The Alien Reindeer's Escape

by Starr Huntress

  “Yes, Sire. Her name is Piper,” Elzarr said as he kept his stone face emotionless. Inside, his heart was breaking into a million pieces. He could still feel her intense grief when he was taken from her.

  After a week back on his planet, Elzarr fought alongside Ki’gar to help lead the Hatas away from the hidden palace and its lands. The rest of Azanie was heavily populated, especially around the equator where the mineral caves carved a line around the whole planet. It was one of the biggest reasons the Hatas had invaded. They wanted the rich resources for their home planet, Zora, as well as the Rodii for their slaves. It would not take long for them to turn their attention to the Terran system and strip Earth of their natural resources as well.

  “Elzarr, King Jalros has commissioned you to leave Azanie and contact your mate on Earth, warning her of the possible invasion of the Hatas. The Nubli will know what to do,” Ki’gar said.

  Elzarr hopped onto the Thorburn, a stealth spacecraft made by his people. It was like cutting through melted arlang as he sliced a path through the sky and into the outer region of the Falk System. He picked up the proton radio and zeroed in on the Terran System and punched in Piper’s phone number. She didn’t answer. He tried a nearby neighbor to check in on her, and they couldn’t find her, claiming she had left the little cabin. The Hatas excelled as shifters and could have already plucked off some humans, taking them captive and selling them into slavery. Piper would be in a prime market for mating purposes. His blood ran cold as he was so far from her. His imagination ran wild with the reasons why he might not be able to contact her.

  “Piper, I’ll die trying to save you if I must,” he said to himself as he turned the small craft toward Outpost Kinanti for refueling. The Hatas had already commandeered their fuel cells and he barely had enough to leave the Falk System. He’d need to carry enough fuel cells to find Piper and escape to a safer location. Being in stealth mode meant that he had to travel slower due to the energy it took to keep the ship hidden from other ships in the area. He feared he wouldn’t make it to the outpost in time and that he would be set adrift in the void of space. Elzarr carefully scanned the space around him before taking the ship out of stealth mode so that he could access FTL and make it before the ship’s fuel ran out.

  Chapter 13

  Piper’s eyes widened as she beheld what she assumed were the Nubli along with the US military working together. A general advanced toward her, his face set with a scowl.

  “Young lady, how did you get inside here? What are you doing here?” he asked gruffly. Two other military officers took hold of her, grabbing her by her upper arms and yanking her toward the general.

  “Sir, I beg your pardon. I’m assuming these are the Nubli?” Piper asked as she looked at the aliens. They were tall with shimmery white-scaled skin; nothing like what the Area 51 gift shops described. It didn’t surprise her one bit. They had large, slightly tilted eyes, and they were much larger than any humans. They blinked at her with their ebony eyes peering silently into her face.

  “You are trespassing. We will try you before a court and send you to prison,” the general said.

  One of the Nubli put out his large three-fingered hand and placed it on the general’s shoulder. “General Carmen, please, allow the young human to speak,” he said.

  The general nodded at the large alien. “As you wish, Sard.” Then he looked at Piper. “Speak.”

  “I am so sorry for trespassing. I had to do it to save Elzarr and Azanie.” Her eyes went to his eyes searching for empathy. “Elzarr is a Rodii from planet Azanie. One of his commanders, named Ki’gar, came to Earth to get him. He said the Hatas were attacking Azanie, and they needed help. King Jalros requested Elzarr come back immediately. Please believe me. Elzarr is my mate.” Piper hoped the Nubli understood how the Rodii worked. She felt that they probably did. They all looked at one another and nodded.

  Sard put one finger on the general. “If what the human says is true, we must send aid to Azanie right away. The Hatas have a habit of overtaking planets and enslaving the occupants. Because of the Rodii’s close ties to the Earth, the Hatas will come here and do the same. They need our help now,” Sard told him.

  General Carmen nodded. “We’ll send a ship at once. Have your people ready and I will have a few of mine ready,” General Carmen replied. Then he looked back at Piper. “And as for you, even though you have brought news that we needed to hear, you still trespassed. Therefore, we have no choice but to deal with you. We will try you before a secret military court and you may be sent to Leavenworth.”

