by A. G. Wilde
“I don’t understand how this happened…”
Athena smiled again. “We’ll explain everything to you. It’s a wild story, though. Might take some time.”
Another tremor went through her and the three-fingered hand of the alien pressed against her gently, as if to steady her.
Kerena froze, her gaze locked unto the contact as she processed the feelings within her.
Don’t freak out. Don’t freak out.
“Neg neg ix fredenigr. Er fre neg ekde oh erix.”
Kerena blinked, not understanding.
“He said you shouldn’t be afraid. He’s not leaving your side,” Athena translated.
As Kerena looked up at the alien, she was slightly taken aback by the intensity of his gaze.
His words were comforting…
So why was it that, deep down, she was still terrified?
Ajos stared at the female.
Keh-reh-nah was her name.
Contrary to what he’d thought, his proximity didn’t seem to be freaking her out as much as he’d thought it would.
She hadn’t screamed.
She hadn’t tried to run away.
And…
She’d touched him.
Of her own accord, she’d laid her hand against his skin.
The faint brush of her fingers against his cheek was still there like the touch of a phantom and now that she was no longer in his arms, he felt a strange loss that was as irrational as the fact that he was still standing by her side.
He was frowning at this particular thought when V’Alen glanced his way.
His cybernetic ally was speaking to Xul, who jerked his head when Ajos caught his gaze.
They wanted to speak to him.
That prompted another confusing feeling, and Ajos moved his gaze back to the female.
She was looking around the stasis hold, her gaze widening ever so slightly with each passing moment. Still, she didn’t react with hysterics the way Athena had briefed them most of the humans would behave.
His gaze moved over her face and he realized he didn’t want to move from where he stood.
This irrationality was surprising, and it made his brow dive toward his nose.
“Ajos,” Xul took a step toward them and paused, “a moment.”
Jerking his head in confirmation, Ajos’ gaze never left the female before him.
Keh-reh-nah was looking at him now, those brown pools of hers moving over every inch of his face and for the first time in all his years, he wondered the silliest and vain thought he’d ever had in his life.
Does she think I’m strange-looking? Hideous?
The female continued to study him.
…Handsome?
His shoulders stiffened as he regarded her.
She probably didn’t understand him, but he spoke anyway.
“I will be back,” he said, wondering at the same time why he was telling her that, before he forced his legs to move.
Xul’s voice was low as he approached, but Ajos still caught some words the commander spoke to V’Alen.
“…before we could terminate that signal.” Xul looked his way.
“The signal?” Ajos asked.
“It terminated on its own, but I suspect,” V’Alen lowered his voice, “that it has already reached its target.”
“It was a beacon,” Ajos said, and he could feel a coldness settle over the room.
A beacon that had most likely transmitted their exact location.
A full-on attack from the High Tasqals was something they always feared and something they’d learned to live with. But with rebels manning the heavens, they would alert everyone on the ground in time for them to escape.
Still, an attack wasn’t something that anyone wanted to happen. Life on the base was…good.
Safe.
However, they still had to take precautions.
“We must alert the sky towers,” he said. “Put them on high alert. If anything is out of the ordinary, we need to investigate.” Ajos glanced around. “Today has been a strange day.”
“If the stasis hold transmitted the location of the lost humans, the Tasqals will retaliate,” V’Alen said. “There is an eighty-five percent chance of that.”
Ajos swallowed hard.
The problem with V’Alen was that he was usually right in his calculations.
This was horrible news.
So many beings within the stasis hold, and a whole population of other beings on the base itself.
So many lives were in danger.
Xul became silent, and when Ajos looked at him, he realized the male was staring at his mate. There was something in the male’s eyes that he’d never seen in the many years that he’d known him.
The commander feared what this would mean.
Ajos’ gaze flicked to the human he’d rescued, the one who’d told him not to leave her, and he found her brown eyes on him.
There was a feeling within him, fueled by the intensity of her gaze.
If the signal had indeed transmitted their location, the entire base was in danger.
She was in danger.
And possibly, it was his past experiences still haunting him, or maybe this was some cruel plan of the creators, but he had the urge to do all he could to save this strange being.
This Keh-reh-nah…
To do all he could to protect her.
5
For the next few minutes, or it could have been a full hour—she didn’t know—the noise level within the strange chamber slowly receded.
There was still some sobbing from a few of the women. Kerena even saw a dark-haired lady who’d crawled behind one of the stasis pods and refused to come out.
For the first few minutes, she'd tried to find a familiar face, but she knew none of these people. Every single one of them was a stranger.
Of the entire group, though, four women seemed to work alongside the aliens.
Those four were all dressed in similar outfits: dark trousers and white tops.
Despite the chaos, there was still some organization there with the females in black and white seeming to be running the operation.
That made little sense. Had Athena been lying about them not being on Earth?
Why would aliens abduct us then have us order them around?
