by Maia Starr
"There you are," he said as he looked directly at me. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Why am I here? Why have you taken me?” I stood up and faced him on the other side of the bars.
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Cultan Krillis," he said with a grin. It was the same grin that I remembered from the night before.
"Let me go, Cultan Krillis. You have no right to take my body and do with it what you will,” I said to him.
He smiled more. “I like your anger. You will make some Corillion warrior a good wife. You have the spirit for it. That is what we like,” he said.
"I will do no such thing. Let me out of here. I want to go home,” I said to him.
"You will stay here. You will make a wife for a Corillion, and you will like it. You might not think that you will now, but eventually, you will. They all do,” he said. He started to walk away, and I started screaming at him.
"You won't get away with this! I will get out of here!”
A week passed. Little by little, females were taken out of the cave, never to return. Jennifer had told me that they were being taken to the Corillion galaxy. By this time, I knew that I was still on Earth, and grateful for it. It gave me a sense of hope that I was still on my own planet. It gave me a sense of hope that I was not millions of miles away from Earth. At least there was still a chance that I could get out of this.
Then that chance came when none of us were expecting it. It all happened so suddenly and I was lucky that it did because I was due to leave to the Corillion galaxy the very next day. I had been full of anxiety and sitting with Jennifer, who was scheduled to depart with me on a ship to meet our future husbands. It was all completely insane.
"I think it is going to be fine. I have heard things,” Jennifer said to me.
"What kind of things?” I asked her.
"Some of the women here have already been with a Corillion before by choice. They rather enjoyed it. They are looking forward to the adventure of living in the Corillion galaxy and being with a Corillion for a husband. They say that sex with a Corillion is unlike anything they have ever experienced with a human,” Jennifer said, trying to talk me out of my anxiety.
"But it is being forced on us. That is not right. I will never get over that. There is a part of me that is attracted to the danger and the adventure of the unknown. But what are the chances that I'm going to like the personality of the Corillion that I am given to? I feel like I will not like them. It will be a prison for me. Don't you feel that way?” I asked her.
"Did you feel that? Listen,” Jennifer said as she stood up.
"What is it?” I said as I stood up next to her. I listened quietly. Then I heard it. I could hear the sounds of helicopters. But the last time I heard what I thought was a helicopter, it was a Corillion spaceship.
"It is the Corillion. There will be more of them. It sounds like space ships,” I said to her.
Bam! Bam!
The sound of blasters echoed in the underground cavern. It was obvious that there was a fight going on outside. All the girls began to panic. The two Corillion warriors that were guarding us ran out toward the entrance. They stood looking out into the light.
"It is the humans! It is the human army of Earth!” they yelled at each other.
"We are saved!” I shouted. The girls began to celebrate. I was so thankful that the army of Earth had found us just in time. I was going to be saved.
"Get them all to a ship! We have to get them out of here, even if we die trying!” Another guard ran in and shouted to the two guards.
"Oh shit. They're going to take us anyway!" I shouted. Then I had an idea. ”Listen. As soon as we get out of this cave, everyone run in a different direction. They can't catch all of us. Wait for my signal.”
The women agreed. It sounded like there was a lot of chaos outside and it was our only hope of getting away. If we acted obediently and made it easy for them to get us on the ship and get us out of there, then we would have no chance. But if we all ran in different directions, the two guards would have no choice but to only take who they could capture. I tied the laces on my shoes in a double knot. I was ready. I was going to get away.
"This way. Follow us. Follow closely,” the guard shouted as he opened the bars.
"We should chain them together,” the other guard said. I flinched at his words.
"There is no time for it. The Earth army could be storming this cavern at any second. Get them out of here,” the other guard said.
I was glad for it. We all calmly walked in a group out of the bars following the guard. We calmly walked out of the cave into the bright sunlight. I squinted my eyes until it became clear. There were tall trees everywhere. We were in the middle of the forest. The sounds of guns and helicopters filled the air. I looked behind me to see that all the women were now out of the cavern and we were all walking calmly behind the guard. We were very close to the tall trees. It was now or never. I looked at Jennifer beside me, and she nodded.
"Good luck,” she whispered to me.
"Now! Run now!” I shouted as loud as I could and ran straight into the tree line. All the girls screamed in panic, and everyone ran in every possible direction. The two guards were yelling after us. I turned over my shoulder and saw that no one was following me. I was relieved. But now I had to make my way to a soldier in the Earth army. It would be the only way.
I ran and ran and then I felt the swish of air on top of me. I looked up, hoping to see a helicopter from the Earth army. The trees were so tall and dense that I could not see, but I kept running in the direction. Then I tripped.
"Where do you think you're going?” I heard a familiar voice growl at me.
I looked down to see Cultan on the ground. He had his arm wrapped around my ankle. There was blood on his face down the side of his temple. There was a bloody rock nearby. Someone had hit him. He had fought with someone and had lost, and it was obvious that he was angry and he was going to take that anger out on me.
