“What happened to me?” Emily asked. “How did I get here?”
The strange woman moved closer. “You were in a crash. The Romarie ship you were on crashed on this planet. It broke up in the atmosphere, and you fell out. You landed here, in our territory.”
“Who’s territory?” Emily asked.
“You’re in the territory of the Ursidrean faction,” the woman told her. “There are five factions on this planet, and you happened to land here. The wreckage of the Romarie ship landed in the Lycaon territory, so your sisters and your cousin will be with them—if they’re still alive.”
Emily caught her breath and tried again to sit up. “I have to find them.”
The woman pushed her down again. “You can’t get up. You have a shattered pelvis and several broken ribs. Your brain is swollen. You’re not going anywhere for a long time. You don’t have to worry. We got word that almost all the women on that ship survived, and they’re recovering with the Lycaon. We can send word to find out if your sisters and cousin are with them.”
Emily fought against the woman’s restraining hands. “I can’t just lie here. I have to get up. I have to find out if they’re okay.”
“Even if you could get up,” the woman told her, “you can’t leave the infirmary until the power comes back on. It is pitch dark throughout the whole city, and you’ll need a guide to show you the way to get out. Stay where you are and concentrate on getting better. Then you can decide what you want to do.”
Emily fought her off. “I can’t.”
Something clicked in the dark, and an alarm rang in the distance. The woman took hold of both her arms and held her down on the bed. “You’ll make your injuries worse if you don’t lie still.”
Emily’s mind went into a maelstrom of confusion. “I have to get out of here. I can’t stay here.”
A door opened, and footsteps pattered into the room. The woman’s voice breathed next to her ear. “You’re going to go to sleep now, but we’re going to do everything to help you get better. We’ll talk again when you wake up.”
Her own struggling sent lightning bolts of pain rocketing through her body. Even before the syringe slid into her arm, a tide of pain swept her into unconsciousness. She reeled and fell back on the pillow. With her last breath, she whispered, “Who are you?”
She barely heard the woman murmur back before she succumbed to the darkness. “My name is Aria.”
Bright light woke her up. She blinked and took a deep breath, but breathing didn’t hurt now. She turned her head right and left and found herself in a clean, bright hospital room. On the other side of the room, a man knelt in front of a cabinet of rolled cloth dressings. He selected a bunch of them and stood up. He closed the cabinet and turned around.
He lifted a clipboard off the counter and jotted something down. Then he gathered his dressings and started out of the room when he noticed her watching him. His eyes widened. “You’re awake. That’s good.”
Emily stared at him. The creature she mistook for a big-shouldered man couldn’t be human. Rough brown hair hung down to his shoulders and covered his forehead and neck in a thick ruff. His shoulders dwarfed his head, and he moved with a slow, rounded gait.
He noticed her staring at him and smiled. “How are you feeling?”
She couldn’t stop staring at him. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Even when that strange woman’s voice came back to her, she couldn’t make sense of the evidence right in front of her eyes. This creature was an alien. She was on another planet. Not even her experience with the Romarie prepared her for the shock.
He smiled at her. The twinkle in his eyes was exactly the same as any human. Her mind started to clear. “What…..?”
He put down the clipboard. “What am I? I'm Ursidrean. I'm Angondran—not that that means anything.”
Emily raised her head, and when she felt no pain, she tried to sit up. To her relief, she found she could. She rubbed her head. “That woman…..she told me about this.”
He arched his eyebrows. “Someone from the infirmary must have explained it to you. You’re on the planet Angondra. You’re in Ursidrean territory.”
Emily nodded, but her mind still reeled from the shock. “How long have I been asleep?”
“You weren’t asleep,” he told her. “You were in a drug-induced coma. The one time they let you wake up, you couldn’t be restrained, and your injuries were dangerous enough the doctors decided to sedate you until you got better.”
She eyed his white uniform. “The doctors? Aren’t you a doctor?”
He chuckled. “Me? No, I’m not a doctor. I’m a medic with the border patrol. I’m only here for resupply, and then I’m gone. My unit found you on the border, and I’m the one who brought you in. I’m glad to see you’re better now. We weren’t sure if you would survive your fall.”
Emily took another deep breath. How good it felt to breathe! “How long have I been here?”
“Almost six months,” he told her.
She gasped. Then she pushed herself off the bed. “I have to get out of here.”
He took a step forward. “I’d settle down if I was you. You still have a lot of recovering to do before you go skipping off to parts unknown.”
Emily looked around the room. “Where’s that woman, the one that was here before?”
He cocked his head. “Which woman?”
“There was a woman here when I woke up last time,” Emily replied. “She said her name was Aria, whatever that means. She said she was kidnapped by the Romarie, too.”
He nodded. “Ah, yes. Aria. She’s not here at the moment, but I can tell the nurses you asked for her. She’s busy with four cubs, so she doesn’t work in the infirmary as much as she’d like to.”
Emily started. “Cubs?”
He eyed her. “What’s the word you use for your young?”
“Do you mean children?” Emily asked.
He pointed at her. “That’s it. Children. She has four children.”
