Paradise Found

Blake walked back to the young lady, still out and unmoving, and reached for her outfit. The uniform denoted the rank of an ensign, like him, and assumed that she had the same idea he had about leaving the battle and escaping destruction. It was a leap of faith, he knew, but it was better than thinking she was still out to gun down every Alliance member in sight.

He draped her uniform over her nude body, then sat back against the rock waiting for her to awaken.

"Way to go, asshole," he said, beating himself up again, "The only other person to talk to... the only other person left alive from home, and you damn near killed her. Yeah, you're about that far from 'genius', aren't you." He leaned his forehead into his hands and sighed, feeling like the biggest moron in the galaxy.

Blake lifted his head sharply when he heard the young lady moan and start to move. He crawled over to her side, ready to show her that he wasn't going to hurt her anymore and apologize for firing at her.

Her hazel eyes fluttered, then opened to lock onto Blake's blue ones. She lifted a hand to feel at the cold pack on her head, all the while looking at Blake with worry painted on her face.

"Uh... hi," he started, feeling a bit awkward; she was still naked, after all, "Don't move, you've been hurt."

Either she didn't understand him or ignored his words altogether, because in a flash she rolled away from Blake and jumped up into a crouch. Her uniform fell away, leaving her bare body uncovered again, and in her hand was a survival knife.

Blake huffed, "Once again, you win the 'Dumbfuck of the Year' award, Blake. Didn't check the clothes for weapons; yep, you're batting a thousand," He stared at the girl brandishing the knife and tried some tact, holding out his hands in supplication, "Miss, I'm not going to hurt you," he tapped his forehead, "You've been hurt; I helped you," he edged forward, holding out a palm, "Please put the knife away."

The woman growled and sliced at him, cutting into his outstretched hand. Blake reeled back, holding his now bleeding palm and wincing, as the woman advanced on him.

"Stop!" Blake drew his weapon and pointed it directly at her head, "What the Hell's the matter with you, lady? Put that knife down!"

The girl didn't move, her eyes narrowing in anger.

Blake walked up to her and placed the barrel of his blaster against her forehead, "Drop it!"

She lowered the blade and tossed it away, still looking mean eyeballs at him.

"Sit down!" Blake motioned with his weapon to the ground, and she complied by plopping down with a huff.

Blake reached for the discarded cold pack and handed it back to her, being careful not to get blood on it. She took it reluctantly and pressed it to her wound, not taking her eyes off of him. He toed the knife on the ground and kicked it away, then went back to the rock and grabbed the regenaplaser out of his medkit.

"Boy, that's gratitude for you," he grumbled, holstering his blaster and running the healing light over his gashed palm, "I try to help, and I get sliced for my efforts. I was trying to help you." He stared at the girl, her arm over her boobs trying to be modest, and continued, "I fixed your arm," he tapped the healing tool against his own arm, then motioned at the girl. She looked at her arm covering her bare chest and saw, to her amazement, that the wound was healed with a slightly discolored bruise in its place. "Look, I'm sorry I hurt you; that wasn't my intention. I was trying to get you to stop firing at me," he paused, then, "Do you understand my language?"

She just continued staring, holding the pack to her forehead and wincing.

Blake sighed, finished with the healing tool and stuffing it back into the medkit, "I suppose not," he pointed to his mouth, "Can you understand me? Do you speak Engilese?"

She tilted her head and muttered, "Some... Engili." her words clipped and accented, "You... Rushtiak?"

Blake perked up, flexing his newly healed hand, "Some Rushtien words, yes; yat, wim. You're Rushtien," he rolled his eyes, "Well of course you are; what else would you be?"

"You... Mercan?"

Blake nodded, "Yes, I'm Mercan. The Alliance, Elliacol; you probably already know that." and pointed to the little striped flag on his shirt sleeve.

The girl reached for her uniform, letting her breasts fall out of her arm, but stopped and eyed Blake. Sensing what she wanted, he nodded again and she grabbed her clothes. She immediately covered her nude body with them, but held out the sleeve and showed him the red flag with the yellow star embroidered on it and said, "Coalitiaka."

