Collision (Colliding Worlds Trilogy Book 1)

by Rachel Aukes

  “I don’t suppose you brought any charges with you?” she asked above the sounds of battle.

  Legian shook his head. “Blood-charges, but they won’t do us any good in these close quarters.”

  She pulled the gun out of her belt and fired random shots through the door in the wall. She could see no Draeken, but she had no problem seeing their weapons when they stuck them around the doorway to fire. They had to be out of chaos-charges or else she would have been drowning in light and noise.

  There was no way to tell if they outnumbered the Draeken or not. They were stuck in a Catch-22. They were pinned down, but at least the Draeken were faring no better. It was obvious Apolo’s intel had been good.

  Sienna looked around them. Definitely time for Plan B… if only she had a Plan B.

  No sooner had she thought it than an earthquake shook the floor. Pieces of concrete and plaster rained down on her, even as she covered Legian with her body. Wiping dust from her eyes, she peered over the box of broken liquor bottles and saw a gaping hole where the steel door had been.

  Soldiers—far more than just Bravo Team—poured into the room, hitting the deck when the Draeken started firing in their direction. “Yes!” Sienna shouted as they spanned out, many behind boxes, others running under cover fire toward the wall with the secret door.

  The sound of gunfire amped up by the power of ten when machine guns went off around her. Bullets hit the brick wall outside the door, but no shots were very close. It was like the Americans were trying to miss. Her brow furrowed. Why wouldn’t they want to take out the Draeken shooters?

  Her eye caught an object flying through the air and through the door. Smoke hissed out through the small doorway, and the Americans stopped firing. She followed suit and watched the doorway. There were fewer shots coming through the door than before. A wing brushed through the gray haze, and she saw a Draeken turn and run, his buddy providing cover fire.

  “They’re getting away!”

  The soldiers were moving toward the door in a synchronized manner, but they were still too far away. Sienna was closest. She jumped over the boxes. When she landed, she hit a wet patch of spilled liquor and fell. The momentum of her jump propelled her right through the door. Her foot hit the Draeken in the shin, and he went down.

  No longer under fire, everyone else sprinted forward, and Legian was on the fallen Draeken at the same time a blade went for her throat. She clutched the Draeken’s hand with both hers. When he was yanked back, she was able to pry the blade from his grip.

  Legian yanked her to her feet. “When we get out of this—”

  “I know. You’ll show me how much you love me,” she winked then winced, reaching for her leg. She slowly bent her knee, only to find a loose binding. With a grimace, she shoved the broken strap into the rest of the brace, checked her weapon, and motioned down the hallway, which was becoming visible through the dissipating smoke.

  “I saw more Draeken head this way,” she called out to the approaching soldiers.

  “How many?” one of them asked.

  Sienna held up a couple fingers. “At least two. Maybe three.”

  He nodded and yelled a command to those behind him. Then several troops stepped past them and followed him.

  The group disappeared around a corner. When shots sounded, she moved forward, only to be held back by Legian.

  “They’ve got it covered.”

  Sienna swallowed, trying to tamp down her adrenaline rush. She turned her attention back to the Draeken she’d drop-kicked, who was being shackled and injected with something courtesy of the Americans. It took a second before his struggles ceased and he was out cold.

  The two soldiers at the downed Draeken made way for Major Sommers. He knelt by the Draeken.

  Tucking the gun back into her skirt, Sienna brushed hair from her plaster dust-coated face and looked around. The place looked like Armageddon and stank like the devil had drunk himself into a stupor. “One hell of a happy hour at this place,” she said to no one in particular.

  She turned to Legian. “We better clear out this place before the cops show. It’ll be hard to explain all this.”

  “There won’t be any police,” Major Sommers replied. “I’ve got that covered; it’ll be harder to reign in the press. And by now, they will have received some tips. We don’t need pictures of aliens circulating the papers.”

