by Ines Johnson
"Damage report," Hsing barked.
"The blast hit her under belly, near the energy springs," Chen replied.
Hsing hadn't needed the words from his brother. He heard the information through the link his brother had while tapped into the consciousness of the ship. But Hsing needed the rest of the crew to know the damage. The report was not good news.
An Eloheem ship was a living, breathing creature; called a Mothership for a reason. Once a tribe of Eloh matured, they left their home world on the Motherships to use their healing talents to tend to womb rocks, rare planets that had the ability to bring forth life. A Mothership's interior was a living womb that cared for and provided for all the beings on board. The energy springs were the source of the ship’s life force. If that essence ceased to flow or became contaminated, the ship would die, and with it the last link to their home world.
"We need to use evasive maneuvers," Chen insisted.
Hsing grimaced. Chen's advice sounded so much like their father's words from that fateful day when they lost everything they held dear.
When the blast shook the surface of their moon so many cycles ago, the Eloheem looked up to see that a Draconian ship loomed in their orbit. The warmongering reptilian breed had no cause for an all out attack on the Eloheem. Horror rocked the double hearts of every Eloh male when they saw the truth of the attack. The Draconians were not attacking all the Eloheem. They targeted one male from each pair.
Eloheem males were born in pairs; one Yin, the other Yang. To separate a brotherhood in any way caused an imbalance. When such a severance happened, the community was able to embrace the remaining brother and provide a semblance of balance. Although, the solo Eloh was never whole again.
Solitary Yang would often retreat into themselves, preferring the inner world. Lone Yins would reject society entirely, becoming territorial and aggressive.
On that day, when the Draconians invaded their world, they trained their weapons on the paler Yang males, leaving a host of lone Yins with no community to ground them. With the passive side of their duality severed in such a deliberately violent manner, the agitated Yins lost hold of their sanity. Their marred souls turned to something dark. They turned their aggression on everything and everyone around them.
It took Hsing's Yin father, Hung, to move into action. He sent all the children on the tribe’s Mothership, putting young Hsing and Chen in charge while he and the other adults stayed behind to ward off the vile Draconian attack. Hung insisted the males and their mates could not travel with the children for fear of what a severed triad might do to the younglings.
Chou, Hsing's Yang father, gave Hsing the instruction to use evasive maneuvers to outwit the Draconians. He assured his sons that they would all meet again. Hsing trusted his prophetic Yang father’s words and did as he was told. What Hsing knew now was that his father, Chou, did not tell him that their next meeting would be in the world after.
The evasive maneuvering worked according to their father's plan. The Draconians gave chase to the adults and left the children alone. Many of the young pairs of Eloh brothers felt the demise of their parents. In the coming star rises, other brothers onboard felt something different.
For some, only their mothers' and Yang fathers’ spirits passed on. They continued to feel a link to their Yin fathers. But the links grew dark, twisted, and unnatural.
“They’re almost upon us,” announced the pale, green Lung.
Back in the present, Hsing’s eyes locked onto the screen before Lung. By the grimace on the young Yang’s face, Hsing knew that Lung sensed it was his father’s marred spirit giving them chase.
Hsing grabbed the controls and set the ship on a course into the path of the renegade ship. It wasn't another Mothership. Motherships, like theirs, did not have any weapons on board.
Hsing spied the artillery on the bay of the ship. It was a metal ship that befit the Grey Reticuleans, minions of the Neterians. The Marred Ones’ must have taken over the ship. The Grey's were formidable, but Hsing assumed the Greys would never anticipate an attack from a pacifist tribe of Eloheem. They would never suspect a fractured band of marred Yins to overtake them.
"We will not run," Hsing said.
"You cannot mean to do them harm, Hsing-I?" Chen spoke telepathically to his brother, not wanting to show any seeds of dissension amongst their ranks.
"Harm is their intention upon us."
"Their minds are sick," Chen insisted. "We need to bring them in."
