Author's Note: This is the third installment of what I believe will be a novella length story. As I have said in previous notes, this is a story with plot and character development. If you are looking for a quick fix, I suggest looking elsewhere.
In this chapter, Sergeant Liam Carter is faced with new challenges after his decisions in chapter two. Chief among them is what he will do about the predicament he unwittingly created when taking the three jZav'Etch prisoner.
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It was a struggle to get the stretcher to the hollow old tree and the struggle was not complete until Liam and Klat' eil' Da muscled it up to about the middle of the trunk. Once they were where Liam wanted it, they lowered the stretcher to the floor and powered off its impulsers. He took one of his pistols from its holster and held it out to Tem'Ma'tel.
"Take this," he said when she only looked at him. "There are dangerous animals around and I need to take Klat' eil' Da with me to do a little work."
M'pel E'kmel translated what he said. The two jZav'Etch exchanged an uncertain look before Tem'Ma'tel accepted the weapon with a bow of her head. If she was going to shoot him, Liam figured it would be as soon as she had the gun in her hand so he waited a couple of heartbeats before reaching out and switching the safety off. She frowned then smiled very slightly, acknowledging the test with good grace.
"Klat' eil' Da," he said, rising and waved her to follow him. She did with a spring in her step.
"Take now?" she asked happily.
"Work," he said simply.
She huffed out a breath and stumped along behind him. From up the tunnel he heard M'pel E'kmel laugh and say something to Tem'Ma'tel. Liam frowned, feeling he was the butt of a joke he didn't understand.
Outside he located several bushes that would suit his needs and began chopping their branches off with clean swipes of his knife. He bundled them together and turned to Klat' eil' Da.
"I am going to take these inside," he said slowly and tried to gesture in a way that would communicate his intent.
"Take?" she asked eagerly and began to unfasten her fatigues.
"No!" he snapped, closing his eyes. "Work. These. Inside. You use this knife to cut more."
She frowned unhappily and accepted the knife.
"More?" she asked.
"More," he said. He indicated his eyes with two fingers and then turned them out to the forest. "Be careful. Watch for animals."
"I smell," she said confidently. "Take later?"
"Work," he said and stomped off with the branches before she could ask again.
Inside he handed off the task of making sleeping mats to the two wounded jZav'Etch. They quickly understood his intention and set to work.
"Commander," he said before going. "Is there a shorter version of your names I could use instead of saying the full things whenever I talk to you?"
"A shorter version?" she mused.
"For instance," he said. "My name is Liam Carter, but normally my friends and family just call me Liam. Other sergeants normally call me Carter. Other ranks call me Sergeant. Is there any way I could shorten your names without, you know, insulting or offending anyone?"
"I understand," she said and considered. "If you take us, you may give us whatever names you please. Klat' eil' Da would likely accept any name you bestow on her now."
"Commander, I don't know that I can even bring myself to do that," he said tiredly.
"In the case of Tem'Ma'tel, Sergeant, you don't have much choice," she said seriously. "You must attempt Ka' chasck with her. You must make the demand. She will attempt to kill you as soon as she is healed if you do not."
Liam glanced at Tem'Ma'tel. She had stopped work on the beds and was eyeing him suspiciously. Clearly she'd heard her name and the word Ka' chasck. Or was that a phrase? It didn't matter. Tem'Ma'tel did not look relaxed. She was anticipating something. She was tensed, as if readying for action. Liam looked away before his gaze could be interpreted as a threat.
"And will you kill me, Commander?" he asked evenly.
She smiled up at him speculatively, drawing out the moment. Was the atmosphere in the tree getting thick or was that just the tension on his nerves.
"Poor form to inquire before making the demand," she said finally and smiled more broadly, her smoke colored eyes narrowing with amusement. "However, I do not find you objectionable. To learn more you will need to make the demand."
"Wonderful," Liam grumbled, sounding not at all pleased.
"You should also know," she went on, suddenly serious. "Klat' eil' Da may choose to kill you if you continue to put off the event. She has already forgiven you for your earlier insult, but that may not remain the case for much longer."
