by Zena Zion
“I will say that she has been a surprising little problem. However, once she’s dead, we can all go our separate ways.”
“It won’t be that easy. It’s the end for you and your so-called scientists no matter what happens to the human.” Ruby was a little taken aback that Srahn had called her ‘the human’. Was his affection for her all an act? Was he hiding it on purpose, or did he really care for her only as he saw useful?
“I highly doubt that, Commander. If you are so opposed to forceful research, withdrawing her memories would make you just as criminal as those of us you are attempting to destroy.” When Srahn gave her a pointed look, Nasma continued. “Unless,” She tilted Ruby’s head so that she could see the side of her face, “you convinced her to give you access willingly…”
Nasma let out an evil laugh that reverberated through the tunnels.
“Oh, my. Has the human developed feelings?” She snickered. “Allowing another to access your most private thoughts is truly the ultimate display of trust. I almost believe your lie, Srahn, but when she dies, and her memories die with her, we shall see if you really have the proof that you claim.”
“I did.” Ruby gasped.
Nasma slackened her grip to allow Ruby to speak.
“I went to the laboratory and gave him my memories.”
“Lies.” Nasma hissed.
“No.” Ruby waited for the grip to loosen once more. “In the lab, I saw all of the machines that filled the main room. We took a flying car to get there. In the far room, at the back of the lab, there is a machine with helmets.”
Nasma seemed unconvinced. Ruby’s descriptions were too vague but, since she had no idea how any of the devices worked it was impossible to elaborate.
“Sci. Javo.” Ruby gasped. “I met Sci. Javo.”
Nasma roared with rage.
Ruby felt her head being pulled back even further and knew, in that moment, that Nasma was going to kill her.
As Nasma tensed her arm for the strike, Ruby felt the body behind her start to pulse and shake. Nasma’s hands released the knife and Ruby’s hair and the woman fell, dead, to the ground.
Ruby spun around to see the twins standing behind her with a long device that had a current of electricity leaping from its end. To Ruby, it appeared very much like a high-voltage cattle prod.
She could not find the words to express her gratitude to Glipnorth and Dripgoth. She could only continue to stare at them with complete shock and awe.
The other men approached up the hallway and Ruby spun to face Srahn.
“How many more?” He asked in a very calm tone that belied the chaos of the situation.
“None, in the tunnels.” She clarified. “She was speaking to others with a circular device. I believe they were supposed to meet once she had gotten me out of the city.”
Srahn turned to the two men, which Ruby did not know, at his side.
“Find their ship and bring them back, dead or alive.” He instructed. The men sprinted off into the darkness leaving Ruby in the presence of the only three individuals on this planet that she was sure she could trust.
“How did you escape?” Srahn asked.
“A lot of running.” Ruby knew that her sarcasm was not appreciated but she really did not have the energy to recount the events. “Can’t we just do that memory thing and you watch it for yourself?”
“That is supposed to be a last resort for legal matters.” Srahn laughed. “Sci. Javo might allow it, considering today’s events.”
Ruby grimaced and looked up into Srahn’s face.
“I didn’t listen.” She sighed, disappointed in herself for her poor decisions. “I left the room. I thought she was safe.”
Srahn patted her shoulder.
“Disobeying my command was wrong but, as a human, you are naturally more trusting than we tend to realize. I am pleased that no one was harmed but let’s try not to let it happen again.”
“I promise.” Ruby dropped her chin to her chest. The action caused the thin cut at the surface of the skin on her neck to pinch. She pressed her hand to her throat and drew it away to look at the sticky pattern of blood that now adorned her finger.
Her head spun. She looked up into Srahn’s face. He seemed to accept her weakness with a sort of amused acceptance. Cradling his arm beneath her knees, he swept her into his arms, allowing her to bury her face in the curve of his neck, as he carried her from the tunnels and back into the city.
CHAPTER 7 – The Truth
Ruby groaned and pulled the blankets closer to her body. Nine days had passed since the traumatic events that had caused her to so nearly lose her life and she was still having trouble falling asleep.
Her mind raced over the words and the actions that she had witnessed, trying to piece them together in some way that made sense.
Srahn sat up and turned on the pale overhead light.
“I’m sorry.” She mumbled. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t wake me.” He admitted.
He moved to sit with his back against the wall. Ruby scooted over to curl into the warm space beneath his arm.
“You know that you are safe now, right?” He began. “I’ve told you that we caught the others involved and they will never be released from our prisons.”
She nodded.
“Then why are you still afraid?”
“I’m not afraid.” Ruby smiled so that he would see the truth in her words. “There are a lot of things that I don’t understand and, I know that you told me to put it out of my mind, but I can’t help it. My brain keeps trying to piece together the people and events that just don’t make sense.
“I’ve come to rationalize alien species, teleportation, and living in a city under a bubble, on a planet with more moons than I could have ever imagined. Somehow, even after all of that, I still cannot make sense of why those people were after me and what that has to do with you.”
