Ajos: The Restitution - A Sci-fi Alien Romance, Book 1

by A. G. Wilde

Her skin was pale; his was rich in color.

  His body was strong and hard. Hers, in comparison, was weak and soft.

  They were opposites.

  Yet, the way he looked at her…

  “Here we go,” V’Alen said, cutting through her thoughts.

  The shuttle lifted off the ground and shot into the air so fast, she hardly had time to register what was happening.

  It didn’t feel as if they were going fast, but based on the blur that was the outside, she could tell they were going much faster than any craft she’d ever been in before, even faster than the transport up to the sky tower.

  It didn’t take long before they were in space again above the planet, and V’Alen spoke once more.

  “Get ready for the jump.”

  She knew he was saying it for her benefit, since both he and Ajos knew exactly what they were doing and what to expect from the journey.

  But jump?

  “We have to jump?”

  “Choria G622 would take three day and night cycles to get to if we use this shuttle. It is easier if we jump,” Ajos answered.

  “Okay.” Kerena nodded.

  “Engaging hyperdrive…” V’Alen murmured.

  Nothing happened for a split second and then, the ship shot forward and they were there.

  Hyperspace was strange.

  It felt as if they’d brought the shuttle into a strange other dimension full of colorful, parallel lines.

  It was like having a weird dream where she was in a car that was going so fast, she couldn’t see anything outside.

  Just as she thought that, the ship began shaking.

  “The signal Iceon mentioned,” V’Alen said. “It’s interfering with our instruments.”

  “Qef,” Ajos uttered. “Take us out before we get lost and end up somewhere we don’t want to be.”

  “Noted.”

  It lasted for what could only be a few more seconds before the lines suddenly disappeared and a huge sea of asteroids appeared in front of them.

  The change was so sudden, her sharp intake of air into her lungs was audible.

  Actually, the asteroids were all around them.

  They were in the middle of an asteroid belt.

  “Engaging autopilot,” V’Alen said.

  The thrusters fired up, and the ship began weaving around the asteroids.

  It was so quiet out there, and inside the ship too, and Kerena couldn’t help but wonder if both Ajos and V’Alen were as awed as she was by the magnificence before them.

  Huge asteroids moved as if floating on an invisible ocean. There was a gentle sway to the rocks, as if they were all moving in harmony and Kerena could only stare in wonder.

  Their ship came close to many of the giant masses of stone—close enough for her to see the details on some of them.

  They looked like giant, jagged brown boulders floating.

  “We’re almost out of it,” Ajos murmured, glancing her way, and she knew he spoke for her benefit.

  She gave him a small smile and was looking out the large transparent shield at the front of the shuttle when her heart suddenly stopped.

  It came out of nowhere.

  A dark ship. One so dark it seemed as if it sucked in and destroyed the light of the star within itself.

  The ship just appeared and then, boom, it was gone, colliding with an asteroid and erupting into a giant fireball.

  It all happened so quickly, she didn’t have time to process it before another dark ship appeared.

  This one wasn’t as unlucky as the first.

  One of its wings skirted an asteroid as if whoever was controlling the vessel had lost control, but they managed to not suffer the same demise as their companions.

  There was something ominous about the second ship, just as the first, for as soon as she saw it, there was a deep dread within her.

  Evil emanated through the strange ship’s metallic hull.

  “Hedgeruds!” That was all she heard Ajos shout before their shuttle was hit.

  The vessel shook and Kerena bit back a scream as she held on to V’Alen’s seat in front.

  It was an enemy ship, and they were firing at them even as their own ship spun out of control.

  “Disengaging autopilot,” V’Alen spoke as he took hold of the controls.

  Kerena watched in horror as the enemy seemed to regain control of their ship and shot towards them, firing what looked like green laser beams.

  Their shuttle banked hard to the right, barely missing an asteroid. It shuddered and Kerena knew they were hit.

  “We’ve taken damage!”

  “Employing evasive maneuvers.”

  The ship sped up but the enemy ship swerved and, for a moment, she didn’t see it.

  Tension rose.

  “They are heading to Choria G622,” Ajos said.

  “Yes, and that signal that’s coming from the planet interrupted their navigation. It pulled them from hyperspace like it almost did us.”

  Kerena’s eyes widened.

  The first ship had crashed within a second of exiting hyperspace.

  That could have been them too.

  Between the many asteroids and the speed at which they were going, her heart lodged in her throat every time they had a near miss.

  God knew, she didn’t want to become mere splatter against one of the same rocks that she’d been admiring earlier.

  But the asteroid belt was thinning out. She could see ahead, and she breathed a breath of relief while still holding on to her seat.

  Kerena bit her lip, feeling helpless in the situation.

  But she had to trust that Ajos and V’Alen could get them to safety. She had no other choice.

  Both males both were pressing buttons like crazy and the ship shook once more.

  They were hit again.

  “Shields at fifty percent.”

  “Qef,” Ajos cursed.

  V’Alen looked at his friend. “We have two options, Commander. Divert all power to the beam array and hit them with all we’ve got or divert all power to the thrusters and shoot ourselves toward the surface of Choria G622.”

