by Maia Starr
"My hair. What else?"
"That is all, except for…."
"For what? Tell me," he said.
"A feeling. It is hard to describe. But it is a feeling that I got when I came near you. Your humanity perhaps? I really don't know what it is."
"A feeling? You can feel me," he said as his lips slowly turned into a smile that surprised me.
"Get away from there! He is dangerous! I told you not to come here alone!" a voice roared from behind me. I jumped back from the glass and turned to see Captain Holt coming toward me.
"Captain Holt! What are you doing here? I am in the middle of an interview. Please leave us," I said as I turned toward him.
He grabbed me by the arm aggressively and yanked me toward him. "I told you not to come here."
Boom!
We both turned to see that the Kalazaron warrior had punched the glass wall. He was angry, and he was staring down Captain Holt. It almost seemed as if he did not like the fact that the captain had grabbed me in such away. He was breathing heavily as he stared at him. Captain Holt squared his shoulders and turned toward the Kalazaron warrior as though they were in some sort of duel.
"Got something to say to me, freak?" Captain Holt shouted at him.
"Don't call him that!" I shouted as I moved between them. "I am leaving, all right?" I said, putting my hands on the Captain’s chest and pushing him in a backward motion. He wouldn't budge. I knew it was his ego, because the Kalazaron warrior was calling him out. Men.
"Captain, I said I'm leaving," I said, looking up at him. It was only then that he looked down at me and broke his stone-cold stare from the Kalazaron warrior. He grabbed my hand and led me out of the room. I was disappointed. I was getting somewhere with the Kalazaron. I did not get his name. I did not get the details that I wanted. But I knew that I was in a position to get them because we were in space together for a few months before reaching Earth. There was time. Now I just needed to defuse Captain Holt.
"Why did you go there? I specifically said for you to let me know and I would assign a guard. You do not know how dangerous they can be!" Captain Holt shouted at me as he led me towards my room.
"Neither do you! You don't know if there is even any harm that he can do to me behind that glass. No one does," I said arguing back.
"Yes, that is precisely it. We don't know. That is the whole point. That is the whole point of protecting you. That is the whole point of this mission: to find out more so that we can better protect ourselves. Will you never listen, woman?" he shouted as he opened my door.
I stood in the doorway and narrowed my eyes at him. "I am of higher rank than you. Don't you forget it. And you can say goodbye to the privileges that you had before we captured this ship. I regret it already," I said, moving inside and closing the door.
I missed regular doors only so that I could slam them and make a point. There is very little satisfaction in an automatic door closing. It had no feeling. I moved back-and-forth in my room and knew that the captain understood what privileges I was talking about. I would no longer be flirting with him and giving him access to that side of me. He had sampled that once, and although I did not regret it—in fact I really enjoyed it and wanted more—he was being a complete jerk. He needed to be punished.
I pulled out my journal tablet and typed in my passcode. I began typing in everything that the Kalazaron warrior had told me. I did not want to forget any details.
What he had told me about Dr. Jade Roberts was unsettling. The entire time growing up, when I thought about her disappearance, not once did I ever think that she was in a happy state of mind. Never once did I think that she could adapt to living with the Kalazaron, or even fall in love with one. It just did not cross my mind. It did not fit with the tone and mood of the story about Dr. Jade Roberts. Her story was one of a frightening disappearance and a captive life. It was a story of becoming a slave to an alien warrior race. Not once did I ever think that she was first on a foreign planet, and then later learned to like it and adapt. Did she experience Stockholm syndrome, or was her experience one of truth? Did she really fall in love with a powerful Kalazaron warrior and become part of their society? I needed to know more.
But the hybrid’s response as to how I could get more answers brought chills through my body. He said I had to go to planet Kaethon in order to get answers. As soon as he said it, it felt like there was truth to it. As though it was in my future. I did not want to believe that. I never wanted to go to that planet. Humans that went there never returned. I did not want to become one of the statistics that I had studied all my life, yet when he told me, it was like I was looking into my future.
After I wrote down all the details of my first meeting with the Kalazaron warrior, I thought about my next visit with him... for research, of course. I was excited and ready to see him again. I would have to go by Captain Holt’s rules and take a guard with me.
Now, sitting in front of my journal, I began to write out questions that I wanted to ask him. The more that I thought about asking him these questions and spending time with him, the more excited I became. There was something about him. I saw a tenderness that I was not expecting. Was it due to his human side? Or was it a side of the Kalazaron that we were not expecting to find? We thought of them as a cruel brute alien warrior race for so long that it was shocking to see that emotion when he spoke to me.
Then I remembered that he had punched the glass. I did not think he did it because he was trying to escape. In fact, I thought he did it because of the way Captain Holt had grabbed my arm. He didn't seem to like that. But why? I was his enemy. I had captured him. He should not care how the Captain grabbed my arm or yelled at me, yet it was obvious that he did. It was an intriguing response.
