Alien Bond

by Tracy Lauren

  “Do you plan to announce it every time?” he asks.

  “She did the same with me!” Gile tells him, also amused. I can’t help but blush.

  “I don’t know that there’s going to be a next time,” I point out.

  Mire winces and casts a teasing glance over to Gile. “Was he that bad?” he asks.

  “What? No!” My blush deepens. “It’s just that once we get back to the village there’s more to take into consideration.”

  Mire smooths my hair with his large and heavy hand. “We will discuss this later. For now we must focus on bringing Reagan home.”

  “Yeah. Of course, you’re right. I just felt like I had to tell you.”

  “You are loyal and fair, Mel. Wonderful qualities to have in a ma—”

  “Don’t say mate!”

  Mire chuckles. “As you wish.”

  He makes his way to a seat and in those few short paces, he’s all business once more. The large Sovolian gazes out the view screen while wearing a troubled expression.

  “Engaging warp,” Gile announces, and I feel that sinking feeling inside of me once again. The stars slide seamlessly by and my trepidation grows.

  “What do you know about this station?” I ask the guys.

  “It’s called Revax,” Mire tells me. “It’s a small pirate station on the edges of the United Planets’ territory, hidden amongst dead moons.”

  “Is it dangerous?”

  Mire and Gile share an unhappy look. “Okay, so I’m guessing yes. It’s super dangerous.”

  “On stations like Revax people are loyal only to credits.”

  “Would they harm Reagan?”

  “She will certainly be a prize worth fighting over,” Mire admits unhappily. I don’t think that’s a good sign.

  “Can we hail ahead to Kellan?”

  Mire frowns as he types something into a keypad. “We are moving past the effects of the scrambler, but I don’t think it is a good idea. There is always a possibility of transmissions being intercepted, and we may need the element of surprise in case Kellan didn’t…” Mire doesn’t finish his sentence. But it doesn’t matter. I know how it ends.

  Kellan likely went in guns blazing. What we need is stealth. “We need a plan.”

  Mire spins his seat to face me, and I see Gile looking at me expectantly as well.

  “Why are you guys looking at me?” I ask, my eyes wide. Surely they don’t expect me to orchestrate a rescue from a freaking pirate space station! That is definitely not my niche.

  Gile laughs and rubs his neck. “Sorry, old habit. Gorrard used to sit in the captain’s seat…and now with you there…”

  I look to Mire; his expression is tense but thoughtful. They know how to do this stuff, but they’re used to relying on a leader. I take a deep breath. Okay, I can’t orchestrate a rescue, but I can help them talk through a plan. “My first thought is navigating the station once we’re there. You guys know this place better than me. Am I going to be in danger, are there going to be pirates trying to poach me like they did with Reagan?”

  “Not while you are with us, but if you were alone there would be a danger,” Mire explains.

  “I have an idea,” Gile says with a sly smile. “We play the slaves—bodyguards to Mel,” he says, nodding toward me. “We will be less conspicuous that way. Maybe we can even find some clothes onboard to make her look less appealing, more like a captain.” I scoff, but he isn’t wrong. I don’t want to wear anything that could be construed as enticing on a space station filled with pirates. I hope there’s a nice thick parka somewhere aboard.

  “Okay, but will I have to do anything captain-y? I’m worried someone’s going to ask me a question I won’t know how to answer,” I probe.

  Mire shakes his head. “If you stand between us and give off an air of authority people will not question a thing. As your guards, Gile and I can take care of all else.”

  I feel better now that we have these little details worked out, but still, it isn’t a plan to rescue Reagan. “Then what? We still haven’t solved the problem of finding our people.”

  “I could try to rig a scan targeting human bio-reads,” Mire offers, rubbing his jaw. “We would need to be on the station for it to be effective however.”

  “Good. And then what about Kellan?”

  Gile gives me a wry smile. “If Kellan is on Revax, he will be easy to find.”

  “Gile is right. If Kellan is there he has not gone undetected. I imagine there will be a trail of bodies leading us right to him.” It’s hard for me to think of the quiet and mild-mannered Kellan on such a bloody warpath.

