by Erin Raegan
“What is your planet like?” Star asked shyly. She hadn’t warmed up to any of the aliens. I was surprised she asked. She hardly spoke at all most days.
“We no longer have a planet to call home,” Kil answered stiffly. It was weird to see him looking anything but amused—besides when he ripped off Wyvr’s head. Even then he’d looked as though he was enjoying himself.
Star flushed and looked at her lap.
Nathan scowled at Kil. “You just live on your ship?”
“Yes, and among the planets we conquer.” Kil flashed Nate a grin, but his eyes were dead and haunted.
“Are you planning on conquering our planet?” I asked suspiciously.
Olynth stiffened and stepped closer to me. Fihk looked over his shoulder at me.
Kil chuckled wickedly. “Could you stop me, lovely human?”
I sat up straight and glared at him. “No, but I get the feeling this Tahk guy doesn’t like you too much. Can he?”
Kil’s grin wiped clean, and he looked away. “Ah, young Tahk… perhaps, but I do not wish the human species harm.”
“Why are you helping us then?” Did no one have the same trust issues as me? For a bunch of guys who didn’t even like him, the Dahk seemed awfully accepting of his interference.
“I too have a vested interest in your species’ survival, their freedom.” Kil watched Earth move closer with a gaze that bordered on anxious.
I was starting to get a weird feeling about the pirate. “What interest?”
The ship seemed to tense. Even Gunnor seemed on the edge of his seat as we waited for the Kilbus Lord’s answer.
“Do not worry, Bailey. It will have no negative impact on you or yours.”
“Negative impact? Who will it have a negative impact on?” I felt the ship shake as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.
“That is for me to know, and her to find out,” he said wryly and grinned at me with that hot, wicked light in his eyes.
Linda sucked in a breath, but the rest of us were silent as Fihk flew to our destination.
Kil wanted someone here. Likely a human. For what and why, I had no clue. But I worried for whoever she was. If the guy could control your every action and read your every thought, she had no hope of escaping him.
We landed in the woods somewhere near Georgia. It was hot and had recently rained. For the middle of fall, I was surprised by how hot it was, but I was grateful we were no longer out west. I didn’t have a jacket.
I didn’t know how the aliens knew where to go or who they were looking for, but Albun had been talking about his surveillance, so maybe they’d watched and figured it out.
“You will stay here with Olynth—” Fihk started, but I cut him off by holding up my hand.
“Nope, we’re coming.” I crossed my arms. His gaze dropped to my propped-up breasts. I groaned and dropped my arms.
Olynth stepped up and scowled at me.
“No, I’m serious. You guys couldn’t get them to come around the first time. If you go in there by yourselves, they’re just going to shoot you, and that may not hurt you and your freaky armored skin, but you’ll retaliate, and it would end up a clusterfrack.”
Tohn mouthed my words to himself and Nathan snickered.
“Besides, I can hear the fighting around us. It’s only a matter of time before someone spots us here.” I placed my hands on my hips and glared them both down.
“No, it is unsafe,” Fihk growled.
Olynth stepped beside Fihk so they could scowl at me together.
It was unsafe, but so was being here at all. “Why’d you bring me down here, boss?”
Fihk gnashed his teeth. I raised a brow.
“This is going to take a little finesse.” I grinned. “I am fluent in idiot. Leave the negotiating to me.”
I spun on my heel and started for Vylbor and Kil, who were watching the argument with amusement. I grabbed Nate and dragged him after me. We walked through the woods, ignoring the two bickering meatheads behind us.
We made quite a sight altogether. Five humans with five Dahk, two Kilbus, and a Xixin who had denounced his race and joined up with space pirates. I felt safe, confident in their abilities to protect us and their desire to protect us. I truly didn’t believe Fihk and the others wanted to hurt us even though Fihk almost had. I had mostly forgiven him for it, even as my brother held himself back. The Dahk had their work cut out for them in earning back his trust.
