Alien Romance Box Set: Eblian Mates Complete Series (Books 1 - 3): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance
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The stranger noticed her looking at the bed. “Come with me. All will become clear to you soon.”
He took a small round pad out of his pocket. Before Natalie could utter a word, he touched the screen and a deafening explosion battered her ears. She tried to cover her ears to protect herself from the noise, but even before she could raise her arms, the room vanished and she found herself on a wire platform in a vaulted cargo bay. Some kind of vehicle she’d never seen before sat on the floor far below her, and indistinct figures walked around engaged in various tasks.
Natalie studied the bay. “Is this your ship?”
“This is it.” He turned away and started walking along a suspended catwalk. Natalie had no choice but to follow.
At the end of the catwalk, he opened a door and ushered her into a warm, carpeted corridor lined with glass windows. He conducted her into the first room they came to and opened a panel in the wall. He flicked through a bunch of garments on hangers and murmured to himself. “Let’s see. These will all be too big for you. Here. This will do. Put this on.”
He handed her an emerald green jumpsuit. Natalie held it up to herself. It covered her arms and legs and clasped around the neck. “What about underwear?”
He narrowed his eyes. “What is that? I don’t know that word.”
Natalie dropped her eyes. “Never mind.”
She slipped into the jumpsuit and fastened the clasps. The stranger led the way back down the hall. On the way, Natalie stole fleeting glances through the windows and could hardly believe what she saw. In one, women sat on the floor surrounded by children and toys. In another, three young men sat in a semi-circle around an old man with a long white beard. He waved his hands while they listened to him with rapt attention.
Farther down the hall, one window showed a view of an exercise studio. A group of men and women practiced some kind of hand to hand combat. All these people represented different alien species. Natalie recognized most of the species from her experiences at the gatherings to which Fo and his men took her to perform.
At last, the big stranger ushered her through a door into a room without windows. A collection of desks surrounded a big swivel chair in the middle of the room, and panels of lights and computer displays and dials covered the walls. Massive alien males of a species Natalie didn’t recognize sat at the desks, and another male sat in the chair in the middle. Gold and silver and colored decorations covered the chest of his uniform. He turned to face Natalie when she entered.
He nodded first to the masked stranger and rose from his seat. “You are welcome here, Earthling female. I am Commander Axilon, and this is the Star Destroyer Mixtidelin. This is my command bridge, as you can see.”
“You must be Surveyors,” Natalie remarked. “I’ve heard about you.”
“Surveyors,” the Commander replied, “is a derogatory term the pirates and traders use for the Galactic Police Force. We hunt them to stop them trading in helpless people they kidnap from their home worlds. We did not know they trafficked in your species, but your species carries the heaviest penalty of all creatures.”
“Three other Earthling females were taken along with me,” Natalie told him. “Have you found any of them? I really wish I could find out what happened to them.”
“As I said,” he replied, “we didn’t even know about you, and we have no information about any other Earthlings among the pirates. Now that we know they are out there somewhere, we can keep searching until we find them. In the meantime, you are welcome here. You may find this ship more comfortable than the one you left behind.”
Natalie looked around. “Thank you for taking me in, but I wasn’t uncomfortable on the ship I left behind. I was never uncomfortable, but now I’m hungry. I haven’t been back in the regeneration bed in hours. I should get back there soon.”
“You won’t go back to the regeneration bed,” the Commander told her. “They are highly illegal. If you are hungry, we can arrange food and drink for you. You’ll be given quarters where you can recover from your ordeal. If you require medical attention, our staff will attend to your needs.”
“I’m telling you it wasn’t an ordeal,” she countered. “It was actually pleasant and enjoyable. I’m not so sure about this place. I mainly came to find out how I can get back to Earth. Your man there....” She pointed to the masked stranger.
“His name is Kyan,” the commander told her.
Natalie shrugged. “He said the other slaves would be returned to their home worlds, so why can’t I?”
“As I told you,” the Commander replied, “the regeneration beds are highly illegal. You’ve been altered genetically. You couldn’t return to your home planet without your people detecting the change. According to your genetic make-up and how many times you have been altered, I estimate you have been gone from your planet for six revolutions of your Earth moon.”
Natalie gasped. “Six months! How could I be gone so long?”
“The regeneration bed altered you at a cellular level every time you used it,” he went on. “In many ways, you are no longer fully human.”
Natalie cradled her swimming head with her hand. “I can’t stay here. I have to get back to my family and my friends and my home.”
He furrowed his eyebrows. “You will receive compensation from the Galactic Fund to compensate you for your ordeal, so you will never have to worry about your future. But you can never go back to Earth. You can go anywhere in the galaxy, but not there.”
Natalie staggered back down the hall behind Kyan’s towering frame. She barely saw anything on the way back. Only one thought kept beating against her brain. She could never go home again. She would never be human again. What was the point of trying to find her friends? She was too altered, in every possible way to have anything to do with them.
