Dzar-Ghan (Alien Barbarians of Vandruk #3)

3. Chapter 3

Stepping through the portal was as anticlimactic as it could possibly be. There was no rush through space, no dizziness, no body parts that got dis- and then reassembled. One booted foot was lifting off the tiled ground to follow the other, which was already stepping on the hard soil of Vandruk. It was just like walking from one room into another, except I wasn’t. I stepped onto another planet! Still, it was mindboggling. It didn’t feel at all like when I told my mom, Just another job . The moment my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness of Vandruk’s hazy sky and I took in the surroundings I had only ever seen on a computer screen and in pictures, a wave of unexperienced humility overcame me. I squinted against the bright sky and the assault of light. I had never laid eyes on anything this vivid before. This was like putting in a new prescription of contact lenses.

Orange-ochre earth—no, that wasn’t earth. I hesitated to call it Vandruk and settled on dirt. Orange-ochre dirt rose like waves off the ground, leaving barely any surface even. When I looked closer, I realized it wasn’t simply waves; there were indentations, some as deep as a pool. Lots of them were craters from meteor impacts millions of years ago. They must have been enormous to still be visible and this overgrown. My feet automatically took me toward one. I was itching to dig down, to find the space rock that had created this hole, to analyze the sediments and layers.

I wasn’t a biologist and never had been interested in plants, but seeing this strange new vegetation reminded me where I was and stopped me from making a fool of myself by starting to dig. Some plants reminded me of giant succulents. One in particular, well, the crown mostly. It looked like a giant sempervivum growing on top of a giant asparagus. The leaves seemed large enough for me to lie on them. Other asparagus look-alikes grew twenty feet or more into the air, their stems twisting all the way up as if their crown had been staring at something circling it. In ways, it reminded me of an over-twisted spring, and as I stared at it, I expected it to untwist at any moment and rise high into the air.

The ground alone cried for me to analyze the neon oranges and green pebbles strewn about. In stark contrast to the vivid colors of the ground, the sky looked much more subdued, hazy almost, which I figured might change over the course of the day or days like it did on Earth, but right then, I saw a sun very high up in the sky, much smaller or farther away than ours, and brighter. I was willing to bet that had it been any closer, it would have blinded everyone just looking up.

Two more planets hung visibly in the sky; one might have been a moon, smaller and farther away than the other, but the second seemed close enough to touch. They, too, were dipped in hazy clouds.

Beautiful.

Breathtaking.

So commanding that, at first, I didn’t even notice the group of Vandruks standing by a set of boulders as if ready to take cover at a moment’s notice. With them stood two human women, one I recognized as Doctor Dawn Wayland. Standing next to her was an impressive-looking Vandruk, hovering protectively about and giving the impression that the two were a couple.

Any antipathy I might have felt against her for having been chosen over me for the first mission dissolved at finally being here. She had been the only female member of the first mission of scientists and a biologist at that. I hadn’t understood, and still didn’t, why a biologist had taken precedence over a geologist, but I was here now. The waiting was over.

Strangely, it felt more like seeing a sister again, even though I had had even less contact with her than with my real sisters. Very confusing.

“Welcome to Vandruk,” a voice boomed out, and a giant of a man stepped forward. I gawked. I had known these Vandruks were handsome and well-built, but this man… come on. He looked like something stepping out of a wet dream. Literally stealing the breath from me so hard I nearly choked. He drew closer, all seven feet of him, and I swallowed a lump down. There was no way this man was real. His body was packed with an incredible amount of muscle, so defined, they could have been chiseled. His reddish skin color blended in perfectly with his surroundings, but in all honesty, his exotic skin coloring was the very last thing on my mind. His pecs and abs looked like thick ropes; his shoulders were as wide as a boulder. Black, shiny hair was pulled back at the nape of his neck with a leather strip, giving him even more the appearance of a barbarian as if his naked torso and deep brown leather pants hadn’t already been a dead giveaway. And that was before my eyes fell on his face. Good God. He looked brutal, and I had absolutely no logical explanation for why my heart fluttered at his sight. He didn’t exactly scowl; it was hard to tell with his beard, but he looked menacing as hell. My instinct should have been to run away, not toward him.

He said something else in his deep voice, making it sound like thunder, but I didn’t understand a word. Plus, right then, I got sidetracked by a rock he kicked on his march toward me and automatically rushed to it, bending in the process and colliding with the giant, bringing us both down to the ground.

Loud snickers broke out, nearly drowned out by the giant’s curses.

“He says he’s sorry,” Dawn said, extending her hand to help me up while glaring at the giant as if daring him to contradict her.

Confusing me further when she shook my hand, saying, “Amber.”

“No,” I corrected her. “Jenna McKenzie, I guess you don’t remember me.”

Dawn laughed. “I’m Amber, Dawn’s twin sister.”

“Dawn’s twin sister?” I was confused, looking around. “So where is Dawn then? I mean Doctor Wayland.”

Amber’s face darkened. “She’s dead. Long story. Welcome to Vandruk.”

