by Magan Vernon
"That's what they want us to think, at least," he whispered back. "I've never known the queen to do something just out of the goodness of her heart."
"What do you really think it is, then?" I tried my best to push his feelings toward the queen's abrupt kindness behind me and stay positive. But it was definitely weird that someone who only hours before was planning my demise was now setting me free. I just chalked it up to my heartfelt speech and figured that I had Ace, and that was all that mattered.
He shrugged, craning his neck from side to side. "I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."
"I'm certain with those ancient things that they give you on Earth, you'll be fine with one of our older models." Marsilo stopped walking and stood near a small ship that looked like one of the drones that had attacked me on the way in, but a few centuries older. The black paint was halfway chipped off and looked like one of those old cars you'd see on the side of the road. It might have actually been missing a few parts, given the fact that it sat lopsided and didn't shine like the other ships.
"You expect us to get back down to Earth with this broken-down thing?" Ace put his free hand out toward the ship, glaring at Marsilo.
Marsilo let out a deep puff of air. "Well it's the only one we can spare and I thought you would be a little more gracious after we spared the life of your human maggot."
"Alright, that's it," Ace snarled, dropping my hand and lunging for Marsilo.
I stepped between them, raising my hands as Marsilo stepped back, laughing. "My, my, Earth has made you quite violent and ungrateful."
I put my hands up to Ace's breastbone, a calming technique my mom had used on me when I was younger. His heart was beating so fast it felt like it would fly right out of his chest. "He's not worth it, Ace."
I waited until Ace's heartbeat slowed and he was finally able to look at me. I could see the fire slowly die down in his eyes as he looked down into mine. "Sorry, Alex."
"What is that human expression?" Marsilo laughed. "I believe they say you are whipped by your human."
Ace growled a low animal-like sound that came from the pit of his stomach. I pulled his face down toward mine, so he wouldn't look at Marsilo. "Ace, let it go. We'll be back at Circe soon and this will all be behind us."
He stopped the growling and closed his eyes and then opened them slowly as he nodded. "You're right, let's go." He took my hand and opened the canopy of the ship. It was even smaller than the plane I took from Circe, complete with a ripped-up velvet seat and smell like formaldehyde wafting from the springs. I was really curious as to how we would both fit in it and be comfortable.
"You can sit on my lap, but that means you'll have to drive." Ace swallowed, looking down into the ship.
Marsilo laughed. "I hope the heifer doesn't squash you."
Ace and I both looked up, glowering at Marsilo. He lifted his hands and started walking farther back into the ship. "Have a safe trip back!" he called, echoing his hoary laughter all through the landing bay.
I shook my head. "That guy gives me the creeps."
Ace climbed into the small ship, sitting down in the chair before looking up at me. "That makes two of us." He smiled, reached his hand up and intertwined his fingers with mine as he helped me into the ship. I positioned myself on his lap.
"The only way I was actually able to fly that Circe plane was when Malcolm told me how to and now my communicator is broken, so I can't exactly follow his directions now."
Ace pulled the canopy over us, enclosing us in one of the smallest, most uncomfortable, and worst smelling places I could have ever been trapped in. I tried to concentrate on the fact that I would be back, safe, on Earth again soon with Ace at my side, but when the smell of burning flesh sifted through my nostrils, it was the only thing I could concentrate on.
Ace's lips brushed against my cheek before lingering by my ear. "You really think that after years of training as a Caltian pilot that I wouldn't know how to fly one of these?"
He flipped a small switch to the right and the ship roared to life. Well, not exactly a roar, more of a sputtering old man roar, but it turned on. The controls started flashing and dozens of blue lights surrounded me.
"I guess that's what I get for doubting you."
He laughed and I smiled at the vibration of his chest against my back.
