Rassan

by Elle Harper

  Rassan

  The Izothian Chronicles

  Elle Harper

  Rassan: The Izothian Chronicles

  Copyright © 2019 Elle Harper All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  For permission requests, email the author at info@peithopress.com Published in the United States by Peitho Press

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter One

  Harper woke with a gasp, jumping, half sure she was still out there, floating in the empty blackness of space. It wasn’t until a moment later that she realized she was warm, that she was resting on the most impossibly-soft mattress she’d ever experienced, and that she was surrounded by warm, comforting light.

  “Oh, shit. I’m dead,” she muttered.

  She opened her eyes, looking around. The walls had an almost metallic sheen, and the warm light seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. The bed she was on sat in the middle of the circular room, and a table next to the bed held a clear bottle of some kind of liquid, as well as a plate that had fruit on it. Or, she guessed it was fruit. The shades of pink and sinuous shapes of those purple things weren’t like anything she’d seen before.

  She pushed the silky sheets off of her body, blushing furiously seeing that she was naked beneath the blankets. She felt her heart pounding.

  The aliens.

  Oh, mother of ….shit. They’d captured her.

  They’d brought her to their...ship? Or planet? She touched her body, frowning, feeling her heart pound. She very well remembered feeling her hip and femur crush when their craft had been shot. She’d felt something heavy slam into it, and then the blackness of space. And then nothing.

  She could feel herself start hyperventilating. They’d been in the middle of some kind of space battle. Laser cannons and debris flying everywhere and now she was here—

  At that moment, a previously invisible panel on the wall opposite her bed opened noiselessly. I tiny, definitely unprofessional “yipe” of fear and surprise escaped her as she scrambled off the other side of the bed, clinging to the blankets to cover herself. The being who’d entered the room was female by all appearances, with light blue skin, horns, and a thin, graceful body. Its eyes glowed a soft blue, and it/she held her hands up in a gesture of calm.

  “You’ve nothing to fear, human,” it said, its voice soft and lilting, with a distinct accent, though one she’d never heard before. “You are safe. As are the rest of your comrades. You were the last to recover.”

  Harper took another step back, feeling the tremors run through her body. “How long? How long was I unconscious?”

  The creature… alien… thing, curved its lips in a gentle smile. “Time, I suspect, is a bit different for us. You have been resting here for four sun cycles… days, in your language, I think? Though our days are a bit longer than your Earth ones from what we understand. How are you feeling?”

  Harper stared, her professional brain finally catching up to her first instinct of outright panic. “How are we understanding one another?”

  The alien smiled. “When you were recovering, we injected a tiny transmitter in your ear canal. It is the same one we use… you will be able to understand well over a hundred galactic languages now. That may come in handy in your work, I think.”

  “My work?”

  The alien went to another part of the wall and pressed her palm to it. There was what appeared to be a bathroom, Harper guessed, beyond the panel. Then she went a few feet down and opened another panel, behind which were clothes. “The others in your party have been awake for a few sun cycles already. They have explained what you were doing this far, how it was you were caught in the battle between us and the Sa’tar.”

  The jump. Their reappearance afterward definitely hadn’t been what they were expecting.

  “Are they all right?” She could imagine that Kat and Viv were already driving the aliens nuts with their demands.

  “They are doing very well. They have quarters in this same corridor, though most of them are elsewhere in the facility.”

  “So we’re… what? Prisoners?”

  The alien turned to her with a kind look in its glowing eyes. “You are a complication. We don’t know what to do with you. You are quite safe,” she repeated, holding up her hands to calm any fears. “My people do not kill. We do not harm unless we have to. And you will come to no harm here… you are not exactly a physical threat,” she said with a wry tone to her voice. Harper had to agree there. The female alien stood at about seven feet to Harper’s 5 and a half. The rest of the women on her crew were a bit closer to six feet tall, so maybe they were feeling a little less like Alice in Wonderland than she was. Maybe.

  Harper was silent. “But you can’t let us return home,” she said quietly after a while, filling in the blanks.

  The alien sighed. “We don’t know,” she said. “Again, while your people are no physical or technological threat to us, we also know that should you return with our whereabouts, others will soon follow. Your people, especially your… tribe? The Americans? Are not known for peace. Plunder, yes. But not peace.”

  Harper had to agree there. The last century had been brutal. Earth was a war zone. People who could afford to do so moved to the moon, or Mars, for a bit of peace, but even those had their share of problems. They hadn’t yet come into contact with extraterrestrial life, other than on that one moon of Saturn, and Earth had taken what it could before eradicating the small civilization there.

  She could hardly blame these people. She looked up at the female alien and nodded.

  “I am sorry.”

  “It isn’t your fault. Thank you for saving us… and healing me. Was that you?”

