Rax

by Maia Starr

  “Here, you can rest here,” Cerik said once the ship was in motion. He led me to the back of the ship where there was a private little note. He pulled down a sleeping bench from the wall. He handed me a cloth to cover myself. I laid down. As soon as I laid down, I realized how tired I was. I quickly fell asleep. I needed to give my mind a break from all the chaos.

  “Maria, Maria, wake up,” I heard a deep, soothing voice say to me. I stirred. I opened my eyes. Cerik was hovering over me.

  “We are almost there,” he said to me.

  I sat up on the bench and wiped the sleep from my eyes. I felt rested.

  “How long was I asleep?” I asked him.

  “About three hours,” he said. “I did not want to wake you. But you can get more sleep once I show you to a sleeping hut on Kelon.”

  He leaned against the wall and looked at me.

  “How much longer before we arrive?”

  “About an hour,” he said.

  As I sat there and began to wake up, I remembered all the things that I wanted to say to him. Now was a good time because we would not be interrupted. I had half an hour.

  “You did not answer my question before. What were they talking about? They were talking about your mission getting the plans from Ephane. How could that be your mission if you were not planning on seeing Ephane? It was a coincidence that they captured us, wasn't it?” I asked.

  He was quiet. His silence let me know that it was not a coincidence. It was planned. Anger welled up inside of me. He had planned to get captured.

  “No, it was not a coincidence. I went to Earth searching for a female and took a certain path back, a path that I knew would get us captured. I knew that Ephane was up to something and there was only one way to find out, and that was to be on that space station.”

  “I can't believe you. You are a jerk. You used me. You used me as bait. I can't forgive you for that. If you only knew…”

  “If I only knew what?”

  But I couldn't tell him. I couldn't tell him that his mission to get us captured as a ploy had possibly given me a virus that meant I would never be able to have children. “Nothing. Get out of my sight. I don't want to look at you.”

  “But, Maria. Let me explain. I had to do what I had to do because—”

  “No, I don't care. I don't want to hear whatever it is you have to say,” I said as I stood up and moved toward the front of the ship. I was filled with anger. But most of all, I was disappointed and hurt. He had been lying to me this whole time. He was not who I thought he was. He was completely different and deceiving. I had my fill of lying men, human or alien. Steven had done a number on me, and now I had to deal with deceit and lies all over again with this creature. Just as I was beginning to open up to this alien, I realized that he had been betraying me all along. It was an awful realization.

  He had put my life in danger for his own selfish reason: the mission. He chose to take me from Earth in order to make it look like he was doing something that he would do on an ordinary trip to Earth, just to get to Ephane. It was sickening to me. I moved to the front and sat next to the pilot, Ravinn. I figured that if I sat in the front, Cerik would not try to talk to me about it; not in front of his warriors anyway.

  “There it is, home,” Ravinn said. I gasped as a blue planet came into view. It looked very much like Earth, but there was obviously more water. It was dotted with green here and there, and I could tell that they were islands.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said.

  “I’m glad you like it,” Cerik said over my shoulder. I looked at him and narrowed my eyes at him. I did not want to speak to him. I unbuckled my seatbelt and moved to the back of the ship. Hekan was doing some work, preparing to land.

  “Hekan, can I talk to you for a second?” I whispered to him.

  “Sure, Maria,” he said. He followed me to the back nook where I had slept.

  “I don’t feel so well. When we arrive on your planet, is there something like a doctor? On Earth, doctors are—”

  “Yes, I know what they are,” he said with a slight smile. “Yes, we have healers.”

  “Can you take me to one when we land?”

  “Sure, but don’t you want—”

  “No. I don’t. I don’t want the commander to know. Can we keep this between the two of us?” I asked.

  “Yes, of course,” he said.

  “Thank you,” I said as I left the nook and moved back toward the front. I saw Cerik staring in our direction. He had an angry look on his face. I kept moving past him and sat once again in the seat next to Ravinn to watch the lovely scenery of the beautiful planet of Kelon.

  I did not want to tell Hekan that I wanted to see the equivalent of a doctor so that I could be tested for the virus. I did not want anyone to know. It was too risky. I would have to keep it a secret for now. There was just too much at risk. I was full of anxiety. It was possible that I was truly falling for the brute alien Cerik, and if that was the case, then he would not want me in return if he thought I could not give him children. I sighed. What was I going to do if I had it? Maybe these aliens would return me to Earth if I did. Maybe it was contagious, and they would shoot me? All these thoughts went through my mind as I sat there. I tried to hold back tears, but I knew that my eyes were watering.

