Ragal: A Sci-Fi Alien Dragon Romance (Aliens of Dragselis Book 3)

by Zara Zenia

  I nodded. “During my time alone with her, Tadisha revealed the reason they chose the Lord-Case Company for infiltration. Apparently, our mining operation in the Vaxivian asteroid belt uncovered rich stores of the element iridium.”

  I paused and brought up the holo projector, with a visual presentation on the metal.

  “It’s one of the densest metals known. In its natural state, it’s extremely brittle, but when formed as an alloy, it is nearly indestructible. The Infernians somehow manipulated my father into granting them access to those mines and have used them to create their fleet.”

  I lowered my head, feeling ashamed. “I confronted my father, because it made no sense. He has always been a shrewd businessman, but I cannot believe he would broker a deal like this if he understood in any way the implications of it. He has no recollection, but given his physical condition, I’m not sure he can recall much—another Infernian gift.”

  Zaruv responded, “Well, it is no worse than we already expected. The last assassin we encountered taunted us about their fleet but, as with any Infernian, it is hard to separate the truth from the vileness they spew.”

  “Indeed, they are not the only ones with a formidable force. Dragselia’s military has a few tricks up their sleeves, too. Your information will prove helpful as we formulate battle strategies. Thank you for telling us,” Karun said.

  Pavar’s eyes glistened with a violent anticipation. “They have no idea what kind of fight they’re starting, but they’ll soon find out what it means to challenge the strength of Dragselia.”

  Relief washed over me as the conversation shifted toward military strategies and tactics. Little could be done now, but it was clear that the brothers would hit the ground running when they were finally able to return to Dragselia.

  Ragal looked curiously at me. “You said your father’s medical state is due to the Infernians?”

  “Yes, Tadisha told me they had infected him with some kind of nanites. I have Steel City’s top medical experts looking into it, but so far they haven’t come up with any solutions on how to cure him.”

  “I have heard of this before. It’s one way they gain control over a Dragselian host to create the Naga serum they use to affect their human appearance. It takes only a handful of nanites to gain control over a host. They self-reproduce and colonize the host system, giving an Infernian the ability to completely control the thoughts and actions of the victim.”

  “Many good Dragselians have been lost to their effects,” Karun said somberly.

  Ragal looked suddenly alive. “It gives me an idea, though. The knife that Tadisha stole from the lab and used on me. It is magnetized and drew out the iron in my blood. If we could determine the electron cloud pattern of the nanite colony in your father…”

  Seeing the track of his thoughts, I finished, “We could then configure a magnet to draw out the nanites, while leaving the iron in his red blood cells intact!”

  Animated, we continued talking well after everyone else filtered out, working through the night, theorizing ways to create an iron-barrier magnet.

  Over the following days, we took samples of my father’s blood and tested an experimental nanite resonating device. We basically lived in the lab, bouncing ideas off each other. It seemed impossible, but I fell in love with Ragal even more during those long hours.

  When we finally felt ready to apply the magnetic resonance, I was a little apprehensive, but I knew if we didn’t do something, I would lose my father forever.

  We brought him to the lab; he had nearly lost his ability to sit up and was bedridden, leaving us with no extra time for testing.

  As the nurses lifted him onto the stretcher to enter the resonance chamber, I kissed his pale forehead, holding back tears.

  “I love you, Dad,” I whispered, wondering if it would be the last time I got to tell him that.

  The procedure took an agonizingly long two hours before the imaging came back clear of nanites. His blood pressure and blood oxygen saturation dropped dangerously low at the halfway point and I held my breath. No one could enter the chamber once the resonance had started.

  I felt my pulse spike and panic set in while we waited.

  Ragal turned to me and gently urged, “He can still hear you. Speak to him.”

  I went to the audio panel and froze, wondering what to say. I thought back to my childhood, to the early few years when we were just an average Vaxivian family. I remembered a song he used to whistle while he worked in his shop and started to sing.

  Slowly, his levels began to stabilize and the fear that gripped me eased. I sang as much for him as I did for myself, remembering the times I had spent watching him work, how much I had admired him. Fully grown, I now understood the pressures and stress that had driven him further away from me. I clung to the hope now that, if he could make it through this, we might reestablish that relationship.

  When the alert finally beeped that the procedure was over, I rushed in, eager to see if it had worked. He was still sedated and wouldn’t wake up for several hours, but already the color had returned to his cheeks, and the dark circles under his eyes had lightened.

  By the time he finally came to, he had regained something of his old energy. We explained the situation to him anew; his memory of the last two years was clouded and hazy at best. Though angry, he was overcome with gratitude that we had broken him free of his Infernian enslavement.

  With his health improved, he began spending time around the office again. The procedure had resulted in some damage to the nerves of his legs and he tired easily from walking too much, but he was perfectly capable of attending meetings again. It would take time, but Ragal and I believed he could make something close to a full recovery.

  One day, as I assisted him out of a conference with the team working on the ship construction, he surprised me with his blunt, candid observation.

  “So, you and this purple fellow, you’re together, I take it?”

