“I’d rather that than they go off and birth a bunch of half-breeds!” someone else called. The comment was met with a roar of approval.
My heart sank, and I let out a sigh. The men had been right. I wasn’t going to make any difference. These people were blinded by their prejudices. But then I caught the eye of the little girl holding the Aliens Go Home placard. She offered me a hint of a smile and slowly lowered the sign. Her action gave me a tiny inkling of hope. Maybe I wasn’t going to be able to talk sense into the adults, but it seemed some of the younger ears were listening.
I turned back to the guys. “You were right, this isn’t helping. We might as well go back inside.”
Mike gave me a sympathetic smile, and Casey placed his hand on my shoulder to offer me some reassurance. I began to turn away from the crowd of protesters...
A dark shadow suddenly fell over the crowd, slowly slipping across each person, blocking out the harsh desert sun. The angry shouts that had been drowning out my voice only moments earlier fell away one by one. Hushed murmurs and whispers replaced them, carried from one person to the next. A different kind of atmosphere blanketed us, and the hairs on my arms prickled. I felt like we were in the middle of an eclipse, only it wasn’t the moon that was shielding us from the sun’s rays.
I craned my neck, peering up at the sky, and at the thing that had created the shadow. Still high above us—at least several thousand feet—but big enough to be imposing—was a giant spaceship. Unlike the Athion transporter ship on the launch pad at the rear of the Observatory, this one was all flat planes and sharp angles. Numerous different arms projected from the main body of the spacecraft.
The ship hovered above us, remaining in the same position.
“It’s them!” a voice from the crowd shouted. “They’re going to attack!”
Panic rippled around the protesters. People pushed and shoved and jostled, and moving as one, they began to disperse. No one quite seemed to know which direction to head in. Someone cried out, followed by a scream of fear. Even though the ship above hadn’t done anything threatening yet—there had been no explosions or lasers beamed down to Earth—the people around us acted as though they were already under attack instead of this being a warning or a threat.
“We should get back inside,” Mike said, his hand wrapped protectively around my waist, pressing me back toward the Observatory.
I remained in one spot. I was surprisingly calm, considering. “Being inside a building isn’t going to keep us any safer. Besides, we need to figure out what this is all about.”
“It might not be what we think,” Aleandro said with a frown.
We were all still standing, our necks craned to stare up into the underbelly of the ship.
Casey shook his head. “This doesn’t look like an Athion ship to me.”
“Me either,” I agreed, though I didn’t know for sure what each of their ships looked like. I was, however, fairly certain we’d have been notified of any new arrivals, and that hadn’t happened. I turned to Irus. “Does it belong to your people?”
He shook his head, his expression grim. “No, that’s not an Athion ship.”
“So, they’re Trad?”
“Looks that way to me,” he confirmed.
“Fuck.” Aleandro swore. “What do they want?”
I shrugged. “We’ve no way of knowing yet, but my guess would be that they’re hoping to put a stop to Project Exodus.”
We were using Athion technology to protect the Athion transporter ship from the Trads, since the Trads seemed to be able to stop power going from human technology. I was thankful for this. At least it meant the Trads wouldn’t just be able to destroy the ship from above.
Aleandro frowned. “Or maybe they got tired of being subtle during their abductions and just figured they’d invade and attack, and steal the women while everyone is fighting for their lives.”
“What the hell are they doing, just waiting up there?” Mike said. “Are they expecting us to retaliate? Is that what they want?”
I shook my head, musing at their sudden appearance. We’d been trying to locate the Trad ships ever since this had all started, and now they were right above us. It didn’t make sense.
“This has to be because of Project Exodus,” I said. “They’ve been sneaky so far, but this doesn’t appear sneaky at all. This is their way of telling us they won’t let us leave.”
Irus spoke up. “It might not be a threat to humanity.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The threat might be aimed toward Athions. This is their way of telling us they’re not going to put up with us helping you.”
“Jesus. They’re like a bunch of fucking bullies.”
Mike exhaled a long breath through his nose. “Yeah, bullies with space ships and light beams.”
“But at least it doesn’t look like they’re launching any more asteroids at us.” I was stupidly hopeful.
“No,” Casey said. “The asteroids have already played their part. They wrecked our infrastructure and sneaked onto Earth. But now we know about them, and we’re trying to do something to prevent more women being taken, so I guess their days of being subtle are over.”
The sound of feet pounded up from the direction of the Observatory, and I turned to see Sergeant Byrd approaching, together with several of his men, matching expressions of concerns on their faces.
“You all need to get inside,” he shouted at us. “What do you think you’re doing, just standing here?”
“It’s okay,” I told him. “We’re going.”
Irus pressed the chip behind his ear. It had been reinstalled since the power had been taken out when we’d been in the chopper. “We have a situation here at Observatory LV906.” He paused, and I figured he must be listening to his commander, or someone else higher up the Custo chain. “I understand. We’ll await further instruction.”