"Well, Alex, it looks like it's time to go home." He took my hand and put it over a small control stick in the middle of us, slowly inching it forward. Before I knew it we were out of the belly of the ship and soaring among the clouds. I wondered what everyone back at Circe would think of all of this—if Ace and I would be regarded as heroes or if I would be even more grounded than I already was.
"So what happens now?" I glanced back at Ace as we made our descent to Earth.
He shrugged, the weight of his shoulders pressing against mine. "We get you back to Circe and then figure out visiting arrangements so I can spend some time at this Columbia that you won't stop going on and on about."
"For real?" I turned to look back at Ace, but felt a shudder from the left side of the ship. Ace quickly turned his head to look out the side window. His breathing got heavier as he stared out into the sky.
"Did something fall off? I knew this thing had to be ancient," I remarked.
"No." Ace turned his head back and flipped a switch near the control stick. A screen popped up, showing a diagram of the ship with the left wing flashing bright red. "I think we're under attack."
I turned to look out the side of the ship, expecting to see Circe fighters that had made some sort of mistake, but it was no mistake. Caltian drones were headed straight for us.
"Let them go my ass," I mumbled, scanning the different buttons in front of me.
"What are you looking for, Alex?" Ace looked from the window, back to me.
"What do you think I'm looking for?" I tilted the control stick forward as far as it would go, trying to gain some speed. "I say we shoot them back."
"I guess I should have never doubted that you would want to fight back." He slid my index finger down to a small silver button on the control stick. "I'm just hoping that this still works."
I pressed the button and an intense blue laser shot from the front of the ship. "I think this means it's time to kick some evil Caltian butt." I tilted the ship to the left and started firing as fast as I could in the direction of the other Caltian ships.
"Bank right and try to avoid anything you see that looks like a missile," Ace ordered.
"Shouldn't I have some sort of force field that protects me from this stuff?" I yelled while the ship sputtered underneath me.
"Alex, this isn't a science fiction movie. Those things don't happen in real life," Ace yelled back over the roar of the engine.
I tried to accelerate, pushing toward Circe, but the ship was older than I was and it took everything that it had just to make sure we didn't hit any of the other drones that were attacking us.
"Now, when you see the front of the drone is close enough that it looks like you can reach out and touch it, then fire," Ace commanded.
I looked for the nearest ship and spotted one headed toward us. I gripped harder on the control stick, ready to fire.
"Not yet, not yet," Ace whispered.
I could feel the sweat as it gathered at my hairline. The drone was close enough that I swore I could hit it with a rock, but Ace still hadn't told me to shoot.
"Okay, now," he yelled as two other drones flanked the one in front of us.
I pressed down hard on the button. The radiant blue light streamed out of our ship and hit the drone in front of us. Instantly, the drone reacted to the missile and lit up in a large black burst of flames that glittered for a brief moment before it completely disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
"Whoa, is that what happens every time a Caltian ship gets hit?"
"Not always instantly," Ace said as I launched a missile at the other two ships, "but you wouldn't want to have spaceship parts lying around E
arth, so something has to happen to them when they receive a fatal blow."
I had seen a lot of violence and even been a part of a lot of it, but seeing the way the Caltian ships disappeared in a cloud of smoke suddenly made me realize how close I really was to dying. One little missile from a Caltian drone could make both Ace and me disappear into a cloud of smoke. I swallowed hard, not wanting to die that way. I felt the fear that had finally caught up with me and I shivered throughout my body.
I pushed harder on the control stick, moving the ship in all directions to attempt to avoid the drones. I tried my hardest to make sure that none of them were at my back and if they were I made sure to get out of firing range. I could see the eyes of the Caltian pilots and their curved smiles as they approached my ship, ready to kill me without even thinking twice about it. But I would find a way to dodge out of the way or shoot them before they could get me. Their smiles disappeared with the smoke just as quickly as they appeared on their faces. I wanted nothing more than to get back down to Earth and never see the black smoke again.
"Look." Ace pointed out of the front of the ship. "You can see Circe probably about 50,000 feet below us. All we need to do is get within the mountain range and we should be able to lose them."
