by Jade Waltz
Copyright © 2019 Jade Waltz
Project: Adapt - Found is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
All rights reserved.
Published by: Jade Waltz
Second Edition: August 2019
E-Book ISBN: 978-1-7335136-0-9
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7335136-1-6
Cover Artist:
PreMade Book Covers by Atlantis Book Design
http://https://www.atlantisbookdesign.com/
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Formatting services provided by Purple Fall Publishing
Husband,
Thank you for supporting me with this crazy adventure.
You understood I needed a channel to express myself and to put the stories in my head into words.
I love you.
Jason,
Thank you for everything.
If it weren't for you, I would be some lost girl still looking for some help.
Readers,
To all the alien lovers who would wear a "Take Me!" shirt when aliens come to abduct us - this is for you.
This book is the beginning of an expansive universe.
I hope you all will take this incredible journey along with me.
~Jade Waltz
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
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Epilogue
Chapter One
5313-3F
“I will return for you, my little Nova, I promise…”
Those were the last words he’d whispered to me before he left me alone in my cell, my only known home, nine days ago.
I believed him then.
After so many years walking almost nightly with me in my dreams, he’d earned my trust. The instant connection when we finally met in person had convinced me I knew him. A bond that led to our one night of passion. Now I am starting to have my doubts. He hasn’t returned to my dreams since.
Had it all been some trick? Some ploy the Yaarkins designed to make me submit to their experiments? I’d thought that the first few times he visited me, but after countless years of seeing him in my dreams, I believed him when he said he was real.
Had he sensed my desperation to finally meet the only person who seemed to care about me? Not that it mattered anymore. He’d been a paying customer and would have taken my virginity from me—with or without force.
I still didn’t understand why sex was such a big deal. Sure, he’d tried to make it feel nice for me, but between his size and anatomy, the experience had given more pain than pleasure. After the disappointing night I had, I didn’t see why the other human females raved about their nightly experiences to each other. They had accepted their fate and acted more like voluntary pleasure workers than slaves sold for sex to the highest bidder.
Maybe my studies had been wrong after all. Perhaps my masters had somehow broken me with all their tests and experiments. Or the excitement of spending the night with him had been spoiled when the things I’d envisioned hadn’t happened.
It had tarnished the whole experience. I’d been disappointed when the images from my studies differed from reality. Perhaps it was a good thing sex with my dreamscape male had been a one-time thing.
I was used to being disappointed.
I was a Yaarkin-created prototype, their prized possession.
Being different from the other human experiments had its advantages and disadvantages.
I’d never had to deal with being sold to clients as the other female humans had. But the other females steered clear of me in fear of what the Yaarkins might do to them too. They didn’t want to suffer the daily experiments I was forced to endure.
So, I remained the sole focus of the Yaarkins’ tests and experiments. The pain they inflicted daily wasn’t what I would call fun, but the freedom in not being forced to service multiple clients made the sessions worth it. They kept me segregated from the other humans aboard the ship, and I only saw them passing in the hallway.
Something had changed nine days ago.
My masters had feared their experiment with me was a failure. Instead of my usual daily tests and experiments, I’d been placed in a showcase with the other human females. Since I wasn’t a regular pleasure slave, my masters had hoped they could sell me to a higher-paying customer by advertising me as a unique experience. They made it clear—as long as I behaved and made my special customer happy, I would continue to live to earn back some of the money they’d invested in me.
When the time had come for me to walk on stage at the showcase, I’d kept my head high and tried to focus only on getting through it. But when I glanced at the crowd as they cast their bids and he had won, I froze, my eyes locked on him. He’d stood motionless at the back of the room, a figure in a black hooded cloak and gloves, with those amethyst eyes I would have recognized anywhere.
Later that evening, he’d been delivered to my room. He had kept the lights off and had been in control of both the conversation and the whole sexual experience. And he held me afterward until the time had come for him to leave.
I didn’t really mind. He may have used my vulnerability. Yeah, the pain from that night had taken some time to go away, but I was grateful I had experienced my first—and only—time with someone who had at least acted as if he cared for me.
The other humans I came across ignored me almost as much as my masters did. Any physical contact I had with my masters was strictly clinical, and even then, the Yaarkins were more machine than anything biological. They hid anything that wasn’t robotic under metal armor, leaving nothing visible for anyone to determine their species.
