Aron: A SciFi Alien Romance (Alien Shifter Force)

by Maya Kane

  Athena closed her eyes. She’d take that over slavery any day.

  35

  Athena was so exhausted that it took some time for her to notice a couple of things.

  One: she was still thinking. Did that mean she was still alive?

  Two: she wasn’t in pain. So the bullets had either sent her into shock or they hadn’t hit their target.

  Her eyes flew open. It was raining heavily now, but she could still see the flashes. They were firing alright—so why weren’t their bullets hitting?

  She looked around and was relieved to see the other Drayon around them, all looking as confused as she felt. She caught Kate’s eye. To her surprise, Kate broke into a wide smile and began to point excitedly at the new attackers. She was saying something that Athena couldn’t hear.

  She leaned closer, almost falling off Aron’s back in her bid to understand. She shook her head. Kate would need to explain later.

  This was crazy. Had she died and entered some kind of limbo? It was the only explanation. The new arrivals fired and fired, but not one shot hit them. That wasn’t the only weird thing—the Drayon were just hovering there as if they were spectators and not targets.

  A sudden blast sent them shooting backward in a blanket of white hot flames. Athena gasped in surprise as Aron quickly righted himself, which prevented her from falling off his back. Just.

  She stared in horror and amazement.

  There was no way that blast had come as a result of one of them being hit. And sure enough, one of the alien ships was crashing to the ground beneath them.

  Athena stared at the ships again. This made no sense. It couldn’t be the Dreon—Aron had said it would take days for them to reach earth. And those ships didn’t belong to any space force she knew of. Yet she had no option but to think of them as allies. Because another alien ship exploded right then. And then another. And another.

  “Athena!”

  She was so wrapped up in watching the annihilation of the alien ships that she hadn’t even noticed Kate and Redon flying to her side. She stared at them dumbly.

  “Come on,” Kate said. “Let’s go to the meeting point.”

  “But what about the others?”

  Kate frowned as if she wasn’t making any sense. Athena supposed she wasn’t after all of this mayhem. “They’ll follow once they see Aron and Redon go. Like they usually do. You know that, Athena.”

  Athena shook her head. A dull headache had started in her brain since the explosions began. “Sure. Yeah.”

  Kate nodded and gripped Redon’s back.

  “Wait,” Athena yelled suddenly. “Shouldn’t we stick around? Find out who they are?”

  But Kate appeared not to have heard her. Athena gripped Aron’s back and followed.

  Athena jumped off Aron’s back and rushed to the others, tripping over a tuft of grass and flying to the ground. She was beyond caring how she looked—her body was so sore and exhausted that her muscles didn’t seem to be responding to her brain anymore.

  “Who were they?” she hissed as Kate ran to help her up.

  Kate shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Confusion rose up within Athena. “What do you mean you don’t know? I saw you! You were sitting there looking like you’d won the lottery.”

  Kate smiled ruefully. “I thought it was the Dreon,” she said with a self-effacing laugh.

  “So it isn’t?” Athena had made the same assumption on their way there. It was the only explanation that made sense.

  “No.” Kate shook her head. “I asked Redon just now. He’s never seen those ships before.”

  Athena turned and found Aron behind her. She was beginning to crave the embarrassing time when she’d been distracted by his near constant nudity. It seemed like it was months in the past and not just days ago. Simpler times, she thought wistfully.

  “They weren’t Dreon.”

  He shook his head. “No. I told you—help is days away.”

  Athena sighed. “We’ve got to go back there.” She had to force the words out—if she had a choice she’d avoid that place for the rest of her life.

  Danni shuddered. “No way. Seriously. Can we just assume they’re the good guys and carry on with our lives?”

  Athena would have chided her for being a coward, but the fear that Danni had perished was still fresh in her mind. Panic gripped her again. “Wait, who’s missing? Somebody went into that ship. I saw them.”