  “His name is Ragal, and yes… I love him,” I said, watching to see his reaction. My father had survived several alien attacks, and I didn’t know how he would feel about our relationship, though he had been amenable to aiding the brothers’ return to Dragselia.

  Gruffly, he responded, “Well, considering how closely I took Albert into the fold, I’m not sure my judgment is what it once was, but any man who can keep up with you in the lab must be something. I do owe him my life, after all.”

  I smiled, knowing this was my father’s way of granting approval. Still, I couldn’t help but feel unsettled, as the ship was nearly complete and would be ready for flight within the week. I knew Ragal had to leave, understood his duties clearly, but I wondered what it would mean for us.

  Later that night, we were about to return to my loft, where Ragal had been staying after leaving his rented quarters, when he flew us out to the hangar, instead.

  After I dismounted, he shifted and took my hand and we walked into the building together. No matter how many times I saw the ship, I still got chills looking at it. I felt like an awestruck child.

  “Would you like to go inside?” he asked me.

  I was taken by surprise. I hadn’t been into the hull of the spacecraft yet, though I had secretly been dying to explore it.

  “If you’re going to be my tour guide,” I said, excited.

  He approached the vehicle, walked under its large nose, and placed his palm to its surface. The polished metal seemed to heat and melt, shaping itself into a staircase that he gestured for me to ascend.

  Breaching the spacecraft’s interior, I was dazzled by the scale of it. It was clearly constructed with the size of a Dragselian’s dragon form in mind. I had been in thousands of aircraft, but this somehow felt grander, epic.

  “She’s about two hundred years old now,” he said, stroking a wall. “She has some quirks, but she is still a sound ship.”

  I smiled, feeling a stab of pain. “I take it you’re excited to fly her again, to take her home.”

  “We
ll, truthfully, I’m a little worried.”

  “Oh? Why is that?”

  He walked to the controls, inspecting the details that only a pilot could appreciate.

  “Well, my brothers are talented warriors, but they are terrible pilots. None of them have the skills to copilot her with me,” he said, smirking.

  “I don’t understand. They flew here with you.”

  “Yes, and look where that got us.” He smiled and I could see he was joking.

  “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” I said, reassuring him.

  “Well, I’m hoping to find a new copilot for the return flight,” he said, looking at me oddly.

  “Oh, well I can certainly talk to my old militia contacts about finding you a suitable copilot.”

  He came up to me then, wrapping me in his arms. “What if I’ve already found one?”

  “Me?” I croaked, surprised.

  “I know it’s a lot to ask, and I know you have responsibilities here, but there is no one I would rather have by my side when I return home and face this threat. The future is uncertain, but the one thing I am certain of is that I want you in it.”

  I was quiet, processing. My father was well on his way to being able to resume his previous duties, and, by the way he had involved himself in meetings and daily tasks, it was clear he wasn’t ready to slow down with retirement now that he had his health back.

  Ragal started to look nervous at my silence. “Tasha?”

  “Hmm?”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I was just wondering whether we’ll have our own chamber, because I’m not sure I can keep my hands off you all the way there.” I smiled up at him.

  “Anything for you, my love,” he said as he pressed his mouth to mine.

  “Then how about a ride?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure the engines are quite ready to be activated…” he started.

  “I wasn’t talking about the ship,” I said, smiling coyly.

  Laughing and giddy in love, we lost our clothes along the way as he showed me to our chamber. Like the scientists we were, we made sure to thoroughly test and experiment with its functionality.

  Naked and wrapped around each other, we lay there inside the ship late into the night as we both contemplated the adventure to come, wondering what was waiting for us on the other side of the galaxy.

  Check out the rest of the Aliens of Dragselis series if you haven’t already!

  Book 1-Zaruv

  Book 2-Karun

  Benzen Preview

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  Benzen: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance

  Chapter 1-Benzen

  I think it’s all working out with our escape plan, everything going as it should. I think so right up until the very last minute, when the engine fails. It comes as a violent shudder, the sound of metal crunching and stuttering, coughing like a dying old man before giving out completely. The next thing I feel is the terror inside my gut as we hit a speed I scarcely thought possible.

  We’re tumbling, flying, falling fast down to the nearest planet. I see it come closer, a glowing blue orb the color of lightning bolts and vegetation. For a moment, as we plummet down at breakneck speed, I wonder what the puffy, white substance is that caresses the atmosphere of the world we’re about to land on. I ponder it until we’re right in the middle of its softness and realize they’re clouds. They moisten the sides of the ship as we stab through them, a ball of mechanical fire falling to disintegration.

  The ground comes up fast, then faster, then faster still until I hold my breath, certain that we will crumble upon impact. Glancing around at my crew, I see them more terrified than I am. Victorinth, her eyes are ablaze in fear, her gaze following mine out the window as the ship falls sideways. She’s holding onto her seat, gripping it as though it’s the last connection she has to her life before it became a disaster, before we felt the fear of falling.

  Our eyes meet over the chaos, panic surging between us like a tangible energy. Horror is etched into Victorinth’s face, and I see her lips twitch as she tries to tell me something, but I don’t hear a word. All that enters my ears are the rapid sounds of the craft cracking up around me and the rush of air as it escapes through the gaps in the falling wreckage. It hits my face, cold and caustic, the force almost burning my skin.