  Everything within Piper ceased as she froze in her spot. Then she shrugged loose from the two military men standing beside her and ran up to Sard. He seemed to be the leader and the one to whom General Carmen and everyone else listened. She grabbed his scaly hand and held onto it as she looked him in his eyes. “Please, let me come with you. Please. I’ll do what I can to earn my keep on your ship. But I need to reach Elzarr. He is my mate and I can’t leave him now. I will do anything to get to him.”

  Sard’s eyes flashed to General Carmen. The General narrowed his eyes at Piper and then back to Sard. “If you take her, she’s banished from Earth. If she wants to keep her freedom, she’ll stay on Azanie,” he said as he narrowed his eyes at Piper again.

  Piper could tell Sard’s displeasure with the way the general was behaving, but he looked down at Piper as empathy crossed his face and his hand on her shoulder. “Dear one, you may ride with us to Azanie. But you heard General Carmen; you will not be allowed back on Earth once you leave.”

  “If she comes back, she will face a military court and be sent to prison for trespassing into a secret military base,” General Carmen reiterated.

  Another Nubli walked up to General Carmen and looked him in the eyes. This one spoke with a woman’s voice and had long white hair hanging from her head. The subtle curves gave her a feminine appearance as a light long gown hiding her skin underneath. “She brings news to save planet Earth. You would think that your people would be a little more forgiving of such small things as trespassing,” she said.

  Piper looked at them. “I don’t care to come back here if I can’t be here with Elzarr. You don’t understand, something happened to me when I met him, and I don’t want to be without him. If it means that I can’t come back, then so be it,” she said as she folded her arms around her chest.

  So many new things were happening to Piper that she could barely wrap her mind around them. She stepped into the small shuttle that carried her up to the large spaceship orbiting around the earth. The giant starship had a name scrawled in an alien language. The female Nubli told her it meant Star Shiner. Sard himself captained the ship, and Piper was glad. She also learned that the female was his mate and her name was Tisi. The ship took off traveling quickly, but she barely knew they were moving. Outside the window she saw the star systems flying by in a streak. Tisi came to her and told her to sit down and fasten her belt because they were about to enter hyperspeed. It would bring them to Azanie very quickly.

  Piper was watching out the window as the ship lurched forward and then zoomed so fast that the outside heavenly objects just looked like a haze. She couldn’t register what she was seeing. Tisi came to her and put her hand on her arm. “Child, it’s best not to watch the stars go by at this speed. It will surely make you sick to your stomach,” she said.

  When the time came for rest, Tisi showed her to another room. “This will make the time go by much faster and relieve your boredom,” she told her. As if Piper could be bored on a spaceship! The technology onboard amazed her as she had seen nothing like it on Earth. Even more shocking was knowing that the government knew about the Nubli and the Rodii and worked with them. With aliens! She was so thankful, though, to have come to know about them as well.

  The large room held rows of beds, and while there were both human and Nubli on board, she was in the room by herself. Tisi gave her a sedative that would help her sleep for the duration of the trip. By the time
Piper woke up, twenty hours had passed. She needed food and water. Tisi gave her three more sedatives and then she slept again. By the time she awoke twenty-four hours after taking the third dose, they were approaching the outer realm of the Falk System, the home of Azanie.

  Again, they boarded the small shuttled that had lifted her from Earth and flew down to a new planet. For the first time in her life, Piper stepped foot on an alien planet, many light years from Earth.

  “We’re at the hidden estate at King Jalros’ airfield.” Tisi walked along the corridor of the small ship and then stepped onto the ground. Piper sucked in a deep breath as she beheld the alien landscape. The sun shone brightly, casting a golden coppery light. Rodii approached, their skin taking on a deep copper tone from the intense light. In the distance were purple mountains with patches of snow. A group of reindeer ran in precise formation to an open door nearby. The air blew cool, and she shivered.