  The female nodded and placed a hand on her chest, seemingly in a gesture of thanks or something. “It was. I am Aavi. I am the chief healer here at the healing center, and—”

  At that moment, an enormous, hulking male strode into the room, barely sparing a golden-glowing glance in Harper’s direction. He wore matte black body armor and carried a helmet in his huge gloved hand. If the female stood at seven feet, he stood at eight, and was twice as broad. Where the female was lithe and graceful, he was clearly built for power.

  “Aavi. We have a few injuries,” he said in a voice like the rumble of thunder, that same accent that flavored the female’s words underlying his own.

  Aavi nodded. “Of course.” She turned back to Harper. “The clothing in there should fit you. We had some made to your measurements. Feel free to freshen up as you like and then take the lift down to level prime. There is an eating area and meeting spaces down there. You are likely to find your comrades in that area.”

  “Thank you Aavi,” Harper said shakily, still shooting glances at the male. He was… something. Pale purple as opposed to Aavi’s light blue flesh. A strong jawline, large horns that jutted from the sides of his head, a prominent, strong forehead, and long black hair swept back in a high tail at the back of his head. His mouth looked hard, almost cruel somehow, compared to Aavi’s peaceful, smiling one. He was clearly impatient, shifting from one enormous booted foot to another, armor-plated tail swishing in what couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than irritat
ion and impatience.

  Harper made herself nod at Aavi in acknowledgement, and when Aavi turned for the door, the male stormed out, Aavi following close behind. When the door panel slid closed behind them, Harper took a moment to look around, making herself be more analytical and less terrified.

  She was an anthropologist, damn it. Or an anthropology student, anyway, she amended. Graduate student. There. She gave herself a nod and walked around the room, lightly putting a hand out and touching the wall. It was smooth beneath her hand, but where she’d expected it to be cold from its metallic look, it was pleasantly warm. The floor beneath her feet was of a similar material, and it was warm on the bottoms of her bare feet as well. Whatever these beings were, they were definitely not unrefined. She looked curiously into the closet. Aavi had been wearing a long, comfortable looking robe, and Harper found a few of those in different shades of soft, feather-light fabric, as well as pants and simple blouses tha definitely looked like they’d fit her. All, of course, minus the tail holes that were present in Aavi’s own robe. She opened a drawer wondering if she’d find under clothes, but all that were there were socks. On a small shelf, there were options for footwear: a sturdy looking pair of boots, and a soft pair of flats in what felt like leather, but very soft. Harper picked those, as well as a moss green robe, and carried them with her into the bathroom after tossing the blanket she’d had wrapped around her back onto the bed.

  It was easy enough to recognize the toilet, sink, and what looked to be a shower stall. All of it had a rounded, almost sensuous look to it. Not nearly as practical as most plumbing fixtures were on Earth or Mars. After a moment of looking for buttons or some type of flushing mechanism, her need for relief forced her to sit and do her business. She did, looking around frantically for something to wipe with, when she felt a few small jets of water spraying her parts clean. This was followed by gentle steam, and then soft, warm air drying her. After a few seconds, she was clean and dry, and when she stood up, the toilet flushed itself.

  The faucet was almost as intuitive, turning on, providing a warm, clean stream of water which she washed her hands with before stepping into the shower stall. Soft jets of warm water sprayed from every direction, and a comforting waterfall-like shower sprayed water down on her. She stood under it a moment, then inspected the metal bottle on the small niche in the shower. She guessed maybe it was an all purpose body and hair wash? She shrugged and opened it, lifting it to her nose and inhaling a heady scent of exotic florals and spices, something a bit warm and comforting underneath it. If she could have hand-picked a scent for herself, this would have been it.

  Sorcery.

  She laughed to herself as she used a sponge from the niche to lather up her body. She knew better. This was technology, not magic, but damn if it didn’t feel like magic.

  And she needed a little magic in her life right now.

  They’d all talked it over. They’d known, setting out on Kat’s adventure, that they probably were signing their own death certificates. The likelihood of surviving the jump, which had only been an experimental idea at best, was almost nothing. Getting back to Earth, just as unlikely. But they’d had their reasons, each of them. For Kat, her wanderlust and her ability to fund it had been the driving force. For the rest of them, it had been all about a thirst for knowledge, a desire to do what should have been impossible.

  A desire to be anywhere but on Earth. So much loss, both widespread and individual, for each of them. The idea of seeing true beauty in the universe had been like wishing for a fairy tale, but she’d hoped anyway.

  She finished washing her body and moved to her hair, rinsing and stepping out of the shower. The second she was out, the water turned off, and blowers around her turned on, drying her hair and body. She found a brush on a nearby shelf and ran it through her hair, trying to tame it as the blowers did their work. Within minutes, her body and hair were fully dry and her hair was softer than she’d ever imagined it could be.

  As she dressed, her mind wandered. With her luck, this would be like some kind of Hansel and Gretel bullshit. The aliens were pampering them, making them soft and relaxed and pliant, only to eat them later.

