BELOVED ENEMY

By

Janet Miller

© copyright July 2005, Janet Miller

Cover art by Eliza Black, © copyright July 2005

ISBN 1-58608-593-X

New Concepts Publishing

Lake Park, GA 31636

www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

Chapter One

In the dark of her bunk Lieutenant Meagan An Flena was startled awake. Among the hushed noises, deep breathing and snores of the hundred sleeping bodies in the Hemingway’s pilot’s quarters, there’d been a sound unusual enough to disturb her much needed slumber. Opening her eyes, Mea waited for it to repeat.

There it was again. From a nearby sleeping cubicle came a sharp male gasp. Mea tensed, hoping it wouldn’t be something she’d need to deal with. As senior pilot she’d have to interfere if there was a problem.

The gasp repeated, then was followed by a woman’s moan, the sound mingling with masculine heavy breathing. A bunk began to creak in a rhythmic fashion.

A woman’s voice whispered, “Oh, yes.”

A man answered her just as quietly, “Yeah.”

Mea relaxed back onto her pillow and allowed herself a smile. Just a pair of pilots bunking, and, from the sound of things, the act was consensual. No reason for her to get involved.

Nothing to see here, folks, nothing to hear--pay no attention to the couple behind the curtains!

The creaking sound increased, and ruefully Mea stared at the flimsy walls around her. Thin fabric partitions were all that separated the lovers from her quarters. The sounds grew and the bed noises picked up. Must be new recruits she decided, or it was their first time. For a moment she tried to guess who it was.

Anders and Alvenes? No, neither of them bunked close enough for her to hear them.

Shelton and one of her many admirers? Not likely--her bunk was two partitions further down and Shelton had perfected the art of silent passion.

Mea couldn’t help her rueful grin. Whoever it was would know better after the ribbing they’d take the next wake period from the rest of the pilots. In Earthforce, with its cramped and communal accommodations, you quickly learned how to share a bunk without making noise--or you stopped bunking, whichever seemed the best solution.

That was one of the reasons she’d quit. To the chagrin of her would-be lovers, Mea couldn’t help making noise. After being shushed in the middle of an orgasm one too many times, she’d pushed her last bunk partner onto the floor and told him to take off.

Not that there had been that many partners in the first place. Short and with a tendency for plumpness, Mea just didn’t fit the mold of military femme fatale, and she’d lost interest in the few males who’d looked in her direction.

A muffled male cry and the noises stopped. For a moment there was only slightly harder than normal breathing, then a low feminine chuckle. Soft murmurs began, intimate ones. Mea couldn’t make out words, but the tone was unmistakable. It had been good for both of them.

Mea couldn’t help a small surge of envy. Of all bunking behavior it was the post-sex closeness she missed the most. Unfortunately only a few of her former sex partners had been into cuddling, preferring to say “thanks” and return to their own beds as soon as possible. Another reason for the six months it had been since her last time alone with a man.

Or was it nine months now? She thought about it for a moment. Could it have been a year? Perhaps. It wasn’t like she was keeping track. Truth was she had better things to do with her bunk time than have sex.

Stretching out, she tried to go back to sleep. Earthforce motto number one--rest while you can, you never knew when it would get interrupted....

And just then blaring sirens and flashing lights eliminated any possibility of further slumber. With a groan Mea hit the deck, trying to ignore the harsh voice sounding though the speakers in the low ceiling overhead--“Battlestations, battlestations. Pilots to your ships!”

Mea grabbed her clothes from the locker. No need to change the non-regulation skivvies that she’d slept in. These were fresh, donned just before climbing into bed.

Earthforce motto number two--you never knew when you were going to need to dress fast. She quickly pulled on her dark grey uniform pants and lighter grey shirt, and pushed her feet into the nearly-black boots.

Grey, grey, and more grey. Mea stifled a sigh over Earthforce’s imposed wardrobe. Growing up in a Traveler enclave, she’d only worn bright colors for the first fifteen years of her life, and she missed them. When she got out of the military, she swore she’d never wear grey again.

In fact only one thing kept her in an Earthforce grey uniform--the small fighter jet she called her own, her sweet little Starbird. A call to action meant she would be flying soon.

