Renier squared his shoulders. “Carmen is right. We can’t expect any of these women to do anything without their express consent. You attacked my city in vain, Donen.”
“The Avitras Alpha has an Earth female of his own, and so has Caleb of the Lycaon.” His eyes swept back and forth between Carmen and Renier. “I can see that you have a female of your own, too. Why should I not benefit from a female, too?”
“The only other female available is Aria,” Carmen replied, “and I wouldn’t make her leave the last of her friends to go be a mate to an Ursidrean. Why would she want to leave this lovely city, with the people who made her welcome, to go live in a cave in the mountains? You’re out of your mind if you think she would consent to that.”
A sound across the room brought her head around, and Aria stood in the bedroom door. Her eyes glowed in the soft light.
“Aria!” Carmen exclaimed. “I hope we didn’t wake you up with our arguing. I was just explaining to this…..this person….”
Aria shook her head. “I heard the whole thing.”
“You don’t have anything to worry about, Aria,” Carmen went on. “We won’t let him take you.”
Aria took a step into the room. “It’s all right, Carmen. I'm going to go.”
Carmen spun around. “You can’t! You have to stay here, where we can be together. Didn't you hear Renier say they live in caves? You can't live like that. You deserve better. I know where we can find food here so we're not eating meat roasted over a lamp every night. We can have a decent life here. Just stay here with me.”
Aria smiled, but Donen cut her off before she could say anything. “The other factions say we live in caves, but we have cities inside the mountains as grand and as advanced as anything the Felsite ever built. The Avitras think they’re so advanced, with their chattering and their gossip, but we have technology no other factions has. We preserved it from antiquity. We have electric lights and computing systems for recording our history. We have advanced medical technology for curing diseases that used to wipe out thousands of our people. You will live a good life with us, and you have my word of honor I will treat you well.”
Carmen interrupted him. “Don’t leave, Aria. Stay here with me. We're the last two Earth females left together. We should stay together. You don't know what you're going to. He could be lying about all of it, and once he gets you into his mountain cavern, he'll be able to do what he wants with you.”
Aria smiled at her. “You know that’s not true, Carmen. These Angondrans live by their word. Tell me the truth. Have you met a single one of them, from any faction, that wasn't trustworthy? I believe him, and I know I'll be safe and well looked-after among the Ursidreans.” She exchanged a nod with Donen.
Carmen’s voice cracked with emotion. “But I’ll be left alone here. The others have gone to other factions. You're all I've got left.”
Aria waved her hand at Leroni and Renier. “You’ve got your own people here now. Penelope Ann is where she needs to be, and Marissa has found her own home, too. All of you found love and connection here. I want the same thing for myself. Is that too much to ask?”
“Aria….” Carmen sobbed.
Aria shook her head. “I need security after what happened with the Romarie. The Ursidreans can give it to me. I’ll have my own people and my own family and my own place. I can't ask for more than that.”
Carmen stared at her with tears streaming down her face. Aria crossed the room to Donen's side. “I'll go with you.”
He studied her. “Are you certain you do this of your own free will? I couldn’t take you otherwise.”
Aria nodded. “I want this. I want to go. I’ll make a good mate to you. I know something about medical treatment, too, so I might be more of an asset to your people than you realize.”
Donen nodded. “Good. Let’s go then. We have a transport waiting for you outside.”
Renier struggled to his feet. “That’s settled. Perhaps in the future you could find another way of offering your embassy instead of attacking us and destroying our city.”
Before Donen could reply, Aria faced him. “You wouldn’t seriously consider his offer if he hadn't done it this way. I don't think I would have seriously considered it, either. This was the best way to offer his proposal.”
Donen swelled with pride, and even now, he and Aria matched each other perfectly side by side. Her chocolate brown skin and tuft of hair contrasted with his heavy features and hulking shoulders. They looked good together, and they both wore expressions of satisfaction at the outcome of this adventure.