"Our fathers tried that. Look where it got them."
"Vengeance is not the answer.”
"The time for diplomacy is over," Hsing said aloud. "They mean to destroy us."
Chen grit his teeth.
"They would destroy everyone on this ship. Including her."
That got Chen's attention. It also niggled at Hsing's mind. He'd not yet touched the woman, but his soul already knew that they would entwine. He would protect her well-being over his very life.
It was as though his fathers stood over his shoulder, one on each side. Chou, his patient, compassionate, Yang father suggested that Hsing opt for forgiveness and diplomacy. At his other shoulder, the hard glare of his Yin father, Hung, insisted that his son stand his ground and protect his people.
Hsing steadied his grip on the controls. At the last minute, before he pulled the throttle, a calming hand came to rest on his shoulder. Hsing shook Chen's hand off. But Chen must have anticipated the move because he tightened his grip.
"We will run no longer from our enemies, Chen-Na,” Hsing said telepathically.
"An enemy only exists when there is anger inside,” Chen countered.
"I will deal with my anger, and my enemies, face-to-face."
"You do not have to face an enemy to engage them, Hsing-I.”
"We cannot turn the other cheek, Chen-Na. They will fire and we have no weapons at our disposal."
"But we do, brother. We have our minds and our solidarity."
Through their link, Chen showed Hsing his plan. It was a risky proposition, but...
"You trust me brother.” There was no question in Chen's statement.
Hsing pulled on the controls and turned the ship around. In his mind’s eye, he felt Chen close his eyes and reach out to every male on the ship while he steered the Mothership fast and true.
The Marred Ones’ metal ship gave chase. As it came closer, Hsing sensed that there were only two beings on board. The males’ spiritual signatures were identifiable. Hsing had known these males all of his life.
They were in range enough for a telepathic hail. Hsing sent one out to the males. What he got in return was a cluttered mind full of madness and a hunger for destruction.
Eloheem were powerful beings. But that power had always been aimed at balance, protection, and enlightenment. Turned to a darker pursuit, a single Eloh could cause untold destruction on countless living beings.
Hsing felt the other males of the Mothership connect with him. They didn't question his command. Hsing and Chen had kept them safe since their younghood. Each male did as instructed.
Hsing navigated the ship closer to the Earth's orbit. It was difficult flying as there was a ton of debris in the atmosphere. But that clutter was what might save them.
Another blast hit the Mothership. It knocked Chen to the ground. The awareness of his brother's pain momentarily blindsided Hsing.
"That was a direct hit to the ship's energy stores,” Chen announced aloud.
Next to Chen's bruising, Hsing felt the ship's agony. "We cannot take another hit."
The metal ship was gaining. Hsing aimed the Mothership into the graveyard of debris from the humans below. The space junk rattled and smacked the sides of the ship.
Hsing felt Chen reach out for his brethren once more, making sure everyone was at the ready. They had to act fast. One more blast and they could face the same fate as their parents.
From all around, a hailstorm of satellites and debris around the earth's orbit arrowed toward
the metallic ship.
Chapter Ten
It was the worst roller coaster ride Shanti had ever been on in her life. The ship bumped up and down, went faster, rose higher, and dipped lower. She gripped her stomach, certain she was about to lose the lentils she'd eaten for dinner at the ashram. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up into the large eyes of Niao.
"Do not be afraid." The little boy entwined his long fingers with hers. "All will be well."
Calmness washed over Shanti. Like, literally, washed over her. She felt it creep through her fingers and up her arms.
Shanti yanked her fingers free. "What are you doing to me?"
The child looked guileless. "Giving you zen."
"Zen?"
"Peace."
Another bump sent her stomach lurching. She reached out for the boy's hand. Upon contact, her stomach relaxed, her nerves calmed. She looked again into this child's eyes. Eyes so much like Chen's. The same wide-eyed wonder. The same welcoming smile.