I pushed my glasses up so I could see the panorama of the Circe mountain range coming into view. It looked like something you would see in a miniature museum with tiny hills and tiny airplanes, but it was so real and so close and so much bigger. I pushed the control stick as far as it would go, sliding it from side to side and making loops with the plane in hopes to get the other Caltian ships off our trail
"You're doing great. Not much farther."
I nodded, concentrating on the mountain range below me and pushing back the thoughts of Ace and I disappearing in a cloud of black smoke. I swore that I could actually see my old dorm room and Jen's blond head poking out of the window.
"Alex, look out!"
Before I could hit the button or turn my eyes to the left, I felt a wave of pressure fall over the ship like a giant tremor.
"Did we get hit?" I yelled, the ship shaking ferociously beneath us. As I turned to look toward where my peripheral vision failed me, I saw another blue missile heading straight for us.
Chapter 31
My life flashed before my eyes. It wasn't like when Magpie attacked me and I saw visions of my mother and little brother. This was different. It was the same darkness from the nightmares, but this time it was calming instead of threatening. I saw Ace's eyes stealing private glances at me when he thought I wasn't looking at work. I saw myself comforting my little brother when he was afraid of the dark. Everything played through my head like a movie.
I opened my eyes to be blinded by a bright light. "Am I in heaven?" I murmured, squinting as I held my hand up to my eyes.
I heard soft laughter and a rumble on my back. I looked up to see Ace smiling down at me, his teeth sparkling in the sunlight.
"Are you in heaven, too?"
He shook his head. "Alex, sometimes I wonder where you come up with this stuff."
I looked down to see that we were floating down toward the Circe mountain range.
"But how?" I glanced up to see a large, white parachute floating above us, a harness wrapped around Ace, connecting him to the parachute while he held me tightly against him.
"How did you know to do that?" I asked, pushing my glasses back, which had a new crack in the left lens.
"Well, my plan was originally just to take you and leap out of the queen's ship with this parachute, and when she came up with that bogus offer I knew it was too good to be true and had to have a plan B."
I smiled up at him. "You're so smart. How the hell did a lowly human like me end up with an alien like you?"
He laughed and shook his head. He definitely didn't have the same silvery laugh as his mother or Marsilo, and it was one that I loved to hear over and over again. "I think I'm the lucky one to have a human girl that was willing to break into a Caltian ship and defy the queen for me."
"What can I say?" I pretended to rub some dirt off my shoulder. "Your girlfriend can be talented when she wants to be."
He tightened one arm around me and used the other to lift his hand to my face. He pressed his lips to mine, locking me in a kiss that took the little breath I had left away.
"I love you, Alex," he whispered into my lips. "And no matter what happens—" He let his fingers brush through my hair before wrapping his arm back around me. "—I always will."
"I love you, too, Ace." I looked down at the Circe mountain range only a few feet below us. "And I'm hoping that nothing else happens to change that."
Ace took me into his arms and carried me as we landed on the Circe runway. But just as our feet hit the ground, swarms of Circe guards ran toward us, armed and yelling, "Let the girl down! Back away from the human!" Ace put me down on the ground next to him and unbuckled the parachute harness. Slowly, he raised his arms in the air. A herd of Circe guards circled us with their guns pointed straight at Ace.
"Step away from the girl!" one guard yelled, his gun pointed at Ace's head.
"Stop!" I yelled, stepping in front of Ace. "He didn't hurt me. He's the one that saved me from getting killed up there!"
"At ease soldiers, at ease!" a deep voice boomed through the crowd. I caught a glimpse of dad pushing past everyone until he stood in the middle, directly across from Ace and me.
"Dad!" I ran toward him and collapsed into his arms. "I thought I would never see you again," I whispered.
