Lindsey McInness peered through her binoculars from the top of the office building, looking at the Fort Lauderdale beach three blocks away. The object she watched, a silver oblong shape, lay unmoving on the shore. The Kalquorian shuttle tilted drunkenly to one side. One of its landing struts was obviously badly bent. The vessel had landed hard, bouncing across the blond sand like a stone skipping across the water. Lindsey had watched it come down half an hour earlier.

Her father Aaron squinted through his own set of binoculars while her mother Tara crouched between them, her face eternally peaceful as always. The sharp sea breeze lifted Tara and Lindsey’s matching chestnut locks and Aaron’s soft grey strands. The breeze was cooling in the heat of the early-spring sun.

Tara finally asked, “Any signs of life?”

“Not yet.” Lindsey put the binoculars down and looked at her mother. Despite Tara’s serene expression, her appearance made Lindsey wince. She was too thin, her tank top and shorts accentuating her starved appearance. Her arms and legs were sticklike. Food had been hard to come by lately and none of them had possessed an extra ounce of fat when Armageddon had struck Earth six months earlier. With Aaron injuring his back falling down the stairs a few weeks ago, the situation was becoming desperate for the little family.

Desperate enough that Lindsey had decided to approach the Kalquorian ship the moment she’d seen it careening through the powder-blue Florida sky. With no sign of life coming from the craft, it was time to make her move.

“I’m going down for a closer look,” she informed her parents.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Aaron frowned, putting down his binoculars too. The past two years had been harsh to him. He was in his mid-fifties, but living in hiding and seeing most of Earth demolished in cataclysmic explosions had aged him badly. His eyes were sunken, his face almost skull-like. It broke Lindsey’s heart to see him look so old.

Her pain gentled her voice when she answered him. “It isn’t a good idea, but those Kalquorians probably have food. If they survived, they might be willing to share. If they’re dead, they won’t need it anyway.”

Before Aaron could argue any further, Lindsey hurried across the roof to the door leading into the building. As she moved, she kept her gaunt frame huddled in a crouch. Kalquorians, other Earthers, whatever was out there—she had no intention of advertising the family’s presence to anyone. Her parents followed, Aaron shambling awkwardly with pain.

At least he could still walk, Lindsey thought. Maybe there was a Kalquorian doctor on that shuttle. Maybe the Kalquorians were friendly, having nothing to do with Armageddon. And maybe Santa Claus was with them, handing out presents to good little children. Help was too much to hope for, but Lindsey had lived on little more than hope for a long time.

They entered the stairwell, finally able to straighten and walk normally without the fear of hostile eyes upon them. Tara also existed on hope, which was obvious in her next statement. “They might know Jessica.”

Aaron’s voice echoed in the stairwell as they climbed down the six flights. “We don’t know for sure the Kalquorians weren’t behind the attack on Earth. We were at war with them, after all.”

Lindsey saved her reply until they reached the ground floor. She entered the office building’s lobby, which had been looted. Graffiti was scrawled on all the walls, charming little notes like ‘God is Dead’, ‘Traitors Die!’ and the darkly humorous ‘My Parents Visited Earth and All I Got Was This Lousy Mushroom Cloud’.

Broken furniture lay in huddled piles, some blackened by fire. Heat blasted like a furnace in the poorly ventilated area and Lindsey was grateful for her tank top and shorts.

The family had made their home on the top floor and roof, where looters and refugees were less likely to discover them. With all government and law enforcement things of the past, it was every man for himself. Survival now depended on one’s ability to defend herself and her supplies.

Lindsey picked her way over rubble to get at a small storage closet, though her steel-toed boots were good protection from the metal and glass pieces scattered about. As she went, she cast careful glances at the entrance doors, now just glass shards clinging to metal frames. They hadn’t blockaded the entrance. Nothing attracted looters like the appearance of defence. Lindsey had saved her booby traps for the top two floors.

She tried for a comforting smile to ease her father’s fears. “If the Kalquorians are as desperate for Earther women to breed with as the underground claimed, it makes no sense they’d have set off all those bombs. Why would you kill off the species needed for your own survival?”

His face went even greyer, if that were possible. “That’s another reason to not rush over to that ship. You don’t know what they’ll do when they see you. They might rape you. Abduct you.”

