Calay hit the deck. The impact knocked the wind clean out of her lungs. She gasped, coughed, fought to breathe.
Until she heard the horrific, awful screech behind her.
She writhed, flung her head in the opposite direction. There was no missing it in the dim lighting of the hallway.
Through a cloud of dark brown dust, at the other end of the corridor was an Other in full form. It’s grey, raw-looking swollen body teetered on pin-sharp malformed limbs, its joints sharp as knives. Patches of short, wire-thick hair jutted out in every direction between pustules and spines, the hump on its back grazed the ceiling with each undulating, foul breath. Gods. It was one thing to see the Others in a galaxy far removed from her own, but here, on Earth, within the Resistance walls, was another thing entirely. One Calay wanted nothing to do with.
Through the haze, the creature’s cracked lips seemed to smile.
If it was possible, she would have sworn her heart stopped in that moment.
It jumpstarted when Adam lunged from the hallway. His eyes wild, clothes disheveled. He raised a machete above his head and hollered an ungodly sound.
Calay choked back a scream. She watched Adam swipe at the beast and miss. He tried again. The alien gracefully sidestepped Adam’s advances, moving in long fluid movements like a ballerina.
A retch crawled up Calay’s throat. There was something wrong about how intelligently it moved on those pointed limbs, how beautifully.
Then the beast charged. It ripped the large blade from Adam’s grasp and flung it to the other side of the hallway with ease.
Calay had to do something.
She leapt from the floor and grabbed Adam. They fell backward, crashing to the ground just as one of the alien’s long talons sliced through the air. It missed Adam’s waist by less than an inch. If Calay had moved a moment later, Adam’s insides would have painted the walls.
The alien released another shriek.
They had nowhere to go.
A barrage of bullets sung over their heads, the flash of machine gun muzzles marred Calay’s vision. Her body urged her to run, to hide, be smaller. She grit her teeth, pinned herself against the wall, Adam beside her, and screamed. Or at least, she tried. No sound came out. Instead, she gagged on a horrible, putrid stench that filled her nostrils.
The alien grew closer. One foot. A meter. It was nearly on top of them.
The Resistance continued to launch a full-scale assault at the other end of the hallway, which was proving ineffectual at best.
Black phlegm erupted from a mouth filled with rows and rows of serrated teeth. It seared through the fabric of Calay’s favorite sweater. The tattoo on her wrist burned. She gripped the mark between two fingers, shocked to find she was still holding Adam’s stupid book. Maybe it was the only thing she had to hold onto in that moment. The dream of building something new, something real. A do-over they all deserved simply because they were human and alive. A utopian future she’d never see. Her gaze darted to Adam. He was pressed against her, eyeing the machete that was irretrievably out of reach. She clenched her eyes, braced herself, hugged the book to her chest.
Bullets continued to soar overhead while she tried to ignore the nagging voice deep within her mind that told her she’d fucked up. Somehow she’d managed to survive an expedition to another galaxy, brought down an alien starship, and got her butt back to Earth, and then the first day she was left to her own devices, she’d met the same end she was determined to avoid in space. Stupid stupid stupid. She’d come so far. There was so much she had left to do. She pressed her lips together, her eyes sealed shut. Regret flooded her almost more than the fear.
The shooting stopped.
A loud thunk shook the wall she was pressed against.
The silence was absolute.
Calay pried open one eye. She peered behind a curtain of tears to find the Térasian’s enormous, stinking body slumped on the floor not more than a foot away. She pulled her knees in to increase the distance. As if that would make a difference if it lunged back to life. She released a shaky breath, grateful to be alive. She frowned, not quite sure how that was possible.
“You’re okay.” A voice commanded from above. It was more a statement than a question.
Calay willed herself to turn her head from the monster and looked up to find a woman with brilliant, full red lips squinting at her. Her long, impossibly straight dark hair flowed forward like a waterfall when she leaned down and offered Calay a hand. Calay blinked, swallowed, and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.
“Really should look before you leap, almost got your tits shot clean off ya.” The woman nodded to the book Calay still had clutched to her chest. The woman wasn’t wrong. In the center of the front cover was a jagged hole the width of Calay’s index finger.
“Holy shit,” Calay whispered through clenched teeth. She turned the book over in her hands, thumbed the edge of the bullet still lodged between the pages.
