by Maia Starr
“So where is this ship that you are talking about,” the human asked, clearly as put off by the exchange as I was. I could’ve hugged her right then, but I knew that I would be risking execution.
“I will lead you there. Come now, it is not safe where we are right now in the open. It is not really safe anywhere on this planet, to be honest. But I have some means to protect us with, and then we will find our way out of here.”
He began heading back toward the forested area, where the coordinates for the rescue mission were set. We had nearly crossed the threshold, when suddenly, the human froze.
“Hey, Zina, what’s the matter with you?” I asked, nudging her shoulder. “Come on, we have to go. There is no reason to stop now. It is very important that we and this mission once and for all. You do understand why this is important don’t you? You don’t want to stay here any longer than you have to, do you? You saw what happened to that guy in the snow.”
But for some reason, Zina didn’t move. We all exchanged concerned looks, and then the earth beneath us began to quake as a dark cloud surface in the sky. I looked up, squinting against the brightness of the sun, and realized suddenly that what I was looking at was not a cloud at all, but a ship.
“Everybody, get out of the way!” I exclaimed. The others ran out of the way, but for some reason, Zina remained put.
“Zina, what are you doing? You really have to get out of here. This is not safe.”
But she was frozen, and I realized suddenly that perhaps she was under the thrall of some very powerful energy. I cursed under my breath and lifted her up bodily, trying to get her out of the site of the ship. But it seemed impossible, and instead of being able to move her, I became frozen as well.
“And just what do you think that you are doing?” A shrill voice sounded through the air. I cringed, frowning deeply at the disgusting leader of the Petchuvian race. He had teleported onto the surface of the planet Hexa, his fierce features boring into my eyes. I tried to look away. He was just too gruesome. I had never seen one of these aliens up close before, but now that I had, I wish that I hadn’t.
“Excuse me, but I believe that you are holding onto my human.”
His human?
I tried to speak, to protest, but he grabbed the human out of my arms. She moved easily, as if under a thrall, and I stared helplessly after her, fighting every muscle in my body as I attempted to work against the powerful force that was keeping me frozen in place.
“Come on,” I said, trying to move forward and get her. “She shouldn’t be with those creeps. They are monsters!”
“Oh,” the leader of the race said, turning and fixing up terrifying set of beady black eyes upon me.
“I don’t think that you are much to look at yourself either, you know,” he said. “But you don’t see me complaining about it.”
It’s not about looks. It’s about what you do. And I know what you try to do with the humans. And it didn’t work out. That’s what landed them on this planet in the first place. What the hell are you doing with her anyway? What’s the point? None of it’s going to make a damn bit of difference. You are all still going to be stuck in the same sad situation that you’ve been in for the past 100 years.”
“Actually, we thought about this,” the leader said, with what was probably a smile, but looked more like a grotesque grimace. “We do not necessarily need to replicate anything. In fact, we have found that humans are extremely versatile, and they can provide a lot of different types of benefits. Especially when they are spawning. Luckily, they are very compatible with several races throughout the universe, and if you are lucky, perhaps you could be one of them!”
I bellowed in rage,trying my hardest to fight against the terrible rays of energy that were holding me captive on the ground, as the leader of the race led my human way.
“Aren’t you going after her?” I finally shouted to the Emperor’s son. “She is your human. You have claimed her. You should protect her. There is no use in claiming a female if you are not going to protect her. So, you either undo your claim, or you go after her and you save her from those monsters.”
But before anything could happen, the doorway of the ship hissed closed, and the leader of the race that had originally objected to humans and dropped them off on this prison planet, was gone.
I could hardly believe what had happened, and went through the rest of the day robotically. I managed to somehow locate the ship, and get the Emperor’s son and our new friend Lars on board. The two had become fast friends, both of them being cowards who were tooafraid for their own lives to go after the human to protect her. No matter how hard I tried to fight against that beam of energy, I hadn’t managed to unfreeze myself. And it had probably cost that only being I had ever had any tender feelings toward to be killed.
Then again, perhaps she was simply being ushered onto the Petchuvian planet so that she could join others like her and repopulating this sad little chunk of rock that they call the home. What if they were going there to be bred for meals?
The thought had filled me with terror, and had made me move the other Raithers in my party forward, until we finally activated the beacon and made it back to the ship. I couldn’t speak, and remained dumbfounded all the way back to my home planet, where I finally managed to sputter out to my Captain that everything had gone to hell.
“What do you mean by that?” The captain asked, eyeing me coldly.
“I mean that I have to save the human. I have to help her. She is the woman that the Emperor’s son had claimed after all, right?”
I hated myself for bringing this up, but it seemed to be the only reason why any of these narrowminded Raither men would allow me use of their ships and the resources necessary to liberate the human from the awful little planet where she had been taken.
