Defy The Stars

by Magan Vernon

  He grinned, lifting me off the back and seating me in the windowsill.

  I covered my mouth to stifle a giggle. “Oh Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou, Romeo?”

  He let his hands stay at my side and leaned in, the grin spreading wider on his face while he nuzzled his nose against mine.

  “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” he whispered into my lips.

  “That I shall say tonight until it be morrow,” I whispered before letting my lips pursue their course.

  I could have sat in that windowsill kissing him until my lips were raw, but he pulled away. “Okay, I should really get going before someone notices that I took this bike without permission.”

  “They already have," Riley's high pitched voice rang from inside the room.

  I gasped as I swung my legs into the room, coming face to face with dad standing next to Riley, who had a smirk on her face, and five armed Circe guards staring back at us. Dad waving the ankle cuff in his hand was not a good sign.

  Chapter 19

  Everything moved in slow motion.

  I turned, yelling back to Ace to run, but before he could move the armed guards had pulled both of us into the room. It took only one tall guard to pull me through, but it took the other four to pull Ace in as he struggled against them. He head butted two of the guards and the other two trembled underneath as he tried to release himself from their grasp.

  "I'm sorry. Riley got to your dad before I could stop her!" Jen yelled.

  I screamed and tried to kick the guard off me, but the only thing I was successful in doing was knocking my glasses off and having them fly onto the floor. This made things worse since all I could see was the outline of Ace’s body as one of the guards sent an electro shock through his chest, leaving him to fall limp. They dragged him out of the room and the last guard held me back.

  I screamed and screamed until my voice became hoarse and it hurt to continue. Jen was at my side, petting my head and whispering that it would be okay. I shook her hands away and continued to try and fight off the guard until my arms and legs became too heavy to fight anymore and he let me go.

  “Are you done, now?” A blurred blue figured stood over me. I knew from his deep voice that it was dad. He handed me my glasses, and Jen helped situate them on my face. The frames were broken and sat crooked on my face, the lenses were caked in dust from the desert sand. I looked around the room, seeing that Riley had left with the guards. Good thing or else I didn't know what I would have done to her with my remaining strength.

  “There was no reason for you to take him like that." My voice came out in a hoarse whisper.

  “Alex.” He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “He just stole a government vehicle, broke into your room, and then destroyed government property by removing your ankle cuff. Oh, and did I mention breaking your regulated clearance?”

  “Well, if you would have just let us see each other, this would have never happened,” I huffed, and the guard finally let go of me.

  “Alex, you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. That Caltian is dangerous." Dad raised his voice another decibel, trying to be assertive without yelling.

  “His name is Ace!" I screeched. “And he’s never hurt me!”

  Dad let his eyes trace down my body. “Really?" He crossed his arms over his chest, looking down. “So what’s with the marks on your head and legs then?”

  I looked at the dark red welts that had formed on my legs from the fall. “Those weren’t his fault!" I proclaimed, trying to fight the tears. “It was an accident.”

  “Uh huh." He nodded. “And I’m sure it was an accident when he killed those girls in France as well.”

  “He didn’t kill them!" I strained, trying to scream. “He wouldn’t kill anyone unless he had to.”

  “That’s for the board to decide." He nodded in the guard's direction and marched toward the door. “I will see you at lunch this afternoon. It’s almost eight so you’d better get ready for work. Malcolm is waiting." He smiled like nothing had happened and walked out of the room.

  I screamed the loudest I could, which did nothing but leave my throat hurting even more. I fell to the floor with tears running down my face. Jen crouched down beside me, her hands trailing down my arms while I rocked back and forth.

  “It will be okay. The board will get this all figured out,” she whispered.

  “And what if they don’t?" I sniffled, my voice coming out like a croaking frog.

  “I don’t know." She bit down on her lip. “But there is nothing that you sitting on the floor crying is going to help.”

  I sat up, wiping the tears from my face. “You’re right. There’s nothing I can do here.” It took all the strength I had to force myself into the shower and get ready for work. I had no desire to sit in the hangar and hand Malcolm wrenches, but because he was a third-year intern, I figured he might have the knowledge I needed.

  ****

  “Whoa, what happened to you?" Malcolm took in the sight of me, his eyes widening when he saw my taped-together glasses and the bruise, which had started to turn a dark purple, covering the entire left side of my face. And that was just the damage that he could see.

  “I’m surprised you didn’t hear." I leaned up against the small blue ship he was working on. “Ace took a hover bike out and we got caught. They took him away this morning and I have no idea where he is.”

  He shook his head, blowing out a mouthful of air. “I have never seen a girl get in this much trouble here until you came around.”

  “What’s an alien base without some sort of excitement?" I laughed, but it was weak. My voice was still strained from all the screaming and I felt like my heart was breaking underneath my skin. It was bad enough that I hadn’t seen Ace in a week, but what would I do if I never saw him again and the last memory would be of his unconscious body being carried out of my room?