Lindsey reached the supply closet and opened the door. After pulling out the false floor, she grabbed a percussion blaster. The larger stockpile of weapons was upstairs, within easy reach of where they lived. She came close to laughing at the situation, though she found no humour in it. Her father worried about rape. If he’d known that she planned to offer the Kalquorians sex in exchange for food, he’d never recover his senses.

Lindsey turned back to her parents, weapon in hand. “I’ll be careful.”

Tara winced, her dislike of violence finally rippling through her calm acceptance of life’s rough treatment. “A blaster?”

“You’d prefer me unarmed?”

Lindsey watched her mother struggle. Her fears for Lindsey’s safety warred openly against her Buddhist beliefs against armed confrontation.

Lindsey leant down to kiss her mother’s elfin face, unable to watch the moral conflict duking it out in her eyes. “I won’t shoot them on sight, Mom. I’ll give them a chance to be nice.”

“Do what you have to,” Aaron said, but he lowered his eyes when Tara looked at him. His voice low in apology, he said, “Losing one daughter was more than I wanted to bear. I can’t face losing both.”

Tara nodded her understanding, hugging him close with skeletal arms. Unable to witness their pain, Lindsey turned away and crept to the double doors, alert for any sign of others in the area.

“Get back upstairs,” she ordered. “Stay out of sight. The crash might attract some desperate characters to the area and I don’t want to lose what little we have.”

Nothing outside stirred except the palm tree fronds holding up the blameless blue sky overhead. Lindsey stepped through the doors, angling her body to avoid the dagger shards of glass that reached to spill her blood. She darted to the dubious cover of a burned-out hover shuttle on the street in front of the building, watching carefully for any enemy, be it Earther or Kalquorian.

* * * *

Bacoj was out of the ship and down the ramp the moment the main hatch opened. Japohn’s growl followed him and the brawny Nobek was on his heels in an instant.

“Bacoj, you wait until I’ve determined we’re clear!”

The young Kalquorian turned to face his clanmate. “You’ve been scanning for hostiles for the last thirty minutes. How much more clear can we be?”

The massive Japohn stood over him, his blue-purple eyes scanning the windswept beach on one side and the tall buildings on the other. Long, loose black curls spiralled to his muscular shoulders, left bare by his red-trimmed black formsuit. Japohn was a behemoth by even Kalquorian standards. He looked big and clumsy with three hundred pounds of bulky muscle, but Bacoj knew his Nobek’s agility was not to be underestimated. The man was quick and vicious in a fight. Japohn’s scowl, nearly hidden behind his moustache and goatee, might have given Bacoj pause had the Dramok not been so angry right now.

Bacoj turned to look over their surroundings. On the street bordering the beach, abandoned hovercraft transports and archaic automobiles on round black wheels dotted the surface on which they had once travelled. Almost all of the vehicles were blackened, burnt hulks of metal and moulded plastic. None of the nuclear explosions that had wiped out most of Earth’s inhabitants had happened here. The surviving Earthers had obviously turned on one another in an orgy of destruction.

Japohn’s sharp eyes looked over everything, suspecting every piece of the landscape of harbouring enemies. “We may be under observation from a distance. Let me do my job of protecting you.”

Nobeks were the clan defenders and Japohn was taking his position very seriously. Too seriously, in Bacoj’s opinion. He twitched, shaking Japohn’s heavy hand off his shoulder. “I’m already outside. I need to check the engine to see how much damage was done.”

Bacoj strode over the rippled skin of sand, hearing the soft grind of his knee-high boots against the grainy surface. He restrained a groan at the damage to the underside of their shuttle. It looked like Japohn had used it for a punching bag. He opened the engine compartment, wincing in expectation. “We took a direct hit from that magnetic surge. It can’t be good news.”

Japohn ran his hand over the hull. “The whole skin is crumpled. It’s my fault. We should have taken the long way and avoided the portal like you wanted.”

Yes, we should have, Japohn. But we always have to do things your way, don’t we? Bacoj bit back the angry words. His clanmate sounded sincerely upset with himself, especially since their other clanmate, Vax, had been hurt in the crash. And who was really at fault? He knew who his superiors would blame.

Bacoj took a deep breath. “I was the one piloting. And I am clan leader. The blame for this is mine.” He raised his voice to a yell. “Vax, hit the ignition.”

