by Maia Starr
He shot anyway. He shot Mason in the head. I screamed in panic as I ran toward him, "No!"
Then I felt a sharp stinging on the back of my head and everything went black.
When I awoke, I was sitting on a blue-colored floor. My hands were tied behind my back. My ankles were tied together and there was a gag in my mouth. I looked to the side of me to see that Margaret, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Maria were all tied the exact same way, sitting on the floor. They had looks of anger, fear, and disbelief on their faces.
I looked around and realized that the room was foreign to me. My heart sank to my stomach as I realized that I was no longer on the Madera. We were now on the Kalazaron ship. There were many blinking lights and lots of smooth surfaces with holographs on them. Then I remembered. Mason was dead.
Anger filled me and I quickly rolled to my side and pulled my arms around my body over my bottom and behind my knees all the way past my feet until they were in front of me. I untied the rope around my ankles and pulled off the gag. I got up and ran toward a small, circular window. Outside the glass, I could see the Madera. It had lots of damage to it and various liquids and smoke were floating out from it in the vacuum of space. Then, out of nowhere, an orange streak of light hit it. The ship exploded on impact.
"No!" I could not believe it. The Kalazaron were ruthless. We had done nothing to them. They roamed the universe, scouting ships to take for their own plundering. I looked back at the women and said, "They've blown up the Madera."
They began to cry and shake with anger. I was angry too. But I did not cry. I would be damned if I was going to allow them to take me captive and make me some sort of slave. No, I would die. If I were going to die, I would do it while getting revenge for Mason. The face of the Kalazaron that killed him flashed in my mind. I would never forget him. He was now my enemy and I was going to do everything I could in order to bring about his demise.
I moved over to the door and looked out the small, rectangular window. I could see Kalazaron warriors loading artillery into a massive room. It was artillery from the Madera. Weapons from Earth. Why did they need our weapons? Their weapons were far more advanced than ours.
Then I saw him. The Kalazaron that had killed my Mason was headed toward the door. I quickly looked around and found a pipe-like piece of metal in the corner in some clutter. I picked it up and stood behind the door, waiting for him. The women were moaning, urging me not to do anything stupid. But I was unreachable. I was in a range for what he did.
The door opened and as soon as he stepped in I swung the pipe at his head. But I misjudged his height and it hit his shoulder. He quickly turned and grabbed the pipe in his hand and tried to yank it out of mine. But I held onto it. He growled at me as I lifted my leg and kicked him in the side. He moved his hand to hit my leg but I quickly blocked it with my other arm. He looked up at me, startled. He threw the pipe on the ground and smiled. It only made me angrier. I was ready to get in another blow, but before I knew it, he went low and grabbed my waist and flung me over his shoulder.
"Let me go, you alien bastard! I will kill you!" I shouted as I banged my fists against his back. I hit him as hard as I could and I heard a groan come from him and I knew that at least I was hurting him just a little bit. He threw me on the ground sitting next to the other women. I was about to get back up and kick him when he said, "Move and one of them dies!" He was pointing at the women.
I narrowed my eyes at him in anger and I could do nothing but obey. He walked back and forth in front of us, and he was a very commanding presence. If I didn't hate him, I would have been intrigued by him. But now I would hate him for the rest of my life. He was the worst alien being I had ever encountered.
"You have been taken by the Kalazaron of the planet Kaethon. I am Commander Jaylin Brakin. This is my ship. You will obey me. You will respect the ship, and no harm will come to you. I guarantee it. You are now property of the Blue Mountain Base. You are our captives. You are being taken to our home, which is now your home. It is a long journey. You will be brought nourishment. You will be allowed to sleep. Anyone caught out of this room will be forced to kill one of you. Is that clear?" he said as he looked at me particularly.
I looked away from him. I could not look at him without thinking about Mason. The other women nodded in agreement.
Then he knelt down and picked up the ties that were on my hands and feet. They were now thrown on the ground. He looked at me and said, "Untie the other human female slaves. There is nowhere for you to go." He threw the ties at my face and then he walked out of the room. I was so angry that tears actually began to water my eyes. I fought them back. We were in a hopeless situation. He was right. There was nowhere to go. Unless….
I stopped untying Maria's ties and she gave me a look. But I was lost in thought and planning. Every ship, no matter what alien race, had escape pods. They were lifeboats. I knew that I was in space where I could never be rescued. But being in an escape pod would at least give me hope and give me the freedom of not being a slave to the Kalazaron. Maria nudged my arm.
"Sorry," I said as I continued to untie her. Moments later, all of the women were untied and together we paced back-and-forth in the room, not saying anything. This sudden change in our life was a lot to take in. None of us had the words for it.
About an hour later, or what I assumed was an hour, a warrior walked in, followed by two more. They were all carrying trays of food. They set them on the floor without even making eye contact with us. I thought it was unusual. They were males, and I assumed they would tease us or try to touch us. But they acted like we weren't even there.
