It had been many years since mankind had moved beyond earth and begun colonizing other planets in their star system. Only now were manned missions moving beyond the Sol system and out into deep space in search of new fantastic discoveries. Erena, thanks to her tireless hard work, was going to be part of the first manned exploratory mission into deep space.
She'd never been so proud. She was already going to be in the history books just for going, but Erena's excitement was entirely in thinking about the incredible things she would discover out there.
She was the ship's chief science officer. The captain was a tiny, red headed woman named Alice Harper, calm and clear headed with natural leadership instincts and a talent for getting along with anyone.
There was also Sergei, a swarthy Russian man and the security officer, and Paolo, the handsome bronze skinned Brazilian chief engineer, and Fin, a chipper and yet surprisingly serious dark haired French man, in Medical.
They were a small team, meant to work closely together, with everyone helping out with everything, deferring to each other's expertise in case of decisions.
Erena had been training with the four of them for years preparing for this and they knew each other better than anyone. Erena practically considered them her siblings. She'd even dated Paolo for a while, though it hadn't worked out and they'd broken it off amicably.
The day of departure, they waved to the cheering crowds seeing them off. Erena leaned over the high platform that connected to the side of the ship, smiling with delight. The sun caught her golden hair, pulled back in a business like pony tail, and highlighted her curves, held in by the skin tight silver flight suit she was wearing.
The team had been carefully chosen and groomed to be as attractive as they were qualified, as this mission was as much about inspiring people as it was about progress. But Erena, with her long, thick blond hair and her bright amber eyes, was a media favorite.
She and the team posed for a few photos, then strapped into their sleek space craft, the Spirit of Exploration. Erena had run through the simulated take off so many times it almost seemed unreal to be finally doing it, feeling the ship shake and roar as the powerful rockets below it fired, shooting it up into the atmosphere on a cloud of fire.
The rockets detached and the boosters kicked in, pushing them out of the atmosphere entirely and into orbit around Earth. From here there was a brief wait as they drifted, waiting for the ship's orientation to line up perfectly with their destination.
Then Captain Harper fired the ship’s impulse thrusters, pushing them off out of orbit, heading towards the edge of the solar system. The hard part was done. Fin cheered first, always loud and excitable, and Erena soon joined him, climbing out of her harness and going to hug her team mates. They celebrated their success, breaking out a bottle of champagne and staring out the windows at the earth as it dwindled.
"Alright everyone!" Captain Harper said eventually, "That's enough fun. It's time to settle in for the long haul. Let's get you kids to bed!"
Though Paolo grumbled and they tried to argue for a few more minutes of enjoyment, they had a schedule to keep. Alice programmed the auto pilot as the rest of the crew settled into their stasis pods. They would remain in semi-cryogenic stasis for several years as the ship traveled out of the solar system at near light speeds.
It was unhealthy for the human body to be awake and active during near light speed travel, so until they reached their first destination they would be remaining unconscious, their bodily functions slowed to a near death like state, not even ageing.
It was the scariest part of the mission in Erena's opinion. This trip would take them nearly a decade, and due to relative time, far more time would pass on earth.
They'd had to leave their families and friends behind, knowing they would never see them again. Leaving her parents had been painful, but Erena had been preparing for this all her life. It also frightened her, thinking about how many advances and changes might happen before she returned.
The place she returned to would almost certainly be nothing like the place she left behind. But it was all worth it for the incredible things they would learn. Erena felt no regret, only eager optimism for the amazing future ahead of her. She sank into cryo sleep with a smile on her face, dreaming of the whole new worlds that would await her when she woke up.
She felt as though she'd barely closed her eyes before she was waking again, blinking frost from her lashes as she sat up. The rest of her team was shifting around her, stretching and groaning as they climbed out of their pods, ice clinging to the tight curves of their suits.
"Good morning," she said with a yawn.
Paolo, looking deliciously sleep mussed, his dark hair tousled and his eyes half lidded, draped himself across the end of her pod.
