Barbarian King’s Mate by Ivy Sparks

Chapter One

Daphne

I staredup at my surroundings in awe, taking it all in. This was my first time stepping foot onto an alien planet. But for Dr. Philippa Monteau, my mentor and boss, it was just another romp out of dozens she’d had.

“Come on, Daphne!” Philippa called over her shoulder. “There’s no time for dilly-dallying. We have a lot of work to do before nightfall.”

Pristine white sand stretched away from me. The sea splashed against the beach, and a fragrant breeze graced my cheeks and forehead. Trees bobbed in the distance and dots of native flowers rimmed the dense forest beyond. Rugged mountains framed the entire scene.

In the space of a minute or two, Philippa already strode several hundred yards down the beach. I hurried to catch up with her, shifting my heavy pack on my shoulders, ready for a long, hard slog to our first staging location.

Philippa beamed at the surroundings when I finally caught up to her. Her frizzy wild hair had only become wilder out here in the elements. I was glad I had the forethought to put my hair into a tight ponytail.

“Isn’t this magnificent?” Philippa began, her bespectacled eyes twinkling. “I came here once about three years ago, but my research got pulled before I had a chance to really explore the place. I always promised myself I’d come back here.”

I nodded unconvincingly. While this beach and its surroundings really were stunning, I didn’t want to take it in. The overly picturesque landscape made me nervous, as if something sinister hid beneath.

“Cheer up, Daphne,” Philippa chided. “Let your hair down and enjoy yourself. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lab rat like you. You should be delighted to get out for a change.”

“I know,” I replied. “I suppose I’m just not really one for travel.” I kept it to myself why exactly I preferred to stay in a safe, uninteresting lab.

Luckily, she didn’t pry. Instead, my mentor shielded her eyes from the sun and squinted toward the forest. “Let’s get off this beach and head to the first staging location.”

Within moments, Philippa plunged herself into the thick trees and shrubs, leaving me in her dust. She was like one of those dandy explorers from an old adventure book about discovering new islands—and I was the nervous, no-fun sidekick who wanted to return to the homeland.

And I didn’t want to be that character. I had to trust her. Philippa was an intergalactically renowned botanist, after all.

I approached the swaying fronds where Philippa had disappeared moments before. Just then, a deafening rumble shook the ground. I turned around to see the Quest lifting off. Plumes of exhaust billowed against the sand as the research ship launched upward.

I watched it dwindle up into the sky and turn into a speck before it vanished into the stratosphere. Well, this was it. The ship that took us here was gone. Philippa and I were stuck on this remote, uncharted planet for two entire weeks before we were to radio the Quest to pick us up. I swallowed hard at the thought.

A distant shout from Philippa left me only one way forward. I pushed my way into the bushes, finding a path Philippa had hacked away with her machete. In a few minutes, I overtook her, but as the woods got denser, it required both of us to work to our utmost just to clear a path wide enough to let us pass.

After about thirty minutes, Philippa bent over and propped her hands on her knees. She panted for breath and wiped the sweat out of her eyes, the bangs of her wild hair stuck to her forehead. “Phew! This is getting thicker.”

Philippa was right, but we kept at it for another thirty minutes, not about to give up so early. Just as I was reaching my physical limit, I chopped a branch and burst into open terrain.

Without realizing it, we’d worked our way to the top of a tall hill. It hugged the foot of the mountains, with dark jungle spread all around it. The hill rounded into a grassy knoll before dropping over the other side. A crystal-clear stream tumbled over rocks on its way down into the next valley.

Philippa pulled up to my side, still panting. “Good job, Daphne! You did it.”

“Did what?” I checked the map on my watch. It displayed a green grid with topographical information, with a dot representing where we were. “We’re still quite a way from our staging location.”

“That was only a preliminary location. I hadn’t planned for the forest to be this thick.” Philippa threw off her pack. “Besides, this is as good a spot as any. We can pitch camp here and venture into the forest, the mountains, and into these other valleys. It’s perfect.”

I shrugged and slipped my pack off my shoulders for relief. “You’re the boss.”

“And don’t you forget it!” Philippa laughed. “Let’s have lunch. Then we can build a shelter. I suggest we build it inside the treeline for shelter from any weather.”

We sat down, and Philippa handed me a ration bar from her pack. “I’m glad you came on this trip. It’s fun having a greenhorn as an assistant. I get to live the thrill all over again through you.”