We ate and drank quietly. After the meal I looked at them and said, "Escape pods. There must be some on the ship. If we all escape together at the same time, then he can't force us to kill each other."
"Serena! Are you serious? We will never make it to the escape pods. We will only be caught outside the room and he will make us kill each other."
"We don't even know if there are escape pods or where they are on the ship," Margaret said nervously.
"We could try. So we end up dying: Is that worse or better than being a captive? Who knows what they will do to us once we arrive on their planet."
"But we will be drifting aimlessly in space, if we even make it that far. I think I would rather take my chances on the planet," Sarah said. The women nodded in agreement with her. Dammit. I couldn't do it alone. If it was just me that was caught, he would definitely make me kill the others, or he would try. But looking at their faces, I could not make this decision on my own. We were either all in or I couldn't do it. They were all still in shock and not ready for action. Perhaps once we were on the planet, I could engage them once more and plan and escape there.
Later, we all slept on the floor. Then we ate. Then we slept again. It went on like this for days and I was getting tired of it. I began to practice punches in the air and kicks. I did sit ups and pull-ups. I was not going to wither away and become weak.
Finally, as I stood looking out the small window, I saw it. A big blue planet came into view and I knew that this giant ball with two moons orbiting was our destination. A part of me was excited. Not because I was excited to see the planet—I had no love for this place or the alien race that lived on it. I was excited to get out of the ship. I was excited to have another opportunity to escape. Even if I had to live alone in the wilds of this planet, I would do it. I was a fighter. I was a soldier. I knew how to sustain myself and I would take my chances out there in the great blue.
Then the ship slowed down and the motors grew quieter. We were all skilled and knew that this meant the ship was preparing for atmospheric entry. We all looked at each other and everyone stiffened a little. Now we would be put through the trials and tribulations of having to deal with being on a new planet. We did not know what our fate held for us, but in a male-dominated alien race full of brutes, we did not think it could be good.
I planted my feet firmly on the floor and pressed my palms agains
t the wall as I watched out the window. The entry into the atmosphere was smooth, and I was impressed by the technology. We did not need to be buckled into any seats or secured. This race was far more advanced than we were and I wondered what other wonders would be on their planet. I pictured we would soon be coming to a giant city. A city with flying speed pods, majestic skyscrapers, and amazing, systemic structures. I watched, waiting for the city to come into view, but it never did.
Instead, the ship was moving over vast terrain that reminded me of wilderness on earth. We ventured over a mile or two of rocky terrain with patches of green wilderness here and there. Then we came to a large mountain range in the distance. I suddenly remembered what Jaylin had mentioned before: Blue Mountain Base. So we would not be heading into a city; instead, we were heading to the mountains. It looked like an isolated place. There was nothing else around it for miles.
"What is it? What do you see?" Maria asked as the woman sat on the ground behind me.
"We are in the wilderness. We're landing on the side of a mountain. It's mostly rocky terrain, but there are trees here and there. I see a waterfall. Actually, it is quite beautiful—if it weren't about to be our prison," I said as I turned to look at them.
They all frowned and their breathing grew rapid as they began to panic. Then with a loud thud and a shudder through the ship, she landed. We were now on this planet, as foreign to us as any. But we were no longer with our own kind; we were now with the Kalazaron warriors. Everything would be different.
We could hear the commotion of the ship. I peered once more out the small window, only getting a slight view of what was going on. We had definitely landed in a military installation of sorts. I could see other ships part in the distance. There were many warriors in the area attending to their responsibilities. Then I saw the bay door of our ship open and large, eight-foot-long carts were pulled off the ship and they were filled with our weapons. It was the entire arsenal of the Madera. I still did not understand why they would want our weapons.
Chapter 2
COMMANDER JAYLIN BRAKIN
I was a third generation rebel. My great, great, great, father and mother both left the capital city of Konthos over sixty years ago. They were great followers of the cause and they persuaded fifty other Kalazaron to follow them out of the capital city. They helped to establish Blue Mountain Base as a functional and sustainable society.
I was born on the base and knew nothing else. I had never been into the capital city. I only knew outside wilderness and space. I was the long-distance scouting commander, and I did my job damn well. Now that my birthing parents were deceased, I was even deeper into the cause than I had ever been.
There was nothing like being born and bred at Blue Mountain Base. This was home, and I would die for it. I would kill anyone trying to mess up the delicate balance of society structures that we had come up with.
It took many years to find this balance. It was a self-sustaining society and everyone contributed to it. There were many systems that needed to be looked after. We had engineers that looked after the water, working mechanical structures, and our ships. Water was very important, but the rebels that chose the space many years before chose it wisely. It was a mountain with plenty of food to be hunted and harvested from the wild. There was a large water source and a river ran nearby, but it did not compare to the beauty of the waterfall that cascaded down one side of the mountain. This provided the base with plenty of water.