She didn’t pay attention to where he led her, so before she knew it, he stopped in a plush room with a neat table and chairs in the middle and soft couches and chairs around the perimeter. Through another open door she spied a bed—a regular sleeping bed, not a regeneration bed—laid out with duvets and pillows. What would it be like to stretch out on a real bed and sleep, just sleep, without the interference of the stimulating regeneration energy? She might actually start to feel human again.
She dragged herself out of her trance and heard Kyan explaining something to her. “And this is the food dispenser. You just stand in front of it and say what you want, and it dispenses what you ask for. You might need to program it to produce the kind of food you’re used to, but we can help you do that later. You can go anywhere you want on the ship to learn your way around, but I see by the ship’s roster that you’re scheduled for a complete medical examination at the next day watch. I’m sure the Commander wants to make sure the pirates didn’t damage you in any way.”
“They didn’t,” she told him.
He shrugged. “You got lucky. Most of the slaves we recover from the pirates are in bad shape. Some never recover at all and have to spend their lives in special rehabilitation facilities.”
“Fo would never do anything like that to me,” Natalie told him. “He always treated me well, and he made sure I recovered in the regeneration bed from everything that happened to me.”
Kyan shook his head. “It’s the regeneration bed that ruins them. More than one of your species has been destroyed in the regeneration bed. They don’t alter the way the pirates want them to, and the bed winds up killing them or destroying them. You could be one in a thousand to respond to the alterations the way you did.”
Natalie shook her head. “I can’t believe this.”
“Believe it,” he replied. “I’ve seen it myself in the time I’ve been working on the Force.”
“How long have you been doing this?” she asked.
He gazed up at the ceiling. “About eight years. You are the first slave we’ve recovered who said the experience was pleasant and enjoyable.”
Natalie sank down into a chair, and he left her sitting there.
Natalie sat up on the bed and rubbed her eyes. How long had she been asleep? She’d collapsed there when she got so exhausted she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore. The instant she woke up, the same raging hunger and thirst she suffered in the holding cell came back with the same maddening intensity. How long would her body take to adjust to life without the regeneration bed? She had to find a toilet, and even then, she had to remind herself how to use it.
She stumbled to the food dispenser. “Water.” A glass of water appeared in front of her, and she guzzled the whole thing in one shot. “Apple.”
The machine hummed. Then a metallic computer voice said, “Input not recognized.”
She tried again. “Earth apple.”
The machine took a moment, but a bright red apple appeared in place of the water glass. Natalie bit into it. Her teeth ached and her jaw barely had the strength to chew, but the tart juice relieved her hunger and reminded her of home. She devoured it in a few bites. Then she went out for a walk around the ship.
The windows along the hall all stood empty now. Only the exercise studio was occupied by the burly crew she saw on the command bridge. She recognized Kyan with his mask still on. Why did he keep his face covered? She observed him practicing his fighting moves with his crew mates. Even through the window she could tell they weren’t the same species. They had greyish mottled skin, and their heads were a different shape.
Under his mask and uniform, Kyan appeared almost human. Only his green eyes and lizard-green skin marked him as something alien. In all her time with Fo, she’d never encountered anyone like him. He noticed her outside the window and said something to his companions. They stopped practicing and glanced over at her. Then they disappeared into another room.
Kyan opened the door, and Natalie stepped into the studio. “I wondered when I’d see you walking around.”
“Where is everybody?” Natalie asked. “Where are the women and children I saw earlier in the other rooms down the hall?”
Kyan cocked his head to one side. Then he nodded. “I remember. The windows along this hall are viewing ports into virtual training chambers. The women and children you saw were holographic representations used by the crew for training purposes.”
Natalie stared at him through the sting of tears. “You mean they weren’t real?”
“The crew of this vessel consists of males only,” Kyan told her. “When they need to complete certain kinds of training, they program the training chambers to construct the appropriate hologram. That’s what you saw through the windows.”
Natalie bit her lip. She couldn’t break down, not now, not in front of him. “So...I’m the only female on this ship?”
“I’m afraid so,” he replied. “The Police Force organizes our teams according to our job. The pirate trackers—the Surveyors, as you called them—must be all male teams. If one of us falls in battle with the pirates, we can’t take the chance that we will be sold into slavery. That’s the reason for it.”
Natalie nodded and stared at the floor. “I understand.”
Kyan turned away and started packing up his equipment. Natalie wandered over to a vaulting horse against the wall. Some forgotten power told her to jump up on it. She rested one hand on it and leaned into it. The next thing she knew, she was swinging up onto it. Her legs swiveled around and she vaulted over it to land on her feet on the other side.
She stared at the horse with wide eyes. Then she tried it again and the same thing happened. She pushed herself harder this time, and she swung around and around the horse with her arms and legs flying. Every move she tried, she completed with ease.
When she landed again with a half twist, Kyan nodded. “You’re good.”