The next day, I did things the proper way and set up a time and reserved a guard to protect me. But first I had the guard lead me somewhere else.
"I want to see the other warriors," I said to the guard.
"Captain Holt did not authorize me to do—"
"I am of higher rank than the captain. Do you understand that?" I said to him in a stern voice.
"Yes, Ambassador Jones, right this way," he said as he led me to the other side of the ship where the large prison cells were located.
As we moved in, I realized that there were less warriors than I had thought. There were only twenty, yet in the heat of the siege and excitement it felt like there were so much more simply because I was frightened. I walked down the hall, peeking into the cells making sure that they were being taken care of properly. Each cell had two beds, a privacy screened washroom, and a sitting area. I noticed one thing in common about every single warrior as I walked down the hall peering into the glass: they were in the middle of working out. They were doing pushups, they were doing pullups on pipes in the ceiling, they were doing crunches or running in place.
"Did Captain ask them to work out in this manner?" I asked my guard.
"No, it is of their own doing. They have been doing this since we captured them. It is very impressive," the guard said with a bit of approval.
"Interesting," I said as I continued to walk down the hallway. As I did, I felt my body responding to watching their firm bodies. It was a candy store. Each one was attractive in their own way and completely ripped. I was growing flush as I watched the warrior who was doing pull ups. His strong, blue-tinted biceps were bulging. His tattoos were beautiful. His strong, toned abs were tight as he was curling up his knees to his chest. I was transfixed on his abs like I was hypnotized. I was getting hot in a cold ship. Then I noticed the warrior was looking at me. He had a mischievous side grin as he stared at me. It was then that I noticed the hard bulge under his kilt-like skirt. He was hard. I gasped and quickly turned away.
"Take me to the isolated prisoner," I said to the guard as I walked with my head down out of the candy store. But I was not about to be relieved of my hot and bothered state.
As I walked into the isolated warrior's area, I saw right away that he
too was mid workout. Damn! He was on the ground doing pushups. His strong arms bulged, his rippling back muscles moving with each push. But this was not the best part. The best part was his body dipping up and down. I knew it was wrong, but I was imagining my body under his. With each down motion that he did, I could feel him entering me. I could feel his weight and his strength. I was hypnotized. I wiped my forehead as I moved toward the glass. I could hear him grunting and groaning as he pushed. Damn, it was hot as hell.
I moved closer to the glass and loudly cleared my throat. The warrior stopped with his arms extended straight out at the top of a push-up. He looked up toward me and smiled.
"I would like to have a conversation," I said to him nervously. He jumped up from the floor and grabbed a towel and began to wipe the sweat off his body as I watched. He looked at me and smiled in acknowledgment that I was watching him. I pulled my gaze away and dragged a chair in front of the glass as I had done before. I motioned to the guard.
"You may wait outside. Surely you can see us through the glass door," I said to him. He nodded and moved outside into the hall. I wanted to be alone with the warrior. I knew that he would open up to me if no one else were in the room.
"I just visited your warriors. Know that they are being treated well and they have cells similar to yours that are being shared, two per cell. But I did notice that they were all exercising, just as you are now. Tell me, did you order them to exercise in some telepathic way?" I asked as I pulled up my tablet, ready to take notes.
"No, it is just the Kalazaron way of life. We are fighters. Fighters must keep their physical form. You see," he said as he moved closer to the glass, as though he wanted me to look at his body. I cleared my throat and moved my eyes back to my tablet and took notes on what he said about the warriors exercising.
"I have questions," I said, scrolling through my questions list.
"I am not sure if I have the answers you seek, human," he said as he turned away from me.
"Ambassador Avery Jones; that is my name."
"Ambassador?"
"Yes, that is a title for my position, just as you are captain of your ship. I am an ambassador. It is a position that makes decisions, but only the ones I have the power over," I said to him.
"Your human name is Avery?"
"Yes, you may call me Avery if you wish."
"I am called Ankon," he said to me.
"Thank you for telling me your name, Ankon," I said, typing the name in my tablet.
"What do you want with us in truth, Avery? What will happen when we arrive on Earth?" he said as he moved toward the glass and pressed his forearm against it above his head. It was a very casual stance, but it was one that elongated his body. It made him tower over me and I felt very small in his presence.
I tilted my head back to look up at him and said, "I am not exactly sure. I do know that we hope to open communications between the Kalazaron and humans on Earth. We want peace. We do not want our ships captured anymore. We do not want our weapons stolen or our human females taken captive. The only way to stop this is to open a dialogue and speak about it in peace."