  The computer beeps and Gile does something that slows warp. “The station is coming in to view,” he tells us. Our eyes shoot to the screen.

  Before us is a large metal mass. I expected something out of a science fiction film—glittering metal and sleek curved lines. Instead it looks like a blob of garbage floating through space—nothing more than random pieces of trash heaped together by gravity rather than bolts. Still, I see small ships pulling into a docking station and lights shining within.

  “Holy shit! We’re going there? Are we sure it isn’t going to fall apart?”

  Mire snorts and Gile lets out a boisterous laugh as he heads over to a hidden panel on the wall. He pops it open and riffles through the contents before tossing me some kind of coat. “This is how pirates live,” he tells me. “Off of junk and salvaged scraps.”

  “Well if anyone asks, a pirate life isn’t for me.”

  “It is today, Captain,” he teases, giving me some foreign salute as I shrug on the coat. It’s overly large and made of a thick material. Mire comes over to me and tucks the air mask into a pocket hidden in the lining, then straps a holster around my hips, chargers on each side.

  “We’re docking,” Gile tells us.

  I take a deep breath and tie my hair back into a ponytail with a thin elastic band. The ship shakes as we attach to the dock and Mire’s strong hands steady me. “Are you ready?” he asks.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Chapter 28

  Mel

  The hatch hisses as it opens and Mire and Gile flank me as we ready ourselves to walk down the ramp.

  “Fake it til you make it, fake it til you make it,” I whisper to myself under my breath. Still, even when the hatch is fully open, I hesitate. And it isn’t until Gile delivers a firm but playful slap to my ass that I venture downward. I channel my inner badass and walk like I mean it.

  I’m Angelina Jolie. I’m Charlize Theron. I’m the freaking Khaleesi. I hype myself up, watching our surroundings with a discerning eye and searching for any signs of trouble. But this place…it actually looks more like Earth than Elysia does. As far as the people go anyhow. Sure, they’re all sorts of varieties of aliens, but it kind of reminds me of being in L.A. or San Francisco. It’s like a melting pot. Elysia, on the other hand, is like a tropical destination calendar had a baby with a sexy firemen calendar—it’s practically unreal. This place though, it’s gritty enough to be familiar to me and it makes me think I can do this.

  But as we approach the dock manager I pick up on this strange sense of urgency going on around us. Even the alien scanning people in is only listening with half an ear when Mire hands over some type of ID chip. Instead, the guy has got his eyes locked on his personal comm.

  A loud clatter rings through the dock and I spin to see where it’s coming from. It’s a group of pirates who break into a run, heading down one of the main corridors. I shoot Gile a questioning glance. Is this normal? It seems like a memo got sent out and we’re the only ones who didn’t get it.

  “We are looking for a male who came in here a few hours ago. He’s part Nev, got tall horns. Have you seen anyone like that?” Gile asks the guy. But he’s ignoring us, his eyes are locked onto his personal comm.

  “Ayo,” Mire tells him authoritatively, slamming his hand down on the small desk. The alien skitters, his fat jowls shaking, and finally he looks up at us.<
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  “Effa, you surprised me. What do you want?” he demands, scowling.

  “We’re looking for a male that came in a few hours ago, he’s a big guy. Part Nev, only with horns. That’s his ship, right over there,” I say, pointing to the ship I recognize from our airfield back home. “Have you seen him?” I ask, hoping I might garner more of the alien’s attention than my Sovolian companions have been able to.

  A slow smile breaks across the alien’s wide face and though he has no brows, his little black eyes go wide. Then he starts laughing. “This is a joke?” he asks.

  Mire growls and I see Gile’s hand go to the weapon on his hip.

  “No,” I hurry to say. “No joke. Can you help us or not?”

  “That ship belongs to The Beast,” he tells us. “A surprise fight’s just been announced down in the pit. They’re releasing the information now. Sync your comms if you wish for more details. But you better hurry if you hope to place your bets.”