After many years of playing the loyal test subject, always alone, I craved any form of companionship. An overwhelming need to be touched, to have contact with other biological beings capable of feelings rode me every waking moment.
The result? Me giving into my needs and allowing him to do whatever he wanted with me, just so I could experience the touch of someone organic and living, not something cold and hard.
And now, I’d finally come to the realization I needed to find a way to escape on my own. To depend on someone to rescue me, no matter what strange connection we’d had, was clearly not going to help me. My dreamscape male hadn’t met me in my dreams since that night. I felt foolish for trusting him.
>
I laid on my back on the bed, staring up at the blank ceiling on the evening of the ninth day since that night I spent with him. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t forget the night with my amethyst-eyed male. Thoughts of him plagued my mind.
Should I continue to believe the promise he made me? My dreams have been empty, and I haven’t been sold to another since that night. My mind played the question endlessly.
An alarm blared, startling me from sleep. I scrambled out of bed and darted to the cell door to peer out the porthole, hoping I could figure out what was happening.
“Attention, humans! We are under attack. When your doors unlock, head to the hangar to receive further instructions,” a robotic voice commanded from the ship's speakers.
A tsunami of feelings rushed through me.
Fear of what was happening.
Excitement because the commotion could indicate a rescue. Is this it? Did he really come back for me?
Anger for I couldn’t keep him out of my head.
I forced myself to focus, suppressing the maelstrom of emotions and halting my wishful thinking. Now was neither the time to panic nor get my hopes up—it was time to survive. Plenty of time to think of him after I reached safety.
Placing my hand on the door scanner, I slumped with relief when it lit up green, unlocking the door. Easing forward into the doorway, I peered down the hall filling with the other female humans. Most hurried by with fear-filled faces. The few who noticed me met my gaze with shock in their eyes. One or two made a snide remark and snickered as they passed me, but all rushed down the hall toward the hangar. I ignored them, stepping out to elbow my way through the crowd. Survival was my focus; the others didn’t matter.
I crammed into the lift with a group of panicked females. They shifted restlessly and surged out of the lift as soon as the doors opened, then down the hall that led to the hangar. I trailed behind as the others pushed and shoved ahead of me, nearly drowning out the urgently blaring alarm with their screams of panic.
Each time the ship shook from an impact, the level of hysteria increased.
Panicking wasn’t going to help anyone in this situation. There was enough time to be scared once we escaped the fight.
I slipped into a side hallway and paused, allowing the other humans to continue to the hangar alone. This was my chance.
From the sound of explosions and how violently the ship shook with each impact, it was apparent we were losing. I needed to find my way to the Engineering Bay I knew contained personal escape pods.
Decision made, I sprinted down the hallway, taking a moment to pause at every intersection. Each hall was bare. It seemed everyone was busy either fighting or escaping.
At the last intersection before Engineering, I looked carefully around the corner.
All was clear.
As I rounded the corner, pain exploded across my face. My head snapped to the left and my vision blurred as my knees buckled from the impact. Before I could hit the floor, a hand tangled in my hair, and my head was wrenched back, dragging me upright.
“Where do you think you’re going?” a deep voice purred in my ear. A long, wet tongue slithered across my neck as he tightened his hand in my hair. I screamed and my eyes filled with tears of pain as hair was torn from my scalp.
He covered my mouth with his scaly hand, silencing my screams, then slammed me up against the wall, pinning me with his full weight. My whole body ached in pain as my vision began to blur.
“Looks like I got myself a little pleasure toy to enjoy during my escape.” A rumble of laughter rocked my forehead and chest bruisingly against the wall, and his grasp on my hair shook.
Pain shot through my skull.
I could feel his hardness digging into my lower back. Dread and revulsion filled me, followed closely by despair. I tried to flinch away, to arch my back away from his erection, but there was nowhere to go.
As he pulled me away from the wall, I stumbled, unbalanced by the sudden shift—his grip on my hair, my disoriented state, and the ship’s tremors.
An explosion erupted beside us. As the ship shook from the impact, the male lost his grip on my hair and on me. He staggered back, then careened forward into me, knocking us both to the floor. I hit the wall hard on the way down, the wind whooshing out of me with the force of the fall.
I laid, stunned, on the deck.
