Her heart raced. She wasn't strong enough to fight them. These aliens were large, well-muscled creatures with incredible strength. How they had become scavengers astounded her. If the Skarn wanted, they could easily become the wrestling champions of the galaxy. Unfortunately for them, their long-range weapons capabilities were non-existent. And short-range were for defense. None of which worked against the Rhan's more high-tech weapons. At least, that's what she remembered hearing her father say.
Movement stopped. She was told harshly in the Skarn language to sit.
Lena found herself thrust onto another metal bench, this one shorter than the one she woke up on. It was hard and cold. She shivered as the chill crept through the thin cotton of her nightie. The cloth over her head ripped away, as the one who told her to sit addressed an image hovering in a pool of vertical liquid in front of her.
The image of her father.
"Daddy!"
"Lena!"
She'd never witnessed her father in such a state. His short, gray hair stuck up at the sides, unbrushed. Deep shadows darkened his light blue eyes. The wrinkles on his face, which always appeared to her to have grown from smiles and laughter, now looked worn, haggard, and aged.
Her father appeared like an old, weary man in the liquid screen.
This can't be real. It must be some trick. This can't be happening. It must be a nightmare. If only she could wake up.
"Are you hurt, honey? Have they injured you?"
She shook her head, still wrapping her brain around the idea that this might be her father speaking in the liquid that hovered in the air.
"No, Dad. I'm okay. They didn't hurt me."
"Good, good." The relief that washed over him was visible. It was all he could do to keep his head lifted. But then he turned, his gaze straying to one warrior behind Lena, maybe the one who had been speaking when they dragged her into the room. "You will release her. Now."
"Not until we have your weapons." The Skarn warrior spoke in heavily accented English, lisping some sounds foreign to them. He continued to bark his demands, but Lena tuned him out as she continued staring at her father.
The reality of what was happening crashed around her.
The Skarn had abducted her to blackmail her father into giving them the weapons they needed to defend themselves against the Rhan, offering nothing of value in return. They wanted weapons, but they didn't want alliances. But she knew along with her father that the Skarn warriors would use those weapons against Earth as well as other aliens.
"No, Daddy!" She shouted as she realized what they were discussing. "Don't do it! Don't give them anything!"
Her father glanced painfully in her direction before returning his gaze to the warrior behind her.
"You will not hurt her. You'll get nothing if you injure her."
"I do not play games, Pres-i-dent Mac-Don-ald," the warrior said, pronouncing her father’s name with deliberate slowness. "You do not understand the viciousness of the Rhan. They enslave our people. Murder thousands. Across galaxies they spread, like an infestation."
"We can negotiate an alliance-"
"Alliances are meaningless. We want weapons. You have not yet seen a Rhan?"
Her father hesitated. "I have."
He had? Lena leaned forward, wanting to question her father but knowing now was not the time. She had never seen a Rhan. She had no idea what the aliens looked like. All she knew was what she'd heard of them. Being the president's daughter, she’d overheard some rather informative discussions.
The reports she'd heard about the Rhan were terrifying. They were little more than monsters, feeding off the civilizations they conquered. A scourge in space, but a powerful one that no other alien species had managed to stop. Or even slow down.
"Then you know the capabilities of these creatures and what they can do," the Skarn leader continued. Lena could almost hear the sleazy smile on the alien's face. If that made sense. Which it didn't. But she was so focused on watching her father on the liquid screen that she couldn't bring herself to turn until she heard heavy footsteps behind her.
Two Skarn warriors were dragging another, different, alien between them. He wasn't Skarn. He had long, dirty silvery-blond hair that hung in tangled strands far below his shoulders. The clothes he wore were little more than rags. Filthy, torn scraps of cloth that covered blue-hued skin. He was lean and muscled and tall. Far taller than the Skarn warriors holding him, but he appeared weakened. He slumped between them.
"Is that..." Her father's voice trailed off in horror.