Srahn sighed and leaned his head against the wall.
“You aren’t going to let it rest. Are you?”
“I can’t, Srahn. I promise that I’ve tried, but I can’t.”
“Alright, well, I suppose I should start from the beginning. Back before you were ever involved.” He began.
Ruby listened with rapt attention.
About four years ago, a company began to hire employees on Earth. This company was the laboratory that you used to work for, except that nothing was, as it seemed.
You would have been told that it was a world-renowned research facility, been shown proof of this claim. But it was all a lie. Or, at least it wasn’t world renowned on Earth.
On Plasmosorth, this group of scientists are considered immoral, devious fiends who care nothing about practicing proper science and only about making dramatic discoveries. No matter what the cost may be. They were banished from our planet and took up residence on Earth, though we did not know it at the time.
Earthlings are similar to Plasmosorthians which makes studying them ideal. They are also, according to this particular group of researchers, considered disposable.
We banished them because the tests that they were preforming were cruel and unnatural. Their discoveries were grotesque and often ended in the death of our people.
They continued this version of testing on Earth.
“That’s not true.” Ruby interrupted. We never performed immoral tests in the lab that I worked in, or any of the others that I am aware of.”
That’s because you weren’t the ones performing the testing. He clarified.
The Plasmosorthians were using Earthlings as their own guinea pigs, performing tests and research that often resulted in the death of your coworkers.
Did you ever notice that some that you may have seen in the beginning, had effectively disappeared a few months later?
Ruby nodded. “I thought that they had been fired.”
The beginning stages of the program, the laboratory that you were working in, would start by isolating you from friends
and family. Ending relationships with anyone who might look for you if you ceased to exist one day. They wouldn’t have wasted time in explanations; simple burned the bridge to prime you for your, “promotion,” or the next phase.
Ruby gasped. Could that be true?
Afterwards, you would advance to the first level of actual tests. This might include anything from biological observation to blood tests. Even perhaps including minor invasive testing that would be barely recognizable to anyone whom they had yet to eliminate from your life.
She remembered the scrapes on Rick’s neck. Had that been the result of some procedure or test?
Eventually, as a subject advanced through the levels, the tests would become more demanding and intense. Their memory would be erased so as to not raise question to the activities, and they would be convinced the effects were merely the product of a stressful job environment or an upcoming breakthrough. When a subject would die from the effects of a test, they had an entire employee base waiting to take their place.
You were in the beginning level for much too long. Srahn stroked her hair with a gentle smile. You perplexed them with your resilience and so they very much wanted to study you, and yet, you never advanced to the appropriate stages of compliancy. They, just like l, had no idea how you had resisted their commands or attempts to brainwash you.
We finally tracked them to your planet and attempted to apprehend them there, but we were thwarted by a mole who forewarned them. We know now that the mole was Nasma.
They erased all signs of their presence from the community, leaving only the empty fields, which you returned to on the morning after. They thought that they had destroyed all evidence, including all human witnesses. Somehow, you had happened to escape by not showing up for work on the day of the disappearance. If you had, you would have been killed as well.
Ruby’s jaw dropped. She could not fathom what he had been telling her. Hundreds of employees. All maliciously killed to cover the tracks of an illegal research facility. Hundreds of humans treated like toy for the advancement of science… and she had almost been one of them.
After they realized that you were missing, we knew that they would search for you. The only proof against them lay in your memories. The only proof that the facility had ever existed. The only record of the Earthlings who lost their lives.
As the Commander of the Army, I felt that it was my personal duty to protect you. You needed the most skilled guardian and I could trust no other with your care. I knew that I was right when they followed you home that night.
“The bikers?” Ruby exclaimed.
Those weren’t bikers. They were Plasmosorthian hitmen. For them to come out into the open like that, willing to murder you on the street, I knew that you were no longer safe on your planet. That was when I brought you here.
I knew that I could protect you better with my army and, having decided almost immediately that you were my destined mate, I knew that you would be journeying to my planet at some point either way.
The rest you know. We viewed your memories and discovered that their method of brain washing was linked to the water system in the building, a system that you purposefully avoided.
Thankfully, none of the researchers noticed or you would have been forced to comply. By rejecting the treatment, you were able to maintain the ability to make your own decisions, and therefore skip work on that fateful day.
When you escaped, you became a huge threat to their program. You had retained the very proof of their dealings, a proof that could not be denied.
I had no idea that Nasma was the informant. When we destroyed their first ship I knew that we could keep the other from entering the city. I had hoped that the city was secure.
Nasma used a false alarm system to lure you into the tunnels. We do not have individual strongholds. The dome over our city is secure and completely indestructible.
Within its walls you will always be safe. Her attempt to get you to the other side of the wall was their only chance. Had she succeeded we would have been forced to shoot down the ship and your odds of survival would have been slim.