He fixed me with his amber gaze. “We’re not the only place the ships have appeared. They’re all over.”
Chapter Four
Irus
FOR THE FIRST TIME since the Trad invasion, I regretted our presence on Earth. We were supposed to be here to help, but instead we’d attracted the wrath of the Trad warships.
I switched to military mode and marched toward my fellow Athion and Custo member, Leif. His serious expression matched my own, and I knew without having to even say anything that we were on the same wavelength.
“The Trads aren’t here for the humans,” I said. “They’re here because of us.”
He nodded in agreement and turned to walk at my side, through the Observatory. “I agree. They’ve learned of our involvement, and this is their way of letting us know they’re not happy.”
“The Trads would have remained in stealth mode if it wasn’t for us. Appearing like this is an outright threat, and our presence on Earth is the only reason for their change in modus operandi.”
“How close are our nearest teams?” he asked.
“Not far since we came to the agreement to run the transporter ships to Athion. They’ve been preparing for expansion of the program and anticipating that we’ll need more of our people involved.” I frowned and pressed my lips together. “Maybe the powers that be had already considered that something like this would happen and the Trads wouldn’t be happy about our involvement and retaliate.”
“We should have shared that information with the humans,” Leif said. “They should have been told that our involvement might make things worse instead of better.”
“But then they’d never have agreed to us transporting the human women to Athion.”
A worried expression crossed Leif’s handsome face. He’d become close to Camille’s sister over the past couple of weeks, and I knew he hoped she’d be one of the women allowed to go to Athion. Trouble was that it had been decided that the women would be chosen via a random lottery, so there was no way we could be sure Molly would even be included among their number. Even if she wasn’t one of the lucky ones chosen in t
he first batch, there might be a way of getting her on a later ship. There had been talk of people with much needed skills being given special privileges to travel.
But none of that would happen if the humans decided we were causing them more problems than helping, and that would include Camille never being able to reach Athion—if that was even what she wanted. There would be no second transport ship leaving Earth—there might not even be a first one. The Trads would put an end to our friendship with humanity.
This could put all our plans in jeopardy.
It was already clear not all of humanity agreed with our presence on Earth. They’d made that apparent in the protests that had appeared not only at the Observatory, but in pockets all over the planet. Unlike the Trads, we were unable to easily blend in. Our blue-tinted skin made sure of that. Would humanity ever fully accept us and allow us to walk among them, or would we always be viewed as outsiders? Maybe that thought stung a little more for me than it should have because of my situation with Camille and her men. I was an outsider to them, as well.
“Put a call in to teams Custo eight-six-four-oh, and Custo seven-three-seven-one,” I instructed Leif. “Tell them we have an emergency situation down here and we need urgent reinforcements.”
Leif gave a sharp nod. “On it.”
At least the transporter ship was protected from the Trads. Our Athion technology created a force field around it, and around the smaller fighter rockets that surrounded it, too. I assumed some of that force field had bled over the Observatory since the Trad ship hadn’t taken out the power—something we knew they were capable of doing.
Leif had started to walk away, but then he must have thought of something as he paused and turned back to me. “Do you think the Trads had intel that this was the site of the first transporter?”
“I don’t know. Who would have that information to share with the Trads? Who would want to?”
“There might be a Trad secreted in the organization somewhere.”
I frowned. “From before the original strike?”
“It’s not unthinkable.”
“Laird!” I cursed.
If that was the case, we might be in more trouble than we already thought.
“Then again,” Leif said with a shrug. “The ships have appeared all over, so it might just be coincidence that they’re here, too.”
“Let’s hope so.”
My thoughts went to Camille—but then that was hardly surprising. It seemed she was never far from my mind. The first moment I’d seen her in their president’s office it was as though the universe had changed in some way, altered fundamentally. I know she’d felt it, too—that charge between us, like electricity leaping through the air and joining us together.
She was beautiful, there was no denying that, but it had felt like more. Some unseen chemistry. She’d impressed me with the way she’d conducted herself, confident and sure of herself, and it was no wonder that she already had a team of men who were clearly willing to support her in every way a man could support a woman.
It had surprised me, however. Earth was at the very beginning of its new situation, with men outnumbering women in its infancy. On Athion, we already understood that with the female side of the species being so few, sharing simply made sense. That way, more males didn’t have to live without the comfort of a female’s arms around him, and it meant we were less likely to fight amongst ourselves for a woman’s company. A female got to choose who she wanted to be with, even if it meant she chose three, or four, or even more males. She’d divide her time between her mates equally, and the males would all agree to that. It was far better to have a share of a female than no female at all. But here on Earth, they tended toward monogamy, and I was surprised to see Camille and the men already had this situation set up.
But I quickly discovered it wasn’t exactly the same as we had on Athion. One of the males in particular, Mike, wasn’t happy about the connection I had with Camille. I understood his concern about losing her to Athion, but that should be her choice, not his. The other two men were less of an issue, but they shared Mike’s concerns about Camille choosing Athion over them.