"Good morning bella," he crooned, gazing at her affectionately, "I dreamed of you the whole way here, and now I wake to see you looking more beautiful than ever."
Erena laughed, dismissing his compliments. Paolo talked to everyone like that. Besides, the blue white led lighting of the ship washed everything into a kind of pale morning haze, shining on the sleek gray panels and consoles of the ship's stylish interior.
Compared to such fashion forward surroundings, Erena was fairly certain no one but Paolo could manage to look anything but pale and drab. It had been very important to the directors of this mission that they glamorize space travel enough to attract more people, and thus more money, to it.
For that reason, one of the biggest costs of the project had been consulting fees for famous architects and stylists and expert advertisers to contribute designs for everything from the ship itself, to the suits they were wearing, to even the choice of team members.
"You're looking as cheesy as ever, Paolo," Erena replied, teasing, "Are you planning to try out for a soap opera after the mission?"
Paolo stumbled back, clutching his chest.
"My love!" he gasped, "You wound me!"
Erena laughed, and Paolo nearly tripped over Sergei, who was shifting past him to get changed. Sergei scowled at them both, his dark eyes withering.
"Stop fooling around," he scolded, "We have work to do."
"Ah, my brooding hero," Paolo instantly turned his playful flirtations on the Russian, "Could it be you're jealous of my attentions to the fair Erena? Could it be you've decided to return my affections at last?"
He clasped Sergei's hands, and the other man blushed, sputtering in flustered incoherency.
"You know," Paolo teased, leaning closer, "You are the only member of the team I have not yet had the pleasure of getting to know... intimately."
"It's true," Finn chipped in from across the room, his accent lyrical.
"Really Finn?" Erena laughed, "Even you?"
"He's a very handsome man," Finn shrugged, "And I have a weakness for people who can out drink me."
Sergei shouted something presumably very crude in Russian and hurried away, the other three laughing at his scramble to escape.
"I will woo him one of these days," Paolo vowed, beginning to strip out of his jumpsuit.
"Forget it Paolo," Erena advised him as she did the same on the other side of the room, "Some people just can't be wooed."
They changed into more comfortable clothing now that the tight flight suits were no longer necessary. They'd entered what Finn called the 'road trip' portion of their flight. They were well outside Earth's solar system now, and were approaching the first of the planets they would be examining.
Dressed in a simple white t-shirt and shorts, Erena drifted into the cabin where Captain Harper, the first to wake, was already at the console checking on their status.
"Is that it?" she asked, her hands in her hair as she tied it back, "It doesn't look like much."
Outside the front view screen a blue gray planet was turning, looking cold and uninviting.
"Yeah, it looks like your predictions about it were right on the money," Alice agreed, "Cold and barren."
"The gas supe
r giant in this system causes too much interference with its orbit," Erena explained, looking down at the start chart displayed on Harper's console, "It's just too cold to be worth setting down on. Not when we only have enough fuel to do that a handful of times."
"Maybe five, if we stretch it," Alice's tone was thoughtful as she looked out at the ice planet, "Is it worth sending out a probe at least?"
"Definitely," Erena smiled enthusiastically, "I'm pretty sure this planet has liquid water whenever that gas giant isn't cutting it off from the sun. It could have microbial life."
"Well then, I guess we'll be hanging out here for a few hours till the probe gets back," Alice punched in directives for the probe and sent it out. They both watched as the tiny silver craft dropped out from under them and fell towards the planet like a shooting star.
"Tell Finn to break out the playing cards," Alice ordered, "And don't let him deny it. I know he has them."
A few hours later the probe returned and they were all busy for a time analyzing the data quickly to make sure there wasn't anything more interesting about the planet that they'd missed. When they'd confirmed that it was just the ball of ice Erena had thought it would be, they moved on.
"Now comes the real road trip," Finn commented, drawing a card from the deck, "Damn, another two."
"Are we up to near light speed already?" Erena asked, taking her own turn to draw and laying down a pair.