  The roar of engines drowns out any hope for conversation as a dozen or more ships pull into the docks. Gile nudges me and we move ahead, filing in with the others hurrying to make their way towards this “pit.”

  “The Beast?” I whisper to the guys as we squeeze closely together.

  “Kellan used to be a fighter,” Gile tells me.

  “Really?” I’m shocked. As big as the guy is, I still can’t picture him fighting gladiator style in a ring.

  “He has all the markers, certain tattoos only another slave would notice. But it is shameful among the Nev and throughout much of the United Planets. It is not something people speak of,” Mire adds.

  “Okay, so he’s a fighter and he’s down in the ring now.” I still don’t understand why the dock manager referred to him as “The Beast,” but whatever. The point is, we’re headed in the right direction.

  “And we know where Reagan is,” Gile adds.

  “Wait, did I miss something? I don’t know where Reagan is,” I tell him and he gives me a sly grin.

  “She will be wherever Kellan is of course.”

  The crowd becomes denser and Mire puts his hand on my shoulder as we push through the throngs of aliens. It doesn’t take long before we find our way to this “pit.” All we have to do is follow everyone else. The gateway to this level of the station is bordered by kiosks where people are placing their bets. Everyone’s pushing and shoving and I see more than one fight break out in the chaos. And then I see a flash of golden skin.

  Gile and Mire see it too and they nod to a trio of Sovolians near the gates. The sight of them gives me a sense of relief. I don’t know these men, but if they’re anything like Gile and Mire I know we have suddenly gained three friends—and damn if we don’t need them right now.

  Casually, we go to them, joining them against the gates. Silently, the men watch the crowd together. My attention though…it keeps shooting to these new Sovolians. It’s so strange to see more of Gile and Mire’s people. And the fact that these men are slaves doesn’t escape me. I wonder where their master is…and if we can steal them. But Gile and Mire remind me why we’re here.

  “We’re looking for a human, like this one,” Mire says, motioning toward me. “She was stolen from her ship and we seek to recover her.”

  “Taking her back to her master?” the big one asks. His eyes are darker than Mire’s; they look like embers and coal.

  “No masters. She is our sister,” he says pointedly.

  The big one nods. “Is this your master then?” He motions toward me, his gaze thoughtful and appraising.

  “No, this one is our mate,” Gile chimes in enthusiastically. I slap my forehead as Mire throws his hands up in the air in frustration.

  “Shit, Gile. Not the right time,” I complain, but all the men relax after that, as if they are no longer trying to gauge one another.

  “Come, we have a safe place where we can talk,” the others tell us.

  We follow them toward the pit and down a long set of stairs where gamblers push their way to their seats. There’s some type of security guard at the bottom. He seems to know these new Sovolians and he lets us through a gate. I wonder if I should feel nervous, but Gile and Mire seem to be at ease, so I follow their lead. Sovolians are about honor and brotherhood. We should be safe.

  Beyond the guard’s gate there are a few sets of private viewing boxes, like sky boxes in stadiums back on Earth—only these are right up against the fenced-in fighting pit. They lead us into one. It’s nothing more than three walls and an open front facing the pit. Directly across from us is a stage. There are banners flying and a few important-looking people standing ready to address the crowd. But then my gaze focuses on a pillar that’s center stage—and the woman who’s chained to it.

  I suck in a gasp and clutch at Mire’s arm to keep myself upright. “Reagan!”

  My friend’s wrists are bound over her head and she struggles against her chains. Someone’s dressed her in a long and flowing gown and her hair has been done too, twisted up in a beautiful and intricate style cascading to one side, leaving her neck exposed.

  “What the fuck? What are they going to do to her up there?”

  My immediate fear is that she’s about to be some kind of human sacrifice, all for the benefit of the crowd.

  “We’ve got to help her!” I plead.

  “What do you know of this?” Mire asks the others. But they shake their heads, having no information to offer on the bound woman on the stage.

  “All we heard is that The Beast is back and he wishes to fight.”

  “The Beast?” I echo. “Why is everyone calling him that?”

