by Maia Starr
"If that is so, it will be sorted after the raid. To be safe, she will be put into prison until the raid is over and her fate and innocence can be decided," another commander said. I was helpless against the majority.
"Do not worry, Serena! I will come for you after the raid!" he shouted to me. I believed him. But I was afraid that he would not return to the base after the raid. Not because I did not think he was a skilled warrior or that it would not go well, but because of Prana. There would be lots of chaos in battle, and I felt that Prana may take it upon himself to use this time to kill Jaylin.
I quietly went along with the warriors that were escorting me. I had to figure out a way to get out of this. I was a strong, female soldier, but I could not find my way out like I had done so many times before. I had a child in my belly now and it made things more complicated. I could not use my physical strength as I had always relied on. I would have to use my wits.
They pushed me into a room and locked it behind me. I could hear the sounds of speed pod racers leaving the mountain base. I had to be on one. I had to go to the cliff side and shoot the target.
"What are you doing in here, Serena?" a voice said to me. I turned to see that it was the human female Lisa. She had become a friend and someone I talked too often about my situation.
"Lisa, I am so glad you're here. You must get me out of here. I have to help with the raid. I was put in here falsely by Prana when I no longer allowed him to touch me."
"Prana. He has treated me badly as well. He is a dark Kalazaron. I believe you. But if I help you, you must not tell anyone that it was I who released you."
"I will tell no one," I said to her. She quickly unlocked the door from the outside.
"Thank you." I quietly left the building and made my way to the landing port. I snuck into a speed racer pod and clumsily flew behind a fleet of them. I followed them to a flat plateau along a ridge. In the distance, I could see the Belvenreed outpost. I watched as a large group of speed racer pods were approaching the fence of the Belvenreed outpost. They must have already shot at the electrical box and brought the fence down. I landed the speed racer pad on the flat plateau and ran towards the edge. Then I heard shouting over the radio.
"The fence field is still up! The shot did not take it down!"
"Impossible! I hit the box myself!" I heard Jaylin's voice over the radio.
"The fence is up!"
I ran to the edge of the cliff and grabbed a gun. I peered through the scope. I could see the damaged electrical control panel on the fence. He was right; he had made the target.
"What are you doing here?!” a voice shouted at me. It was a warrior stationed on the plateau.
"Official Treen let me go. I told him I was needed, as I was the only one that can make the long distant shot besides Jaylin. It seems like I am needed now," I lied.
"Commander Jaylin shot the control panel and he took it out. I saw it myself. But it did not bring down the fence."
"There must be another control panel. Do you see one? I can take it out!" I shouted.
I carefully got on all fours and then lay gently down on my belly. I took the gun in my hand and scanned the fence line. Then I saw it. There was another control box. "I see it! I see the control box! Firing!" I shouted as I fired at the box. It was a direct hit. We could see the energy field go down.
The warrior ran to the radio and shouted, "The fence is down! The fence is down! "
Chapter 11
PRANA QABOEN
If she wasn't going to be mine, then she wasn't going to be anyone's. I came up with the brilliant plan to mark her the spy that Jaylin was suspicious of. It was the perfect plan. She had already acted strangely by escaping and everyone was already suspicious of her. She needed to be punished and this was the ultimate punishment; she would probably be executed. She would no longer be the commanders and that is all that mattered to me.
I had my fun with her and I was done with it. She was too much of a distraction, but she had turned out to be a great source of information. It was information that I used and that I communicated in secret to the Belvenreed outpost. Yes, I was the spy. I had been the spy all along. I had never been exposed and could continue on my work and bring down the rebel base. I had always been in this plan of vengeance since I was a youngling. I had every right to act out on my revenge.
When I was ten years of age, the rebels raided a part of the capital city. A few Kalazaron died in the process. My mother and father were among the dead. Since that day, I had vowed vengeance against the rebels. Instead of fighting against them, like most of the capital city Kalazaron, I decided to go further than that. I would dedicate my life like a true Kalazaron warrior and infiltrate the base from the inside. I was at the perfect age to do it.
I joined the rebel cause in the city and eventually gained trust to be transported to Blue Mountain Base. I had lived and trained at the rebel base while communicating vital information to the Belvenreed outpost and the capital city. Because I was a youngling that had lost mother and father, no one suspected me. They all believed my lies that I had lost mother and father to the capital city instead of the other way around.
So when I discovered the information about this particular raid through the human female slut, I quickly gave the Belvenreed outpost the information. They were ready and waiting for the raid. Just as they were ready and waiting for Jaylin to return into the atmosphere when he went after Serena and her escape pod. I had warned the Belvenreed outpost that a rebel ship would be entering the atmosphere. I wanted them both shot down. It was punishment.
