Faith and the Fighter

by Honey Phillips

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One, Alien Conquest

  Faith and the Fighter

  Alien Abduction Book 6

  Honey Phillips

  Copyright © 2019 by Honey Phillips

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author.

  Disclaimer

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design by Melody Simmons (bookcoverscre8tive.com)

  Edited by Nikki Groom @ Indie Hub Editing services (www.indiehub.co.uk)

  Chapter One

  Faith gathered her small bundle of belongings and took a deep breath as she slipped silently out of her cell. With any luck, this would be last time she saw the cold, bare room which had been her prison for the past eight years. Ever since the aliens had taken her from Earth and brought her to their research facility, she had thought about breaking free. She had tried to escape three times the first year. The first time she had hacked into the computer and overridden the locks on her room. She had only made it as far as the end of the corridor before a guard appeared and ordered her to return.

  The second time she disabled the visual surveillance throughout the facility but only reached the gate between the scientists’ quarters and the outer section of the complex before she was caught. That was when she discovered that she had been implanted with a tracking device.

  The third time she had actually made it to the exterior exit, only to find a world of swirling snow and subzero temperatures. There was nothing in sight except rock and ice, and she had neither the skills, nor the equipment, to handle that type of climate. Defeated, she had returned to her room to find Dr. Skevyk, the lead alien scientist, waiting for her. He was an imposing figure, tall and blue-skinned, his bald head covered with elaborate tattoos, but it was the complete absence of emotion in his pale blue eyes that caused her to believe his words.

  “These escape attempts are as futile as they are tiresome. If they continue, I should like to remind you that your brain is of use to us, not your body. You could work just as well if you were say, paralyzed from the waist down.”

  As the years had passed, she had become more and more engrossed in her research. The routine of work and study was so familiar to her that at times it was possible to forget she was a prisoner. About once a year, something—usually an abominable action by Skevyk—would remind her and she would spend a few days checking her options. The lab security was not an issue—she could bypass that easily enough—but the outside conditions were another matter. She couldn’t delude herself into believing that she would be able to survive out there. Supplies were delivered on a regular basis, but they were always heavily guarded. Electronic barriers she could overcome, armed guards she could not.

  Then a few months ago, a stranger had stumbled into the secret facility. A solo trader of apparently limited intelligence, he had nonetheless managed to ingratiate himself with the guards and they had eventually allowed him to leave. A small flyer with only the pilot on board would be much easier to control. It opened up a possible avenue of escape and she began to make plans, even though she knew there was only a limited chance he would return.

  Her renewed interest in escape was driven by another factor. Even though the Elginar scientists overseeing the terraforming project were infuriatingly vague about the parts which didn’t involve her directly, she knew it was very close to completion. Skevyk had made several very broad hints that her future depended on her ability to be “nice” to him. His leer left no doubt about what that niceness would entail. She didn’t actually think he was particularly interested in her sexually. No, what he craved was power—the power to see her on her knees before him. It was never going to happen.

  As she left the inner portion of the facility, she heard the rowdy drunkenness from the guard’s hall getting louder. She checked her tablet and decided she would give them another hour before she put her diversion into effect. Just as she made the decision, a figure slipped out of the guard hall. It was the stranger. She had seen him on the video feed which she’d hacked in to, but seeing an actual four-armed, four-eyed, green-skinned alien in person was a lot more shocking.

  She drew back into the shadows as she watched him walk by with a silent grace that belied the drunken buffoonery he had displayed earlier. Her heart dropped as she realized he was heading for the inner section of the complex. Most of the other scientists were also participating in the rampant drunkenness, although their efforts were a lot more subdued, but the electronic security was still in place. The idiot was going to get himself killed and blow her chances of escape. She looked at her tablet and cursed under breath. It looked like she was going to have to start her diversion early after all.

  Using the small device, she quickly infiltrated the lab’s systems and initiated the sequence. The lights would blink a few times, then shut down. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence when a storm was raging outside the way it was now. When the lab switched to the emergency lights, no one would think much of it. What they hopefully wouldn’t realize was that all of the locks were not running on backup power as well but were completely disabled.

  The question was, should she head for his ship while the trader was distracted or should she follow him and find out what he was doing before he ruined everything. She rubbed her nose, pushed her glasses higher, and went after the green man. He walked lightly, making no sound on the stone floors, while she tripped over an invisible crack and stubbed her toe. She managed to bite her tongue and duck back out of sight before he turned around. When she dared to peek after him, he was already at the door leading to the Elginar quarters. He raised a device to the lock, and she was just about to interrupt when he used one of his other arms to test the door. It opened. Hm, not so dumb after all.

