by Ivy Sparks
Taken by the Alien Savage
Warriors of the Oasis - Book 1
Ivy Sparks
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Chapter One
Claire
Was I really doing this? Any moment now, I was about to board the next space shuttle out of Earth with only a small bag of clothes and necessities to my name. I looked down at the ticket in my hand as I waited at the docking station, surrounded by seasoned interspace traders and well-dressed diplomats. They had a good reason to be here.
Me? Well, I hadn’t really thought about what I was doing. Last night, I had a sudden urge to get as far away from this planet as possible. The urge to run away had been so overpowering that I didn’t think twice about buying the ticket. All I knew was that I needed to get away.
Maybe if I had seen a therapist every once in a while instead of making knee-jerk plans like this one, I wouldn’t be in the mess I am now. But traveling coach into space was cheaper than therapy, so here I was. I looked down at my phone. It had been buzzing nonstop for several hours.
It was my boss, of course, the only person who seemed to care that I was leaving, and that was only because he had a deadline to make. I had been doing the work of two people for the salary of one for years, and he had been more than happy to work me to the bone too. When I asked for a raise last month, he had simply barked out a laugh and told me to get back to work.
Payback’s a bitch.
Or maybe I was.
Still, I figured I should have fun burning my bridges. Once I stepped onto this spaceship, I wasn’t coming back to Earth. “Fuck you,” I texted him, then turned off my phone with a snicker. I figured his incoming barrage of messages would make for good reading on the lengthy trip.
I looked around the sleek docking station, observing my fellow passengers. My eyes fell on a young couple, recently married if I had to guess. They had their arms around each other and were whispering into one another’s ears. I shook my head in distaste. There was only one explanation for their happiness: They were high off hormones, the same hormones that led to me dating a parade of worthless assholes all my life.
An unwanted image flashed through my head, and I quickly shook it off. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about Aiden. After five years of being together, he had decided to end things with a generic excuse about needing to find himself.
Perhaps what hurt me the most was the fact that I never saw it coming. Until the moment he said those words, I thought everything between us had been perfect. My world shattered around me in just one moment, leaving me in a haze that persisted for almost a year.
While he went partying in the Bahamas with half-naked chicks all around him, I had spent five months stalking him on social media before finally blocking him forever. It took another five months before I was ready to move on and return to the dating world.
And I wished I hadn’t. The only thing the men around here had to offer was sex, and they weren’t even good at it. I seemed to attract jackasses. Emotionally unavailable fuckheads who loved a good screw but didn’t want to invest any time or effort into an actual relationship. I gave up on finding a decent man a few months back, finally losing all patience with my city, my horrible job, and the breed of men populating this planet.
Being light years away from this shitfest seemed like the best way to go. A no-brainer, really. A fresh start, a new take on life.
The intercom cracked above us. “Now boarding Shuttle 181B4. Passengers, please make your way to the launch room immediately.”
I collected my suitcase and proceeded to the launch room. I placed my bag in the tube at the entrance, which weighed my luggage. Considering that I had only packed a few outfits, the weight was below the limit and the latch opened, sucking my luggage in. Now I just had my little handbag, which carried my phone and wallet.
I swiped my ticket at the keypad next to the door, and the boarding hall opened. I walked in and handed my ticket to the stewardess standing by the spaceship docking bay.
“Please wait while I verify your ticket,” she said, and I suppressed a sigh. I just wanted to be out of here already.
“Your ticket is valid. Kindly proceed to the docking bay.”
Here went nothing. I was really doing this.
I walked up the spaceship docking ramp through a tight hallway into a tiny coach cabin. I let out an involuntary groan when I stepped inside. There were no windows, and only four seats, two on either side, with little tables in between to separate them. Was this really how I was going to spend the next few days?
I gave the two other passengers a polite smile, then sat in an available seat. The room was about as dire as it got, pure white with obnoxiously bright overhead lights. Two huge TVs hung above the seats on either side of the cabin. Guess that meant I’d be sharing some in-flight entertainment with whoever sits next to me.
Great.
I sat with a thump in my chair, only to have a robot steward enter the cabin and start hounding me.
“Hello, and welcome,” he said in a robotic voice, reminding me of an oversized Roomba. They didn’t even bother to give him a friendly robot face, but they did think to glue a bowtie to his front. “Would you like a refreshment?”
“How about a stiff drink?”
“I’m sorry. Could you repeat your request?”
‘Stiff drink’ must not have been in the little robot steward’s vocabulary. “Forget about it. I’m fine.”
“Understood. Use the ‘call steward’ button on the panel beside you if you need anything. Have a pleasant journey.” With that, he rolled off to go be useless somewhere else.
I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes for a brief moment.
