Page 4 of Silver Slayer

"It's breathtaking," I'd whispered at that first sunrise. The air was thick and sweet, laced with something close to honeysuckle, drifting through a forest so lush and ancient it felt like it hadbeen waiting for us. Blue-green foliage pressed in from every direction, layered and dense, the canopy broken only where the suns’ rays filtered through. Scattered among the trunks, pale crystalline formations spiraled up from the forest floor, twisting toward the light like frozen smoke, scattering the twin suns into soft ribbons of color across the undergrowth.

None of us had known then that the beauty was just another lure, like everything else here.

We had been so naive. Two hours later, one of those elegant spirals had shown its true nature when Dana wandered too close and brushed it with her bare arm. What had looked like an upside-down icicle discharged on contact, firing a spray of near-invisible barbs into her skin. Vala and Mehr had found her body contorted and swollen, her skin mottled where the toxin had spread. By then, we'd already lost Tessa to what looked like ordinary berries. Her throat had closed so fast she hadn't even had time to scream.

I pushed myself up from my makeshift pallet, shaking off the remnants of sleep. Vala was at the battered command console, his white hair and silvery skin catching the cool glow of a holographic display. I moved carefully, threading between the sleeping bodies sprawled across the floor.

The loose white top shifted against my skin as I moved, the unfamiliar fabric hanging well past my hips over equally shapeless trousers tucked into sturdy boots that had never quite fit. Every woman aboard wore the same plain garments we'd been rescued in, clothing provided by our abductors before Vala found us. Practical. Durable. Utterly devoid of anything that reminded us of home.

"Can't sleep?" Vala asked as I dropped into the seat beside him.

"The singing trees have started again," I murmured.

The trees weren't trees at all but carnivorous plants that could uproot themselves and relocate overnight. We'd woken once to find one had moved fifty yards closer to our crash site, its roots trailing wet earth like tentacles. The first time we'd heard them mimicking voices, Mara had walked straight toward the sound before Mehr tackled her to the ground. We'd watched in horror as the trunk split open, revealing rows of glistening teeth where it had settled, waiting.

Two women were lost when we’d first arrived. This planet didn't just exist. It hunted.

"They won't breach the perimeter," Vala said. "The sonic emitters are functioning perfectly."

I nodded, though the knot in my stomach didn't ease. The emitters were just one more piece of salvaged technology that Vala and Mehr had pieced together to keep us alive.

"You need your rest," Vala added, his luminous gaze cutting to me. "As our only apex-interaction specialist with xenobiotic pattern recognition abilities, we need you sharp."

I let out a short laugh. "You make me sound way more important than I am." Back on Earth, I'd spent my time tracking endangered apex predators through ecosystems balanced on a knife's edge. None of that had prepared me for an alien world where even the flora wanted to eat me.

"You underestimate your worth." His long fingers moved through the holographic planet rotating above the console. Heat signatures bloomed across its surface, red and amber against cool blue terrain. "Without your catalogs of which flora paralyzes and which fauna hunts at night, we would've lostmore than two." He zoomed in on a bright flare. "Speaking of unknown species. We have visitors."

"What is that?" I leaned closer.

"AMoktian Galaxy Cruiser.It went down two Earth miles southeast of here."

Yet another alien species I'd never heard of. "Are they dangerous?"

The corner of his mouth lifted. "All lifeforms from other worlds are dangerous. It depends on who you are to them."

"And all of them hate Mannocks," I said, using the alien term for humans. "Even you, once."

"That is no longer true." Vala's tone sobered. "Universeval Rule dictates that Yulineon patrollers are ordered to kill off-world humans on sight. Unless the Yulineon is me, he will kill you."

"What changed you from executioner to savior?"

"Not what. Who." He traced a faint scar along his silvery forearm. "A human female named Layla. I was injured on Valose. She dragged me to safety and kept me alive, risking her own life to do it. After Layla, I could no longer follow Universeval Rule. I challenged it openly and was branded a heretic. Now I'm hunted by the same patrollers I once commanded."

"She must be one hell of a woman."

"She is." His luminous eyes softened. "You'll meet her once we reach Valose."

"If we can get off this deathtrap," I muttered.

Vala tilted his chin toward the sleeping Nomadican. "With Mehr's help, I'm confident we can repair this craft. When myYulineon Star Chaserovertook the Xegnot ship, I hadn't planned on a Nomadican being aboard."

"Then it's a good thing Elishbeth is bonded to one," I said, using Mehr's pronunciation of Elizabeth in his heavy Nomadican accent. My gaze drifted back to the holographic display, where the crashed ship's engines glowed against the cooler landscape. "In the meantime, what do we do about the newcomers?"

"The long-range scanners are still malfunctioning," Vala replied, adjusting something on the console. "I can identify the craft but not detect the lifeforms inside. We'll need to get closer to the wreck."

"Closer." I barely suppressed a shudder as a distant note drifted through the forest beyond the hull. The haunting melody rose and fell like a chorus of unseen voices, beautiful, hypnotic, and deadly. The singing trees were calling their prey within reach.

Mehr joined us, rubbing tired eyes and squinting at the display. "What have you got, Vala?"