There was a huge alien with horns, one with blue skin and long white hair, and the C3PO—and they were passively observing.
For the most part, they didn’t interact with the humans.
Instead, they allowed the women in the black and white to take charge.
That’s when she let her gaze wander to her side.
The minty-teal alien was still by the gurney. He’d surprised her when he’d returned to stand beside her, and she didn’t know what to think of it.
Should she be concerned or was this his post and she was the one in the wrong spot?
As her gaze moved from his torso and went higher, she had to tilt her head a little so she could look at him.
He was tall—possibly the tallest person in the room—and she knew that for a fact because she was a solid six feet and he would tower over her if she stood.
He was dressed in a pale-colored shirt and dark pants. There was a sort of crude leather armor that protected his shoulders and upper arms, sort of like what she’d expect gladiators to wear minus the chest plate.
A three-fingered hand grasped a wicked-looking spear by his side, and she noticed that the same pale yellow that colored the protrusions on his temples was also present on his palm.
As her gaze moved downward, she almost fell off the gurney as she reached his legs. That’s when she noticed he was standing on entirely alien feet.
He was barefoot and two-toed. Balancing on the balls of his feet, he looked like he was standing in seven-inch heels, only without the actual heels.
He had hooves—that’s the closest thing she could compare them to.
It was impolite to stare, but as her gaze moved upward once more,
she knew her eyes shone with marvel.
He was…absolutely magnificent.
He stood now, leaning against the wall but unlike the other aliens, who were keeping their distance and trying, she supposed, to appear as non-threatening as possible, this guy didn’t seem to get the memo.
After all, he wasn’t keeping away from her. If she reached out, she could easily touch him.
As her gaze reached his face, the alien’s golden eyes held on to hers.
They were captivating, and it was incredibly difficult to look away.
They were reptilian, yet not. Humanlike, yet not.
As she stared, it took her more than a few moments to realize that he wasn’t looking away.
Why was he looking at her so…so intensely?
Her mouth fell open as she finally pulled her gaze away.
Slipping off the other side of the gurney and away from him, she adjusted her dress and tried not to glance behind her. However, thanks to her peripheral vision, she could see the blurry outline of the alien as he leaned off the wall at her movement.
Maybe he thought she was going to fall again and was just making sure she didn’t introduce her face to the floor.
With a deep breath, she tried to ignore him and moved over to one of the cryogenic pods.
Her hand trembled slightly as she touched the pod’s surface.
“So, this is a cryogenic chamber…” she murmured, more to herself than to anyone else in the room. It felt strange touching the thing.
It felt even stranger that she had been inside one.
The craftsmanship was impeccable, the curves a little too smooth. She didn’t know what it was, but something about the way they made the device caused it to look unearthly. Alien.
A few companies back on Earth were experimenting with such pods, with the first person being put to sleep way back in 1967. There were even people who paid to be frozen and preserved, but as far as she knew, the thawing process was still a work in progress.
This technology, however, was already leagues above Earth’s.
After all, if all this was true and she wasn’t on some prank show, they’d frozen and thawed her with no complications—she hoped!
With another few steps, she reached a large group of the rescued women huddled together on the floor. Athena's voice rang out in the chamber.
“Now, that everyone is settled enough to listen, we’re going to answer your questions. You’ve taken this all pretty well so far and I have to say, I’m surprised. This isn’t easy to digest.” She took a breath. “However, outside, there are many more than, Xul, Yce, Ajos, and V’Alen here.” She jerked her head toward the aliens and the robot.
A bout of murmuring ensued and Kerena looked toward the three aliens who stood together.
Was it just her or did they seem…tense?
Possibly, the humans weren’t the only ones who were under stress.
“The Restitution has instructed that all non-humans clear out this section of the base. However, I’m pretty sure you will see more than a few other beings as we transition from this room and you take your first steps on alien soil,” Athena continued.
“Sounds like a frickin’ vacation ad,” someone murmured and Kerena almost chuckled.
“You mean there are more aliens out there?” A woman with short curly hair spoke up. Her eyes shone as if the prospect excited her, to which some of the females around her looked positively disturbed.
Athena nodded. “Yes…there are several other species of aliens out there.”
Of course, there were. Kerena had expected as much. In this room alone there were three different species of alien, maybe four if she counted the robot guy.
She wasn’t quite sure if he was a robot or a man in a suit.
A string of questions rang out as the women began murmuring and anxiety grew thick in the air.
“How did we get here?”
“And how do we get back home?”
“Are the aliens dangerous?”
The questions kept coming and Athena raised a hand to quiet the group.
“I will try to answer as many of your questions as possible. But for now, I will give you a quick breakdown of what has happened to you…to us.” She motioned to the other three women wearing the same type of clothes as her.
They all stood at the front of the chamber now, close to what looked like a hole in the wall.
