Alien Stolen

by Rena Marks

  Miack was standing now, concentrating on a spot in the clearing behind to us. There was nothing there…and then there was. A huge, metallic gray contraption briefly appeared, flashed out, and then reappeared again. Blue lights came on, and the thing hovered in the air.

  I snapped myself out of my bemused state. “Run,” I said to him. “I’ll hold them off.”

  Instead, he pulled me to him for more cuddle time. I pushed him gently, not wanting to hurt him with the increased strength I carried. I knew he understood me. “Go. I love you. I don’t want anyone to hurt you while you’re weakened.”

  But Miack only growled and pulled me to him again. He seemed to try to convey something to me, but I couldn’t comprehend it. He spoke again, smoothing my hair off my forehead and kissing it gently. All at once, I understood. He wasn’t afraid of this thing that was landing.

  More aliens.

  I saw why when the ship descended. The lights dimmed, changing to red, like emergency lighting. It touched down, cut the engines, and the door rolled open to reveal men in greenish gold scales with Mohawk spikes trailing up their arms and from the top of their heads down their backs.

  His own people.

  They were of various shades of skin color. Some of the men were more green, some were more gold, but they were all definitely the same species. The first one that left the ship came and clasped Miack in a giant bear hug, their spikes smushed down into the soft mode. They were all babbling in the nonsensical language and laughing, and then Miack was pulling me in front of him where they all did the strangest thing. They bowed.

  No shaking hands on their planet, apparently.

  Miack said something to the first guy who came off the ship, and he rose from his bow and spoke to me.

  “My name is Turic, your highness.”

  “You can speak English?” I was too amazed at the fact that I could understand him to say anything about the title. I looked back over my shoulder at Miack, who was looking down at me with a huge smile on his face.

  “We have implants that allow us to understand and speak various languages. Miack has one also, but apparently the half that controls his speech was removed. We will add another, of course. And Miack would like to know if you wish to have one as well.”

  All I could do was nod. Miack swept me up in his arms, and the rest of the aliens cheered as we boarded the ship. He made his way down a hallway and entered a large room with a lot of chairs, like a classroom or a boardroom.

  He deposited me in of the chairs and left me to go with Turic. I stared at all the strange faces, slightly alarmed, though they had huge grins on their faces. They whispered back and forth, and one reached out with a finger to touch my arm. I squealed, making him jump. They all began to laugh. Then Turic re-entered the room and barked for the others to quit crowding me.

  “I am sorry, Sian. These fools have never seen an actual human before. We’ve seen pictures, but you look a bit different in real life.”

  “Where’s Miack?”

  He smiled. “He is in the infirmary being re-implanted. The first thing he wants to do is communicate with you. He said he has much to tell you.”

  “No kidding,” I murmured.

  “So tell me, your highness,” someone called out from further away, as they obeyed their orders to give me space. “Do all humans look as cute as a bug like you?”

  “Cute as a bug?”

  Turic rolled his eyes. “You are beautiful, Sian.”

  “Beautiful?” I scratched my head. Humans like me were dusty and sweaty. Our hair hadn’t seen conditioner in years, and sometimes we rubbed fat into it once a week to control the dryness.

  “Yes, you know. The contrast between your hair, and your skin, and your eyes.” Another spoke, and the strange man sighed like a teenage girl. “It is delicious.”

  “Oh. Well, humans are all different colors, of course. We vary from black to white, with various shades of pink and tan in between. Hair colors range from black, brown, blond and red. Some of us have straight hair, some have curly. Our eye colors are usually brown, green, or blue, with a few shades mixed in between. Oh, except for my best friend, Ria. She has silver eyes now.”

  “What color is her hair?” Someone asked.

  “It’s black,” I said.

  Turic cut in. “It does not matter what color her best friend’s hair is. She is off limits according to Miack. We are to protect Sian’s family which consists of her, her best friend, her parents, and the best friend’s parents.”

  “Ria,” I murmured. “Her name is Ria.”

  My stomach growled, which was strange because I shouldn’t have been hungry. But after the raunchy sex, I gained Miack’s strength. Along with strength comes hunger. Turic motioned to someone.

  A tray of food was brought to me, and the seven-foot tall man dropped to his knee as he held it out.

  “Thank you. You don’t have to bow,” I said, taking the tray from him.

  Smiles broke out on the faces around me. I’d done something correctly, though what tests I was up against, I had no idea.

  I uncovered the tray. It had the strangest shapes and textures of food. “I’m not going to ask what this is because I’d have no idea even if you named it. All I ask is you pretend not to notice if I have reprehensible table manners according to your customs. And that someone stops me if I attempt to eat something that may be plate decoration.”

  Turic smiled. “Everything on the dish is edible. We gave you a variety of items so you could pick and choose what you like. You could push aside what you do not, and we will avoid those items from now on.”

  There were small brown bubbles. I picked one up and chewed it. A burst of sweet exploded on my tongue, startling me.

  One of the men leaned in, most helpful. “Now you pick up the darker squares next to them. The sweetness goes along with the saltiness of the squares. It is called ooshler and lien.”

