by Maia Starr
"Cover of darkness is best. We should get going," he said as we took our seats in the ship and he prepared for lift off.
"We are still going to Lake Michigan, yes?" he asked me.
"Yes, that has not changed. I only hope that I am right about this."
After an hour of flying, the blue waters of Lake Michigan came into view. "There! Do you see that patch of land, that island?" I said to him.
"I see it. There is a lighthouse on the other side. That is where we always spoke of that we would run away to if we ever had to run. We promised to always meet each other there but to never tell anyone. We have only seen it in pictures and have never actually been," I said to him.
"That would be why it was not in your file nor in hers," he said.
"Exactly. But she knows to go there, and so do I. I only hope that she listened when I told her too. There is nothing left of her building in capital city. If she stayed, then she did not survive. In fact, I'm not sure that anyone in the city did,” I said.
"I'm going to land on that patch of grass over there. Then we will have to hide the ship. I would want to sink it into the lake, but we might need it. So, hiding it is a better choice," he said.
"That is a good point. We might need it."
We searched the island by flashlight, and finally, I came upon a familiar sight. It was a mailbox with the initials A.R. on it. I ran up to the door and knocked.
"Who's there? "My sister's voice said through the door, and I nearly broke down and cried in a pile on the porch.
"Adelaine it's me! It is Lily!"
"Lily! "She shouted as she fumbled to get the door open. Then she flew into my arms, and we cried together.
"I thought I would never see you again," she said.
"I thought I never would either. I am so glad that you are alive. I am so glad that you are OK."
"How did you find me?" she asked.
"I thought you might come here since we talked about it so much when we were little, and we would look at the photos in the book of this place. We always talked about coming here one day. "
"I am so glad you remembered. I am so scared. I don't know what's going on out there. Lily, it is like the end of the world."
"Yes, I know it is worse than you can imagine. The capital city is gone," I said to her.
"What?! "She said with tears in her eyes.
"Yes, there is a lot to talk about. But don't be scared. We are here now, and we are going to look after you, "I sent to her.
"We?" she asked. I turned behind me to Zian. She gasped.
"But Lily, he is one of them," she said with wide eyes.
"I know. But he is different. He helped me escape. He flew me here in his ship. He can be trusted," I said to her.
"If you say so, sister. I am just glad that you are here. Come, come inside before someone sees you," she said to both of us. We entered the small house and locked the doors behind us. We didn't know what to expect, and we were not prepared. But one thing was certain, I now had everyone that I loved in my life, my sister and Zian.
The battle that day was unlike anything I had ever seen. We lost almost every major city and millions of human and Corillion lives. It was a battle that wiped out resources for both humans and the Corillion. It left both sides crippled. It was a dumb battle in the end. It seemed like neither side won. There was no clear victor as each had fought equally and had defeated each other. It was almost like a tie. That did not do anyone any good. At least with a clear winner, there would be someone in charge. But instead, there was just complete chaos because no one had won. Now everything was in complete ruins, and we had to start from the ground up again. It was time to rebuild, and Zian and I had to keep our promise to be the ones to do it. We had survived for this.
"Do you want me to take him inside?” Adelaine asked me, as she held her hand out to my son, Earthane Crace.
"Yes please, this is going to take a while. Go with your aunt,” I said to him as I gave him a kiss. Earthane was born nine months after the battle, and he brought us great joy. It was terrifying to be pregnant in a postwar world, but our hybrid son was the future of the planet, and we were going to do whatever we could to make sure that it would be a good place for him.
“How far along are you on that project?” Zian asked, as I looked over the blueprints of a new registration system. It was the same bridal registration system that I had negotiated with him.
“I think I am half way there. Of course, once it is actually put into action I will know more about what needs to be done. Right now it is just a framework, but I think it will be a good one.”
“I know that it will be, because you are the one creating it,” he said.
We were sitting on the porch of the small house that we all shared: my son; my sister; and my husband, Zian Crace. We were still on the island in the middle of Lake Michigan, one of the few areas spared by the battle, mostly because the Corillion did not know that it existed. We were fortunate to have local food sources consisting of fruit trees and fish. But the rest of planet, and especially the cities, were not so lucky. Most had relocated from the city and began the simple life of farming.
"Have I apologized today?” Zian said to me.
"Yes, a hundred times already. I have told you over and over again that you do not need to do this,” I sent to him.
"But I do. It is all my fault. All of this. I am the one that set the plan in motion. I am the only one to blame for all of this,” he said to me. He had been taking the blame, and taking it hard ever since the battle.