"That is the truth of it?" he asked. I knew that I could not give him a straight answer because I really did not know the truth. I did not even know that they were going to capture his ship until it was already happening. I did not know what the United Planets Association's purpose was in this matter. I could only assume that it was a play for peace. But I could not admit to this Kalazaron warrior that I was not truly in charge of the mission because then he would think it was useless talking to me. I did not want that. I wanted him to speak with me freely, as though I might make a difference in his captivity.
"Is it possible I will never see my home again?" he asked
"Truthfully, I do not know. That will be decided once you are on Earth. However, since they want communication open with your race, I assume that someone will have to go back to Kaethon in order to deliver that message. In order to be in charge of the communication. Since you are a captain, I assume you would be chosen. You have good communication with the capital city, is that correct?"
He was quiet for a long time and moved away from the glass. Then he turned to me, but he did not answer the question that I had asked about the capital city. Instead he said, "What will they think of me? They too will figure out I am hybrid. Will they think of me as an experiment? Am I to be cut open and studied?"
I gasped at his words. Not because they were horrifying, but because I didn't think of it myself. Of course they would! Why didn't I think of that before? I had forgot that he was a hybrid and that they would be absolutely fascinated with him on Earth. Scientists would be called from everywhere. He would be studied like a scientific experiment. He would never see his planet again. If they did want to send a message back to Kaethon, they would take a lieutenant of his to send the message. Ankon was the Holy Grail of the Kalazaron.
I began to wonder if he was highly valued back on his planet and if by stealing him we had inadvertently started a mass hunt for him that would turn into a war. My heart sank as I thought about him being studied and experimented on. Even if the Kalazaron had done that to our humans on Kaethon, I did not want any part of it on Earth. It was wrong.
"By your silence, I think the answer to my question is yes. Your captain called me a freak? What is it? Is that your name for hybrid?" he asked.
"No, it means someone that is very different in an odd way. Pay no attention to his words. He was just angry in the moment."
"Angry because you were with me alone? You are his? He owns you?" he asked looking at me.
My anger built to a substantial level as I shouted, "I am not property. I belong to no one. The human females on Earth are not owned by the males like they are on Kaethon. I am of my own body and mind."
"But he was angry, as though he owned you. Jealousy. You have laid with him," he said in a very blunt manner.
"No. I mean yes. No. That is none of your business," I stumbled over my words.
"So you lay with no male?" he asked.
"No, I mean I have laid with the captain, but not anymore," I said, trying to defend myself. Why did I care what this Kalazaron warrior thought of me?
"How long before we reach Earth?" he asked. He was pummeling me with questions when I was supposed to be the one interviewing him. He had complete control over the conversation, and I was giving it to him without even realizing it.
"Two months," I said to him.
"Two months of talking with you. What more can I tell you? I am to become a science experiment on Earth. Why would I want to cooperate and give you information?"
"The more I know about you, the less likely it is that they will want to get that information from you in other ways. Intrusive ways," I said, trying to figure out how to get him to open up to me even though I did not know what would happen to him.
"Ask me," he said.
"Let's start with your tattoos. The drawings on your skin? What do they mean? Is it just decoration?" I asked, working on my tablet.
"No, they are badges of honor. Each one represents a badge that marks a successful mission. Or a successful win at Kalazaron competition games. They all mean something different, except for this one. I am one of the few that have this one," he said as he pointed at a spiral symbol on his abdomen that went around his belly button. I cleared my throat as he guided my gaze toward it on his hard, six-pack abs.
"What does it mean?" I asked in a whisper that surprised myself because it came out very sensual.
"It means hybrid. It is the swirling together of human and Kalazaron. They made me get this marking so that all will know what I really am."
I could hear the pain in his voice as though it was a hurtful memory. I could tell that being a hybrid bothered him. I could understand why. Being different from everyone else in such an epic way must have been very hard for a youngling. I can only imagine the horror that some must have put on him for being an anomaly of nature.
“Can
you tell me about your mother? She was human, yes?" I asked him.
Then he turned angry and shouted at me, "No! Do not ask me that question ever again!"
Then he moved to his bed and laid down.
"I am sorry. We won’t talk about that. Would you like to talk of something else? Would you like to ask me about Earth?" I said, trying to gain back his trust. He was silent. I continued trying to talk to him but he shut me out. He was a wall; we were done for the day.
When I went to sleep that night in my living quarters aboard the Harvest 80 space ship, something very unusual happened. I was deep in sleep when I heard Ankon whisper my name. “Avery. Avery, let me feel you.”
I moaned in response. I felt his hand in my hair. His long fingers caressed the strands away from my face. Then the back of his hand ran down my cheek.
“Kiss me please, Ankon, my mighty warrior,” I whispered. He groaned at my words. Then his lips pressed against mine. I was in a state of extreme arousal at the fact that this alien-human hybrid was kissing me. My hands went up to his strong, bare back. The same back that I had wanted to touch so badly when I watched him exercise.