by Sam Crescent
“You’re with child.”
Ella gasped, instinctually wrapping her arms around her stomach. “Who said that?”
A soft light flicked on. She looked around and realized she was in some type of infirmary. The woman speaking to her had a large scar on her cheek.
“Your child is the key to our fertility crisis.”
“So everyone keeps telling me,” Ella said. “Where’s Dhiro? Where’s my mate?”
“He’s not of our concern. Only you are.”
She was scared to ask more questions but had to know. “Did you kill him?”
“He will not likely survive, but we did not kill him. He’s still aboard the failing ship.”
Ella wasn’t sure if she should be happy or sad. He was alive, but for how long?
“What are you going to do with me?”
The woman didn’t answer.
“What are you going to do with me?” she repeated, more frantically.
Darkness once again returned, and she heard a door click shut. Ella began to cry. She cried—ugly, hard, and loud—and she didn’t give a shit. How had this happened? Everything was perfect and now completely falling apart around her.
She worried about Dhiro and was terrified of being alone without him.
The door opened unceremoniously soon after, the harsh overhead lighting coming on at the same time. She sheltered her eyes until they adjusted.
“You shouldn’t have used the tranquilizers on her. You could have harmed the child!” A man rushed into the room, a team of a few others following behind him. She truly felt like an alien science experiment right now.
The Scyathra were almost the same physically as the Trenuians, large builds and similar features. In fact, they were hard to tell apart at all. Only where Dhiro’s people were reserved and modest in behavior, these people were rough and brutish. They reminded her of criminal organizations on Earth.
She kept silent.
“Does she need to eat?”
Ella frowned. “I can understand English.”
They all looked at each other, appearing surprised. She felt like she was in an episode of Planet of the Apes.
“Are you harmed?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know what you gave me. Why am I here? What are you going to do to me?”
Her fears had settled slightly as the leader truly sounded concerned with her safety. Or that of her baby, anyway.
“Our people have been infertile for decades. Your child can change all that before it’s too late.”
“I know all about that,” she said. “The Trenuians plan to create a cure to help everyone.”
He laughed. “No, they would save themselves. They’d be more than happy for us to go extinct.”
“Why?”
“You don’t know anything about our history. Not the truth, anyway. The male you’re with helps ensure we are kept on the fringe of society. They won’t be happy until every last one of us is gone.”
“I don’t understand.”
He used his hands in animation as he spoke, much more human-like than Dhiro and the others on his planet she’d met. “A long time ago, there was a civil war of sorts. One group wanted progress, the other wanted the status quo. Politics, as you’d call it. We were labeled dangerous for being too curious, too inquisitive. The government cast us out, called us criminals, animals, and future generations believed it. That was nearly a century ago.”
“Dhiro’s not a bad man. I’m sure there was a misunderstanding.”
He pounded a fist on the metal table of instruments, sending them scattering to the ground with a clatter. She cringed, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut.
“You’ll send her into premature labor. The child needs to be born healthy for any of this to work,” said the woman from earlier.
Her words appeared to calm him somewhat.
“What will you do to me? My baby?”
He approached her, leaning over so they were almost face to face. She held her breath.
“We’re not animals, little human. Unlike what you may have heard about us, we have no plans on murdering your child … or even you.”
“What about the cure?”
He stood back up straight and shrugged nonchalantly. “They wanted us wiped out, so why should we care about them? The cure will be ours alone.”
“But there are millions of Trenuians that will go extinct without it.”
“Feed her and keep her locked up.”
He left the room with his team. She was their lab rat. And she felt lonelier than ever.
Once everyone was gone, the woman came and sat in the chair near her. She was beautiful in her own way. “My name is Khirana.”
“Will they let me go?”
“No, they need what you have,” she said.
“And after?”
“I will try my best to advocate for you. There is no reason to harm you or the child once we get the umbilical sample.”
“So all your people are infertile?”
“Yes, all. Our scientists, in all their wisdom, created a plague to fight this ongoing war between our people. In their haste, they didn’t realize they’d also render their own people infertile. Fools,” she muttered.
“Your people caused the infertility?”
She shrugged. “I don’t even think they know why they’re fighting each other anymore. The original feuds were with men long since passed on. The plague went too far, and it cost us everything.” Khirana touched her own stomach, her expression solemn.
“The Trenuians don’t even know. They’ve been trying to find a cure for decades.”
“They know. They were the ones to try first but failed. Scientist pitted against scientist. It’s an old battle that needs to end for the sake of all Trenu Zel.”
One of the men from earlier stepped back into the room. “Don’t talk to her,” he said. “We need you in engineering.”
Once she was alone again, her thoughts went wild. She’d been studying the infertility issue for months when she was back on Dhiro’s planet. It didn’t make sense. There were no natural indicators. Now she had answers. Some anyway.