Is this really what I should be doing? There’s probably still time to get off—
“Hi! Is this seat taken?”
I didn’t bother opening my eyes as I replied, “No, go ahead.”
Nothing was going to make me open my eyes. I was so tired from all the stress, and from having to walk through a sprawling spaceport the size of Texas. I couldn’t help but wonder what Aiden might be doing right now. Probably sleeping next to some bimbo, without a care in the world. He probably never thought of me once since the break up.
A pleasant ding sounded. “Good morning, passengers,” the intercom spoke. “I’m James Rodney, and I will be your captain for this journey. Please find the tablet attached to the side of your chair and go through the safety precautions. I will keep you updated throughout the flight—”
I know, I know. Just let me sleep already!
“And I speak on behalf of the entire team of Jupiter Starlines when I say: We hope you enjoy your journey and thank you for choosing to travel with us. Please fasten your seatbelts.” A ding let us know the announcement was over.
I opened my eyes and fastened my seatbelt, then took a moment to truly assess the passengers I’d be flying with over the next few days. They were all women, about m
y age—mid-twenties—except for one, who looked to be in her late thirties. The two sitting in front of me looked like professional types.
As for the occupation of the girl beside me, I had no idea. She wore a band T-shirt and tight jeans. She had freckles and red silky hair that fell to her waist. Her eyes were wide with what I could only assume was giddiness. What she was so excited about, I couldn’t begin to guess.
The one directly in front of me looked much older. She was dressed formally with her hair tied neatly in a bun. The other woman had her eyes closed and rested back in her chair. Not even an ounce of stress was visible on her face. She must have taken this flight many times before.
It sucked having to share such a cramped space, but at least my cabin mates were three other normal, quiet, and—most importantly—dickless humans. I couldn’t stomach another man, at least not right now.
A picture of my best friend, Amy, flashed before my eyes. She had been the light of my life, but that light had gone dim.
Amy was the only good person left in my life. My father—well, lord knows where he was—and my mother let my grandparents raise me, as she had other aspirations in life. Once I was barely eighteen, my grandfather passed away, followed up by my grandmother when I was about twenty. That left me with nobody until Amy came into my life.
She didn’t change my life necessarily. That would have taken a miracle. But life at least felt… a little less sucky with Amy around. She always looked at the positive side of everything. Every month I’d be heartbroken over some dickhead, but she was always there to wipe away my tears.
Of course, it all went down the drain when she had to leave for another country to continue her studies. I cried for days after she left. We talked to each other through video calls but soon those became less frequent until they stopped happening altogether. I had been alone again, with nobody to help me face my problems. Fast forward to today, where the only option I thought I had left was to go to outer freaking space.
Would my problems just follow me here too?
Wherever you go, there you are. I guess for some people, that thought was comforting, but it definitely wasn’t for me.
Damn it, I had to stop dwelling. I looked around to distract myself, but this economy ship offered nothing but seats and two TVs I didn’t know how to turn on.
“Hey,” I said to the girl beside me. “I’m Claire.”
She turned and flashed me a huge smile. “Hi! I’m Sophie.”
Couldn’t say I was exactly in the mood to talk, but what else was I going to do? This girl seemed nice enough, anyway. “Nice to meet you, Sophie. Is this your first time leaving Earth?”
“Yes! I’m so excited. Like, I literally feel like I’m about to explode.” She clasped her hands together. “I’m a college student. I’m majoring in Alien Relations. I’ve been studying them for two years now. Finally I’m about to see them for real, you know? I can’t explain how excited I am.”
Aliens were one of those things I tried not to think about. Life was crazy enough as it was, and it wasn’t like you got to meet aliens every day, anyway. Usually the aliens just kept to themselves, except to abduct the occasional fair maiden.
Why couldn’t I have gotten abducted?
“Aliens, huh? Got a favorite alien race?”
“All of them! And you know the best part?” Sophie’s eyes sparked. This was clearly her favorite topic.
“Enlighten me, please,” I replied with slight interest. Her enthusiasm was starting to crack through my hardened exterior.
“I’ve only truly studied the three current contacted alien races. There’s so many more out there who we’ve yet to observe.”
“Yeah. I mean, they’ll reach out eventually—the other alien species. If we keep playing nice with the contacted races, the others will realize we’re not a threat, and maybe they’ll say hi.” I honestly didn’t know what the hell I was saying. I was just trying to keep the conversation going.
She looked at me blankly and said, “Well… What we know of the ‘unknown’ races isn’t exactly promising. They’re all barbarians and warriors, according to the contacted races. It’d be better that they don’t ever make contact with us. Still, I’d love to observe them from afar.”
I blinked at her. “Oh. I mean, I was just spitballing.”
