Chapter 3: Just one touch

Mick was sure this situation was his own personal hell, and as a matter of fact, maybe he actually was dead, killed by the alien intruders, and this was his reward for all the havoc he'd wreaked during his life.

If so, the devil had a sick sense of humor.

Amaya hadn't said a word to him since he'd insanely blurted out his thoughts and they had learned of the aliens' powers to make humans speak the extremely embarrassing and badly timed truth.

Once they landed on Fossinandra IV, the aliens simply went off on whatever their stupid mission was, leaving Amaya and Mick just sitting there staring at each other.

"So," She began, her eyelashes fluttering as she searched for the right words for this unique situation. Probably a kind rejection, which he did not need to hear in order to know he didn't have a shot in hell with her.

"Forget it," Mick muttered. "Let's just go find the rest of the crew."

"Okay," Amaya said, looking a little thrown by his attitude. But why? He half-allowed himself to wonder.

They headed for sick bay. There, they found Sara, Jax, and Stein each strapped to a bed, the only safe place for them to endure the unplanned time jump. Sara jerked her confining straps aside, while a bandaged, weary Jax just winced and Stein sighed heavily.

"I can't believe they got the drop on us like that!" Sara exclaimed angrily, blaming herself as the current commander of the vessel for making it so easy. She started to pace back and forth, steam practically pouring from her ears.

"It's not your fault, Miss Lance," Stein reassured her, "No one could have seen their arrival coming. Had I not been in sick bay already, organizing our supplies, I would have been thrown from one end of the ship to the other with that sudden time jump. Speaking of which, where are Nate and Ray?"

"Let's find out," Sara decided, launching herself forward as though she was going to burst if she didn't do something, anything to remedy the situation. Mick understood the feeling well. Her warrior instincts and tough attitude weren't all that different from his own, leading to his respect for her as a commanding officer.

Amaya and Mick trailed behind Sara and they discovered Ray in his quarters, having clung desperately to his bunk to keep from being injured. Nate hadn't been as lucky, and they found him crumpled in the corridor near his own quarters, moaning in pain.

"Ow," Nate declared emphatically, and Sara dropped to her knees to examine him.

"I think your shoulder is dislocated. Hang on a second. This is gonna hurt."

She snapped his bone back in place and Nate screeched in agony. "God, how about a little more warning next time? Man, I really hope there isn't a next time."

"Um, I did warn you," Sara reminded Nate briskly, adding a pat on the back for good measure. He flinched in pain. "You'll be okay." She helped him up and then they updated him on the situation.

"We have to go find the aliens and stop whatever changes they might make to the timeline," Sara noted.

"I agree," Ray added, "It's pretty obvious that they chose this time, probably even this exact day — however that plays out in their version of the calendar — for a specific reason."

"To change history," Amaya nodded. "I'd like to be part of the team that's going to investigate."

"Yeah, it should be you, me, Mick, and Ray," Sara said, "Since Nate and Jax just got the wind knocked out of them. Stein can keep an eye on them."

"Um, I don't need a babysitter, and I'm fine to go out there," Nate announced, attempting to step forward and confirm this assertion, then stumbling slightly. "Ooo-kay, maybe not."

Sara rolled her eyes. "I'll take you to sick bay. You three, get ready. Find out what kind of disguises we need to blend into this place."

"I can't believe I have to go out there with all those…truthy alien bastards," Mick mumbled.

"Yeah, well, ya do," Ray said with an encouraging grin. "Let's see what passes for fashion on their planet!"

Soon after, Ray and Mick had changed into beige, loose-fitting shirts made from coarse material with brown pants, while Sara and Amaya sported dresses from the same beige cloth, tied around the waist with dark brown cord. None of them wore shoes.

"The people of this planet do not wear shoes," Gideon informed them cooly.

"We'll just have to try not to step on anything sharp," Ray said brightly, as usual trying to put a positive spin on the situation as the others grimaced at the thought of wandering around barefoot.

"Let's not forget the finishing touch," Sara said, handing each of them a bracelet made from the same cord that tied her and Amaya's dresses. In the center of each cord was a green gem. "Once you have your bracelet on, press the gem down. Gideon's designed these to project the appearance that we are green-skinned, lizard-y creatures like everyone else out there on Fossinandra IV."

They all pressed the gems accordingly, but nothing happened aside from a slight shimmer of gold light that skimmed each of them momentarily.

"What's the deal?" Mick chortled derisively. "You bozos all look the same, and I do too," he confirmed, glancing at his hands held outstretched in front of him.

"The illusion is visible to the aliens, but we look the same to ourselves and each other," Sara explained, rolling her eyes. "Now, let's go."

Fossinandra was a burst of bright oranges and greens, the ground beneath them coated in soft tangerine-colored sand that seemed to glimmer with effervescence in its oddly comforting texture. The sky was a shocking shade of emerald, with a purple-blue moon nestled in crescent shape among lazily drifting azure clouds.

"Wow," Sara admitted, taking the place in, "This place is amazing."

"Check out this sand, you guys," Ray commented, letting some of the glittering granules pass through his fingers. "No wonder these people don't need shoes. It's like walking on a carpet made of bubbles."

"Amazing?" Mick repeated, annoyed. "I was gonna go with weird. Now let's get this show on the road. We're not here to admire the view."

He strode off grumpily, leaving the others to get their bearings. Taking out a pair of high-tech binoculars, Mick squinted around at the environs for as far as he could see in either direction. Structures made from heavy slabs of black wood stretched up from the ground off to the east, so he guessed that's where they were heading. There wasn't a damn thing around here other than that, unless you counted these stupid looking pink flowers and trees with branches drooping under the weight of juicy-looking yellow fruit.

"Probably poison," Mick guessed, kicking one of the trees for good measure.

"What did the tree do to you?" Amaya asked, putting her hands on her hips and giving him a searching look as she approached.

"It's in my way, just like everything else around here," Mick growled, avoiding her eyes at all costs.

"And that includes me, I suppose?" Amaya said softly, stepping closer.

He let his eyes barely flit up to look at her sweet, kind expression, and frustration clouded his mind.

"Listen, I don't wanna have this conversation, okay?" He blurted, "It's not my fault my mouth got hijacked by truth-enforcing aliens and I said a bunch of lame stuff that probably ruined whatever it was we had between us. I thought maybe you were a friend, maybe. And I don't usually have those. Now it's just a mess. So I get it, you're weirded out, and you want to talk about it because you're nice. Well, I'm not nice and I don't want to talk about it."

"Hey Mick," Amaya stopped him as he turned to go, letting her hand slide gently from his shoulder down his muscular arm, the motion feeling like a caress. He startled slightly. "You're making a lot of assumptions here, don't you think?"

Finally, he looked at her, knowing and dreading the knowledge that his face showed with total honesty the vulnerability he felt when it came to her, the dumbass way his heart leapt whenever she smiled. Infuriating and totally out of his control.

"Stop hiding from me," She murmured, running her fingers over his cheek and eliciting a deep sigh from him that felt like the first time he'd breathed out since they'd landed.

"Guys?" Sara's voice piped up. She stood off to the side and pointed into the distance, where Mick had noticed the group of buildings. "Let's go see what's going on over there. Probably where our green friends headed when they set out." If she was at all put off by Amaya and Mick's intimate posturing, she didn't show it. Ray winked at Mick, and he felt his own face turn red. What a prick.

Amaya cleared her throat and stepped back slightly. "We're coming," she nodded to Sara, and Mick followed her, wondering what in the world was happening to the iron-clad defenses he'd built up around his emotions.

She had the ability to shatter those walls with a single touch.