Suddenly eager for her ship, Mea grabbed her jacket and the tight-fitting black cap that kept her hair in place under her helmet. She slammed it down over her regulation closely shorn hair. Another thing that she’d do after leaving the service would be to grow her hair back, at least to the point where she needed a comb to take care of it.

Footsteps pounded the deck as she pulled aside her curtain and joined the rush of pilots pouring out of their sleeping quarters and into the short corridor that took them to the Hemingway’s launch bays.

Murchenson and Deek ran side-by-side along the hall, and Mea had to smile as she fell behind them. She could swear that Deek was wearing Murchenson’s pants and vice-versa. The short length of his pants revealed too much of his boots, while hers pooled around her ankles. An understandable mistake if you happened to jump out of bed and grabbed the first pair of pants you found.

So Murchenson and Deek was the couple making the noise. About time. They’d been sniffing around each other for at least two months. As she watched, their hands found each other for a brief clasp before entering the bay where their ships were docked. Neither spoke, but both seemed to be wishing the other good luck.

Once again Mea couldn’t help her pang of envy. That was what hurt the most about her position in Earthforce. She missed wearing bright colors and having her hair long, but most of all she missed being close to someone. It wasn’t just her inability to keep from making noise that kept her celibate. If bunking had given her someone to care about she’d still be doing it even if she had to put a bootliner in her mouth to keep herself quiet.

But she cared for no one. Her family was dead except for her brother Jack, and the rest of her people were scattered throughout the galaxy. Once she’d had an entire tribe, but Mea didn’t belong to anyone anymore.

Well, except for Earthforce. After the demolition of her people the military had tried to take their place, but even though Earthforce had given her some semblance of freedom, allowed her to fly and gave structure to her life, Mea found she couldn’t give them the feelings she’d once held for her tribe. Only the oath she’d taken to serve them kept her loyal … particularly in a war they clearly had no business fighting.

She pushed past the others and headed for her single-pilot ship with its distinctive wedge shape. The cockpit nose seemed tiny compared to the size of the massive engines at the rear of the ship, but pride filled her at the power of those engines. A Starbird was the most maneuverable of Earthforce fighters, able to turn in the blink of an eye, and fly well in both space and in atmosphere--or so she’d heard. She’d never actually been in atmosphere with her ship, but someday she hoped to be able to remedy that.

As a senior pilot with multiple years in Earthforce, Mea had been able to personalize her ship, adding a set of three overlapping blue-green rings to the tail section. When she passed, she took a moment to give the bottom edge of the lower ring a caress for luck.

Mea climbed the four meters of retractable ladder and jumped into the pilot’s seat. She grabbed her helmet and cinched it tight before sliding the cockpit closed. In front of her was a long line of similar small fighters, pilots scrambling inside, hatches closing in readiness for launch.

There was hurry but no panic in their movements. This wasn’t a drill, nor the first time they’d done this. After four years of war they’d practiced it a lot. Mea knew that every pilot had followed the same procedure. It was almost routine--even knowing that the Gaians were most likely already out there, waiting for them.

The Gaians, with advanced technology that made them invisible until they wanted to be seen, always seemed to be waiting for them.

Mea tensed as one by one the ships in front of her were caught by the catapult and sent screaming into space. The ship next to her went, and then it was her turn. She resisted a jubilant whoop as the force pushed her against her seat and though the narrow launch tube. No point in amusing the communications officers listening in. A final rush of speed and she was floating in black space, the Hemingway a motionless mass behind her.

In the far distance was the Gaian battlecruiser. At first it was just a dot in the distance, then it seemed to jump much closer. Mea checked her instrument panel. It wasn’t quite in firing distance yet.

As soon as she knew she was clear, Mea fired her engines and maneuvered into position between her mother ship and the Gaians. Her job was to keep their battlecruiser from firing its disabling ray until the Hemingway could hit it with its massive p-beam cannons.

The Gaians hardly ever used deadly force and would be reluctant to simply fire on Mea and her fellow pilots to clear them away. Instead they sent small ships after them to harry them out of the way. She’d done this before, run interference by weaving in the space between the ships, engaging the battlecruiser’s small ships in an outer space version of a flying dogfight.

