As I walk away from the grand hall, there’s something troubling me. Throughout my whole life, I’ve never—ever—heard anyone interrupt my father in a debate before. I haven’t even heard anyone talk back to him.
But sadly, everything the human said is true. We get complaints about the mistakes of the Phadh rule all the time, even if all the problems tend to mysteriously go away as soon as Elite Phadh Originators are assigned on the matter. I don’t want to admit it, but my father might be fighting a lost cause. Humans came to this meeting prepared to even go into an all out war against us to keep their claim over the Sixth Sector, even if their home planet it’s almost destroyed.
I head towards the observation deck. The cacophony of voices slowly becomes distant and muffled. Sure, it’s not like some of the greatest people of the Known Galaxy’s Alliance are fighting with each other. No, to me, the ambassador’s daughter, it’s another boring evening attending a diplomatic meeting with my father.
‘You have to come to this meeting, Alyce! You have to learn politics by experiencing them first hand. Our species is going through great changes, Alyce, and you’ll become one of its leaders someday in the future.’
God, I hate my dad’s voice when he’s asking me to escort him in one of those boring meetings. Nothing ever happens.
Until it does.
A small scale explosion erupts at the next room. I end up on the floor from the impact. I’m not sure what’s going on. Soon, the alarm goes off. At the same time, a thick cloud of smoke envelops the room. I hear steps closing in on my location.
“Help! Somebody! I’m in here,” I yell, trying to be heard above the ruckus the explosion caused.
Amidst the gray smoke, a man with a red, intimating mask appears. Three men follow him close behind. The three men wear plain gray masks, big enough to hide their faces.
The man with the red mask takes a step into the room and heads straight to me. The three men behind him stay put. When he’s close enough to touch me, he bends down and sprays something on my face.
I cough and crawl away from him as quick as I can. “Who are you? Are you the one that did this? What do you...?”
I feel my eyelids heavy. I can’t talk anymore. I try to fight it, but this is a fight I’ve lost before it even started.
Chapter Forty-Five
Eladia
I’m not sure how many times it is now. Running away from the men with the black masks has become an oddly common activity during this last year. And the truth is that I’ve become good enough to not even worry about them anymore. The poor guys don’t even stand a chance. I know Caso’s alleyways and secret passages like the back of my hand.
I keep turning my head to check on them, but they don’t show any sign of exhaustion. It’s almost unnatural how easily they keep up with me. They keep running, keep coming at me like they’re robots, never tired and never giving up.
Honestly, I wish I could just stop and take them on. But Cross was downright clear about it. He doesn’t want me fighting them.
He always tells me to run and try to lose them in one of Caso’s labyrinthine alleys. That’s the reason why we decided to move in this colony in the first place after all.
I stop thinking nonsense for a moment and look around me. The subterranean city of Caso is one of the most badly planned cities of the entire galaxy. Honest to god, there are some paths that start on one side of the city and end up on the totally wrong side like they don’t follow the rules of nature at all. I don’t know what is wrong or why, but being one of the first human settlements, my theory is that it still retains that archaic, somewhat sketchy, urban planning of the early human endeavors.
Caso is an underground mining station on planet Xioria. It’s the first planet of the Known Galaxy that we moved into since the start of this intergalactic chase between me, Cross, and the black-maskers. The plan was to stay in the Uncharted Region for as long as possible, expecting that they wouldn’t find us there.
But, they always did.
You make a mistake by using online transactions, they find you the next day. You share your name with one of the commoners, they find you the next hour. Honestly, I don’t know how the fuck they do it, but if it wasn’t for Cross, I wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. I wouldn’t be able to survive for a whole year without him, to be honest.
Nowadays, though, and after I had completed a great part of my training next to him, we decided to return to the Known Galaxy. I’ve asked Cross many times why we did that, but I think he avoids sharing his plan with me.
Back to the present, the three men finally seem to have trouble keeping up with me. I can sense them move slower now so I start looking around for a quick way out. I’m still in the lead, and it’ll be difficult for them to catch me if I’m careful. Running for a whole year now strengthened my feet and made me fast to react. My senses have been sharpened, and I’m in no way the helpless girl I was a year ago.
Especially that time when I lost them...all of them.
I take a steep turn to the right and on the next alleyway I find a concealed entrance into one of the local, abandoned factories. Nowadays, this place has been turned into a warehouse, with many local companies utilizing the free storage space to their favor. Still, not sure if the black-maskers will follow me in here, I keep running deeper into the old factory. I can’t stop until I’m sure they’ve lost me
Once, Cross told me that these men are mercenaries. Using state-of-the-art technology, they can trace the sound of my footsteps or use thermo-cams to locate my thermal signature. Even though it felt better knowing they’re just humans (for a long time I thought they were cold-blooded robots), I couldn’t get out of our hiding spot without shivering from fear.