  Piper watched as the great King Jalros approached. He looked like a warrior himself, like Elzarr. There was nothing to determine that he had royal armor except for the small crown atop his head. It looked as if it were made of copper in the form of a scalloped triangle. In the center was a large garnet colored stone. His blue eyes fell on Piper as she approached, and she watched Tisi and the others and how they reacted to his presence. They placed her hands together at their chests, in the form of praying and lifted their hands over their heads and bowed. She followed suit and did the same.

  “Ah, this must be Piper, Elzarr’s chosen mate,” King Jalros said. Piper nodded, her mouth agape at the magnificent presence of this Rodii King. She very much desired to see what he looked like in his reindeer form. He held out his hand. She wasn’t sure what to do as she swung her eyes to Tisi who nodded. She then placed her hand inside his and the king held onto her, closing his eyes for a mere moment as he smiled. When he opened his eyes, he looked right at her. “My dear Piper, you have Elzarr’s presence all over you. There is no doubt in my mind that you are his,” the King proclaimed.

  Chapter 14

  As Elzarr approached the outpost, an object appeared on his ship sensors. He clenched his fist on the controls as he realized the object was a Hatas ship. How they figured out where he was, he did not know. They were sending new Hatas ships in from the system beyond the outpost.

  Ki’gar yelled. “Elzarr, we have incoming behind us.”

  Elzarr was not happy to hear this. It meant the Hatas had opened fire on them. He turned the ship and turned on the shields to minimize any damage just as their rocket struck the ship. Instead of damaging the spaceship, the enemy rocket exploded and fell back into space. Elzarr then turned to the controls and focused on the Hatas ship pursuing them. Pushing a button, he set off two hypersonic rockets that raced toward the enemy and barely missed as the enemy ship lurched beneath them. He turned the ship around quickly.

  “I’m turning back now as if I’m running away. As I open fire on them with another rocket, obliterate them with the blasters,” Elzarr told Ki’gar.

  As he turned the ship, Ki’gar pointed the blaster beams and struck the deathblow sending the Hatas ship into several directions as it blew apart into pieces.

  Not long afterward, they landed safely on the outpost, hoping to find enough fuel cells to make it to the Terran system. Elzarr and Ki’gar walked around and gathered supplies for the long journey. An urgent message from the Azanie palace came from the radio after they returned to the ship.

  Ki’gar took the call. “Jalros said the Nublis are on their way. They’ve already reached the Hatas system and they are fighting them even now. There are more ships coming in from the outer regions, bringing in combatants to capture the Hatas on our planet. It would seem that the Nubli and Terrans came through for us,” Ki’gar said as he looked over at Elzarr.

  He rushed forward and grabbed Ki’gar’s shoulders. “What?” he asked as his eyes widened.

  “Yes, the Nubli are on it. They have already arrived and are taking back Azanie. It’s a very close battle as of right now, though.”

  Elzarr nodded as he turned. He took a deep breath and realized that he could go back to Piper and let her know that her people were now safe. He turned back to Ki’gar. “Set course for the Terran system at once,” Elzarr demanded.

  “We can’t! King Jalros wants us back at Azanie at once. He said that you are responsible for the Nubli response. I don’t know how, but the king said he wished to thank you for your efforts, and he wants you there at once,” Ki’gar replied.

  Elzarr shook his head. “I cannot go back to Azanie. I must go back to Earth to find Piper. Set course for the Terran system at once. This is an order,” Elzarr said.

  He walked away, knowing that he was the captain of the ship and that Ki’gar had to listen to him. Again, he put in a communications call to Earth. It took a few minutes, and he got through to his contact near Christmas Town. They said they still had not seen Piper and that she had abandoned her cabin not long after he left. Elzarr hoped nothing terrible had happened to her. The way he left her; she was in such distress that he feared she might have done something rash.

  The only way to know for certain would be to go to Earth and find her. When Elzarr walked back to the bridge, he saw that they had already set course to Azanie. Ki’gar was busy over the controls steering the small spacecraft back to his home planet.

  “What are you doing? You have disobeyed a direct order from your captain. I will have you taken into custody as soon as we reach Earth for your disobedience,” Elzarr growled.