  Sienna shrugged. “Aliens are a daily occurrence in the tabloids.”

  “Yeah, but real pictures would be harder to explain,” Jax cut in.

  “Bag ’em,” the major called out, causing Sienna to jerk around in time to see Nalea walking toward them, the men behind her dragging three more Draeken behind them.

  “No blood?” she asked.

  “Tranq guns,” Jax replied. “Cleaner and safer.”

  “And smarter; now you have prisoners,” she chimed in.

  Sommers gave her a half-grin that disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. “Let’s get out of here. Cleanup crew is on the way.” He turned and strode away.

  Sienna fell in behind him as he stepped over broken bottles and pieces of wall. Her jaw dropped as she looked around. Only one Sephian had been shot, and he was being bandaged by a curious human medic. With all that shooting, she’d expected to see a whole lot more blood. Not a single casualty. It was like an old A-Team episode. A thousand shots fired without any blood.

  She limped behind Jax as he and the major stepped through the giant hole in the wall where the door had been minutes earlier. Steel shards jabbed out, snagging her skirt. Without pausing his stride, Legian bent down, tore the skirt, and helped her through the wall.

  She looked around the vacant club. “Wow. I can’t believe it’s empty.”

  “Called in a tip of a drug bust. Cleared out the place in minutes.”

  She admired his ingenuity.

  Sommers continued walking through the bar, and she hobbled faster to keep up. “Major?”

  He slowed and glanced her way.

  “Back there, the Sephians and our people worked well together, didn’t they?”

  “Not bad.” Sommers looked from Legian to Jax and back to her. He narrowed his eyes briefly before giving a small smile. “It’s a start.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Sienna stopped outside the door and leaned on the wall to steady herself. The new brace worked wonders, but her leg would never return to normal. Even after Doc refitted the brace after Club Mayhem—talk about a name that was so apropos—her best speed was no better than a half fast jog.

  “Are you well?”

  She stepped back so she could face Legian. “I’m fine.” Turning around before he could reply, she punched in the code to open the door. She pushed the drades up her nose, and they stepped inside to the darkened room beyond.

  They were early for the trinity meeting so as to give Apolo a full debrief on what had gone down with the major. She entered the lounge with Legian at her back.

  Apolo stood alone, leaning with his hands on the table. He was talking to a beautiful Sephian woman on the screen. Upon Sienna and Legian’s entry, he jerked around. The emotion in his eyes nearly knocked her back.

  “Sorry for the disruption. We’ll wait outside.” She snapped around to walk away, rubbing her palms together even though the temperature in the room was almost balmy.

  “Bah. Come in.” He waved them in and returned his attention to the screen.

  Even Legian looked timid as he stepped gingerly into the room. Sienna could make out little of the conversation, and she could tell Legian was trying to not listen while he casually inspected everything in the room except the screen. Whatever they were discussing was obviously private, and she sensed a deep longing in the words.

  Krysea.

  Apolo’s tahren. The bond between the two was obvious. Every day must be torture for them. That kind of dedication to their people went far beyond anything she could imagine.

  Sienna couldn’t help but stare at the screen. Krysea was gorg
eous. She’d expected a battle-worn, scarred woman. The Sephian leader surely couldn’t be this beautiful.

  Legian bumped her, nearly knocking her drades off. She scowled at him and his eyes looked forward. She followed his eyes and found Apolo watching her.

  “Krysea wishes to speak to you.” Apolo spoke with no hint of emotion.

  Sienna gulped as she and Legian stepped closer to the screen and faced the leader of the Sephian people.

  Legian spoke first, bowing his head and greeting the leader in Sephian. Sienna followed suit. Since her Sephian sucked, she then remained silent.

  “I have begun to learn your language but have much to learn. My tahren will translate,” Krysea said in drawn out, stilted English. Then she continued in flowing, beautiful Sephian.

  Apolo translated. “Krysea blesses your bond and prays for a blissful future.”