However, Cross also told me that hiding all the time wasn’t a viable solution. And, I couldn’t let Cross do all the dirty work for me.
Unfortunately, today I managed to stumble onto the clever kind of grunts. They quickly find my the entrance to the factory and follow me inside. I run upstairs and search for a way out from the upper floor. Even though most of these places are still used as warehouses, Caso is a city of outlaws. You can bet your ass that there are secret passages everywhere.
One time, while I was again running away from another persistent batch of black-maskers, I ended up inside one of those warehouses on the other side of the city. My pursuers were getting dangerously close to me, and I was running out of options. That was until I stepped onto one of the many platforms lying on the floor. This one though was connected to a pulley on the roof with a balanced counterweight on the other side of the building.
Suddenly, I’m on the air, heading straight to the skylight on the ceiling and out of the warehouse, the three men below me standing still, trying to find a way to follow me. It was awesome, but only now I see that it was truly dangerous and risky.
I keep searching around me for a sign that will lead me to freedom, but I can’t find anything. I try to keep my cool, but the soldiers push me deeper into the warehouse. Things have taken a turn for the worst, and I’m not sure I can avoid fighting them this time.
And I’m right. Only that it was too late for me to see all the signs.
It’s a trap.
The three men behind me were the bait, and I was foolish enough to bite it. They weren’t chasing me, but instead herding me to this place, a place full of black-maskers. They surround me, five of them jumping from above and the remaining three coming from behind.
Out of breath, out of rhythm, not even carrying my weapon with me, there’s only one thought passing through my mind right now: shit, I’m done.
“Who the fuck are you?” I shout, raging over them.
None of them answer to me. I didn’t expect them to. I was just trying to buy me more time to find something to defend myself with. You would expect that in a warehouse which contains goods, there would be something useful against a group of goons. But, surrounded from every possible angle, not able to move a muscle without someone
capturing me, even if I could find a weapon, I’m not sure I would be able to get to it fast enough.
I squeeze my palms into fists and relax my stance. I’m not so good at hand-to-hand combat, but it’s better than standing still letting them get me without putting up a fight.
I close my eyes and try to get a clear sense of my weak spots. My back and my right side are vulnerable in a fist fight, but I’ll have to manage by moving my weight to the other side. Cross always says that I have to take the fight to them, so I’m planning to do exactly that. But it’s not that easy. I have a good idea of my surroundings, but still, they’re the ones that set me up in here. There’s a high chance that there are more traps hidden around.
Still, I don’t have time to think it over. They finally decide to make a move before I can come up with a decent plan. Three guys come at me at once, one from behind and two from each side. The other men move closer to me, tightening the circle.
I’m almost certain that there’s nothing I can do. I get ready to kick the one behind me, the one I would have more trouble beating otherwise, but it won’t do me any good. Even if I take him out, and the one coming at me from the right side, simultaneously, it’ll leave me without a way to deal with the other one. The same thing applies to every scenario.
I breath out and relax. I close my eyes and decide to persist with my first choice: take out the one coming at me from behind first and then improvise. I’m done anyway. Taking as many as I can with me is the best course of action right now.
“I told you to never get in a fight with them.” An oddly familiar voice suddenly comes from above.
Abruptly, I look around me and see all the five men surrounding me collapsing on the ground. A shadowy figure with a green mask falls from above, tossing me my weapon in the process. The three men coming at me don’t stop, even though the tables have now turned considerably.
Quickly, I kick the one coming from behind. He manages to dodge my hit, but still, that gives me an opening now. I use my staff to push the other two men out of the way and then I back-step through the opening. After that, the three men stop and cover me and Cross, one in each side. They’re ready to attack, but then they notice that all of their companions are on the ground, knocked out.
They look at each other and nod. They decide to turn and flee for their lives. Reporting to their boss, whoever that guy is, it’s more important than taking us on.
When they’re gone, I toss my staff on the ground and gasp for air. Cross, never taking off his mask, gets closer to me and rests his hand on my back.
“You’re lucky, Eladia. You know that, don’t you? You would have died if I didn’t find you in time,” he said.
He’s right. Fuck, I hate it when he’s right.
“I’m sorry, Cross. They set me up. I couldn’t get away from this,” I say.
“Eladia...I’ve told you many times already, my name is...”
“Don’t read too much into it, Doctor. We’re not friends, even though you’ve saved me too many times already. I just want to find my real friends, that’s all.”
The man nods and huffs. I know I’m rough with him, but after everything I’ve learned about him during this last year, I can’t let him get to me. I have to find Jay; I have to let him know how I feel about him.
“Okay. I understand. You’re right. Anyhow, can you walk?”
“Yes, of course. Why? What’s going on? Where are we going?”