The shuttle powered up with a thick grinding sound that masked its usual efficient hum. Purplish-black smoke roiled from the compartment and Bacoj coughed as the fumes hit him. Still, there was a sense of relief.

“All right, shut it down!”

The ship fell silent again. Light thumps on the ramp claimed Bacoj’s attention and he turned to see Vax leaving the ship to stand at Japohn’s side. The smallest member of their clan, Vax looked somehow childlike and defenceless next to the Nobek. His well-formed face, usually gentle with a smile, was drawn. His eyebrows pinched close to each other. Bacoj’s Imdiko, the clan’s nurturer, was in obvious pain. With a flush of guilt, Bacoj looked at Vax’s broken arm, which was encased in a hard shell and supported in a sling.

As always, the Imdiko did not look to lay blame. Instead he asked, “What’s the verdict?”

Bacoj smiled encouragingly. “Fortunately, I don’t see major damage to the engine. It’s the power recharger that’s the real problem, along with the loss of all but one thruster. I can repair it well enough for a few short hops.”

Vax, ever the optimist, smiled back. “It beats walking.”

Bacoj looked towards the southwest, seeing nothing but dark, hulking buildings, the glass broken out of windows and doors and strange hieroglyphics painted on their exteriors. He’d learned a little of the Earther language English, since that was the dialect of the area he was assigned to. But he couldn’t read any of the writings posted on the seemingly abandoned buildings. Bacoj was low in rank, a mere shuttle pilot, and he hadn’t counted on much interaction with Earth’s native population.

“I’ll also have to repair the stabilisers. Once that’s done, we might be able to reach the search teams southwest of here within three days.”

Vax’s blue-purple eyes widened. “Three days? There’s no hope of restoring communications with the fleet?”

He must be in agony to be so worried. We’ll have to make him take pain inhibitors. Bacoj swallowed. Vax was an easy-going man, never making waves and content with whatever life threw in his direction. The complete opposite of Japohn, in fact.

“The com panel is fried, along with environmental controls. We’ll have to open the atmospheric vents and hope this mild weather holds.” The gravity of their situation hit Bacoj with renewed strength. “My commander is going to have my head for this.”

Japohn frowned. “I was the one who insisted we take the unstable Bermuda Triangle portal. If anyone is to be punished, it’s me.”

Bacoj regretted sharing his anxiety. “I’m the pilot and the clan Dramok. The responsibility is mine. How is that arm, Vax?”

The Imdiko tried for a brave smile, but he looked like he might vomit. “Sore, but I think I’ll survive.”

“I want you to take a pain inhibitor.” When Vax opened his mouth to protest, Bacoj held up his hand for silence. “We’ve got enough for you to last until we get to the search party’s base.”

“But if someone else needs it—”

“No one else is hurt. You’ll take as much as you need.” It was easy to be clan leader with Vax. He took orders with little argument.

Japohn stiffened and they immediately looked in the direction that had his attention. Vax asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Someone’s coming.”

Bacoj saw nothing moving among the refuse of the Earther landscape but didn’t doubt his Nobek’s claim. A bounty hunter before the war, Japohn could detect danger better than most. Bacoj’s hand went to the dagger sheathed in his belt. “How many?”

“I think one. You two had better get back inside the shuttle just in case.”

Bacoj let go of the blade, confident in Japohn’s ability to handle a single Earther. “We’re a rescue operation first and foremost. It may be someone who needs our help.”

“We aren’t in much of a position to help anyone, including ourselves,” Japohn reminded him.

“Still, let’s not be too hasty to attack if we’re approached. We can at least give a good impression of our people.”

Japohn snorted, his gaze still riveted on the burnt-out husk of a transport vehicle. Bacoj couldn’t be sure if he would obey his orders. Not for the first time, he wondered if he’d made a mistake clanning the assertive Nobek.

* * * *

Peeking through the filthy windshield of an electric car, Lindsey swallowed. Her dry throat clicked. All three aliens were staring in her direction. She’d been spotted despite her best efforts to remain hidden.

At least she was still a block away. Surely that was enough of a head start for her to evade the Kalquorians. Lindsey thought if she was going to abandon her plan to ask for help, now was the time to do so.

