The sky overhead shimmered a prism of every color, and the sunlight glittered over the waves in a million blinding sparks. Two enormous sea creatures, one slightly smaller than the other, crossed the sky and sent ripples through the water in their wake. The sun and wave patterns played on the stark white wall in the distance. Only a few people walked to and fro under the wall today.
Frieda brushed her hand over the tips of the grass. The longer stems poked up under her robe and tickled her legs. She turned her back on the wall and gazed toward the corner of the forest leading to the village. Just then, Deek came around the corner and strode toward her. “I thought I’d find you out here. What are you doing out here all by yourself?”
“Actually,” she replied, “I went to see my old house.”
He cocked his head to one side. “And how is it?”
“It isn’t there anymore,” she told him.
He studied her. “Does that surprise you?”
“Not really,” she replied. “I haven’t been back to it in months, and I would never want to live there again. I suppose it only makes sense it would cease to exist, now that it’s not part of my life anymore.”
He nodded and waited for her to say something else.
“But my plants are still there,” she went on. “That’s one good thing.”
His eyes flew open. “Your plants?”
“The ones I tended when I first lived there,” she explained. “The ones I had growing in my window box. When I moved to the village, I planted them out in the ground under the trees, and they’re still there.”
“Congratulations,” he explained. “You have a green thumb.”
“Not really,” she replied. “They were the same species as some others growing in that part of the forest. They would naturally do well growing on their own, and as you say, I didn’t really do anything to them. It was more the idea of doing something with them that got me interested.”
He took her hand. “I’m glad it did.” They started walking toward the village. “Are you okay?”
Her head whipped around. “Why do you ask?”
“I wondered,” he replied, “after you saw your sister again at the convocation last night.”
“Why should I not be okay about that?” she asked. “I’ve seen her dozens of times.”
“I know,” he replied, “and every time you see her, you get very quiet for a day or two afterwards. You don’t regret your decision to stay here, do you?”
“Not at all,” she exclaimed. “I guess that’s why I get quiet. I keep thinking how much more I love her now that I’m here. I couldn’t love her like this if I was on land.”
“How does that work?” he asked.
“I don’t think I ever knew what love was before I came here,” she replied. “The water makes loving others so easy and natural. Out there, on land and in the air, love is a constant battle. You have to fight every minute to love the smallest thing, like a plant or an animal. With people, it’s much more difficult to the point of impossible. I wouldn’t want to try it again. I’ll stay here.”
“You saw at the convocation,” he went on, “the factions are moving more and more toward peace. Emily and her mate Faruk are working with Donen to ratify peace agreements with the Lycaon as well as the Felsite. We’ll have to travel to the land more now.”
“An agreement between the Ursidreans and the Lycaon and the Felsite is a long way toward planetary peace,” she pointed out. “The Avitras still hate the Ursidreans with a passion. They won’t make peace any time soon, and all those factions still hate the Aqinas. We’ve got a long way to go before we’re needed on land again.”
“You know what I mean,” Deek replied. “The Aqinas won’t be able to hide in the ocean forever. Now that your sister knows you’re alive, you’ll probably have to see her again some time.”
Frieda shook her head. “I’ll leave the peace negotiations to you and Fritz. I’m happy here. I don’t want to go back to the land, not even for an instant.” She shivered. “I can’t forget that terrible air.”
He chuckled. “It is pretty nice here.”
“I don’t know how you can stand to go up there,” Frieda remarked.
“We only go if we have to,” he replied. “We’ve saved many thousands of Angondran lives by negotiating peace between the factions before. If we can do it again, we will.”
“Then you should be expert at it,” she returned. “You don’t need me tagging along.”
He shook his head. “You were right about one thing, though. A human woman like you could get a lot further with them than we ever could.”
She gasped. “What are you talking about? Why would they listen to me?”
“Didn’t you see the way those women listened to Sasha when she tried to explain about the Aqinas world?” he asked. “They were fascinated.”
“They were clueless,” she shot back. “They couldn’t understand a word she said.”
“No, but they wanted to,” he replied. “They want to know what it’s like down here, and they want to understand the Aqinas. When the day comes for us to join the rest of the factions in planetary peace, you and Sasha will have better success convincing them to accept us than any other Aqinas could. You can explain to your sisters and your friends what it’s like here, and why we are the way we are, and why we have the convocation, and everything else. The factions won’t trust us or listen to us, but you human women trust and listen to each other. You could negotiate on our behalf.”
“If the day ever comes,” she countered.
“It will,” he replied. “Be certain of that.”
“I won’t hold my breath,” she told him. “But if the day comes, I’ll do my best to help the Aqinas, and I know Sasha will, too. I never wanted anything but for the others to understand the Aqinas, and to understand why I’ve chosen to make this world my home.”
“We are part of Angondra, just like the other factions,” he explained. “No peace on this planet can be complete without us.”
“That is true,” she replied. “You are one people.”
He stopped walking and took her in his arms. He kissed her, and his hands trailed down her back.
She pulled away first. “I have to get back to the village.”
He followed her, but he dragged his feet. “You weren’t in any hurry to get back when I found you just now.”