The Gaians tried to avoid hitting her ship, but Mea had no such orders and could shoot the enemy. Her hands clenched over the controls for her laser guns. Now all she had to do was wait for an enemy fighter to come close enough.

She didn’t have to wait long.

The Gaian fighter seemed to come out of nowhere and streaked over Mea’s tiny Starbird fighter like a shooting star. Startled, she stared after it through her clear plastisteel canopy. The Gaian had flown so close she could read the pilot’s mark of ownership on the ship’s tail.

Grimly Mea stared at the three distinctive green stripes, running parallel to each other and set at an angle across the vertical fin. Cheeky bastard to fly that close. He shot away from her, wagging that green striped tail of his as if daring her to follow. Obviously he intended to draw her fire and make her chase him out of the battlefield.

Mea jerked her control stick to one side and slid away from his ship, her movement signaling her squadron mates to spread out. The rest of the tiny ships scattered into a random pattern, intended to hamper the Gaians as much as possible and keep the enemy’s battlecruiser and its paralyzing beam away.

Mea turned her ship, first to the left, then the right, using her weapons in short bursts. Her green striped nemesis jerked away, leaving her with a clear view of the enemy’s battlecruiser. The powerful ship filled her view, its massive bay releasing another wave of fighters in her direction.

Fortunately smaller ships like Mea’s were too small for the Gaians’ favorite weapons and so could run interference. Mea had heard one hypothesis that the ray would work but knocked out all life-support, and so in a small ship the pilot would die before rescue. Apparently the life-loving Gaians would rather take hits from the Earth fighters than deliberately kill an enemy pilot.

Mea wasn’t so sure she believed that, but as the green-striped fighter returned she didn’t have time to think about it. He used his ship to block her path. Unable to use her weapons at such short range, she dodged him by moving into a spiral turn that took her over and around his ship. Through his translucent canopy she could see a wide grin on his face as she swept past him, back to her place in front of her destroyer.

This was a lot like playing space battle games with her brother back on the old mining platform where they’d grown up. They’d used old one-man space scooters armed with tracers, pretending to be fighter pilots. Two years her senior, Jack had been close to the best pilot she’d known. She’d only been able to outfly him by doing something he didn’t expect.

Just like she’d do to this adversary. She made her Starbird live up to its name by making a pinpoint turn that took her behind the Gaian again. She got off two shots, barely missing him as he jumped away and led her a merry chase through the battlefield. Mea managed several more shots at him, all of which he avoided, twisting and turning his ship like a weightless dancer. Only at the last minute did she realize he’d led her into a trap, right into the path of two other Gaian fighters, both firing tracers at her.

One beam caught her ship and her displays went crazy. Barely able to control her ship, Mea had to disengage from the fight while they settled down. Just as her controls returned to normal, the Gaian shot by, and she saw his grin.

That Gaian bastard really was enjoying this! Fuming, Mea turned to follow. Somehow she’d make him pay for that grin.

But not today. As she finished her turn, Mea had a perfect view of the battle space, just in time to see the lights on the rest of her squadron blink out. One after another they suddenly went dead in space, Gaian fighters flitting around them unaffected by the paralyzing beam.

Frack it! Either the Gaians were less worried about the risk to Earth pilots or they’d found a way to keep the beam from taking out the life support. She wasn’t about to find out which. Jerking her controls, Mea’s ship skipped away, avoiding the path of the beam.

Bright arching light scattered across her canopy. The green-striped fighter was back, the pilot deliberately raking her fighter with tracer rays, wreaking havoc with her displays. It was all Mea could to do to turn her ship away. The bastard obviously intended to herd her into the path of the paralyzing beam.

With a muttered growl Mea threw the stick back, causing her ship to perform a perfect loop and come down behind her opponent. For an instant the green-striped rear was in position. She opened fire with her phase guns and the Gaian twisted out of her way, a thin trail of vapor showing it had been hit.

Two new Gaian fighters appeared around her, raking her ship with tracers. She lay down a flood of phasing fire, scoring one of them before she shot by. Once in the clear she began a wide circle, the end of which would bring her back to the battle scene.