  She looked around slowly. Aron, Zalon and Redon were fine. So was Kadan. Melen was panned out on the ground. She could see Yeden in the distance, staring out into the sky with his back to them. Her heart sank.

  “Eren,” she whispered softly.

  “He was struck by the beam,” Aron said in a level voice that surprised her. He seemed to sense her sorrow. He wrapped a huge arm around her. “Dreon don’t fear death,” he whispered. “We fight for our planet. He would have been grateful that so many of us survived.”

  Athena ground her teeth. “Well then let’s go find out what happened. Don’t we owe it to him to find out who our rescuers are and whether we can repay them for what they’ve done?”

  Kate laughed. “Looks like you’re going to get your wish.” She jerked her head skyward and Athena saw the strange ships approaching them from a distance.

  “Who the hell are you?” she muttered. She wasn’t afraid—she didn’t have enough energy left.

  36

  For one horrible moment, Athena thought it was the weird, impenetrable ships returning to finish them off. It was only when they drew closer that she saw they were the ones that had blown the beam ships out of the sky.

  They looked similar from a distance, but up close these ships looked like they were made from regular metal, not the strange material she had never seen before.

  They stepped forward as the door on the closest ship hissed open. Athena realized she was holding her breath. Aron slid his huge hand into hers and squeezed it. That made her feel slightly more relaxed.

  A ramp slid out and three black-clad figures appeared in the doorway. Athena squinted. Their heads were black and shiny. Her heart skittered along as her mind formulated all kinds of theories. Like, what if these weren’t the good guys after all, but a different division of the enemy army designed to lull them into a false sense of security?

  And then—if she thought things were weird before—everything took a turn for the bizarre.

  The creature in front reached up shiny black arms and pulled off his… head. Athena gasped. It was hard to tell in the waning light, but now she saw they weren’t shiny aliens, but humans dressed in advanced spacesuits she’d never seen before.

  She stepped forward, but Kate was faster.

  “Who are you?” Kate yelled.

  “Lieutenant Dax Evans,” said the one in front. “Special Space Forces.”

  Athena frowned. “What are you guys? There’s no force by that name here. At least not out of the United States.”

  He came down the ramp and Athena saw that he had a friendly, ready smile. He was also younger than she had first thought.

  “That’s because you’re not supposed to know about us.”

  She took his hand and shook it. There was something reassuring about him despite the fact that she had never heard of Special Space Forces. He stopped suddenly in front of the Dreon.

  “Who are your friends? Been playing dressup?”

  Athena wheeled around defensively. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kate do something similar. “They saved our lives. They’re Dreon. They were shot down by the enemy.”

  Dax grimaced. Two other soldiers had joined him. He introduced them abruptly as Sergeants Coyle and Weathers. Athena nodded at them, irritated by the way they were looking at the aliens she had come to think of as her squad.

  Dax’s cold eyes landed on her hand. “Been getting close to the green men, huh?” he said.

  It was all Athena could do not to shudder. She stood tall, determined for this stranger not to se
e how uncomfortable he was making her feel. Of course he didn’t understand—how could he? The idea of mating with an alien had seemed preposterous to Athena herself just days before.

  She cleared her throat. “With respect, Lieutenant Evans. I don’t think we have time for you to stand there and state the blindingly obvious, do you agree? We’ve got a lot to discuss.”

  He nodded and grunted. Athena looked past him and saw that an army of black-suited soldiers had exited the other ships and formed a loose semi-circle around them. She gripped Aron’s hand even tighter.

  “You’re telling us you’re all Special Forces? And nobody knows about you?”

  Dax nodded. “Yes. Why don’t you join me on my ship? I’ll tell you everything. You must be exhausted after leaving base all that time ago. And under such difficult circumstances too.”

  Athena froze. “What?” she whispered.

  How could he possibly have known about that?

  37

  “Relax,” Dax said as they walked up the gangway. He flashed her a look that caused Aron to growl.