"Let me go!” I said trying to yank my leg from his hands and kicking him with the other.
"Here! Over here! One of them is trying to get away!” Cultan shouted over his shoulders. My eyes grew wide with panic. He was calling his warriors.
"No! No, I will not go!” I shouted feeling extremely helpless that they would catch me when I was so close to the Earth soldiers that I could hear them shouting orders to each other.
I turned away from him onto my stomach and clawed at the forest ground, trying to crawl away from him. It was then that I saw a blaster underneath a limb. I reached for it. I turned and shot.
Bam! Bam! The gun went off in my hands, and it startled me. I had never shot a blaster gun before. I hit Cultan twice, once in the shoulder that barely penetrated through his blue scales and the other in his neck. Blood poured out of his neck, and he fell back. I was in complete shock. I had just killed a Corillion.
"There! That is the new one!” I heard a voice shout. I looked through the trees to see two Corillion warriors running in my direction. I yanked my leg out of his dead hand and ran in the other direction.
"It is Cultan! The new woman! You killed Cultan!” I heard them shout behind me as I ran as fast as I could with tears pouring down my face. I ran straight into a tree.
"It is all right! We got you now!” the voice said.
I looked up to see that it was not a tree that I ran into. It was the bullet proof vest of a soldier.
"There! They are coming for me!” I pointed in the direction that the Corillion warriors were chasing me. The soldier grabbed my arm and led me off in the opposite direction as he shouted orders at the group of soldiers he was with. “There! Beyond the trees! Go! Go!”
"Climb in! You are safe now!” the soldier shouted at me as he led me to a helicopter. I climbed in as fast as I could, and the soldier turned and ran back towards the battle. The helicopter lifted off into the air and flew away from the battle site. I relaxed and laid back into my seat and looked at the other ten human females that I r
ecognized from the cave. They were all shaken and frightened. I did not see Jennifer among them, and I hoped that she had made it to another helicopter. I was handed a bottle of water. I drank greedily and relaxed.
I had made it. My ordeal was over. That was the end of it. That was the end of my time with the Corillion warriors. Or so I thought. Little did I know that my actions in the forest that day would come back to haunt me, and my life would never ever be the same
Chapter 2
VIQER KRILLIS
"Is that all you got?” I smiled as I twirled my large dagger in my hands.
"Perhaps you can take me. But you are not a match for both of us,” the warrior said as another warrior joined him in the practice arena. This was where I spent most of my time. I was a damn good warrior. And I had proven it over and over. I had beaten this warrior to a bloody pulp. Now another warrior joined him, but it did not scare me. I was excited about the challenge.
"No, it is you two that are no match for me,” I said as I put my arms out and waved my hands for them to come at me.
They both charged at me at the same time, screaming at the top of their lungs. Boom. I pushed the first aside with my forearm, and he fell on the ground while I engaged dagger to dagger with the other. Clash. Clink. We fought. The crowd of warriors around us was cheering and shouting. By this time the other warrior was back on his feet. I took them both on at the same time. Punching one and then tripping the other. We went on and on like this until I was standing over both of their defeated bodies as they lay on the ground groaning.
I raised my arms above my head in victory. All the warriors chanted my name “Viqer! Viqer! Viqer!” I grinned. I was a badass and everyone knew it. It felt good for them to shout it above the green plains of the planet Krillis. But then suddenly everyone grew quiet.
"Corillion warriors!” Everyone turned to the platform above the practice arena. Titeq Krillis stood there with one hand up, asking for our attention. He was the second in command on the planet Krillis. But since our leader was away on Earth gathering human females as mates for us, Titeq was currently in charge. We all grew silent and gave our full attention to him.
"I have news. I have news from the planet Earth. It is shocking news of sorrow. It has been reported to me that our leader, Cultan Krillis, has been murdered!"
There was an uproar of anger from the crowd of warriors. Everyone was in complete disarray and sadness. I was filled with rage. Cultan was like a brother to me. He made me into the excellent warrior that I was today. It was because of him that I was a high-ranking hunter and warrior. He had trusted me, and the only reason that I was not with him on Earth was because he had personally asked me to guard Titeq and our home planet of Krillis. Now I was angry that I had not been there by his side. I could have protected him. I had failed him by not insisting on going with him to Earth when we all knew how dangerous it was in this battle between Earth and the Corillion galaxy.
"Yes! Be angry, my Krillis warriors! This is war. I am the most hurt and angry over the loss of Cultan! We were close! We had spawned within minutes of each other. Now that he is gone I am to rule this planet. I take his place as the leader. That is the Corillion way. My first order as your new leader is revenge for the death of Cultan!”
Everyone cheered. I was glad to hear these words from Titeq. I was glad that his death was not going to be unavenged. But I would want to take part in this. We knew this meant that there would be a fleet leaving to Earth to destroy those that destroyed Cultan. I wanted to be among those warriors. I wanted to be the one to get revenge on the killer that killed my leader. I would be a match for any Earth soldier.