He turns and removes his mask. That perfect face, with those beautifully dangerous blue eyes, looks at me. He has also changed so much throughout this year; I’m not sure I recognize him anymore.
“We’re going home, Eladia. I got news from the Organization. They want us back on Yaerus as soon as possible.”
I try to keep myself from cheering out loud. Finally, this nightmare is over.
I’m going to see him soon.
Chapter Forty-Six
Jay
I walk towards the commanding deck of the spaceship. It’s late. I just want to have something to eat. That tree-woman wouldn’t eat anything even if I pushed the food straight down her throat. And it’s all Pyro’s fault for assigning her to me.
Damn! Damn it all! I, Jasih of the Esuh, a First Kind, and a Prime Officer taking orders from a man that I haven’t even seen his face, I sure must be getting old after all.
But, he promised. He fucking promised that I will see Eladia again if I follow him. And that he’ll also tell me the truth about what happened to my people.
You’re way too gullible to believe a man weaker than you. He’s shitting you, and you do nothing about it.
I suddenly stop and look around me; there’s no one around.
“What other choice do I have? He’s the only one that knows about us and doesn’t want to cut us in pieces and experiment on us. Don’t you want to know what happened to our people, Jay?”
I feel a deep disturbance inside me; he’s not happy with me calling him Jay.
Let me out, just for an hour, and I’ll take care of him for you. And then we can finally search for Eladia and stop this fucking game.
“Don’t you forget the Cube? What will we do with that? Carry this thing around and wait until it magically disappears? Also, there are those visions. I’m sure you had them too. There’s something seriously wrong going on here.”
He doesn’t answer. He probably agrees with me, but it’s in his nature to defy me. I get it, though. I would be angry and mad as hell if I ended up stuck inside someone else’s body.
“Now, if you have nothing more to say, I have to get to the bridge. They expect a full report of the girl’s behavior.”
I start again towards the elevator as soon as I get a feeling that Dark Jay has returned back to his slumber.
It’s getting easier to talk to him every day. It’s like I talk to myself, only weirder. After everything that happened last year, the lies Eladia spouted at me, the cube showing us the way to every crazy corner of the Known Galaxy, fighting countless men and surviving, I think I’ve seen everything. Nothing surprises me anymore. But still, after everything, I don’t know why we had to risk our lives to get into that spaceship and abduct a young, alien girl. Pyro never shares his thoughts with us, not until after he’s sure that everything has gone according to his plan.
It has been a long year since we left that crazy planet. Back then, and after floating into nothingness for two days, I, Silver, and Zan were finally picked up by another spaceship, the mysterious Enigma Juggernaut. At first, I thought that the men with the black masks had finally found us, but as soon as the gate opened, we saw him, Pyro, the man with the red mask, waiting for us on the other side.
My first reaction back then was to attack him and quickly get immobilized by him and the gray-masked siblings in mere seconds. But he didn’t kill me like he did with those people back then. When he explained to us that he and the blond Doctor know each other and that he wouldn’t hurt us if we followed him peacefully, it was the only thing we could do to survive until we find Eladia.
Nevertheless, we ended up traveling with him around the galaxy. At first, I thought we were searching for Eladia and Doctor Dale Cross. But soon we started taking part in those weird missions—abducting political targets and exterminating small fleets of spaceships. I started thinking that the man behind the red mask has his own agenda and saving the galaxy from destruction is his afternoon hobby.
When I finally arrive on the bridge, Pyro and his two apprentices, the men with the gray, twisted masks, look at me. Both men remove their masks immediately and greet me, but Pyro never even moves a muscle.
“Jasih! You were awesome back there man. The way you kicked their butts without even breaking a sweat. It was awesome dude.”
That’s Alec. Very talkative and somehow childish, but at the end of the day, he means well. He’s our tech expert, able to hack everything he sets his mind into faster than a robot would ever do. Still, he lacks fighting experience, making him an unstable element during an
operation.
“It was nothing, young man. We caught them off guard. That’s all.”
He nods and looks at his friend, the silent and mysterious Arlen. The guy was caught by a pirate crew when he was still a small child, and they ended up cutting his tongue for some reason. I don’t know the details, and I don’t care enough to ask either way. He just stands there, looking at me, just creeping me out.
Both men use their hands to talk. It’s strangely mesmerizing seeing them use that sign language (that’s how Silver said that it’s called). Arlen is one of the best assassins I’ve seen in years. It’s impossible to know that he’s after you until after he has killed you. But, the fact he can’t talk makes him another unstable element for operations. If he’s the first one to go down, we’ll never even know.
Still, these two work with the Organization for years now, following the grand plan of their master, Pyro.
Alien Romance Box Set: Alien Former: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Books 1-5) Page 62