  “Thank you,” Sienna said. Legian echoed her.

  Krysea nodded with a warm smile before continuing.

  “She has been apprised of your actions and approves my choice,” Apolo added, his voice and manner all-business.

  Sienna glanced over at him. “Choice?”

  Apolo narrowed his eyes onto her. “Regarding you.”

  He said something else but she missed it, and jerked her attention back to the screen. Krysea was still speaking. The leader smiled, and the screen when black.

  Apolo stared at the blank screen. The tightness in his body betrayed his emotionless face.

  “How do you do it? Stay apart from Krysea, I mean,” Sienna asked softly in his direction.

  He jerked out of his trance and looked up to face her. “I do it because I must.”

  Apolo let out a deep breath. To her, it sounded like hopelessness. He looked up, and she could have sworn his eyes were damp.

  “It took us several months at full power to fly here; we nearly used up our long-range power cells. That was intentional. The cells are rechargeable, and initial planetary analysis showed that your star generated energy similar to ours, which can recharge our power cells. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we learned that was not the case. Your sun does not generate compatible energy. Even if we tried to return on our lowest power settings, we’d never make it. We are running our base off our short-range power cells now, but they won’t last a year. At that point we will be fully dependent on this planet’s resources.”

  Sienna brought a hand over her mouth. “You’re stranded here?”

  Apolo shook his head. “We are looking for other options, but haven’t found anything viable. The only good news is that the Draeken run off the same energy source and likely discovered the same problem when they arrived here.”

  “Earth is our home now.” Legian spoke quietly, his voice barely a whisper.

  “Can’t Krysea send more ships with large power cells?”

  Legian shook his head. “The cells are too large to transport. They can’t send enough to bring us all back, and any ship sent here would be stranded as well.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Sienna’s voice cracked as her heart broke. She and Apolo may not see eye to eye all the time, but no tahren should be separated. To be separated like that was an unending torture. A death sentence.

  Apolo cracked his neck and walked around the table. “Take a seat until the rest of the trinity and Jax arrive.”

  She glanced up at Legian, who nodded to her. “Apolo, we would like to debrief you about what happened at Mayhem.”

  Apolo waved her off. “Excellent progress with the humans; the debrief can wait until after the meeting.” He started to pace.

  Frowning, Sienna sat in the nearest chair. Legian sat down next to her, and together they endured the ominous silence. It took five interminable minutes before the others arrived, and during that time she watched a frazzled Apolo transition back into the stoic leader she’d come to respect.

  First to the room were Bente and Jax, who’d become friends over past few weeks. Nalea finally arrived, a few minutes late. Ever since the base attack, she seemed distracted, unfocused. Something was up, but her friend’s style was to keep things bottled up, festering, until they exploded like a Molotov cocktail. Sienna made a mental note to schedule some time with her. Legian had told her once about the last time Nalea had lost it. It wasn’t pretty. Evidently, people died when Nalea blew.

  Sienna didn’t know exactly what had happened the previous time; Legian said it had had something to do with Nalea’s family. Nalea never spoke of her family. In fact, no one knew anything about her childhood. That was, until a guy showed up who swore he’d worked under the same Draeken house as Nalea, and that he knew her secret. No one had thought anything of it until the next day when Nalea and the guy went missing, along with a ship. She’d shown back up a week later. Alone, nearly starved, and without a ship. She had claimed they’d gone on a recon flight and were shot down, but no one knew the truth, other than the fact that no recon flight had been scheduled. Legian suspected it was intentional that she came back alone, but he’d never dared confront her on it.

  Nalea nodded to Sienna on her way around the table to her chair.

  Apolo started before everyone sat down. “The Mayhem mission dealt a small blow to the Draeken. From what I’ve heard, we can thank Jax for the human assistance at the club. Without them, we very likely would have suffered losses. As it stands, we were very fortunate to incur no casualties, with only one of us acquiring minor wounds.”