Athena continued. “A few months ago, I and four other women woke up on an alien ship.” There was dead silence. The woman suddenly had everyone’s attention. “Five members of the Restitution rescued us. Two members of that team are here today. Xul…” she motioned to the alien with horns, “…and Yce.” She motioned to the alien with long white hair and frickin’ glowing eyes.
“We destroyed the alien ship. We didn’t know there were more of us, but the guys had a hunch. So they went back looking for any signs of a stasis hold in the wreckage, and that’s when they found you.” There were a few gasps and more murmuring. “The stasis hold, this hold,” she motioned around them, “was built to survive such crashes and we knew you were safe. We only had to try to get you out, which we managed to do today without any repercussions.”
The aliens glanced at each other and, once again, Kerena got the feeling that they were tense—or hiding something.
She hoped it wasn’t the latter.
Kerena moved her gaze to the group of women around her.
Most were young or looked of similar age as her. There were only a few women who looked more mature. There was nothing that was distinctly similar between them.
Except…
“Why are there only women?” The question spilled out of Kerena’s mouth almost immediately. When some of the women turned to look her way, she gathered her composure and continued. “Is there a cryogenic hold containing men as well?”
Athena’s gaze darted to the alien with horns that she’d referred to as Xul, and when the woman’s shoulders stiffened a little, Kerena knew she would not like the answer.
“Elelix elix neg ji.” A deep voice spoke from so close to her, she jumped.
She hadn’t realized the minty-teal alien had moved to stand by her or that he’d been so close.
Either she didn’t feel threatened by him or her instincts were dull as hell.
Craning her neck, she looked up at him. At the same time, she could hear the females around her shuffling away.
He looked imposing, so that didn’t surprise her.
“I’m sorry, I can’t understand.” He was speaking a language that sounded like utter gibberish to her. She knew that wasn’t the case, but every word sounded alike to her ears. And it wasn’t because he was speaking something alien either. She’d always been shit at languages. She was barely competent in her mother tongue, English, much less something foreign…er, alien.
“What did he say?” she asked.
“He said,” the robot began, “there were no men on board.”
Whispering ensued, but Kerena didn’t miss a beat.
Her gaze zoomed in on the robot and it felt as if she was looking into the eyes of the most advanced AI in the universe.
“You…you speak English?”
In her peripheral vision, she saw Athena and the other women exchange glances.
The robot’s face showed no emotion. Only a slight nod told her he understood her question. “I do. The human language designated as Een-Glish has been uploaded to the servers. Every being on the base now knows your language.”
That caused a lot of murmuring, and Kerena’s eyebrows shot up a little.
“So, everyone can understand us?” she asked, her gaze moving to the minty-teal alien. “You can understand me?”
“Ix.” He was still looking down at her and, for some reason, his strange golden eyes made her feel…calm.
She guessed that meant “yes.”
She looked back at the robot guy. “I don’t understand. How can you speak English, but he can’t then?”
“I am an artificially enhanced life form,” the robot answered. “I can do many things that others cannot.” He paused. “I was very…excited to meet a new species from a Class Four planet so far away—one that holds such similar biological characteristics to my people.” He paused again and Kerena realized it was so quiet, a pin could drop and the sound would ring in the air. “My name is V’Alen. I am told I must say it is a pleasure meeting you, though I feel no such emotion.”
That made Kerena stiffen a little, but the robot guy, V’Alen, didn’t appear hostile.
“What do you feel then?” It was the curly-haired woman again. Her eyes were wide as she looked at the robot, but it wasn’t fear in her gaze, it was utter admiration.
The robot’s gaze slid to the curly-haired lady.
“Interest,” he said. “I am delighted by the prospect of the data our interactions will bring.”
Kerena’s brows shot up even farther.
Depending on how one looked at what the robot said, he could either be saying he was an ally or he could be their worst enemy.
Most people didn’t trust AI even on Earth. I, Robot kind of made people super nervous about humanoid robots.
But this was amazing.
However, it was clear some of the other women didn’t think so.
Someone started saying prayers, and another woman burst into tears and began talking about the apocalypse.
Despite that, she hadn’t forgotten where the conversation had been going before the robot dropped those bombs.
“Why were there no men on board?” she asked. She watched the women at the front for their reaction, and it seemed that the answer wasn’t one they wanted to say outright.
“Foodo ki Tasqals daji teefa laji gahvu teefoo vu dafoo nee foolala,” the mint-colored alien growled.
The sound was so chilling, Kerena looked up at him immediately.
The alien’s eyes flashed anger as he crossed his arms.
His voice only seemed to make the females huddled on the floor tenser and Kerena had to admit, it was sending a shiver down her spine too—only, she was pretty sure it wasn’t fear that led that feeling.
The more time she spent in his presence, the more interesting the alien became.
Her curiosity pushed the feeling away as her gaze darted to Athena and then to the robot. “What did he say?”