The Skarn behind Lena nodded. "A Rhan warrior. Or what's left of him. He hasn't fed in ages. Did you know that the Rhan can live for months without feeding? But hunger will drive them mad. They become little more than savages."
"You won't—" Her father began, but the Skarn interrupted him.
"You will give us the weapons now or I will feed the Rhan creature. You know what sustenance the Rhan require, do you not?"
"I do." Lena glanced at her father to watch him nod grimly. When she lifted her gaze back at the Skarn, he saw her curious eyes. He answered what her father did not.
"They feed upon blood." The Skarn smiled, his gargoyle-like face twisting grotesquely.
Lena gasped when the Skarn grabbed her arm, wrenching it outstretched toward him. She glimpsed the dagger seconds before the blade sliced into the soft flesh of her inner arm above her wrist.
Lena cried out from the pain. Then she noticed the Rhan's head lift, his nostrils flaring at the scent of her blood. His mouth opened revealing long, fang-like teeth. He strained weakly against the arms of the warriors holding him back. That's when she noticed the chains around his neck, hands and feet. He was a prisoner, just like her and Rex.
"No, you bastards. Don't do it!" Her father shouted.
"Give us the weapons!"
"I need time. I don't have the authority to release them. I need to consult the ambassadors of our planet. We are a united race, but these decisions are not mine alone. You must understand—"
"Very well," the Skarn interrupted him. "You have one Earth hour to consult your ambassadors. In the meantime, I will allow the Rhan to taste. He's not been fed in so long, and I don't believe he's had the pleasure of human blood."
"No, Goddammit!"
Lena screamed. She tried to hold it back. She didn't want her father to see her scared, but she couldn't stop. The grip on the chains used to hold the Rhan back slackened. Released, the Rhan surged forward, falling to his knees as he clutched her wrist in both hands, his sharp, fanged teeth digging into her flesh, opening her veins to increase the flow of blood that poured into his eager, hungry mouth.
Chapter 2
Lena awoke in the same room on the same bench.
She didn't move right away. Instead, she remained stretched on the hard, metal bench, staring at the twisting snake-like patterns on the ceiling above her.
She had hoped desperately to awake in her bedroom. Hoped this was nothing more than a horrible dream.
But this wasn't a dream. This was worse than a nightmare.
It was reality.
She was a prisoner on board an alien spacecraft.
"Human?" The muffled voice spoke through the hole in the far wall. "Are you conscious? Your breathing patterns have altered."
"You can hear me breathe?" Lena still didn't move. She continued staring at the ceiling, wishing she were anywhere but here. Her right arm rested across her belly.
"My species have exceptional hearing."
Lena said nothing. She kept staring sightlessly. The images of her father, the Skarn, the Rhan, all flashing through her brain.
Her silence must have concerned Rex because after a few minutes, she heard shuffling on his side of the wall and then his voice speaking through the hole again. "Human?"
"There's a Rhan aboard the ship, Rex. Do you know what a Rhan is?"
Rex hesitated before answering, "Yes."
There was a lot left unspoken in that heavily verbal
ized word. Did his species fear the Rhan just as the Skarn did? Was his planet decimated by them? Were his people enslaved? Or worse, devoured?
"I've never seen a Rhan before," Lena continued, speaking at the ceiling as she blinked back hot tears. All the stories she'd heard from her father and his staff, the generals and ambassadors... Nothing compared to seeing one in the flesh. Or the agonizing pain that followed.
"You... are injured." It wasn't a question. Did Rex know what the Rhan had done? Had the Skarn done this to him, too? "I am sorry, human."
"It's not your fault, Rex." Lena shook her head, wiping away the tears that fell regardless of her willpower.
Slowly, she moved until she sat upright on the bench. She looked at her right hand in her lap, which she refused to move. Someone had wrapped a bandage around it. The cloth was dark, smooth and shimmered in the dim light. She couldn't tell for sure, but she thought she saw a streak of blood staining it.