As she returned, she realized it was too late. The Earthforce ships lay adrift without lights, only the dim red emergency lights glowing in the ports of her destroyer. As she watched, a Gaian fighter used a tractor beam to push one of the disabled fighters into the docking bay of the Earthforce destroyer.

Just like all the other battles. For months now, Gaian forces had won every time. Once again the familiar sense of dread filled her, for more than the results of this battle. She couldn’t help her thought--Earthforce was going to lose this war!

It should have been so simple. What had started as a simple attempt to keep a rebellious colony from seceding had turned into a four-year nightmare. With each battle the upstart Gaians whittled away at what had been Earthforce’s far superior fleet. Superiority in firepower and numbers didn’t mean much when your opponent could disable your equipment at a distance. Only the fact that the Gaians usually avoided destroying their opponents had kept the war from becoming a bloodbath … with Earth taking the bath

Mea knew from experience that Earth wouldn’t have been nearly as careful to avoid killing their enemies. The Gaian’s self-restraint made her admire them, even as she fought them and she knew her feelings were shared by many in Earthforce … too bad that admiration hadn’t made it to the top of Earth’s government so this war could have been ended already. Sometimes she believed that only shear stubbornness kept Earthforce fighting.

The Hemingway and its squads of fighters had been one of the few to win their skirmishes, using the fighter cover to attack Gaian ships before they could use their paralyzing beam. With this capture that was over.

The war was over for her, too. She knew the Gaians never released prisoners, and no one knew where those they captured were taken. For a moment Mea drifted above the scene, wondering what to do. It didn’t appeal to her to allow herself to be hauled onto a Gaian battle cruiser. They wouldn’t kill her, but at the very least they’d take her ship away and ground her indefinitely.

She imagined herself grounded and a lost feeling swept over her. She didn’t know what she’d do if she couldn’t fly. It would be like the months that she and her brother Jack had spent trapped in cells after her family had been killed. This time she’d be sent to a Gaian prisoner of war camp. Even in her little ship, the walls seemed to close in and panic briefly overcame her.

Bright beams decorated her canopy, washing her face in translucent color and sending sparks through her displays. The green-striped tail of her nemesis streaked over her. The pilot had found her and wanted to force her down with the others.

Mea’s hands gripped her controls tighter. No, she would not allow herself to be captured. Her decision born of desperation, she turned away from the battle scene and shot into open space, accelerating away and putting distance between her ship and her enemies.

The range of her ship was limited, but she could make it to a hiding spot. One thing about this area, there were a lot of small sun systems, many with life-bearing planets. She’d even heard rumors that the Gaians were putting their Earth prisoners in prisons built on deserted planets. With so many places to search, Earthforce would never be able to find their people.

On the other hand, that meant that Earthforce regularly sent out patrols looking for the Gaian POW planets and she’d stand a pretty good chance at rescue with a homing beacon. If there was an empty planet, she’d find it for herself. She’d rather wait out the war on her terms rather than as a Gaian prisoner.

Mea used her computer to locate the nearest three star systems and picked one. It wasn’t the closest, but it looked like it held the best chance for survival.

After setting her destination she headed there with all speed. She knew her Starbird was fast, probably faster than the Gaian’s ship. Even if he followed her, she’d be able to outrun him.

Not that he should. Unlike her, he had a mother ship to return to and there would be little point in risking his life chasing her across the universe.

As she sped away, something relaxed inside her. It felt so good--the freedom of flight, open space around her, beckoning her onward. This was what she’d dreamed of when she’d joined Earthforce. While she’d never admit it to her fellow Earthforce pilots, it had never been her intention to return to the planet she was supposed to call home, or even the asteroid belt where she’d grown up.

No indeed. If she could, she planned to stay out here forever--that was her secret ambition. There was nothing for her back in her home solar system anyway. As soon as she could, she intended to head to the Outer Colonies. She’d heard that they needed good pilots and there were few better than her.

Well, that Gaian who’d fought her hadn’t been bad. She had to admit to a grudging respect for whoever flew that green striped fighter.

Her computer beeped, reminding her of how little space she could cover with her limited fuel supply. She couldn’t stay in her little fighter long--a Starbird was a short range ship and not intended for extended space flights.

