Alien Romance: Stranded With The Alien Assassin: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Romance, Alien Invasion Romance, BBW) (Celestial Mates Book 3)

by Therron, Marla

  Compared to such fashion forward surroundings, Erena was fairly certain no one but Paolo could manage to look anything but pale and drab. It had been very important to the directors of this mission that they glamorize space travel enough to attract more people, and thus more money, to it.

  For that reason, one of the biggest costs of the project had been consulting fees for famous architects and stylists and expert advertisers to contribute designs for everything from the ship itself, to the suits they were wearing, to even the choice of team members.

  "You're looking as cheesy as ever, Paolo," Erena replied, teasing, "Are you planning to try out for a soap opera after the mission?"

  Paolo stumbled back, clutching his chest.

  "My love!" he gasped, "You wound me!"

  Erena laughed, and Paolo nearly tripped over Sergei, who was shifting past him to get changed. Sergei scowled at them both, his dark eyes withering.

  "Stop fooling around," he scolded, "We have work to do."

  "Ah, my brooding hero," Paolo instantly turned his playful flirtations on the Russian, "Could it be you're jealous of my attentions to the fair Erena? Could it be you've decided to return my affections at last?"

  He clasped Sergei's hands, and the other man blushed, sputtering in flustered incoherency.

  "You know," Paolo teased, leaning closer, "You are the only member of the team I have not yet had the pleasure of getting to know... intimately."

  "It's true," Finn chipped in from across the room, his accent lyrical.

  "Really Finn?" Erena laughed, "Even you?"

  "He's a very handsome man," Finn shrugged, "And I have a weakness for people who can out drink me."

  Sergei shouted something presumably very crude in Russian and hurried away, the other three laughing at his scramble to escape.

  "I will woo him one of these days," Paolo vowed, beginning to strip out of his jumpsuit.

  "Forget it Paolo," Erena advised him as she did the same on the other side of the room, "Some people just can't be wooed."

  They changed into more comfortable clothing now that the tight flight suits were no longer necessary. They'd entered what Finn called the 'road trip' portion of their flight. They were well outside Earth's solar system now, and were approaching the first of the planets they would be examining.

  Dressed in a simple white t-shirt and shorts, Erena drifted into the cabin where Captain Harper, the first to wake, was already at the console checking on their status.

  "Is that it?" she asked, her hands in her hair as she tied it back, "It doesn't look like much."

  Outside the front view screen a blue gray planet was turning, looking cold and uninviting.

  "Yeah, it looks like your predictions about it were right on the money," Alice agreed, "Cold and barren."

  "The gas super giant in this system causes too much interference with its orbit," Erena explained, looking down at the start chart displayed on Harper's console, "It's just too cold to be worth setting down on. Not when we only have enough fuel to do that a handful of times."

  "Maybe five, if we stretch it," Alice's tone was thoughtful as she looked out at the ice planet, "Is it worth sending out a probe at least?"

  "Definitely," Erena smiled enthusiastically, "I'm pretty sure this planet has liquid water whenever that gas giant isn't cutting it off from the sun. It could have microbial life."

  "Well then, I guess we'll be hanging out here for a few hours till the probe gets back," Alice punched in directives for the probe and sent it out. They both watched as the tiny silver craft dropped out from under them and fell towards the planet like a shooting star.

  "Tell Finn to break out the playing cards," Alice ordered, "And don't let him deny it. I know he has them."

  A few hours later the probe returned and they were all busy for a time analyzing the data quickly to make sure there wasn't anything more interesting about the planet that they'd missed. When they'd confirmed that it was just the ball of ice Erena had thought it would be, they moved on.

  "Now comes the real road trip," Finn commented, drawing a card from the deck, "Damn, another two."

  "Are we up to near light speed already?" Erena asked, taking her own turn to draw and laying down a pair.

  "As close as we can handle without cryo sleep," Captain Harper confirmed, rolling an e-cig to the corner of her mouth, "Got any sevens?"

