by Maia Starr
“What?” I said out loud. The girl looked at me with wide eyes. Clearly, she was in shock over everything. I was in shock as well because she was not my sister.
Jex set down on the grass outside the ship. He stepped away from us.
“Helen…” he began to say.
“Jex, this is not Hannah. Where is my sister? We have to go back for her,” I said becoming hysterical.
“Hannah is not there,” the girl said. I looked at her confused. I had never seen her before. She was not from Willow Springs.
“Who are you? How do you know Hannah?” I asked.
“I don't, not really. She was captured before I was. When the cyborgs took us heading towards their encampment, Hannah was taken, but I was not,” she said.
“What? Yes, she was taken by the cyborgs,” I said trying to make sense of it all.
“No, she was taken by someone that looks like him,” she said pointing out Jex. Jex looked at me.
“What is she talking about?” I said stomping toward him.
“I am not entirely sure. But it seems that there are other Veruka in the area besides my army. They must've come across the cyborgs and rescued Hannah,” he said.
I narrowed my eyes at him. Was he telling me the truth? He had to trade me before. He had kept information from me before. Was he doing it now?
“Tell me what you know,” I said with anger.
“I don't know anything. I want to find answers myself. I'm going to get on the radio now to my lieutenant to see what he knows,” he said.
“Are you telling me the truth?” I asked.
“Yes, I am not lying to you Helen,” he said with anger and stomped off inside the ship.
“Will someone tell me what's going on here? What is he? Is this a damn spaceship?” the girl said.
She was bewildered. “My name is Helen, Hannah is my sister. What is your name? Where are you from?” I asked.
“My name is Jane. I'm originally from Manhattan, but the last few years I have been living in a human colony not far from here. We call it Graystone,” she said. As soon as she said it, I knew it was the hostile human colony because it had been surrounded by gray stone garden walls.
"I am from a colony called Willow Springs, down on the other end of the island. We were visited by these creatures that you see now. They are from another planet called Tivoso. They first went to a larger human colony called Haven Brook. From there they have spread out to find humans in order to help them fight the cyborgs. That is what they are. Trust me; I am still trying to wrap my mind around it as well,” I said.
“Fascinating. So he is an alien?” she asked.
“Yes, exactly. Now, Jane, you must tell me if you remember anything else about what happened with Hannah. Do you know what direction she was taken in? Do you remember anything about the one that took her: black hair? White hair? Anything that you can remember?” I asked.
“No, they moved so fast. I just remember the emerald wings,” she said.
I knew what she was talking about. They were capable of moving so fast that the I could not see until they stopped or slowed down. It would've stopped if I have Hannah to pick her up. I needed to find her.
“You must be very tired, and hungry. Come inside; I will get you food and drink,” I said.
“Thank you,” she said as she followed me inside the ship.
“No way…” she said as she looked around. It was amazing after all. I prepared some dehydrated food and gave her a jug of water and sat her down on the floor of the ship. I looked at Jex, who was at the console of the ship.
“Anything?” I asked.
“I cannot get a good signal. I can't even ask my lieutenant because I can't connect. We might have to return to Willow Springs to find out. Who knows; Hannah might be there,” he said.
"I failed her. I didn't get to her fast enough; I will never see her,” I said as tears began to come down my face. Jex grabbed my hand.
“No, don't think that way. I promise you that I will get to the bottom of this. We will find your sister. I will find your sister. I made that promise to you, and I will keep it no matter what. Do not cry, Helen; I don't want to see you sad. It hurts my heart,” he said.
I was surprised by his gentle words. I was not expecting him to say such a thing. I half expected him to give up the search.
"Thank you; it means a lot,” I said.
“Let's go back to Willow Springs. The sooner we know something, the better,” he said. I nodded my head yes and went to Jane.
“Jane, we are going to go to my colony to get communications in order to find Hannah. But we can take you to your colony home if you like after,” I said.
"No,” she said with her eyes wide.
"You don't want to go home?” I said.
“My colony is horrible. They treat the women badly. I do not have family there, only a couple of friends, but I do not want to go back there. I would rather take my chances in your colony, if they would have me?” she said.
“Of course. You do not have to return to your colony if you don't want to. You can come live at Willow Springs; it is not a problem. It is not a mean place, and it might be the safest colony because there's an entire army of creatures like him regarding us from the cyborgs,” I said pointing toward Jex.
She smiled. “I would like to see that. Thank you,” she said.
“You will need to sit in a seat and belt yourself in. You can continue eating. The ship is very fast,” I said helping her to her feet and strapping her in. Jex went about putting the ship to take off.
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at Willow Springs. The ship came down onto the lawn, and Lieutenant Baisen was waiting.