"I will tell you what I have told you before. I am glad that it was you. A war like the one we had with the Corillion was going to lead to that massive battle one day. It was going to be someone else if it wasn't you. But I'm glad it was you because you changed, you've allowed yourself to change. If it had been anyone else, it would have been much worse. We would've never had the data on the formula to the solution that contaminated the water, and so we wouldn't have been able to come up with a cure to the water contamination. You are the one that gave that to me. No other Corillion would have done so. It was you for a reason. Even though it is a heavy burden to carry now, you were chosen."
"You truly believe that?” he asked me.
"With all my heart, because I could not love you if it weren't true,” I said to him. And it was true. Ever since that day we had never separated. He was right all along. We would need each other after all that we had been through. Now, the Earth needed the both of us. We were rebuilding, and we were rebuilding in a world where the Corillion and the humans had to coexist on one planet.
"There is no other Corillion that I would want by my side other than you. You have given me our son and saved me. You have saved me more than once. If you had not abducted me when you did, I would have died days later in the capital city at the embassy, since it was the first building to be bombed. That's where I would've been. I wouldn't be alive except for you. I wouldn't be here to help rebuild and to create the system that we need to be able to coexist. My sister wouldn't be alive if you did not have the heart to allow me to call her that day to tell her to get out of the city. You did that for me, and you did not have to.”
"You always see the better side of things,” he said to me.
"And you always see the darker side of things."
"I guess that is why we are good together. We balance each other out,” Zian said as he pulled me onto his lap. I gave him a kiss.
"Well, that and many other reasons,” I said with a smile.
"That is very true,” he said as he kissed me again. I was in love with him. I loved him more than I could ever imagine and it blew my mind that the ruler of the alien race that I had hated had become everything in my life. It was now centered around him and my son. I never ever thought I would be a Corillion wife, but it had to happen. Our union created a jumping off point for Earth and the Corillions to begin peace talks. It was a very important union, and I was glad that so much good could come out of our love
and marriage.
Over the past year, we had come up with many new plans, new plans that allowed both of our peoples to flourish. Only we would have been able to produce the results we had, because of who we were and our experience from both sides, Earth and the Corillion. It had taken us to create a new system, and it took all of our energy. But it was worth it; it was worth all our work so that our son could grow up in a place where he was accepted. Through our marriage came peace. Through our minds came a new system. And through our hearts came a new love. We were happy, even though we were living in a dystopian version of the Earth that I used to know. I was happy to have Zian at my side with my family. It was a new beginning. It was a new everything
THE END (P.S. See next page for more bonus books!)
Keecha Raither Warriors(Sneak Preview)
(Raither Warriors)
By Stella Sky
Chapter 1
Dr. Alice Tanner
“Oh my god, Alice, you always do this!”
I cringed at the sound of Lauren’s voice behind me and turned around.
“I thought I did it right this time,” I sighed.
“You know, for a scientist, you’re just too bad at numbers. You know we have to have everything absolutely perfect! We won’t get paid for our research if it turns out we’re messing it up!”
“It’s not even just about payment,” Mary reminded Lauren. “If we get the facts wrong, it could impact everybody negatively if the Committee takes us at our word and publishes the findings. Who knows how much harm misinformation could cause in the long run?”
I could feel a lump forming in my throat. Ever since I had joined the Elite Research Team that had been hand-chosen by the President of the United States and his team for homeland security, I had felt completely out of place. Sure, I had always been the top of my class and excelled at every single project I had undertaken in the scientific realm, but the fact was that, under pressure, I had a tendency to shut down. I had never handled certain types of pressure well; specifically, social pressures. I was great with facts and numbers…not so great with emotions and feelings and friends. And for some reason, I had really hoped that the other women in my group would like me.
“I’m sorry, you guys. I don’t know what happened. I must have had my mind somewhere else…”
The truth was that I knew exactly what had been on my mind. The day before, I had been working with Jaya, who was probably single-handedly the smartest human being on Earth. I knew I was intelligent, but she was on a completely different level: one that was nearly clairvoyant. It was eerie how quickly her mind worked at times—as if it weren’t even of her own accord or will. She just knew things.
I had been intimidated, of course, as it was easy to intimidate me around other human beings, specifically the ones I was hoping to make friends with. who wouldn’t want to be friends with the smartest human on the planet, right? Well…that may have been a little bit easier if I hadn’t stood up and accidentally knocked over the beaker she had been glued to for the past six hours. It crashed to the floor, and she had given me the harshest look I had ever been on the receiving end of.
I hadn’t been able to focus on anything after that, and the calculations I had done throughout the rest of the day had apparently suffered. Tremendously. Just as they always did when I was feeling stressed out.
“Maybe you just shouldn’t be doing mathematical calculations,” Mary said diplomatically, pushing the glasses on top of her head and revealing her gentle brown eyes. “I wouldn’t mind doing the work.”