“Did the Romarie kidnap her children from Earth, too?” Emily asked.
He moved away. “No, she had them here.”
Her conversation with Aria came back to her. “Are her cubs.....you know, are they Ursidreans?”
“Yes, they are Ursidreans,” he replied. “Aria’s mate is the Alpha of our faction, and he’s the cubs’ father, so yes, they are Ursidreans.”
“How long has she been here?” Emily asked. “She must have landed here a long time ago to have four children… I mean cubs.”
“She’s been here two years,” he replied. “She had the first set of twins her first year here and the second set last year.”
“She must be busy then,” Emily remarked. “She must have a lot of work to do. I’m surprised she gets to the infirmary at all.”
“Not so much,” he replied. “The cubs run wild most of the time. They wrestle with their friends and roam around the caves and the mountains. She has a lot more time to herself now than she used to.”
“But they’re less than a year old,” Emily pointed out. “How can they roam around by themselves?”
He shrugged and turned away. “All cubs do, I guess. In another year, they’ll be fully grown and they won’t come back to their home cave at all.”
Emily rubbed her head. It still ached. “I guess it’s different for Ursidrean cubs than for human children.”
“No doubt.” He started to leave.
“Hey, wait!” she called after him.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I didn’t get a chance to thank you for bringing me in,” she replied.
“I was just doing my job.” He strode out of the room before she could say anything else.
The door hadn’t even stopped swinging when an African-American woman with a short fuzz of brown hair cut close to her scalp breezed in. She sat down on the bed at Emily’s side. “You’re awake. How do you feel?”
“I feel
fine,” Emily replied. “I mean, I feel about as good as anybody could feel who’s been lying in bed for six months.”
Aria smiled. She didn’t look all that old, but fine lines creased the corners of her eyes. She’d seen a lot for her years. “You’ll feel better once you start moving around. Can you walk?”
“I haven’t tried,” Emily replied. “I wasn’t sure if I should.”
“Try it,” Aria told her. “Your pelvis is all healed up now, and we used the rotational compensator to stop the wasting of your muscles. You’ll recover fast, so the sooner you get started, the better.”
Emily swung her legs over the side of the bed. They ached from long disuse, but they didn’t hurt when she set her feet on the floor. She hesitated to put her weight on them, though. She glanced toward the door. “Who was that man that just left? He said he was a medic with the border patrol that brought me in.”
“Do you mean Faruk?” Aria asked. “Yes, he’s the best we have. The medical board has been trying for years to get him to work here in the city, but he won’t give up the border patrol. He loves the mountains too much. You were lucky it was him that found you. He saved your life.”
Emily nodded. “I tried to thank him, but he wouldn’t hear it.”
Aria walked across the room and started organizing the shelves. “That’s just like him. He’s humble. He doesn’t think he’s got the expertise to work in the city, but he knows more than most of the doctors. He trains all the medics in the corps, and the men love him.”
“What city is this?” Emily asked.
Aria spun around and stared at her. Then she smiled. “I keep forgetting you don’t know anything. You’re in the Ursidrean capital city. It’s called Harbeiz. That’s Angondran for the number one. All the cities are named after numbers according to how far away they are from Harbeiz.”
Emily gazed toward the door. “It’s hard to believe there’s another planet outside that door.”
“There’s one more thing I better tell you before you go any further,” Aria went on. “Then I’ll take you out for a walk.”
“What’s that?” Emily asked.
“The Ursidrean cities are underground,” Aria replied. “The Ursidrean territory covers huge mountain ranges, and the Ursidreans live in caves underground—like bears.”
Emily stared at her. “Bears?”
Aria nodded, and a knowing smile crept over her face. “The Ursidreans are a lot like bears. If you remember that, it’s much easier to understand them.”
At that moment, a rowdy bunch of boys rushed into the room. They upset a rolling table with a pitcher of water on it. The water splashed all over Emily’s bedding. The boys yelled and punched and attacked each other until Aria pulled them apart. “How many times have I told you not to come into the infirmary? Don’t you have enough space to run around in the South Corridor?”
One big boy pointed to another, smaller one. “Rekti stole my catapult when I wasn’t looking and he broke it. Now I have to start all over and make a new firing mechanism.” To make his point, he pulled back his fist and slung it at the smaller boy. He would have punched him in the eye if Aria hadn’t dragged him away at the last second.
“I don’t care what Rekti did,” Aria snapped. “Don’t bring it into the infirmary. This is your last warning, Mirin. If I catch you or any other boys in here, I’ll report you to Donen, and you know what that means.”
At the mention of Donen, both boys froze and fell silent. They glared at each other, but all hostilities ceased in an instant. They had the same ruff of hair around their heads and necks and the same heavy ridge of brow over their eyes. Other than that, they were exactly like any other human boys.
“Now go back to the South Corridor,” Aria told them. “And Rekti, you keep your hands off your brother’s things. You wouldn’t like it if he stole your micro-magnifier and broke it, would you?”
Aria let them go. They stood opposite each other and glared.
“Are these....?” Emily asked. “Are these your children?”
