2016 Top Ten Gay Romance

Captive by T.A. Creech-2

Justin grimaced as he hefted the med kit out from under the upturned navigation panel. His hands still shook with adrenaline. He’d woken up with a start, Gods know how long after impact. He was still feeling slightly buzzed with the threat of death, his mind on autopilot. He was sure the shock would come later.

The console next to him sparked bright, too close to his face. He took that as his cue and slid the kit across the battered floor, managing to get it pretty close to the half-shattered exit hatch. The minor scuffs, bruises, and sprains that littered his body could wait. Justin scrambled to his feet and ducked around the hanging bits of his ship’s command cabin. With more energy than Justin really wanted to use, he shouldered the hydraulic door to the sleeping quarters open.

Most of his belongings were flung everywhere. Clothes spilled out of the compartments, boots and tools scattered across the deck, what few personal treasures he owned were in pieces all over the place. Only the bedding seemed where he left it. Justin grit his teeth at the mess and got to work.

He snatched up the first duffel bag he stumbled across and started stuffing clothes haphazardly in it. The other two bags were similarly packed and Justin dropped all three just outside the forced door before turning back to the rest of the mess. The couple of holographs he had of his old squad were done for and so was the miniature Rilexan harp Justin loved to play. He bypassed all that and went for the secure cubbyhole hidden behind the wall panel between a couple of shelves. The nearly invisible pressure lock gave way as soon as he poked it, the door swinging open on silent hinges.

It was a squeeze to get his hand in, but Justin managed it faster than normal, the memory of sparking wires spurring him on. When his hand closed around nothing up shattered glass, Justin cursed quietly. Without the subcutaneous tracker, Justin would be impossible to find on this world, if by some miracle the world itself could be found. Damn thing didn’t work if it wasn’t implanted and the glass injector housing it to keep it sterile busted in the crash, he assumed. Another thing to look into if he ever got off this rock. And if the syringe was broken, that meant suspension fluid in it had soaked his translator tech sitting underneath it. s**t.

The lights surged for a heartbeat before settling and Justin abandoned everything else for the moment. Once he had a camp set up, he’d be back to salvage what he could and see if the Nitti could be fixed.

Justin hustled back to flight control and pulled open another wall panel, triggered the manual override, and punched the button to shut down the ship. He wasn’t going anywhere near the consoles again until they were powered down. The six hours that it took for the full power down would be plenty of time to find a secured spot to hole up.

Finally, Justin picked up two of the big duffels and popped the hatch with an elbow, breathing a sigh of relief when the damned door opened with no problem. With the way he felt, Justin knew he that muscling the heavy hatch door open was something he wasn’t up for. He dropped the bags out the door to land on the startlingly lavender-colored grass a handful of feet below. Giving one last glance around his damaged ship, Justin grabbed the last duffel and the kit, throwing the first out of the opening and then hopped out himself, kit in hand. No reason to risk breaking the fragile medical supplies too.

Landing with a hiss of discomfort, Justin lurched upright and grabbed the closest bag. Damn thing seemed heavier than a minute ago. He glanced around before deciding to take shelter in the trees to the left of his ship. Looked to be the densest clump of forest around.

It took a while to drag the duffels under the shelter of the tree line, but he managed it before his energy ran out. Barely. Wasn’t until Justin started rummaging around through his packs that he noticed the glaring error. Annoyed, Justin kicked at his bags.

Forgot to grab his damned rations.

A groan escaped Justin as he stood up. Damn it, he was tired. Better to get his rations out of the ship now though, as opposed to trying tomorrow when he would be too sore to navigate the wreck safely. Still needed to find a secure place to bed down, in case there were predator animals on the planet. Then sleep. Justin could sleep for ages at this point.

He hobbled his way back and strained getting up into his ship. The ramp was jammed in its slot, so Justin forced himself to jump and scramble in. Galley was a wreck, but the emergency rations were still intact. Justin snatched up the whole box, just in case. Same s**t getting the box out and Justin swore he was going to refit his ship with a manual ramp control for next time.

As he was straightening up with, thankfully, his last load, he stopped abruptly, face to face with a ruby-eyed creature whose skin was the color of steel and a riot of dusky brown fur. He dropped the box, surprised, when the being spoke.

“Sah,” and a tumble of sounds spilled out of the faintly pronounced mouth. When it brandished a spear in his face, Justin careful raised his hands before dropping to his knees, his eyes automatically lowering to the grass. Best to seem as harmless as possible.

The alien in front of him moved away, but stayed well within spear reach. From his peripheral vision, it came off as the posture Justin himself would take for questioning an unknown, but apparently non-hostile, person. Without the being blocking his line of sight, Justin chanced it and glanced up, got a good look at how truly, probably, f****d he was. A semi-circle of a dozen spear-wielding aliens had trapped him. Massive beings, the shortest two standing as tall as Justin and the tallest one well over seven feet, the rest falling somewhere in between.

All were solidly built, arms and legs corded and long. Their short, sleek pelts ranged in a wild variety of colors, covering their bodies everywhere except the thick chests and hard bellies where the skin colors contrasted severely. All wore some sort of wrap around the hips, the boldly colored fabrics secured with clasp at the side and the cloth came all the way down to the strangely backward-bending knees. The aliens stood on the balls of their lightly furred feet, toes splayed wide for balance.

A quieter voice spoke more unintelligible words, and Justin looked up towards the speaker. Silver eyes caught him fast. This one, not as big as some, but carrying an authoritative air, started gesturing at him in a universal order to stand. Justin did so, and the rest of the being’s facial details started filtering into his awareness. The long and glossy mane of black hair tumbling around the alien’s face, parting high on either side of the large skull to make way for the tall and velvety pointed ears. High-slanting cheekbones and strangely triangular nose gave the creature an almost canine appearance, but the lush mouth and square jaw looked damned human. The black fur was absent from the alien face, revealing skin as pale as true ivory. Silver Eyes, as he privately named the being, issued what seemed to be an abrupt command, flashing very sharp teeth in the process.

Steel Skin grabbed him before Silver Eyes finished talking, wrenched Justin’s arms behind his back, and bound them together with a coarse rope. That was as rough as any of them got with him. A gentle nudge to the shoulder had Justin moving quietly along, the aliens coming around to encircle him with Steel Skin bringing up the rear. Resigned to it for the moment, Justin instead focused on the predatory grace with which Silver Eyes, walking in front of him, moved. The soldier in him appreciated the quick lightness of Silver Eyes’ walk, alert but steady. The human in him was a little unnerved by the long, black, sleek tail.