Carmen covered her mouth with her hand, but she couldn’t hold back her sobs. Wordless gasps of anguish broke from her throat, but Aria paid no attention. She smiled up at Donen, all her fear and hardship gone. They moved toward the door.
Carmen darted forward and seized Aria’s hand. She clung to her in desperate agony. She couldn’t let her go. She couldn't let go of this last shred of humanity slipping through her fingers. Donen paused at the door. Aria turned toward Carmen and with infinite care, pried her fingers loose.
“You stay here, Carmen,” Aria murmured. “This is your place now. You stay here and be happy with your food and your friends and...” She nodded toward Renier. “With him. I know you’ll be happy here.”
Carmen opened her mouth in mute protest, but Aria shook her head. “Take care of yourself, and don’t worry about me. I'm going to be just as happy as you.”
“But I’ll never see you again,” Carmen wailed.
Aria smiled. “You’ll see me again. I don't know when or how, but I'm certain we'll see each other again. We're friends, and we're the only human females on this planet. We won't be able to live the rest of our lives without seeing each other sometime.”
She broke free from Carmen’s grasp and followed Donen to the door. She smiled back over her shoulder. “Good-bye, Carmen. Don’t cry for me, and don't cry for yourself, either. We got lucky when we landed on this planet. We should make the best of it.”
The End
Book 2 – Crashed on Alien Planet
Chapter 1
Chris Sebastiani's eyelids fluttered, but before she could bring herself fully awake, the room rocked beneath her and tumbled her out of bed onto the floor. This wasn't the same room where she fell asleep. Where was the soft pile carpet? Where was her mirrored Queen Ann dressing table across the room? Where was her goose down comforter and pillows?
They were all gone. She landed hard on her knees on a cold concrete floor. White walls surrounded her on all sides. The warm wooden paneling of her bedroom and the carved plaster ceiling were all gone, too, and instead of the comforting glow of her frosted wall sconces, a stark fluorescent glare lit the room. It left no shadow and stabbed her sleepy eyes.
The room heaved and shook. She dared not rise to her feet, but clung as best she could to the floor for stability. The floor itself swayed and pitched until she lay down flat and screamed in terror. “What’s happening? Where am I?”
All at once, a deafening crash smashed her ears, and she rolled sideways. She slammed into the wall, but the floor only heaved the other way, and she slammed into the opposite wall. Back and forth she tumbled, side to side and every which way. She screamed until her voice wouldn’t work anymore. “Mama! Help me!” Her mother lived fifty miles away in Redding, “Where are you, Alex? Where’s Riccarton?” Alex was her boyfriend, and her cat Riccarton always slept at the end of her bed. “Help me, anybody! Why won’t anybody help me? Where am I? Oh, dear God!” She couldn’t hear her own voice over the din.
The tumbling and falling and crashing battered her bones black and blue, but it didn’t stop until she screamed in pain. She couldn’t hold her hands over her head to protect herself. Just when she couldn’t bear another moment, an almighty shock sent her flying through the air. She slammed into the ceiling and back down onto the floor. The concussion knocked her out, and for the first time since she woke up, she lay still with her eyes shut against the future.
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An incredible quiet dragged her out of her stupor, and her eyelids fluttered open again. She raised her head, and blood and saliva trickled out of her mouth. The wind brushed her cheek and cooled it. Her eye fell on faraway mountains, and her blood ran cold. “Where am I? What’s happening?” Her voice vanished into the distance.
Then she looked around her and collapsed to her knees. She stared and stared, but she couldn’t comprehend it. All around her, women staggered through hideous piles of twisted metal. They moaned and screamed in terror and agony. Women stuck out from under the debris with half their bodies hidden from view. They called for their mothers and loved ones the same way Chris just did, but she couldn’t move to help them. She could only stare in blank shock.
