Rornak’s Command: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Science Fiction Alien Romance) (Survival Wars Book 4)

by Hana Starr

  Only when he began to run out of breath did he stop. The others gradually died down too, and then they all shifted to their other forms as he did.

  “Akait!” he shrieked loud enough for them all to hear. “You all knew that we were headed out upon an ordinary run to obtain supplies, but one of our own number betrayed us! Horule betrayed us! Because of him, Takla is dead and Nelly has been taken.”

  “Kill him,” someone screamed.

  A male actually jumped into the air, swinging his fists. “Traitor!”

  “Horule is dead! I silenced him and he shall be giving away no more of our secrets. However, this is not merely a matter of revenge over what he has done. It is a matter of these invaders.”

  Rornak pulled in a deep, ragged breath and then continued shouting as his voice grew hoarse. “They killed our families and banished us to live in these holes, but we have persevered! They did not kill our spirit. However, today they have endeavored to take our hope and it is for this that we shall not stand. Our options are limited. We either hide and die, or we fight and kill as many as possible so they may know what they have caused!”

  He spread his arms, heart starting to pound as his people roared their approval. He let them continue on as long as they liked, shouting and crying out for endless minutes. In his soul, he has thanking Nelly for all their arguments and thinking that he never quite appreciated her in the way that she deserved; her skill with words was helping him find his way now, and he solemnly swore that he would kill these invaders in her name.

  When he could be heard again, he said, “Then, let us split into four groups.” They did so, and he leapt down from his boulder to examine their number until they all were even. After being sure of that, he lay down his plan.

  Each wave of four would attack from a different entry point using the hidden entryways, which he assigned by clawing out a map onto the ice and pointing them out. Each wave would stagger their time, and send in their number sporadically so that more and more Akait would keep emerging and give the appearance of having more than they did in actuality.

  As all this was going on, he would head straight through the front with his council.

  He made them believe this was a suicide mission, to die honorably, but he did not voice aloud that the positions of the tunnel-attackers would redirect most of the heavy flow away from him and the council. The council would defend him as he went in search of Nelly’s scent.

  He did not believe that he would emerge from this unscathed, that Nelly would actually be found, but he needed this goal to keep him going. Answers were needed before he died.

  Chapter Twelve

  Days passed in a hellish pattern. There was no way to keep track of time while in her damnable enclosure but Nelly could estimate and measure based on the filling of her bladder, the needs of her stomach, and the sleep she was able to snatch between rounds of having samples taken from her body.

  Sleep was nearly impossible but she knew she would need it if she was to keep her mind good and stable to catch any escape opportunity that came on by, and so she forced herself to do it during the inevitable downtime by imagining Rornak. Oh, how she missed him. She missed him more than she’d ever missed anyone in her entire life, and she very bitterly regretted not sleeping with him when she had the chance. Now that she had the time to think about it, she could finally admit to herself that she hadn’t really rejected him that day because she was scared of it being over too quickly. No, she was just scared. Not many things did that to her, and it was very hard to deal with.

  And now she would never have the chance, as much as her body might like to think otherwise. She woke up once after a surprisingly pleasant dream, flat on her stomach with her ass in the air and her fingers at her clit. The invaders had been watching her and recording her, making notes and drawings. Thankfully they all lost interest in her as soon as she woke up and stopped what she was doing, but that occasion was not an abnormality.

  No matter what she did, they were interested in it.

  No matter what time she did something, there were anywhere between two and ten invaders lurking in the shadows somehow even though she couldn’t see them until they came out. For big, bulky creatures, they sure knew how to be sneaky.

  Her food and water intake and output were rigorously measured, and there were blood and bone samples pulled from her body every few hours. She was covered in little slits and punctures, especially along her joints where the bone was nearest to the surface with very little to interfere.

  At first, the cart-pushing invaders continued to bring in reinforcements to restrain her. She fought just as strongly as could be expected, lashing out viciously and screaming like a banshee, and it was all to no avail. Several times, she just made a break for it and was actually almost out the door a couple times even though they always managed to catch her in the end.

  After a particularly daring attempt where she practically sailed over the sample cart, only to come crashing painfully down on top of it –and of course smashing every sample just taken from her so that she had to go through the whole procedure again- Nelly huddled up in the corner and examined her stinging ankle. It wasn’t sprained, just twisted, but it definitely made her rethink her angle.

  That was what she was best at, though.

  I’m going about this all in the wrong manner.

  From then on out, she was as cooperative and sweet as a household dog at the vet. They continued to bring reinforcements and restrain her, but she started to hold out her arms for the bone scraps, the needle stings, the blood pressure cuffs. She held still and never rushed at them again, and when they came to observe her she simply acted like she hadn’t noticed they were there.