For days, she was kept in the infirmary. She was fed and given all her essentials, but nothing more. Khirana didn’t visit her again, and Ella hoped she wasn’t in trouble for saying too much. She knew the ship was landing when all the crew were on high alert, rushing back and forth outside her door. A low siren sounded, and an emergency light flicked on inside her room when the main power went out. After a hollow boom sounded around her, she knew they’d landed. She prayed Dhiro was also able to land safely. Over the past couple of days, he was all she could think about, to the point she made herself sick with worry. She hated not knowing what the future held for them.
Ella listened near the door.
“It’s the taskforce,” one of them shouted.
“Get to the weaponry.”
“Don’t open the hatch!”
“Protect the human.”
When she heard footsteps right outside, she rushed back to the center of the room. The leader from a couple of days ago rushed in and put a collar around her neck. He tugged her along like a dog on a leash. She held the thick leather with both hands, trying not to stumble. All around them was chaos. And fear.
He passed her off to another man. “Take her to the escape hatch under the ship. She must not be taken.”
Back on Earth, she couldn’t even get a grant for her research, now entire civilizations were fighting over her. This was too much.
Crawling down through the dark lower emergency stairwells was unnerving, especially when her captor was impatient with her. As soon as he cracked the hatch at the bottom of the ship, fresh air and natural light flooding in the tight compartment. And she heard the voice on the loudspeakers.
“Release the human or face the consequences.”
It was Dhiro.
Chapter Twelve
A miracle and a curse all at the same time.
&nb
sp; Dhiro stared at the ship. He had to admit to himself, he was impressed. If the Scyathra had hoped to get rid of him, they’d made a huge mistake. Taking Ella had guaranteed his survival. The oxygen had been just enough to get him to Trenu Zel, and with protecting his mate on his mind, he’d taken a great many risks.
The ship his brothers had helped to craft and repair was nothing more than a jumbled mess of parts and bits. There was no way it would ever return to Earth, let alone go for the odd trip in the Trenu Zel sky.
His commander put a hand on his shoulder. “Our scanners show the human female is there. We will find her.”
Dhiro had enough communication power to alert his people to what had happened. It was how they were able to get to the Scyathra location. They’d been waiting for them.
He held the weapon in his hand, normally designed for two soldiers, but he only needed himself to master it. Staring at the ship, he was more than happy to take each Scyathra out, one by one. His mate needed him. They had attacked his ship, taken his mate, and now they would pay the price for what they did.
He wanted to fire straight away, but to do so risked his mate.
Ella.
He needed her.
They were back on his planet, and he still didn’t have her in his arms. Anger rushed through him, threatening to make him act rashly. His time on Earth hadn’t done well for his patience.
The main hatch opened up, and a woman he didn’t recognize appeared.
She held her hands up. “Do not shoot.”
“Give me my woman, and I won’t have to. You will be able to walk away freely.”
“My name is Khirana. Ella has told me to talk to the Trenuian who calls himself Dhiro.” Her voice was loud, clear.
Dhiro frowned.
Considering they were meant to be primitive beings, he was surprised her speech was firm but refined. He had been raised to believe the Scyathra were nothing more than savage animals.
“Dhiro?” his commander asked.
“I have to do what it takes to take care of my mate. She needs me now more than ever.” He held his weapon tightly and took a step toward the ship.
“Put your weapon down,” Khirana said.
“How do I know you won’t kill me?” he asked.
“We all want the same outcome.”
“I highly doubt that,” he said.
“I’m not surprised. You are all suspicious of change. You’re willing to risk life and limb to save yourselves without asking for help from us. We have created a system that helps to complete all repairs within a ship on voyages. It is inexpensive and has multiple compounds found on our own planet.”
Dhiro was skeptical. “How do you know this?”
“We’ve had time to do our research. We’re not old. We want to move forward. You are responsible for our infertility crisis. We’re the ones, as usual, trying to solve it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I’m not surprised. You’re a Trenu Zel male. Your entire race is rough, set on a path of power and destruction. You are not to be trusted.”
“Then why are you talking with me?”
“Ella. She told me you don’t know the truth. You don’t know how your people poisoned all of us, trying to wipe the Scyathra from existence, but in doing so, made us all infertile. We were all punished for your stupidity.”
Dhiro couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You’re wrong.”
“No, we’re very right about this. We know why we were outcasts. Now drop the weapon or we take Ella away forever.”
He put the weapon down on the ground without a single hesitation. Behind him, he heard his commander, his men. They were not happy with him giving up so easily. They didn’t understand. His mate was in danger. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to protect her, even if that meant putting himself in harm’s way. He’d been willing to kill himself to grant Ella more oxygen, so going toward the Scyathra ship without a weapon was a piece of cake. A little expression he’d learned from Earth.