“I suppose I hadn’t thought of it that way,” the captain said, stroking his chin gruffly. “You know, the Emperor is extremely impressed with you. There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be allowed access to whatever resources you might think you need. So, you should make sure that you are doing your best. Just explain the situation as calmly as you possibly can, and I will help you to do the rest. Everything is going to be all right. We will get the heir to Emperor’s human back.”
I prickled at the sound of the Zina being considered the property of the Emperor’s son. And yet, I already knew how the rules of my world worked. I already knew how disgusting it was. I already knew that there was probably never going to be any way to change them. However, there was a chance for me to somehow make things right and rescue the human from the horrible race that had gotten her into this mess in the first place.
Fortunately, as soon as I found myself in the hanger, the crew was already assembled and ready to listen. A heavy wave of relief washed over me, and I began to issue orders as if I had been born to do it. Everybody followed me, and soon, I was piloting a ship, heading towards the territory where they had taken the human.
There was a nervous knot in my stomach, and I couldn’t help but feel bitterness at the fact that even though the human was technically the claim of the Emperor’s son, Keldon Marcsu was currently being pampered and spoiled at home right that moment. Sure, he had been through a traumatic ordeal by being stuck in the prison planet for so long, but if he actually cared enough about the human being to claim her, wouldn’t you think that he would be willing to do what it took to rescue her as well? It was painfully obvious that he only cared about himself.
But I had to redirect my thoughts. This was war, and Raithers were good at war. Not only that, but it was important work. It was a war that signified many things to me, one of which being the hypocrisy of my own people. The Emperor had allowed me to use the resources, sure, but he had not shown any legitimate interest in the human’s well-being, despite the fact that she was the most incredible creature I had ever known to exist.
I could not abide by a government that care more about the quality of their own lives than about the
quality of those that they were supposed to be looking after. Everybody knew how vulnerable and defenseless to humans were. If a Raither was to claim a human, that could only mean that it was his job from that moment forward to protect her. Even if you had been stuck on a prison planet for the past six months.
But I had to try not to focus too much on my bitterness. I had to keep calm and think cool thoughts, otherwise, I would become hotheaded and trigger-happy. That can be a dangerous situation.
Finally, we approached the territory of the abductors, and I picked up my communications device.
“Everybody, make your formations. We are not going to show them any mercy.Aumble caused me to lose track of my thought and cut off my words before I was finished speaking.
“Commander, we have been hit. They are hot on our trail. We have to take care of this. Now.”
I cursed, and we turned the ship around, unable to create the formation that would make an invasion upon the enemy planet successful.
“Attack!” I shouted. “Show no mercy. Attack your enemies. We are in Raither ships. That means they are of the best quality in the universe. There are no excuses to lose. Attack your enemies.”
I was getting angry. I hated the thought of Zina stuck anywhere near one of these vile creatures. She had already had enough contact with unwanted alien life. This was supposed to have been her chance to escape all of this madness. She should have been sitting around in the palace along with the Emperor’s son, getting pampered and spoiled after her horrifying experience.
“Hello commander,” the seedy voice of the leader of the Petchuvian race said from the ship’s console, causing me to cringe. “Somehow, I knew that this would prompt an attack. You Raithers are such do-gooders. Always sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong. Fortunately, this was a trap. You do realize how much we hate your kind, don’t you? Our labor has been exploited for far too long. You take our resources and sell them at the little city hub of yours, but we never see the benefit. All we ever get his backlash.”
“Your goods are not g at all!” I shouted. “Your goods are the remains of creatures that are too sick to survive your horrible climate. You have no right to try and guilt tripped me into submitting to your demands. If you wanted to be successful, you need a better market. What you don’t need is a human.”
“Oh, but we do. You see, it’s about time that the planet Yala is challenged. You guys have been monopolizing the field for far too long. But with our human hybrids on the market, we are going to really start getting things going around here, and you guys are going to go down.”
“Human hybrids?” I exclaimed, revolted by the idea of anything touching Zina at all. “You’re insane. Human hybrids will be of no use to you.”
“That’s what you think,” the leader said, his voice still just as disgusting over the radio waves as it had been when I had heard it in person. “You would be surprised just how much people are willing to pay for a good human female of breeding age. They are pretty well guarded on earth. I assume that was the Raithers’ doing as well?”
I shouted in rage, and turned back to my second-in-command. “I’m telling you. Attack. Destroy everything. But try not to aim at the planet. We are going to have to try to rescue the humans. Let’s do the smart thing, but show no mercy.”
Chapter 8
Dr. Zina Smith
I gazed up at the sky, my heart tight in my chest. I had never seen anything like this before. About 30 giant spacecrafts were hovering over the surface of the small, rocky planet that I had been deposited onto. Around me were about 30 other human women, none of whom I recognized. They must have been abducted from different areas in the universe, most likely Earth.
They all whimpered and shouted as the lasers started to go off. I had the strange feeling that I was watching a firework show, and gazed at it, with a disembodied sense of just how beautiful the lights were.