  Effectively, she became a zoo animal.

  It went against every instinct she had, and they were incredibly suspicious of the switch in her behavior, but they must have fallen for it because they began to relax around her and speak quite a bit more. They muttered at their equipment, made comments to her as they worked, or spoke to each other in passing. Not everything was a command now, and Nelly grabbed onto it with both hands.

  She still couldn’t place what the language reminded her of, and it would have been impossible to learn how to speak it without any intentional teaching, but she did manage to pick up the general meaning of a phrase or two. Those phrases seemed to have to do with her and her cooperativity, but the gruffness of the spoken sounds made intent and context difficult to decipher.

  If only they didn’t sound so angry all the time…

  It was shortly after she switched over to actively allow them to continue taking their samples: the experiments came. It was nothing worth fussing over. A monitor and electrodes were hooked up to her person.

  Very calmly, she dismantled it.

  They put it back on with a stern scolding, and she left it. The electrodes were over her chest and beneath her breast, obviously monitoring heartbeats. One of them –the same one every time. She could tell because there was a certain scratch on his suit always in the same spot- held a screen that they examined from time to time while watching her; obviously, her heartbeat was replaying on the screen and they were studying it. Why, she had no idea.

  She had no idea why any of this was happening, only that the invader watching her monitor was especially interested in her when she was having samples taken.

  Then, one of them came in with a cup of water and threw it in her face. “Hey!” she cried out, angry and flustered as she jumped to her feet.

  And the invader stared at the monitor, obviously fascinated. And so it began. They threatened her, or jumped at her, or threw things.

  They’re gauging my reactions. I’m feeding into what they want by reacting.

  It wasn’t as though she could help it! A flinch was the only thing her body could do when a loose electrode came flying at her face.

  Then, they started to put some of the creatures from the other cages into her enclosure. The alien life forms seemed docile so far, but the
y were terrifying in their strangeness; none of them actually ever came anywhere near her but she knew her heart was pounding and couldn’t help but to squish herself into the corner until it was over.

  And on this particular day, she made herself stand up while squeezing into the corner because there were more people than ever in the room today. Most of them were assisting in the wrangling and moving of the octopus creature, which was thrashing-mad.

  It’s going to kill me if they put it in here, Nelly thought faintly. The door opened. The octopus creature hesitated, and then reached out its tentacles right for her.

  A scream, small and high-pitched, pulled from between her lips as she tried to get away.

  And then it happened.

  From nowhere came a roar. It was like a tiger on steroids, the loudest thing she’d ever heard in her entire life!

  And then the lab door was off its hinges, and fire was gushing into the room. It exploded inward, searing expensive spacesuits black, and rammed orange-white against the glass walls of her enclosure. In the instant before her temperature adjusted itself thanks to the device on her neck, Nelly felt the heat and was astonished at the intensity. What had happened? Something in a lab somewhere, failing?

  Or, alternatively, succeeding?

  But no, it was not, because the fire ceased and she saw a gigantic winged lizard rearing up on its hind legs to strike out at a suited invader. And there were five more besides, spilling into the cramped room with their scales shimmering and silver.

  “Rornak!” she screamed, high and jubilant. It was him! It was really, truly him!

  The dragon she would have known anywhere lifted its head and trumpeted out a call, and then barreled towards her. Snatching the octopus in his mouth, Rornak wrenched his head around and threw the smaller alien.

  Though she wanted to run to the Akait, Nelly couldn’t help but to watch the innocent bystander tumble through the air and smack right up against an invader’s rounded helmet. That in and of itself might not have done any damage, if the octopus’s wildly-swinging tentacles latched around the helmet. With disturbing strength, it squeezed.

  The dark visor broke, cracking beneath limbs of pure coiled muscle, and then it shattered inward. Broken pieces hung suspended in the low gravity, taking an eternity to fall. Rornak whipped his tail around and smacked the octopus away.

  The invader collapsed to the ground, dying rapidly with their suit broken and incapable of protecting them. It was a quick thing, unceremonious and simple, but Nelly saw everything that she needed to.

  Fair but dusky skin and dark hair. Distinctive features. A sharp nose and severe chin. He was German. From earth. Everything suddenly made a terrible, terrible amount of sense: the human instruments, the weapon, the language…

  Then, Rornak slammed his claws into the glass. They punctured straight through, and then he ripped down an entire section of wall upon himself. There was a hellish and high-pitched crash, a ringing that seemed to go on for eternity, and then Rornak leapt straight for her.

  She was so glad to see him, so eternally glad, but she was so used to having things thrown at her now that she flinched away and put up her hands to protect herself.