Humans were such weird beings. He was never going to understand them completely.
“Interesting. Your mate does not lie to get you on board our ship.”
“Ella is a good person. She only wants to help.”
Khirana stared at him, assessing.
He was aware of the men and women at her back. They all had weapons. They could kill him the moment he entered the ship, but he had faith in his woman. If she spoke about him, she had good reason.
Khirana stepped back to give him space to enter the ship. “We’re going to scan you to make sure you are healthy and that you are not hiding another weapon.”
“I am not hiding anything.”
“Put your hands on your head.”
“I am not a criminal. You are.”
She snorted. “Oh, please, the only criminal right now is you. How could you think to put our entire hope for survival on a ship without enough oxygen, no weaponry, and no way to repair it? We had been following you for days, watching your ship gradually fall apart.”
“You were following me?”
“We had no choice. When we heard word of the human female being returned to Earth, we thought it was lies. All factors pointed to the humans being our link to survival, and you took her away. We were going to intercept, but you crash-landed on Earth before we caught up with you.”
“You didn’t risk going to Earth?” he asked.
“We’re an advanced race. There was no way we were going to run the risk of getting lost or becoming a science experiment. We have more class than that.”
“Clearly.”
Men ran scanners over his body. There were a couple of times it bleeped, shining a red light in his general direction.
“He is clean. A couple of cuts and bruises, but he will live,” the soldier nearest him said.
“What are those?”
“They medi kits. They’re designed to scan our bodies, to detect illness and areas that will cause us problems.”
Dhiro couldn’t believe they had such things. Although Trenuians were technologically lightyears ahead of humans, this was advanced even for them. “Impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible if you are determined to see your vision through, which is exactly what we did. The Scyathra believe in development, the future, a better life for all. You and your people have a backward belief, seeing greed, pain, and death as your future.”
“What you say is … outrageous.”
“Really. You need to study up on your facts before you even begin to accuse us of anything.” Khirana handed him a small compact computer. It was so small, but he saw the news articles as they showed in graphic detail what actually happened. The plague wasn’t the cause of their infertility. They did this to themselves. His people were first to unleash a biological chemical that eventually rendered them all infertile.
He flicked through each article, shocked as he checked the dates. Their people had purposefully hidden this information so no one would know the truth.
“Everything is a lie?” Dhiro asked.
“Not everything. Your people do not have the proper tools to see our races succeed. I want the opportunity to be a mother. We are not here to wipe you off the face of the planet, Dhiro. We do not seek vengeance for being outcast.”
“What do you want?”
“The chance to bring about peace. Now is not a time to be fighting against each other. Now is the time to come together. To unify, no matter the cost.”
“What do you expect me to do about it?” Dhiro asked.
“You hold the key,” Ella said.
He spun around and saw Ella in the doorway. She wore Scyathra clothing. She held up a hand and waved at him, presenting him with a smile.
Dhiro went to her, wanting her in his arms, but the soldiers stood in front of her, stopping him.
“Let him,” Khirana said. “After all, she is his mate. We are not animals. We all know how important it is for us to be close to our people.
”
He had to have Ella in his arms.
The soldiers stepped aside, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close. “Are you okay? Were you hurt?”
“I’m fine. They took care of me. I was so scared. I thought you were dead.”
“Nothing would keep me from you.”
“Just like a Trenuian. Thinking you’re indestructible,” Khirana said.
He glanced behind him at the woman. All his life, he’d hated the Scyathra. The truth she had just unveiled was … sickening, but the time for war was gone. There was no way any of them would prosper from fighting each other. His people were not bad. They were living off the tail-end of their old lies.
“What do you propose we do?” he asked. “I cannot make guarantees that whatever you ask for can work.”
“We can,” Ella said. “Your people are desperate.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” Dhiro asked the woman.
“We currently have one of our craft just outside of Earth.” Khirana pressed a few buttons of the device he’d given her back, and she held it toward him. “We are making sure your brothers are safe. They do not wish to be taken back home just yet. A communication was intercepted, and we offered them a place on our ship.”
“Bronn and Kaleen would never trust you.”
“That is where you’re wrong. Your brothers know the truth. I have had many conversations with your brothers. They are aware of our plight and understand the truth. We are all fighting for our survival. This could be the start of a new day for all of us.”
He couldn’t believe it. His brothers hadn’t told him, not that he’d talked to them since leaving Earth.
“Please say we can help them?” Ella asked. “They have a right to save their people, just like you.”
He kissed the top of Ella’s head as he thought about what he could do.
The Scyathra were feared. But everything he had seen and witnessed showed them to be people to trust, not to fear. Their advancements far exceeded their own.