But no matter how safe I felt, walking out of the woods and into the war going on in front of that compound still shocked me. Hundreds of Vitat had converged on the entrance, only a handful of Dahk fighting them off. The humans shooting from the towers and gates did nothing but piss off all the aliens. Where was the spray the other camp had? Had they run out?
“We cannot take the humans through there,” Vylbor grumbled and crouched, eyeing the compound's entrance. “They will be injured.”
The screeching was so loud I could barely hear him. I felt blood trickle out of my ears. Olynth and Fihk looked at my blood in horror.
Kil sighed and walked ahead of us into the clearing. His guards stayed back, watching stoically.
“What’s he doing?” Nick asked, his hands white on his gun, his nose running red.
Kil raised his hands before anyone could answer and squeezed them into fists. Dozens and dozens of Vitat dropped at his feet. Dead.
Total. Silence.
The remaining half a dozen Vitat took to the trees, the Dahk chasing them. The humans on the compound towers and at the steel-barred gates gaped at Kil. Then they shouted and shot at us.
Kil lifted his hand again, and the soldiers dropped their guns, their stares vacant. Just like that, they were frozen and awaiting his command.
I stepped back. Kil was getting less and less sexy-pirate and more scary-alien by the minute.
I bumped into Olynth’s chest, and Nate startled when my hands yanked him back against me.
One soldier remained at the tower, his face bleached out but frenzied and under his own control. He shouted at the frozen soldiers around him before running off behind the compound walls.
“It is only the weak ones he can control,” the Kilbus guard murmured to Star as she cried. His face was relaxed and soft on her. He looked concerned. “You are not weak. He can read your thoughts, but cannot control your mind.”
“And us?” Nathan asked fearfully.
I held him closer.
“You are strong, as well as the females.” He nodded to each of us. He looked at Nick and grinned a wicked, handsome smile. “I would watch your mind, male.”
Nick’s hand rose, and he shoved a finger up his nose. He blinked and yanked it out, looking at the appendage, horrified. Kil guffawed as he came back over and slapped Nick on the back so hard, he stumbled forward. Star giggled. Nathan relaxed against me.
“Neat trick.” I grinned at Kil.
Linda, amazingly, whacked Kil on his arm and pointed in his face. “That was rude, young man.”
I snorted. Hardly young.
Star giggled again with Nathan.
Kil threw his arm around Linda’s shoulder and guided her to the compound door. “Just a bit of fun, lovely Linda.” He winked at Nick.
Nick stomped behind them, eyeing Kil with reluctant amusement. Olynth and Fihk flanked Nate and me while Kil’s guard hovered by Star with Tohn.
The compound doors were thrown open, and a small army greeted us, but no one tried to shoot. Still, dozens of guns were aimed at us, and it was unnerving. Kil walked right by them and through the doors, ignoring their looks of terror. Their guns moved down to their sides, and I knew it was Kil who’d made them do it. I was grateful he hadn’t frozen their entire bodies like the others.
We followed him hesitantly—at least us humans did. Fihk and the other Dahk looked totally cool with the humans and walked right by them. It didn’t stop Olynth and Fihk from placing themselves in the line of fire for Nate and me though.
In the middle of the compoun
d were dozens of rickety buildings, but in the back was a large building with a sturdy steel door. I knew that was where the important people were.
Kil swaggered right up to the door and knocked as though he was visiting his granny or something. I couldn’t hold back my grin. The door swung open, revealing two soldiers who paled and stumbled back.
Kil grinned roguishly. “Take me to your leader.”
Nick and I shouted a startled laugh.
Chapter 16
Bailey
We were escorted into the building and down. Down and down and down. Yeah, they were hiding in underground bunkers. Of course they were. The two soldiers were shaking in fear, regardless of Linda’s attempts to reassure them. Nick was still chuckling as we reached the bottom of the stairs.
It was a grey door. I didn’t know why I expected it to be red, but for some reason, I had pictured the president hiding behind a big red door. But it wasn’t even the president behind that door. It was the vice president and the secretary of defense.
