by Zara Zenia
“Leave the flight?” Atropos asked, his wings flaring in shock. “No Lepidopterix has ever left the flight!”
“None has ever impregnated a human either,” Betula replied. “The winds are changing, and we must move with them or be swept aside.”
“Where will we go?” Amber asked, wide-eyed. “To Earth?”
“We are not sure yet,” Betula admitted. “Back to the Lepidopterix home world, or to the Centaurian outlaw planets maybe. We will figure it out later. Right now, we must leave before Actian has you executed and regains control of this place. You are the hope of rebellion that has been long-awaited. But in order for it to survive, you both must live.”
Atropos looked to Amber, taking her hand. She looked back at him, dazed by all that was happening. If she agreed, it would not just mean leaving her planet behind. It would also mean committing to carrying this child, a choice that might kill her in the long run. It would mean getting involved in a rebellion that could kill all of them. But staying here meant almost certain death. It was no choice at all.
“I always wanted to explore space,” she said with a hopeless smile. He smiled back at her and squeezed her hand.
“Lead the way,” he said to Betula, and the three moths hurried off down the hall, leading them through the dark halls of the unused parts of the Lepidopterix ship to a distant airlock.
“These escape shuttles are fully equipped for long-range travel,” Laothoe explained as they passed through the airlock. “They date back to the ship’s initial launch. If the main vessel was ever compromised, the escape shuttles have the power and supplies to make it all the way back to the home world.”
Through the air lock, they stepped onto the bridge of the escape shuttle, barely big enough to fit them all at once, plus the large brown Lepidopterix sitting in the pilot’s seat.
“Let’s go,” Betula said, and the pilot nodded, manning the controls. Atropos and Amber watched through the main screen as, with a great shuddering clamor, the escape shuttle detached from the main ship and began to move away.
“Light speed, quickly,” Betula urged. “Before they can get a tractor beam on us!”
Amber had never seen the Lepidopetrix ship from the outside. It was a massive white sphere, the surface textured, reminding her of a seed pod or a cocoon. Earth was below it, blue and beautiful and remote. It began to recede rapidly as the shuttle accelerated, leaving the ship and everything she’d ever known behind. She was shaken by how quickly it had all happened.
Betula breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the ship was out of sight.
“We are the first independent Lepidopterix in known history,” Betula said a little breathlessly. “Quite an achievement for a bunch of dull moths. Are we safely out of range, Clarus?”
“Yes,” the pilot replied. “We will be out of even comm range soon.”
“Any last messages?” Betula asked Atropos.
“Yes,” Atropos said quietly. “Please open a channel.”
The pilot did so, and Atropos leaned a little closer.
“Actian,” he said, calm but strained with exhaustion. “I am sorry. One day, I will stand beside you again. Goodbye, brother.”
He shut the channel himself and turned away. Amber reached for him, her chest aching with sympathy, and held his hand.
“You two should head to the med bay and get patched up,” Betula said. “Hepia will take care of you.”
Amber turned to see the same white-winged healer who had helped her back on the ship standing in the narrow corridor that led to the rest of the shuttle. She waved to them with a small smile.
“Then you can find a bunk and get some rest,” Betula said. “There won’t be much of that to go around soon. You two are about to become the figureheads of a revolution.”
Amber squeezed Atropos’s hand, feeling fear rattling her heart around her rib cage. She took a deep breath to quell it and smiled at the moth.
“Bring it on.”
Check out the rest of the Alien Abduction series!
Book 1-Alien Zookeeper’s Abduction
Book 2-Alien Mate’s Abduction
Book 3-Alien Captive’s Abduction
Zaruv Preview
Preview:
Book 1 of the Aliens of Dragselis Series: Zaruv: A Sci-Fi Alien Dragon Romance
Chapter 1-Zaruv
Tick, tick, tick, tick. My eyes darted across the emerald table, meeting those of my youngest brother. The incessant tapping continued, much to my chagrin. Every time the heavy, golden, ring on his middle finger brushed against the table, the noise rang out across the silent ship. He was going to start a fight without ever lifting a fist in anger.
That was Pavar’s thought. He had a way of stirring the pot to his liking. Young and wild, my twenty-five-year-old brother shot me an easy grin. At once, I felt my anger giving way to amusement. It was damn near impossible for me to stay angry at his hotheaded ways. The youngest of five brothers, Pavar always seemed to play on the line between prince and prisoner.
“If you continue to act like this, you will be the death of us all,” I said finally.
He cocked his head and the tapping finally stopped, “Come now, Zaruv. We both know that the Dragselian people are not going to change their ways. The system has worked for thousands of years.”
“It’s flawed and you know it. Hell, I would even venture to say that the other brothers know it too. None of you want to speak up though. Even now, we are all heading to our exile and still, you won’t speak against the old ways.”
“It’s not my place to speak ill of them. Nor is it yours.” Came Karun’s steady voice.
He stepped into the ship’s hull and nodded toward me as a sign of respect. As the second oldest son, I held the honor of being charged with my younger three brothers. We all knew that the day of exile was coming, but now that it was here, old struggles seemed to be flaring up. It didn’t help that we’d been stuck in the small passenger spaceship for the last two weeks. No amount of preparation could ready one for spending so much time in close quarters with their siblings.