She laughed. “I’m meeting Trin. We’re going to visit Hen and her new baby.”
“When are you going to stop visiting babies?” he grumbled.
“Never,” she replied. “I want to see as many of them as I can.”
“But kids and babies are everywhere,” he complained. “Why do you keep having to run off and visit them.”
“I’ve seen so few of them since I came,” she replied. “Now that I’m seeing them, I have to really see them.”
“So see them,” he returned. “Do you have to run off everywhere else to see them?”
She drew close to him. “Don’t worry. I’ll always have enough time for you, and now that I’m seeing children, it’s only a matter of time before we have some of our own.”
A light twinkled in his eyes. “Are you trying to tell me something?”
She took his hand, and they passed around the corner into the village. Five boys barrelled down the path and stampeded past them. They shouted and waved sticks at each other, but they took no notice of Deek and Frieda.
Deek jerked his head at them. “Is this what you want?”
She slipped her arm around his waist. “No. We should have girls.”
THE END
Book # 1 Abducted by Aliens
Chapter 1
Carmen Herrera shut the bakery door as quietly as she could, but the sleigh bells hanging from it made such a racket everyone in the place turned to stare at her. A statuesque woman behind the counter scanned her uniform up and down. “What can I do for you, Officer...” She peered at Carmen’s nam
e tag. “Officer Herrera. I’m sorry we don’t serve donuts.”
Carmen blushed. “I’m not here for the donuts. I’m responding to a call-out regarding an abduction in the neighborhood.”
The woman wiped her hands on her apron and nodded. She towered over Carmen with flowing curly blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Decorative italic letters splashed across the front of her apron and matched the brochures on the counter: Penny’s Peppermints. “I made the call. I’m Penelope Ann King. I’m the owner of this bakery.”
Carmen looked around. All the customers listened to their conversation. “Did you know the girl who disappeared?”
Penelope Ann nodded. “I hire girls from the neighborhood to work here. It gives them a leg up in the world and gives them some experience of earning their own money doing something other than selling their bodies and dealing drugs. I hired Rosie three weeks ago, and she never missed a shift—until yesterday.”
“If she was selling her body or dealing drugs,” Carmen replied, “she may have gone back to her pimp. Maybe she didn’t want to slave away in a bakery anymore and wanted some easy money.”
Penelope Ann narrowed her eyes at Carmen. She could spike a bug on a needle at a hundred paces with those eyes, and something solid and powerful lurked under her white chef’s jacket. Carmen stiffened for the inevitable response. “Rosie loved working here. She planned to enroll in community college next semester. She never wanted to go back to the streets. She wouldn’t go back to her pimp unless he took her back by force.”
“Then there’s nothing we can do,” Carmen replied. “If she worked for him before, we don’t have any reason to believe she didn’t go willingly.”
Penelope Ann smacked her lips. “You cops are all the same. I should have known you would stick your big toe in the mud like this. We’re talking about a young girl’s life, and you have my word she didn’t go back to her pimp—not willingly, anyway. Are you really going to stand there and tell me you won’t do anything to help her?”
“I can’t do anything about it,” Carmen told her. “If she spent years working for some pimp on the East Side, and then spent three weeks working here,” she swept the bakery with her hand. “We would have to have something more than your word to interfere with her going back to him.” Carmen glanced toward the door. Now would be a good time to make her escape.
But Penelope Ann wasn’t finished. “It isn’t just Rosie. A lot of girls keep disappearing from this neighborhood, and they don’t turn up back on the streets, either. They just vanish, never to be seen again.”
Carmen nodded. “Our captain briefed us on that, but we don’t have the resources to investigate those disappearances. They go into the Cold Case archives. If we turn up any evidence for them, we’ll address them later.”
An African American woman in baby blue nurse’s scrubs stepped forward. Her fuzzy Afro surrounded her fresh face and set off her glinting brown eyes. “You have the resources to investigate them, but you won’t because the girls were runaways and drug addicts. You don’t have to lie about it. We know the truth.”
Carmen turned to her. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I know you.”
“You don’t know any of us,” the nurse shot back. “I’m Aria McCray, and I’ve lived in this neighborhood since the day I was born. Penelope Ann has been here since she was three and went to school with me and Marissa Evans.” She pointed to a slender woman sitting by the front window. Her fiery red hair glowed in the morning sun. “She’s been the head librarian at the Public Library for ten years, ever since she graduated from college. None of us knows you from Adam.”
Carmen shifted from one foot to the other. “Just because I only moved here a year ago doesn’t mean I don’t care about this neighborhood as much as you do. I don’t make the decisions on what cases to investigate. The department decides that.”
“Four of the girls who disappeared worked here,” Penelope Ann chimed in. “I gave them jobs and a place to live and extra food if they needed it. None of them lasted more than a month before they vanished. Now I want to know what you and your department are going to do about that.”
“Like I said...” Carmen began.