Aria set her fist on her hip. “Yes, they are. I only wish I could get them to play with their friends instead of each other so I wouldn’t have to mop up the blood every day. They fight like cats and dogs.”
Mirin frowned at his mother. “What’s cats and dogs?”
“But he’s.....” Emily pointed to Mirin. “He’s only two years old. And this one is only....”
“Rekti and his twin brother are nine months old.” She shoved the boys toward the door. “Now off you go.” They disappeared. “Ursidrean cubs mature in five years. It’s a far cry from twenty like human children.”
Emily stared after them with wide eyes. “It’s amazing. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but it’s amazing.”
“Where are your other two…..cubs?” Emily asked.
“Mirin’s twin Vashet doesn’t spend much time with his brothers,” Aria replied. “He spends almost all of his time with his friends. And Rekti’s twin Avi has some unique issues. He’s in the Academy.”
“I’m sorry,” Emily told her. “I shouldn’t pry into your personal life.”
“Do you have children?” Aria asked.
“I don’t have any of my own,” Emily replied. “My husband had two teenage sons, and I helped raise them. But when my husband died, they went to live with their uncle, so I guess my job is done. I was trying to conceive when my husband died.”
Aria sat down on the bed again. “I’m sorry to be the one to bring up painful memories.”
“Please don’t apologize,” Emily exclaimed. “I’m just grateful not to be on the Romarie ship anymore. Anything is better than that, and I was casting around for a new purpose in life when they abducted me and my sisters and....”
“And your cousin,” Aria added. “You told me.”
“Is there any way I can find out about them?” Emily asked.
“The person to ask is Faruk,” Aria replied. “His unit patrols the Lycaon border. If anyone can find out, he can.”
Chapter 2
Emily shuffled down a long corridor with her hospital robe trailing. Every step took enormous effort, but she’d traveled beyond the infirmary into the residential part of the underground Ursidrean city. She squinted up at the lights above her head. “How do you generate electricity?”
“The mountains contain a unique combination of metals and crystalline structures that set up a flow of electrons through the rock matrix,” Aria told her. “They channel energy from the atmosphere into the mountains, and we harvest it with electromagnetic coils buried in these caves. That’s why the power only works during the day. The rest of the time we’re in darkness, but that doesn’t bother the Ursidreans. We spend the time in our homes with our families, and we use our other senses like hearing and touch and smell.”
Emily shook her head. “That’s fascinating. You have such an advanced civilization, and yet it’s so simple. I’m impressed.”
Aria pointed up at the lights. “Those aren’t electric lights, though. They’re light tubes that conduct light into the city from the outside.”
Emily stared up at them. “They’re so bright. I would never have guessed.”
Aria strolled down the corridor at her side. “The other Angondrans think the Ursidreans are brutish and stupid, but we have the most advanced technology on the planet. None of the other factions have our technology. I don’t think they want it. I know the Lycaon don’t even have electricity. They live in huts made out of sticks in the forest.”
Emily took another step. “I hope my sisters are okay.”
“I’m sure they are.” Aria waved toward a door. “Step in here.”
“What is this place?” Emily asked.
“This is my house.” Aria held the door open, and Emily stepped into a fresh, bright living room with floor to ceiling windows looking down on a gigantic cavern. A light as bright as day shone down from above and lit up the floor far below teeming with people
moving in all directions. Emily peered toward the light. “Is that a light tube, too?”
Aria didn’t even look. “It’s the same technology as the light tubes, but much bigger. It’s a shaft cut in the rock and lined with reflective stone. It conducts the light down into the Main Bay.”
Emily studied the tiny figures below her. They followed walkways and paths through the cavern, in and out of doors into other chambers, and between trickling fountains and waterways set between plantings of trees and shrubs. “This is amazing. I still can’t believe all of this is underground.”
“The Ursidreans might be like bears in a lot of ways,” Aria replied. “But they’re still people. All the Angondrans belong to the same species, and they all basically look and act the same. They aren’t that much different from humans. They started on the planet’s surface, so the Ursidreans couldn’t give up light and trees and water completely when they moved underground. So they found ways to bring it with them.”
“It’s beautiful,” Emily exclaimed. “It looks like a mountain dell.”
“Have a seat,” Aria told her. “You must be starving. You haven’t eaten actual food in six months.”
Emily turned her back to the cavern. Aria prepared some kind of fruit at a counter across the room. She set a plate of colorful slices on a table, and Emily sat down across from her. “I am starving, but it isn’t because I’ve been asleep for six months. That walk I just took is the hardest exercise I’ve had in my life. I could go back to sleep right now.”
Aria leaned back in her chair and watched Emily eat. “You’re weak, but the compensator will make you recover a lot faster than if you hadn’t had it. You need to work your muscles, and you’ll be back to normal soon.”
“Will you show me around the rest of the city?” Emily asked.
“I’ll do as much as I can,” Aria replied. “But I’m pretty busy with the boys right now. I’ll ask Donen to assign someone to show you around and get you settled in.”
Optorio Civil War Complete Series Box Set (Books 1 - 6): A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance (Optorio Chronicles Book 2) Page 43