"As close as we can handle without cryo sleep," Captain Harper confirmed, rolling an e-cig to the corner of her mouth, "Got any sevens?"
Sergei reluctantly handed over a card.
"Did I read the plans right when I saw the interval between two of our stops is going to more than a month?" Paolo asked, laying down several matches.
"Yes, but that's the longest one," Erena confirmed, "I tried to plot a course with as short a distance between stops as I could. Using gravity to our advantage is what's making this possible. That month long wait would have been centuries if we weren't using my plan."
"Still, we will have to think of something to pass the time," Paolo waggled his eyebrows at Erena, "All those weeks in the lonely void of space with only each other for company..."
"Don't worry, Paolo," Alice replied dryly, "I'll keep you busy."
The others laughed but Paolo looked worried. His fling with Alice had ended quite quickly. Apparently she was a little more than even he could handle.
The trip proceeded almost uneventfully. Two months and several planets later, it was beginning to wear on even Erena.
She sat back from her microscope with a tired sigh, rubbing her temples.
"Is that the data from the last planet?" Sergei asked, leaning against the console where she sat and offering her one of the two cups of coffee he held, "You're still going through it?"
"Yeah," Erena pushed her hair back from her face and accepted the coffee, draining half of it, "It feels like I've been staring at it for a week."
"I take it you're not dwelling on it because it is fascinating?" Sergei sipped his own coffee, his dark eyes understanding.
"No, it's just tedious," Erena replied, "It's so similar to the other samples we've picked up that I keep feeling like I must have made a mistake and grabbed the wrong slide."
She looked out at one of the portholes, through which only empty space, shimmering with stars, was visible.
"We're so far from earth," she mused, "Farther than anyone else has ever been. But we haven't even located a planet worth setting down on yet. I guess I just assumed we'd have found something exciting by now."
Hardly had she spoken those words than ship suddenly shook hard, nearly knocking Erena from her seat, spilling her coffee.
"What the hell was that?" Sergei asked, clinging to the console for support.
"It felt like an impact," Erena scrambled to her feet, hurrying for the cabin with Sergei in pursuit, "Meteorite?"
"Bigger," Captain Harper answered as Erena entered the room, "It came out of nowhere. It wasn't even on our screens until it hit us."
Finn was standing next to Alice, staring at the screen in grim worry.
"It put a dent in us," Paolo dropped in from the engineering section, "But it didn't break the hull. But that's not why we should be concerned."
"What should we be concerned about then," Finn asked sarcastically, "If not the huge thing that just rammed us out of nowhere?"
"The fact that it has grabbed us, right over the airlock, and appears to be dragging us off course."
"Holy shit," Finn replied articulately.
"Holy shit is right," Alice's face was pale but her gaze was steady, watching the console, "I can expend some fuel and try to pull away from whatever it is, but we don't have much room for unscheduled maneuvers like that in our flight plan. We might have to cut the last few planets off our trip."
"Assuming that shakes it off at all," Paolo pressed his lips together tightly in worry, "The way it is holding on to us, it's not like any meteor I've ever seen, or anything else."
Alice fixed him with a cold, serious stare, echoed in the solemn, anxious expressions of everyone else.
"What exactly are you suggesting?" she asked.
"It feels foolish to say extra-terrestrial when we left everything terrestrial behind light years ago," Paolo said, taking a deep breath, "But this feels like technology."
"Like a tractor beam?"
"More like a grappling hook."
Erena swallowed a lump in her throat, sudden fear fluttering in her stomach.
"Should we burn the fuel?" she asked, "Try to outrun it?"
"Whoa, we don't have any proof that's even what it is yet," Finn argued, "We shouldn't make any rash decisions."
"And if it is alien," Paolo's bronze skin had a sheen of nervous sweat, his hand gripping his shirt, "We have a responsibility to make First Contact."
"It's not alien," Finn insisted, "We're getting carried away."
