by Maia Starr
“No!” I shouted. I did not want him to hit the ship that Rai was in. I did not want him to die.
“Shut up, human! Watch your precious general die!” he said as he let off another round of bullets. He was laughing loudly, like a madman. He was flying the ship recklessly. My body was jolted from side to side, and I was glad that I was wearing the seatbelts. Otherwise, I would be thrown about.
Suddenly a siren went off. The sound was all inside the ship, and a red light flashed.
“Fuck! I'm hit!” he shouted. “The fuel tank has been shot. Have to go down. Have to go down. Have to go down,” he repeated over and over to himself. He was absolutely terrifying me with his crazy repetition. He was obviously completely insane. But we were about to crash.
I put my hands over my face and tucked my head in toward my chest. I didn't want to look up. I didn't want my last image to be of crazy Qon. If I was going to die, then I was going to think about something nice and calm. I thought about my sister. I thought about Willow Springs. And then I thought about General Razook.
Boom! I felt the ship vibrating underneath me. It was obvious to me that we were sliding across the ground. We had crashed into some trees. I could hear Qon shouting. I just tried to calm my mind.
Then they ship came to a stop. I opened my eyes and looked around. I was alive. The ship was still intact, but very broken, and there was smoke starting to fill the cabin.
Qon was shouting in anger. He stood up and came toward me. I screamed. There was heat in his eyes. He grabbed at my seatbelts in and undid them. Then he grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the ship. He pulled me a couple of yards away from it.
He let go of my arm and turned to look at the ship. It was on fire.
“You bastard, Razook!” he shouted with his fist in the air looking at the ship. I took a step back away from him slowly and then another and another. Then all of a sudden…
Bam! A blur knocked Qon off his feet.
“Run, Hannah; run!” I heard Rai shout. I ran toward the forest and stopped when I got to an area of brush. I squatted down behind it and watched. Rai and Qon were rolling across the floor, fighting. There was a lot of screaming and shouting. I could hear dragon roars coming from both of them. They were like animals. It was terrifying to watch. They moved so fast that I could not tell what was happening. I couldn't tell if Rai was injured. I sat there anxiously not knowing what to do. Even if I had a gun, they were moving too fast for me to hit Qon.
Then they both stopped. Qon was on top of Rai. He had his hands around his neck, and he was squeezing him.
“No!” I shouted. I looked around. There was a large branch on the ground. I picked it up. I had to help him. I loved him.
I picked it up. “Augh!” I ran toward them.
“No, Hannah…” I heard Rai barely whisper. Qon turned to me with an evil smile. His belly started to glow. He opened his mouth and shot fire. I stopped in my tracks. I jumped out of the way and rolled across the ground. Luckily the fire didn't reach me. What the fuck? I didn't know they could shoot fire like that. They really were dragons. But me running toward them was enough to distract Qon. That was when Rai took his shot. He lifted his leg, and I saw his hand dig into his boot and pull out a dagger. He plunged it into the side of Qon, right above his hip. Qon roared like an injured beast. Rai rolled him off of him. Now Rai was on top of the screaming Qon. He slid the knife across his throat. With a gurgle, Qon died.
Rai was panting hard. He stood up and watched as Qon died. Rai had an angry look on his face. He spit on Qon.
“Oh my God,” I said falling to my knees. I was so weak with shock.
Rai ran over to me. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you? Answer me, Hannah,” he said.
“I am not hurt. I am just shaken. I am in shock. I thought he was going to kill you. I thought I was going to burn in the fire. What the hell was that?” I said.
He grabbed me and hugged me tightly. “You are safe now. You are with me. I will not let you out of my sight. Do not worry; I will protect you,” he said.
"I believe you. You came after me. You chased him. You could have just let him go and take me,” I said.
“No way in hell. You are mine. I would do anything for you. I have bonded with you. I don't know if you feel the same as a human, but we have bonded together when we had sex. I am yours. I am your protector. I am your dragon,” he said.
“But you risked your life for me,” I said.
“And I would do it again and again,” he said.
"I believe you. Now that I have seen it, I believe you,” I said hugging him back.
He pressed his lips against mine. I kissed him eagerly. I thought that I would never see him again. I thought I was going to die, so now I kissed him with all the passion that I wanted to give him at the moment I thought I was going to die. It was a deep and passionate kiss. It lasted almost a full two minutes. Then we finally stopped.
“What now?” I said looking at the burned ship.
“My ship is crashed too. Let's get you away from here. I will figure something out; do not worry. You are with me. Let's get back to my ship; it is not as badly damaged as this one. Maybe I can use the radio on it and send out a rescue signal. Can you walk?” he said.
“Yes, I can,” I said as he helped me to my feet.
"Let's go,” he said putting his hand out to me.
“Rai, I want to thank you. Not just for rescuing me from that crazy alien, but also for rescuing me from the machines. I never properly thanked you.”
