by Maia Starr
“What did you see on the space station?” Ravinn asked me pulling me out of my thoughts. He was in the pilot chair as we moved closer to our planet, about to enter the atmosphere.
“I saw something that worried me. The landing port was full of activity, and full of warriors.”
“Do you think they were preparing for something?” he asked.
“I do; it looked like they were preparing for an invasion or a battle,” I said. “ But that is only my thought.”
“Yes, but you are a commander. You know what battle preparations look like. We will have to tell the king about it,” he said.
“I agree,” I said.
Just then, Maria got up from her chair. She moved toward the back of the ship, and I watched as she went to the food area. She grabbed a bottle of Hiwa and poured the dark liquid into a cup. I was surprised that she knew what it was. Maybe she did not know; I thought I should tell her that it was a very strong drink. I walked over to her.
“That is called Hiwa. It is very strong. It is not water or juice; it is like wine on Earth but so much stronger,” I said to her. “It is made from this fruit that we have on Kelon and it is—”
“I know what it is,” she said as she chugged down the glass. Her nose wrinkled and she coughed a little. I restrained a smile.
“I told you,” I said. She was quiet and poured herself another. I looked toward the front of the ship and Ravinn and Henak were engaged in conversation. I would try again to explain to Maria.
“I am sorry about what I did. I know that it was wrong. But it is not what you think; I did not do it to put you into harm's way. All of this is bigger than any of us. I had to sacrifice in order to stop Ephane from whatever he is doing. I hope that you will understand that.”
“Stop, don't say anything else. Can you just leave me be? I don't want to hear your apologies or excuses. It means nothing to me. I just want to get on the planet and be far from you,” she said. “Could you move toward the front of the ship? I just need some space right now.”
“Yes,” I said, not wanting to push it. I moved to the front of the ship and stood next to Hanek. I looked over my shoulder to see Maria moving to the back of the nook with her cup. She wanted some privacy, and I should give it to her. Plus, this was a good time for me to question Hanek.
“What did she tell you?” I said quietly to him. He looked at me.
“Sorry, Commander, she made me promise not to say anything.”
“You are not entitled to keep her promises. For all purposes, she is my human female. I am the one that took her from Earth,” I said feeling very annoyed. I was his superior. He was nothing but a warrior, and I was a commander.
“She seems to be angry with you at the moment. Do you want to make her more angry by pressing me for her secret? It will only piss her off more. I know this about human females; I have one myself,” he said.
“Why should she confide in you? What did she tell you? I am not going to ask you again,” I said getting in his face.
He stiffened. He was not backing down. I could tell that he was not going to tell me. I felt an enormous amount of jealousy inside of me. Was Maria already looking for another mate? She was already done with me and planning to find another as soon as we landed. I was sure of it. My jealousy was turning into rage. I pressed my chest against his.
“Does she want you? Is that what it is all about?”
“I can see why she is angry with you. You think of nothing but your pride,” he said in return.
“How dare you say such a thing to me. I am a commander,” I said.
“All right, enough you two. We are landing. I don't need the distraction of this tense situation between the two of you,” Ravinn said as he put his body between ours. I gave Hanek a look and then turned away from him. Ravinn was right. We were landing, and it was time to work. Ravinn took the pilot seat again and began to enter the atmosphere.
“We need a plan. I will go directly to the king with the device and the news of a possible invasion or battle preparations on the space station. Now, who will go to the water supply and warn the guards or see if the water has already been contaminated?” Ravinn said.
“I will go directly to the water supply. I will station more guards as well.”
“Good, that is a good plan. Hanek, you will see to getting Maria into a guest hut.”
“I understand,” Hanek said.
I did not like that. I did not like the idea of him with Maria alone walking through the village and then alone in the hut. But I would have to deal with my jealousy later; the water supply was more important than anything.
CHAPTER 11
MARIA COVALLOS
It was a relief to have someone helping me. Hekan was going to show me to a doctor, a healer. This was important for me. I did not want the commander to know that I wanted to be tested, if they could even test for such a thing. The spaceship seemed advanced, the space station seemed advanced, so I assumed that the alien race I was about to encounter on this planet called Kelon was also advanced, and that included in the ways of medicine. I could only hope.
I was nervous now that the time was coming, not only to find out if I had this virus but also to see this planet. So far I had been on an alien space station, an alien moon, various alien ships, and now I was going to be on a full-blown alien planet inhabited by these dragon shifting beings. It made me very anxious. I was going to see an entire new civilization; I was supposed to fit in. This was the entire reason that the commander had taken me from Earth, or so I initially thought. He brought me to his home planet in order to breed with me. But now I knew the truth. He had only used me as bait; I hated him for that.
