spending a lot of time making weapons and armor, and I see their point. We don’t want to bring Earth’s obsession with war to this planet. On the other hand, the violence was here already. We didn’t bring it.

  I walk up the side of Bune, taking a mental note of all the features that indicate that it’s really a spaceship. Now that I know what it is, it’s easy to see that underneath the loose rocks and gravel and the thick layer of organic material, it’s not a mountain at all. And the top layer of rotten leaves and animal remains is thin enough to confirm that this spaceship has only been here for a hundred years. It’s not as ancient as we thought.

  The morning is still cool, and the dew is dripping onto me from the treetops. No dinos seen so far, which is fine with me. I’m not that eager to put the armor to the test.

  I’ve never been on this exact spot of Bune before, and it’s steeper than the other sides I’ve seen. From here it should just about be possible to see Caroline and Xark’on’s treehouse, where they’re probably waking up right about now to one of the last days of their honeymoon.

  I turn around to try to spot it, but while the view from up here is impressive, none of the trees I can see are throwing a shadow long enough to be that particular giant.

  “Have fun, guys,” I whisper anyway. I always liked Caroline. She’s almost as quiet as me.

  And now she’s pregnant with her caveman, married and everything. She’s happy, and I’m happy for her.

  I keep walking up the hill.

  I’m the last of the old girls who’s not married, and I don’t mind that. Being picked last is something I’m used to, and it doesn’t bother me. When I was a kid and didn’t know anyone in class, it would sting. Then it became routine, and I just buried myself in my books. Because it turns out that for an introvert who could be somewhere on the Aspie spectrum, changing schools at least once a year isn’t the best thing for social skills development. Why even try when I would have new classmates next year anyway?

  To make matters worse, I have a near-photographic memory of things I read. So after a month or so, the teachers would realize that this Coleman girl is so far ahead of all the others that she really should get special treatment. That meant more advanced math books. More semi-concerned attention from teachers who were puzzled to have a student who would just sit quietly in a corner, trying to be invisible, and then ace every test.

  At least I had my pick of colleges after that. Not top-shelf Ivy League ones, because extra-curricular stuff and me didn’t really go together, but solid middle-of-the-pack colleges.

  So I don’t envy the girls who are married to cavemen. I know who I am. I’m different. Always the odd one out. I never expected to find a caveman for me.

  I see the appeal, though. I absolutely do. They’re huge and strong as fuck and protective and cheerful and kind. And pretty bright, compared to some of the guys I knew back on Earth. I sometimes dream of having one of my own, and he’ll easily scoop my heavy frame into his arms and rock me like a baby and hold me tight and then fuck me silly.

  Whatever. I don’t actually want one. Because if I fall for one, that’s the end of my hope of going back to Earth. And that’s all I want in the world right now.

  I stop and just listen for a while. Some dinos will try to sneak up on you, but they’re all pretty big and will have trouble stopping short when I stop moving.

  I hear nothing, just the usual hum from the dense, explosively alive jungle all around me. I’m used to it now, and I’m pretty sure I can separate important noises from the background.

  Except cavemen. They are silent in the woods. And after the spectacle of light last night, I’m pretty sure some of them are on their way here, just like me. This mountain is sacred to them. They think their Ancestors live here. And a laser show has to mean something special.

  That’s why I’m here so early. If that was a signal meant for us girls, then I want to get there first and check it out before the whole mountain is crawling with prehistoric aliens.

  When I get to the top I still can’t see Caroline’s treehouse, but that’s fine. I hope she’s enjoying herself, watching her husband paint those sensational pictures.

  Now I’m looking more up than to the sides. This is a favorite place for dactyls to come and attack anything that moves.

  I locate the remains of the alien cargo container that we were dropped in. It’s just an overgrown heap of shining metal now, torn and broken. If I didn’t know it was there, I would never have spotted it. That’s how fast this planet covers things up.

  I locate Alesya’s grave, which is a little pile of rocks where nothing grows. I pick a blue flower and put it down, before I take a little moment to remember the quiet Russian girl that the evil Plood killed as punishment for us trying to hijack their abduction saucer.

  I suppose I should shed a tear for her, but all I can do is frown and scratch my head. Something has changed around here. Something important. Her grave feels like it’s been disturbed. But the rocks we piled on it still look the same. It’s weird.

  Then I stand still.

  “Okay, I’m here,” I mutter. “You want something from me, this is the time. Not going to hang around.”

  The only response is a mild breeze that makes the leaves rustle above me.

  Saying I’m going to Bune alone is pretty easy. No big deal, just a short hike. Actually being here, on top of a gigantic alien spaceship controlled by some entity that I don’t think has anything good in store for me, is something else. The silence takes on a creepy note, and I’m starting to feel jumpy.

  I ready a bolt in the crossbow, just in case.

  I stand there, looking up and around, until I get itchy with the inactivity.

  Nothing appears to be happening.

  Well, now that I’m here I can do some reconnaissance for the big attack we’re planning. My original plan was to attack the only entrance to the spaceship we know of, where we’ve been before and wh
ere Aurora found the weird medical stuff.

  But now I think I can find another, better place to attack. An unexpected place. Like the place that dragon came from, the one that Caroline tricked and rid us of. I can actually walk around the mountain, about halfway up the side, and get a decent impression of the ship and any weak points there might be—

  “Reeeee!”

  A terrible screech rips through the air, and I instinctively throw myself down on the ground, my heartbeat suddenly like thunder in my ears. That was a dactyl, and it was close.

  There’s nothing I fear more than dactyls. Heidi’s tame one is bad enough. But these wild ones that swoop down from the sky to catch you in their long, toothed beaks or their huge talons just about freeze me solid. I’m glad this one announced itself before I’d feel it snapping me in half.

  The smell of the dirt and the grass is in my nose, and I twist my head to peer up. Yep, it’s there, a large, black shape circling over the treetops. I think it’s seen me, but I’m not sure. I’ve carefully tried to make my dinosaur skin skirt and shirt look like the vegetation, with a greenish color with crimson parts, but I don’t know how well it works. The iron plates of my armor have been dulled with sand and plant juice, so shouldn’t give off any reflections.

  The dactyl turns in a long, lazy circle, and now I’m pretty sure it didn’t see me.

  But it could spot me at any moment.

  I look around quickly. The nearest cover is a bush teen feet away. It looks like it has thorns, but it also looks dense enough to shield me from the eyes of that monster dino up there. Beggars can’t be too picky.

  Holding onto my crossbow, I quickly crawl over to the bush and roll in under it, facing up so I can see what happens up there. I slowly raise my crossbow and aim it straight up between the twigs of the bush, trying to ignore the spikes that are trying to pierce me in several places, especially my butt. I think I must be lying on several thorny branches, and I’d love to change my position. But the dactyl up there is flying in this direction again, and I think they’re more sensitive to movement than to things that might look out of place. Like a big-bootied linguistics student staring up and aiming a crossbow through a bush.