I groaned. “You’re living the thrill, maybe.”

Philippa examined me more closely. “What’s the matter? Why did you come if you didn’t want to explore new planets? You could have stayed in your lab where you would be safe from all of this sunshine.”

I looked away. “Never mind me. I’m grateful for this internship, and I mean that.”

“You don’t have to be grateful for it. You earned it. Any explorer would be delighted to have an assistant as qualified as you.”

“Then we both win.” I bit off a mouthful of rations and tried to forget why I was here.

It was a hard memory to push aside, though. I had wanted to get away from my ex. I couldn’t stand staying at the Academy with him for another day. That was the only reason I had applied.

He had been the love of my life until I caught him cheating. He broke my heart, then he went and slandered me all over the department, turning people who were my friends against me.

But I wasn’t exactly happy to escape to this planet. I never wanted to leave Earth. So many people died on missions like this.

I would know. When I was just a teenager, my parents had died during such a mission.

Philippa put a hand on my shoulder. “I can tell you’re nervous, Daphne. But I hope you can feel assured that we took the necessary precautions to make sure we’re safe on this expedition.”

I nodded quietly. Philippa didn’t quite understand entirely why I was apprehensive, but I appreciated her attempt to comfort me.

“Besides,” she continued. “You’re stuck here, so you might as well enjoy yourself. Whatever troubles you’ve dealt with in the past, you’re here now with an equal, someone who appreciates you.”

I gaped. “There’s… There’s no way you think we’re equals. You’re a legend!”

“I wouldn’t have brought you on this mission otherwise. Now come on. Let’s look around. We can start taking samples for the medical database, the building catalog, food supplies, and everything else. The more usable resources we can find, the more likely we can colonize this place and make a name for ourselves nobody will soon forget.”

With that, she got up and dug out her sample case, handheld scanner, digital tablet, and water reservoir. She also put on her sun hat and strapped her utility belt around her waist. I got up more slowly, but at that moment, my self-doubt evaporated. The great Dr. Philippa Monteau considered me an equal. I was no longer that girl at the Academy with a bad reputation.

I’d never received a compliment like it, and it changed my entire view of this expedition. If Philippa Monteau considered me an equal, then I needed to live up to that evaluation.

For the first time since I left Earth, a smile spread across my face, and I drank in the gorgeous views surrounding the hill. This really was a beautiful planet.

I walked over to my backpack to pull out my equipment. When I checked my scanner, its readings picked up something strange. I squatted down and trained the device on the grass at my feet. “Are you getting this?”

“What?” Philippa asked as she looked at her own scanner.

“This grass—it’s related to glaxis weed from Citronov.”

Philippa turned around and frowned. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “I just cross-referenced it with the database. This grass contains the same traces of salisian as glaxis weed.”

“That’s wonderful!” Philippa exclaimed. “Glaxis weed provides all of the essential amino acids, not to mention its healing properties. The odds of colonization approval for this planet just shot up by fifty percent.”

“Do you really think so, just from one plant?”

“I’m certain of it.”

“Well, that was easy.”

Philippa stuck her tablet inside her pocket. “We aren’t finished yet. Let’s go look in the forest. We might find something even better.”

I turned to follow her back the way we came, leaving our packs safe on the hilltop. I started forward with a spring in my step, excited at the possibilities now.

But I only took two steps before I ran into my mentor’s back. Philippa had stopped. Her gaze trained on a herd of large creatures lumbering up the hill toward us. They loped on all four legs like giant gazelles, but they looked nothing like herbivores.

Their massive heads hung low between huge shoulders. Their forward-facing eyes fixed on us. They bounded on jointed legs that cocked downward like the many appendages of a spider. Shiny, black armor covered their long bodies, curving upward at the back. A sharp-pointed tail arched over their heads like a scorpion.

I had to swallow to get my voice working. “Have you ever seen those before?”

Philippa shook her head. “Previous surveys only found unintelligent life on this planet. They’ll probably pass us by.”

The seconds ticked by, but the creatures didn’t turn aside. They lunged straight up the hill on a collision course for where we stood. My hand flew to my belt, but I had nothing I could use as a weapon. I left my machete in my pack like an idiot. I supposed that was what came of bringing a greenhorn scientist on an exploration mission like this.

The creatures’ legs dug into the soft soil to propel themselves up the slope in great leaps. They covered dozens of yards in a single stride. As they got closer, there could be no more question that they were running straight at us.