She couldn’t go back and couldn’t go very far. The fourth planet’s signature indicated it might support life, had water, and a breathable atmosphere, her foremost requirements for a place to hide. She set course for the tiny ball ahead.

The planet grew larger and became a globe of blue and green partially hidden by swirling white clouds. She slowed as she approached and went into orbit to look for a place to land.

Her sensors picked up information, and she filtered it through the computer, letting it help her select a likely landing spot. She’d taken the basic Earthforce survival course and knew she’d need water and a source of food to survive long. Fighters weren’t equipped with vast supplies of either, so the planet would have to provide them. At least she could already tell that the planet had oxygen.

The computer beeped again, displaying a close up image of the planet’s surface. A red dot indicated a place near the edge of one of the large, blue areas. Mea noted the stretch of bright, rich green with a thin wavy line cutting through the vegetation, indicating a stream of fresh water. That looked like a likely spot. She keyed in the location and started a countdown to entry.

The world below filled her canopy. Mea stared at it in awe. Even with five years in Earthforce, she’d rarely visited another planet. Most of her time had been spent on one battleship or another.

It was exciting to visit an actual new world.

The planet had lush plant and animal life and, from the looks of things, was uninhabited by anyone with intelligence. A world of her own, at least for a while.

There was a jolt at the rear of her ship and Mea activated her rear viewer. Aghast, she saw the nose of another ship approaching from behind. Someone had followed from the battlefield.

Another jolt and she realized that the ship behind was actually firing a phase weapon at her, although it was set so low she’d hadn’t yet taken any damage. Even so, Mea stilled her engines as if her ship had been hurt. Maybe she could out-fox her persistent enemy yet.

Over her head shot the now familiar green-striped rear of her nemesis from the battle. Deliberately Mea slowed even further to let him run ahead of her. He slowed as well, as if checking to see if she were really hurt.

Firing her engines, Mea quickly turned to put the Gaian in range. Without hesitation, she fired her phase weapons full blast on the back of her enemy’s ship. A burst of flame answered her shot, the Gaian ship came to a stop, and its running lights winked out.

Inside Mea exultation mixed with relief. She’d finally disabled him.

She made a slow loop, watching the other ship. Through the transparent canopy she could see the pilot, the lower part of his face visible through his faceplate. He wasn’t grinning now.

Her thumbs rested on the firing mechanism of her guns. She could destroy the Gaian ship and kill its pilot. She should--the Gaians were Earth’s enemies and thus her enemies. They were at war and letting him go would jeopardize her freedom. After all, he knew what planet she was on and would tell the others if he was found.

Still she hesitated. She had never killed in cold blood, only when threatened. Even then she’d grieved afterward, remembering the bright flash of an exploding ship that signaled another’s life had ended. Could she look this man in the face and destroy him now?

For a long moment she wavered, then a shuddering breath escaped her and she pulled her fingers away from the triggers. She was a skilled pilot and would fight if necessary, but she wasn’t a killer. Let the Gaian live, for as long as his disabled ship would support life. Maybe he’d be able to call for help and the others would come for him. By then, she’d be on the ground and hard to find, even if they decided to look for her there. It wasn’t necessary to kill him. She could elude capture if she needed to.

Mea pulled away from the disabled ship and moved back on course for the planet. She verified that the computer still held the coordinates of the landing spot and started the atmosphere entry procedure. She turned over the descent to her computer and leaned back into the padded seat for the initial drop to the surface. A wild grin spread across her face. She’d never done this kind of landing and in a ship this small, it was bound to be exciting.

As her ship started the descent, she looked into the rear-viewer screen, just in time to see the Gaian ship fire its damaged engines. Vast quantities of smoke bellowed from the rear of the ship, but still it inched towards her, picking up speed as it came.

Mea swore to herself. The Gaian wasn’t quite as disabled as she’d expected. Mea watched helplessly as the Gaian ship followed her path into the atmosphere.

* * * *

An hour later and on the ground, Mea unfastened and pulled back the canopy a crack. Warm, moist air wafted into the ship, redolent of the life outside.

Truly redolent. Gagging, she slammed the canopy shut.

Wonderful, she thought. A fine world of her own. Full of living things--and rotting things, apparently. The air stank like the most decayed garbage she’d ever encountered.