  She snorted and shook her head. Really, as far as her life was concerned, that would be par for the course.

  She slipped into the flats, which felt like walking on a cloud, and headed for the door, stepping out into the corridor and almost running face-first into something enormous. She jumped back and looked up, the glowering face of the enormous alien from earlier scowling down at her.

  “S-sorry,” she murmured. “Um. The lift is which way?”

  “Follow me,” he grunted, striding down the corridor. She quickly walked after him, looking around her. Door after door flanked the corridor, and she wondered if they were all rooms like hers.

  “This place seems big.”

  He answered with another grunt and she kept following him, the corridor curving. At the end of it, she could see a pair of metal doors.

  “Do you live here?” she asked him, his silence and… well.. Everything about her situation making her nervous.

  “Upon occasion,” he answered.

  “How many floors up are we?”

  She watched his shoulders as he seemed to heave a sigh. “Twelve.”

  “And level prime is the first floor?”

  “Obviously.”

  She frowned at his back, trying to remind herself that this was a totally different culture. Maybe the males here weren’t used to talking to women. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to speak with him.

  Or maybe he was unhappy to have humans… aliens, to them… among his people. She can only imagine how her own planet would respond to one of his people suddenly showing up out of nowhere.

  She decided to keep quiet, focusing her attention on studying her surroundings. Definitely NOT studying the broad muscled back and powerful legs of the male in front of her. Or his tail, which tapered from thick to slightly thinner at the end, hanging almost to his knees. His was mostly still, while she’d noticed that Aavi’s seemed to sway and move with her.

  Maybe it was part of each of their personalities, how their tails responded?

  She had so many questions but she felt like the male alien… person… thing leading her wasn’t really the one to ask.

  He reached the doors and pressed a button. She followed his movements so she’d be able to do it by herself next time.

  The doors opened and he stepped into the lift. She joined him, looking around trying not to notice how close the lift felt with his enormous body filling it. She tore her eyes away from him and gawked. The rest of the elevator was clear, letting her see the world outside of the compound.

  “Holy shit,” she breathed. She caught a glimpse of him looking at her in confusion, but she couldn’t pay much attention to it since she was busy staring at the environment outside.

  Two enormous silvery moons hung in the deep purple sky, wisps of lighter purple clouds passing over them. The landscape was unlike anything she’d seen before. They seemed to be in a small town or village or settlement, with several buildings smaller than the one they were in. She could see a forest beyond the edge of the buildings, and, past that, large, rolling hills.

  “What is this place called?” she asked softly, wonder in her voice, impossible to miss even through the translator chip. Rassan looked out over the landscape, a mix of protectiveness and weariness washing over him as it did whenever he thought of his homeworld. Beautiful yet brutal, civilized and artistic and advanced, yet everything they had came at a price. One he paid every day. One day, he would pay the ultimate price for all of it, and join the ranks of the Revered who dwelled as one with the universe. It had been a long time… over three centuries in his world’s time of fighting to protect what they had.

  “This is Izoth,” he said, irritably answering the female’s question in spite of himself.

  “Are there many villages like this?” she asked.

  “There are many vi
llages, but not like this. This is a military encampment.”

  She looked up at him, raising her eyes, which were a bizarre shade of yellowish green that one sees sometimes on diseased plants. “So you’re a soldier, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Were you fighting in that battle we ended up in the middle of?” she asked. Her voice was as strange as her eyes. Soft but with an almost hoarse undertone, as if she’d just been shouting and was on the verge of losing her voice.

  “Yes. My crew was responsible for collecting you and your comrades and bringing you here.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “Oh. Well thank you then.”

  He grunted, almost sighing in relief when the doors opened. He told himself it was because she was unpleasant, bothersome, and irritating to look at.

  She asked too many questions and she smelled.

  Unfortunately, she seemed to be his problem, for the moment, anyway.

  “If you want to eat, the eating hall is at the end of the corridor that way,” he told the delicate Earthen as she looked up at him, then followed his gesture. “If you want to go outdoors, there is a door at the end of this hallway, to your left.”

  “We’re allowed to go outside?” she asked, widening her eyes alarmingly at him.

  Was she going to hurt herself doing that?

  “Yes… did Aavi not explain that you aren’t prisoners here? We don’t know where to put you long-term, but we’re hardly tossing you in the brig, are we?” he asked, hearing the irritation in his own voice.

  “So I can just go wherever I want?” she pressed, and he sighed.

  “There is a large force shield around this base. It keeps our people safe from harm. You won’t be able to go beyond that, but neither can most of those who live here. Have I answered enough of your questions?”

  “Yes. I’ll ask someone else whatever else I need to know,” she said in a prim little voice, walking away, not toward the eating hall, but toward the outside. He watched her in irritation. Whether he was irritated with her or himself, he couldn’t tell.