  The big Sovolian answers. “Have you never seen him fight? He’s a beast in the pit, unbeatable. We were eager to see what they’d pit him against. Especially because it has been so long since his last battle.”

  “He came here to rescue her,” I point up at the stage. “We’ve got to get them out of here. Ideas, guys, I need them now!”

  Just then a loudspeaker blares. I fear we’re out of time.

  “WHO IS READY FOR CARNAGE!” the announcer bellows. The crowd erupts in cheers that quickly morph into a chant.

  Beast, Beast, Beast.

  “Revax would like to welcome a special guest back into our pits… Don’t tell me you have already heard who is here!” the alien MC teases and the crowd goes wild once more. “It seems someone has spoiled my surprise. Ah…but do you know who our Beast will be fighting?” The crowd falls quiet, save for a few of the rowdier folks who shout out their guesses.

  “Get those last bets in soon, for The Beast himself will be going up against—” The MC takes a long pause for the sake of pageantry and the crowd becomes eerily silent—even the rowdier ones listen with bated breath. “THE MONSTERS OF ZANPUR!”

  The entire space station seems to shake with the response from the crowd. If I thought they were loud before I was sadly mistaken. The walls vibrate with the power of their ravenous cheers and I look at the wary expressions of all the Sovolians. Whatever the Monsters of Zanpur are, they can’t be good.

  “And even more special, still, is tonight’s prize.”

  On the stage I can see the alien with the microphone circling Reagan predatorily. He draws uncomfortably close to her. I can’t tell what he’s doing…smelling her maybe. I clench my teeth in anger and hear a sob come through on the mic.

  “Nothing less than a goddess… Now,” the MC says, turning back to the crowd, “I can easily imagine what The Beast will do with her, but should the Monsters win…?” He trails off, laughing. “Well then you all get an extra-special treat tonight. You get to watch the monsters feed.”

  Without warning, the pillar Reagan is bound to sweeps through the air, connected to some type of crane-like arm. Slowly, she gets lowered into the center of the fight pit. Though I can see that she’s screaming I can’t hear her over the crowd.

  The bloodthirsty mob loses their shit once more. I turn back to the guys, my heart pounding. “Ideas.”

 
“I know a male who works in the gladiator stalls. If you need to get to The Beast I can get you there,” one of the new Sovolians says. I haven’t learned their names yet, but by the looks on their faces they’re treating this situation as if they have as much skin in the game as we do.

  “Okay, that’s a start. How long do we have until the fight starts?” I ask.

  Someone checks their personal comm. “About 20 minutes.” I clench my fists to keep them from trembling.

  “What do we know about these monsters Kellan’s about to go up against?”

  “They are true abominations, a total of five of them, each a threat in its own right. Even as the fight goes on the girl must be watched. They will try to eat her before it is through,” someone tells us.

  “So Kellan’s about to go up against five monsters, by himself, while trying to keep Reagan from being eaten alive?” I reality of the situation is staggering. Undefeated or not, Kellan can’t win against odds like that.

  I look to Gile and Mire, fear and desperation overwhelming me, and I notice the veins on Mire’s arms seem to blaze and swell, the bronze color on his flesh becoming more prominent. “We cannot let him go in there alone,” he says. The man’s voice is like gravel and I think of his brother Ash, dying alone in the ring.

  “We can’t,” I agree. I turn to the guy who said he had a way into the gladiator stalls. “We’ve got to speak to Kellan—er, The Beast. Maybe there’s still time to change the lineup.”

  “Follow me, brothers, I will take you to speak with him,” he offers, nodding to Gile and Mire.

  “Wait! I’m going too!” I protest.

  “No.” Mire turns to me, gripping onto my shoulders. I feel frantic, like an avalanche is coming down the mountain and we need to be the ones to stop it. But they’re not going to let me help. And I get it, what do I have to offer right now? I don’t have a TASE like V, I’m not trained like Allison. This ball falls in the Sovolians’ court. I just didn’t think it’d be so hard to let them go. My gaze shoots back and forth between Gile and Mire and a heavy sob rocks my body.