“I can do math just fine,” I sighed. “But when I’m stressed out I do better out in the field. I need to work with my hands.”
“Well our work can’t be dependent upon how you feel, Alice,” Lauren scoffed. “What we do here is far more important than that. Feelings are biological. It’s all in your brain, not in your heart. Either get it together, or I’m going to tell the group leader to send a letter to the president asking him to reconsider your position here.”
Hot tears began to spring into my eyes, but I turned away before anybody could see them. I took a deep, wavering breath and then turned back to face Lauren, determined not to show anybody how I truly felt.
“I understand. I will do better from now on. I’ll just work in the field and let Mary do the calculations.”
“That suits me,” Mary said, walking over to the table where I was working and glancing down at my notes. “You can fill me in on what you’re working on. I was outside studying plant samples. Perhaps we can trade tasks for now. Once you are feeling better, you can try calculations again.”
It was the closest thing to compassion that any of the others had shown me since I arrived. The truth was that all of us were the types of people who were more comfortable in our own skin and in an isolated room full of books. We were the loners of the world, and although we could socialize just fine, we felt more fulfilled pursuing our intellectual interests.
“Thanks, Mary,” I said, sighing inwardly. “It would be nice to get outside for a while.”
Mary nodded at me. “Sometimes plants understand us better.”
I gave her a small half-smile, confused and touched by the small act of kindness, and then headed outside, feeling better for the first time since the beaker incident.
***
“You guys, come here! This is insane!” I shouted, getting up from where I had been perched in the dirt and scrambling inside the lab. “There’s a plant outside that I can’t identify! It looks like it may be extraterrestrial in origin!”
Everybody’s eyes widened, and the group of women drew a collective breath. This was exactly what the Committee had been waiting for. We had been looking for alien life on Earth for decades now, rarely finding any, but coveting the life we did find. Our job was to uncover the source of these plants and their impact on native Earth life. Rather than considering the plants that were alien in origin as an invasive species, for the most part, the Committee observed that alien plant life actually contributed to Earth’s ecosystem and provided much-needed nutrients to the soil that made it easier for plant life to thrive.
It was a discovery that was still very much new, and the research on it was limited. That was why the team had been chosen. There were roughly 30 women on the Elite Research Team, and each of us had an incredible aptitude for science and mathematics. We had nicknamed ourselves the Golds, after the Fibonacci sequence. The Golden Ratio was something we all found mesmerizing and beautiful, no matter what our chosen field happened to be, and were curious what that ratio might be like in other worlds.
Unfortunately, despite being brilliant scientists, we were still women, and because of difficulties in the women were refused a chance to go on missions in space to explore alien planets. Far too many incidents had happened before we had fully understood the high demand for females throughout the galaxies, and many women had been abducted and sold for their ability to reproduce. Since then, the government had officially banned women traveling into space. It posed too much risk both to the human women themselves and to national security. Women who were captured and tortured were more likely to give away secrets about humanity that could prove ultimately fatal should it come down to confrontation.
Soon, all the women in the lab that day were following me outside. I held up my hand, so they would know to stop before they trampled the poor little flower bud, and then cautiously stepped forward.
“It’s here,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “And you can tell by the strength of the stem that it’s probably been here for a really long time. The soil here is rich, and it’s probably kept most of these plants alive even when the area is covered in snow.”
Slowly, an unofficial line formed and, one by one, each woman came forward to study the tiny plant. It didn’t look very out of the ordinary to the naked eye. It was easy to overlook; it was small and petite. The petals were white and perfect teardrop shapes, and the leaves were wild and scraggly as if it had been left there
by some fateful wind current and allowed to grow and thrive, simply by chance.
But the Committee had different theories about these little plants. Some believed that yes, they had come on the backs of asteroids that broke through the Earth’s atmosphere and found the habitat hospitable. Others, however, were not so convinced that it was nothing but a pleasant coincidence.
A different group out of the Committee actually believed that the presence of these alien on Earth was rather malicious. Their theory was that the little plants had been deliberately placed upon Earth to make the environment more suitable to be inhabited by an invasive alien species. Those in this school of thought believed that these little flowers were slowly changing the atmosphere and the biological makeup of the planet to better suit the needs of whatever alien race had sent them. The race was unknown, as it was just a theory, but those who believed this were very outspoken and voracious about making sure there were procedures being implemented that would prevent the usurpation of our planet.
One other theory that was lesser known, but one I particularly enjoyed, was that the little flowers were, in fact, their own species, and they hoped to come to Earth in order to enjoy the warm sunshine and the abundant minerals. These plants were thought to be sentient and intelligent, but nonverbal, and did their best to give back to the Earth tenfold what they took to sustain themselves.