Excerpt

Chapter Two: Jason

Jason Griggs: pilot extraordinaire and hero of the galaxy—those were his titles before crashing onto planet Bob. Now he was simply master of his hut.

The sunlight poured through the window, stinging Jason's eyes. He'd placed his bed there strategically to catch the sunrise, forcing him to wake as soon as it was safe to go outside. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't get up in time and then he'd be screwed.

The other humans on the planet would stir soon, and the wildlife would scatter as soon as those imbeciles started tromping through the forest. Of course, Jason could join them, maybe even teach them to hunt properly, but then they'd try to suck him in to their colony again, and the least amount of contact as he could make with those guys, the better—both for his sanity, and for the good of planet Bob.

The planet wasn't really named Bob, he just liked to call it that because it was far easier to pronounce than the name the natives used. Bob was the name of a planet from an old animated movie his great-grandmother had had in her viewing files. Using the name gave him the warm and fuzzies—and warm and fuzzies were good, when living on a planet that might eat you if you weren't careful.

If there was one thing Jason was good at, though, it was staying alive and making it look easy. Or maybe that was just the cocky attitude he still had yet to "grow out of" because that cockiness kept him alive when Bob was in a bad mood.

The hut itself didn't amount to much. Walls made from the wreckage of his ship and furniture he'd managed to construct from trees, leaves, and other Bob fauna kept him safe. Surprisingly, his sackcloth-stuffed-with-flower-petals bed made for the most comfortable sleeping he'd ever had in his life. What that said about academy cots, he wasn't quite sure. Either that, or he wasn't remembering his life pre-Bob the way he should be.

Life pre-Bob felt like a dream, anyway.

A high-pitched bark outside jolted the last of the sleep away. When he didn't answer, the scratching started at his door.

"Always punctual." Jason scratched his long, gnarled brown beard and hopped out of bed as he threw on his handmade shirt—that had been a fun experiment in trial and error. Not only had he skinned the animal the cloth had come from, but he'd figured out that plant vines did not make for good sewing threads.

The barking turned into more of a whiny yip sound.

Jason groaned. "Dobby, come on. You know I'm not a morning person." The creature gave a firm yelp and he laughed. "Yes, even after all of this time."

He lifted the bolt across his front door and let Dobby in. A medium-sized animal, Dobby reminded him a lot of a huge, blue and yellow striped dog without fur and a tail twice the length of its body. Right now that tail was curled up nice and tight for convenience. As Dobby entered and jumped up to give Jason his usual morning greeting of a tongue bath, the tail loosened a bit to wag.

The locals had given Jason Dobby's real name a long time ago, but it wasn't a word he could pronounce. The little guy reminded him of a character from an old book about wizards his great-grandmother had read to him when he was a kid, so he'd gone with it, and Dobby didn't object to his new name. Over the last year or so, they'd learned how to communicate and understand one another. And thus a beautiful friendship had begun.

Jason eased away from the creature's lapping tongue. "Okay, Dobby, I'm glad you think I taste so delicious, but you need to get off of me. Please." Jason carefully pushed the creature away.

Dobby stood upright on his two hind legs and twitched his long ears. He looked an awful lot like a dog-headed person more than a canine-like being before he returned to all fours.

Jason scratched the animal's head. "Thanks. I want to get our visit over with so we can get straight to hunting. That okay with you?"

Dobby barked and lifted his head in a solid nod.

"Awesome." Jason waved for Dobby to head out. "After you."

Trotting out the door, Dobby raised his nose and sniffed. Jason checked to make sure the wood he'd stacked for a signal fire was still dry and then scanned the canopy, looking to the sky beyond. One of these days, a ship would fly overhead, and he'd finally have the opportunity to light those blasted logs.

Dobby shook his posterior and garbled, scratching the ground.

Jason threw his bag over his shoulder. "I'm not looking forward to going to Perseverance, either, but there are a few things we need to pick up that only they have."

Dobby shot him a glare.

"It's true. Where else am I supposed to find ammo, or get freshly charged batteries? No one is sharing their solar panels with me." The gesture of poor faith still ground on Jason's nerves. Perseverance, the compound created by several ships of human crash survivors, just didn't like to play nice with outsiders. Not even Jason.

Ever since the first freighter had crashed here, Jason had been looking over his shoulder, waiting for them to pounce. At first he'd thought it would be great to finally have some human neighbors. The excitement was short-lived, though, when they'd opened fire on Dobby's clan, killing half of them before Jason could stop the madness.

Of course, that had labeled him an animal lover, as if that were a bad thing, and put a black mark on Jason as far as the newcomers were concerned.

That was fine with him, though. He was okay on his own.

His hut was a tiny efficiency built for one. He'd add to it if anyone ever wanted to leave that hellhole of a compound, but he doubted their self-appointed dictator, Vincent Chrona, would ever let them.