Breathing deeply of the air inside her ship, she examined the clearing she had landed in. So this was what they called a jungle. There were certainly a lot of plants around. Big plants that reached to the sky--trees, she remembered they were called, little plants that hugged the ground, and bushes.

Bushes--lots and lots of bushes that lined the edges of the clearing, many with brightly colored flowers. Small things flitted in the air around the flowers. From the tree branches hung ropes covered in leaves and more flowers … vines, that was the word. They were vines. Some had leaves the size of dinner plates.

Mea leaned back, momentarily overwhelmed by her surroundings. But then she

took several deep breaths and stamped down on her panic. Okay, so it was overwhelming--she wasn’t going to let it overwhelm her!

Digging into the compartment behind her seat, she found the emergency kit and pulled out the enclosed portable scanner. It was a handy device. Mea used it to evaluate the life signs in the area, pointing it in various directions through the ship’s canopy. The scanner was designed to not only show life forms but also provide information about their chemical content.

Mea knew she could use it to determine what was alive, what wasn’t, and with a couple adjustments to the settings, what was edible … a highly useful aspect to the tool.

As the screen lit up, she gasped at the number of red-marked silhouettes. There had to be over a thousand living creatures just in the area around her ship--three dozen species of insects, alone. So much life surrounded her, she felt seriously outnumbered. Just her luck to land in life-rich environment.

For a moment she considered moving her ship. But she had enough fuel to get into the air maybe once, but probably not twice, not and fly any distance. Using her fighter to explore the planet and look for a less occupied spot would not be prudent.

And she couldn’t forget the Gaian ship. He’d hit the ground someplace near here, but he didn’t know where she was. If she moved he’d be able to see her fly away, and she didn’t need to give him any better ideas as to her location.

Stubborn as the man was, he’d probably find some way to track her. Only an idiot would have followed her to the surface instead of waiting for rescue from his ship. She knew his job was to capture her, but this man had an over-developed sense of duty.

Of course, he might have even been killed in the crash. Mea tried not to feel guilty over that. After all he’d have been fine if he’d stayed in orbit. He hadn’t had to follow her down and it would be his fault if he died as a result.

Mea considered her options. Moving was no solution--staying inside the ship wasn’t one either. She was stranded so the best thing to do would be to figure out how to survive on this planet. For the moment she would learn how to live with her wild-kingdom neighbors, no matter how many or few legs they had. Maybe they would leave her alone if she didn’t disturb them.

Mea reopened the canopy and activated the ship’s built-in ladder, which slowly extended the four meters to the ground. She climbed down and took her first steps on the alien soil that was her new home.

At least the ground was fairly solid under its thick bed of leaves. The computer had done a good job of finding a nice, dry place to land. She listened to the jungle around her. All she heard was the wind in the leaves, the chirping of insects on the branches. Since joining Earthforce, she’d been either around people or in the silence of her ship.

An animal’s cry nearly sent her back up the ladder before she got hold of herself. The scanner said there was nothing large enough here to hurt her. It was just one of the other animals here … she’d just have to get used to the sounds of nature.

She took a deep sniff of the air. The smells were another thing to get used to, but those didn’t seem so bad anymore. Overwhelming at first, but now she could actually pick up some scents that were almost like perfume. She looked around and caught sight of some colorful flowers … those were most likely the source. That wasn’t so awful. She’d get used to it.

Mea straightened her shoulders and set her jaw. Enough feeling sorry for herself. So she was planted here, but she was free and she wasn’t hurt in any way. She even had a working ship and its contents. Landing on a wild planet wasn’t optimal, but it sure beat going to a Gaian POW camp.

First things first--water. There was barely enough in her ship for a day. She needed to find the stream, obtain a specimen, and test it. There’d be impurities, there always were, but she had chemicals to purify water and make it safe to drink.

Next was the matter of food. Her scanner told her that the proteins in the indigenous insects would suit her if she could rid their meat of the nasty acids they carried--and if she could learn to deal with the multiple leg issue. In the past her meat had been synthesized and had come from a self-heating bag. It had never come with a head, legs, or wings.