We had several growing fields in the flatlands outside of the mountain base. This is where the growers worked and maintained the health of the fields that fed us. We even had the luxury of Icannis fields and the rich Icannet drink that came from it.
The living quarters were built into the side of the mountain as well as inside into the heart of it. But the main portion of the inside of the mountain consisted of the landing port, where we kept our ships. It is where we kept our main artillery and weapons. It is where we had a large, underground shelter where the entire population of the base could be housed if we were under attack.
It was well planned and it took many years to carve out the various tunnels and living quarters that it utilized. It took many years to place the water pipes that diverted water to the necessary areas. But everyone contributed to maintaining the systems and everyone had a special skill that lent to the base working like a well-oiled machine. I was very proud of it.
For this reason, I was more than happy to sacrifice my life as a commander in the rebel army. My father, who was a commander before me, had groomed me for such a position. I began at a very young age, as all of the Kalazaron did. But I did more than that. I not only studied battle training, but my father allowed me to attend council meetings. He taught me about the elections and why it was important that we could elect our leaders, and that it was not so in the capital city of Konthos. This was the main reason for the split many years ago. Now we were to defend that system, because it was everything that we stood for.
Many rebel Kalazaron looked the way I did. We had colored hair cut in the shaved style, flipped over to one side or in a mohawk. We had many tattoos that adorned our bodies. Each tattoo was not given lightly. They all symbolized something. Each tattoo was rewarded after a victory of some sort. Most of them were granted after a successful raid on the Belvenreed outpost across the vastness from the Blue Mountain Base. I had over fifteen tattoos recounting my victories. I wore each one proudly.
Being a commander held many responsibilities. There were twenty commanders in all and we each had our own duties and contributions to maintaining the rebel base. We did not have the resources that the capital city of Konthos had, therefore we had to come up with our own ways to get resources; this included raids on the Belvenreed outpost. This included scouting the far reaches of space and commandeering any military-like craft that we came upon. We knew most of those ships were headed for some sort of war, no matter what race and planet they were coming from. This meant they were heavy with artillery. This meant that we would have artillery to continue fighting our rebellion.
When we came upon such a ship almost a month out from our planet of Kaethon, we knew by the markings on the ship that it was from Earth. These were the best kind to commandeer because Earth loved their war games almost as much as the warriors of Kalazaron did. This meant they were heavy with the best weapons that Earth had to fight with.
Most of them were loaded with warrior men that they called soldiers. However, every now and again we were lucky to also commandeer a few of their human females when we took the ships. A few of those human females now lived at our rebel base and contributed to the running of our small society. They were good and smart for doing various work that was needed. A few of them had even coupled with some of the Kalazaron warriors. They did it willingly of their own accord.
I had sampled my fair share of the human female sex but I had no intention of making one my own life mate. Fucking them was fun, but that's all it was to me. I had no attachment. None of them were a match for me.
So when we attacked the ship and I encountered the strong female that fought back with intense skill, I was completely startled by it. I had never met anyone like her in any race—not the Kalazaron and not the humans. There was something different about her, and I wondered if it was biological. She knew how to fight with such great skill. She was fearless. Yet she was stunning to look at, and filled with anger. I was curious.
When the ship landed, I went about making sure that we unloaded the cargo and ran through the checklist of all other landing routines before I decided to deal with the human females. They would be last. As I walked down the hall to their holding room, I thought about the very strong female once more.
She had surprised me the last time I walked into the room, thinking I was going to be joining a bunch of docile human females. She had caught me off guard. I thought for sure that a human male had somehow boarded the ship with us, or that I had a mutiny from one of my own warriors. I never guessed that it wo
uld be one of the human females.
So when she attacked me, I was shocked. That shock turned into arousal. I wanted to wrestle and roll with her on the floor. Then when she continued to try to fight me, I’d had enough. Now as I reentered the room, I did it slowly and cautiously. I peered in through the small glass slit to see that all of the females were sitting on the floor, accounted for. The fighter female was sitting with her arms crossed, pouting like a youngling.
I still entered slowly as the door opened and I stepped through. I looked on either side and around the entrance to make sure there was not some sort of clever trap that was going to kill me as I stepped through. Finally seeing that it was safe, I entered and paced in front of the females as I did before when I introduced myself. Now I was going to introduce their future to them. They weren't going to like it, but that was no concern of mine. They were prisoners, and that was the end of it.
"We have landed at Blue Mountain Base. Kaethon is now your home. When you are escorted from this ship, you will be taken to your new living quarters. You will each be evaluated and you will be sent to work where your skills are most needed. You will have a strict schedule and only be allowed in certain areas of the base. You are now our captives. You are now our slaves. You will do as you are told, or you will die. It is your choice. Try to escape," I said as I looked specifically at the fighter female and continued, "and you will die."