I blinked, more than confused, but gathered that now was probably not the time to ask questions. Despite the hundreds of them rushing through my mind, most of all, if what Daw—err Amber said had anything to do with the battle I had witnessed on the monitor.

Exclamations of surprise, giggling, and uhhs and ahhs reminded me of the other women who had followed me. A hundred of them, all arriving to become brides to the Vandruks. For no reason, my eyes moved to the giant I had collided with, who stared straight back at me. He made it back on his feet, scowling.

“This is Khadahr Dzar-Ghan. Which means he is kind of like a king with his own lands here somewhere,” Amber explained.

Her eyes moved up and down my uniform. “You’re not here for the mating program, are you?”

I swallowed hard and flushed under Dzar-Ghan’s intense stare. One of the things I did fairly often, mostly out of embarrassment for misreading a situation. “No… I’m… I was hired as… I’m a geologist.” I bit my tongue not to elaborate more. I had been told numerous times that I overdid it during introductions. Another thought occurred to me: Did aliens shake hands? Maybe they bowed? Should I do both, just in case? I hoped I wouldn’t mess up their greeting customs—what if I accidentally offended them? This was my new start, and I wanted to do it well.

A grin spread over Amber’s face. “Oh, that’s funny.”

I failed to see the humor in this, but then again, I wasn’t a people person, and most of the time, their jokes fell flat on me. This situation, though? No, I didn’t understand what she thought was so funny.

Dzar-Ghan said something in his deep, guttural language, sending shivers down my spine, also something I had never experienced before. Amber grinned from ear to ear and replied something that made the Vandruk glued to her side break out in loud laughter and brought a frown to Dzar-Ghan’s face.

“I’m sorry. I should probably explain,” Amber said between chuckles, causing me to frown at her and wonder if her head worked all right. “Dzar-Ghan vowed yesterday that he would mate the first woman who stepped through the portal.”

She stopped and waited for me to catch up with her joke. It took me a moment. “He thought the brides would walk through first?”

My head swiveled back to the giant; his head was turned to the brides , but he was looking over their heads at an array of mountains that was barely visible and far away. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to see his reaction to the brides or why I felt a sudden relief that he wasn’t paying them any attention, but both emotions were there.

“We all did. We didn’t think IC would have the guts to send more… other civilians.”

“I don’t follow,” I stuttered, sending a surreptitious glance at Dzar-Ghan, whose eyes had turned back to me, staring at me as if he wanted to eat me and not in the good way—I was told was very enjoyable.

Amber’s face darkened. “So let me guess, Weidenhof said nothing about his security team or what happened to my sister?”

I shook my head, trying to push the dark, foreboding feeling germinating in my stomach back down.

“What did they tell you?”

“I’m an expert in finding rare minerals and resources.” Some of my confidence returned. I was the best in my field, but it was short-lived when I noticed a slight stiffening in her posture, as well as the Vandruk’s, who wouldn’t move an inch from her side.

Amber noticed me noticing. “This is Dzur-Khan, my husband.”

My mind did a quick somersault. Husband? Then it took a detour, almost making me giggle. Dzar-Ghan, Dzur-Khan… were all their names this confusing?

“I know it seems… fast, but… I’ll explain it all to you later. So what are you supposed to do? Bring back a report on how to best exploit Vandruk?”

The disdain in her voice caught me off guard, as did all the other news she had thrown at me, like that she was Doctor Wayland’s twin sister, Amber. Doctor Wayland was dead. Amber had married a Vandruk and, by all appearances, was thinking of herself as a native.

Alarm bells went off in my mind. She’s trying to snowball you , it warned.

I wished I had read more about Dawn Wayland, maybe even tried to glean information about her twin sister. How had she even gotten here? Anybody traveling through the portal was strictly monitored and vetted. There was only one logical explanation: Dawn must have been dead before Amber got here and Amber had taken her spot. My stomach went cold. Had she killed her sister?

I automatically took a step back, and my suspicion must have been mirrored on my face because Amber raised her hands. “No, I didn’t kill her. I came here to find her killer.”

Amber sighed, probably realizing I needed a bit more of an explanation now. She opened her mouth to do so, when Dzar-Ghan said something again. He sounded rushed and impatient.

Amber answered with an exasperated tone to her voice. Then she looked at me. “He wants to leave. He has some kind of mission to fulfill.”

I didn’t understand. “So why doesn’t he?”

Pity warred with more amusement in Amber’s eyes. “Because he expects you to go with him.”

“Wait. What?” It had to be the change in climate and atmosphere. The air here was definitely more oxygenated than at home; maybe I was simply hallucinating. Maybe I was still stepping through the portal, and this was just a byproduct of my imagination during the journey. Yes, that had to be it because the things Amber was saying…

“So did they send you here to exploit the planet?” She returned to her earlier question without regard to what she had just told me.

I bit my cheek until I tasted blood. It hurt. No dream or hallucination, then.