  The last thing I see before we crash is a large building on the edge of a city. If I knew of its importance to the crew, I would have feared nothing, but in that moment, I’m stricken with an intense fear, one that grows the closer we get.

  It’s right before my eyes, the ground black with symmetrical white stripes, and it’s coming up fast. I resign myself to fate, it will swallow me up and I will live no more. There’s a crunch, Victorinth screams, and the crew falls into a mass of tangled-up terror as the ship splinters at the edges.

  Before the blackness arrives, I look up and see the large building beside us. There’s a sign on the wall in an alphabet I’m not familiar with.

  RICHMOND CITY MALL

  I squint in an attempt to decipher the symbols, but as I strain my eyes, shock takes over my body. Then, nothing but darkness.

  My eyes are stinging, blistering with the pain of unseen molecules. It would seem where we’ve landed has something in the air we’re not used to. It takes a few breaths to adjust to the light. It’s like nothing I’ve seen before. The sky is dark like the blackest onyx, but every now and again, items are illuminated, like buildings or vehicles of sorts. As I glance out the window, I can see there are various other crafts. Some are larger than others and in different colors, but they are mostly of similar length, or at least much smaller than our craft.

  “What are you looking for?” One of my team shouts from behind me.

  “I don’t know yet,” I answer. “I’m still figuring things out.”

  I see something move, another being. They’re tall, slender, ethereal, and calm as they walk across the space in front of me. I see them enter one of the vehicles, then watch as it disappears around a bend.

  “What was that? I hear something.”

  I can hear the team behind me spruce themselves up and get back on their feet.

  “Is anyone hurt?” I turn around to check everyone.

  They all look themselves over before shaking their heads.

  “I’m scared,” says the youngest, Victorinth.

  “Me too,” I admit. “But we’ll be fine if we stick together.”

  We all nod at one another to show we’re in agreement.

  “But what was that?” asked Victorinth again. “What was that noise?”

  She rushes to the window and looks out. Seeing nothing, she turns back around.

  “It was a craft,” I explain.

  “Like this one?” She runs to her brother, Jarick, and clings onto him.

  “No. It looks nothing like this one. It was smaller, much smaller, and did not leave the ground,” I explain.

  “It didn’t leave the ground?” Jarick asks, bewildered. “How strange.”

  I can see him churn the idea around in his mind, the cogs of his brain whirring as he tries to figure it out.

  “Then how did it move?” he finally asks.

  “With wheels on the ground.”

  “Like… What the primitives used back in the olden years?” He’s aghast.

  “Yes, something like that.” I look solemnly to the ground. “But never mind that. We have to formulate a plan for ourselves.”

  “Yes, you’re right,” Ethazol says, stepping forward. “We can’t stay here forever, we’re a sitting target.”

  “Always the sensible one,” I smile at him.

  Walking back over to the window, I look out once more for signs of danger. Every now and again, the beings pass by, but they don’t so much as look over at us. It confuses me.

  “I don’t think anyone can see us. Not the craft, anyway. It appears the body work done before takeoff works here too.”

  “You mean the diversion worked?” Jarick asks.
r />   “Yeah,” I keep my sight outside the craft. “We’re safe for now, I hope.”

  I’m so busy being lost in my thoughts that I don’t notice the human getting closer and closer until it’s too late. It’s striding purposely right to us, as though it doesn’t know we’re here. He’s walking briskly, so briskly in fact that it's only a few breaths until he’s right at the window.

  “Look!” I shout at the crew.

  They all huddle around the window and gasp as they see him approach, closer and closer until…

  “Argh!”

  We hear him yell. He’s walked right into our craft, his face crumpling against the metal fragments of our broken ship. He pulls away hurt. There’s a red substance coming out the center of his face. It trickles down into his mouth and covers his teeth.

  We all remain silent as we try to figure out what has happened. The human looks to be in a state of shock. He tries to walk again but once again he hits the window.

  “What the hell?” We hear him say.

  He takes a couple steps to the side and tries to walk again. Yet, just like before, he walks into the craft. He takes another couple steps to the side and repeats and still, he can’t get anywhere. I watch as a look comes over his face. It’s a look of terror, one that shows his ideas of reality tearing at the seams.

  “I almost feel as though I want to go out there and help him,” I say as I see him fail over and over again to get to where he’s going.

  “You’ll do no such thing.” Ethazol claps a hand to my shoulder. “We are in enough trouble,” he explains. “No use in complicating things.”

  Yet we watch enraptured for a long while as the man attempts to get around the ship. At one point, we watch him stop for a little while. He looks exhausted and just stands still, looking down at his body. It’s then that he places a hand on his gut and then examines his fingers.

  “Oh my god…” We can hear him muttering through the walls. “What is this?”

  As we look at his hands, we see there is a peculiar green substance attached to his fingers. It seems as though his body has come into contact with our jet fuel, and we can only hope that he remains safe with the chemical on his body.