  “Chances of survival if we hit them with the beam array?”

  V’Alen blinked, but his answer came one second later. “Chances of survival are at fifty percent.”

  Ajos glanced back at her, and their eyes held.

  What she saw there was fear.

  Regret and fear.

  At first, she thought he was reconsidering coming on this journey as he saw his life flashing before his eyes, but something in his gaze told her differently.

  He wasn’t scared for himself.

  He was scared…for her.

  “If we divert the power, we’ll be left open. Not even the shields will work anymore.” Ajos delivered the news as he held her gaze and she respected the fact that he was telling her this even though he didn’t have to.

  “Do it,” she said as she caught sight of the enemy ship once more. “Hit them with all you’ve got. If we run for it, they might follow us to the surface. Don’t worry about me.”

  Ajos blinked and paused, his hesitation clear.

  “Do it!” Her voice surprised her.

  She sounded a helluva lot stronger and composed than she felt inside.

  Inside, she was a withering fool who might piss herself.

  Their ship shook again.

  “Shields at ten percent,” V’Alen announced.

  “You put your life in my hands once again,” Ajos said with a note of something she could not read, too busy freaking out about the fact that THEY WERE BEING BOMBED BY AN ENEMY SHIP while in an asteroid field and she didn’t want to die in space!

  “Because I trust you.” Now it was her words that surprised her.

  She was sure color drained from his face a little before he jerked his head and turned back around.

  “Get ready to divert all power to the beam array,” he said.

  V’Alen punched some buttons. “Ready, Commander.” There w
as no fear in the robot man’s voice and she didn’t know if that was because he didn’t feel any emotions or because he was so used to this shit, he wasn’t fazed.

  The enemy ship swooped again.

  This time, it was coming at them from the front, guns blasting.

  She couldn’t see who was piloting the ship, it was just all black, and she was happy about that.

  She didn’t need to see who it was to know that it was the same beings that had taken her from Earth—the same beings who’d bombed the base and killed so many innocents—the same beings that the Restitution was fighting to bring to justice.

  Ajos gripped the controls, his face grim as he stared ahead.

  Nothing seemed to shake him, not even as the enemy ship came closer.

  Their ship shuddered with each hit it sustained and an alarm began blaring, but Ajos held fast.

  The black ship was coming straight at them, obviously sure that this last pass was going to take them out—and she hoped they weren’t right.

  “Shields at one percent.”

  “Now!” Ajos shouted, and V’Alen engaged something.

  She literally heard the power go down; it sounded like a battery draining. The ship sounded like it died, and they were suddenly enveloped in darkness.

  Only dim light strips that ran along the floor lit up the interior along with the buttons on the control panel.

  There was a rumble that turned into a growl as Ajos began snarling, his gaze focused on the approaching enemy ship. And as his growl turned into a roar, he pulled back on his controls.

  Then, it happened.

  A bright light erupted in front of them, so bright she was momentarily shaken, not realizing what it was.

  It took her a second to register that the light was coming from their ship.

  The light shot forward and the other ship couldn’t have seen it coming until it was too late. The enemy ship couldn’t change course, and Ajos’ plan became clear.

  He’d waited till the last moment to fire just so he wouldn’t miss and boy oh boy did his shot hit its mark.

  The ship in front of them fractured and split right through the middle, breaking apart.

  Ajos roared, the deafening sound echoing through the shuttle as the enemy ship disintegrated in front of their eyes.

  Nothing could have survived that. Nothing.

  V’Alen hit something to shut the weapon off, and what was left of the power returned to the ship.

  Kerena breathed, her chest heaving, anxiety still flooding through her veins.

  All she could do was stare at the wreckage.

  There was hardly any space debris.

  The enemy ship had blown apart in less than a second.

  There was silence now, and she realized it was because the roar was no more. Ajos was silent, his face hard.

  “Nice work, Commander,” V’Alen said, as their ship turned and began moving through what was left of the asteroid belt. “Diverting the remaining power to the thrusters.”

  “Can we make it?” she asked.

  “It will be a rough landing, but nothing I can’t handle,” V’Alen answered. “I will have to land by sight. That signal grows stronger the closer we get. No doubt the Hedgeruds were heading to retrieve whatever device is causing it when they came upon us.”

  Kerena finally found her voice. “Hedgeruds? I thought you said the enemies were the Tasqals.”

  “They are. The Hedgeruds are the mercenaries they use as muscle,” V’Alen answered. “Soldiers.”

  Kerena let that settle in her mind as her gaze flicked back to Ajos.

  He still had not said a word and he still wore that hard mask over his face as he stared ahead.

  This was serious business. Not that she’d thought the opposite.

  This was what these rebels did every day. This was their life.

  And now it was hers.

  Looking out the screen in front of them, to the fast-approaching planet, Kerena felt a change within her.

  This was no longer only their fight—it was no longer their war.

  It was her fight now too.

  Her war.

  She’d never met her enemy face to face, but she already knew they were scum.