At least her question grounded me somewhat, allowing me to return to what I was familiar with. Many times, I had been hired to discover minerals, oil, precious gems, or anything like it, only to be met by the hostile natives or ecologists worried about their homes being turned upside down. I wasn’t a people person, but I could convince even the most fanatic person that their homes and nature weren’t in any danger of being destroyed. I prided myself in figuring out the best approach to harvest whatever my employer had their eyes set on without disturbing the surrounding environment too much.

“I am here to learn about natural resources, yes,” I told Amber, “but I was also chosen because of my doctorate in speleology. Doctor Weidenhof mentioned something about a cave.”

Amber blinked at me a few times. “You would be able to get into a cave that has been buried under tons of rocks?”

“I’d have to see the site for myself, but yes, that is one of my specialties.”

A waterfall of Vandruk followed my statement, first spoken by Amber to the two Vandruks, then from them, staring at me expectantly with the shine of hope in their eyes that made me uncomfortable.

“You did tell them that I have to see it first, right?” I checked with Amber.

“Dzar-Ghan will take you,” Amber said with a smirk around her lips that puzzled me until some of her earlier words returned to me like puzzle pieces. Dzar-Ghan vowed yesterday that he would mate the first woman who stepped through the portal, and her answer when I asked her why Dzar-Ghan hadn’t left because he expects you to go with him.

“All right.” I made the famous signal for time-out. “Can we catch up on the important things first? You mentioned something about a security team and your sister. By the way, I only met her a few times, but she was a very nice lady, and I’m very sorry for your loss.” This slew of words must have been the longest I had ever spoken when not discussing rock formations or dirt levels. I hoped my tone relayed my earnest condolences. I was sorry for Dawn. She had been young and full of life, on the cusp of fulfilling a lifelong dream.

“Security team, yes,” Amber said, elbowing the Vandruk she had called Dzur-Khan in the side to convey to give her a moment. “IC sent a group of security guards with the first wave of women. In truth, though, these men came to kidnap Doctor Bauer and to establish a FOB, forwa—”

I interrupted her, waving my hand. “I know what a forwarding operating base is.”

“Good.” She didn’t blink or seem put off with my impolite interruption. She appeared more keen to get me caught up, which I appreciated, and wondered if, for the first time in my life, I had found a person on the same wavelength as me. “Their plans failed, and they were all killed.”

“Does that have anything to do with the attack I watched?”

That seemed to pique Amber’s interest, and her eyes assessed me in a new light. “They told you about that?”

“Hardly. I do have some hacking skills, though.” I offered, unsure of why I was divulging something to her that could lock me up in jail for years.

“Good for you.” She grinned. “I think you’ll do just fine here.” I liked the way she looked at me as if I had done something impressive. “Do you mind me asking why you hacked into Weidenhof’s database?”

I didn’t want to go into a full explanation; I had too many questions of my own for that, so I replied evasively, “Let’s just say I like to know what my employers are really up to.”

“All right, fair enough.” Anber nodded. “Back to Dzar-Ghan then.” At the mention of his name, he stopped his conversation with Dzur-Khan midsentence to listen.

“So there is a lot more complicated stuff going on here. To catch you up, I’ll make it short, but it’s quite disturbing.” Amber paused.

“That’s fine. Direct is good with me.” I encouraged her. I did a lot better if people hit me with bullet points rather than long explanations that had nothing to do with anything.

She took a deep breath. “So when IC opened the portal for the first time, the Vandruks were in the middle of their quinquennial celebration. Part of that celebration calls for all the women to ready themselves inside a cave. The wormhole opening did something here that caused a major, I don’t want to say earthquake, but…”

“Oh my God.” Shock and exhilaration ran through me simultaneously. “That’s the cave? All these women were buried alive? And now they want me to get in and…” Realization hit me. “But that was ten years ago. Nobody could be still alive after ten…” I faltered.

Amber nodded. “Like I said, it’s complicated. It has to do with their belief that their souls can’t go to heaven until they are properly buried. Then there is some religious dispute I haven’t quite figured out yet, but your guy, Dzar-Ghan, has it out for the head honcho priest.”

My guy? I let that go because… well, because she had been right, there was a lot to digest here. Now it made sense why the Vandruks wanted human women. Their numbers had to be shrinking rapidly if the majority of their females had died like that.

Most of all, though, the familiar excitement for a job began to sing in my veins. A challenge was put out in front of me, one I would not be able to resist, not even if it meant walking miles through an alien landscape accompanied by a bunch of aliens.

“They’re not gonna hurt me, are they?” I had to make sure to be able to shut that part of my brain down.

Amber shook her head. “Women are highly revered here. You might get courted like crazy, but nobody will harm you.”

I didn’t like the idea of being courted , but I took Amber’s assurance that I wouldn’t be harmed. Now I could fully concentrate on the prospect of getting into a cave filled with dead people. I would need to get in without disturbing their bodies so they could get their long-deserved funeral. This prospect, more than anything, excited me. It was so much more noble than digging for oil or diamonds. I loved nothing more than to pull something out of the earth—so to speak—and bring it back into the light where it belonged.