  Ki’gar smiled. He had set the controls to autopilot, with the locked codes stamped by King Jalros himself. Elzarr shook his head. “You’re disobeying me on King Jalros’s orders, aren’t you?” Elzarr asked.

  “Sir, King Jalros was very compelling when he said that you had to come back now. I told him you wished to go back to the Terran system, and he said you will not do so for now. He forbids it.”

  Elzarr paced the floor at the bridge knowing that he could not crack the codes set by King Jalros. It was one way they kept control of rogue Rodii by taking control of the spaceships no matter where they were in the galaxy. He turned to Ki’gar because he was the one who could override it.

  “Please, come with me to the Terran system. It’s a wonderful place where you can be who you are and roam free. You won’t be under the thumb of King Jalros,” Elzarr pleaded with him.

  “Elzarr, you are too desperate. Slow down and think about what you are saying. You need to trust in your king. I know that you wish to go back to Earth to find your human mate, but you will have to wait. Azanie is first, then I’m sure that if you still want your freedom, the king will grant it. We need to go to Azanie,” Ki’gar said.

  Within moments, this king’s personal spaceships flew into view of the lighted screen in front of them. Elzarr looked out the window and saw three of the ships surrounding their smaller ship. He sat down in a seat, shaking his head while feeling such defeat.

  “King Jalros means business,” Elzarr muttered quietly. He resigned himself to his fate now. He hated wasting time to get back to Azanie to face King Jalros before he’d be able to go back to Earth. There was valuable and precious time being wasted and he hoped that he would make it back to Piper in time to figure out why she had left her new home in Christmas Town.

  Within a day, the tiny ship, escorted by the King’s three ships, came into the Falk system. Azanie loomed ahead as they slowed their speed. It would be a matter of hours before they reached the planet and King Jalros. Elzarr counted down the moments until he could hop onto a little space pod to make his way back to the Terran system. It would take weeks to get there, and every second caused him to flinch while thinking that he was that much closer to losing his precious Piper. He would do anything, tear anyone apart, to save her and to protect her.

  As the four ships landed near the palace in the airfield, Elzarr noticed that a grand ceremony appeared to be about to begin below them. King Jalros surely had something await
ing him and his crew. However, he couldn't care less. He just wanted to leave and go to Piper.

  “Dress in your warrior uniform,” Ki’gar suggested. Elzarr turned to see his friend and comrade already dressed.

  Elzarr grumbled under his breath as he walked back to his quarters to put on his warrior uniform. The celebration ceremony didn’t matter as he only wanted his Piper.

  The King’s guard escorted them from the spacecraft. He did not appear to be under arrest. In fact, King Jalros advanced toward him with a large smile on his face. Elzarr approached and gave him the proper and respectful greeting before King Jalros reached out to embrace him.

  “Sire, what did I do to deserve this?” Elzarr asked.

  King Jalros threw his head back and roared as he patted him on his back. “Oh, you saved Azanie, that’s all,” the King said.

  Elzarr looked around in confusion. He didn’t save the disarrayed planet when he left for the outpost. He had gone off flying after the Hatas ship hoping to help win the battle. His mind kept going back to Piper and Earth. Now that it was over, he wanted badly to leave his home planet again. As soon as the ceremony was over, he would discuss it with King Jalros. They walked forward a few steps to a platform as King Jalros held out his hand for Elzarr to join him. The oddity of the whole situation caused Elzarr to shake his head. He wanted to run away right then, but he knew he couldn’t do that to his king. The king was so bubbly and full of joy. The kingdom was also full of celebration. He only wished his heart felt the same way about the victory they had experienced. Because his heart was back in the Terran system on the little planet called Earth with a human named Piper, Elzarr could not enjoy his own warrior’s welcome. He could not be joyful.

  Chapter 15

  Piper couldn’t help but smile at King Jalros. Joy and cheer exuded from his very skin. She rather liked it on Azanie and couldn’t understand why Elzarr did not. King Jalros had her taken to the palace and gave her a suite of rooms in which to stay. When Piper inquired about Elzarr, he patted her on the back and told her not to worry. He would bring him back safely.