by Roxie Ray
“Sophia!” I gasped. “Hey, wake up. Please Sophia…”
Just then the door to the room we had been put in creaked open, and a large Xehrulian walked through. His hair was white-blonde and reached to his waist. His eyes were cat-like and darted around the dark room with distaste. His markings were more prominent than I’d first realized, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of them.
He had to bend down to step into the room, and when he was inside, he sat down immediately to avoid having to hunch against the room’s low ceilings.
“Awake, are we?” he asked, eyeing me with some interest.
“What have you done to her?” I demanded, trying to infuse as much strength into my voice as possible.
The Xehrulian shrugged. “We used stun lasers,” he replied. “Every creature has a different tolerance for the things; always hated them myself.”
I frowned. “You’ve had them used on you?”
“Sure, back in the days when I was a lone thief, pilfering scraps from prosperous planets.”
I kept glancing towards Sophia, worried about how unresponsive she seemed. She looked like an addict during the first stages of withdrawal. I wanted to reach out and stroke her hair back, but my hands were tied.
“Would you mind letting me out of these restraints?” I asked.
The Xehrulian smiled. “You think if you ask nicely, I’ll do it?” he asked, in amusement.
I suppressed a sigh. “What do you want from me?” I asked.
“It’s not about what I want from you,” the Xehrulian replied. “It’s about what Bis’er wants from you. At the moment, I think you are simply leverage.”
Of course I was. They would try and use me to get information from Quatix. They’d want the location of the Gnosees.
“He’ll never tell you what you want to know,” I hissed.
The Xehrulian smiled. “Of course he will. It’s just a matter of time.”
“She’s not waking up,” I said, glancing towards Sophia.
“She will.”
“Can you please just check her pulse to see if she’s still breathing?”
“I don’t really care if she is or not.” The Xehrulian shrugged.
I narrowed my eyes at him with renewed loathing. His calm, almost reasonable manner had duped me into believing that he might have a conscience.
“She’s important,” I said. “She’s the wife of a very powerful Protector of Svante. You don’t want her dying on your watch.”
The Xehrulian smiled. “I was told the only important Earthling I needed to keep alive was you.”
I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise. I tried to shuffle a little closer to Sophia so that I could nudge her with my elbow.
“Sophia,” I whispered. “Please wake up.”
“They tell me you’re a queen.”
I shot a glare in his direction and ignored him.
“You don’t look like one.”
“Fuck you,” I spit out.
The Xehrulian laughed. “Well, I understand the appeal, at least.”
I frowned, taking the bait. “What appeal?”
“There’s been a trend of late,” the Xehrulian replied. “Warrior races have been known to take human brides to wife.”
I wasn’t interested in his random musings about interspecies marriage. I just wanted Sophia to wake up and give me some small amount of relief. We’d still be imprisoned, but at least we’d both be alive.
“I visited Svante a few times,” the Xehrulian continued. “It has its charm, but I was really interested in the chaos breeders.”
“Isn’t everyone?” I asked mockingly.
“They’re adorable creatures,” he continued. “Wouldn’t you say?”
I frowned. There was something manipulative about the way he was leading me into this conversation. I felt a strange push in my head, like the makings of a headache. As I looked towards Sophia, I remembered suddenly what she had told me about the aliens and their abilities. Many of them were psychic races; they could probe into another person’s mind to try to extract information. He was trying to make me think about the Gnosees so that I would reveal their location to him.
“No!” I screamed, fighting against the pain in my head.
The Xehrulian sat up a little straighter and looked at me with surprise. I narrowed my eyes at him and balled my hands into fists. As I did so, I realized that my ropes were not as tight as they had been when I had first woken up. Obviously they didn’t think much of humans, because my restraints weren’t the strongest to begin with.
“You will not trick me into telling you where they are,” I said.
The Xehrulian smiled. “I would advise you to cooperate. I’m much nicer than the alien who’s going to be sent in to meet you next.”
“Do your worst.”
The Xehrulian laughed. “Humans have no real concept of pain. You spend your whole lives avoiding it. You don’t know what our worst will mean for you.”
I gritted my teeth as anger flashed in my eyes. “You think I have no concept of pain?” I asked. “Pain is all I’ve ever known. I’ve watched my friends die because death was easier than living, I’ve watched my parents being dragged off to jail, and my sister, I watched —”
I stopped short as my breath caught, and the truth of my almost confession washed over me. I had promised myself that I would leave those memories behind. I had promised myself that I would look only to the future. The Xehrulian was watching me intently, waiting for me to continue.
“Do you know what addiction is?” I asked. “Addiction is pain. Addiction is self-destruction, and I wanted to destroy myself. Every day after I got clean was painful because I had to live with the choices I made and the consequences of those choices. My whole life has been pain — so when I say to you do your worst, I can say that knowing I’ve been through worse.”
The Xehrulian raised his eyebrows at me. Was it my imagination, or did he look slightly impressed? He got to his feet and moved to the door, making sure to keep his head bent low.
“You have strength,” he said grudgingly. “I only hope you will be strong enough to withstand what’s coming.”