The whole thing was surprisingly uneventful.
They wouldn’t open the door at first, but somehow Kil stared in the little camera and commanded them from behind it. The door opened, and he had everyone in the room sitting criss-cross-applesauce on their hands before we even walked in.
Vylbor went right for the wall of screens and studied the feeds of dozens and dozens of camps.
Fihk walked to the vice president and crouched in front of him. He pulled the translator device from his pocket and stabbed the human behind the ear. Tohn did the same to the others in the room while Vice President Burin recovered.
When Burin was done his squeals of pain, Fihk patted his head. “I am Fihk, acting commander of my Dahk. We are here to save your species. You will cooperate, or we will eliminate you.”
Nick snickered, blushing when Linda scowled at him.
“I-I can understand you!” the plump man accused irately.
“Yes, and you would have some time ago had you not shot my commander’s ship from the skies with his mate inside,” Fihk growled.
“That was you?” Secretary of Defense Howard shouted.
“What?” Burin asked Howard. “You’ve seen this alien?”
Howard flushed. “They contacted us three weeks ago. They had human soldiers with them, claiming they were here to help us.”
Kil shifted, drawing his attention. Howard’s eyes flared with fear and something that looked a lot like recognition. Kil grinned at him knowingly.
Interesting.
“And you shot them down?” Burin asked, clearly surprised.
Howard startled and gritted through his teeth, “We couldn’t trust them. They’re aliens!”
“They reached out to us to negotiate, and you refused?” Burin’s face reddened in anger.
“Not negotiate. We did not invade your planet,” Fihk sort-of lied. They had, or their king had, using the Vitat. But these guys didn’t need to know that. It would make everything worse. “We came to offer our aid. That was communicated to you through a human male called Rodriguez. He left to speak to his leaders and attacked us while we were awaiting his return. A message was sent from this camp with your seal. It communicated your lack of acceptance as a means to delay our departure for the attack.”
Burin gaped at him. Howard stuttered and flushed a beady red. He was sweating.
“Did you not agree to this?” Fihk prompted Burin impatiently. “Are you not in command of your warriors?”
Nathan made a shocked sound. “Burn.”
“I’ve never seen your kind before!” Burin shouted. “Not until you came down here and started cutting through the others.”
“We came to eliminate the Vitat threat. Your interference hinders our ability to accomplish this task quickly.”
“You came to help us?” one of the soldiers in the room asked in disbelief.
Fihk nodded. “The invasion would have been stopped well before the Vitat were able to conquer and slaughter so many humans had you been open to our attempts to communicate.”
“You’re aliens!” Burin shouted again. “We couldn’t understand you! We thought you were trying to invade us!”
Fihk scowled at him. “We sent you images from your entertainment vids. They were depictions of ridiculous fantasies of alien species joining humans.”
“They were from movies, and those weren’t aliens! They were orcs!” Burin shouted. His face was so red, it looked as if it would explode.
“Ohrchs?” Fihk shook his head. “It matters not. They joined with humans and fought a shared enemy.”
Nathan laughed so hard, he snorted. “Oh man, that was a great movie.”
“How could we have possibly known you were sending us clips of movies to tell us you were friendly?” Howard raved.
“He’s got you there, boss.” I chuckled.
Fihk glared at me.
“Uh, sir, they did send those little clips of that TV show. You know the old one, with the hot chick?”
“Friends?” Linda asked, sounding surprised.
“I don’t know how much more specific they could have gotten.” Nathan snickered.
“I do not know this one. Tahk only told me of the ohrchs.” Fihk stood and crossed his arms. “Even so, Hyctoor and his unit conveyed our wishes, and you attacked. You cannot feign misunderstanding for those actions.”
“It was you, wasn’t it? You took out our connection to the nuclear weapons and everything else,” Howard accused.
“Nuclear bombs?” Linda clutched her neck and paled.
“The humans decided their best course of action would be to fire upon the Vitat warship and destroy their own world in the process,” Tohn said gravely.