"Yeah, I know; you're with the Coalition," Blake ran a hand over his hair, "How the Hell am I going to make you understand?" He looked right at her, then pointed to himself, "Blake... Blake."

The woman scowled at him, and repeated, "Blake," in a deep accent.

"Right, that's my name: Blake," He then offered a hand to her.

She picked up on the gesture and said, reluctantly, "Katinov."

Blake nodded, "'Katinov'... okay, we've got that established. Look Katinov, I don't know if you can understand this, but I'm going to try anyway. There's no longer any reason for us to fight, other than the fact that we're wearing different uniforms... which in the long run doesn't mean shit anymore. The war is over. There are no more governments or borders, no more skirmishes or great causes... Hell, both of our fleets are destroyed. There's nobody coming for us because I don't think there's anyone left to rescue us," then he got a thought, something he should have inquired about right from the start, "Your ship... in orbit?" and pointed towards the sky.

Katinov, understanding what he was gesturing about, shook her head, "Nodda vessel... orbottiz."

"Wonderful," Blake sighed, rubbing at his forehead, "Our world has been destroyed; there's nothing left to fight for, therefore no reason to fight." He stared at the woman thoughtfully, trying to see any reaction on her face other than the hateful look she had, "Do you understand what I'm saying? No fighting... no more, nodda; it's over."

Katinov just sat and watched Blake carefully as he got up and started pacing while he continued his ramblings, "I hope some of what I said got through to you, because I really don't want to fight anymore. After seeing first hand the stupidity of our governments, I'm sick of it," he looked around at the garden of life around them, and smirked, "In a way, I hope somebody doesn't find us. I don't relish the thought of being put back into circulation to fight a war that nobody really wanted. I'd rather be stuck right here," he turned and smiled at Katinov, "and this isn't such a bad place to be marooned; it's kind of nice here."

She didn't return his smile, and Blake just threw up his hands, "Alright, fine. You don't want to be friends, that's okay with me. But we don't have to kill each other, either."

In a flash, Katinov leaped towards the boulder and snatched her pulse rifle. She stood up in a fighting pose, letting her uniform fall away and leaving her bare again, and aimed the weapon directly at his head.

Blake sighed, not because he thought he was going to die, but because he did it again: let his guard down; as far as he was concerned, he deserved to be shot. For a split second, he thought about drawing his blaster but changed his mind; it wasn't worth it. He looked her over, admiring her courage as well as her naked body. Her curves were enticing, her long brown hair was unkempt, and her soft skin smudged with dirt gave her the erotic appearance of a wild jungle woman from the stories he read as a youth.

But seeing the weapon pointed at him told him he was a failure; he tried to befriend the woman, and got absolutely nowhere. He honestly didn't care anymore.

"You're very pretty, do you know that?" he asked, looking into her eyes and not at the rifle, "but the only way I can convince you of my sincerity is by forcing you. And like I said: I'm sick of fighting. I'm going back to my ship; I won't bother you anymore. You want to shoot me, then shoot; I really don't give a damn anymore."

And with that, Blake deliberately turned his back to the girl and walked away, knowing her eyes and the rifle's sight were boring into him. He entered the river and waded across, waiting for the pulse blast to ring out and slam into his body. After he reached the opposite side, he took a chance and looked behind him. He saw Katinov, still standing in the nude aiming her weapon at him with an evil sneer plastered on her face. Blake just shook his head and walked away, plying through the brush and weeds, and headed back to his craft.

He felt like he had a butt full of shotgun pellets as he arrived at his crash site, and defeat and helplessness filled his mind. He listlessly dragged himself over to the comm station and activated the log.

"Ship's log, 13:15 hours, day 3: I have met the enemy... and she's a bitch," Blake grimaced and said, "Computer, erase that last entry," he paused and waited for the recording to start again, then, "Ship's log, 13:15 hours, day 3: I've checked out the other crash site and it turns out that there were survivors; one, a young female officer of the Coalition. We greeted each other in the usual manner, that is we fired at each other. I treated her after wounding her and tried to explain the situation to her, but she doesn't understand me very well. She's upset, and I really don't blame her. I don't know if she knows that our conflict is over, all I know is that she's determined to kill me if I try anything funny. I'll leave her alone for now and continue my examination of this planet, but if she wants to cooperate I'll gladly welcome her company."