Pavar glared at Karun while nodding in respect toward his elder brother. “We are heading to Artax, where we are sentenced to live out our lives away from our home and our people but you still support the rule?”
“I do,” replied Karun confidently. “The system, though flawed, has worked well long before we were here. It will continue to work long after we are gone.”
“You make Artax sound like a prison,” I interjected. “Artax is a resort planet, dear brother. We are going to live out our lives with more Dragselian woman and servants than we can handle. Yet you seem to find a way to make it sound terrible.”
“That’s because it is! I want to be back home on Dragselia, not billions of light years away from it.”
“You are so ready to start a fight when our father has not even been dead a week. You mourn the loss of your comfort, but not the man who provided it. You should be ashamed, Pavar,” Ragal said.
My two brothers sat down at the table with myself and Pavar. Looking around at them I saw the stark differences between them. Each one of them had a different personality that had its flaws, but also its winning qualities. I could think of no better warrior than Karun. His strength, speed, and agility were almost matched with my own. An anger boiled below the surface though. He hated the exile even more than Pavar, though his loyalty to the Dragselian way ran deeper than his disdain.
“We are not far from Artax now, I think you will sing a new song once you see what waits for us there, Pavar,” Karun said
“Karun, you won’t win. I would encourage you to let it go now before a war of our own starts,” interjected Ragal.
“I agree,” I said while nodding to Ragal. “There is nothing that we can do about it now. Pavar, you may voice your concerns among us brothers, but once we reach Artax, there will be no room for that hostility.”
“Why not?” Pavar fumed.
I started to speak, but it was again Rag
al who answered. “Because Artax is a haven of Dragselian. To speak against your king would be unforgivable.”
“Maybe that’s what I need to do then, at least I wouldn’t be living a lie.”
Karun sighed and shook his head, “Then we will be forced to live with your death. You will be painted the selfish, spoiled brat that you are.”
Pavar leaped up, but I raised my hand in a command for him to sit. He begrudgingly listened. This wasn’t the first time that he’d tried to start a fight in the close quarters and I knew it wouldn’t be the last. I didn’t worry about Ragal. His level head and passive nature wouldn’t allow him to partake in such a pointless fight. It was the others that I was worried about. Karun was a fighter and Pavar was an instigator but Ragal only wanted peace to reign out over all others. I smiled at him as he sat silently, looking out at the stars as they flew past us.
“We are close,” Ragal whispered beneath Pavar and Karun’s argument.
I looked out the front window and took in the beauty of the planet. It had been many years since I’d ventured to the area. Everything seemed the same. A small flicker of light caught my eye. At first, I thought that it was a star, but it seemed to be moving. Another ship in this area was common. Artax was a popular resort planet. No chime of the security console came but that did little to comfort me. It was programmed to send a message to all ships in our area, keep track of their level of danger.
Our vessel did not bear the royal insignia of our home planet. It was too dangerous to openly declare that there were royals on board. Throughout the area, there were Infernians lurking and waiting for our capture and eventual death. If no heirs to the throne were alive, they could easily overthrow our rule. I kept a watchful eye on the ship. It wouldn’t take much to fool our system. A false sense of security might blanket those who didn’t know the price on our heads, but it did little to put my mind at ease.
“What troubles you, brother?” Ragal asked, watching the changes of my face.
I shook my head, not wanting to alert the others of potential danger until I was sure. “It’s nothing, just my paranoid mind playing tricks on me. I think that I, too, am getting a little stir crazy.”
Ragal smiled and leaned back, “I believe it's infected me as well. I will be glad when I can again rest my feet on solid ground.”
I snickered, Ragal hated to be on ships. The uncertainty of the unknown did little to comfort him. He was not one for adventure. Left alone with his charts and the stars, he was a very happy nomad. I glanced back at the window, searching for the small blinking light. At first, I thought it had gone, moved onto whatever planet it was destined for, but then I caught it again, this time it was closer and worse, it wasn’t alone.
My heart started to race, wondering if it was enough danger to alert the others. In my hesitation to speak though, a heavy silence fell over the cabin. Karun and Pavar were no longer arguing with each other. The silence had transformed into a heavy fog, waiting for me to speak and lift it. I glanced back at the approaching ships, four in total and knew that I needed to make a decision. They would be on us in a matter of minutes.
“Zaruv?” Karun asked, “What troubles you?”
I looked him in the eyes, dark and brooding as always. We were an incredibly attractive lot by human standards. Our bodies had little to no hair, save for our heads which flowed freely down our backs, mine in waves of deep auburn. My heart was racing; we were not prepared for a fight as we flew in a passenger vessel with no security. Instantly, I regretted my decision to not push for some sort of escort. These were troubling times for our kind, as evident by the unmarked ships now closing in.
Karun saw them before I responded to him, “Are they Infernian ships?”
I shook my head, “There is no way to know. They do not have any markers or colors. I don’t think they are coming to be friends though. Jartex?”
A computer voice rang out over our heads. Jartex was our security system. “Yes, my prince?”