  “Are you alright, Maria?” Ravinn asked.

  “Yes, I just think this is so beautiful,” I said pointing at the planet ahead.

  “Yes, I understand that. I thought the same thing when I first entered space and looked at my own planet. It lets you know just how small you are. It is a thing of beauty,” he said.

  “It does remind me of Earth a bit. It is blue and green just like Earth.”

  “Yes, that is true. I have seen Earth. But you will see that Kelon is very different. It is a water planet, and we are water creatures. We live on islands, but we are closely intertwined with the water,” Ravinn said. And as he continued to speak about the beauty of the planet, I could feel Cerik behind me. I could feel his presence. It was unnerving. I wanted to explain everything to him about how I thought I had this awful virus. But I could not trust him. He had lied to me, and I could not trust a liar. I had enough with Steven lying to me, and it turned out this male was no different. He was an alien, but he was just a jerk, just like the males on Earth. As the planet became larger in the windshield, I knew that I would have to confront him at some point, and I was not looking forward to it.

  CHAPTER TEN

  COMMANDER CERIK HADE

  Watching Maria soundly sleep was enticing to me. She looked so petite and fragile that I hated to wake her up. A part of me wanted to climb into the bed beside her and wrap my body around her. I sort of wished that Hekan and Ravinn were not with me, because then we could be alone again. Maybe we could have another round before we landed on Kelon, but that was not possible. Not with these two with us in such a small ship. I had to wake her eventually and earlier was better because I wanted to give her some time to see the planet on approach as well as be fully awake when we landed. I did not want her to feel disoriented by landing and then waking her up on a strange planet. This way she would ease into it. It was the least that I could do after what I had put her through. Who knew what Ephane had put her through when she was passed out? I almost did not want to know because I would want to kill him. But I had done something to her, and I had told her about it.

  I had to tell her. There was nothing I could do to stop it. I knew that she hated now me. She felt betrayed, and she had every reason to. I had used her as bait, just as she said. I used both of us as bait. I had to. I had to make it look like I had an actual reason for being out in space, coming back from Earth. It was the only way to make it look real. Otherwise, Ephane would have been way too suspicious. But I wasn't expecting to have such drastic feelings for the human female that I picked up on Earth; I did not think it would matter that I used her for bait. I was wrong; I was very wrong. I now felt an enormous amount of shame and guilt for what I had done. S
he would never understand, she wasn't even giving me the space to explain. I would have to fix it later. For now, I had to focus on this virus and the water supply contamination. I would give her the space and time that she needed to stop being angry at me. I only hoped that her anger would disappear soon. But when I saw her whispering to Hanek, my jealousy rose once more. What were they talking about? Why was she confiding in him? She hardly knew him. I needed to know what they were speaking of. I was not someone that dealt with jealousy very well; it made me feel anger, and that anger could easily turn to rage.

  “What did you see on the space station?” Ravinn asked me pulling me out of my thoughts. He was in the pilot chair as we moved closer to our planet, about to enter the atmosphere.

  “I saw something that worried me. The landing port was full of activity, and full of warriors.”

  “Do you think they were preparing for something?” he asked.

  “I do; it looked like they were preparing for an invasion or a battle,” I said. “ But that is only my thought.”

  “Yes, but you are a commander. You know what battle preparations look like. We will have to tell the king about it,” he said.

  “I agree,” I said.

  Just then, Maria got up from her chair. She moved toward the back of the ship, and I watched as she went to the food area. She grabbed a bottle of Hiwa and poured the dark liquid into a cup. I was surprised that she knew what it was. Maybe she did not know; I thought I should tell her that it was a very strong drink. I walked over to her.

  “That is called Hiwa. It is very strong. It is not water or juice; it is like wine on Earth but so much stronger,” I said to her. “It is made from this fruit that we have on Kelon and it is—”

  “I know what it is,” she said as she chugged down the glass. Her nose wrinkled and she coughed a little. I restrained a smile.

  “I told you,” I said. She was quiet and poured herself another. I looked toward the front of the ship and Ravinn and Henak were engaged in conversation. I would try again to explain to Maria.

  “I am sorry about what I did. I know that it was wrong. But it is not what you think; I did not do it to put you into harm's way. All of this is bigger than any of us. I had to sacrifice in order to stop Ephane from whatever he is doing. I hope that you will understand that.”