For all my brave words, I shuddered at his. I watched him leave and took a deep, shuddering breath. Then I tried to slip out of the ropes that bound my hands together. It was as I was struggling that I turned to glance at Sophia and saw that her eyes were open.
“Sophia?” I gasped.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine, what about you?”
Sophia nodded. “I think I’m okay,” she said. “I heard what you said to the Xehrulian guard.”
I froze. “Which part?”
“The part about your parents,” Sophia replied, as she struggled to sit up, too.
I avoided her eyes. “Sophia, I haven’t told Quatix about my parents or my sister.”
“I don’t know what happened with your sister,” Sophia pointed out. “You never mentioned what happened.”
“Right,” I said, pulling against the rope. “It’s not important now anyway. We need to get out of here.”
I had managed to part the rope far enough to slip my hands through it. “Yes!” I said thankfully.
I rushed to Sophia’s side and removed the rope from around her hands, as well. “We need to get out of here fast,” I said. “The Xehrulian said someone else was going to come in here to try and extract information from the both of us.”
Sophia nodded urgently. “But what if there are guards outside this room?”
“I haven’t heard anyone so far; we’ll have to just take our chances.”
I pushed the door open slowly and realized that not only was it not locked, we had been left unguarded. I almost felt insulted at how little they thought of us, but I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I held Sophia’s hand, and we ran down the darkened corridor together.
Sophia gasped as the sound of heavy footsteps reached us. She looked at me with wide eyes, and I ac
ted instinctively. I saw a door to the corner and grabbed Sophia’s hand and pulled her through it. We waited breathlessly for whomever it was to pass, and only then did I nod with relief. We had managed to escape their notice. I turned around and saw that we were in the kitchen of the Zernike.
There were two large sinks set up at the back, next to large tables that were filled with strange looking pots and pans. The room was large enough that it provided us with several different hiding places.
“We should stay here,” I whispered to Sophia. “Until we know —”
A crash overhead drowned out the rest of my words. Sophia and I both raised our eyes to the ceiling as more noises followed. It sounded like there was a fight going on in the upper compartments of the Zernike.
“Ah,” Sophia said, as she keeled over.
“Sophia,” I said, grabbing her. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Brags,” Sophia said. “I think he’s hurt.”
I frowned. “Wait, you can tell how he’s feeling?”
“He’s close,” Sophia nodded. “It’s our soul bond…”
“This is good news, Sophia,” I said. “That means the Protectors are fighting back. They’ll come for us.”
Sophia nodded, and she looked more positive than before, but I could tell she was still worried about Brags. She flinched again as the soul connection she had with him flickered.
“Come here,” I said, leading her to a corner of the kitchen that was hidden away behind a large pantry unit, which blocked the main entrance from view. “Sit down, take a moment, and breathe.”
“We need to arm ourselves,” Sophia said. “Just in case.”
I nodded and ran towards the many cupboards in the kitchen. I opened several before I found one stacked with a variety of knives. There were cleavers and one object that looked like a machete, but both were heavy and cumbersome. So instead, I chose two long, bladed knives with serrated edges. I brought them back to Sophia and handed her one as I sat down beside her.
“Don’t worry,” I said, taking note of her pained expression. “We’re going to get out of this in one piece.”
Sophia gave me a small, distracted smile. “If you say so.”
We heard another crash from above, and I closed my eyes, praying that wherever Quatix was, he was in fighting form. As magical as outer space had been for me so far, it would be meaningless without him. I wrung my hands together, trying desperately not to let my thoughts run wild.
“Rosa?”
“Yes?” I asked.
“Why haven’t you told Quatix about your parents and whatever it is that happened with your sister?”
Her question felt almost accusing, but when I looked at her eyes, I saw that I was simply projecting. My own guilt was tainting Sophia’s words.
“Because what happened to them… is my fault,” I admitted, feeling like I was choking. “And I don’t want him to think the worst of me.”
“Does it have something to do with the fact that you never drink?” Sophia asked.
I looked to her in surprise. Apparently she had noticed far more than I had realized.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“You were an addict.”
It was a statement, not a question, but I answered it anyway. “Yes, I was. My parents were addicts, too.”
Sophia put her hand on my mine. “You don’t have to tell me your story if you don’t want to, Rosa,” she said gently. “But you do need to tell Quatix at some point.”
I sighed deeply. “It’s in the past.”
“But it’s a part of you nonetheless,” Sophia said. “Sometimes confessing is good for the soul.”
I looked at her desperately. “What if he changes his mind about me?” I asked. “What if he doesn’t want to mate with me after I tell him the truth?”
“He adores you,” Sophia said emphatically. “Nothing you tell him is going to change that.”
“I’m not fit to be his queen,” I said, voicing one of my biggest insecurities. “My past is not fit; I don’t deserve to wear a crown.”
“Why don’t you let Quatix be the judge of that?” Sophia said, squeezing my hand.
“I’m scared,” I admitted, my voice shaking slightly.