“Are you serious?” I shouted. “You would have killed all of us!”
“We had reason to believe a small number could survive underground to rebuild if necessary,” Burin said sadly.
“Your data was incorrect,” Vylbor mumbled from the screens. “The Vitat warship would have been blasted back and away from Earth, but Earth would have suffered its own blow. Several of your weapons would have been needed to have an effective impact on the enemy, and your world would have taken several of the blasts. You would have been dead within months. Earth would have been destroyed and made uninhabitable for millennia, if you did not send what remained of it out of orbit and spiraling it into your star.”
Linda sniffed back a startled sob as Star released her own. Nathan leaned heavily against me. If it weren’t for Olynth holding me up, I would have fallen over.
“We saved you from yourselves, and now we will save you from the Vitat, but you will cease your foolish attacks on my Dahk.”
Burin blinked away tears and nodded in a daze.
Kil clapped loudly. “Now, for other business.” He lifted Howard from the floor and dragged him from the room.
The soldiers watched him in fear but didn’t protest.
“What is he doing with him? Shouldn’t we stop him?” Linda asked worriedly.
The other Kilbus grinned. “He will not harm the male—much. If he cooperates.”
Fihk looked at the door. “Who does he seek?”
“It is only for him to know,” the Kilbus said gravely. “We do not question our lord.”
I shook off Olynth and peeked out the door. Kil and Howard were gone, but I could hear his shouts from the stairwell.
“Where is she?” Kil growled.
“I-I d-don’t know,” Howard wailed.
“I will break your mind to find her if necessary,” Kil snarled.
“She was moved!” Howard cried in pain, and I heard a nasty crunch.
The Xixin pushed the door shut in my face. “It is only for him to know.”
I scowled at his feline face and allowed Olynth to pull me back to him.
“How are they communicating?” Fihk asked Vylbor.
“Old Earth transistor signals. It is primitive but effective.”
Fihk nodded at Burin. “You will
tell him how to communicate our wishes to your armies.”
Burin nodded, fast.
“You will accompany us from this point on until I deem it necessary for you to assume command again,” Fihk added.
“You can’t take the president!” a soldier shouted, trying to lift his hands to no avail.
“The president?” Nick asked.
“President Rowan was lost in the initial invasion,” Burin said sadly.
Linda gasped and covered her mouth.
“You will do as I say, or I will appoint another in your stead,” Fihk warned.
Several soldiers protested, but Burin shouted over them, “I’ll go! I’ll go with you.”
“Smart decision,” Nick muttered.
“I will leave a means to communicate with a warrior of your choosing.” Fihk looked around the room at the terrified soldiers.
“Hanson.” Burin nodded at one of the only soldiers keeping his cool.
Hanson was an older man but built like a fit thirty-year-old. He glared at Burin but nodded.
“Your species is on the brink of extinction. The Vitat are not your only threat,” Fihk warned them gravely. “It would be wise to cooperate. Should you betray me or mine, I will not hesitate to eliminate you.”
Burin nodded, the others following him after a slight hesitation.
“We are not here to harm you,” Tohn added solemnly. “We only seek to help you regain control of your planet.”
“Why?” Burin asked with a look of perplexed hope.
Tohn sighed. “Do you not aid others on your planet when they are in peril?”
“But you’re not from here,” a soldier said, sounding perplexed as well.
“No, but do we not all value life?”
Burin and the others visibly shook with emotion. It was overwhelming. I felt it too. These aliens were stepping up for no other reason than because it was the right thing to do. Regardless of the fact we wouldn’t be here if their king hadn’t put it all in motion.
We could relate to that.
For all our faults, our world had been full of people who made the same decision every day. I hadn’t ever thought of it that way, only having ever met one person who went out of her way for me. But there were people like her everywhere. Whether it was a mother who worked several jobs to feed her family, a random person giving a dollar to feed a homeless man, or an entire country uniting to aid another suffering, there was always someone fighting for someone else.