"After I'm finished examining the fruits I've gathered, tomorrow I'll check out the animal life that's here; hopefully they're a little more friendly than the girl I met today."

* * *

Morning came, and Blake set out to explore the garden again, this time hunting for wildlife. After discovering that the fruits he picked were edible and delicious, he wanted to know everything about the area he was in. Armed with his porta-scanner and weapon, Blake hiked through the fields and greenery, eagerly waiting for some animal to come into view. He found the vertha swimming in the river, he knew there had to be more life out there.

Blake didn't venture anywhere near the river, however. After his encounter with Katinov, he wasn't in the mood for any more arguing.

"I made my gesture of friendship," he groused, "If she wants to be friendly, she can come to me next time."

For the next few hours, Blake managed to come across several animal forms. From small rodent-like creatures burrowing into the soil to large fur covered beasts, the wildlife presented an array of different colored pelts and accoutrement, mainly antlers. There were a few scaly creatures that could make their home quite well on land or in the water, and the insect life he found was in staggering amounts. He had enough data to keep him busy for months at a time, and he enjoyed discovering all the wondrous things this world had to offer.

"It's almost like a paradise," he said, studying a beautiful insect with a wide colorful wing span that seemed to float in the air rather than fly, "I could get used to this."

A loud scream rang out over the glade, and Blake instinctively grabbed at his blaster and ran towards the sound. It didn't sound like an animal in trouble, so that meant only one other thing.

Blake raced down to the river bank and immediately trudged through the water upon seeing Katinov, on the ground and struggling with some type of life form, its lengthy body coiling in and around her uniform. Blake could see the monster more clearly once he reached the other side of the water, and drew his weapon as he closed in on the fighting pair.

The creature was scaly green, longer than the two of them put together, and was in the process of curling around Katinov's body. Its head was sleek and narrow, its tongue slithering in and out of its wide mouth, and it drew near to Katinov's face as she desperately tried to grab her knife and pulse rifle that were just out of reach.

Blake grabbed the creature by the neck, and it started hissing at him with its mouth gaped open.

"Forget it, Slimy; go find something else to eat!"

He tried to untangle the beast from Katinov, but its strength was surprisingly more powerful than he realized.

"Okay, buster; you want to play this the hard way?" Blake growled at the monster, thrusting the barrel of his blaster into its mouth, "Eat this!"

The blaster fired, and the head of the creature vaporized in a haze of gory blood and pulp, its insides splattering both Blake and Katinov. The beast's body shuddered for a second, then went limp as it released its grip on its potential victim/meal.

Blake unwrapped the coiling slippery reptile from Katinov and tossed it aside, her whole body convulsing with choked gasps for air.

"Are you alright?" He started to kneel down to help her sit up, but froze when she shot a glare of annoyance at him. He backed off from her, confused as she grabbed her weapon and pointed it at him once again.

Thoroughly disgusted, Blake huffed at her and turned away, heading down to the river to wash up. He knelt down and splashed water on his face and clothing, washing away the remains of the dangerous reptile and knowing the weapon in her hands was still pointed at him. Feeling the rage building up in him, Blake couldn't stand it anymore and turned with anger to see Katinov gunning for him.

"This is what it's come down to?" he yelled at her, "The war is over, there's nobody left to fight it, you and I are the only ones left alive... and you still want to kill me because my uniform is different than yours? Fine; fuck you, lady! I've had it! You want to shoot me?" Blake ripped open his shirt, baring his chest, "Then shoot me!"

Katinov narrowed her eyes at him, not entirely sure what to do next. Her training told her to keep the enemy at bay, and if not... then kill him. But something was holding her back, something inside of her was saying that this was wrong... and she didn't know why.

"That's what I thought," said Blake with a twang of pity, "Some soldier you turned out to be; you're as bad as I am. You're tired of following rules and regulations, just like me, otherwise you would've killed me by now. Look, I'll make it easy for you: you stay on your side of the river and I'll stay on mine, okay? Don't expect me to come to your rescue anymore."

Angry and hurt, Blake waded back over to the other side of the water and stomped back to his ship.