My right cheek throbbed, and pain lanced through my face when I tried to open my mouth. I couldn’t seem to make my limbs respond as I struggled to turn over, the pain agonizing. My tears dried up as my brain scrambled to make sense of what had happened.
Was I dying?
I was determined not to give up. I let myself hope the ship was under attack because he had returned for me and kept his promise—no matter how fucked up the situation was.
Glancing behind me, I saw a miracle. Bless the Stars, Fates—whatever or whoever needed to be blessed. It didn’t matter. I would praise them all if I survived this.
The male who’d attacked me lay on the ground, his ugly reptilian body still smoldering in places—badly burned when the wall exploded. A huge chunk of his neck was missing, and his green blood flooded the floor.
His body had protected mine from the blast, killing him in the process.
As feeling returned to my body and the pain made itself known, I experimentally moved my limbs—agony—but I had to get moving. Gathering the last ounce of energy I possessed, I ignored the pain in my body and pushed myself off the floor. I braced my right hand on the wall and limped to the Engineering Bay.
Collapsing against the doorway as I entered Engineering, I scanned for the escape pods, my gaze frantic when it seemed all were missing. At last, I noticed a single pod remaining in the far corner and sent up another blessing to whoever it was who watched over me.
As I limped toward the pod, I dodged the debris that had fallen all over the bay. Several times, I had to stop and lean against a pile to catch my breath. The trip across the bay seemed endless as I shook with chills and struggled to focus past the pain.
I was barely conscious by the time I slapped the pod’s button, opening the door. I fell into it, not caring about buckling up—I only wanted to get away. Surely the ship couldn’t take much more abuse—the shaking and sound of explosions were increasing—and who knew how much longer I’d have before either the hijackers or my masters showed up.
I didn’t want to wait around to find out.
Looking over the pod’s controls, I cursed. I couldn’t read anything. So, I did the only thing that seemed reasonable, smacking the big red button that looked just like the one that had opened the pod. When the door closed and the sound of locks engaging filled the small space, I collapsed with relief.
There was a sharp jolt, then my stomach climbed into my throat as I felt the escape pod dropping away from the ship. The thrusters roared and my body was pressed back into the seat from the force.
Exhaustion hit me, and I could no longer ignore the excruciating pain. I leaned back in the chair, taking in a long, deep breath. I closed my eyes and slowly exhaled.
I made it.
I escaped.
Relief flooded me.
My eyes refused to open. My limbs refused to move, even when my unbuckled body was thrown across the cockpit.
I didn’t care.
I heard a hiss as the cabin filled with gas, and I slipped into unconsciousness.
I hope I survive this...
Chapter Two
Xylo
“All medical personnel and Senior Staff to the hangar,” Z’fir’s tenor mental voice ordered.
“Confirmed, Sire,” Xylo replied right away.
Xylo set aside the research report he was reading and stood. He hurried to the door of his suite, grabbing his scanner and medcase along the way.
After five long years searching the Aldawi territory for a habitable world the crew could settle, every day seemed the same. This emergency sent excitement fizzing through him. Something to shak
e up the familiar routine.
As he hurried from his quarters, Xylo wondered about the emergency. The ship’s scanner drones would not return for another few days and their current location was not near any habitable planets. There had not been any departure of the fighter squads either.
Perhaps they were being hailed by the Aldawi or one of their allies?
Xylo’s cabin was on the deck with the medical staff, instead of the top floor with the Royals and other senior staff. Xylo was the ship’s Master Scholar in charge of organizing all research available to the alliance. Which meant he needed to understand and memorize as much as possible about the species encountered by and registered with The Conglomerate of the Euph Galaxy—CEG. He also needed enough medical knowledge to assist the Circuli healers with any species they might encounter. Living with the medical personnel helped him fulfill this responsibility.
A responsibility that had never been needed until this current mission.
Xylo enjoyed being on the same floor as the rest of the science staff. The infirmary, where he spent a great deal of his time, had a hallway connecting directly to the hangar bay. Everything was conveniently located, and it did not take long to get anywhere he needed to go—unless he had to report to the princes or to the bridge. His rooms on their ship—the Destiny—were only a floor above the infirmary with public spaces one floor above the living suites. There were four pairs of private lifts between the three main floors. The lowest level contained the infirmary, hangar bay, and storage bays, the middle level held all medical and science staff living spaces, and the third floor consisted of the general dining halls, entertainment halls, as well as access to the ship’s terrarium.