by Sky Winters
Then he pressed down on a lever and the contraption skidded into gear, raking red dust all around her. They hadn’t gone ten yards when she discovered the necessity of the head gear and quickly pulled it over her head. Before long her entire clothing looked no different than the wasteland, and she looked over embarrassingly at the things that were now laughing at her.
She ignored them and stared straight ahead, capturing almost nothing as the endless dirt swirled around them. They hooted and behaved boisterously as they drove, and she was reminded of her senior year in high school when the boys drove around in drop top vehicles on their way from unauthorized gatherings. It wasn’t until about three miles of riding that they finally left the wasteland and traverse across an open plane. Aurora couldn’t help wondering why she had crashed in the worst place possible.
“We will be there soon,” the thing said when it removed the headgear.
She did the same and flashed her hair free. “Where are you taking me?” she asked. “I need to get back home. I need to call someone and have them…”
“You won’t be calling anyone, and even if you did, I’m sure they wouldn’t come. They don’t come unless they fight,” he responded, his eyes still fixed dead ahead.
“So what then? What are you going to do with me?” she asked nervously. She could hardly imagine the horrors he had in mind for her, and if not him, then surely someone else would be glad to make game of her.
“We will just keep you here,” he replied. “Now, no more talking.”
“What do you mean keep me here? I don’t belong here. I have a home and a life to get back to,” she pleaded. “If you let me go, I can tell everyone how gracious you have been and they won’t attack.”
He looked over at her, disbelief written all over his features and looked ahead again without saying a word. Aurora tried to convince him further, but everything else hit deaf ears; he made no efforts at communicating until they neared a great wall. It resembled something one would imagine in the days of old when castles and drawbridges existed; and she was surprised to see one of the same lowered as they neared.
As soon as the mobile contraptions were through the gate, a throng of more like him surrounded her and they poked and prodded, and some even spat at her. Aurora looked at their angry faces, covered with red and black markings, and cowered as she envisioned them ripping her apart.
“Stand back,” the man she rode with said to them.
“What is the meaning of this?” a voice boomed above the din created by the spectators. “Nevaeh, I thought I told you to dispose of the refuse. Why have you returned with it?” He glared at Aurora, and as the insult stung her, her face contorted with rage too.
“This one was alive, and it didn’t make sense leaving it there,” the man called Nevaeh replied.
“And what do you suppose you will do with it here? It looks weak and frail,” the man said loudly still. Then he walked over and gripped her forearm and squeezed it. “Not even good for meat,” he cried, and the spectators laughed at their words. “And what is that?” he asked as he noticed the bandage on her leg.
“She was wounded when the ship crashed,” Nevaeh told the man.
“And you want to use our resources to care for it? Do you hope to bed it too?” the man asked.
“I couldn’t leave her there,” Nevaeh told the man.
He looked over at Aurora again, who by this time was seething with rage but didn’t think it wise to retort, and then spat on the ground. “I hold you responsible for this monster,” he said and walked away.
His words registered in Aurora’s head, but nothing made sense. She was classed as ‘it’, in the same way she had always referred to them. And now this man thought she was the monster. They were the monsters! Not her! She stood next to Nevaeh as the crowd thinned and she was left alone with him standing at the drawbridge, and for the first time since she was a little girl, her entire perception of their world was altered.
She looked up at him, and saw him clenching his jaw, and then he hoisted her over his shoulder and whisked her away east of the gate, and to the building he called home.
CHAPTER 4
Aurora didn’t quite understand what it meant to be a scarf until she was draped around Nevaeh’s neck. He held her like she weighed a pound, and it didn’t even make sense fighting; she could feel the pain ripping through her leg so she did her best to remain still and hope it would grow numb. It didn’t. By the time Nevaeh pushed the wooden gate aside, her eyes were barely open-her mind shutting down as it tried to cope with the pain.
She was barely aware of him setting her down on a chair in the corner, and him shuffling around the space, making a suitable prison for her. If she had seen, then she would have protested, but she was in no position to be feisty and defiant. She fell into a deep sleep, one where her pain was nonexistent, and she was back home and relaxing on her porch. When she awoke a couple hours later, it was dark, and the air was dank. She coughed and sputtered on what appeared to be the void enveloping the space. She looked around, but she couldn’t make anything out, so she got up and tried to feel her way around.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice said from the void.
“Who’s there?” she asked. She had forgotten about her feet, and as she made a step she went crashing on the floor as the pain reminded her of its existence.
He rushed over and lifted her from the floor. “Are all women from earth stubborn? You are quite a pain,” he told her. “You never do as you are told, even though it often results in your demise. Thraxian women are more submissive.”
“Well I’m not a Thraxian woman, nor will I ever be,” she spat and shrugged him off. Her eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting and she was able to scope her surroundings better, and from what she could see, she was in some sort of cave or dungeon. “What is this place?”
“It’s where you stay for now until we are sure you won’t attack any of us,” he told her. Then he got up and returned to her with a bowl of broth. “Now, you need to eat to keep up your strength,” he told her. He was handing her the bowl and then he pulled his hand back. “And before you even think about it, this is the only food you get until another couple of hours, so be careful you don’t make it spill.”