  Athena felt a warm glow replace her anxiety. Aron had her back. And she had her own damn back—she’d listen to Dax Evans but that in no way meant she had to trust him.

  “Easy for you to say,” Kate hit back.

  He shrugged without breaking his stride. “From where I was sitting, we were the only thing standing between you and the Cantokas. I haven’t exactly had an easy day.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Kate said, stopping and turning before she entered. “Why don’t you back up a bit? How did you know about the base and what the hell are the Cantokas?”

  Weathers smiled coldly. “Why don’t we go sit down? We’re all tired and emotional.”

  Athena looked the woman up and down. She found it incredibly difficult to believe that this woman had ever been emotional. Or tired. “Kate’s right,” she said simply. “We don’t know you and you seem to know a hell of a lot about us. I’m not taking another step until you’ve answered our questions.”

  She stood on tiptoes and leaned in to translate their conversation for Aron.

  “Oh bravo,” Dax said, clapping his hands slowly and in a way that somehow dripped with sarcasm. “He speaks,” he said in Uniton.

  Aron growled menacingly. It gave Athena no small amount of pleasure to see the alarm that passed over Dax’s face.

  “You’re wasting our time,” she said, crossing her arms. “Who are you? What are you doing here? And what are the Cantokas?”

  He smirked, obviously about to say something smartass. Redon’s growl seemed to change his mind.

  “I’m Dax Evans, A Lieutenant with the Special Space Forces. Like I told you.” He sighed. “Are you guys always this unfriendly?”

  Athena resisted the uncharacteristic urge to punch him. “We haven’t slept in days. None of us are in the mood to make nice.”

  “Fine,” Dax said, holding up his hands in defeat. “Commander Jessop told me what happened.”

  “You’ve been to the base?”

  Dax nodded. “Yeah. We’ve been making our way around the country looking for strongholds that weren’t hit.”

  “Wait,” Athena said, holding her hand up. “How? The Dreon ship was shot out of the air as soon as it entered our atmosphere. How come they haven’t hit your ships?”

  Dax glanced behind him at Coyle, who gave him a slight nod. “Because we know for a fact that our ships’ technology isn’t detectable by their sensors.”

  “How can you know that?” Kate asked, hands on her hips. She had an even lower tolerance for bullshit than Athena did, and Athena had almost reached her limit. She expected to have to restrain Kate at any moment.

  Calm down, she told herself. These people have advanced technology we’ve never seen. And they know more about the enemy than we do. We need information. Not to start in-fighting.

  “Join us inside?” Dax said. “Please?”

  They were spread around a surprisingly basic conference room. Danni was the first to speak, surprising them all.

  “Why should we trust you?” she muttered.

  “You’re Kate Brown,” he said to Kate. He turned to Athena. “You’re Athena Diaz. You’re Danni Chambers. You defied direct orders and abandoned the Pelagon. That action saved your lives. You were ordered to research the enemy on the UEF databases. You disobeyed those orders and went AWOL.”

  Athena’s mouth fell open. “Who are you? You can’t just walk into a UEF base and get information like that.”

  Dax sat forward. “You can if you’ve got top security clearance.”

  Athena turned and looked at Kate. She had so many questions for them she didn’t even know where to begin.

  “Who are they?” Kate asked slowly. “What are they?”

  Dax rubbed his face and looked everywhere but in their eyes. “They’re a highly advanced species,” he said finally. “From planet Reon.”

  Athena nodded hesitantly. She had expected that knowledge to give her a feeling of closure, but it had no effect on her. “What are they doing here?” she asked. “Also how the hell did they manage to vaporize entire cities?”

  “Well,” Dax said, smiling bleakly. “They haven’t vaporized them as such.”

  Athena was tired of talking in circles. So what if she revealed her hand? It was an incredibly shitty hand. “They’ve taken them. Alive,” she said simply.

  Dax’s eyes widened a fraction. “Well. Yes.”