Dobby growled and barked four times.

While Jason couldn't understand the exact things Dobby said, he understood the general meaning, and he got Dobby's hesitation. If the supplies weren't so important, he wouldn't go near the humans, either.

Jason shook his head at his own stupidity. He'd still go, even if he didn't need supplies. Dobby was great and had probably kept him sane all these years, but seeing humans, hearing their voices—even the voices of assholes—filled a void he hadn't known had been there until the others had crashed. He wanted to keep away from them, he just couldn't.

Something squeezed around his ankle.

"Shit!" Jason grabbed for his knife as he was yanked off his feet. "Dobby?"

Jason clawed at his belt as he was hauled into the air, dangling upside down over the jaws of a deep violet mouth of acid-covered teeth. The giant purple petals shivered, flapping wildly as a thick stream of drool oozed down to the ground.

Not again. Not a-freaking-gain!

His knife slipped free, and he stabbed at the vine. "Let me go, Doug. You know you don't like the taste of Griggs." Not that this ever made a difference to the hissing flower.

The vine twitched, and he fell closer to the snapping teeth.

Dammit! He kicked its lower jaw, and the giant flower balked, dropping him.

Jason slammed onto the ground and rolled away in case Doug changed his mind. Luckily, the massive purple bloom closed its gaping maw and eased up into the trees.

A low moan sounded from a bush, and Dobby peeked his head out.

"A lot of help you were."

Dobby scanned the trees above, chattering in high tones.

"Well, you could've at least warned me he was hanging around."

Not that Dobby could always tell when the flowers were on the prowl. Most of the time the giant blooms were closed, digesting whatever they'd caught. It was only when they were open and pretty that you needed to avoid them.

Unfortunately for him, Jason had crash-landed near a really big one, and dealing with Doug was one more thing on his list of things to worry about each day.

Jason pushed up to his feet and rubbed his back. "Come on. We've wasted enough time."

Sighing, Jason ducked under a dangling branch full of vibrant green, shiny leaves. He'd learned quickly to avoid those as well.

Dobby grabbed a few of the yellow leaves below to chew on as he poked the weapon in Jason's pack with his tail.

Dobby hated guns, and with good reason. He'd tried many times to get Jason to leave it behind, but not today.

"I need to protect myself, especially where we're going." It certainly was useless against the plant life. He just needed to keep a lookout for enormous flowers hiding in the verge.

Dobby lifted his head, an expression of sympathy in his big blue eyes. He nuzzled Jason in the leg before unleashing his tail and grabbing a tree branch with the long, curling appendage. Within seconds, he was gone from Jason's sight, running through the treetops above.

Those trees were Dobby's safe place after crossing the outer edges of Perseverance's territory. He and most other indigenous life had learned to steer clear of the humans.

Sometimes, Jason wished he could do the same. He spent most of his time on Bob by himself. Unlike the people of Perseverance, he'd bonded with the planet and found comfort in the trees, flowers, and animals who'd become his neighbors. One just needed to learn to navigate carefully and not get eaten.

Sometimes when Jason walked through the jungle alone, he could hear the trees whispering, or he thought he did. It was very possible he was losing his mind, though. Trees weren't supposed to have personalities.

Even Doug only acted on instinct, trying to eat whatever he caught in his creeping vines. Jason smiled to himself. The only reason Doug had a name was because he was the first creature Jason had run into after crashing on Bob. Even talking to a plant had been better than nothing at the time. Sometimes you needed to act insane to keep a shred of your sanity.

Voices carried on the wind, despite Perseverance still being nearly half a mile away. A few shouts, intoned like orders, made him cringe. Jason stopped walking and scanned the trees. The leaves didn't rustle with the wind, as if they were prepped to defend themselves from an unreasonable predator.

This close to Perseverance, they very well could be right. Dobby poked his head out of the leaves, looked at him, and then slipped into the full cover of the canopy.

Dobby might be onto something. Jason really needed to stop coming here. Jason was king at letting his pride guide him in whatever stupidity he'd chosen for a given day, and of course, today's stupidity was leading him right into the lion's den.

Hopefully, he wouldn't get shot again.

He fingered the dimple scar in his side, a byproduct of saving a native child from a Perseverance guard. He'd earned the natives' trust that day, as well as the recipe for healing ointment using the bark of the most dangerous tree on the planet. Now he'd use that miracle cure to get what he needed and hopefully get out in one piece.

Up ahead, Dobby yipped, pointing out one of Perseverance's lookouts. The guard got points for trying to hide behind the thick, teal leaves of the trees, even if he failed miserably. He wore black, but in this vibrant ecosystem, normal blending colors stood out. If Dobby hadn't alerted Jason, he would have seen the guy on his own about five seconds later.