  I popped the square thing into my mouth. He was right. The lingering sweetness tempered the extreme saltiness of the savory square things.

  “Oh, that’s tasty, isn’t it? Wow. And this?”

  I speared a green thing.

  “It is a vegetable that grows where there is a lot of water. It is cooked in a sauce that has more of a puckering taste.”

  A pucker? I tentatively licked it. “Oh, it’s vinegary,” I exclaimed, shoveling the whole thing in my mouth. I’d always loved salt and vinegar.

  Several of the aliens smiled wider. They seemed to enjoy that I appreciated their odd food.

  “We used to eat a variety of things,” I said. “Years ago. Before the alien invasion.”

  Turic’s face tightened. “The Praydians are scum.”

  “Yes, they are,” I agreed, enthralled with a drink someone brought out and handed to me. It was almost like what I remembered of a sports drink. Of course, I couldn’t be sure since I hadn’t had a real one in years.

  “Would you prefer a carbonated beverage?” One of the men asked. He was much more green than his comrades, as if his skin would only pick up gold highlights in the bright sunlight.

  I nodded eagerly. Carbonation. I’d almost forgotten what that felt like.

  He and two others jumped up to retrieve it, practically falling over themselves to return. The clear, effervescent liquid was contained in a small glass tube.

  “I can hardly wait,” I giggled, before taking the smallest sip. I moaned.

  “You like it?” Someone asked.

  “Delicious. Just like I remembered.” I think.

  “What else can we feed her?” Someone whispered.

  “Let’s try querchil.”

  Sudden, sharp barking from Miack at the doorway brought the men to attention. They all immediately rose from where they were kneeling around me, turning to salute him.

  He spoke in their language, so I couldn’t understand what he said, but his men scattered.

  “No fair speaking what I can’t understand,” I said.

  “No fair being s
urrounded by men who are not me,” he said.

  He stooped down and reached out to raise my face, muscles bunching across his broad shoulders. He kissed my forehead.

  “Oh. You’re speaking English,” I said.

  “I am. Finish your food, and I’ll explain everything to you.”

  He pulled up a chair while I delved into the strange looking pieces on my plate.

  “Don’t eat that one,” he said, as I was about to take a piece of gelatin to try.

  I raised my brows.

  He smiled. “That one is eaten when we don’t have a lot of time, or are not very hungry. After it’s swallowed, it takes about twenty minutes to expand in your belly. Since you’ve already eaten, you’ll be overly full.”

  “Oh, sheesh.” His guys didn’t think to explain that to me? I pushed it aside.

  “Where are your men now?”

  “I recorded a hologram for them to watch while I was having the communication device implanted. I wanted to tell my men you did not understand they weren’t here to attack us earlier.” From outside, I heard laughter. His voice was wry when he continued. “I had also explained that you could not understand me with the removal of my throat implant. They were stunned that we are mates but couldn’t communicate enough to figure that out.”

  “You’re their leader?” I asked. What was up with the royalty thing?

  “Yes,” he said, getting back to the part I’d ignored. “And you are my mate. You are their queen.”

  “That’s why they’re calling me your highness?”

  “Yes.”

  “How do you know I’m your mate?” I knew I sounded a bit suspicious. “How do you know some hot green momma won’t come along later?”

  “Nisibians will lose strength following sex. The Praydians told your species that. However, the fact that it transferred to you only happens with a mate. I knew from the first night you were mine. You were the one person, all these galaxies away, who was made for me.”

  He stepped in close to me, stealing my breath away with his nearness. I could smell the spicy muskiness of his skin. “You knew it, too. You told me you loved me earlier—when you thought Praydians had landed instead of my people.”

  Oh, that’s right. I had spilled the beans.

  He moved the tray away. I wrapped my arms around his neck, my fingers playing with the spikes trailing down his spine.

  “I do love you.”

  “I love you as well. It was inevitable. Though I couldn’t believe you kidnapped me and kept me tied up.”

  “Sorry about that,” I said, with a giggle. “We’ve never actually seen aliens. I figured you landed here with the others.”

  He laughed, then sobered. “The others who landed here first—the Praydians—they aren’t good people.”

  “No. Not if they’re using humans as a food source.”

  “It’s what they do. They separate individuals so they can’t talk, and then use a power play on the rest—a few leaders and those in the military—to separate them further.”

  “Can you help us stop them? Make them go away?”

  “We can neutralize them,” he said. “Together. First, I say we board your dwelling and bring your parents and Ria here for safekeeping before we do anything else.”

  I nodded. “No one’s going to believe this.”

  He smiled. “My men also couldn’t believe I found a mate on this planet. It’s not very nice of us, but your species is considered a bit backward. Let’s go get your family so they can be safe aboard the ship.”

  “Backward?”

  “Like…bugs,” he said. “But let’s not focus on that. Let’s get the others so they’ll be safe.”

  Bugs? As in, cute as bugs?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Miack:

  We descended from my ship to find the golden sun of Earth shimmering slightly on the horizon, causing a faint pink glow against the dark of night.

  “It will be morning soon,” Sian said. “Probably our dads are already up and about ready to leave.”