Another screech erupted from the tree cover and she glanced up to see a flash of bright feathers dart out of sight. A bird? Mea’s hopes went up. That was at least an animal she’d eaten in the past, at an ultra fancy Earth restaurant with Jack just before they’d shipped out. She still remembered the tender and so very tasty meat.

Perhaps something here would taste like chicken. Of course, that was assuming she could figure out how to catch, kill, and prepare one of the creatures. In her entire life she’d never had to actually kill anything…much less dinner.

Well, she could hold off for a little while with the help of her ship’s emergency pack. She had field rations and wouldn’t starve for a day or so. By then she’d have come up with a way to deal with the meat problem.

Her scanner still showed no signs of larger animal life at all, including human. All the animals were small and non-venomous and there was no sign of her Gaian neighbor. Still....

Mea climbed up and reached into the compartment next to her seat to pull a long sheathed dagger, her only weapon, and fastened it to her waist. Better to be safe than sorry.

* * * *

The dry, thin, field-ration wafer tasted as flavorless as she remembered from her survival class. Washed down with the “clean” orange-tinged water from the stream, it was a miserable excuse for dinner. Mea leaned against the fallen log she was using as a backrest and unenthusiastically examined the rest of the wafer before wrapping it up and putting it back in its storage box.

Philosophically she considered the extra five pounds that she’d carried since her youth. Unless things improved, she was likely to lose that weight.

Tomorrow she’d have to do something about the food situation. She barely had enough rations for a week, and it might be a month or more before the homing signal she’d set up would bring someone.

She couldn’t risk bringing the Gaians to her doorstep, so she’d selected a very narrow band to broadcast on, one only used by Earthforce ships. Free traders and colony ships wouldn’t be listening on that channel. She’d have to wait for a long-range patrol to find her.

Whenever that was likely to happen. With the war on, it could be a long time.

Now that the sun had set, the jungle around her had gone from bright, green, and alive, to dark, spooky, and alive. Sitting on the ground beside her ship, Mea watched the encroaching gloom apprehensively. For a moment she wondered if being a Gaian prisoner wouldn’t have been a better choice. At least they’d feed her and she’d heard food on a Gaian ship was actually quite good.

A sharp cry from barely a foot away sent her up the ladder again. With darkness, the other living things in the jungle were coming closer.

Light, that’s what she needed to scare away the nocturnal inhabitants. Mea fetched a small lamp from the emergency kit and set it on the ground. The cheerful glow illuminated the clearing around the ship and her mood lightened with it.

This might not be so bad. There was an emergency shelter complete with sleeping sack in the hold. She would set that up and make a little camping area next to her ship. The shelter was supposed to protect against insects and other creatures, and she could stretch out in it. It would be much easier to sleep lying down than in the cockpit.

She stood on the ladder and leaned over into the storage compartment behind the seat to look for the shelter.

Her only warning was a soft exhale of breath. Inwardly Mea groaned. Frack, her luck had run out again … it had to be the Gaian!

She reached for her knife, but powerful hands pinned her arms and pulled her off the ladder. Suspended in the air and without access to her weapon, all Mea had was her legs.

Not a problem--she mule-kicked her opponent with one foot. A deep male oof told her she’d connected with something useful and the arms around her loosened. Twisting, Mea broke his hold and jumped away from him, dropping into a roll that left her three meters away, on her feet, knife in hand.

At the sight of the knife, the Gaian stepped back, one hand rubbing his upper thigh. She’d missed the spot she’d aimed for, but not by much. In her roll, her flight cap had fallen off, uncovering her dark hair. She stood with her legs apart, chest heaving in the tightly fitting suit.

Her Gaian opponent’s eyes widened in surprise, and he took another step back. “A woman? What the … you’re a woman!” He sounded outraged.

“What’s the problem,” Mea said, hoisting her knife in readiness. “They don’t teach girls to fly where you come from?” Fear lent her a certain bravado, but she was happy her voice didn’t shake.

This guy was so big--well over two meters tall and built to match. Most Earth pilots were small, the better to sit in the undersized cockpits, but apparently the opposition tended to fit the planes to their men instead. A man his size might even find her Starbird a tight fit.