But her parents were starving, especially her father. Lindsey knew he’d been going without to make sure Tara had enough food. He wouldn’t last much longer, not the way things were falling apart. None of them would.

Desperation made Lindsey bold. She stood up straight and walked towards the Kalquorians, putting on a brave face like a mask.

She studied them as she drew closer, staring at them as frankly as they stared at her. Her gaze went to the tallest one first. She’d known Kalquorians were big, averaging about six and a half feet tall, but this one was a monster. His clinging black outfit showed every bulge of his amazing physique. Black curls hung to his wide, bare shoulders. His skin, like the other two, was dark like the people of the Middle East. His face was handsome but the expression he wore, watchful with suspicion, made him look brutish.

Fear licked through Lindsey’s belly, turning her insides strangely warm. Heavens, that big man was the most virile-looking creature she’d ever set eyes on. He could probably crush her with one hand. She was insane to approach such a beast.

Intimidated, she moved her gaze to another of the waiting Kalquorians. The smallest of the three men was still at least a foot taller than her own five-five height and well-muscled in proportion to his frame. The tense but gentle expression he wore gave Lindsey courage to keep going towards them.

Hair swept back from his attractive face in soft waves. She liked the strength of his chiselled jaw. He’d apparently been injured. One of his arms was encased in a hard-moulded grey shell and a strap slung around his thick neck held it close to his chest.

The third man was thicker-bodied than his injured friend, his face striking even though it wore a frown. Despite the downturn of his sensuous lips, he didn’t look unfriendly. His was a look of concern, as if he had enough problems without an Earther showing up for who-knew-what reason. He tossed his head as a breeze blew an errant lock of his long, wavy hair across his unlined face. Lindsey wondered if the hair was as soft as it looked.

Lindsey had known the Kalquorians were similar in features to Earthers, but she hadn’t expected them to be so attractive. They were gorgeous examples of masculinity with wide shoulders, tapered waists, muscled thighs and… She warmed as her gaze skittered over the prominent bulges of their crotches. Their clothing left very little to the imagination.

Considering what she was about to do, it was a good thing she found them to be so handsome. Hopefully, she would be as attractive to them. She was clean, at least. Yesterday’s rain had given her the opportunity to bathe.

Lindsey reached the curb across the street from the three men. Without slowing, giving her mounting fear no chance to overtake her, she crossed Highway A1A. Her shaking legs brought her to the opposite curb and stomped over the soft beach sand to stand in front of the black-suited trio. She kept her blaster held loosely at her side. Lindsey wanted the aliens to know she wasn’t helpless, but she didn’t want to be overtly threatening either.

She looked up at them, trying to ignore her speeding heart. Three pairs of purple eyes regarded her, their pupils slit like cats’. That was the biggest difference she could discern between their races. She’d heard they also had fangs, hinged like those of a rattlesnake. A Kalquorian’s bite supposedly rendered his victim drugged and helpless.

They were so damned big. Lindsey had to force her blaster to remain at her side.

“Hello, Kalquorians. Can you understand me?” She enunciated each word carefully.

It was the frowning Kalquorian with the sensuous lips who answered. “We speech some English.”

His voice was a soft rumble, and Lindsey restrained a shiver. His gaze was so intense she had to look away. She nodded at the badly dented spaceship behind them. “It looks like you’re having a little trouble.”

The Kalquorian glanced back at his ship, his frown deepening. His gaze returned to her and he stepped closer. Lindsey caught a scent that reminded her of cinnamon.

“Much trouble,” the man agreed. “Portal unstable. Make damage.”

“The Bermuda Triangle wormhole? Yeah, it eats ships. None of ours can use it unless they’re double hulled with buffer fields.” She licked her lips. “Are you here to hurt Earthers?”

The Kalquorian’s eyes widened and he held his hands up. “No to hurt. We to work containment for radiation.” He made a vague motion towards the northwest. “You understand?”

He must mean the Atlanta blast site. The Kalquorians are trying to contain the fallout? Lindsey nodded. “I understand. Do you have food?”

The biggest Kalquorian’s eyes narrowed and his lips pursed. However, Lindsey saw compassion fill the others’ faces. The Kalquorian who spoke to her stopped frowning. He said, “We supplied short time. You hungry?”