“This is unbelievable,” Jane said.
“Yes, it is,” I said looking around. I was looking for Hannah, but I did not see her.
Jex opened the door, and I was the first to go out onto the grass. “Lieutenant, is my sister here? She looks just like me. Is she here?” I asked.
He looked at me confused. “I thought you went to find her,” he said.
"Lieutenant, let's go inside my—”
“Well, where is she? Where is Hannah?” I heard Erick say as he came up behind me. I turned to see him standing in front of ten or so people.
"We didn't find her. She wasn't with the cyborgs. We rescued this one; her name is Jane. She is going to live with us,” I said pointing out the pretty blonde.
“He didn't find Hannah? He did not keep his promise to find your sister. I knew it. Do you know what has been happening since you’ve been gone? Some of the women have taken to sexual relationships with some of these soldiers. That is all they want from us. It is some plot to mate with human females and take over the Earth!” Erick said.
“The fact that Hannah was not at the cyborg camp it's not his fault. You are being ridiculous, Erick,” I said.
“Are you sure it is not his fault? How do you know that for sure? He is full of lies, just like the rest of them. He is nothing but an alien scum!” Erick said.
Bam! Before I knew it, Jex punched Erick. Erick fell down to the ground unconscious.
“We don't have time for this. Your sister is out there, and we need to find her,” he said looking at me. He turned and walked away. Lieutenant Baisen followed him, and so did I. I would have to thank him later for punching Erick. It was something that I had wanted to do for a very long time. We walked into the largest ship of the fleet. We walked into the room where I had first asked Jex for help. The door closed.
“Lieutenant, the blonde woman says that Hannah was taken by another creature that looks like me. Who do you know that is in this area?” Jex asked. “Have you received any transmissions?”
“No, none. I am just as surprised as you are. We were the only team that was supposed to come in this direction. If there was a change of plans, we were not notified,” he said.
“We must find whoever it is before they are out of range. Maybe their transmission is down. I want you to send out the e
mergency beacon. Even if their transmission is down, they will be able to pick up that signal and know where we are. Get on it right away,” he said.
“Yes, Captain,” the lieutenant said and then walked out.
“What if the Veruka that took her is hostile?” I asked him.
“No, impossible. We have a code and honor that we live by. You do not have to worry about her. If she is with the Veruka, then she is protected. I only hope we can find her before they are out of range since we are not sure what they were doing here in the first place,” he said.
“I am going to go freshen up. Now that we know that Hannah is not here, I assume we are going back out there,” I said.
“Yes, I will find Hannah; I promise you,” he said.
I walked out the door and out of the ship. I needed some time to freshen up and change before going back out to look for him again. I did feel some relief that she was with the Veruka and not with the cyborgs, but I could not be completely happy until I was with her. It was a twin thing.
I went inside the mansion to my bed. I sat down just for a moment. It felt good to be in my bed again.
“Helen, are you all right?” I heard a voice whisper. I opened my eyes. I didn't realize that I had fallen asleep. I was laying on my side in my bed have sitting up and half laying down. I quickly sat up.
“Marissa. Sorry, I didn't realize I fell asleep,” I said.
“I did not mean to disturb you. I just thought maybe you would want to lay down completely. Otherwise he will be sore sleeping like that,” she said.
“No, I have to get up. I have to go find Captain Jex,” I said.
"Captain Jex left an hour ago with some of his men,” she said.
"What? What do you mean left?” I said getting to my feet.
“They took a big ship and left.”
I was running down the hallway and out the door onto the lawn as fast as I could. I found Lieutenant Baisen.
“Where is he? Where is Jex?” I said.
“Didn't he tell you? He took a ship to find your sister. We picked up a small blip on the radio transmission. We don't know if it is cyborg or if it is another Veruka ship. But the only way to know is to check it out in person. He left with a few of the soldiers,” he said.
“No,” I said walking away from him. I was feeling and extreme mix of emotions. I was angry that he had left without telling me or letting me go with him. I was sad that he might get hurt or captured and I wouldn't know. Now that he was gone, I knew that I would miss him. I couldn't think about anything else but being naked in his arms again. “Come back to me, Jex, and bring my sister home,” I whispered to myself as I looked out toward the setting sun over the water.
Chapter 13
Captain Jex Kailen
Seeing Helen cry over the loss of her sister broke my heart. I did not want to see her that way. It hurt me that she was hurting. I only wanted to see her smile and to be happy. I wanted to see that brave sensual soldier that she was. So I knew I had to do something in order to find her sister.