  Athena sat forward, eyes glued to him. “You don’t seem surprised. It’s like you already knew the answer. Now, why would that be?”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “Don’t you want to ask me pertinent questions instead of making paranoid statements like that?”

  Athena smiled. “It is pertinent. Dax, I have a feeling you know a lot about these aliens. How come? We work for the UEF and we’d never heard of the Cantokas before today.”

  He laughed again.

  “Answer her or we’ll be forced to attack you,” Kate snapped.

  One of the other Special Forces soldiers laughed. “You’re hopelessly outnumbered.”

  “That didn’t stop us earlier, did it?” Kate snapped back. “Human versus human with no advantage; I’d like to see the winner in that one. I wouldn’t bet on—”

  “Kate,” Athena hissed. “I totally agree with you but now’s not the time.” She looked at Dax. “You said you had ships invisible to the enemy’s scanners.” She signed and closed her eyes tight for a moment. The theory she had just thought of was so ridiculous that it couldn’t be true, yet she had a sinking feeling that it was. “The problem I have with that is you’d have to have been in contact with them to find that out.”

  Dax’s eyes widened. He said nothing.

  Kate gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth. Athena couldn’t do anything—she was rooted to her seat. Could it be true? But how? She had heard of earth leaders who got involved with the most tyrannical dictators for profit, but this was on a different level.

  “How could you work with someone who kidnapped millions of people? How? Where are they?”

  For the first time, Dax’s face fell. He quickly rearranged his features. “We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. We thought they were friendly.”

  “Yeah, they seem real friendly,” Kate snorted.

  Athena elbowed her in the side. “Please. Go on.”

  Dax sighed. “We were on the outskirts of the Reon belt.”

  “Never heard of it,” Athena said, eyes narrowing.

  “If she hasn’t heard of it, you’re talking bullshit,” Kate muttered. “Athena could draw you a map of the entire known universe. From memory.”

  Dax smiled. “The known universe. Well, that’s a remarkable feat. How’s your knowledge of the unknown universe?”

  Athena shifted in her seat. “Nonexistent. By definition.” She knew she was playing right into his hands, but she couldn’t figure out where he was going with this.

  Which meant
she was floored by his next statement.

  “Not so. There are parts of the universe we’ve discovered that have been kept classified.”

  Athena looked at Kate. “But we’re the United Earth Force. We’re earth’s space army. If anyone discovered the Cantokas, it would have been us.”

  “The Reon belt is a special case,” Coyle smiled. “We discovered it by accident. We stumbled across a wormhole. One that was unlike any that we’d ever encountered before. That led us to Reon. And the Cantokas.”

  “You found them and they just accepted you?” Kate said, sounding as skeptical as Athena felt.

  “They found us,” Dax interrupted. “It was at that point that our leadership decided to keep their discovery a secret.

  “But why?” Athena asked, tilting her head to one side and still trying to figure out if she trusted them. “Everyone knows there are other life forms out there. Hell, our force is—was—one of the largest and we’re space soldiers. People aren’t as scared of aliens as they once were.”

  A strange look passed between Dax and Coyle. Athena waited, sensing that this was difficult for them to speak about.

  “The Cantokas are different.”

  “Oh, please,” Kate blasted. “They may be technologically advanced but we’ve come across many species more advanced than us. Okay, the Cantokas are particularly advanced but—”

  “It’s not their level of advancement that worried us. It’s…” he stopped and looked at Coyle again.

  Weathers shook her head. “We found out some things about their history. As we explored their planet and shared technology, it became clear that Reon wasn’t their home planet at all. They were merely mining it for resources.”

  Even Athena couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that statement. “So do we. We just spent the past two years on Kanaven.”

  Weathers arched her eyebrows. “We weren’t harvesting the natives for energy.”

  Athena sucked in a breath. Bile rose up in her throat as she wondered if she’d heard that correctly.