  He jerked to a halt and didn’t move, his chest heaving as he became a human. “Nelly? What have they done to you?”

  Slowly, she looked up and there he was, her handsome and kind, selfless Rornak as she had known him before spurning his advances like a fool. He was staring at her arms, at the bruises and cuts clustered on her forearms, elbows and knees, and at the electrodes attached to her chest.

  Nelly gave a weak smile. “Just took some samples. At least they didn’t cut me open to look at my organs.”

  He came for her again but it was slower now, with his arms outstretched to hold her. Her whole body tensed but she ached for the burning warmth of him, and lifted her arms, too. His face burrowed into her neck, planting kisses above and below the collar which protected her. “You look so pale and hurt,” he murmured, hugging her tighter.

  The hug hurt, but the warmth of him felt good on her skin. Nelly leaned her cheek against him, relaxing for the first time in what felt like an eternity. “You look good, too.”

  He huffed a small, hurt laugh. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to tell you what happened. We don’t have much time and it’s all a mess right now.”

  “How did you get in here?” she asked, as he placed his lips on her throat and began to kiss her there now. Despite everything, despite the fact that they were alone now in the midst of what she could only assume was a full-scale invasion, she was delighted with the kisses because they were tickly and light and delicate. “Rory!” Her protest fell on deaf ears, so she grabbed his face with her hands and brought his mouth up to hers.

  They kissed, clumsily and deeply, like two lovers separated for much too long. Nelly had been kissed before in many better ways than this but this had to be the best simply because she knew that she absolutely wanted it. Then, Rornak leaned back and took one of her hands in his.

  “Come,” he said. “We must flee.”

  They ran out into the hallway from the laboratory, and that was when Nelly got the shock of her life. This was the interior of a spaceship! It was a man-made spaceship, but even more than that she recognized the design because it was her own. It was not one that she had ever brought to life, simply because she drew the schematics just for fun: it was a research ship very heavily grounded in a sci-fi purpose, with the intent of holding alien lifeforms.

  Her mind raced as they did. That meant someone had been watching her, stolen the design, and gotten here far ahead of her. These Germans obviously, but why? To what purpose was all this done?

  More importantly, how had the invaders gotten here ahead of her when she had to be brought here with wormhole technology? Did that mean they already had it? If so, then why come here at all?

  Maybe it was to make sure that they were the only ones who would have it, she thought rapidly. Either way, that didn’t matter now.

  Rornak gasped out to her, “I have every single person fighting. We were meant to destroy as many as possible before dying but I did not ever think that I would find you! Plans have changed.”

  They stumbled through the corridor of the spaceship, and Rornak reared and snarled at any of the Germans who saw them. Most fled in terror, obviously not pleased to have an enormous dragon bearing down at them, while others quickly brandished weapons and fired. Several times, Nelly was certain that would be the end of it but they must have had terrible aim, for Rornak simply killed them all. Splashes of scarlet stained his body, scales and skin alike.

  Eventually they reached the bay doors of the ship and burst out into the middle of the colony. Nelly could have stopped and stared at the magnificence of everything around her but Rornak pulled her along still, and they ran past the side of the ship.

  Very quickly, he found a low entrance and boosted her up.

  “What are we doing?” she asked as he came up, too.

  “We must find another Akait and tell them to retreat, to spread the message. After that, you and I will hide and slowly make our way out, too.”

  Luckily, they quickly started to hear the sounds of fighting. Rornak was used to having to decipher from which way sounds came and he led them right to one of the battlefields just as it came to an end.

  Two Akait were dead, frozen in attack positions. The rest were covered in wounds and leaking white blood, but they were surrounded by human bodies.

  One of them looked up. “Sir,” they snapped. “These are humans like her!”

  “We know,” he replied, and the tone of his voice put an end to that argument before it could even start. “We are retreating. This battle has been won. Share the burden, collect the dead. The rest of you, run to our people and spread the word. We must fall back.”

  The other dragons agreed, and so it was. Rornak turned back to her, and she looked up into his deep eyes. “Come with me, Nelly. We will get as close to an exit as
possible.”

  However, before they had even gone very far, he began to stagger and falter.

  “Rory?” Nelly asked, her heart jumping into her throat. Her foot slipped and she looked down, and saw that she had stepped in a streak of blood. “No!”

  He let go of her hand and turned around to face her, grimacing a little. She hadn’t noticed because of the color of his skin, but milky-white fluid was spilling from his shoulder and chest, streaking down the length of his body. “I’m okay,” he coughed. “It’s nothing vital. But I don’t think I can…”

  He collapsed.