by Maia Starr
“Hold on, Hannah. Just hold on; I am coming for you,” I said over and over, trying to get some sort of message to my sister.
Chapter 5
Captain Jex Kailen
I felt different. Something had happened deep inside of me. After I pressed my mouth against Helen's, everything changed. I felt good; I felt damn good. When I kissed her, I felt a light wake up inside of me. It was intense. This was the euphoria that I had heard of, but I wasn't expecting it to be so damn intense. It was not what I was expecting at all. This was better.
She didn't like that I took what I wanted from her: that kiss. But I did not lie; I wanted to sample what I was agreeing to. Since the agreement on her side would not be fulfilled until we returned to Willow Springs with her sister, I thought it was my right to sample the goods. So I took what would soon be mine.
Now, she sat next to me in my smaller scouting ship. This was a ship that we brought inside the cargo bay of our bigger ships. It was for short-range flights. However, it was just as fast and armed as the bigger ships, just with less passenger room, only fitting three bodies.
“I don't understand why we are in this small ship. Why are we not in one of your bigger ships? We should have more soldiers with us. The Clenok cyborgs could number in the hundreds for all we know. They have a lot of firepower, and…” She rambled on. Was he never satisfied?
“If this ship is not to your liking, then we can go on foot,” I said looking at her.
She closed her mouth and pressed her lips together in a hard line. She didn't like hearing that.
“I just thought that when I agreed that we would have more of an army with us,” she said.
“You have the leader of that army with you; I am worth the ten of my soldiers,” I said.
“I'll believe that when I see it,” she said.
“And when you see it, I am sure that it is going to make it wet,” I said having enough of her defiance.
Her eyes grew wide, and she gasped. “How dare you speak to me that way. You are nothing but a brute. A brute that only thinks about sex all the time! My sister is missing; have some compassion,” she said.
I could not help but laugh at her words. She was right. I did think about sex quite often, and I was thinking about it with her.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she said.
“I cannot help myself. You mentioned sex to me, and therefore it is on my mind, with you. Do I not get more of a preview? Will you not push your shirt to the side and let me see your nipple?” I said.
“There you go again! You are a pig!” she said, crossing her arms over her chest hiding her ample breasts from me. But she grew quiet. I think she understood that everything she complained about, I would turn into a sexual statement, at least it kept her from being so argumentative, for now.
Half an hour later, we were coming upon the coordinates that were on her map where the humans had been seized. But I did not continue to the coordinates. Instead, I started to set the ship down a couple of miles away from the point.
“What are you doing? This is not the spot. There are still two miles to go,” she said arguing with me again.
I sighed. “I am the soldier here. Do you think I do not know what I am doing? Now stop arguing with me, human female,” I said.
“But why are we so far off? This is not right, and…”
“If you must know, human female, you cannot suddenly appear over an attack site. There is no hiding if you do that. There are only two of us. And it is best to sneak in when you are small in number and to first get a hold on the situation by not alerting you were enemy to your presence. Is that understood? I am the soldier here; let me be the damn soldier,” I said to her.
“Oh, I guess that is a good idea,” she said.
“You are agreeing with me. I thought I would never see the day,” I said as I landed the small ship in the middle of a forested area and opened the door. “Stay here. I need to check our immediate surroundings to make sure you are not in danger,” I said as I stood up and walked to the door. I stepped out onto the grass. I couldn't hear anything unusual. There was no activity near us or I would hear it because the trees were so dense and there were plenty of twigs on the floor that would be snapping under the weight of any person or cyborg.
“It is clear,” I said to her. She walked out of the ship and looked around.
“I need a gun,” she said. I raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you know how to use a gun?”
“I know how to use the human guns. But you will have to show me how to use yours,” she said.
“All right,” I said walking into the ship and grabbing a blaster gun and strap.
“This is a blaster gun. This switch is the safety. I recommend you keep it on so that you don't shoot yourself, or me. When you need to use it, you can you flip it up like this, then you aim and shoot. It is fairly simple. Do you see this green light? It means the gun is fully charged. It will go yellow when it is low on charge, and then completely red when it is out of energy. Understood?”
“Yes, understood. I wish I could fire a few blasts in order to test it out,” she said.
“Too late for that. We are too close to the site. If cyborgs are here, they will hear it. You will just have to trust that you know how to use it when the time comes,” I said putting the safety back on and handing it to her. She grabbed the strap and draped it across her body.