Some of her tension bled away. They were willing to share with one Earther at least, but their food was apparently limited. She had to make it worth their while to feed the rest of her family. Lindsey gave them a hopeful smile, trying for friendliness. It wasn’t easy when her legs trembled so hard.

“Do you have names?”

The aliens’ speaker returned her smile and warmth cascaded through Lindsey’s body despite her fear. The smile lit his handsome face, elevating him to mouthwatering gorgeous.

He said, “I am Dramok Bacoj.” Motioning to the suspicious giant, he continued the introductions. “My Nobek, Japohn. The injured is Imdiko Vax.”

Lindsey dragged her memory for the limited information she had on Kalquorians. “Dramok is the clan leader, right?”

Bacoj looked pleased. “This is correct. Nobek is protector. Imdiko is caregiver. You name?”

“My name is Lindsey.”

She bit her lip. Was she really about to do this? She thought about her father’s drawn face, her mother’s twig-like arms. Yes, she was. She had no choice.

Taking a deep breath, Lindsey plunged ahead. “I’ll be blunt, Dramok. My family is starving. All the food has been looted from the stores and there’s precious little to hunt in Fort Lauderdale. We don’t even have anything to use for bait to catch fish and—”

Bacoj held his hand up, stilling her stream of nervous words. “You fast speak too much, Lindsey. I no understand.”

Okay. Then we’ll just cut to the chase. Lindsey said, “Kalquorians like Earther women for sex, right?”

Three mouths dropped open in cartoonish shock. She almost laughed despite her growing terror. The expressions so didn’t fit the aliens’ faces.

Blinking fast, Bacoj answered, “We are need women for species survive.”

“Then the rumours of your imminent extinction are true.” At Bacoj’s confused expression, Lindsey said, “You like sex for its own sake?”

Bacoj exchanged looks with his clanmates and received very Earther-like shrugs. He returned his gaze to Lindsey. His tone was hesitant, as if he was afraid he would get the answer wrong. “We like sex.”

“With women?” Lindsey had heard so many stories about the Kalquorians that she had to be sure.

“We like sex with women.”

Lindsey couldn’t help another nervous swallow. “Fine. I’ll trade sex for whatever food you can spare. I can’t say I’ll be very good since I’ve never done it, but it’s all I have to offer.”

The effect of her statement was instantaneous. Even as the three men stared at her in continued surprise, the air was suddenly thick with that cinnamon-y smell. The bulges at their groins swelled. Lindsey fought the urge to run screaming. The only male sex she’d ever seen belonged to a statue in an illicit art book she’d gotten from a friend. From the looks of things, her would-be lovers were much larger than an Earther man. Frighteningly so.

The biggest Kalquorian, the scary one Bacoj had introduced as Japohn, spoke in a hoarse voice. “You give sex for us? All of clan?”

Lindsey forced her eyes to meet his. Blue-purple, they were beautiful to look at and the least threatening feature the man possessed. “That’s the offer, big boy. Willing sex from me for food.”

The soft voice of Vax spoke next. “How many to feed?”

“Three. Myself and my mother and father.”

The tension in the men’s exchanged looks told her she was asking a lot. Tears welled up in Lindsey’s eyes. Where would she get food for her parents if they said no? Resolutely, she blinked back the evidence of momentary weakness.

Her tone was less than diplomatic as she snapped, “Well, do we have a deal?”

Vax said something in his own staccato language. Japohn answered, his glowering face easing to show concern. Vax shook his head before delivering another burst of speech, his gentle smile growing. Both men looked to Bacoj, who nodded.

He smiled down on Lindsey, his eyes suddenly bright with eagerness. “We make trade.” He reached for her.

Lindsey stumbled back a step, her guts flip-flopping. She thought of her parents on the rooftop three blocks away, watching the exchange. If Aaron knew what she’d agreed to on his behalf, he’d throw himself down the stairs again.

“Can we do this inside?” she asked, looking towards their ship.

Bacoj nodded. “Good. Sleep mat inside.”

“Okay.” Lindsey’s stomach churned with nerves, and she couldn’t help but look at the large bulges in the Kalquorians’ pants. Handsome as they were, she was sure she wasn’t going to like their attentions one bit.

She turned to wave towards the office building where her family hid, letting them know everything was all right… Okay, lying to them that everything was all right. Her heart pounding, Lindsey marched up the ship’s ramp past the men and entered its interior.