  Behind us, the ship winked slightly as it faded from view, cloaked in the crisp, early-morning Earth air. Sure enough, her father and Ria’s were emerging from the mine shaft just as we approached.

  “Where have you been all night?” Her dad’s voice was sharp as he looked from Sian to me.

  “Let’s get back inside and wake the others,” Sian said. “We have a story you’ll never believe. And Miack can talk now.”

  I acknowledged with a tilt of my head. “My people have re-established a throat communicator to replace the one that your military had removed from me. I could understand your language before, but I was not able to mimic the sounds needed to speak it.”

  Both human males stared at me.

  “Well, damn,” Sian’s father said. “But we’re going to miss the fishing if we don’t head out now.”

  “We don’t need it today,” Sian assured him. “We’ll eat well without it. Come on, let’s go talk.”

  We led the way back into the dark mine shaft they’d considered home for the last eight years. Sian brought out the solar lamps, switching them on.

  “By the way, I can see in your dark,” I mentioned to them.

  Gerry laughed. “I always figured. Your eyes followed my daughter wherever she went.”

  Sian blushed.

  “She is my queen,” I said. “We may as well let everyone know.”

  “I knew that. Her mother is mine,” her father said.

  “I think Miack means literally,” Sian said. “But we’ll wake the others so we can tell the story once.”

  We walked deeper into the mine, and the other three women woke easily upon our approach.

  Ria rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Sian? Miack? You’re back. Where’ve you been? What’s going on?”

  “A story you’ll never believe,” Sian said. “Miack can speak. His people have landed and re-implanted a throat device that enables him to make the sounds needed for our language. He’s not with the Praydians. His species is Nisibian, and they wipe them out. We’re going to make a plan to remove them from Earth. Like we always suspected, they’ve been eating us.”

  Sian’s mother grimaced at the indelicate words.

  “We are moving you to our ship for safety,” I added. “We have food there. A replicator. Beds. Lots of comforts.”

  “I—I have to pack my things. Get dressed,” Sian’s mother mumbled.

  “Leave your things,” I said gently. “We have clothing to dress you like royalty does on my planet.”

  The rags humans wore should be burned.

  The three women still stared in confusion, unmoving. I tried a new tack. “Come. Ria, you will love learning about our ship. Shelly and Marie, you will love learning our culture. Gerry and Robert, you will love planning the war that is about to overthrow the Praydians. Then, my friends, we will have a party and decide what we wish to do next.”

  Sian stepped in as everyone continued to stare dumbfounded. She spoke slowly. “Miack’s ship has landed. We boarded earlier, and Miack was implanted with a communication device so he can speak English. During that, I was well fed while I visited with Miack’s staff. Then he explained to me that their species is here to take out the Praydians.”

  “We’re going to leave our stuff behind?” Sian’s mom still looked adorably confused.

  “We don’t really have stuff, mom,” Sian said, slipping her hand in mine and letting all know the change in our relationship. I felt my chest puff with pride. “Let’s all go board the ship. We’ll eat and get fitted for new clothes, and make a plan to take our planet back.”

  “I’m all about the resistance,” Gerry said. He helped his wife up. “I can probably help relay information to other humans. Like the traveling resistance members do.”

  Robert took Marie’s hand. With a resigned sigh, Ria rose from her bed. “I hope the food’s good,” she grumbled.

  “Miack’s men are hot,” Sian said.

  “Shut up.”
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  Sian broke into a smile. “She’s never been a morning person,” she whispered to me. “Sucks as a fisherman.”

  We made our way slowly down to the exit of the mine. Sian and I walked in the lead, since I could see well. We led the way back through the forest, and as we approached closer to the ship, it began to shimmer into sight.

  Behind us, one of the older females gasped.

  It was much lighter outside this time when we approached the location where my ship was docked. It came into full view for us, a few of my men coming outside to help. Isha, the one who had been feeding Sian earlier, approached her mother.

  “They’re all as big as you,” Shelly murmured, taking Isha’s arm that he held out for her.

  I smiled at my mate’s mother. We were more than capable of defending the small humans.

  Then Turic, my best friend and first mate, made his way down the ramp. When he reached the bottom, he stopped—and stared bemused at Ria. For the first time, I noticed the smooth muscles and sleek curves on my mate’s best friend. Her black hair was smoothed down and tucked behind one pierced ear that had long since lost its jewels.

  Turic stared, enthralled at the combination of silver eyes and black hair. He stumbled slightly and then flushed gold. His hand went to the family crest that hung as a pendent from his neck. I imagined Turic wanted to place many gems into her ears, around her throat, and on every finger.

  “This is Turic, my second in command. He is in charge when I am not present. Turic, meet Sian’s parents, Gerry and Shelly. Her best friend, Ria. And Ria’s parents, Robert and Marie.”

  Turic tore his eyes from Ria long enough to acknowledge the others and walk us all aboard. I ignored the fact that he followed her like a besotted fool.

  “First on the agenda,” I instructed my soldiers, “is to show the humans to accommodations where they can clean and dress. Then we will bring them to the main area to eat as we make plans to decimate the Praydians.”