A sturdy young girl with straight black hair hanging down to her waist walked up to Chris. She laid her hand on Chris’s shoulder and peered into her face with sparkling black eyes. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Then she noticed the bruises on Chris’s face and head and arms. “You’re hurt. Sit down over here.”
Chris struggled to her feet. “No, no. I’m okay. I just got banged up when the....I don’t know what happened, but I....” She trailed off. Nothing made sense.
The girl nodded. “That’s all right then. As long as you’re not hurt, that’s the main thing.”
She started to move off when Chris grabbed her by the arm. “Hey, wait a minute. What’s going on here? What is all this?”
The girl turned back. “Can’t you see? We crashed.”
Chris looked around. “But I....I was sound asleep in my room at home. Then I woke up and....the room was shaking all over the place, but it wasn’t my room. I didn’t know where I was.....and then, I was here.....I don’t understand what....” Words failed her.
The girl fixed her with a hard stare. Then she nodded again. “That explains why you don’t understand what happened. We were on an alien ship. We were abducted from Earth, and they were transporting us to a galactic slave market. But it looks like we crashed on some other world. That’s what all this mess is.”
“But how do you....?” Chris shook her head, but she couldn’t clear her thoughts.
The girl pursed her lips. “Listen....what did you say your name was?”
“Chris,” she stammered. “Chris Sebastiani.”
“Where are you from?” the girl asked.
“I’m from Humboldt, California,” Chris replied.
“Well, I’m Sasha Marquez, from Eagle Pass, Texas,” she answered. “I wasn’t asleep in my bed when they took me. I was standing on the sidewalk in front of my father’s convenience store with five of my girlfriends, and a white van pulled up to the curb next to us. We didn’t pay it any attention until my friend Netta pointed out that it didn’t have any windows or license plate.”
Chris frowned. “That’s weird.”
“Of course it’s weird,” Sasha replied. “But we didn’t have time to figure it out, because the next minute, a blinding flash of light covered the sidewalk. The next thing we knew, we were all in a plain white box moving off somewhere. We couldn’t see where, but when the box stopped moving, we were on an alien ship with these sick creatures who said they were taking us to sell in the market on another planet.”
Chris stared at her. Then she closed her eyes and shook her head. “That’s impossible.”
Sasha waved to her. “Follow me. I’ll show you something that will make you believe me.”
She walked away, leaving Chris no choice but to follow her through clusters of terrified women. Some huddled together for protection against unseen dangers. Some sobbed and moaned and rocked in mindless agony. Others stood still and stared into space. What had they been through, to disturb them this way?
Sasha led Chris through the wreckage to a hunk of twisted metal. She kicked at it. “Here. Take a look. Then tell me how impossible it is.”
Chris peered down at the lump. The sun slipped closer to the horizon and the light faded to dusk. It would disappear in a minute, and already, the wind bit her skin with its cold teeth. These frightened and injured women couldn’t spend the night out here in the open, with no food, no shelter, and only the flimsy clothes on their backs.
Then a flicker of movement caught her eye. She bent down to get a better look. A head stuck out from under the debris. But there was no way on God’s green earth—or anywhere else for that matter—that she could mistake this head for a human being.
The thing had pale pink skin and bright purple eyes with no pupils. The dusky light set off the mottled tones of its skin—or maybe its injuries made its skin change color from pale pink to darker violet. It stared straight up with its featureless eyes, seeing nothing. The creature didn’t move at all, but a ripple of movement shimmered around its lips. Chris bent down closer, but she couldn’t make it out.
Sasha laid her hand on Chris’s arm. “Don’t get too close. He could catch you.”
“How could he do that?” Chris asked. “He’s dead.”
Before Sasha could answer, the shivering skin around the creature’s mouth hole shot out toward her. Tiny tentacles as thin and whispery as fine hairs lashed the air.
“You see?” Sasha told her. “They’re called the Romarie. They have telekinetic powers, and the power comes from these tentacles.”