“You're welcome.”
Chapter 11
General Rai Razook
When I saw him pull her out of the wreckage, a rage flooded over my body. It was a murderous rage. She was alive, and I was happy for it. But that happiness was quickly overshadowed by the fact that he was dragging her. I was trying not to growl loudly as I watched. But as soon as he let her go, I watched as she stepped away from him. My smart Hannah, always thinking. Always processing. I was glad that she was smart. It was giving me room. As soon as she was at a safe distance, I took off and flew straight at him. Knocking him off his feet. It was just the surprise that I needed.
I took care of business. I killed the alien that tried to take the human female from me. He had it coming. I knew the king would see it my way. This lieutenant had gone off the path of any honorable Veruka.
After the fight was over, I pulled Hannah to me and held her tightly. I didn't want to let her go. For a moment, I thought I would never see her again. When the ship went down, I thought she would die in the crash. She did not seem to be injured. But I could not know that for sure. It could be the adrenaline. I needed to get back to the fleet as soon as possible. But it was not going to be easy.
Hannah and I walked away from Qon and his burning ship. We went back to my ship that was wrecked also. But it was in better condition.
“I am going to try the radio. I am going to call in. Wait right here. But keep your eyes sharp. All the chaos we caused could have attracted a lot of attention. Cyborgs, humans: we need to be on the lookout,” I said to her.
“I will keep watch,” she said turning her back to the ship and looking around the area.
I crawled inside the ship. The radio was completely damaged and broken. There was no way to fix it. I grabbed the toolkit out of the ship and walked back outside.
“The radio is broken. But the ship does have an emergency beacon. I think I can activate it if I cross some wires and maybe give some power to it,” I said as I walked around the ship. I opened the rear panel. I went to work. I crossed wires. I peeled back, exposing copper. I did everything I could. Thirty minutes later, it worked.
“It's working. The emergency beacon is sending out a signal. But it is weak. I don't know if my fleet will pick it up or not. We will have to wait and see,” I said.
“What if we fly to them? You have wings,” Hannah said.
“I thought about that. But do you know how fast we were going in those small ships? We are very fa
r away from the fleet. I am not exactly sure in which direction they are. Or how far they are. Flying using my wings could take an entire day or more. It is better for us to stay here at least twenty-four hours. They know to look for me. I gave word,” I said.
She was sad. She sat down on the ground.
“Are you all right?” I said as I moved next to her. “I will get some water,” I said as I crawled back to the ship. I took out all the supplies that I could. Jugs of water, food, and a blanket. I carried it back outside and sat next to her.
“I am worried that I will never see home now. I will never see my sister again,” she said.
"Don't think like that, Hannah. I made a promise to you. I will keep my word. This is just an obstacle. As a soldier, this happens all the time. You cannot give up hope. This is what happens when you are on a mission. I will get you back home. You will see your sister again; it is just going to take some time,” I said putting my arm around her and handing her some water. She opened the container and drank. Then she handed it to me.
“We can camp here for now. If it gets too cold, we can move inside the ship. I can build a fire when needed,” I said.
She looked at me. She looked confused.
“Speaking of fire. What was that? You can shoot fire out of your mouth?” she asked.
“Yes, we can do many things. That is one of them. We are dragons after all,” I said to her.
“That reminds me. When Qon had a knife to me, you said something about it being too late for him because you had already had sex with me. And he said he didn't care about the blackness plague? What the hell was that all about?”
“Yes, I did say that. There is a lot to tell you. I guess that I will start from the beginning. It is a long story,” I said.
“Then it is good that we have a lot of time. We are sitting here waiting for a rescue,” she said.
“Very true. Where to begin? As you know, we Veruka are from a planet called Tivoso. Years ago the weredragons started to get sick. We contracted a plague known as the blackness plague. It comes on suddenly, making weredragons weak. Eventually, they die from it. We cannot find a cure. Our king decided to come to Earth to seek out the medical knowledge of humans. But we found out that the humans were under attack by the machines. He thought it would be a good trade. We are strong weredragons, and we would have a vast army to help fight against the machines if the humans would help us find a cure for the blackness plague. That is why we came here. But when we arrived, the king found the cure himself. He had contracted the blackness plague. He had sex with a human female; it cured him.”
“What? Are you telling me that having sex with human females is a cure?” she said.
“Yes. We found it by accident. But the human that the king had sex with is a scientist. She learned that by having sex, the human DNA bonded to our own. That is what caused the cure. It also creates an extreme feeling of euphoria inside of us. We don't understand it. We are barely starting to know what is happening. But we do know that it is a cure, and because it is a cure, we think that having sex before you get sick is possibly a vaccination against getting sick at all,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes at me. She was pissed.
“That is why you wanted to have sex with me? You were using me as medicine?” she said.