  “Stop, don't say anything else. Can you just leave me be? I don't want to hear your apologies or excuses. It means nothing to me. I just want to get on the planet and be far from you,” she said. “Could you move toward the front of the ship? I just need some space right now.”

  “Yes,” I said, not wanting to push it. I moved to the front of the ship and stood next to Hanek. I looked over my shoulder to see Maria moving to the back of the nook with her cup. She wanted some privacy, and I should give it to her. Plus, this was a good time for me to question Hanek.

  “What did she tell you?” I said quietly to him. He looked at me.

  “Sorry, Commander, she made me promise not to say anything.”

  “You are not entitled to keep her promises. For all purposes, she is my human female. I am the one that took her from Earth,” I said feeling very annoyed. I was his superior. He was nothing but a warrior, and I was a commander.

  “She seems to be angry with you at the moment. Do you want to make her more angry by pressing me for her secret? It will only piss her off more. I know this about human females; I have one myself,” he said.

  “Why should she confide in you? What did she tell you? I am not going to ask you again,” I said getting in his face.

  He stiffened. He was not backing down. I could tell that he was not going to tell me. I felt an enormous amount of jealousy inside of me. Was Maria already looking for another mate? She was already done with me and planning to find another as soon as we landed. I was sure of it. My jealousy was turning into rage. I pressed my chest against his.

  “Does she want you? Is that what it is all about?”

  “I can see why she is angry with you. You think of nothing but your pride,” he said in return.

  “How dare you say such a thing to me. I am a commander,” I said.

  “All right, enough you two. We are landing. I don't need the distraction of this tense situation between the two of you,” Ravinn said as he put his body between ours. I gave Hanek a look and then turned away from him. Ravinn was right. We were landing, and it was time to work. Ravinn took the pilot seat again and began to enter the atmosphere.

  “We need a plan. I will go directly to the king with the device and the news of a possible invasion or battle preparations on the space station. Now, who will go to the water supply and warn the guards or see if the water has already been contaminated?” Ravinn said.

  “I will go directly to the water supply. I will station more guards as well.”

  “Good, that is a good plan. Hanek, you will see to getting Maria into a guest hut.”

  “I understand,” Hanek said.

  I did not like that. I did not like the idea of him with Maria alone walking through the village and then alone in the hut. But I would have to deal with my jealousy later; the water supply was more important than anything.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  MARIA COVALLOS

  It was a relief to have someone helping me. Hekan was going to show me to a doctor, a healer. This was important for me. I did not want the commander to know that I wanted to be tested, if they could even test for such a thing. The spaceship seemed advanced, the space station seemed advanced, so I assumed that the alien race I was about to encounter on this planet called Kelon was also advanced, and that included in the ways of medicine. I could only hope.

  I was nervous now that the time was coming, not only to find out if I had this virus but also to see this planet. So far I had been on an alien space station, an alien moon, various alien ships, and now I was going to be on a full-blown alien planet inhabited by these dragon shifting beings. It made me very anxious. I was going to see an entire new civilization; I was supposed to fit in. This was the entire reason that the commander had taken me from Earth, or so I initially thought. He brought me to his home planet in order to breed with me. But now I knew the truth. He had only used me as bait; I hated him for that.

  “I know you don't want to speak to me. I deserve that. But we are approaching the village. We are landing at any second,” the commander said to me. I did not look at him; I simply nodded. Then he walked away from me. My stomach filled with anxiety. Here it is, I thought. This is it; I'm going to see this alien planet. The ship made a jolting move. I knew that it meant we had just touched the ground. I stood up and walked into the main area of the ship. The three aliens were working shutting down engines and other things that I did not understand. Then they came to the door and opened it. Hekan gave me a knowing look.

  “We have no time to lose. I have the device; I'm going straight to the king. Commander, you are going straight to the water supply. Let us fly,” Ravinn said. I watched as they stepped out onto the ramp into the sunlight. Both the commander and Ravinn shifted into Dragon form. It was such an awesome sight. It took my breath away. They ran and jumped into the air and flew. I was completely captivated by it, and I watched the commander as he flew fast and hard. It was amazing to see him in action. My heart went out to him. I had to stop myself. I hated him; I had to remind myself.

  “Maria, are you ready?” Hekan asked.

  “Yes, I am,” I said as I took my eyes off of the commander as he flew out of sight. It was then that I finally got a look around at the surroundings. I gasped. It was absolutely stunning. I was not expecting such beauty. Even though we were in a landing port, I could tell that we were in a tropical Paradise. It took me by surprise.