Jason waved at the man. "It's Griggs."

"I already radioed the boss," the guard called down.

Jason raised his eyebrows, surprised. Someone who actually did their job correctly…a novelty out in the woods. He gave the guard one more wave before pressing onward toward the gates.

Much like his tree hut, Perseverance was composed of wood and old ship wreckage. Because the compound had more resources and people to build it, the walls and gate were actually quite impressive. They were around twenty feet tall and thick, protecting the squatters from the more powerful creatures living on Bob. Some of the larger, hungrier inhabitants of the planet still occasionally tried to attack when desperate enough, but they were learning that winning against the compound was becoming a lost cause.

Perseverance was indeed the perfect name for it. The people who lived there didn't quit, and Jason admired that about them. It was one of the only things he did admire about the people inside.

As he approached the gate, the doors slid open. A group of men with guns trained on him stood on the other side.

"Guys, come on." Jason gave them a weak smile in an attempt to hide his irritation. He held his hands up, gritting his teeth over their power games. "Is this any way to greet a friend?"

The group of guards glanced between one another before slowly lowering their weapons.

"We have a protocol, Griggs," a man said from farther away. The group of guards parted down the middle, revealing the one and only Vincent Chrona.

The hair on Jason's arms stood up, and he gripped his bag hard enough that his skin stung. He grimaced before he relaxed his features.

He could kick himself for his reaction. It wasn't like Vincent never popped up when Jason came for a visit.

Taking a deep breath, Jason offered up his politest of smiles. "It's me. Hasn't it been long enough that your protocol shouldn't apply anymore? I'm unarmed."

Except for the handgun hidden in his pack, but none of them needed to know that.

Jason spun in a circle with his hands up. "All I want to do is trade for—"

"More ammunition, batteries, and some fresh clothes, I'm assuming?" Vincent folded his arms across his well-muscled chest.

"Yes." Jason was very simple in his needs. He never asked for more. In truth, the planet could give him most of what he needed.

Vincent grinned in a way that would make children dive under their beds. As always, no creases could be seen in his outfit, nor were there any stains. His salt-and-pepper hair looked extra sharp today, completing the facade of a perfect commanding officer.

Vincent set his jaw. "That's ammunition that will be in the hands of someone who isn't a part of our family."

"All so I can kill those big nasty tiger piranhas and thick-hided rhino lions for you." Jason shrugged. "It's not a pretty job, but someone has to do it. The meat and the skins are well worth the cost, right?" He held out his hand. "There's no point in labeling me as an enemy. We've been over this." More than a few times.

"You're a human who won't live with his own kind. I'm not sure that makes you a solid ally, either," Vincent said.

"Then I won't give you my skins, or the herbs, seeds, and sap I gathered from the forest yesterday." With another shrug, Jason clutched his bag closer. "Too bad because I got fresh medical syrup. That stuff goes bad quick, and there's no way I'll need five bottles before they start to mold." Jason tilted his head. "Aren't some of your people sick?"

Vincent's jaw tightened. "A good man would let us have it."

"I'd be happy to let you have it, but you just said I'm not your ally, and half your men still have guns aimed at me."

He took a step toward Vincent. Several of the guns cocked, proving his point.

Jason raised his hands slightly. "Clearly, you think I'm some kind of threat just because I don't want to live with you. The only reason that I don't, I should add, is because I've become comfortable in the home I made before you all came along."

And because Vincent was an asshole who had no respect for this planet or the other inhabitants, but that was a conversation for a different day. Picking and choosing the right battles kept Jason alive, as well as comfortable. As long as he kept away from the stinking man-eating plants.

"You're resourceful if nothing else," Vincent said. "And your ability to command the wildlife is a great asset."

He nodded and all of the guns returned to their at-ease positioning. The guards returned to their posts, as if nothing had happened.

Jason needed to keep in mind how increasingly trigger-happy Vincent and his men had become. Something was up with them, which probably didn't bode well for Jason—or Planet Bob.

He shifted his bag. "I don't command the wildlife to do anything. They're happy to help me because we're neighbors."

"They're dogs and cats and trees, Griggs. Just because you trained a few doesn't mean they actually care."

Rather than argue, Jason followed Vincent deeper into the compound. He smiled at a few of the women sitting on the front stoops of the uniform homes built along the dirt road. None of the ladies acknowledged him. Their gazes remained firm on Vincent, and one of them shuddered.

Jason had never seen the women anywhere but in their doorways, or tending gardens attached to their modest homes. It hadn't taken long for Jason to realize fear kept them close. It also didn't take a master's degree in population studies to figure out the greatly uneven ratio of men to women in the compound.

The colony only had a little over a hundred residents, from what he could tell. He tried to remember the women's faces he'd seen over the years, and he'd only counted eleven. That wasn't good odds if the men got unruly, and if the guy in command was an ass.