It was a disappointment when they eluded the Belvenreed outpost attack. So I had to make sure that on this raid, the attack was successful from the side of the Belvenreed outpost. I told the Belvenreed outpost about the control box and how the warriors were training to shoot it from a long distance. The Belvenreed outpost responded to this by installing dummy control panels. Then they prepared for the raid. Now, as the speed racer pods raced toward the fence line, they were ready and waiting for us on the other side. I held back toward the back of the formation, falling further and further back, little by little.
When the fence opened and Belvenreed outpost racer pods zoomed out, the radio became chaotic.
"We are under attack! They were waiting for us! It must be the spy!" various voices shouted as we were suddenly in a dogfight, pod racer against pod racer. All around us, pods were dropping onto the ground. There was hand to hand combat and gun combat in the chaos. It was an all-out battle and no longer a surprise raid on the fort.
I smiled at my handiwork. but I was not done. I still had a responsibility. I was going to find the Commander Jaylin Brakin and kill him. It was part of my vengeance. He had made a fool of me by taking Serena from me and now he was going to pay for it.
I knew which speed racer pod he was in ahead of me. I lined up my racer pod directly in the line of fire behind him. I locked on and fired. To my disappointment, his racer did not explode, but instead fell to the ground and skidded across towards the fence. Then my engine shut down. I had been hit in the crossfires.
The speed racer skidded across the ground as well. I moved out of the pod and grabbed my blaster gun. I ran with the rest of the warriors toward the fence line, but my destination was not the Belvenreed outpost: My destination was Jaylin Brakin. I could not see him in all of the chaos. I ran toward his racer pod and found it empty. Then I heard him shouting, "Retreat! It is a trap! Retreat!"
"Not so fast!" I shouted as I aimed my gun at the back of his head. He put his hands up in surrender and slowly turned towards me.
"Prana! What the hell are you doing?" he shouted at me.
"You are going to die!"
"All of this over Serena? She does not want you. Move on! I have warriors to command here!"
I laughed at his stupidity. "Do you truly believe this is over a human female slave? No, my vengeance goes further back than that. I am the spy you fool! I have been a spy since I first came here as a yo
ungling! The rebels killed my mother and father and I have been helping the capital city as a spy ever since to bring Blue Mountain Base down!"
"You! You are the spy? I knew there was a spy among us. Good work, Prana. I did not believe it was you. Simply because of the fact that you came to us so young!"
"Of course you did not! And now you will die!"
Chapter 12
COMMANDER JAYLIN BRAKIN
I knew that Prana was a jealous ass, but I did not think he would go as far as to accuse Serena in order to punish her for her rejection toward him. He did it at the worst time for me, but the best time for him. It was right as we were prepping for the raid with minutes before departure. It broke my heart to see her carried off the way she was accused as a spy and taken to the prison. But there was nothing I could do in the moment. Everyone was in a rage and high off the adrenaline of the coming fight. No one would risk such a thing as to let an accused spy room free. I could only promise her that I would deal with that when I returned—if I returned.
Now I faced her accuser on the battlefield. He was the one that warned the Belvenreed outpost about this raid. He had put all of the warriors in danger. Now I knew why. He had always been on the side of the capital city Kalazaron. He was on a quest for vengeance.
Now he held me at gunpoint. I was not going to let him win this fight. Or I would die trying. It was the Kalazaron way. He smiled and I knew that he was ready to shoot me as soon as he was finished with his confession. Then out of nowhere his leg buckled from under him.
He went down and I ran and jumped on top of him. I knock the gun loose from his hands and punched him in the face. He kneed me in the stomach. We wrestled across the ground as the battle raged around us. We fought just as we had fought before. But I noticed that he was groaning in pain. It was then that I looked down at his leg and saw that he had been shot in the back of it. I had a mind to only arrest him and not cause him any more harm. He was worth more alive now that I knew he was a spy. We could hold him for questioning for the rest of his life until he caved, if he ever caved and told us what he had told the capital city about the rebel base.
It was in this fleeting second that he rolled away from me and grabbed the gun once more. He aimed it at my head, ready to fire. Then he collapsed. I was in shock. I moved over toward him. He was shot in the head. Could it be that he was so unlucky as to get caught in the crossfire twice? I looked around and did not see anyone that would have knowingly shot him.
I grabbed the gun and began to command the retreat of the warriors once more. Then I noticed a few speed racers moving out of the Belvenreed outpost. They were our speed racer pods. They had successfully made it inside, and I assumed raided some supplies. One of them landed next to me and the door opened. "Commander, quickly!"
I jumped into the speed pod racer and we all retreated back toward the base. The battle was over, but we had lost many. We had walked into a trap, and it was because of Prana’s warning. He knew every detail of the plan and it was just as I had feared when I called the meeting to cancel the raid. My expertise and word was rejected and now we had made a mess and lost many.
We returned to Blue Mountain Base with a heavy heart. As soon as the racers landed, I went to retrieve Serena from prison. I was shocked when she was not there. I feared the worst. Had Prana had a spy ally inside the base? Had he sent them to kill her?