"Well, the facts we have are this," Captain Harper cut through the anxiety with a clear, decisive voice, "Something is attached to us, and it is pulling us off course. The longer we wait the more fuel we lose trying to get back into our flight lane. We have to make a choice quickly. Sergei, as our security officer, I need your input before I make a decision."
Sergei had been quiet, Erena assumed because he knew this was coming. He took a deep breath.
"Burn the fuel," he said, "We work with what we know, and that is we have to get back on course."
"Agreed," Harper nodded firmly, "Everyone strap in. And I'd suggest helmets. Just in case."
The crew scrambled for their suits, well-practiced at getting into them in under a minute. They headed for their seats in the cabin, strapping in, helmets on their laps.
"Alright everyone," Harper called, "Hold on tight, we're-"
She cut herself off suddenly, and drew back from the panel like it had shocked her.
"What is it?" Erena asked, feeling cold and shaky in her suit and trying to maintain the calm that had been trained into her.
"We may need to reevaluate," Harper turned the screen to show them what was outside the nose of the ship, "A craft has just appeared in front of us."
The alien ship was huge. The Spirit of Exploration was maybe a tenth of its size. The vast craft was shaped like an anvil, black and green, dark and terrible and outlined starkly by the light of a blue star behind it.
"That evidence enough for you, Finn?" Paolo asked, his voice dry with fear.
"Holy shit..." Finn repeated, pale as milk.
"No more cursing," Alice said sharply, turning to a view screen on her console, "I'm recording. This is the crew of the Spirit of Adventure, two months into our voyage, hoping this message reaches earth. We appear to be on the verge of making First Contact."
"We could still run?" Erena offered with a nervous laugh.
"If those are engines like I think they are," Paolo gestured to the wide vent like cavities on the back end of the ship, "We will not outrun it."
"Get
your diplomacy faces on everyone," Alice said firmly, "Prepare to represent the best of the human race."
"Do me a favor," Finn wheezed, "Tell them urinating on yourself is normal for humans?"
"Hold it together Finn," Sergei reached over to squeeze the medical officer's arm, "We will be fine. We were prepared for this. If they are intelligent enough to build a ship like that, they are intelligent enough to communicate and reason with. I doubt they would have any reason to harm us."
"From my experience," Finn swallowed hard, shaking in his seat, "Humans have never needed much of a reason to harm each other."
The grappling hook dragged the Spirit of Adventure into the gaping maw of a bay on the side of the vast alien ship. Erena's heart was hammering so fast she could hardly breathe.
She was fighting not to start hyperventilating. She'd been trained to deal with stress and stressful situations for this mission, but an encounter with an alien ship was an entirely different caliber of stress. She gripped the arms of her seat tightly as their ship came to a shuddering stop inside the bay.
A few minutes of silence ticked past.
"Maybe," Erena spoke slowly, unsure, "They're waiting for us to come out?"
The team glanced at each other nervously, and then slowly unbuckled themselves and stood, moving slowly toward the door, everyone hesitating to take the lead until Alice pushed her way to the front, her jaw set in determination.
"Remember we're still recording," she said as she put her hand on the hatch, "So try to be on your best-"
She didn't have a chance to finish that statement, as the hatch door suddenly exploded open, the decompression throwing them all backwards. Erena crashed into one of the chairs, the impact dizzying her but not knocking her unconscious.
She struggled to sit up as three figures moved into the ship through the ragged hole where the door had been. All three appeared to be of different species by Erena's guess, though they had enough extra limbs and sensory organs between for twice as many humans.
Only one of them was even a bipedal humanoid, with a long, tapering neck and a triangular head. One of the much less humanoid aliens skittered towards her on its too many limbs and grabbed her by the face. Too dazed to defend herself, she could only stare back as it looked her over, realizing the other two were examining her teammates.
Alien Romance: Caged By The Alien: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Romance, Alien Invasion Romance, BBW) (Celestial Mates Book 4) Page 12
