Kate and the Kraken
A SciFi Alien Romance (Alien Abduction Book 11)
Honey Phillips
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Other Titles
About the Author
Copyright © 2021 by Honey Phillips
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author.
Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover by Maria Spada Book Cover Design
Edited by Lindsay York at LY Publishing Services
Created with Vellum
Chapter One
The escape pod smashed into the ocean with a shock that reverberated through Kate’s body, despite the restraints holding her in place. Through the small porthole, she could see a cloud of steam and a giant plume of water, rapidly replaced by bubbles jetting up through a deep jade-colored sea as the pod plunged down into the water. Oh, God, no. The thought of being entombed at the bottom of an alien ocean terrified her. But then the direction of the bubbles changed and a little later, the pod popped back up on the surface.
The aqua-colored sky swung past in dizzying circles until the pod finally settled into the same rhythm as the surrounding waves. Her stomach rolled just as erratically before finally calming enough that she could take stock of her situation.
The padding behind her was thin and worn, but although her back felt bruised and sore, she hadn’t suffered any major injuries. The restraints across her head, waist, thighs, and ankles had prevented her from being flung around the small space and undoubtedly breaking her neck. Not that she had appreciated them when they had been strapped around her.
Eshak, one of the aliens who had abducted her, had shoved her into the pod without any explanation. When she’d tried to demand an answer, he simply leered at her and grabbed her breasts, squeezing them painfully. Her arms were unrestrained and she responded instinctively, slapping his face.
He growled and raised his own hand, but before he could return the blow, Yakshi appeared. Another one of the guards, he was usually less brutal than Eshak.
“What the hell are you doing? We need to get these females off the ship before that Royal Fleet ship catches up with us.”
Eshak scowled. “I still think the captain is panicking. We don’t know that they’re coming after us.”
“Do you want to take the chance and spend the rest of your life on one of the Emperor’s prison planets? Now get moving.”
“But she slapped me.” Eshak’s scowl turned lecherous. “That means I get to punish her.”
“It will have to wait until we pick them up. Now go.”
Yakshi shoved Eshak, and he grumbled but moved away. Was he going after one of her friends now? Before she could ask, Yakshi slammed the door to the pod closed with a loud clang. The capsule lurched, then the acceleration forced her back against the thin padding as it launched itself into space.
As the pod plummeted towards a strange planet, she’d caught a brief glimpse of wide green seas and small scattered islands, but she had been distracted by the increasing heat in the small space. Although the temperature became painfully hot, the shielding had prevented the pod from burning up as it entered the atmosphere, and the air cooled rapidly once the pod hit the water.
Now that her heaving stomach had settled, she could evaluate the situation logically. Although being abandoned on a strange planet wouldn’t have been her first choice, maybe it represented a chance to finally escape from her captors. There had been little she could do while caged on an alien spaceship, but now that she was on land—or at least the surface of the planet—there should be more possibilities.
Aliens. She still couldn’t believe she had been kidnapped by aliens. She had been working late in her lab, as usual, when she realized that she had missed the daily walk that was her minimal concession to the need for exercise. The beautifully landscaped grounds surrounding the lab complex offered a number of walking trails, and she had followed her favorite one around the small lake, knowing that she would be back at her desk in thirteen minutes.
Although it was close to midnight, the trail was well lit and she had never considered the possibility of danger in the gated grounds. But as she took the picturesque bridge over the artificial waterfall, she caught a whiff of something unpleasant, followed by a stinging pain in her neck. She’d had just enough time to wonder why on earth somebody would want to drug her before darkness took her.
The next thing she knew, she woke up in a cage. A small, plump blonde smiled at her sympathetically from an adjoining cage.
“Does your head hurt? I had a terrible headache when I woke up, but it didn’t last very long. You’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
The other woman gave her a sunny smile as Kate stared at her in disbelief.
“Fine? You’ve got to be kidding. Where are we?”
The woman’s smile faltered. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but we’ve been kidnapped by aliens.”
“Aliens? Don’t be ridiculous,” Kate snapped. The woman in the other cage was wearing a much too brief white outfit that barely covered her generous curves, and her curly blonde hair was in pigtails, of all things. How could Kate take her seriously?
But then she realized that her own practical khakis and button-down shirt had been replaced with an identical outfit—a white shift dress that only fastened at her shoulders and her waist. Since she was nowhere near as well-endowed, it covered more, but it was still far more revealing than anything she had ever worn before.