“Now, if you will step back, I need to shift into a dragon form. That is when I am at my strongest, and I will be able to fly us out of any danger,” I said.
“Shift? You're going to shift in front of me?” she said.
“Yes, that is what I said. Step back,” I said as I stepped back away from her since she was not moving at all. In a flash, my body grew warm, and I shifted into weredragon form. I spread my wings wide behind me stretching them out. It felt good to be the dragon again.
I looked at Helen. Her mouth was open, and she looked at me. I think the shifting caught her by surprise. She was even looking at me as though she were impressed. I like seeing that look on her face; perhaps she even found it sexy.
“Are you ready or are you just going to stand there looking at me with lust in your eyes?” I said as I turned around and began to walk into the forest.
“I was not looking at you that way!” she shouted at me. I had gotten under her skin. I liked it.
We walked through the woods with Helen behind me. But of course, she wasn't letting up on her constant criticism of my plans.
“How will we know when we are there? This is taking too long,” she whispered to me.
“Enough,” I said as I turned toward her. I scooped her up into my arms and took flight.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Just be quiet; that is all I command of you,” I said.
“Command? You cannot command me to do anything,” she protested.
“Shhh… we are coming up on the spot,” I whispered to her. Holding her against my body was a distraction. She smelled good, and her skin was incredibly soft. I wanted to stop right then and take her in the soft pine needles of the forest. But we had work to do. I landed in a very tall tree. My feet and landed on a thick branch and Helen held on tighter with her arms around my neck.
“This is it,” I whispered to her.
“I don't see anyone, but I do see evidence of a fight. I can see a few bags and things, from our people,” she said.
“I can hear branches breaking; be quiet,” I said as twigs snapping underneath feet hit my ears. Our hearing was much more advanced than the humans’. Helen froze against my chest, and she looked down at the ground. Suddenly, a human male appeared bewildered.
“Jared, that is Jared, one of our people. We must go to him; he will know where Hannah is,” she said moving in my arms. I looked down at him, and he did not look like he was running from cyborgs. I scanned the area.
“Jared!” Helen shouted.
“Hello?” Jared said as he looked around for the s
ource of the voice.
“It is Helen,” she said. I knew there was no point in waiting to see what the circumstance was, and I grabbed Helen and flew down to the ground. I sat her on her feet. Jared was looking at me with his mouth wide-open.
"Jared, don't be alarmed. He is my friend. I know he looks strange; it is a long story, but he has brought me here to help. Where is my sister and everyone else?” Helen asked.
“Wings? It has wings?” he said, still in shock as he looked at me.
“Yes, they all do. Jared, look at me. I need to know: where is everyone?” Helen said as she stood directly in front of him, trying to get him to concentrate on an answer.
Chapter 6
Helen Maven
After I calmed Jared down, I finally was able to ask him some questions.
“Jared, we have to know. Where are the others?” I asked.
“Is this a safe place? Are the cyborgs close by?” Jex asked.
“I have not seen a cyborg since we were attacked. I don't think they are in the immediate area. We should be safe, for now. I was on my way to the shore,” Jared said.
“And where are the others? Where is my sister, Hannah?” I asked for the tenth time.
“I don't know where Hannah is. But the others were captured,” Jared answered.
“Captured by the cyborgs?” I asked.
“No, by other people. I was captured too, but I managed to escape. I couldn't get the others out. I was going to go find a boat and go back to Willow Springs for help,” he said.
“What? Humans captured them? Why? I don't understand. And my sister was not among them?” I asked.
“No. I lost sight of Hannah in the battle; I don't know where she is. But me and two others were taken by some humans that we came across when we ran. When the cyborgs came, we ran in that direction trying to get away. We managed to escape the and ran into another band of humans, but they were hostile. They did not believe our story that we were running away from cyborgs after looking for resources for our own colony. They are very paranoid. They took us prisoner,” he said.
“Unbelievable,” I said.
“It seems the cyborgs are not the only enemy,” Jex said.
“Humans have always fought against each other; it has been that way since the beginning of our species; I thought to this innovation would band us together against one enemy, but it seems I was wrong,” I said.
“But your sister is not with them. Our mission is to find your sister and bring her home to Willow Springs,” Jex said.
“But we have to help them. These people are like my family too. Who knows what these humans will do to them. We have to help them and get them back to Willow Springs,” I said looking at Jex intensely.