The fact that you escaped, and eluded her, for so long is a true testament to your resilience. That is a quality that makes me extremely proud to call you mine.
When I returned to the room, to find you gone, I feared the worst. It would be a terrible thing for my people to have lost the one we swore to protect, but it would have been an even greater tragedy for me who had come to expect that you would always be beside me when I woke in the morning.
We rushed to the tunnels. That was the only place that she could have gone without raising alarm. There are hundreds of service ships that port in at the tunnels. To know which one she had taken would have been an impossible task.
When you found us on your own, I thought that perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me. How could we find you so easily, unharmed? But Nasma was following us, hoping that we would find each other. Waiting for the moment to strike. She is devious and her behavior cannot be excused. The rest… you know.
CHAPTER 8 – Choosing a Mate
As he finished his story, Ruby stared at him in awe.
“So, this entire time…” She could not believe what she had heard, “you had been protecting me?”
Srahn shrugged.
“It was in my best interest to keep you alive. Not only would your memories give me the proof to lock the evildoers away forever, but it would force them to follow me into my own, strongest, territory.”
Again his hand smoothed her hair.
“You were the bait to my trap, for all anyone else knew. Our people are determined to bring the banished to justice, to protect the galaxy from their terrible ways.” He shrugged with a self-depreciating smile. “Yet, I had known much longer that we were meant to be together. My biggest motivation for bringing you to my planet is that I wanted you here, by my side, every day.”
“You knew right away?” she drawled, making it clear that she did not believe him. “I thought that you were a stalker!” she laughed.
“Essentially, I was.” Srahn admitted. “Though, not for the lewd or inappropriate reasons that you may have imagined. It was my duty to follow you, to ensure your safety, and to protect my mate.”
“I wasn’t your mate at that time.” She said pointedly.
“Perhaps, but I knew that you would be. Plasmosorthians know instinctively when they have found their true match.” His hand cupped her chin and he turned her face so that she was forced to look upon his devotion, “I knew instinctively that you were different than the other Earthlings. That you were not meant to remain on that planet full of corruption. We may not want the Earthlings to be utilized as tools for scientific discovery, but that does not mean that we approve of their vulgar and destructive ways.”
“What if I had refused to stay? What if I wanted to return to my planet?” She asked. She was surprised that the answer meant so much to her, not that she wanted to stay, but she wanted the choice to be her own.
Srahn shrugged.
“I would allow it, for a time.” Ruby furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “But, I would make my presence a large enough factor in your life that you would be forced to acknowledge our bond, and eventually agree.”
“Figures.” She murmured with a laugh.
“What?” He seemed surprised by her response.
“Do you always get your way?” She jabbed his abdomen with her finger and he laughed.
“Do I?” he grabbed her hand in his own to prevent her from her repeated poking.
“Yes.” She rolled to her back, pulling him with her. “I would say so.”
“Good.” His lips traced a tantalizing trail along her neck. “What about right now? Do I get my way?”
Ruby’s face flushed as she imagined what he might be desiring at the moment. The building pressure against her leg told her everything that she needed to know.
Her breathing grew shallow and she tried to play it cool with her reply.<
br />
“What exactly is it that you want?” She teased.
Srahn’s fingertips came to rest at the joining of her legs and she knew that he could feel the heat that was burning inside of her.
“This.” His mouth laid claim to her own, his tongue creating the most distracting circles in her mouth. “And this.” His fingers began to move in the rhythm that he knew she enjoyed. Ruby groaned against his mouth and pressed herself against his hand.
She gasped when his hand slipped down the front of her silken pajama pants. Ruby moved against him, encouraging his touch with the gentle rocking of her hips. The motion pressed her leg against his erection and Srahn hummed with pleasure beside her.
She thrust her tongue into his mouth, deepening their kiss. She wanted to convey her urgency without her words. With only her body.
Srahn laughed against her mouth.
“Patience.” He murmured.
“Patience is not my strong suit.” Ruby wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled their bodies together.
“I can tell.” He chuckled.
Her exaggerated sigh of frustration quickly dissolved into a gasp of pleasure as Srahn slipped his finger inside of her.
Her vision exploded into a kaleidoscope of color.
The low pulse of an orgasm swept over her and she allowed the waves to take her wherever they might lead.
When she fell back into the pillows, Srahn pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and rolled away, as if he were preparing to go to sleep.
“I don’t think so.” She laughed. Ruby hooked her hand over his bicep and pulled Srahn so that he was laying spread-eagled on the bed.
“I thought, perhaps, that you wanted to rest.” His half smile told her that he was very much enjoying the moment.
“I was thinking that it is only fair that it be my turn to get what I want.” The devilish gleam in her eye caused his eyebrows to raise. Ruby watched with pleasure as the dark circle of his pupil contracted.