  Applause lightened the atmosphere.

  Apolo continued. “The mission reopened the door for discussions. I have spoken with Colonel Jerrick and have arranged for an official alliance meeting that will include him as well as a political leader. The meeting should be at a location that has connections to both our people. Therefore, I have requested Sienna’s cabin.”

  Sienna jerked upright. “My cabin? Are you sure?”

  Apolo smiled. He had that look again. The one he always had before he dropped a bomb.

  “What?” she asked, the word barely a whisper.

  “Since you became Legian’s tahren, you have been thrown through a quantum hole. Most would have broken. Many would not have survived. Yet, your prowess at both defending the base during the attack and on the Mayhem mission has earned the respect of the Sephians based here on this planet, of me, and most importantly, of our tahcayaren, Krysea. You and I often have different views, and it is those differences that I have come to value the most. Earth is our new home. It is time we acclimate to our new world and, hopefully, new people.”

  Apolo looked at each member of his trinity in turn. “I will always do what is best for my people. And, it is in their best interest that I made my decision. From this point forward, Sienna shall become the human face for the Sephians on Earth.”

  Sienna frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  “Sephians are a matriarchal society. It is time to bring a human female to the helm of this base. It brings strength to our troops. While Jax advises me from a military perspective, I will look to you, Sienna, to advise me on how best to integrate our peoples.”

  “I don’t know what to say.” And she didn’t. Of all the words out of Apolo’s mouth, what she’d just heard was far from what she’d expected. While her logical mind knew it was purely a political ploy to set the stage for human-Sephian relations, her emotional heart remained in shock.

  “Do you accept this responsibility?” Apolo asked.

  She looked around the room. Every eye was on her. She had always been a loner. An introvert. This kind of responsibility should belong to someone who was bred for it, not some country girl who played Xbox. But she also didn’t believe in coincidences; Legian crashing in her backyard had been the first step, leading to where she now stood.

  She squeezed Legian’s hand before looking back to Apolo. “I graciously accept this honor.”

  Apolo walked over and held out his arm, and they sealed the pact Sephian-style—by clasping each other’s forearms.

  “According to Sephian tradition
, I have a trinity, a body of three minds to guide me and with whom I can discuss all topics of importance.” Apolo turned to Legian, Bente, and Nalea before turning back to Sienna. “While you can consult with me any time, I hope you will also look to my trinity to guide you.”

  Sienna made eye contact with each of the trinity members. “Of course. I look forward to your guidance, friendship, and honest thoughts.” She turned to Jax. “I’ll look to Jax as well.” She smiled. “You haven’t let me down yet.”

  Apolo nodded. “I believe their counsel will guide you well.” His voice held a hint of respect. “Now, let’s make the announcement and break out the drinks.”

  She strode over to Legian and he embraced her. Even if it was purely for show, one thing was for sure: she wouldn’t let them down. She’d make a good poster child for relations. She would see it through to the end. No matter what.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Sienna had never been more stressed in her life. More than when she discovered aliens weren’t some made-up sci-fi creatures from Mars. More than when she left the life she knew behind and went traipsing off into the unknown with one of those aliens. More than when the base was attacked and she’d nearly been killed. More than any of that.

  She now knew what Atlas must have felt like to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders. Of course, her responsibility didn’t come near that. She was just a figurehead rather than an actual decision-maker. Still, she was the walking commercial for integrating Sephians into the world. After all, she was the first human to have a tahren.

  She wished she could fade into the SUV’s black leather so she wouldn’t have to go back to her cabin. They were already driving down familiar rough side roads. It wouldn’t be much longer now.

  The truth was she’d never had to be responsible for anyone else but herself before. Even with Bobby. He had been away on duty too often and at home too little. It had left her to remain carefree and—she hated to admit it—selfish. But suddenly, for the first time in her life, how she acted could impact others’ lives.