I ran to the living quarters to see if she was there; she was not. I ran to the quarters of the females that she had come here with. She was not there. I began to panic; I did not want to lose her. I knew in that moment that I was in love with her.
Chapter 13
SERENA SWANDS
"Look! Look through your scopes! There, by the fence entrance. It is Prana, and he is holding a gun at your commander! Prana is the spy!" I shouted at the warriors surrounding me on the table plateau.
"The human female is right! I see it! I see Prana holding a gun at the commander Jaylin Brakin!"
"We must do something!" Another one shouted.
I was in shock, and for the first time in my sniping career, my hands were shaking. What could I do? Both of those alien warriors could be the father of my child. I could not harm Prana because of it. But I did not want to see him kill Jaylin either.
I made a quick decision and I shot at the back of Prana's leg. It was a perfect shot. He went down. Jaylin made his move and I hoped that he would not kill him and instead bring him in. I watched as they fought and my heart was on edge. They rolled across the battlefield. It was chaotic, and there were many warriors falling around them. It was a full on massacre. Then, Prana once again had Jaylin at gunpoint. I didn't think twice: I fired.
“Nice shot, human female,” the warriors around me said as they congratulated me. I watched as Jaylin moved into a speeder heading in the direction of base. I stood up from laying on my belly. I was shaking. It was possible that I just shot the father of my secret alien baby.
I moved to the side and threw up. The warriors looked at each other confused. I could not think straight. I was so sick to my stomach. This wasn’t because of the pregnancy. It was because I had shot Prana. It was because I had to choose in that moment between the alien warrior I loved and one that was possibly the father of my alien baby. It was something that someone should not have to decide in a split second. Yet, I did.
A warrior moved over to me and handed me a jug of water. I wiped my mouth and drank of it, rinsing out my mouth and spitting it out. Then I took another, deeper drink and swallowed.
“Take me back to the base, please,” I asked them.
“Right away, long shot,” the warrior said. A few of the others repeated this new nickname for me.
Long shot.
Any other time I would have indulged in the nickname and been excited and giving high fives to the soldiers around me after such a triumph in the face of battle. But this was a much heavier and personal experience for me. I climbed into a speed racer pod and another warrior drove, which I was glad for because it was a jerky ride when I drove, trying to figure out how the damn thing worked.
When we landed at the rebel base landing point. I saw Jaylin running toward us. I was so happy to see that he had made it back alive.
“Serena! What the hell are you doing? Where were you?” he asked me. But before I could answer the group of warriors I had been on the plateau with answered for me.
“You should have seen her, Commander! She took out the control panel that took down the fence. Then we all saw Prana holding you at gunpoint. She took him out! We call her long shot,” various warriors shouted at him in excitement. I only stared at Jaylin with sorrow on my face. I could not tell him about the baby, not yet. I could not tell him that I shot the possible father of my baby. I just needed to be away from all of it.
“Can we go to the quarters, please?” I whispered to him.
“Yes, let’s go.” We walked side by side to the quarters. Once inside, I erupted into tears. I blamed it on the wrongful imprisonment and the stress of battle. I still could not tell him about the baby.
Days later, the sadness still had not left me. The raid was somewhat of a success because we had the supplies, but many warriors had lost their lives. Now everyone agreed with Jaylin’s first suggestion that the raid be cancelled and all regretted not agreeing with him until it was too late.
Jaylin shocked me when he told me and Official Treen what Prana had confessed to him. When his quarters were searched, all the proof was there. I could not believe that he was such a master of disguise, but he had been doing it since he was very young. This is how he was able to hide his true self from me. He was a master of disguise that could fool an entire society for years. Now I felt worse knowing that not only did Prana have a black heart, but he was also a spy and traitor, and that would be carried over to our child, if it were his. I could scarcely bare it.
I spent most of my time with Maria, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Sarah who had all settled in well in high positions of technology on the
base. Margaret was even seeing a warrior. The women did not belong to one warrior or official as a slave. Instead, they were kept as general slaves, but they could at any time be given as a personal slave to a warrior if Official Treen willed it so.
I thought it was ironic that I had fought so hard to not be a slave to any warrior, and in doing so it had sealed my fate as the slave of the commander. It was because of my tricky behavior that I had to be watched. It was because of my escape attempts and fighting back that Official Treen had decided that the commander had to watch over me personally. If I had not done those things, then I would have remained a general slave, belonging to no one, just as the other women from the Madera ship.
But now, I was thankful to be Commander Jaylin Brakin’s slave. I gave myself to him willingly. I loved him. I knew that much. It was because I loved him that I could not tell him about the baby. I did not want to hurt him with news that I was carrying Prana’s child. I would not until I knew absolutely for sure. Weeks passed, and finally it was time to find out.