A movement to the side caught her attention. The other one, the darker one, braced himself in the middle of the floor, his hand on his staff, a scowl on his face.
Silence reigned for long moments until Shanti could take no more.
"So you guys are aliens?"
"We are Eloheem," Niao answered. The fingers of his free hand reached out to pet Shanti's wrists as though she were a frightened child and he was the adult to soothe her fears.
"And you're twins?"
"We are brothers. Eloh are born in pairs."
Shanti watched the boy's mouth, noticing that it moved as he communicated with her. But it moved as though she were watching a poorly dubbed Saturday Morning Kung Fu movie.
"You're not speaking English, are you?"
"No, I am speaking Eloh."
"Am I speaking Eloh?"
"No, you are speaking your Earth language."
"How am I understanding you?"
"You have entwined with Chen-Na."
Shanti assumed entwined was their idea of having toe-curling sex. But she was not going to ask for clarification from a child. The child clarified anyway.
"The exchange of essence allowed him to connect with your mind, including your language. Chen-Na showed us your speech pattern. We can communicate telepathically now. Language is easy for younglings. Our minds are still forming. The adults' brain patterns are largely set in their waves and new patterns are hard to form."
"So I don't have to speak to talk with you?"
"You are too weak.” This came from the darker twin standing guard. "You do not know how to block all of your thoughts." He glared at Shanti. "Unfortunately."
Shanti was not about to let a child talk that way to her. She jumped to her feet. "Now listen here, you need to check that attitude."
In response, the boy puffed up his small chest. "Hsing-I put me in charge-"
"What's your name?"
He frowned at her interruption, but answered. "My name is Nse."
"Nse, where I come from, little boys get spanked if they dare to raise their voices to adults."
Nse bristled as Shanti advanced. Time outs were one new age bandwagon that Shanti's parents never jumped on. Nse narrowed his eyes at Shanti as though he read her mind.
"Where's your mother?" Shanti asked.
"Dead." Nse was emotionless as he said it.
Shanti recoiled. "I'm sorry. What about your father?"
"My father is the one that is attacking us."
Though there were no windows, Shanti looked around as though she could see this irate parent intent on their destruction. "Did Chen abduct you too?"
Nse crinkled his nose in disgust. "Hsing-I and Chen-Na saved us after our Yang father was killed and our Yin father went into madness. He is our father no more. If he saw us, he would snap our necks without a care; such is the way of the Marred Ones."
Another bump wracked through the ship as though to punctuate Nse's point. Then the ship stopped shaking, but Shanti's world did not. This was not what she signed up for.
She'd gone to India to figure out what to do with her life. When she'd agreed to come with Chen, she'd let her hormones do the heavy lifting of the decision. She was thinking clearly right now. What Shanti knew for sure was that she did not want to be on an alien spaceship in the middle of a domestic dispute.
"I want to leave.” Shanti took a step towards the door.
Nse stepped into her path. "It is not safe. Hsing sent me to protect you."
"You're a child. You can't protect me. You should be taking a nap."
Nse's eyes narrowed. He stepped back from her. He stretched out his hand and his staff, which rested on the floor, flew into his grasp. Shanti watched wide-eyed as this child went through a series of martial arts moves that would put Bruce Lee to shame. When he finished he stamped his staff into the floor.
Shanti raised an eyebrow. "Okay, so you have some skills with a staff."
A gleam of pride showed at the corner of Nse's eyes, but he quickly wiped the look away and returned to his scowl.
"I still want to go," Shanti said.
A hand came to rest on Shanti's shoulder and with it a return to peace. "My brother is right, Shanti," said Niao. "It is not safe right now. Chen-Na sent us to keep you company. Your bondmates will let nothing come to harm you."
"It seems to me that Chen bringing me onto this ship put me into harm's way."
"Hsing-I will thwart the Marred Ones," said Nse.
"I thought you said your father was attacking us."
Nse nodded. "Our father is marred."