Penelope Ann cut her off with a wave of her hand. “I know what you said. You said they went back to their pimps and their dealers, but we all know that’s not true. I used to see Carrie Townley standing on the street corner at ten o’clock at night, and I used to see Zoe Martin walking up and down in front of the shoe factory on Benson Street. Neither of them has come back. They disappeared off the face of the earth, and your department and your captain and you and every other cop in the world couldn’t give a flying.....”
Screeching tires drowned out the rest of her words. Carmen glanced out the window and saw the police paddy wagon pull up outside the bakery. She ran through what she would say to excuse herself from this situation before she faced Penelope Ann again. Then she noticed something that made her turn around again. The vehicle outside the bakery had no windshield and no driver’s side or passenger’s side windows. It was one solid white mass. It had no license plate, either.
Carmen opened her mouth to say something, but all at once, a blinding flash of light exploded through the bakery. Carmen’s ears popped, but no sound accompanied the flash. She blinked to clear her vision, and the next minute, she found herself sitting on the hard metal floor of the paddy wagon. Penelope Ann, Marissa, and Aria sat next to her. The four women exchanged glances.
“What the blazes is going on?” Aria snapped.
“We’re in the police van,” Penelope Ann rounded on Carmen. “Are we under arrest or something?”
Carmen shook her head. “This isn’t the police van. That’s what I thought at first, too, but this van has no windows and no license plate. I don’t know where we are, but we’re not with the police.”
The vehicle—or whatever it was—gave a lurch, and Carmen tumbled sideways. Nauseous vertigo seized her, and she braced herself with her hands against the floor. The vehicle spun faster and faster until no one could sit up straight anymore. They lay on the floor and groaned in agony.
Then the spinning stopped as suddenly as it started. The four women sat up and looked at one another. A gentle vibration hummed through the metal surrounding them.
“What’s happening?” Marissa whispered.
Carmen examined the tiny chamber, but there was nothing to see but bare white walls. “Whatever it is, we’re still moving.”
“Where are we going?” Penelope Ann asked.
“I wish I knew,” Carmen replied. “Someone has captured us and is taking us somewhere.”
“It must be the same people who kidnapped those girls,” Aria added.
Carmen turned on her. “What makes you say that? We have no evidence anyone kidnapped any girls. Anyway, we aren’t drug addicts and prostitutes and runaways. We’re professional women. I’m a police officer, you're a nurse, Penelope Ann owns the bakery, and Marissa is the librarian. We don't fit the profile.”
“But we’re all women,” Marissa told her. “If someone was abducting women from our neighborhood, maybe they saw a chance to catch four women at once. That’s how we wound up here.”
Carmen set her hands on her hips. “And how exactly did they catch us? How exactly did we wind up here? I don’t know about you, but no one even came near me. No one hit me over the head with a club, or put a handkerchief with chloroform over my nose and mouth, or a bag over my head, or anything like that. I was standing there, minding my own business, and then....” She trailed off.
The others stared at her and waited. Marissa raised an eyebrow. “And then?”
Carmen dropped her eyes. “Then I wound up here.”
“You’re the police officer here,” Marissa told her. “How do you explain our presence here, traveling somewhere against our will, if we weren’t abducted? Maybe no one hit us over the head or dragged us into a dark alley, but here we are. It seems to me we’ve been abducted
.”
Carmen shrugged. “I can’t explain it, but I don’t want to say we’ve been abducted until I know for sure we have been. I don’t want to...”
Aria burst into gales of laughter. “I know. You don’t want to alarm the civilians, right?”
Carmen mumbled under her breath. “I wasn’t going to say that.”
“You weren’t going to say it,” Aria shot back, “but you were thinking it. Don’t insult our intelligence by beating around the bush. We all know we’ve been kidnapped by someone. How or why doesn’t really matter. What matters is what we’re going to do about it.”
“We can’t do anything about it,” Carmen replied. “We just have to wait until we get wherever it is we’re going. We’ll bide our time, and when the time comes, we’ll see how we’re going to get out of here.”
Chapter 2
Carmen stretched on her side and rested her head on her arm. She pretended to be asleep, but there was really no need. The other women paid no attention to her. Marissa really was asleep curled up in a corner of their little chamber, and Penelope Ann leaned against the wall with Aria’s head cradled on her outstretched legs. Both of them kept their eyes closed, but they weren’t asleep. Carmen was certain of that.
She studied the other women with a critical eye. She would have to watch all three of them and make sure none of them did anything to wreck her chances of escape. She couldn’t trust any of them. They were all too rebellious. None of them knew how to follow the instructions of a recognized authority like the police.
Marissa had too high an opinion of her own brain. She came up with every excuse to discredit Carmen’s authority. Penelope Ann had a secret that made her resist taking direction from anybody. Carmen couldn’t figure out what it was, but something hovered there hidden just below the surface. Penelope Ann would take some breaking in before Carmen could count on her to help her break out of this—whatever it was.
And Aria—what could you say about Aria? She had a mouth that belonged in the circus. It went off at the slightest provocation. Carmen would have to do a delicate balancing act between keeping her distance from Aria and keep her close enough to make sure she didn’t do the rest of them any damage.
Alien Romance: The Alien's Wonderland: A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance Page 10