“Everything else still in one piece?” The woman gave Calay a once over, spun her around.
Calay nodded. “I think so.”
“Be more careful next time, yeah?”
“Yes, of course.” A mix of relief and embarrassment settled in Calay’s stomach. “I guess I was just in a hurry to help.”
“I’m not saying don’t do what ya can.” The woman dug through the layers of a wrap-around skirt twisted over a pair of black fitted cargo pants and pulled out a handkerchief. She handed it to Calay, her crimson lips twisted into a frown. “Look. Then leap.”
“Got it.” Calay allowed the corners of her mouth to turn up, accepted the swatch of dark fabric. She dabbed at the tar-like ooze on her sweater.
Satisfied, the woman turned to Adam. “You okay, boss?”
Adam winced and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead. “I am now.”
“Up you get, then.” The woman reached for Adam. Calay helped, taking one of his hands in hers. Together, they pulled him to stand. The woman frowned at both of them. “That was a close one.”
“Too close,” Adam agreed, running his hands over his body as though to make sure he really was still in one piece.
The woman shifted her weight to one hip, she raised her brows. “Look, then what?”
“Then leap.” Adam nodded a little too fervently, his pupils dilated.
She eyed him closely, then nodded and turned back to what Calay saw was a strong formation of Resistance members. They were lined up the width of the hallway, poised and ready to shoot. Calay blanched. The woman wasn’t kidding—Calay had nearly taken a chest full of lead when she’d come around that corner. She was lucky the book saved her and even luckier she’d arrived when she did. Half a second later and the book wouldn’t have stopped all those bullets.
“Hey!” Calay called after the woman as she sashayed away. “I’m Calay.”
“Salem.” The woman replied over her shoulder.
Well, that was one friend. Or at least, one non-enemy. Calay exhaled, wrapped her arms around herself. She tried to avoid looking too closely at the alien. Some of the new recruits she’d arrived with were prodding it with their guns. She gazed around for the man from the cafeteria. Wherever he was, it wasn’t here.
Calay was safe. For now. But if history truly repeated itself, she knew that wouldn’t last long.
From THE STARS INSIDE US by Kristy Gardner. Used with the permission of the publisher, City Owl Press. Copyright © 2024 by Kristy Gardner.
The Broken Stars #3
She’ll burn it to the ground…
The ashes have settled since Calay’s harrowing escape back to Earth, but the threat from the Others–and humanity itself–hasn’t. After surviving devastating losses and impossible choices, Calay drags herself to the doorstep of the one place she never wanted to return: The Resistance.
Forced to trust hidden motives and questionable loyalties, Calay intimately knows the only way they survive, is together. But as she dives deeper into alien territory, her new reality is even more alarming than she could have anticipated. A perma-winter has settled over the planet. A strange new league of mutations has emerged amongst the Others. And despite her best efforts, past decisions come back to haunt Calay–taunt her.
It doesn’t take long for her plans to go horribly wrong. Her terror is compounded when she realizes she’s not only trapped with the enemy–a group that would gladly kill her if they knew her secrets–but that she’s actually started to care for them; especially Briar, the tea-loving, open-hearted woman who makes Calay feel like home.
In these final dying days, stars collide and the darkness within ignites. The world’s future is in Calay’s hands and she must decide what’s more important: saving herself, or saving what makes us human.
Hopeful and devastating, The Stars Inside Us is the third volume in Kristy Gardner’s enthralling queer sci-fi series, The Broken Stars.
LGBTQ Science Fiction | Fantasy [City Owl Press, On Sale: October 1, 2024, Paperback, ISBN: 9781648984808 / eISBN: 9781648984815]
Kristy Gardner is a bi sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writer. She is the author of the Broken Stars sci-fi series, and the award-winning cookbook, COOKING WITH COCKTAILS.
Furnished with degrees in Gender Studies and Sociology, she crafts queer characters that adventure through space, time, and emotional maelstroms questioning what identity – and home – really mean.
When she’s not jet-setting words on her laptop, she’s chasing stars, mountain adventures, belly laughs, curating playlists for her books, and packing her carry-on for another escape to SE Asia. She resides in Vancouver B.C. with her partner.
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