Her fingers clenched in the silky fabric as she looked around. Cages lined both sides of a curved corridor, filled with an astonishing array of animals—animals that could not have come from Earth. Zoology had never been one of her main interests, but she was quite sure no Earth animal had three legs like the pink-furred one in the cage directly across from her.
“Aliens?” she asked the other woman again, but this time it really wasn’t a question.
“Mmhmm.” The woman nodded emphatically, her pigtails bouncing. “Can you believe it? I always thought that UFOs existed, but I never thought one would come and get me! I’m Mary, by the way.”
“I’m Dr. Kate Richards,” she said automatically, then winced. “I mean, call me Kate. Have you been here long?”
“I’m not really sure.” Mary’s face wrinkled into a cute little frown. “A guard came by and gave me some food a couple of times.”
Mary gestured to the front of her cage where two bowls were attached to the bars, one filled with water and the other with a greenish-colored m
ush. The sight horrified Kate. It wasn’t so much the food—she was so frequently distracted by work that she lived on cereal and fast food—but the clear indication that whoever had taken them regarded them as little more than animals. Her own work didn’t involve upper-level organisms, but she had seen enough of her colleagues’ labs that the resemblance to the housing of lab animals was indisputable. Was this some kind of experiment? And who was doing the experimenting?
“Are the guards aliens?” she asked.
“I think they have to be, don’t you? Although they do look kind of human, not green or anything. They’re not too bad.” A shadow crossed Mary’s face. “Not most of them, anyway.”
“Did they tell you anything? Can you even understand them?”
The pigtails bounced again as Mary nodded. “They put something in our ears. I saw them do it to you when they put you in the cage.”
Kate immediately probed her ear, recoiling when she felt something warm in her ear canal that pulsed slightly at her touch. It felt biological, but if it truly acted as a translator, there must have been more involved. Perhaps biomechanical? Her mind started to follow that trail, but then Mary suddenly stiffened. Her smile looked a little more forced as she glanced over at Kate.
“That’s the not-so-nice one. It’s better just to keep quiet.”
Kate followed her gaze to the approaching male. Dressed in a sloppy black uniform, he definitely could have passed as human, albeit an unusually short, hairy one. His heavily ridged brow reminded her of the pictures of Neanderthal man in her anthropology textbook. Perhaps there’s some common ancestry, she thought, fascinated despite her horror. The guard came to a halt in front of her cage.
“You don’t look like you’ll fetch many credits at auction,” he sneered, running his eyes over her. As Mary had said, Kate could understand him perfectly.
“Then perhaps you shouldn’t have taken me,” she said tartly. “Why don’t you take me—us—back?”
He laughed, revealing sharp yellow teeth. “Not much is better than nothing. I wouldn’t have picked you myself. But if you can convince me you’re worth it, I can make your life a lot more pleasant.” He grabbed his crotch, his meaning all too clear, and she recoiled in disgust. She had always found the thought of intimate relations with another human vaguely disgusting, and she certainly had no desire to change her mind with this primitive specimen.
He scowled at her obvious horror and leaned close to the bars. An offensive odor, the same one she had detected just before she was taken, washed over her.
“Then you’d better keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, I get to punish you. And then you’ll be too busy screaming to talk,” he snarled and walked away.
To Kate’s surprise, her hands were actually shaking. She’d been insulted many times before, but no one had ever so overtly threatened her with violence. When she looked over at Mary, her face was pale, but she managed to smile.
“See what I mean? Not very nice. But they’re not all like that.”
Kate turned her head away before she snapped at Mary’s unfounded optimism. Didn’t the other woman realize that their situation was only going to get worse? Auctioned off by alien slavers? She shuddered as her imagination conjured up their probable fate. She had always relied on research and intelligence to make her way through life, but for the first time, she didn’t think they would help. She buried her face in her knees and gave in to despair.
Chapter Two
Despite Kate’s apprehension, Mary turned out to be right. Another guard appeared sometime later, but all he did was fill up their food and water bowls, barely glancing at them before moving along the line of cages and repeating the process. Almost all of the occupants were given the same food, although a few of the animals received something that looked more like raw meat. Given their rather impressive teeth, she suspected they were pure carnivores. Mush was definitely a better option.
The next guard who showed up seemed to be doing an inspection, checking the occupants of the cages against a tablet. Like the first two, he wore a plain black uniform, but he had what looked like an insignia on his shoulder and she decided he must be in charge. He paused outside Mary’s cage.