  Scum should be eradicated, and she was going to do everything she could to contribute to making that happen—not only for herself but for all those people left on Earth…Cindy Clawford…her parents…her coworkers…her friends and for every single being whose lives had been made into a nightmare because of the terror known as the Tasqals.

  Her face hardened too as she looked ahead.

  This was now her oath.

  13

  A huge dark-green planet with massive oceans appeared in front of them.

  Kerena’s mouth opened, her eyes widening as she looked at the planet they were approaching.

  It reminded her of Earth.

  “This looks like my planet,” she whispered, her eyes traveling over the surface of the strange world. “What are the people that live there like?”

  “The planet is uninhabited,” Ajos answered. “Engaging thrusters. We will navigate the rest of the way by sight.”

  Kerena frowned.

  A planet with so much vegetation that was uninhabited?

  Even in some of the harshest places on Earth, life managed to thrive. She found it hard to believe the planet only had plant life.

  “You’re telling me that this huge planet only has…plants?”

  “Affirmative,” V’Alen said. “It is mostly untouched.” An untouched planet with some of the rarest plants she would ever see in her life. This was like every botanist’s dream. A feeling settled through her—one of mild trepidation mixed with excitement for the unknown. It couldn’t be a coincidence. There must be a reason she was sent to this exact spot at this exact moment.

  She was sure of it.

  This was probably going to be the most important trip she’d ever taken in her life.

  It made her lean forward in her seat, her gaze locked on the dark-green sphere they went towards.

  The closer they went, the more Choria G622 seemed like Earth.

  The water was blue…the trees were green…

  It looked all so familiar, yet not at the same time.

  “I cannot determine the exact location of the signal,” V’Alen spoke. “It is scrambling my instruments.”

  He turned his head and stared out the screen to the surface below. “I will try to land as close to where I think it is as possible.”

  They were close enough now that she could see more definition of the surface, and it looked like a dense jungle.

  It seemed illogical that nothing lived there. How?

  “We will have to find the source of the signal on foot,” V’Alen said.

  In silence, the ship swerved as he took them closer.

  “Going in,” he said. It felt like the engines suddenly shut off and their ship was falling through the planet’s atmosphere without their control, but when the trajectory changed from vertical to horizontal, she knew V’Alen still had full control of the vessel.

  Choria G622 looked like Earth from above, but as soon as they landed, the difference in the plant life was evident.

  The tree trunks looked a little too thick, the leaves a little too big.

  As soon as the ship settled and the engine powered off, her seating restraints released, and curiosity pulled her to the front of the shuttle to stare out of the huge screen.

  Despite the larger size, the density of the plant life was rich, and nothing looked overly alien, but Kerena knew that was simply outward appearances.

  If she could get some samples into a lab to investigate, she was sure the differences would jump out at her immediately.

  It had been some time since she’d done any field work, having spent most of the last few years in different labs she’d worked for, and just looking outside now caused a thrilling feeling she’d long forgotten.

  She’d always been more interested in the
medicinal and chemical properties of plants more than anything, and what she was looking at now looked like a botanist’s gold mine to her.

  “The ship has been compromised.” V’Alen suddenly broke the silence. “They damaged the mechanism that engages the hyperdrive. I will have to stay back to repair it.”

  “Keh-reh-nah can stay with you, if she prefers,” Ajos said, drawing her attention to him for the first time in a while. “I do not wish to put her into more danger.”

  He removed something from his pocket, a vial of ice-blue fluid, and without warning, he jammed it into his leg like one would do with an EpiPen.

  Kerena grimaced but, alas, he didn’t appear to mind the attack he’d inflicted on himself.

  As the blue fluid left the vial and disappeared into his body, Ajos’ eyes closed for a few moments and his jaw clenched.

  Medicine.

  That must be medicine.

  “Keh-reh-nah, you stay here. It will be safer for you if you do,” he spoke through gritted teeth.

  “And miss going out there? No, thank you,” she answered, studying him as she did.

  When he finally opened his eyes, he didn’t seem in pain so much anymore, and he finally pulled the hood from over his head.

  Stretching his arms, he pulled the entire garment off, leaving his undershirt behind, and Kerena was treated to a view of thick, muscly arms.

  He seemed happy to be without it now, and when he turned and found her looking at him, she was sure she saw him smile a little.

  “If you’re going,” V’Alen interrupted, “you need this communicator.”

  He slipped the communication device that looked like a large watch over her wrist.

  “Navigation may not work,” he said, before glancing at Ajos. “You will have to do things the old way, brother. Use markers to mark your path. The signal,” he glanced toward the screen, “it’s interfering with our instruments too much. I do not wish for you to lose your way.”

  Ajos stood as the ship's door swung open. “Keep watch, brother.”

  Hopping out, he turned his head to the skies. “They will send more fighters once they realize they’ve lost contact with their comrades. I am sure of it.”

  “Noted,” V’Alen said, rising as well.

  Ajos glanced up at her, his eyes finding her effortlessly in the ship.

  In one of his hands was that wicked spear of his, and the other was outstretched for her to take it.