"It means," said Niao, "that our father has lost both his brother and our mother. When an Eloh male loses his brother or his female, he can become unbalanced. If he loses both, he can lose his grasp on reality."
"So what you're saying is that your brand of aliens don't do break ups well?"
Both children looked at her in confusion.
Nse relaxed his stance at the door. "We are safe now."
"How do you know?" Shanti asked.
"Our father is gone." There was no sadness or inflection in Niao's voice. "Your bondmate is here."
Chen? Chen had come back. Shanti hated that her heart skipped a beat at the thought of him. He'd kidnapped her. Abducted her. Took her on a ship and promptly gotten into a fight. But now he was back.
"I look forward to speaking with you again, Shanti." Niao took her hands once more.
Then both of the boys moved to the door as it opened. There wasn't a handle that turned. The door simply dematerialized before her. Had that happened when she'd come in with Chen? She hadn't been paying attention.
As the door faded away, Shanti caught the sight of Chen's robes. Then his long fingers that had brought her to orgasmic heights she'd never reached before. Only...those hands were darker.
Shanti looked up into a face, a scowling face with narrowed eyes that were a darker shade of blue.
"Greetings, Hsing-I," the boys said in unison.
Hsing-I's eyes were on Shanti, roving up and down her body.
Shanti wanted to grab a sheet and cover herself.
Hsing-I looked down at the boys. Niao grinned openly at Hsing and then went off down the hallway. Shanti saw a break in Nse's scowl as he looked up at the older male.
Hsing gave the boy an imperceptible nod. It was as though the sun broke on Nse's face and the smallest of smiles turned up the boy's lip at the acknowledgement. Nse bowed the upper half of his body and then trailed after his brother down the hall.
Hsing stepped into the room, crowding Shanti in. The door reappeared solidly behind him. His broad body offered her no escape.
Chapter Eleven
Hsing looked the female -his female- up and down. She was smaller than he remembered. But he had only seen her, in the flesh, once. She had been standing in the corner, her brown body had been naked. Gloriously naked.
Hsing had never seen a naked female before. He knew they were different, of course. He'd grown up around moth
ers; all older, mature women he'd known since he was a youngling. He knew that women had breasts, hips, and curvatures in between. He knew that they were soft and delicate.
Never had any of those women from his younghood made his loins ache. The sight of this woman -his woman- and her naked brown skin against the stark, white wall caused Hsing's mouth to water.
He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off the dark mounds of her chest. The globular orbs ended in black pearls that Hsing wanted to test with his tongue. His eyes had dipped to the curvature of her waist, on down to the dark triangle at the apex of her thighs. His loins, encased inside his petals, had throbbed.
Hsing had clenched his fists instead of reaching out and grabbing the woman then. He'd maintained his stance instead of throwing her down on the berth and sinking into her heat. Though every instinct within him told him that was the way to proceed, two things had stopped him. First, the fear in her eyes. And secondly, he’d heard Chen's voice telling him to stop.
"Stop!"
Back in the present, Hsing shook his head. He looked down at his feet. They'd advanced toward her. She'd backed into the same stark white corner as earlier. Her body was covered in cloth -mostly. Where it wasn’t, her brown skin shone bright against the pale interior.
Hsing's instinct was to pull her from the wall and test her brown skin with his blue hands. But again, he tasted the fear rolling off her shoulders and down to her trembling fingers. He lifted his foot to take a step back, but stalled.
They stared at each other. Hsing watched the undulation of her throat as she tried to swallow her fear. She looked tiny.
Had his mother been this puny? This helpless?
He remembered his mother as a strong, formidable creature he dared not cross. She was a kind woman with a generous and easy laugh, but she could make both her mates and her sons heel with a flick of her eyebrow.
"Where's Chen?"
Hsing narrowed his eyes at his new mate -Shanti was her name. "Chen is on duty." Hsing took another step toward her.
Shanti stepped back, her body flush against the walls, her fingers coiled. "I want you to tell him to come here. Now."