Aurora glanced up at him, and then thought better of it, and took the bowl from him. She gave him a half smile and then stuck the bowl under her nose. She cringed and pulled her head back. “What is this?”
“It may not be the most palatable meal we have, but it has in more medicine than morsel,” he told her. “I thought you needed a little help with that leg right there. So drink up,” he said and then turned to leave.
“Where are you going? You can’t leave me here,” she said, a frantic look in her eyes as she looked around the dark space.
“Don’t worry. I will be upstairs, and I need to go to work in the morning, so I need to get some sleep,” he replied.
“So, why can’t I come up there with you?” she asked.
“Is that a trick question? I only just found you a few hours ago, and you were in full pursuit I’m sure, of attacking my people when you crashed. Stop me when I am wrong,” he said and folded his arms, and his features took on a darker expression.
“Am I supposed to feel guilty of that? You attack all the other planets and destroy and pillage as much as you can. I lost my brother in one of the attacks led by the Thrax, and you expect me to feel sorry?”
“I am sorry about your brother, but my own father was taken from me in the same way-in battle. It still doesn’t change that I am doing what is right, by helping you to heal, but make no mistake-we aren’t friends.”
“And what happens after I heal? You still gonna keep me here?” she asked.
“I don’t know what I am going to do,” he told her. “But I am sure you are never leaving this planet.” Then he walked out and stomped up what sounded to Aurora like wooden stairs.
She sat there in the dim lighting, staring at the bowl. Just
then her stomach started rumbling, and she struggled to remember the last time she had eaten. Despite all her mental defiance, her body was canvassing for something more basic; she needed to eat and she needed to heal. She needed a plan, but first she had to get better; perhaps win him over, and then make her move.
She put the bowl to her head when she didn’t see any accompanying utensils, and was surprised to see that it tasted a lot better than it smelled. Then she replaced it on the wooden table next to the makeshift bed on which she sat. then her mind wandered onto the last moments she spent with her crew on the starship one. She relaxed onto the bed and let its strange warmth comfort the hurt she felt when she remembered Nora. A single tear started running down her cheek, and by the time it sped past her lips, it had beckoned a thousand more. She started sobbing, and then her head began throbbing as well and she covered her ears to drown the pounding and the incessant noise slowly getting louder in her mind.
The last thing she remembered, as she drifted off into sleep once more, was how alone she felt, and lost on a planet she couldn’t dare call home.
CHAPTER 5
“Nevaeh, what were you thinking taking her here?” his friend asked him as he burst through the door.
“Good Morning to you too Bjorn,” Nevaeh said and closed the door shut.
“So?” he asked when Nevaeh didn’t furnish him with a response.
“So, what?” Nevaeh asked, already getting annoyed with his friend. “Where would you suggest I keep her if not here? The commander already made it clear he didn’t want her using national properties.”
“But that didn’t mean keep her here,” Bjorn growled. “Her kind has been nothing but a thorn in our sides, and they are weak and frail, without much intelligence or skill in battle. She will do you no good Nevaeh. I think you should just take her back to the wasteland and let her fend for herself, if the Gregor don’t get her first.”
“You expect me to take her out there to be eaten by wild animals? What kind of Thraxian are you?”
“The kind who doesn’t sympathize with the enemy,” the man blared.
“Keep your voice down,” Nevaeh said and looked towards the stairs that led to Aurora’s keep.
“What, so now you are concerned about her sensitivity?” Bjorn asked. “She shouldn’t be here,” he deliberately said and shouted down the hole.
“Hello?’ Aurora called.
Bjorn pushed Nevaeh aside and stormed down the steps. “Bjorn, stop!” He shouted after his friend, but it was useless; he was next to Aurora in seconds.
Bjorn stood there looking at her, the dark cloud on his face transforming to a thunderstorm by the time Nevaeh stepped before him and shoved him aside.
“What are you doing here?” Bjorn asked Aurora.
“Wait, you think I want to be here with you?” she asked him angrily. “I want to go home, but he doesn’t want me to,” she told Bjorn and they both looked at Nevaeh.
“You agree with that?” he asked Bjorn. “What do you think will happen if she goes back home? She tells them what she saw here, our strengths and our weaknesses, and then they use it against us when they attack next.”
“Excuse me, but how exactly would I see that from a hole in the ground?” she barked. “All I want to do is go home, but he won’t let me.”
“Yeah Nevaeh. Why don’t you let her go home?” Bjorn asked. “I get sick of just the sight of it,” he spat and scowled at Aurora.
She looked at him and all that had been reserved in her spilled out in an onslaught of words as her anger grew by leaps and bounds. “Why does it sound like you think my kind is the enemy? The Thrax have terrorized the galaxy for decades, and we are just united in our front against you. You are the monsters!” Her rage was all consuming, and when she had spewed her venom onto unsuspecting victims, her chest heaved as she tried to regain control of her emotions. But she realized they were looking at her like she was crazy. “What?”
“We are the monsters?” Nevaeh asked, and then he looked from her to Bjorn. “We are the ones who have been constantly attacked, or did the Inter-galaxy police forget to mention that part?”