She continued, “We’re lucky the contacted races even let us on their planets. And I’m pretty sure they only allow that for their own amusement and observation. And profit.”
I thought about it for a second. She was right. The aliens downright didn’t seem to have any interest in our sad little planet. They didn’t don Hawaiian shirts and visit all the tourist traps. We were the ones going to their planets.
And it didn’t seem like too many humans ever returned either…
Sophie went on, a faraway look in her eyes, “Aliens have the power to destroy Earth in seconds, Claire. They have extraordinary strength and technology we can’t possibly fathom. We have no choice but to play nice with them. One small little complication and boom, Earth is no more.” She looked at me for my reaction.
“Uh…” I was starting to regret leaving Earth’s atmosphere at this present moment. Maybe this wasn’t one of my brightest ideas.
“There’s nothing to worry about though, at least not when it comes to the three contacted races.” Sophie picked up a tablet attached to her seat and started scrolling. “Unless you do something that displeases them, of course,” she continued, mostly to herself now. “It’s all so dangerous, and in a way, exciting…”
I raised an eyebrow. Whatever got her jollies off, I guess.
The conversation having come to a natural stopping point, I closed my eyes again. The ship vibrated and rocked in a way that was almost hypnotizing, and before long, I was fast asleep.
An ear-piercing alarm shook me awake, and I looked around, forgetting for a moment where I was. Seeing Sophie’s familiar face brought me back to reality, but that didn’t explain the alarm.
The captain spoke over the intercom, “Please stay calm and remain in your seats. Do not panic, we are—”
But everyone was already out of their seats.
Oxygen helmets dropped from the ceilings and dangled above us.
“What’s happening?” I looked back at Sophie to see she looked as terrified and confused as I was.
“I-I’m not sure,” she replied looking around frantically along with the other two women. The red lights flashed and robot stewards kept rolling by the door repeating, “Emergency. Emergency.”
I grabbed Sophie’s shoulder, saying, “I’m heading toward the bridge. Stay here, okay?” With that, I jumped into the hallway and headed for the front of the spaceship.
I hurried through three different corridors, bobbing and weaving between robot stewards until I finally spotted the “Bridge” sign on a sealed metal door.
“Source?” I heard as soon as I put my ear up to the door.
“Unknown,” someone else replied. “Sensors are only telling me two things, sir: It’s not planetary debris of any kind, and it’s moving toward us at a high rate of speed.”
I thought of breaking in but after a moment of silence, the captain yelled, “Pirates!”
The bridge door slid open, and the captain pushed past me.
The copilot stood and met my eyes, saying, “Get to your cabin and lock the door, you hear me? Tell the others to remain barricaded in their rooms.” She pushed me down the hall and closed the bridge door.
What the fuck?
Okay, Claire. Pirates. Space pirates. Run to the others and tell them. Lock up, stay calm. Aid would arrive soon enough.
Right?
I hurried back to the small cabin to alert others. “Sophie, the captain—”
I was too late. All three women were missing. I looked in the direction of the docking bay and ran. Among the cargo, I saw Sophie, a dozen other passengers, and the captain hogtied and on their stomachs. In front of them stood twenty small red figures standing with
laser weapons pointed at the prisoners.
Aliens…? Well, they had to be. Their skin, red as lava, was scaled and reptilian. Their faces had vaguely human features, but their elongated and toothy jaws made it clear they were predators. Though they were small, hardly an inch taller than me, their muscles made up for it.
One of them turned around and barked an alien word upon seeing I was loose. Two others charged at me, then shoved me down beside Sophie, where they hogtied my hands to my feet in seconds.
This wasn’t their first rodeo.
I looked at Sophie, who was hyperventilating next to me. Once I caught my breath, I managed to whisper, “What’s happening?”
“Space pirates, Ixol,” she said in two short breaths. She got a hold of herself long enough to say, “Ixol are known to kidnap humans and sell them to other barbarian aliens as slaves.”
“No fucking way.”
“Aye, valich!” one of the Ixol shouted as he pointed his weapon at me.
Either he was telling me to shut it, or perhaps he was giving me a nickname. Either way, I closed my mouth until they turned their attention back to the captain.
“Just how bad is this situation?” I whispered to Sophie again. “I mean, is there any hope the Ixol will bargain with us?”
Sophie laughed as if that was about the dumbest question she had ever heard. “How do I put it, Claire?” Her tone lost all humor as she said the next sentence: “We’re pigs in a slaughterhouse, and they’re the butchers.”
Chapter Two
Claire
It had been about fifteen hours and we were still tied up on the cargo bay floor. My hands tingled and throbbed, my back was starting to spasm from the prolonged hogtied position, and my mouth was dry with thirst. The Ixol had yet to land us, and the captain had no idea where we could possibly be going.