  She hurried after him, catching her thumb in the door as it started to close, and bit back a swear word.

  The Elginar had their own dining room and lounge—heaven forbid they mingle with any of the captured scientists, let alone the guards or other workers—and she could hear signs of revelry from that direction. Apparently, they weren’t too superior to partake in the expensive free liquor the trader had brought. Elginar children must not have any Trojan Horse stories in their mythology.

  The trader was silently opening doors, but all the doors on this corridor led to sleeping quarters. Surely he didn’t plan on robbing them? She doubted that any o
f them had anything which would compare to the value of the liquor he had brought with him.

  The noise level increased as the lounge door opened, and she had just enough time to recognize Zartan, another one of the Elginar scientists, emerging before she flattened herself inside one of the small alcoves that framed each doorway. He vied with Skevyk as the most despicable of the Elginar. Although Skevyk had ordered him to leave her alone so that she could concentrate on her research, she’d still had to fight him off more than once. Fortunately, she was rarely alone. However, he was the reason she had developed a birth control formula as soon as she had access to chemicals, in case he ever succeeded.

  Pulling out her tablet again, she used the video feed to watch him stagger down the corridor. He passed the trader, also hidden in a door alcove, without noticing him. As soon as he walked by, the trader moved, restraining him with two arms, covering his mouth with another, and injecting him with the fourth. Zartan went limp immediately and the trader slung him over his shoulder with no apparent difficulty before heading for the exit.

  As soon as he was through the door, she took a second to alter the video feed and make it look as if Zartan had stumbled out on his own. As she stepped out into the corridor to follow them, something made her turn her head. Detauk, another one of the scientists, was standing by the lounge door. He looked directly at her and she froze in place, her heart pounding so hard she felt sick. They stared at each other, then his eyes… flickered. For a brief second, they were no longer pale Elginar blue, but completely black. Before she could even be sure of what she had seen, they were back to normal, but all he did was turn and enter the lounge.

  Too grateful to ponder his actions right now, she turned and fled, still half-expecting to hear the sound of an alarm. But all remained quiet as she headed for the loading dock and the doors to the landing field. She reached the loading dock just in time to see the trader slip through, still carrying Zartan over his shoulders.

  The locker room next to the external doors was equipped with outdoor gear, and in a stroke of genius, she pulled on Zartan’s equipment. Hopefully, they would just think he’d wandered off into the storm. She even left one of his scarves lying by the door as she stepped out.

  The cold immediately took her breath away as she peered through the blinding snow and prayed that the faint glow of light from the trader’s ship meant that the landing ramp was still down. For a moment, she hesitated, but she had no choice. Her fingers and toes were already numb, even in the boots and gloves she had stolen. She couldn’t survive more than a brief time in the subzero temperatures. If there was no way onto the ship, she wouldn’t last very long unless she returned to the station. With freedom so close, dying seemed liked a better alternative.

  With another quick prayer, she left the minimal shelter provided by the wall of the loading dock. The wind immediately hit her with enough force to blow her back several paces, but she ducked her head and kept moving. She could feel the icy wind penetrating the layers of material wound around her head and face, even as ice began to accumulate on the fabric. She blinked desperately, trying to keep that faint light in view. Her glasses were so cold she was hesitant to touch them, afraid they’d shatter.

  She managed to get close enough to see the trader dragging Zartan through the exterior door at the top of the ramp. She knew she should probably wait, give him time to get through the airlock, but she was too cold and too terrified. She stumbled up the ramp, falling and hitting her knee painfully on the way, and simply smacked the entrance control. The door slid open and she fell forward, noticing gratefully that the airlock was empty. She managed to press the close button, just as the ramp began to rise. She’d made it. All she had to do now was pray that the luck which had never been her friend, held out long enough to make it off this planet.

  Chapter Two

  As Faith laid on the floor of the airlock, still shaking from cold and fear, she felt the vibrations begin. The ship was about to take off. The airlock should be safe, but she’d prefer to be inside the ship. Raising herself painfully to her feet, she peered cautiously through the circular window to the interior. Directly ahead of her was a ladder, no doubt leading up to the bridge. To her right was a large door that she assumed led to the cargo area. To her left was a tiny crew area with two stacked bunks opening on to the corridor. Zartan lay in the bottom one, still unconscious, with his hands and feet tied to the rails. The top bunk still had its screen in place.