"Lousy, stupid, ungrateful little..." he grumbled as he went back inside his craft. He plopped down in the seat at the comm station and poked at the controls with a grunt, "Ship's log, 14:27 hours, day 4: Katinov, the young woman at the other crash site, ran afoul of one of the life forms on this world: a slimy, slippery reptile that wrapped its body around hers and tried to kill her, probably to eat her. I blew it away and saved her from it but she didn't seem very grateful, considering she tried to shoot me again."

"I'm done trying to convince her that I'm not a threat and that there's no longer any reason for us to keep fighting. She'll have to come to me if she wants any more help."

Blake snapped off the log and started entering data from his porta-scanner in the science station, the console blinking and beeping at him as it absorbed the data streaming into its memory banks.

For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, Blake studied his findings and was amazed at the variety of animal life that inhabited this planet. He absently poked at the re-sequenced dinner of poultric and dumplings he made as he perused the readings he took.

A flash of light startled him as he turned to the hatch and saw...

Katinov was standing just inside the cutter with a wrist light pointing towards Blake, along with her pulse rifle aiming for his chest.

All Blake could say was, "It's open; come on in," with a sarcastic tone.

She took slow steps inside the ship and kept a watchful eye on Blake.

"Something I can do for you?" he asked as he crossed his arms, still in 'sarcasm' mode.

"Kommicatii!" she barked.

"I don't understand what you want, Katinov."

She edged over to the active panels, keeping her weapon trained on him, and then pointed to the comm station, "Kommicatii!"

Blake rose slowly from his seat, "Oh, I get it; you want to use the communications console. Yours is probably smashed all to Hell, I'll bet. You want to contact your people, don't you," he leaned over and activated the controls to open a comm link, "I hate to break it to you, but there's nobody up there; they're all dead." At least, that's what he was hoping. If she was lying and her mother ship was in orbit, and if they're still holding a grudge, his life expectancy would be measured in days instead of years.

Katinov ushered him away from the console and spoke into it, her words clipped in harsh Rushtiak. She paused, waiting for a reply, then repeated her words; again, silence answered her. She then told him to sit down at the station, pulling a small silvery disc out of her pocket and handing it to him.

Blake understood what she wanted and inserted the disc into the input slot, a little leery about introducing enemy technology into his systems, but the rifle at his head convinced him to do it. The machine hummed for a moment, then a picture sprang to life on the view screen; it was Katinov, dictating a message into her comm unit.

She poked at Blake and said, "Engili!"

He nodded, knowing what she wanted, and hit the 'translate' control. The message jumped to the beginning and, even though her mouth was out of sync with the altered voice, started over in his language with a few words not translated clearly and cut from the complete message.

<"This is Ensign Katinov of the Coalitional starship Uphratis. I escape destruction of Uphratis while it battled a Mercan ship. I was only one to get away, as far as I know. My shuttle crashed on world like Terria, so I am safe for now. I am sending general alert signal and coordinates to all ships for rescue. Communicating system damaged; not working proper. I will send signal for as long as I can; please help.">

"So," Blake said cautiously, "you're in the same boat I'm in." He reached for the controls again, this time bringing up his distress call and 'translated' it for her. She listened to the Rushiak words being said to her, hearing basically the same type of message she had sent. But when she heard him talking about their world and their fleets being destroyed, she nudged him and grunted, "Terria."

Blake brought up the flight recordings from the cutter as it left the Tigress, and leaned back to let her watch. She gasped in horror as she witnessed the mighty star cruiser being blasted apart by weapons' fire, then covered her mouth and let out a choked sob when their world came into view. The surface was awash with fires and explosions, huge craters where large cities once stood, and its oceans boiling away. The Tigress blew apart, pieces of her hull hurling towards the cutter's rear, and another ship drifted into view. Its condition was no better off than the star cruiser as it belched flames and expelled gases from numerous cracks in its hull.

"Uphratis!" she shouted, watching the dying ship break open and writhe like a wounded animal. Katinov yelped when the remains of her ship exploded, and tears started streaming down her cheeks as she watched debris from the ship fall towards what was left of her home world. Other ships in the background continued to exchange weapons' fire, blasting each other to pieces and destroying whatever hope was left of a reconciliation.