“Only at first, Hannah. But yes. That is why I made the contract with you. I was going to do something for you, and you were going to do something for me: save my life by sleeping with me. But that was before I got to know you. You have to know now that I care for you. Look at everything that we have been through. If I was just using you as medicine, I would not have done all of that,” I said.
She relaxed a little. “I guess that is true. What else? Continue with the story,” she said.
“So while we were at the human colony, it is called Haven Brook, the human female that the king mated with came up with what she called a computer virus. It is a very long story how it happened. But she was able to implant inside something called a keddle. The virus took the keddle down, and all the cyborgs it controlled. The virus is a success,” I said.
“Holy crap. Are you serious?” she said with a big smile.
“Yes, I am serious. It is what I have been trying to tell you since I met you. That is why I am here. Once we knew the virus was a success, there were many copies made. The king chose generals and commanders and captains to go out and spread this virus on Earth to as many human colonies as we can. But it is not as easy as I expected. The first human colony that I was sent to was completely deserted. The second was hostile. The third, well, my plan didn't go so well because a vixen knocked me out with a giant branch,” I said.
She furrowed eyebrows together. “I am so sorry.”
“It is fine. I like seeing that fiery side of you. I know that you can take care of yourself. But I also want to take care of you,” I said as I gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“So there is a virus. A virus that can take down cyborgs. I can't believe it! Wait until my sister hears about this. Do you know what this means? We actually have a fighting chance now. With the virus and the army of the Veruka, maybe we can take Earth back. It might take years, but it will be worth it in the end. I am so excited,” she said as she threw her arms around me and gave me a big kiss.
“Yes, I am excited too. I know it sounds awful, but we need to humans to be alive. Without you, our race will die too,” I said.
She punched me lightly on the arm. “Oh right. I can't believe you didn't tell me about that. If I would've known having sex with you would save your life, maybe I would've asked for more in my contract,” she said laughing.
“Oh really? Like what?” I said.
“I don't know. Not only would you have to take me home to my sister, but maybe I could get a ship of my own. I could learn to fly,” she said.
“I have never known a female like you. You are like a soldier,” I said impressed with her. I was always impressed with her.
“I cannot believe that Willow Springs was hostile when you approached them. They are usually a peaceful people, except to cyborgs. But I guess it would be shocking to see the ships coming out of the air. But I would think they would run and hide, not shoot and engage,” she said.
“Yes, they were like soldiers. They were all in camouflage with guns,” I said.
She looked at me strangely. “That does not sound like Willow Springs. Describe the place,” she said.
“It was not far from where I found you. It was several small houses, and there were gray stone walls, short ones all around.
“That is not Willow Springs!” she said.
“It is not?”
“No, Willow Springs sits on the water. On the bay. There is a very large high wall that goes around it except for the side that is open to the water. It is a huge home, like four houses put together in one. There is a large green lawn between the house and the water. It is what we call a grand estate on Earth,” she said.
“No, that is not what we came across. This was not on the water; it was in the woods,” I said.
“Then that was not my home. I am so glad to hear it. I do not know which human colony you found. But those hostile humans were not the people of Willow Springs.”
“In that case, I am anxious to meet your people. Maybe they will listen and speak with us,” I said.
“I will make sure of that. Now we just have to get there.”
Chapter 12
Hannah Maven
I was completely amazed by what I was hearing come out of his mouth. Everything about the blackness plague blew my mind. My DNA was now bonded to his. I didn't understand it. But it made sense that it was why he suddenly had this deep affection for me. I wondered if it had affected me as well because I had a deep affection for him too. He had put his life on the line to save me from that crazy alien Qon. He didn't have to do that. It made me care for him more and more. Plus, when I thought he was going to die, I could not live with that.
So there was som
ething definitely going on deep inside of me, but I didn't know what it was. But I felt calm and happy to be in the woods with him. Even if we just had to sit here and wait to be rescued. I was okay with that. I needed some time to just rest and wrap my head around all the information that he had given me.
The most important information was the fact about the virus. I still couldn't believe it. Somewhere out there some scientist had created a computer virus to take out the cyborgs, and it had worked. This was a big deal. It was a very big deal for me. Now I felt even more affection since Rai was trying to get the virus out there in order to help the humans. Now I wanted to do all that I could to help him. That was when I started to think. What if I did get home to Willow Springs; would I want to stay there? Why would I not want to help him spread this virus to every human colony possible? He needed me. He had already tried to do it himself and was met with hostility by the humans. I didn't blame them; I did the same thing. When I first saw these aliens, I tried to run away. I hit him in the head. I did not trust them. So now I understand why he needed me. I was a middleman. I would be the one to go into the human colony and tell them about the virus and the Veruka. Then they would have some trust and notion that the Veruka were not there to hurt them. This was important. I realize just how much I could help change the world and turn the battle that we had been suffering from for years into a human victory.