And his height wasn’t the only thing impressive about him! The Gaian looked like he could break her in half without half trying and he wasn’t hard to look at. His finger-length pale blond hair fell in a swooping curve across his forehead, and he had the nicest pair of lips she’d ever seen on a man.

The shock at finding she was a woman must have hit him harder than her foot. A deep shudder ran through him, and he bent at the waist, breathing heavily, eyes on the ground. He was completely ignoring her, his stunner still holstered at his hip while she at least had her knife in hand. She could take him out easily while he tried to catch his breath.

For a moment she hesitated. Blowing away a ship in space was one thing, but to stab a man in hand-to-hand combat was something else. For the same reason she’d been unable to shoot his disabled ship above the planet, she froze at attacking him now.

Mea fought her reluctance. She had to kill him. If she didn’t he’d capture her, and that Gaian POW planet would become a reality. At the moment he wasn’t paying attention to her so Mea seized what might be her only opportunity.

Stamping down her lack of enthusiasm for the job, she leapt at him, her knife poised to stab him deep in the chest.

At the last moment, he glanced up and grabbed her wrists before she could strike. He dove to the ground, taking her with him and into a long set of rolls. She hit the dirt hard, and the scuffle left her knife in the dirt far from her hand. When they stopped rolling, she was pinned to the ground, his hands stretching her arms high above her head.

Hard male covered her and while his breathing still labored and his heart pounded furiously, it was clear the man was far from incapacitated.

Frack it! Well that was what she got for hesitating so long.

Deep green eyes glared into hers. She could feel the intensity of his fury ... plus, something that wasn’t anger.

It was particularly obvious where his pants met her crotch. The Gaian had a hard-on of monumental proportions. Whatever else was going on, he desired her. That was almost as much a surprise as his attack had been. It hadn’t been common for a man to want her, much less someone with the kind of sex appeal this man had, and she couldn’t help her shock at his reaction.

It seemed a shock to him, too. For a moment he just stared at her, the heat of his breath scorching her cheeks. A struggle showed on his face, then his head dipped and his lips bonded to hers in a soul-searing kiss.

For a moment she just savored him. He tasted good, like man and something else … like coffee and chocolate mixed together with cinnamon and vanilla. He tasted like--mocha chocolate-chip cookies--her favorite!

Under his spell Mea groaned and went limp. She should be fighting him--knee him in the crotch, perhaps even bite him--but he just felt and tasted so good.

It was the most mind-bending kiss she’d ever received. Forgetting the man was her enemy, Mea couldn’t resist reacting to it. She opened her mouth and his tongue took full advantage, engaging hers in a battle nearly as fierce as the one they’d had in their ships. By the time the kiss was over her breath was laboring as hard as his. Where their bodies met she felt the strain of his erection. He moved just a little, and that powerful bulge dragged against her, setting up all sorts of inner whistles and bells. Mea moaned.

Maybe she shouldn’t be so quick to try to kill him. If there was one thing she’d learned over the years, there was always more than one way to fight a battle. Maybe she and the Gaian could reach some sort of understanding. After all if the man shared a bunk as good as he kissed.... Without really meaning to, she rubbed him back, dragging her crotch along his erection.

He raised his head and stared at her, his green-eyed gaze scorching hot. He leaned forward and whispered into her ear, “Say no.”

Mea wasn’t sure if she’d heard him right. “What?”

“No. Say it, as loud as you can. Mean it.”

She blinked and took a deep breath. “No!” she shouted.

Another shudder slid through the Gaian, his breath evened out, and she felt his heart beat slow perceptibly. Abruptly he rolled off her and rose to his feet, then darted to the edge of her camp, putting distance between them.

Mea lay where he’d left her, out of breath and wondering what was going on.

Illuminated by her lantern he paused at the side of her camp and pointed a threatening finger at her. “You--stay away from me.” Then he stepped out of the light and melted into the jungle. A moment later she heard splashing from the direction of the creek she’d found. His ship must have landed somewhere on the other side.

Mea could still taste his lingering cookie flavor in her mouth and on her lips and the tingle where his crotch had rested on hers. Rising up on one elbow, she stared after him, desire morphing into dismay and fury at his obvious rejection.

“Wait a fracking minute, what do you mean I should stay away from you? You attacked me, you--you--brain-dead space vermin!”