“You were provided with sufficient nutrition?” he asked.
“Oh, yes, thank you, Yakshi.” Mary smiled at him. “I’m just not very hungry.”
“You need to eat.” He hesitated, glancing around, then pulled a foil wrapped package out of his pocket and dropped it into her bowl. “You may find this more palatable.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want you to get into any trouble.”
Kate did her best to hide her disbelief. Mary actually looked concerned about the guard.
“No one will challenge me,” Yakshi assured her.
“Where are you taking us?” Kate asked, determined to get some answers.
His brows immediately drew together into a frightening scowl. “That is not your concern, human.”
“If it’s money you’re after, I have access to a large bank account,” she persisted, undeterred by his thunderous expression. “I can convert it into gold or jewels.”
“There is nothing on your planet I want.” For the briefest second, his eyes flicked back to Mary. “Now be silent, or I will be forced to punish you.”
Unlike the previous guard, he didn’t seem excited by the prospect, but she had no doubt that he would carry through on the threat.
“She’s just new, Yakshi,” Mary said soothingly. “I promise she’ll be good.”
Yakshi looked down at her, his face softening slightly, then dipped his head. “See that she is.”
He strode off down the corridor without another word.
“He’s the nice one?” Kate asked in disbelief.
“He’s really not that bad. I just think he’s under a lot of stress. And look.” Mary tore open a foil wrapped package to reveal something that looked rather like a protein bar. The color was an unappetizing grey, but it smelled like chocolate. Mary broke it in half and offered her the largest piece.
“Are you sure you want to share this?” Kate asked.
“Of course. Somehow, I don’t think you’re going to win him over.”
Mary’s blue eyes twinkled at her, and Kate raised her eyebrows.
“Did you put on that sweet, helpless little act on purpose?”
“I really wasn’t very hungry, but my mama always said you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
Kate smiled in spite of herself. “I’m afraid vinegar is more my style.”
“So? I make a wonderful vinegar pie. You can always transform ingredients.”
“I’ll take your word for that.”
As they munched their protein bar—which wasn’t exactly chocolate, but tasty enough—Mary told her more about herself. She was a kindergarten teacher and a recent newcomer to the Gulf Coast. The aliens had captured her on the beach not far from Kate’s lab.
“I should have known better than to try jogging,” Mary said with a rueful smile, looking down at her generous curves.
“Jogging?” Kate asked doubtfully. She had never seen the appeal.
“My doctor said I needed more exercise. I like to watch the sun come up over the water so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone and run at sunrise.” She wrinkled her nose. “I can’t say I was enjoying it, but then something bit my neck and I passed out. I woke up here.”
Tears sparkled in Mary’s big blue eyes, but she gave Kate a tremulous smile. “I’m sorry you were taken, but I’m glad I’m not alone anymore.”
“I understand.” She’d always been a loner, but having a companion was surprisingly comforting.
“Did you grow up in the area?” Mary asked.
“No, but I’ve been here—there—since I was an undergraduate. After I got my doctorate, I went to work for an organization studying carbon recycling in the ocean. We get most of our samples off the coast.”
“You didn’t want to teach?”
“God, no.�
�� She shuddered. “I was a teaching assistant while getting my doctorate and that was bad enough. I didn’t like teaching, and my students didn’t like me.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” Mary protested. “I can already tell how smart you are.”
“That’s not always an advantage,” Kate said dryly. “I bet your students love you.”
Mary’s smile faltered, and Kate realized how she must have sounded. “Oh, crap, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. But now you can see why I wasn’t good at teaching. Or anything that requires interaction with other people, actually.”
“I’ll just have to teach you to use a little more honey. It will make your life easier, wherever we end up.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, and then Kate sighed. “Can you hand me that foil please?”
“I’m afraid there isn’t anything left,” Mary said as she handed it over.
“That’s not why I wanted it.” She leaned forward to examine the lock on the cage. “This appears to be an electronic lock. I might be able to use the foil to disrupt the signal and open the cage.”
“Really?” Mary’s eyes widened, but then she bit her lip. “And then what?”
Hmm. She had been focused on the immediate problem, but Mary was right. What were the next logical steps?
“Find the transporter room, I think.”
“Transporter room? Like in Star Trek?”
“Or something equivalent. It’s hard to believe that they’re flying in and out of our atmosphere without being detected.”
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