  Sergei reluctantly handed over a card.

  "Did I read the plans right when I saw the interval between two of our stops is going to more than a month?" Paolo asked, laying down several matches.

  "Yes, but that's the longest one," Erena confirmed, "I tried to plot a course with as short a distance between stops as I could. Using gravity to our advantage is what's making this possible. That month long wait would have been centuries if we weren't using my plan."

  "Still, we will have to think of something to pass the time," Paolo waggled his eyebrows at Erena, "All those weeks in the lonely void of space with only each other for company..."

  "Don't worry, Paolo," Alice replied dryly, "I'll keep you busy."

  The others laughed but Paolo looked worried. His fling with Alice had ended quite quickly. Apparently she was a little more than even he could handle.

  The trip proceeded almost uneventfully. Two months and several planets later, it was beginning to wear on even Erena.

  She sat back from her microscope with a tired sigh, rubbing her temples.

  "Is that the data from the last planet?" Sergei asked, leaning against the console where she sat and offering her one of the two cups of coffee he held, "You're still going through it?"

  "Yeah," Erena pushed her hair back from her face and accepted the coffee, draining half of it, "It feels like I've been staring at it for a week."

  "I take it you're not dwelling on it because it is fascinating?" Sergei sipped his own coffee, his dark eyes understanding.

  "No, it's just tedious," Erena replied, "It's so similar to the other samples we've picked up that I keep feeling like I must have made a mistake and grabbed the wrong slide."

  She looked out at one of the portholes, through which only empty space, shimmering with stars, was visible.

  "We're so far from earth," she mused, "Farther than anyone else has ever been. But we haven't even located a planet worth setting down on yet. I guess I just assumed we'd have found something exciting by now."

  Hardly had she spoken those words than ship suddenly shook hard, nearly knocking Erena from her seat, spilling her coffee.

  "What the hell was that?" Sergei asked, clinging to the console for support.

  "It felt like an impact," Erena scrambled to her feet, hurrying for the cabin with Sergei in pursuit, "Meteorite?"

  "Bigger," Captain Harper answered as Erena entered the room, "It came out of nowhere. It wasn't even on our screens until it hit us."

  Finn was standing next to Alice, staring at the screen in grim worry.

  "It put a dent in us," Paolo dropped in from the engineering section, "But it didn't break the hull. But that's not why we should be concerned."

  "What should we be concerned about then," Finn asked sarcastically, "If not the huge thing that just rammed us out of nowhere?"

  "The fact that it has grabbed us, right over the airlock, and appears to be dragging us off course."

  "Holy shit," Finn replied articulately.

  "Holy shit is right," Alice's face was pale but her gaze was steady, watching the console, "I can expend some fuel and try to pull away from whatever it is, but we don't have much room for unscheduled maneuvers like that in our flight plan. We might have to cut the last few planets off our trip."

  "Assuming that shakes it off at all," Paolo pressed his lips together tightly in worry, "The way it is holding on to us, it's not like any meteor I've ever seen, or anything else."

  Alice fixed him with a cold, serious stare, echoed in the solemn, anxious expressions of everyone else.

  "What exactly are you suggesting?" she asked.

&n
bsp; "It feels foolish to say extra-terrestrial when we left everything terrestrial behind light years ago," Paolo said, taking a deep breath, "But this feels like technology."

  "Like a tractor beam?"

  "More like a grappling hook."

  Erena swallowed a lump in her throat, sudden fear fluttering in her stomach.

  "Should we burn the fuel?" she asked, "Try to outrun it?"

  "Whoa, we don't have any proof that's even what it is yet," Finn argued, "We shouldn't make any rash decisions."

  "And if it is alien," Paolo's bronze skin had a sheen of nervous sweat, his hand gripping his shirt, "We have a responsibility to make First Contact."

  "It's not alien," Finn insisted, "We're getting carried away."