Chris’s mouth fell open. “Telekinetic powers? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Sasha grimaced. She set her hands on her hips and threw her hip out to one side. “Look at him! You can’t stand there and tell me it’s impossible that aliens abducted us from Earth. You might have been asleep when it happened, but it still happened. How do you think all these women wound up wandering around this crash site?”
Chris stared down at the creature and shook her head. “I can’t believe it—I mean, I have to believe it because it’s right here in front of my face. It’s just so incredible. I.....I guess I’m finding it hard to believe. ”
“Believe it,” Sasha snapped. “These things are the sickest, most sadistic bastards in the galaxy, and they treated us like cattle. This one.....” She kicked the creature in the shoulder, and one arm flopped out from under the debris. That arm ended in a featureless stump. It had no hand. “His name is Albinim, and he attacked my friend Sabrina. When she resisted, he killed her. They don’t give a rip about human life. We’re nothing but a bunch of lifeless cargo to them.”
Chris stared at her with her mouth open. “But I....”
Sasha fixed her with a ferocious glare. “They did the same thing to you, even though you slept right through it. You’ll never get back to your family now. You’re in the same boat as the rest of us. You better get used to that.”
Chris stared down at the creature. It still didn’t move. It must be close to death, with more than half its body crushed under that gnarled pile of what was left of its ship.
Then she sighed and cast a critical eye around the crash sight. “Well, we better round up the others and see what sort of supplies we can salvage. We’ve got a long, cold night ahead of us, and none of these women can stand much more than they’ve already been through. Come on, Sasha. The first thing we have to do is build a fire to keep everybody warm. We can’t survive a night in the cold without one.”
Sasha didn’t turn around. “Not so fast. We’ve got a bigger problem right now.”
Chris looked down at her, but Sasha wasn’t looking at the crash site at all. “What do you mean?”
Sasha didn’t answer. Chris followed her gaze to the horizon, where the last light of day set off the black outline of the hills. Wide, flat meadows surrounded them on all sides and created a bowl between the hills surrounding them on all sides. Standing on the crest of the rise, set off black, crisp, and clear against the bright sky behind, was a figure.
Chapter 2
From that distance, Chris could almost believe it was human. It stood tall and straight with its two arms hanging at its sides, and square, strong shoulders jutted out on either side of its head. Two sturdy legs stret
ched down to the ground, and it looked across the field with a steady, fearless gaze. Chris’s heart gave a leap. Here was a glimmer of hope, a lifeline in their hour of need.
The next minute, her spirits plummeted as another figure broke the horizon and stood next to the first. Then another appeared, and another, until a ring of strangers surrounded the crash site in a ring around the bowl. These could only be some other species of alien, come to take advantage of their misfortune. Maybe they planned to attack the stranded women and eat them. Maybe they would collect them and ship them back to the intergalactic slave market anyway.
Then, to her horror, the ring of figures advanced on the crash site. The ring contracted with every step, coming closer and closer. “Holy crap!”
She put out her hand to grab Sasha, but at that moment, the creature on the ground jerked and rolled to one side. The chunk of metal holding him down on the ground sailed off and thumped down on the grass some distance away. The body underneath it was nothing more than a flattened mass of pulverized flesh. Only the creature’s trunk, head, and arms moved from its waist.
With lightning speed, he reared up off the ground. His tentacles stretched out from his face to an incredible length and snaked around Sasha’s ankle. He collapsed back on the grass, but his tentacles kept a death grip on Sasha’s leg and pulled her down with him.
The instant she realized what was happening, Sasha kicked and struggled, but she couldn’t free herself. The creature dragged her down on top of him, and he crushed her against his chest with his handless arms. More tentacles slithered out of his face and surrounded Sasha’s throat. They covered her face and chocked off her surprised cries. But it did no good. She disappeared under the mass of tentacles, and only a horrible gurgle came out of the creature’s mouth as he sucked her down.
Rhani (Dragons of Kratak Book 3) Page 21