She should probably check to see how bad it was, but she couldn't bring herself to touch it. She dreaded experiencing that pain again. The memory of the creature's teeth digging into her flesh lingered. Nausea threatened, this time it wasn't from her headache. This time it was from fear. She'd passed out only moments after the Rhan's attack. The pain had been too great.
The Rhan could have killed her then and there. He'd drunk so viciously, so greedily, so painfully. He could have stopped her heart within minutes. She wondered how many warriors it had taken the Skarn to pull the creature off her. He'd been hungry, starved to madness by the Skarn.
She wondered if her father had witnessed the whole thing.
That thought brought another wave of nausea, but she pushed it back. She couldn't think about her father right now, or what he was going through. Instead, she needed to focus on finding a way out of here.
"We need to escape, Rex." Lena spoke louder, not knowing why. Obviously, Rex heard her breathing while she slept. He could probably hear her whisper if need be. "We've got to get off this ship."
"I told you it was impossible, human."
"Anything is possible. We just need to figure out a way that works." Lena slid off the metal bench, hugging her right arm close to her chest, still not willing to move it. She glanced around the room again, as if something might have changed since the last time she was here. "I'm not giving up. And you don't need to keep calling me human, Rex. I told you my name is Lena."
"Yes..." Rex said, in that deep, gravelly voice of his. "Lena."
He spoke it again in that reverent way that made her think of the Oranians. It was no wonder he was still a prisoner here. The Oranians were a peaceful, passive race. There wasn't much fight in them. They would rather talk than fight.
She hated to think of what the Rhan would do to the Oranians once they discovered their planet. Or Earth, for that matter. Maybe it was better to give the Skarn their Earth weapons to fight? After experiencing firsthand what the Rhan could do, Lena better understood why the Skarn were so desperate. She had only encountered one Rhan. But there were thousands... maybe millions more. Growing throughout the far reaches of the galaxy. Spreading from planet to planet.
And heading for Earth.
Lena closed her eyes briefly, knowing she would do whatever it took to make sure that didn't happen. She needed to warn her father, warn Earth of the creatures that were coming for them. But first, she needed off this ship.
Lena prowled the room, running her hands over the snakeskin-like walls, pressing and pushing, searching for any weaknesses.
Rex must have deduced what she was doing from the sounds coming through his side of the wall. "I told you... Lena. There is no escape from this place."
"And I told you..." Lena sighed as she pushed again at what she thought might be a weak point in the wall. "I'm not giving up. Humans are stubborn creatures. Tenacious. We don't surrender easily."
Rex grunted.
"Have you known many humans, Rex?"
"No."
Lena paused, glancing at the hole in the wall. "Then how did you learn to speak English so well?"
"Humans before you have indeed been aboard this ship." He paused as if giving her time to figure it out. When she said nothing, he continued, "I have exceptional hearing."
Her eyes widened. "How exceptional? Can you hear what's being said by the Skarn warriors?"
"I can."
She stepped closer to the hole. "Across the entire ship?"
"Not the whole ship," Rex corrected. "But those within abali range." He paused as if searching for the right word, knowing she didn't understand his language. "Those closest to us."
"Huh," Lena said, leaning against the wall. "Maybe we can use that somehow."
"I know not how that will benefit us. A locked door remains secured no matter what is being said by our captors." He paused again, sighing heavily. "The warriors near the prison cells do not speak of much else besides food, fighting and pleasure. They are a simple race with simple desires."
"Well, they're advanced enough to abduct me out of my bedroom in the White House. Do you know how difficult it is to get past security in a place like that?"
"I said they were a simple race, but they are not without technology. They used a transportation device to de-materialize you from your home and re-materialize you aboard their ship."
Lena's jaw dropped. "Do you mean they beamed me aboard their ship? Earth doesn't have technology like that. I didn't realize the Skarn were so advanced."
"They are not," Rex growled with a trace of indignation. "They stole it from the Rhan. The Skarn are scavengers. They take what they do not possess."
"Yeah," she said, nodding. "I've heard that about the Skarn."