Dad pulled away from me, letting his hands rest on each side of my shoulders as he studied my face with a softened gaze. "I was afraid I lost you. You shouldn’t have gone out on your own like that. You're not trained to do so."
I felt Ace's touch on my shoulder as he stepped next to me. "She may not be trained, but without your daughter neither of us would have made it back alive."
"Ace." Dad let go of my shoulders and stepped back. The softness in his eyes disappeared and was replaced by his stony gaze.
"Dad…please…" I begged, but my dad put his arm up to stop me and stepped closer to Ace.
"Any alien that would risk his life and family to save mine is an alien that I'm happy to have dating my daughter." He put his hand out toward Ace.
Ace took dad's hand as everyone around us cheered. I looked from dad out into the crowd to see Jen, Malcolm, and Justin push their way through before they almost knocked me down from their exasperated hugs. I tried to hold back my screams when their hugs pressed right into my broken ribs, but I didn't care. At that moment I was just happy to be back on Earth and not being chased by evil Caltians.
"You'd better not do that to me again!" Jen yelled and enveloped me in her long arms.
"Man, girl, I think you just put the rest of the pilots up there to shame." Malcolm laughed, patting me on the back.
I thought I was imagining things at first when I heard everyone fall into a hushed silence around me, but I knew I was wrong when Ace whispered in my ear, "You may want to turn around."
I slowly turned to see Nerses standing there, her piercing eyes focused on me. She stepped toward me, her heels clicking on the pavement. "Miss Bianchi, it's good to have you back."
I swallowed, looking up at her. "Thanks, Nerses."
"And once you get cleaned up, I'd like to see you in the board room." She looked over at Ace. "You too." She didn't wait for our reply but headed down the runway. Maybe surviving the queen was the least of our worries.
Chapter 32
Ace was waiting for me outside of my room. After a bath in the goo, the doctor gave me a new pair of glasses and sent me to my room to shower. I kept asking the doctor to give me a sedative or just to say that I was too hurt to go to the meeting and have a longer soak, but she kept assuring me that everything would be fine. From the way that she did everything she could to avoid my eyes, I knew she wasn't actually sure herself.
"Well, you know that she won't try and kill you." Jen trie
d to console me while I zipped up my suit. "At least I don't think she would do something like that."
"Gee, that's reassuring."
"I don't exactly know what the procedure is for something like this. You did break a ton of rules and who knows if the queen is actually still planning to attack or not."
"Thanks, that really helps." I rolled my eyes. Just what I wanted to hear, that this really wasn't the end of the queen's quest to end Ace and my relationship. And that we would be punished by Nerses on top of it.
I looked back at Jen. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go face Nerses." I turned toward the door and headed out to see Ace, waiting like he had been there for hours.
"Are you ready for this?" He reached his hand out toward me.
I placed my hand in his; they weren't their usual warmth. I thought it was because of his gloves, but I realized it was because he was just as nervous as I was. The clamminess from my hands moistened his, but he didn't act like he minded or was in any way repulsed. I smiled, trying to assure him that I was just as scared as he was. "I think I've faced a lot of things that I thought I couldn't handle today, but somehow I survived them, as long as I knew that you would be there in the end."
He squeezed my hand. "You're getting pretty good at this reassuring girlfriend thing."
I shrugged as we got into the elevator. "I try."
He pressed the button to the thirteenth floor and looked over at me. "You know we could always just get the elevator stuck for awhile and make out." He leaned over, nuzzling his nose against my cheek.
I closed my eyes, inhaling his cool scent and the feel of his skin on mine. "As much as I'd like to—" I opened my eyes, meeting his. "—this is something we'd better not be late for. Nerses scares me almost as much as your mom, I mean, the queen." I bit my lip at my mistaken choice of words.
Ace slid his hands around my waist and his fingers trailed to my back. "Alex, she may be my mother and the queen of Calta, but that doesn't excuse what she did to us. She may have given birth to me, but that doesn't mean she can control who I date."