  “Well, I heard they are having some sort of an emergency board meeting this afternoon, so I’m guessing it’s probably something about that." He shrugged, tightening a bolt that jutted out from the ship.

  “What do you think will happen?" I pressed.

  He shook his head, not looking up from the bolt. “I don’t know. Last time something like this happened was a few years ago and I had only heard about it third hand.”

  “Well, what did you hear, then?" I slid closer, focusing in on him the best I could with my broken glasses.

  He let out a deep breath, putting down the wrench before he looked at me. “Look Alex, all I know is that the last time an alien stepped out of line and broke as many rules as Ace did, he ended up not being at Circe anymore. They either exiled him back to his planet, or something else.”

  “What’s that something else?”

  “There are two possibilities." He held up his fingers, counting off them. “One is the prison cell block they keep in the basement. The other, involves them going to a different prison that isn’t on this planet or there is—" He made a slicing motion across neck with the last finger, making a cutting sound with his lips.

  “Oh my gosh!" I covered my mouth. “Do you think they’ll execute Ace?”

  He shrugged. “It’s a possibility, but if you want to find out they’re probably holding him in the cell block.”

  My eyes widened as I slid my hands down to my side, rolling them into tight fists. “Are you telling me to go down to the cell block?”

  “I’m not telling you what you can and can’t do, and I know you’re too bullheaded to listen to me if I told you not to." He flashed a smile before going back to work on the ship.

  “I owe you one." I patted his back and started running out of the cargo unit.

  “Hey,” Malcolm yelled.

  I stopped quickly, turning back toward him. "Yeah?"

  “Just don’t do anything to stupid, okay? I can only cover for you down here for so long."

  “I won’t."

  I turned back around, running in full force toward the cellblock. I didn’t kno
w what I would find, but I hoped that Ace would still be down there and not already headed for option number two.

  Chapter 20

  You would think that a prison block on an alien base would have more security guards. But as I ran down the long white hallways and into the basement I didn't see a single guard or even a single person or alien. As I approached the rows of cells I realized why.

  They weren't ordinary prison cells with metal bars, but lines of green electrical currents that ran the length of the large room, squaring off each snarling prisoner from each other. I ran down the rows, looking in each cell. Some of the prisoners looked like old women begging for me to help them, and others were sneering beast-like creatures who would growl and jump toward the electric currents only to get thrown back by the shock.

  I finally made it to the end of the block to a small green-lined cell with Ace crouched in the corner. His head was down, and his suit and hair were singed from either the electric shock when he was detained, or from running into the electric currents surrounding him.

  "Ace?" I whispered, trying to hide the horror on my face from seeing him look so helpless with his face buried in his knees.

  He slowly tilted his head up toward me. The fire in his eyes was gone and all that was left were pools of sadness on his blackened face.

  "Alex?" He stood up gradually as if it took a great effort for him to move toward the cell wall. Standing only a foot from me, I wanted to reach out and touch him, make the burn marks go away, but I knew it would only electrocute both of us.

  "It's me." I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes and tried my hardest to fight them back.

  "What are you doing down here?" he whispered, looking around. "This could get us in even more trouble."

  I shook my head. "I don’t care. What else can they really do to me? They've already taken you away and left me in my own prison."

  I looked at the green currents surrounding him. "I mean, um, not exactly prison."

  He smiled an actual small flash of white against his otherwise darkened face. "I know what you mean, Alex. You don't have to explain it to me."

  “I’m sorry." I pushed back my broken glasses to wipe the tears from my eyes. “But I just don’t know what to do anymore.”

  He let out a deep breath. “Well, the board is supposed to meet today to decide what’s going to happen.”

  I longed to reach out and touch him, to feel the lines of his face against my hand, and let his lips trail to mine. But the constant buzzing of the green bars let me know it wouldn’t be happening.

  “What do you think will happen?" I pressed.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never really seen another alien get in trouble for being with a human girl.”

  I gulped, thinking of what my dad had said about him killing other human girls in other countries. I didn’t want to upset him anymore, but I had to ask. “My dad said some things to me.”

  His eyes met mine. A fire was slowly burning behind them. “What did he say?" he spat between gritted teeth.

  “Well…" I bit down on my lip, trying not to meet his gaze. “He just said that there were other human girls besides me.”

  He let out a relieved sigh, raising an eyebrow as I looked up at him. “Is that what this is about? Are you jealous that there were other girls before you?”

  I could feel the color rise to my cheeks. “No that’s not what I was saying! Just wondering.”

  “I think your girlfriend is jealous,” a small alien that looked like he could have been someone’s grandpa, but very yellow, yelled from the cell next to Ace.

  “I am not!" I scowled at the old man.

  Ace shook his head, smiling over at him. “Can you give us a little privacy here?”

  The old man lifted his arms up and turned the other way in his cell.

  “That goes for the rest of you as well,” Ace yelled as I watched all eyes shift off of us, and pretended they weren’t hanging on our every word.