“Can you send them a message please and ask that they identify themselves?”
“Shall I share make your royal presences known?” Jartex asked.
“No,” I whispered. “Do not share who we are with them.”
The four of us stood watching through the window as the ships grew closer. They couldn’t see us through the thick glass, but we could see enough that my heart sank to the pit of my stomach. No passenger vehicle carried the two heavy missile portals on either side, as were the ships that were now hovering a few hundred feet from us. There was little doubt in my mind that they knew who was on board.
“Sir?” said Jartax, “They do not respond to my signal. Should I try again?”
I shook my head and took a step backward, tugging Pavar and Ragal along with me. “No Jartax, it’s too late.”
My three brothers looked to me, then back to the ships now facing us. They saw the same thing that I did, the missiles being lowered by long, metallic, arms as they prepared to fire. I could feel my stomach flipping in anticipation for a split second before I reacted.
“Jartax, drop range now!” I screamed out.
My brothers scurried around and quickly buckled into the seats around the emerald table, but Pavar wasn’t fast enough. Our ship dropped from the dark sky and Pavar was shot up in the air, his back cracking against the ceiling. He quickly recovered, our bones and skeletal structure being stronger than that of humans. In our dragon forms, we were almost impossible to kill but shifting now would rip apart the small craft, sending us floating pointlessly into space.
“Take evasive measures!” I called out.
Karun quickly unbuckled and took the seat next to me as the autopilot engaged and started to dodge the incoming missiles.
“We need to get to the escape pods,” Karun said.
I shook my head, “This far from Artax, we would never make it.”
“What other options do we have? We cannot fight back; we are too far to call for help from home. It’s the only chance that we have for survival.”
An argument rose to my lips, but before I could share, the ship started to shake violently. One of the missiles had made contact, sending everything on the vessel flying through the air as we struggled to breathe through the debris and depleting oxygen. I nodded to Karun. He grabbed ahold of Pavar and I did the same to Ragal, shoving each one into an escape pod.
Before shutting the doors on the pods, I looked over at Karun and yelled, “Make for Vaxivia, I will find you all there.”
Karun nodded, as did Pavar and Ragal before we sealed them in. Within seconds we heard the alarm of an incoming missile and quickly we both dove into our escape pods. Looking around at my brothers, I hit the eject button and was sent soaring into space. Unequipped for long travel, the air in the pod grew thin just as we entered Vaxivia’s thin atmosphere.
The last memory I had before the darkness consumed me, was of my brothers. All I could do was hope that their fates had not yet ended. They were all the family I had left; someone had told the enemy where we were. There was a spy among our kind.
Chapter 2-Jennifer
“Shh, Susan. Just one more and you will be all done,” I cooed to the small girl.
Her pin-straight hair fell in clumps on her cheeks. She was covered in mud. Dark streaks crisscrossed her face from where she had tried in vain to wipe away the tears. The cut was deep, but short, thankfully. She needed a few stitches, but nothing I couldn’t handle. It wasn’t often that I’d come across an injury that my small, but well-equipped outpost clinic couldn’t cover.
“Thank you so much, Jennifer,” whispered Carla, Susan’s mother.
I smiled up at her, covering the new sutures with a bandage. “It’s no problem, Carla. I’m just happy you caught me before I headed home for the day. Otherwise, we would have had to cut it off.”
Susan rolled her eyes at me but smiled, “You wouldn’t do that to me.”
I grinned at the little girl and reached behind me, producing a small, wrapped, red
candy. “You’re right. I could never do that to my favorite patient. Promise me you will stay away from the dunes from now on though, okay?”
Susan nodded her head and jumped down, her eyes glued on the candy prize in her hand. I pulled Carla aside while Susan was distracted. The little girl wasn’t out of the woods yet. I couldn’t count the number of injuries I saw because of the dunes. Vaxivia was no place to let your child wander outside of the outpost limits. There hadn’t been a war in decades, but the very planet itself was a death trap unless you knew your way around it. No five-year-old should be wandering alone.
“You will need to watch for an infection. The dunes hold sand that can eat away at the skin.”
Carla folded her hands nervously in her lap, “Okay. I know she shouldn’t have been out there. I will be dealing with Michael when I get home.”
“He’s only eight, Carla. You know he shouldn’t be left alone with her all day. Isn’t there anyone who can help you out?”
She shook her head, “Please don’t tell the guards. I promise I won’t let it happen again.”
I took her hands into mine. Her story was all too common. Work on Vaxivia was hard to find. Often the men of the family left to find work and never came back. Some still sent money back home, but many, like Carla’s husband, were ghosts in the wind. She worked part time at the small diner to make ends meet, but childcare was just too expensive. My heart ached for her and the plight that she was in.
“Why don’t you send her here tomorrow? I have some things she can do around the clinic and I can keep an eye on her wound.”
“Really? She won’t get in the way?”
I smiled at Susan who was still looking at her foil wrapped trophy. Running a clinic wasn’t easy. The last thing I needed was a young girl running under foot. Still, I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her.
“She will be fine, I promise.”
Carla thanked me all the way to the door. I knelt to speak to Susan, “Are you going to come help me tomorrow?”