“I know you don't want to speak to me. I deserve that. But we are approaching the village. We are landing at any second,” the commander said to me. I did not look at him; I simply nodded. Then he walked away from me. My stomach filled with anxiety. Here it is, I thought. This is it; I'm going to see this alien planet. The ship made a jolting move. I knew that it meant we had just touched the ground. I stood up and walked into the main area of the ship. The three aliens were working shutting down engines and other things that I did not understand. Then they came to the door and opened it. Hekan gave me a knowing look.
“We have no time to lose. I have the device; I'm going straight to the king. Commander, you are going straight to the water supply. Let us fly,” Ravinn said. I watched as they stepped out onto the ramp into the sunlight. Both the commander and Ravinn shifted into Dragon form. It was such an awesome sight. It took my breath away. They ran and jumped into the air and flew. I was completely captivated by it, and I watched the commander as he flew fast and hard. It was amazing to see him in action. My heart went out to him. I had to stop myself. I hated him; I had to remind myself.
“Maria, are you ready?” Hekan asked.
“Yes, I am,” I said as I took my eyes off of the commander as he flew out of sight. It was then that I finally got a look around at the surroundings. I gasped. It was absolutely stunning. I was not expecting such beauty. Even though we were in a landing port, I could tell that we were in a tropical Paradise. It took me by surprise.
"I did not know that anything this beautiful existed in the universe,” I said. Thoughts of paradises on Earth like Tahiti or the Caribbean came to mind.
"What is all of that? Those lines?” I asked as I noticed that there were different lines from one tree to another.
"Those are the bridges; some are rope bridges that link the huts of our homes,” Hekan answered.
"That is very high up in the trees!”
"Yes, we are dragons, remember? We fly,” he laughed.
"Oh, right,” I said, realizing they were aliens that flew daily and that lived high among the trees like it was normal. Directly in front of us was lush vegetation and I could see that it was close to a tropical jungle with tree trunks the size of the cars in thickness. They were so high, almost hundreds of feet. It was like tree house luxury homes with platfor
ms built around them.
"This is stunning.”
A rush of air that was salty moved my hair. It was an ocean breeze, so clean. I breathed deep savoring the scent of flowers and sea.
"Come on. I will take you to the healer and then show you to a hut you can stay in,” he said.
"Yes, thank you. I am ready,” I said, finally pausing my awe of the place so that I could get on with the business of seeing this healer. There would be plenty of time to stare at the beauty of this place.
I followed Hekan out of the landing port and into a vast village.
"Holy crap,” I said, amazed by everything that I saw. It was like a fairy village, so magical and colorful.
"I cannot believe that this is where you all live.” My mouth was open as I stared and tripped over my feet as I was not watching where I was walking.
"Neither can I. I am thankful for it every day,” he said.
I guessed that I would be too. It was a very beautiful place.
“This is it,” he said, stopping at the base of a massive tree.
“What? This tree? Where? Where is the healer?” I asked. He tilted his head up. I followed his gaze. Up in the tree was a large platform and I could only assume that there was a hut on it.
“Up there? I cannot get up on that,” I said as I looked up.
"What? Why?” he said.
“I cannot fly,” I said.
“Right,” he said as he moved away from me. He shifted into dragon form. Then before I could protest, he picked me up and flew straight up the tree. I squealed. In seconds he set me down on a platform high in the tree.
“Jrarka! Are you here?”
“Yes, come in,” I heard a voice say. I followed Hekan inside the large hut.
There was a lot of natural light inside and a lot of various plants hanging from the walls to dry. A Draqua male stepped out into the main room.
“Hekan, it is good to see you. What can I do for you?” he said.
“Jrarka, this is Maria. She is a human female that has just arrived. She requested to see a healer,” Hekan said introducing us.
“Hello, Maria. Welcome to our beautiful planet. What is it that I can help you with?” he asked.
“I am wondering if it is possible to have me tested. You see, I think I may have recently been exposed to some sort of virus,” I said.
Hekan looked at me. His eyes grew wide. I could see a bit of panic in them.
“You cannot tell the commander, Hekan. You have to keep this between us.”
“I understand, but why do you think you have the virus. You are talking about the virus, the one from Ephane?” Hekan asked.
“Yes, precisely.” I looked at the healer and began to explain. “I was captured by the opposition. They put me to sleep. I was asleep for many hours, and I think they did some sort of experiments on me. But I do not know what. However, there is talk of a virus that the opposition has. This virus will render human females unable to produce offspring. I do not know if they gave it to me or not while I was asleep. Is it possible to test me to see?”