Liam blinked at her. He turned away shaking his head. His world had gone insane! Insane! And yet... And yet, it could be much worse. Klat' eil' Da was strangely attractive. He had never really considered aliens in that way. Well, except for that one Vespan on Tempest he'd been interested in until he found out it was a male. That had been a long time ago, though, and Vespans, in general, were considered unusually attractive by Humans. There was almost no outward difference in the males and the females or the third sex of their kind, and it was often the case that Humans began relationships without knowing the Vespan's gender until they were in bed together. Rumor had it that no matter which you slept with, the experience was worth any embarrassment that might later arise.
jZav'Etch were nothing like Vespans, but if he were honest with himself, Liam had to admit he found them attractive. Tem'Ma'tel's eyes were striking, almost to the point of being hypnotic. M'pel E'kmel seemed always ready to laugh or at the very least to be amused and he liked a girl with a sense of humor. Both had very feminine and shapely bodies under their fatigues, from what he could see. Tem'Ma'tel was more muscular while M'pel E'kmel had larger...
"What the fuck are you thinking?" he demanded of himself angrily, coming to a stop at the lower opening.
His mind was awhirl with mixed emotions. He wanted to live through the night and he wanted to live long enough to be rescued. And he did not want to live alone for all that time. That would probably make him nuts and he'd have to spend years in a mental ward if he ever got off this planet. But having sex with not one but three aliens? That was not something he had ever even considered. He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath of pleasantly cool air. It was laden with strange scents he had not noticed before and he grew more calm, his muscles relaxing.
Opening his eyes, Liam looked over to where Klat' eil' Da was continuing to cut branches. He noticed the shape of her hips under her fatigues and he noticed the sway of her small breasts, hardly concealed by her fur. She really had nice hips and her rump was appealingly round and firm, both features accented by the slimness of her waist. He thought back to the image of her standing naked and waiting and then he remembered how she had knelt, ready to accept him. Aside from the fur she was kind of sexy, really.
And he caught himself again. He shook his head and looked at her seriously for a long minute, absently enjoying the scents on the air. It passed through his mind that she wouldn't look right without the fur. She was sexier with fur than most of the human women he had met in the last year or so. He looked over his shoulder at the two injured jZav'Etch as they sorted the branches and stretched to lay them over the floor of the tree trunk, their fatigues smoothing out over their taut bodies. Liam decided they wouldn't look right without fur, either.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" he spat softly. He couldn't believe where his mind was going and he was irritated that he'd begun to get an erection. There was work to be finished before it got dark, for crying out loud!
He stomped over to where the little cat was working and gathered up the branches she'd cut. She smiled up at him as he packed them tighter under his arm and he rather unexpectedly smiled down at her. He didn't even realize it until he was starting into the hollow again.
An hour later and the beds had been made. Liam thought they looked more like nests, but the three jZav'Etch seemed fairly pleased with them. He lay down in his experimentally and decided it would do, though he didn't at first understand why it was nearly twice the size of the other three. He frowned when the reason dawned on him.
"Commander," he said, getting to his feet having remembered something important. There was no other reason for him to get out of the nest. No other reason at all. "Is there some ceremony for your dead?"
"There are rites, yes," she said.
"I think it best if we perform those rites and get... I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the captain," he said a little uncomfortably. "There are large predators out there in the forest and if they haven't smelled him yet, I'm sure they soon will."
"I see," she said a little down cast. "You're correct, of course. He died in battle. The proper thing is to burn him. Do you think that would be safe?"
"There's a clearing about a hundred meters from here," Liam told her. "It isn't big, but there is a large stone, almost like a table. We could build a pyre on that. It will take time to collect the wood."
"That would be the best," she said. "Forgive me. I did not think you would observe rites such as these for one of our people."
"Normally it would be somebody else's job," Liam admitted. "Here there's only me and you. It's my duty to see to the needs of my prisoners, within reason."