Vincent led him to the supply bunker, a place Jason had been a number of times. If he wanted to, he could easily break in and take what he needed, especially if Dobby was on board for a little snatch and grab. It would be weeks before anyone figured out anything was missing, but Jason valued his integrity.

Also, even though he hated this place, he didn't hate seeing people. Yeah, he was a badass, and he'd never admit it to any of these cronies, but he missed home, and this star-forsaken place was the closest thing he had to Earth at the moment.

Perseverance kept the hope alive that someday a ship would fly overhead rather than crashing, and he'd finally leave Bob far behind.

The door to the supply bunker opened and Vincent slipped in, leaving Jason outside to wait. A flash lit up the sky…probably another meteor pulled into the nebula. They usually burned up in the atmosphere and posed no threat, but the light show reminded him of thunderstorms back on Earth.

A few minutes later, Vincent returned with three large boxes of ammo, and two fully charged batteries.

"This should be more than fair," Vincent said.

Jason stared down at the boxes, unsure if he agreed. "I have skins too."

"I'll have the ladies sew them into something fresh for you. We don't have much of a need for them at the moment."

Jason considered the deal before pulling out his bottles of medicine and the animal skins. "All right."

The trade completed, Jason itched to take his wares and run. Vincent had never reneged on a deal before, but the mood in the compound seemed to darken with every visit, and Jason always had to wonder if each trade might be their last.

"As always, it's been a pleasure," Jason said. "I'll be back in a few days for the clothes, and I might have some more medicine or other goodies for you."

"We appreciate what you do. We might not show it well, but we know it isn't a simple task, and we're always grateful for your willingness to cooperate, unlike the other locals."

The other locals… The natives didn't want anything to do with Vincent, and for good reason, but this wasn't a fact worth pointing out to someone unable to see things from anyone else's perspective.

Jason gave the man a salute, knowing Vincent always appreciated a military touch. "We've got to look out for our own, sir," Jason said, meaning every word except the 'sir' part. That was just to butter up the imbecile in charge.

"That we do." Vincent returned the salute. "Until next time, Captain."

Jason flinched at the title. It felt wrong every time someone said it, but he'd gotten tired of correcting people.

He nodded. "Until next time."

Jason took his things and put as many of them into his bag as possible before walking out of the gates at as brisk of a pace as he could manage without running. He passed the same women on the porch, but this time they all jumped to their feet. He hesitated as they made eye contact. Their clothes were worn and dirty. The tallest of them had bruises on her arms that looked far too much like hand imprints.

One of them mouthed the words, 'Help us.'

At least that was what he thought she'd said.

He stopped and looked to where he'd left Vincent. When he turned back to the women, the same girl mouthed, 'Please.'

Jason gulped. The lack of women here always made him uneasy. After all, he was a guy. He knew how guys could get. He didn't even want to think about why they would ask for his help.

"Move along, Griggs," a guard called.

There really wasn't much he could do. Not now, at least.

He nodded to her. At least he could let her know that he understood, and he continued to the gates. As he passed through, he noted six men on one side of the gate, and five more on the other side. Yeah, Vincent was paranoid, but maybe it was founded. For the first time, Jason wondered if those guards were as much for keeping the people inside the gates as they were for keeping the wildlife out.

As soon as the gates were closed behind him, he slowed. The look on that girl's face tugged at his soul. The hero in him screamed to run back there, guns blazing. After all, that was what he'd have done a few years ago, before the crash, when he'd been young and stupid, his head filled with the ridiculous idea that nothing could stop him.

Then he got sucked into a nebula.

He moved deeper into the trees before Dobby chirped and dropped next to him, barking with excitement.

He scratched his friend between the ears. "Yeah, I got the stuff." He held up his bag. "Those medicines you gathered for me did the trick. I should be set for a while."

Dobby bowed his head and let out a happy whine.

"I'll have to return and get some clothes they're going to make me, though." He looked back toward the gate. "And I think there are some people in there who might need our help."

Dobby's ears perked up. He chirped twice.

Jason started walking again. "Yes, I know Big Ugly Man has guns." Goodness knew Dobby and his people had seen those overzealous soldiers use them. "I'll figure something out."

Dobby shook out his long ears, a movement that shifted through his body and ended in his tail. Jason had always equated that to Dobby's version of rolling his eyes.

His friend might have a point, though.

Jason didn't have a fighter jet to outmaneuver everyone else this time. He only had himself, Dobby, and whatever ammunition Vincent provided, which was always less than enough to mount any kind of offensive against Perseverance.

A boom sounded above, followed by a loud whistling sound that reminded him of an airplane. A fireball roared over the canopy, getting increasingly bigger by the second.

Stars of Mars!

Another ship was crashing, and it was headed straight for his hut.