“I’m not,” she told him. “It’s the regeneration bed. It’s made me stronger and more agile. I never even knew I could do it until just now.”
He set down his equipment and came toward her. “Let’s see what else you’ve got.”
Before she could react, he threw a series of rapid punches at her head and body. She tried to bat his hands away, but her body knew better how to handle that situation. She blocked his strikes and delivered a few blows of her own. Kyan rubbed his wrist and nodded again. “That’s good. Now try this.”
He pulled a long dagger out of his boot, and with one swift lunge, drove it into Natalie’s chest. She jumped back just in time, and it ripped the front of her jump suit. She returned the attack, and in a moment, they grappled together on the floor.
Kyan brought his knee up between her legs and flipped her over on her back. His weight slammed her into the floor and knocked the wind out of her. Natalie tried to throw him, but he was just too big. He pinned her to the ground and held her in place with his massive bulk.
She stopped struggling and gazed up into his eyes. He panted behind his mask, and their chests heaved together. In a flash, the lightning bolt of desire shot through Natalie’s being. Her crotch pressed against his knee, and her thighs closed around his leg. Before he could pull away, his own body responded to her signal, and he pressed his hips down against her.
Whatever alteration the regeneration bed made to her body, it was permanent. She didn’t need the regeneration bed to feel that insatiable desire for a thick, hot member slithering into her. She didn’t need the regeneration bed to make her juicy and open.
Kyan caught himself in time, though. He jumped off her and shook himself. “That’s good. We’ll do it again, and I’ll show you how to counter an attack by someone of superior strength and weight.”
Natalie got to her feet and straightened her jump suit. “Thank you. I appreciate it. I need all the instruction I can get.”
He regarded her for a moment. Then he turned away. Natalie hesitated at the door. “Would you mind walking me back to my quarters?”
“What for?” he asked.
She blushed and lowered her eyes. “There’s something I want you to show me.”
“Just tell me what it is,” he told her. “I’m supposed to be on duty. I shouldn't go with you unless I know what it's about.”
Natalie shifted from one foot to the other. “I can’t figure out how to use the….the toilet. I don't know what you call it. I never had to use one on Fo's ship. The regeneration bed took care of everything. I can't activate it, and I really need to go.”
He stared at her. “Do you mean the cleansing device?”
She looked away. “I don’t know what you call it.”
His eyes crinkled again. “All right. I’ll come and show you how to use it. I should have thought of that in the first place.”
He walked at her side back down the hall toward her quarters. On the way, she stole sidelong glances at him. “Why do you wear that mask? Why don’t you ever take it off?”
“My people have a tradition that warriors are to be feared and not approached,” he replied. “That’s why we keep our faces covered.”
“You’re not like the rest of the crew, are you?” she asked. “You’re a different species from them.”
He nodded. “I’m from an obscure little planet called Eblian. It’s in another galaxy, but I was stationed here by the Galactic Police.”
“What kind of planet is it?” she asked. “Is it beautiful?”
He nodded again. “It’s covered in rain forest. My people live in nests in the tree canopy, and we hunt the small animals that live up there. We almost never come down to the ground. The big predators live on the ground. It’s safer in the canopy.”
“It sounds incredible,” Natalie exclaimed. “I’d love to go there some time.”
He shrugged. “You wouldn’t want to go there.”
“Why not?” she asked. “The commander said I can go wherever I want.”
He looked away. “My people are dying out. I’m one of the last of my kind.”
Natalie gasped. “But why? Did the predators get you?”
“No, the pirates did,” he replied. “The pirates discovered my people and stol
e most of our females. They only left a few very old women. The others they sold into slavery. By the time my people realized what was happening, most of our females were dead or destroyed.”
“That’s terrible,” Natalie cried.
“We formed a task force to get them back,” he went on. “We found ten of them still alive, but the regeneration beds altered them so much they could no longer reproduce. Our population won’t recover for another several decades. Most of our young males joined the Galactic Police Force to stop the pirates doing anything like this again.”
Natalie shook her head. “I wish there was something I could do. I would do anything to help you if I could.”
He studied her with his head on one side. “Maybe there is.”
“What?” she asked.
“The pirates that stole our females,” he explained, “they were the same species that stole you from your home world.”
Natalie stiffened. “You mean Fo and his crew? I didn’t know they had others doing the same thing.”
“They’re called Toom,” he told her. “They’re the worst pirates in the galaxy.”
“They certainly make a lot of money on their slaves,” Natalie remarked. “I can understand why they do it. But how can I help you stop them?”
“Your species is the most sought-after for slaves like you,” he told her. “The Toom have targeted Earth more and more recently. Soon they’ll launch an all-out campaign to take as many of your females as they can. They could do the same thing to your species that they did to ours.”
“But what can I do?” Natalie asked. “They already took me, and I’m not a member of the Galactic Police Force.”
“You have more credits than you could use in a lifetime,” he told her. “I heard the Commander tell you so.”