He sighed. “If that is what you want, human, then that is what we will do. But you will follow my directions,” he said.
“Fine. Whatever it takes,” I said.
"Human, tell us where the human colony is and everything you know about their defenses. How did you escape?” he asked Jared.
“This way,” he said as he pointed in the direction that he had come into the forest clearing. “It is just a large house, a lot like Willow Springs, but it does not have a wall the way Willow Springs does.” Jared went on and on telling us about the human colony and where the two prisoners were being kept as we walked through the forest. Our destination was two miles away. I was upset that this was taking us off task, but I knew that it was the right thing to do. Hannah would want it that way.
“If it is a large house like Willow Springs, then I should be able to fly in and grab these two prisoners and fly out. It is the only way,” Jex said.
“But they will see you. The way you look will bring all eyes to you. There is no way that you will go unseen,” I said looking at him, confused by his arrogance—that he thought he could just fly in and fly out like nothing.
“That is where you and this human Jared come in,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I said.
“You two will create a diversion, drawing out everyone from the house, or at least making them look in that direction. This way I can circle around the back and fly into the area closest to the prisoners and take them,” he said.
“What kind of diversion?” I asked.
He stopped and opened a small compartment in his belt and threw out a square white block. “This kind.”
“What is that?” Jared asked.
“A bomb,” Jex said.
Jared and I both stepped back.
“Don't worry. It is quite safe until you activate it. It is not activated at all at the moment. It is just a block,” he said.
“So what do we plan to do with these?” I asked.
Jex put the block back in his belt. Then he squatted down to the ground and threw a square on the ground.
“This is the house. We are coming up on it in this direction. Jared will you mark where the prisoners are kept,” he said looking at Jared.
Jared marked the upper right-hand corner of the house.
“Good. Then this is the plan. We continue approaching the house as we are. But when we get to this point, we will have to split up. I want you and Jared to go to the left around this way. You will place a bomb here in the upper left-hand corner of the house, but at least one hundred yards from the house. I will show you how to activate it and control when it goes off. You will just set it down and place it, and then you will walk back in the direction you came and set one one hundred yards out from the lower left-hand corner of the house. After you have set the bombs, you will come back to where we started. Then you will set off the bomb on the lower corner first. That will be my first diversion and allow me to fly around in this direction to the upper hand corner and get the prisoners. The second bomb will go off two minutes later in the upper left-hand corner, driving the humans in the opposite direction of where we are headed. The both of you will continue in the direction that we came coming back to this point where you will wait for me.
“Okay, that is a good plan. We don't even have to get within one hundred yards of the house. Just show me how to do the bombs,” I said.
“You are eager and brave, aren't you,” Jex said to me.
“I am just in a rush,” I said not thinking of myself as brave but just wanting to get the job done so that we could go find my sister. Plus, it was a good plan. This diversion would work.
Jex showed us both how to activate the bombs and then to set them off remotely with a small contraption with glowing blue and red lights that he handed to me. We continued walking until the house was in sight.
“That's it,” Jared said as we knelt down behind the brush. We were still hidden in the trees. But the tree line gave way to a suburban area. The houses were spaced very far apart, and all of them were very big with massive gardens. But because of that, there were a lot of garden walls, garden sheds, and overgrown rosebushes to hide in. I could do this.
“All right. It's time. I am going to go off to the right and around the corner. You do the same around the left and we should get to our destinations around the same time. Remember: do not set off the bombs until you have come back to this point and are already making your way back from the way we came,” Jex said.
“Understood,” I said.
He gave me a lingering look. I thought for a moment he was going to back out. He looked like he wanted to change his mind. I was surprised that he wasn't looking at me with lust and desire like he usually was; he was looking at me with something else. He was looking at me as though he actually cared if that something bad might happen to me. He was hesitating on giving me the task.
“I can do it. Don't worry about me,” I said reassuring him.
He straightened his back as though caught off guard that I knew what he was thinking. He shook off the look of concern and nodded his head. Then he went off in his direction and out of sight.
“Jared, ready?” I said.
“I can't do it,” he said. I looked at him and realized that he
was sweating bullets. He was trembling. He was scared.
“Are you all right?”
“I don't want to be caught again. I had to go through a lot just to escape,” he said. I wanted to call him a coward, but there would be no use. I couldn't have him getting paralyzed out there trying to set up these bombs. I knew what I had to do. I had to do it alone.