“What the hell is going on up there?” One of the humans beside me exclaimed, her voice control and terrified.
“I don’t know, but it looks like something terrible is about to happen.”
“No, those are Raither ships. I think that it’s a good thing,” I managed to say.
“Oh, okay, but what is a Raither?”
I was too distracted to reply as I locked eyes on the ship that appeared to be in the lead. It had been the first to fire off its lasers, and some part of me knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this was the ship that Rax was sitting in.
I could almost see him, in his commander seat, shouting orders and taking the lead. It was an incredible feeling, knowing that he was out there, trying to protect me. Even if I didn’t know it for sure, there was something in my heart that told me it was so.
“Well I hope that whomever they are, they are willing to take us back to Earth,” one of the other humans said, her voice as even as it possibly could be. “We don’t belong out here. There’s no way that any of us can ever get along with one of these aliens.”
I felt a twinge of guilt and embarrassment as I thought about just how well I had gotten along with one of these aliens. In fact, I have gotten along with him far better than I had ever gotten along with anybody else in my entire life. But none of these women needed to know any of that.
“As long as they are willing to get us off of this planet, I don’t care what happens,” I said, carefully avoiding the subject.
“Yeah, did you know what they were going to do with us?”
I frowned, and shook my head. “No, what were they going to do?”
“Well, apparently, they had already tried breeding themselves with human, and that failed miserably.” “Oh yeah, I was there for that part. She was taken away, and when she came back, we found out that the guy who tried to be with her actually dropped dead right then and there. It was actually pretty horrifying. At least that’s what she told us.”
The other women around me gasped and all turned towards me. “You were one of the original women, weren’t you?” The first woman who had spoken asked me, her voice hushed in disbelief.
“Yes, I said. “It’s not quite as glamorous as it might sound,” I said.
A small tinkle of laughter brightened up the area around me, only to be cut off by the loud, imposing sound of another laser being shot. This one made contact, and we all looked to the sky in horror, as one of the black ships of the alien race started to ignite.
“You were one of the scientists then, right?” The first woman said, trying to do her best to distract us all from the terrifying war that was going on around us.
“Yes, I was,” I said. I felt a small twinge of pride, and realized suddenly just how strange it was that I was with a group of humans and actually communicating with them. They had been such a long time since I had spoken to anybody of my own race. Now, I was surrounded by them, and all of us were equally afraid. It wasn’t exactly a great comfort, but at least it was a way to pass the time.
“So, you really think that these guys would be willing to take us to earth?”
“Well, none of you were involved with the original team, so you are probably free to go. But I don’t think that they’re going to let me go back.”
Truthfully, I wasn’t sure at this point that I wanted to go back. What would happen if I did? I would probably never see Rax again. The thought was enough to make my blood run cold.
“Oh, don’t worry. We can sneak you on. We can find a way to make it work. We’ll get you home.”
The sudden chatter of several human voices filled the air, leaving me feeling both overwhelmed and bizarrely loved. It was nice to be around people who actually cared about my well-being, but it was also a little bit strange, considering the last person who cared about me to this extent was probably in one of those ships right that moment,fighting for me with his life on the line. How could anybody ever top that? And why would I ever want to go back to Earth when I could be with somebody who is willing to make that kind of a sacrifice for me? Nothing else could ever possib
ly compare.
Another loud explosion silenced us all, and we watched in horror as a ship, a Raither one this time, was struck by the terrifying laser. Debris was falling down from the sky and into the planet’s atmosphere, and we all took cover, hiding underneath a small shelter that had been constructed for us in the weird pen that they had rounded us all up into.
It was impossible to express just how terrifying watching this battle was. My heart was in my throat every time I looked up into the sky in search of the ship that I knew that Rax was in. I knew because it was the most important ship. It was the largest, and it was the most powerful, and that was the kind of man that Rax was. He was a Raither who was strong and powerful and determined. He was the kind of man who got things done. No matter how difficult it might have seemed, he worked his hardest so that he would succeed.
And not only that, but I knew that he cared about me. I knew that he was willing to do whatever he could to make sure that I was safe. Even if that meant leading an army to the planet where I was captured.
***
The war lasted three days and half the last night, and before long, we had gotten used to the commotion. I kept a watchful eye in the sky, trying to make sure that no matter what happened, Rax was going to be okay. There were a few close calls, and a lot of shouts and cries of fear and concern from the women around me, but the longer we watched, the more convinced I became that we were going to make it out of this alive, and Rax was going to help us to get home as quickly as possible.
Finally, a large rumble filled the air, and then quickly began to shake the earth beneath our feet as well. A blaring alarm siren went off, causing many of the already frightened women to fall to the ground and cover their heads in terror. But I had an idea of what this meant. It meant that there was going to be no escape this time. They were losing the war, and they were going to lose us to the Raithers as well.
“What’s happening?” The woman beside me wailed.