  Hoping that she’d been right about the trader being alone, she slipped through the door. It took her two tries to make it onto the top bunk, kicking Zartan in the ribs in the process. Fortunately, he only moaned and didn’t open his eyes. She had just made it onto the bunk and secured the screen again, when the vibrations reached a rumbling crescendo and the ship took off. Gravity pushed her back against the mattress. She was grateful she was there instead of on the floor of the airlock, but it was nothing like what she’d seen in movies, just a slowly increasing pressure which soon leveled off.

  Once the flight smoothed out, she wrestled off the heavy outdoor gear as quietly as possible. Her hands, feet, and face tingled as the warmth of the ship penetrated, but she didn’t think she’d suffered any lasting damage. She relaxed back in the bunk and started considering alternatives. She’d been more focused on escape than future plans, but her brain immediately started turning over the possibilities.

  Not long afterward, she heard feet on the ladder, along with the overpowering smell of alcohol. She froze, afraid to move, but all the trader did was check his prisoner.

  “Still asleep, you bastard? Good. I don’t envy being in your position when Emperor Karthajin gets hold of you.”

  He moved away and she heard the unmistakable sound of a shower in the sanitary facility. Apparently, he wasn’t any more enthusiastic about the smell of alcohol than she was. Since he was still so close, she remained motionless, pondering his words. Why would the emperor want Zartan? The terraforming project was important, but it didn’t seem important enough to interest the ruler of a galactic empire. And if he was interested, why hadn’t he simply sent someone?

  The drying cycle came to an end and she heard footsteps again. They walked past her position, then paused and walked back. She held her breath but to no avail. The screen opened.

  “Well, what do we have here? A stowaway?”

  Up close he looked very, very large and very, very alien. She could see the fine green scales covering his skin as all four of his eyes surveyed her.

  “A pretty little human stowaway at that. Do you know what happens to uninvited guests, little stowaway?”

  He leaned closer, all of his eyes sparkling, and showed a lot of very sharp, white teeth.

  She panicked, punching out at him blindly and somehow managing to connect with his face. He yelled, clapping a hand to his nose, and she tried to slip past him, only to land in an ungainly heap on the floor. Too terrified to try and stand, she started crab walking backwards across the floor. She’d only made it a few feet when two hands grabbed her ankles and pulled her back to where he was still clutching his nose with another hand.

  “What the hell was that for?” he yelled.

  “You scared me!”

  “Me? Babe, I’m a lover, not a fighter.” Even as he spoke, Zartan started to stir. Without taking his eyes off of her, her captor used his fourth arm to deliver a quick blow that knocked the man out again.

  “Oops. Not helping my cause, am I?” he asked, when she took a shocked breath. “If I let go of your feet, will you stay still long enough to talk to me?”

  He grinned, and his teeth were still sharp and pointed, but now she could tell that he wasn’t baring them as an act of aggression. She nodded slowly.

  “Good, good.” He checked Zartan’s bindings, then extended a hand. “Shall we go somewhere more comfortable to discuss this?”

  That sounded entirely too much like a line for her liking, but he really didn’t seem aggressive despite his size and his… nu
dity? She hastily averted her eyes as she realized that he wasn’t wearing any clothes and he had a rather large green penis dangling between his legs.

  “Only if you put some clothes on,” she said quickly, pleased that she didn’t stutter.

  “Clothes? Oh, right. I’m used to having the flyer to myself.” Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as he turned to a locker and pulled out some pants. He turned his head far enough to see her peeking and closed two eyes in an outrageous wink. “Are you sure you want me to get dressed? Lots of ladies appreciate the sight of a naked Studoc.”

  “I’m quite sure,” she said firmly. “Is that your species? Studoc?”

  “No, I’m Rendashian. My name is Studoc. What’s your name, little human?”

  “Faith. My name is Faith.” She suddenly made the connection. “How do you know I’m human? Did you meet another one? A little girl?” Although, she supposed her neighbor’s daughter was no longer a little girl now. Ella had been captured with her, and Faith had never stopped thinking about her or wondering what had happened to her. The red-skinned alien who had taken Ella away had promised she was going to a good home, but she had no reason to believe any promise made by an alien.

  “I met one all right.” Studoc said, fastening his pants. “But Deb sure isn’t a little girl.” With a reminiscent smile, he sketched out curves in the air in an apparently universal gesture, then sobered. “Nice lady, though. She had a really tough time of it after she was kidnapped.”

  “Is this Deb a scientist? Is that why she was taken?”

  “No. Those bastards were interested in her body, not her brain.”

  Faith gulped, sickened by the implications, and wondered yet again what had happened to Ella. She prayed that the alien who had taken Ella hadn’t lied to her.

  “What about you? What’s your story?” Studoc asked.

  “I’m a scientist,” she said,