Philippa sprang for her pack. “Grab your weapon, Daphne!”

I stood rooted in place, unable to move. The creatures were close enough now that I could see the glint in their black eyes. Their venomous gaze riveted me in position. I couldn’t think or breathe.

The next second, a laser blast sizzled past my shoulder. Philippa opened up with her weapon as the things vaulted over the hilltop. A single shot glanced off one creature’s torso, but it did no damage.

Before I could move, they were on top of us. One creature collided with me and toppled me flat before it sprang over my head and sailed toward Philippa. She let out a piercing screech, then something heavy and hard knocked me on the head.

I struggled to stay conscious. A sickening wave of nausea flooded through me, and my vision soon faded to black.

* * *

I bolted uprightand stared in all directions. I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious, but the sun seemed much lower in the sky beyond the tree branches overhead. I tried to put out my hand, but stiff cords bound my wrists behind me. I couldn’t move my legs either, as they were bound together around my ankles. When I tried to stand up, I toppled back into bars made of cane. I shook the confusion out of my head and forced myself to take my first decent look around.

I screamed when I saw one of those scorpion things a few inches from me. Its beady black eyes inspected me through the bars lashed together with plant fiber. My fingers closed around the bars behind my back. I was completely completely trapped inside a makeshift cage with just a few feet of wiggle room.

I flung my weight against the bars behind me, doing my best to shake them loose, but they didn’t budge. They were a lot stronger than they looked. I looked down to see that my cage was anchored into a stout floor constructed of logs. The whole thing was perched on a platform raised above the ground.

The scorpion—or whatever it was—jabbed one of its jointed legs through a gap and prodded me. I retreated as far as I could, but there was nowhere I could go. The thing poked me twice more and clicked its mandibles in an unmistakable eating motion.

I reared back with another petrified scream, which only made three more of those hideous beasts advance behind their friend. They headed right for my cage, and they all had the same hungry glint in their gruesome eyes.

A lightning bolt of terror rocketed through me. I wrenched myself around and smashed my shoulder against the bars with all my might. I thrashed and fought to break out, but at that moment, my eyes fell on a still figure lying on the ground.

Down on the forest floor, Dr. Philippa Monteau lay on her back with her eyes open. She stared unblinkingly at the sky. She spent her entire career exploring space. Now that career was over. The blood surrounding her body proved that much.

My throat tightened. Philippa was dead. My only guide on this planet was dead, and I would soon follow her, just as I had blindly followed her into this forest.

One scorpion extended a limb through the bars, and its pincers snagged my pant legs. As it yanked me toward it, images flashed into my mind. My parents died on an expedition much like this one. For all I knew, these were the same aliens that killed them. I spent the better part of my life swearing up and down I would never let the same thing happen to me.

Now I was here instead of in my nice, safe lab back at the Academy of Sciences. How in the world did I get here? I never should have left Earth, but being a million miles away from my problems seemed like the only thing to do after my terrible breakup.

Now I was going to die for my cowardice.

One scorpion grabbed the back of my belt and gave a vicious jerk. I toppled and crashed onto my side while the thing tugged and dragged me toward it. I whipped over on my back and kicked out for all I was worth. I dislodged the pincer holding me, but before I could do anything, another creature extended a limb into the cage.

In half a second, what seemed like dozens of those sinister appendages lashed through the bars. They snaked around me, and the only thing I could hear was the sound of their mandibles clicking.

I couldn’t fight them all, especially not with my arms and legs bound. I squirmed and twisted, trying everything to get away from them, but I was utterly defenseless.

One pincer closed on my shirt right above my breast. It clamped around my bra and ripped backward, leaving me bare. I couldn’t worry about that now. Another two limbs caught my legs. A single slice of the pincer broke the bonds, only for the creatures to start prying my legs apart.

A separate pincer sliced up my pants and cut them off, while another slithered inside my panties and started probing around. That cold, creeping sensation electrified me into a frenzy. I couldn’t go down like this. I couldn’t die out here, getting molested by a bunch of scorpion things. I already lost my parents and Philippa. I couldn’t let these monsters take me too. If I died, then their deaths would be pointless.

With a newfound energy, I kicked even harder and managed to free one leg. I screamed for help at the top of my lungs. I had no idea if it would do any good, but I couldn’t just lie down and let these horrible creatures determine my fate.

Not without fighting for my life.