I ordered Lieutenant Baisen to get on the transmission to find out what other Veruka were in the area. Helen had gone to take a rest. I was glad for it. She had been through a lot emotionally and physically in a short amount of time. I could handle it from here. I could find Hannah for her. I wanted to rescue her sister as a gift to her.
“Captain, there seems to be a small amount of transmission activity on the far side of the island. We cannot tell what it is. It is mostly just static. It could be one of our ships, or it could be cyborgs,” Lieutenant Baisen said as he came into my room on the ship.
“You are sure?” I asked.
“Yes, we reviewed the data over and over again, and it is coming to us in pulses. We think it is in response to the distress signal beacon that we sent out,” he said.
“Ready a ship for me with ten soldiers, I am taking one of the larger ships this time. I want to be gone within ten minutes; do not make a big fuss about it. I do not want the humans to know that I am leaving. Go now,” I said.
“Yes, Captain,” he said as he walked out.
What I meant was that I did not want Helen to know. I did not want her to go with us. She had gone through enough already and I did not want to raise her hopes that this signal could be her sister only to see her let down again. I could not see that look in her eye again, of defeat and despair. No, I would go alone with my soldiers as it should be and find out what was going on. If it were a cyborg encampment, then I did not want to put her in danger. I had already done that more than once since I met her.
A few minutes later, my ship was in the air with ten weredragon soldiers headed out across the bay to the other side. But when we were leaving Willow Springs, something caught my eye.
“There, what is that?” I said pointing along the shoreline. It was glimmering.
“Cyborgs!” A soldier shouted.
“They are headed in the direction of Willow Springs,” I said.
“What do you want to do, Captain?” he asked.
I knew that I had to get to the transmission as soon as possible because it might be gone; if it was Hannah and other Veruka then we could lose them. But I couldn't allow this band of twenty or so cyborgs to get to Willow Springs. Helen was there, and people she cared about, plus my army; I didn't want an entire war to break out.
“Let’s take them out,” I said.
“Roger that, Captain. Going in low! Get the guns ready!” he shouted.
Suddenly we were in a fight with the cyborgs. They shot their guns at us, and we dropped bombs on them each time we flew by.
“There, on the right! It's a keddle!” I shouted pointing to the large silver capsule.
“I see it. Guns!” the soldier shouted. We blasted the keddle with as many laser blasts as we could. But nothing was happening.
“It's too solid. We need to drop a bomb,” I said.
“The cyborgs are guarding it,” he said.
“We have to take it out. Once it fails, the rest of the cyborgs will follow,” I said. “Bomb it,” I said.
“Charge a bomb! Dropping!” the soldiers shouted all around me as they went to work.
Boom! The bomb landed on the keddle. It blew up. We cheered. The rest of the cyborgs became still and did not move again.
“We did it! We won! Willow Springs will be safer now. Now follow the coordinates of the transmission. The sun is setting, and it will soon be dark,” I said.
“Yes, Captain,” he said.
I was relieved. The transmission signal was still coming in, and I manage to stop the small band of cyborgs from reaching Helen at Willow Springs. Now I could try to find the clues to get me to Hannah and safely bring her back to Helen. I only hoped that this small transmission signal held some answers of who in the Veruka army took her. I only hoped that whoever it was had not taken her to Haven Brook. That human colony was very far, and I would not be able to abandon my post at Willow Springs in order to go back to Haven Brook. I would have to dispatch a smaller band to go to Haven Brook to get a message to Hannah, and that was if they had even made it if they ventured that far. It would make things more complicated, and it would only make Helen sad and in despair. I could see that being without her twin sister was crushing her. The light was slowly leaving her eyes, and I did not want to see the fire burn out inside of her. Especially if I could help it with my strength and army.
“Captain, we are coming up on the transmission. In that group of trees,” the pilot said.
I walked to the windshield and looked at the group of trees along the bank of the bay. I couldn't see anything. But then I saw a weredragon fly up into the sky. He was signaling and getting our attention. I couldn't see from this distance who it was.
“There! It is one of our own. Land on the bank,” I said.
“Yes, Captain.”
As soon as we got closer, I could see that it was General Razook. But what the hell was he doing out here? He was supposed to go south. Where was his army?
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Our ship landed, and the door opened. I walked out to him. General Razook and I didn't exactly get along, but we were Veruka soldiers and Veruka soldiers stuck together no matter what the personality differences were.
“General Razook! What the hell are you doing out here? Where is your army? You are supposed to be south?” I asked.
“Jex, it is good to see you. It is a long story. We went south, but the human colony was already destroyed. King Karik told us to come north to find colonies here and disperse the virus. Things did not go as planned and we came across a human colony that was hostile. They did not want our help, and a small battle erupted.”