Free Alien Mine by Marie Dry Page A

time in months she dreamt of her mother's death. She stood by helpless, while her mother fought for every breath she managed to take into her lungs.
     
    When the TC came on for her normal eight o'clock wake up, Natalie groaned then lit a solar lamp to dispel the early morning gloom and recoiled when she found him still watching her. Didn't the dratted alien ever sleep? Had he stared at her the whole night? Did aliens not need to blink, or sleep?
     
    She hurried to the cave door, desperate with hope that the weather had changed overnight. Lifting the canvas, she peered out. Snow lay thick on the ground. Her fingers instantly stiffened from the cold, and she quickly put them under her shirt to warm them.
     
    When the hair on the back of her neck stood up, Natalie turned to found Zacar's eyes roving her figure. They'd been focused on her hips but now they lifted to stare at her breasts. Natalie swallowed and his gaze moved to her throat. He was looking at her as if she was some kind of delectable fruit.
     
    She resisted the urge to squirm. "Good morning, alie--Zacar," she said, pleased at how chipper and normal she sounded.
     
    He grunted.
     
    Determined not to show him how much he'd rattled her, she kept her head high as she walked over to the bathing area. Warmth climbed up her cheeks when she remembered her last attempt at bathing, and she hesitated. Perhaps it was better to get breakfast going first. She couldn't deal with much before coffee, let alone an alien.
     
    After the warmth of her tent and sleeping bag, the air in the cave felt icy. She quickly splashed cold water over her face and brushed her teeth while shivering in her pyjamas. At last dressed in her warmest clothes, she hurried to the kitchen area. She sliced the bread, she'd baked the previous morning, for breakfast and doled out a miniscule amount of coffee into a small pot. With a sigh, she put down the slice of bread she'd been about to take a bite of.
     
    He was back to silent staring. She sighed again and went to the tunnel leading to the storage cave. Her teeth chattered from the cold wind blowing in. She quickly lowered the red canvas her father had helped her attach over the back entrance. Last night she'd been too tired and frightened to even think about it. She retrieved a tin of meat from the storage cave and returned to the main cave.
     
    She'd bought tinned goods in bulk relatively cheap when the grocer in town went out of business. The synthetic meat and vegetables was supposed to last twenty years. The best feature was the way it instantly heated when opened. The lid made a small scraping sound when she pulled it back, the heat heavenly to her cold hands. He looked like a meat eater. She could sacrifice a few tins of meat until the TC came online again. Then she would hand him over with gratitude to whatever authority had a working hovercraft to collect him.
     
    "Do you eat meat, b--" She gasped. Oh, God, she'd almost called him baby killer .
     
    He only stared at her.
     
    She grimaced. "All right, Zacar. I hope you like canned..." She turned the tin over, eying the long list of unpronounceable ingredients. "...whatever this is. It's supposed to taste just like real beef." She shuddered. "Heaven only knows how people ever used to eat real beef."
     
    Kneeling next to him, she carefully speared some meat with a fork and held it in front of his mouth.
     
    He turned his head away. "Zacar warrior."
     
    She held the fork against his tightly pressed lips. "Yes, we've established that, but even warriors have to eat."
     
    His head suddenly lunged forward, his teeth snapping at her fingers. The sound echoed around the cave, along with her startled cries. She jerked her hand back and meat went flying everywhere as the tin clattered to the floor.
     
    Scrambling away from him, she held her hand against her chest, her blood instantly freezing as if she'd just done a swan dive into the snow bank outside. Afraid of what she would see, she held