Jrarka looked at Hekan very concerned.
“It is true, Jrarka. But do not go speaking about this to anyone. Ravinn is telling the king about it this very moment. He has a file with the virus formula and information. That is all that we have,” Hekan said.
Jrarka sighed. He scratched his head as he was thinking.
“It will be difficult for me to test you for something if I am not entirely sure what it is made up of. I will need to see the virus recipe to know for sure. But for now, I can test your blood for any foreign properties. That will show if you have something invading your body, but it does not mean that it will necessarily be the virus. It could be anything that humans suffer from. But we will start there,” he said to me, motioning for me to sit down on a bench.
“Thank you; I greatly appreciate this. I must ask you to keep this between us. I do not want to be the new human female on this unusual planet that is already infected, at least not until I know for sure.”
“My confidentiality is part of my position. You have nothing to worry about. But at some point, I may have to speak to the king about this, but the king will keep it between us as well. He would not want to create panic among the villagers here.”
“Good, that is good to know. What do I need to do?” I asked.
“Push up your sleeve on that dress. I will prepare a blood extraction device,” Jrarka said.
After my time with the healer, Hekan showed me to a hut that I could call my own for the time being. He led me across several rope bridges through the trees, and I was very nervous at first, but I eventually found my footing on them.
"Here we are. Your very own hut for now,” Hekan said. We were on a platform that wrapped around another massive tree, but this one was different. At the end of the platform was a cute little hut with a thatched palm roof. It looked very tropical, like a resort bungalow.
"This? I can live here?” I asked.
Hekan led the way and walked in front of me along the platform to the door of the hut. He opened the door and then stepped inside. I followed him.
"This is your home. Everything you need is here. There is food and drink,” he said.
"Incredible,” I stepped inside. It looked like a luxury beach hut of a five-star hotel. The vaulted ceiling was very high, and a white concrete-like material speckled the wall. Extremely large windows gave me a glorious view of big trees, and beyond that, there was the crystal-clear water of the ocean beyond it.
“Is that? There’s a beach?” I said running to the window.
“Yes, we are water dragons. We spend a lot of time in the water. This planet is mostly water, with various islands,” Hekan said.
“Beautiful!” I said. Then I turned my attention back to the hut.
Lush furnishings decorated the round interior. A large bed with mosquito netting in a soft blue hanging from the ceiling over it looked very inviting. I saw a bathroom area with a large tub and could already imagine myself taking a hot bath. I ran over to it and ran the water. I could not believe it. It must take a very grand engineering to get water high in these trees. I could feel that it was turning hot too.
"I can see that you are already wanting to make yourself at home. I will leave you to it. Get some rest," Hekan said as he walked to the door.
"Wait. Remember what I said: you must keep it between us,” I said.
“Your secret is safe with me,” he said with a smile and then left.
I ran back over to the tub and felt the water. The tub was filling fast. I was very excited to be able to take a bath. I was feeling a little less tense about the situation with Ephane and the possible experiments that he did on me now that I had spoken to a healer and I knew that he was studying my blood. I would soon have answers, I hoped. All I could do now is wait. It gave me a sense of relief and this hot bath was going to be the best bath that I had ever had. I still felt like I had chlorine in my hair from swimming in the pool in Joshua Tree. That seemed so very long ago. I pulled off the sheer dress and my yellow bikini underneath it. But what would I wear afterward? I thought. I opened a large box that was like a trunk at the foot of the tub. There were many folded colorful cloths. “This will have to do,” I said. I pulled out one to dry myself with and one to wrap around me like a towel when I was done and laid them beside the tub. Then I stepped into the tub and sank deep into the hot water. I exhaled in release. This was just what I needed.
CHAPTER 12
COMMANDER CERIK HADE
“Be on the lookout for anything suspicious. We don't know what this potential virus looks like. So just keep any and all Draqua away from the water tanks. Ravinn is speaking with the King now, and I am sure he is going to double security. But I had to get over here as soon as possible just in case. I will need a water sample in order to get tested,” I said to one of the stationed guards. I knew all of the Draqua that were currently working, and they were to be trusted. One of them nodded in respon
se, “Yes, Commander, right away.”
He went to get a large jug with a rope attached to it. He dumped it into the main water source. He closed the cap and handed it to me.
“Remember, be on the lookout. No one gets near this tank,” I said to them before I flew off in the direction of the king's palace.