  "Well, the facts we have are this," Captain Harper cut through the anxiety with a clear, decisive voice, "Something is attached to us, and it is pulling us off course. The longer we wait the more fuel we lose trying to get back into our flight lane. We have to make a choice quickly. Sergei, as our security officer, I need your input before I make a decision."

  Sergei had been quiet, Erena assumed because he knew this was coming. He took a deep breath.

  "Burn the fuel," he said, "We work with what we know, and that is we have to get back on course."

  "Agreed," Harper nodded firmly, "Everyone strap in. And I'd suggest helmets. Just in case."

  The crew scrambled for their suits, well-practiced at getting into them in under a minute. They headed for their seats in the cabin, strapping in, helmets on their laps.

  "Alright everyone," Harper called, "Hold on tight, we're-"

  She cut herself off suddenly, and drew back from the panel like it had shocked her.

  "What is it?" Erena asked, feeling cold and shaky in her suit and trying to maintain the calm that had been trained into her.

  "We may need to reevaluate," Harper turned the screen to show them what was outside the nose of the ship, "A craft has just appeared in front of us."

  The alien ship was huge. The Spirit of Exploration was maybe a tenth of its size. The vast craft was shaped like an anvil, black and green, dark and terrible and outlined starkly by the light of a blue star behind it.

  "That evidence enough for you, Finn?" Paolo asked, his voice dry with fear.

  "Holy shit..." Finn repeated, pale as milk.

  "No more cursing," Alice said sharply, turning to a view screen on her console, "I'm recording. This is the crew of the Spirit of Adventure, two months into our voyage, hoping this message reaches earth. We appear to be on the verge of making First Contact."

  "We could still run?" Erena offered with a nervous laugh.

  "If those are engines like I think they are," Paolo gestured to the wide vent like cavities on the back end of the ship, "We will not outrun it."

  "Get your diplomacy faces on everyone," Alice said firmly, "Prepare to represent the best of the human race."

  "Do me a favor," Finn wheezed, "Tell them urinating on yourself is normal for humans?"

  "Hold it together Finn," Sergei reached over to squeeze the medical officer's arm, "We will be fine. We were prepared for this. If they are intelligent enough to build a ship like that, they are intelligent enough to communicate and reason with. I doubt they would have any reason to harm us."

  "From my experience," Finn swallowed hard, shaking in his seat, "Humans have never needed much of a reason to harm each other."

  The grappling hook dragged the Spirit of Adventure into the gaping maw of a bay on the side of the vast alien ship. Erena's heart was hammering so fast she could hardly breathe.

  She was fighting not to start hyperventilating. She'd been trained to deal with stress and stressful situations for this mission, but an encounter with an alien ship was an entirely different caliber of stress. She gripped the arms of her seat tightly as their ship came to a shuddering stop inside the bay.

  A few minutes of silence ticked past.

  "Maybe," Erena spoke slowly, unsure, "They're waiting for us to come out?"

  The team glanced at each other nervously, and then slowly unbuckled themselves and stood, moving slowly toward the door, everyone hesitating to take the lead until Alice pushed her way to the front, her jaw set in determination.

  "Remember we're still recording," she said as she put her hand on the hatch, "So try to be on your best-"

  She didn't have a chance to finish that statement, as the hatch door suddenly exploded open, the decompression throwing them all backwards. Erena crashed into one of the chairs, the impact dizzying her but not knocking her unconscious.

  She struggled to sit up as three figures moved into the ship through the ragged hole where the door had been. All three appeared to be of different species by Erena's guess, though they had enough extra limbs and sensory organs between for twice as many humans.

  Only one of them was even a bipedal humanoid, with a long, tapering neck and a triangular head. One of the much less humanoid aliens skittered towards her on its too many limbs and grabbed her by the face. Too dazed to defend herself, she could only stare back as it looked her over, realizing the other two were examining her teammates.