  Ace turned back to me, his eyes fixed on me like I was the only one in the room. “I told you about the other human girls. The ones who had their lives sucked from them right in front of me. For years it was as if death had surrounded me. I would pass women in the street who were on the brink of death, begging anyone to come and save them." His eyes dazed off as if he were in a dream. "Sometimes I wondered if they knew I could have saved them if I wanted to, but I think most of them were just clinging on to whatever shred of life they could find." His eyes met mine again as I saw the darkness spread over them. "Death surrounded me for years like it was waiting for me to screw up. I wouldn't listen to its call, not once looking at one of these girls, and then I met you."

  He put his hand into a fist and laid it on his chest. “The only time I can feel my heart beating so hard it’s threatening to leap right out of me is when you are around. You’re the only one that makes my heart beat so fast that I never want it to stop."

  He closed his eyes and then slowly opened them. He released his hand from his chest and put it back down. “There has never been anyone else who can do that to me, human or alien. I will not lose the only girl that will ever have my heart.”

  My lips trembled as I tried to fight back the tears that threatened to escape my eyes. I didn’t know what I would do if Ace was executed. How could I live without someone, who even though I’d only known him a short while, could leave me breathless?

  I leaned as close as I could to the electric bars without getting shocked, whispering, “As long as my heart is beating, I will never let it stop beating for you.”

  “I’m pretty sure we can change that.”

  I turned to see five large men with flowing black robes and snow-white skin come barreling toward Ace’s cell. I jumped back, trying to catch my breath that I almost lost when I was caught off guard.

  “What are you doing here?" Ace glared up at the man who had spoken to me.

  Just the mere sight of his face was enough to make me gasp. He had the same statuesque facial structure as Ace, but his had been hardened like a worn-out basketball and decorated with thin scares that stood out against his pale skin, which was pulled even tighter by his long black braid.

  “What do you think we are doing here, Ace? It’s time to come home." The man grinned such a wicked smile that it spread across his pale face and curved into the corners of his dark eyes.

  “What do you mean, go home? You can’t do that!" I protested, lunging at the man, but I was pulled back by two of the other guys with him.

  “Oh, my dear human girl.” He stepped closer to me. His long fingers drew a line down my face. He left the same icy hot tingle as Ace’s fingers and at that moment I knew he was a Caltian.

  He shook his head and looked toward Ace. “You couldn’t have at least picked a girl with a decent pair of glasses? Or maybe even a blonde?”

  Ace growled at him. "Take your hands off her."

  The Caltian slid his hand out from my chin and took another step toward Ace's cell. "My, my, all these years on this wretched planet have made you quite the angry Caltian."

  "This doesn't concern her. Just let her go." Ace narrowed his eyes, his hands balling into tight fists at his sides while the Caltian stood there, smiling and carrying on.

  "Oh, my dear Ace, I think we both know that this has everything to do with her."

  "If you do anything to her. I swear—"

  "You swear what?" The Caltian arched his pencil-thin eyebrows. "It looks like you've already done a fine job protecting her."

  The Caltian glanced over at me. I tried to fight the other two Caltians off me, but they had strength that I was definitely lacking. "Just look at her. Broken spectacles, bruises, and she doesn't even know how to respect her elders."

  He shook his head, turning his attention back to Ace. "I'd say it's time to—oh, what's the human expression—let sleeping dogs lie?"

  Ace opened his mouth. His lips lurched back as a loud, animal-like growl came from deep within his throat. He
thrust his hand through the bars, the electric shock barely fazing him as he reached for the Caltian's neck.

  "Ace, no!" I screamed.

  Before he could even react the Caltian pulled a small disc-like object from his cloak and thrust it hard against Ace's hand. The growl was replaced by a whispered gurgle. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell backward onto the floor of his cell.

  The Caltian laughed a high, sharp cackle, like the one from my nightmares. “Oh Ace, you should know better than to get angry."

  He pulled a small silver key from his pocket that glowed against the walls of the cell. He slid the key into the lock and the door opened. Two of the other Caltians pulled Ace out of the cell and to his feet.

  “Now let’s get you back home. We have big plans for you." The Caltian let his fingers trace Ace’s limp face before he let out another silvery laugh.

  “What are you going to do to him?" I begged, watching the Caltian and the others turned toward the door.

  The Caltian stopped and looked back in my direction. “Oh, dear little human girl.”

  "Oh, dear little Caltian," I mocked before gargling a mouthful of spit and shooting it in his direction. The wad froze in midair before it even hit his face.

  The two guards holding me back laughed.

  "This one definitely has some spunk," one of them added.

  "Yes, and we all know that I hate spunk." He took another step toward me, pushing the frozen spit wad until it broke against my face.

  "Gee, and I was just hoping to get on your good side."

  He pointed the silver disc at me. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

  He thrust the object into my chest. I felt the surge of electrical energy flow through my body, my arms and legs flailing like wet noodles. I fell to the ground, unable to move as the sound of my own heart pounded in my ears.

  “How is that for my good side?" He laughed as I sailed back into the darkness of my nightmares.