"We shall have our revenge! Cultan Krillis!” Titeq shouted.
"Cultan Krillis!” the crowd shouted.
"Tonight we celebrate in his honor! Tonight we celebrate the life and mourn the death of our leader!” Titeq shouted as drums begun to beat and drink began to be passed around. But I was not interested in the festivities. I looked at Titeq. He singled me out as I stood in the middle of the practice arena. He moved his head, gesturing me to follow him. I nodded in return.
Minutes later, I was in Cultan's office, which now belonged to our new leader, Titeq.
"Tell me what happened. Tell me who the killer is and I will kill them,” I growled the words. I could not contain my anger as I breathed in and out heavily.
"Viqer Krillis. You are my best warrior. You have the strength of 10 warriors. You have the fighting skills of an Earth soldier and a Corillion warrior together; there is no other like you in the Corillion galaxy. Your knowledge of Earth is plenty; you can fly a Corillion ship and an Earthship. You are our most valuable warrior. I would not want to lose you to any mission when you are needed here. Cultan asked you to remain here to protect your home planet and to stay at my side,” he said to me.
"And look where that got him. I must do this. I must be the one that is sent to get revenge for him. He made me what I am. I owe him this much,” I said in anger. I was starting to feel very pissed off that he was not going to allow me to go get revenge. I had to do it.
"I thought you might say something like that. Are you sure you want this mission? You are very valuable here.”
"Yes. Grant me this mission. I will get it over with and return,” I said to him.
"No...” Titeq began to say.
"Yes! This revenge is mine!” I shouted at him.
"You did not let me finish. Yes, you will have your revenge. But you will not get it over with and return as you said. I want to see this killer. I want to look the killer in the eyes, the eyes that took our leader from us. You, Viqer, will find this killer. You will bring the killer to me, and only after I have looked the killer in the eyes and learned how and why they took our leader will you be able to then kill them. Then you will take the body back to Earth and make a display of it. Everyone on Earth will know that this killer took our leader and we got our vengeance. That is the mission. Do you accept, Viqer?”
I grinned. I would have my revenge. I would take this killer’s life, and I would take my sweet time. I would torture the killer. I would make sure that they knew that they made a big mistake by taking the life of our leader. I was looking forward to it.
"When do I leave? When do I hunt?"
"I thought you might like that. You leave as soon as you are ready. But you must do this mission alone. Only you can do it, and it must be stealthy. You must sneak into Earth, catch this killer, abduct her, and bring her back to me. You must do it quietly and with no help except for one single warrior that you may take with you,” Titeq said.
"Her? Did you say her?” I asked confused.
"Yes. It is a human female. She is the one that took the life of our leader. There were many witnesses. It was one of the human females that had been held captive by Cultan. She was to come to one of us.”
"A human female; are you sure?” I asked, not believing him.
"Yes. I received the report. Five warriors watched from a distance as she shot him twice. She ran away and was saved by an Earth soldier. The secret base on Earth was in the process of being raided by the soldiers. It was a battle. This human female got lucky is all. But now her luck will turn. She will pay for what she has done.”
"I understand. Tell me where to find her,” I said.
"The human female goes by the name Saramina Jedsin. She lives on Earth in an area of New York that the humans call Brooklyn. I will give you the exact coordinates to her home. But Viqer, it is very important that you do this quietly. You must steal her away in the middle of the night. You must not be seen and you must not be chased by the Earth army or tracked back to our planet. You must be very careful,” he said to me.
I saluted him. I felt great honor to be chosen for the mission. “I will not disappoint. I will bring this human female assassin to you and then I will kill her and take her body back to Earth. All of Earth will know not to mess with the Corillion army.”
"Ready your ship. I will get you the coordinates
to where you will find her.”
I saluted him and left.
A week later, I found myself standing outside the window of the killer of our leader. The city was quiet. The tall building was dark. I slowly opened the window and crawled inside. I was expecting to find the home of a fierce warrior woman. I expected to see weapons of every kind on the wall. I expected to see top secret documents that she worked for the Earth army.
But I saw none of that. Instead, I saw purple curtains. I saw soft gray chairs and colorful paintings on the walls. It was not what I expected at all. I quietly walked from room to room, looking for the killer with my dagger drawn. I promised Titeq that I would do it quietly. So I could not use my blaster gun. I pushed open a door. The bed was covered in white silk with a figure lying underneath the sheet. I stopped at the foot of the bed.
I was shocked by what I saw; a curvy and delicious figure was outlined by the sheet wrapped snugly around her. One long leg was exposed from high up on her thigh down to her feet. Long brown hair was on her pillow. In the dim light, I could see her soft face with light freckles as she slept. She did not look like a murderer to me. She looked very soft and delicate. I thought I must have the wrong home. But she matched the description, and I had the coordinates right.