Sophia nodded. “I understand that. But you are underestimating how Quatix feels about you? He looks at you the same way Brags looks at me. I know how strong that bond is.”
The sounds of the scuffle above us seemed to have mellowed down. We couldn’t hear anything anymore, and I wondered if that was a good thing or not.
Then the door of the kitchen crashed open as though someone had shot through it, and Sophia and I screamed in unison. The explosion drowned out our screams, but it didn’t matter, because whoever had just entered the kitchen was looking for us.
We grabbed our serrated blades and rose slowly to our feet.
“Why don’t you ladies come out from behind there?”
I glanced at Sophia. The person speaking was certainly not someone I’d ever encountered before, but from the look on Sophia’s face, I knew we were in deep trouble. Sophia and I stepped out from behind the pantry.
I had expected a small army, but there were only two aliens standing in front of us. One I recognized as Xehrulian, and the second reminded me of a merman without a fin. A series of intricate scales ran over his entire body, but they lacked the subtlety of Svantians scales, which blended with the skin. This alien’s scales were pronounced, almost aggressive, and were highlighted by their sharp emerald green color that was tinged with hints of black.
His face was human-like but not quite, which made him look all the more sinister. His eyes were small and beady, and a conspicuous scar ran down the right side of his face. It cut a straight line from the bottom of his right eye to his chin. I didn’t know who he was, but I knew he was someone important, someone with authority. He wasn’t nearly as large as the Svantians or the Xehrulians, but his presence was towering.
“Ah, that’s better,” he said. “It’s always nice to have a conversation face to face.”
“What do you want?” I demanded, as the hand holding the knife twitched.
“All I want is the answer to one question,” he replied, “and I will leave you alone. What’s more, I will leave you alive.”
I shivered at the silkiness of his voice. There was something strangely attractive about his hairless body yet innately repulsive about his face.
“I don’t know where the Gnosees are,” I said. “Quatix never gave me that information.”
“Liar,” the scar-faced alien hissed.
“It’s true,” I said, trying to make the lie convincing. “He was going to show me, but we were only on Svante for a few days before we left to come here.”
He smiled, and somehow his scar seemed more prominent when he did. “You can’t lie to a liar, my dear.”
Then he turned to the Xehrulian beside him and nodded. The Xehrulian turned to me with ash-grey eyes that almost matched the silver in his ankle length hair. Sophia reached out and grabbed my hand at the same moment I felt a sharp, painful push in my head. It was like the world’s worst migraine, but amplified by a hundred. It felt as though my head was going to burst. I didn’t even realize I was screaming until the pain stopped.
I heard Sophia’s voice come in, as if from a distance, but she wasn’t talking to me.
“… Please, leave her alone, she doesn’t know anything…”
“If you do not resist, it will be much less painful,” the Xehrulian said.
I saw him turn to the scar-faced alien, his expression perturbed and more than a little annoyed. “Her mind is strong, especially for an Earthling. She’s shutting me out.”
The scar-faced alien looked at me with mild interest. “Then try the other one.”
“She is protected by her mate bond,” the Xehrulian replied. “His strength flows into her.”
“Then try harder with the Earthling Queen,” the scar-faced alien hissed. “We don’t have time.”
&nbs
p; I detected a rising note of panic in his voice, and I wondered if perhaps he was not as in control of the situation as he would have us believe. Was it possible Quatix and the Protectors had turned the tide on them and were closing in? If that were the case then Sophia and I would just have to buy ourselves a little more time.
The Xehrulian turned to me, and his eyes narrowed in concentration. This time I was I was expecting the probe, and I steeled myself against it. It was more than just pain now. It was like someone was trying to crawl into my skin. My whole body screamed in protest as I tried to expel him from my mind.
I felt my knees buckle as I fell to the floor. I hated this helpless feeling, like I had no control anymore. I was at the mercy of a stronger and merciless force. But this feeling was not unfamiliar to me — I had experienced this before when I had been under the influence of heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy. It had felt like I was drowning and had lost the ability to swim.
No.
I had come too far and fought too hard to give in to this feeling again. I was not a drug addict anymore. I pushed back against the Xehrulian’s mental assault, filling my mind with meaningless facts and images that held no importance for him.
“Fuck!” the Xehrulian shouted in frustration as he withdrew from my mind.
I gasped, realizing that Sophia had her arms wrapped around me.
“Philzar?” the scar-faced alien asked urgently.
“She’s not giving me anything,” Philzar screamed with anger.
He took a step forward as though he were going to beat the information out of me. Sophia gripped me tighter, and at that moment, we heard running footsteps.
Oh God, please let that be Quatix, please let that be any of the Protectors. Please, dear God.
A shadow fell upon the broken doorway first, and then an unrecognizable alien stepped into my line of vision. My heart fell as I recognized the full-body suit of the Sives.
“Bis’er,” the alien said, looking to the scar-faced alien. “They’ve broken through the last line of defense. They’re on their way down here.”
“All of them?” Bis’er asked.
“Yes.”
Bis’er swore loudly and turned to Sophia and I with madness raging in his beady bright eyes.