  "Excuse me," Alice spoke sharply and Erena looked over to see one of the bigger, more brutish looking aliens pulling at the captain's clothing, "I don't know if you can understand me but that is not polite. I do not want you to do that. We are explorers representing the human race. If you would allow us, we would like to-"

  She was cut off once again as the large alien, with a grunt of annoyance, punched her in the face, knocking her out. The rest of the team exploded into shouts of anger.

  Sergei tackled the alien nearest him and Paolo and Finn rushed to help him. Erena was still trying to get her bearings back from hitting her head on the seat, but she snapped into focus as she saw the thinner alien trying to drag Alice away.

  "Hey!" she shouted, running at the creature, "Let her go!"

  A whip like tail appeared behind the alien seemingly out of nowhere and struck Erena in the neck before she was even within arm’s reach of the creature. At once she staggered, a weird heat blossoming from where she'd been punctured, which slowed her down and made her stumble, falling to her knees, and then to the ground completely, unable to move her body.

  The last thing she saw as the creature dragged her and Alice away was the brutish alien pulling some kind of weapon on the other three members of her team. There was a flash of light, and then darkness swallowed Erena entirely.

  Chapter Two

  She woke in a cage to the sound of strange drums. A whip cracked in the distance, making her jump, and outside the cage swarms of beings too strange to identify bustled and shouted.

  She was naked, and her skin felt raw as though she'd been washed, scrubbed down. She burned with humiliation, but she didn't have the strength to move or even cry out. She'd been drugged, or maybe it was still the poison from the alien's stinger.

  The drumming, driving music pounded like her heart beat, panicking. Where was her team? What was happening to her? Sergei and Finn and Paolo. She'd seen the alien fire that weapon at them. Were they dead? And where was Alice? She knew she and Captain Harper had been taken together, so where...?

  She could only move her head a fraction, the drug making her limbs too heavy to shift, but on either side of her there were only more cages, none of them containing humans.

  They held other aliens, looking as naked and drugged as she was, their hands and feet shackled with pretty silver chains, collars around their throats. Blinking down at herself, Erena realized she was wearing the same kind of chains. What was this place?

  She felt tears stinging her eyes as she realized the rest of her team was probably dead. She'd been kidnapped by aliens and they'd murdered her team. She didn't want to think about what it meant that only the female team members had been taken alive.

  She was millions of light years from home, the only one of her species in this solar system probably. She was almost certainly never going to see another
human face again. She would have sobbed if she'd had the strength. As it was, she couldn't even resist as someone reached into her cage and dragged her out.

  She knelt on the stage, too drugged and frightened to disobey, as the auctioneer praised her long hair and pale skin, using a few of its extra limbs to grab her wrists, spreading her out and putting her on display for the buyers.

  She blushed with humiliation, but there wasn't much else she could do with barely the strength to hold herself up. Tears ran down her cheeks as she stared out into the audience, seeking out those piercing eyes again. Even if they couldn't save her, they were something to focus on besides the helpless shame and despair she was experiencing.

  Her price climbed higher as she searched for those eyes. But when she found them again, the man suddenly turned away. Her heart broke at this final abandonment.

  Whatever nightmare was waiting for her would probably make this place seem like a dream, and yet Erena couldn't help praying for this to be over. She just wanted to be off the stage and out of sight of all these eyes.

  "One hundred million!" someone shouted, a much higher price than she'd heard so far.

  Erena looked up in confusion, searching for the bidder, but she was too dazed to see anything. The darkness was closing in on her again as the auctioneer cried.

  "Sold!"

  She woke lying on something soft, a blanket around her shoulders.

  “I can’t believe you actually bought that thing,” someone was laughing, “I’ve never seen you buy anything from the auctions.”

  “It was an impulse buy.”

  “A hundred million credit impulse buy?”

  “I can be very impulsive.”

  “You know Rokir isn’t going to let you bring it on the ship. Ugly bug makes me miss the old captain. I don’t know why you ever let him take over. You could have been captain just as easily.”

  “And have him crawling after me, the way he crawled after the old captain, just waiting for a chance to put powdered glass in my coffee? No thanks.”