So, I stayed out of things, for the moment, anyway. They’d drawn me into their team, but that was in a professional matter, not an emotional one.
That didn’t stop me worshipping her from afar, however.
Was there any emotion as bittersweet as unrequited love? I didn’t want to come between Camille and her men, but I wanted her, too, and I was sure she felt the same way. Perhaps it was my bond with the other men that I needed to focus on rather than Camille. Two of the males—Aleandro and Casey—already seemed to have the kind of connection I’d witnessed between Athion males in regions where there had been a lack of females for some time, but I could tell Mike wasn’t that way inclined. I needed a different way to make him see me as a part of their group, and not an outsider, but how?
I also wondered what would happen in the future if I did somehow convince the group to accept me? Would I be willing to give up my life as a Custo to join them on Earth for good? Did Camille want to go to Athion? Would the men eventually be happy to go with her, if such a thing could be arranged? One thing we didn’t need on Athion was more males, but if they had special skills that we could utilize, skills we needed, perhaps it was feasible.
I hated how complicated this all was. One person being loved by many shouldn’t be difficult.
Chapter Five
Things had certainly taken an unexpected turn since this morning, but we’d been working for weeks with the danger of Trads around us, and while having them right above us was imposing and a clear threat, we all still had jobs to do.
I hurried back into the building. At least the arrival of the giant Trad ship had been enough to disperse the crowd of protesters. They’d obviously decided it wasn’t worth the risk of protesting when faced with actual dangerous aliens. It was only in the faces of the peaceful Athions that they were willing to shout. I guessed that said more about them than it did the Athions.
People were huddled inside the entrance foyer of the Observatory. From their expressions, I could tell word had gotten around that something bad was happening, but they weren’t quite sure what. I spotted my sister among them. She had Elodie with her, the little girl pressed to the front of her legs, Molly’s hands on Elodie’s shoulders. Elodie bit her lower lip worriedly.
I wanted to get them both away from everyone else before I spoke to them. We were surrounded by people—from those who worked here, to members of the army, to those who’d used the Observatory as a place of sanctuary in the early days. They were all going to be speculating, and I didn’t want to do or say anything that would add fuel to the fire.
Molly’s gaze was filled with questions as I approached. “What’s going on?”
“Not here,” I said, catching her by the elbow and drawing her away. “Come with me.”
She caught hold of Elodie’s hand and pulled her along with her, both of them hurrying after me. I took them down to the lower level, where I knew it would be quieter. Everyone had gathered upstairs, trying to see what was happening now.
“What’s going on, Camille?” Molly asked when we reached a far corner of the canteen.
I jerked my chin to take her farther still into the kitchen area. No one was around right now, but I could see where people had abandoned their jobs, opening cans of produce to heat for lunch. Before the strike, I would have expected there to be knives abandoned beside sliced tomatoes and bell peppers, and onions, but other than some root vegetables, we hadn’t seen any fresh produce for a while now.
“The Trads are back, and I don’t think this is the only place they’ve appeared. There’s a huge ship in the sky above us. It’s clearly some kind of a threat, but we have no idea what they want yet. No one has made contact.”
“Are they going to try to hurt us again?” Elodie asked, looking between us. “Like they did with my mommy?”
“No, I’m sure they won�
��t,” I said, giving Elodie what I hoped would be a reassuring smile. I turned my attention back to Molly. “We don’t know what they want yet, but you guys need to keep your heads down while we’re dealing with this.”
Molly stared at me. “What do you mean by ‘dealing’ with it?”
“We can’t just let them intimidate us, Molly. We already have them walking among us, pretending to be human, and now they’re hovering above us as well, silently threatening us.”
“What are they threatening us about?”
“We believe it’s because of the Athions. They don’t appreciate the involvement of the other race.”
A pained expression crossed her face. I knew what she was thinking, though she didn’t want to say it out loud, considering how close she’d grown to Leif over the last few weeks.
“We won’t allow them to tell us who can and can’t help us, Molly,” I continued. “If we let them do that, we’re completely at their mercy. They’ll just keep picking off women of a fertile age until there’s no one left to repopulate our planet.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“We couldn’t see them before, which is why we were never able to fight back, but they’ve shown themselves now. The arrival of the Athions, with more to come, and us getting ready for launch of the first transporter ship, has forced them out of hiding.”
“You think the time has come to fight back?”
I nodded. “I don’t think we’ve got any other choice.”
She placed her knuckles to her lips. “I’m frightened.”
I reached out and placed my hand on her arm. “You don’t need to fight. Your job is to stay here, hide away, and take care of Elodie.”
Her eyes widened. “But you’re going up there?”
“If that’s required of me, then yes. It’s my job.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “This is going to be so dangerous, Camille.”
“I’m doing it for you, and for Elodie, too,” I said, ruffling the girl’s hair. “You guys need to have a future worth living.”
The Exodus: Planet Athion Series (Darkest Skies Book 4) Page 3