Rex's voice had grown stronger as they spoke. It wasn't so... breathy sounding as before.
"Hey, you sound different," Lena said, then tried to correct herself. "I mean, you sound the same, but you sound stronger. Are you feeling better?"
Rex grunted again. "I have eaten. I feel my strength returning."
"Oh." Lena nodded. "Good. That'll help when we try to escape."
She had worried about the state of Rex's health. She considered his voice might sound weak because he hadn't used it for so long, but it had been more than that. He had sounded physically weakened. A long stay in such a small room wouldn't help for keeping in physical shape. Muscles atrophied. Strength diminished. It would make for a difficult escape if Lena needed to carry Rex to freedom. Better that he was nourished and able to walk.
Better yet if he was able to fight.
"You truly believe there is hope in gaining freedom, human?"
"I do." She didn't chastise his slip in referring to her as human. "We're getting out of here. You and me, Rex."
"You astound me with your puvonx."
"What does that mean, Rex? Puvonx. Faith? Belief? Spunk? Spirit? Nature of positivity?"
"Idiocy," he said flatly.
Lena let out a surprised shout of laughter. "Well, yeah, you may be right. Humans can be idiotic. But that hasn't stopped us so far."
She went back to searching for a weak spot in the walls, or better yet, a hidden compartment with weapons, but to her dismay, she found nothing. Eventually, she circled back to the wall she shared with Rex. She slumped onto the floor next to the hole. Again, she peered into the space, searching for a glimpse of Rex's face. She thought she saw a bit of cloth to the right of the hole. Maybe he was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall?
"Okay, I've got nothing so far." She curled her knees to her chest, keeping her injured hand tucked between. Lena leaned the side of her head against the wall, gazing at the hole. "Any ideas?"
"None."
"Do you have any family, Rex? Anyone back home that misses you?"
He was silent for so long, she thought he might have chosen to ignore her. At last, he said, "I have no one, Lena. They are gone."
"I'm sorry." Lena closed her eyes at the grief she heard in his deep voice. It's no wonder he'd given up hope of escape.
His family was dead. He’d been captured and held for who knew how long on a ship with a monstrous creature who sucked the blood from others. It was enough to fill anyone with despair.
"You apologize, but you are not responsible for what occurred. You were not there." The confusion in his voice carried through the crack.
"No, I know I'm not responsible, but I'm sorry you grieve for them. That you've been trapped here alone for so long. No one should suffer like that." Her throat tightened as she thought of her own similar situation.
Trapped. Imprisoned. Hurt.
She should feel sorry for herself, but she refused.
"It's called sympathy. When one feels sorrow for another's misfortune."
"Ah..." He sounded like he understood her explanation. "And... do you have... family? Someone who misses you?"
"Yes, I do." Lena bit her lip, not wanting to shed tears. She'd kept up a strong front so far. She didn't want her walls to collapse. Not yet. Not until she was safe at home. Then she’d collapse and cry all she liked. She cleared her throat before responding, "My father. He misses me greatly."
"Do you not have another parent figure? Are not two necessary to reproduce offspring in your species?"
"Yes, a mother." Lena smiled at his curious questioning. "My mother died when I was a baby. I don't remember her."
Which made her grief over what her father was going through even more intense. Her father loved her dearly. She knew that. Lena was all he had left. If she died on this ship, the last piece of her mother died with her. How would her father be able to carry on with such grief? How would he lead an entire planet if he suffered such a devastating loss?
Lena couldn't let that happen.
Her father was everything to her. He was devoted, caring, compassionate, but also had incredible strength, morals, and wisdom. Growing up, he taught her how to be the woman she was now.
He taught her to never give up.
"My father raised me on his own. Even while he worked on his career, he always put me first. He taught me everything I know, raised me to be a strong, resourceful, independent woman. When I had to make the choice of going into the military or university, he refused to tell me what to do. He knew I needed to make that decision on my own. He was there to guide me, not tell me what to do. I chose university. Studying alien languages. I wanted to be an ambassador between our worlds."
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