“No, that’s not true,” Aurora said as she tried to make sense of the truth that had become a part of her; the truth that had been instilled in her ever since she was a child.
“See, there is a difference between the truth and what you were told, and it is no different than the stories that have been spread across the galaxies,” Nevaeh told her.
“Yeah, you got it twister woman from earth,” Bjorn chimed in. “You listen to half-truths and go around the galaxy defending what you think is true. We only defend against those who persecute us, and that has resulted in our attacking planets such as yours. Planet Nirvana was the latest, because they got entangled in an invasion they couldn’t see their way out of. They, much like the people of earth, are weak. They didn’t stand a chance against us.”
“I don’t understand,” Aurora said. “I was there during the repeated invasions. I know nothing of our people first attacking. I lost my brother during the battle three years ago. Are you telling me he died defending a dream? That he died for nothing.”
“He may not have died for nothing; he believed in what he died for, which was not true, which does not…”
“Okay, man you don’t need to justify anything to her,” Bjorn interrupted. “Whatever happened was their fault anyway. Just get her out of here.” Bjorn waved her off and went back upstairs, and she could tell he had left by the slamming of the door.
Nevaeh was just following in his wake when Aurora stopped him. “Is any of that true?” she asked him quietly.
He sighed and kept his back turned to her. “Yes,” he answered. “We are not the people you make us out to be. You have been misled.”
Aurora’s head begun to spin as the world she had known capsized and she was left stranded with another reality she was unable to appreciate. When she became quiet, Nevaeh turned to her, and the sight of her with her leg bandaged, her hair unkempt and her head held down moved something within him, and despite what she was, he could not leave her to rot in a hole.
“You can stay up top if you like,” he told her and then moved off.
“Could you help me up?” she asked. “I think the wound is festering,” she said and grimaced.
Nevaeh walked back to the strange creature from another planet: the woman with the long red hair and green eyes, and skin without markings. She was different from the women he knew, in more ways than one, and she intrigued him. That was his sole reason for taking her home-to study her and perhaps find secrets about the enemy that kept attacking his people. But he learned quickly that she was as much a victim as he was, and that they were not so different after all.
CHAPTER 6
“Ouch!” Aurora cried out as Nevaeh applied an ointment to her wound.
“You have to keep still,” he told her. “Thraxian women are better at dealing with pain.”
“Why do you always compare me with your people? I am not one of you, and obviously would behave diff…ouch!” she cried again.
“Sorry,” he told her and then covered the bottle. “All done,” he told her. “You won’t need this much longer; your wound is healing nicely.”
“I have to admit it actually works,” she said as she flexed her leg. A week ago she was unable to walk without support, and as she stood she barely felt the pinch as her tissue molded back into place. She walked around the space she had grown familiar with over the last week that she had been invited to share with him.
“I need to go out,” he told her and wiped his hand in a rag when he got up. “Don’t let anyone in, and don’t go out either. You may think I’m keeping you here as my prisoner, but there are others who would kill you in a heartbeat, so I’m really doing you a favor.”
“Why?” Aurora asked, and waited expectantly for his answer.
Nevaeh heaved an exasperated sigh and looked directly at her. “Because I don’t believe in killing someone
in cold blood, or leaving them to die either. Just don’t thank me yet; I still don’t know what to do with you.”
“I have an idea,” she smiled. She had grown unreasonably and unexplainably comfortable around Nevaeh over the time she had been in his home.
“Don’t even think about it,” he told her. “I’m not sure what to do with you, but I have no way to get you back home either.”
Aurora sighed as he went through the door, and then she went to the window to watch him leave. The streets were made of what appeared to be cobble stones for the most part, with single lane tracks that were used for the mobile vehicles they used. It seemed the people from Thrax were simple when it had to do with their lifestyles, but they were educationally and technologically more advanced than her own people. Thus, Aurora couldn’t understand their simple lifestyle; surely they could afford to make flashy cars and jets, yachts and hovercrafts. Instead, they seemed to do a lot of walking.
She stood there at the window just then, watching a woman holding a little girl’s hand as they walked past the house. The little girl already had markings, and as the woman walked, she waved and smiled to other passersby. When she glanced over and saw Aurora standing at the window, a frown took its place and she scurried her daughter along, as if only her stare could infect the child. They didn’t seem like terrorists, but ordinary people.
And as for Nevaeh, he lived a very mundane and routine life of waking, exercising, gong to work and walking home. He performed the same routine every day, with the exception being a rescue operative whenever their planet came under fire.
Aurora stood there, calculating and processing everything when he pushed the door open. “I’m surprised you didn’t run,” he told her when he noticed he staring out the window.
“Like you said, where would I go?” she asked without looking at him.
He kicked the door shut and placed some groceries on the counter, before he produced a pan and placed it on the stove. Aurora only called it that because he used it to cook, but there was nothing much, apart from the level surface, that resembled anything she had back home. It was huge and had buttons and commands over a screen that looked like the one on a microwave panel, so all Nevaeh had to do was marinate what he wanted and enter the command into the device. She stood watching him, and was awed, and when he turned he caught her staring.