by Ashley West
Table of Contents
Title Page
Free Paranormal Romance
Chapter 1: A Matter of History
Chapter 2: Three for Three
Chapter 3: A Matter of Chemistry
Chapter 4: Culture Clash
Chapter 5: Warnings on the Horizon
Chapter 6: A Matter of Forgiveness
Chapter 7: The Natural Progression
Chapter 8: For the Common Good
Chapter 9: In the Interim
Chapter 10: A Matter of Transparency
Chapter 11: Spilling Every Bean
Chapter 12: On the Brink of War
Chapter 13: How Does it Feel?
About the Author
Ebook_Publishers Notes
Aedian
Alien Warrior
Ashley West
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Chapter 1: A Matter of History
For decades, humans have looked up at the stars and wondered what’s beyond their atmosphere. Expeditions have been mounted to the moon and the parts of space reachable by humans in the hope of finding out answers to one of the biggest questions of them all: are we alone in the universe?
Of course, it never seemed possible, or even probable, that for all that space, all the vast unknown filled with stars and moons and more planets than we could count, that we would be the only ones to live in it.
And while human beings tried to make contact with the furthest reaches we could, it caught everyone by surprise when something made contact with us instead.
It was a day like any other. People got up, they sat in traffic, and they went to work. Couples squabbled, children cried, dogs barked. It was cloudy with a slight chance of rain, and people stood in their hallways and bedrooms, pondering over umbrellas and rain jackets. No one wondered if it would be a day that everything would change, and yet it was.
The first ship was spotted in Brazil, by a small boy named Alberto who stood in the middle of the road and pointed up at the sky. His mother’s admonishment to hurry up and not keep her waiting died in her throat as she followed her son’s finger and looked up.
There in the sky was something she had never seen before. It was far too large to be a plane, and shaped like an arrow head, all in shiny chrome. It moved slowly down from the clouds and as more and more people noticed, the panic began.
All over the world, people were reporting the same phenomenon. A massive silver ship coming down from the sky, the tip of the arrow pointed for the ground.
No one knew what it was or what to do, though some people had their hunches, but it couldn’t be ignored that this was too widespread to be a prank or some kind of stunt, and people realized very quickly that they were about to have their questions answered in a very real way.
Cities were evacuated as the ships came down, their shiny points sticking in the ground while the rest of the craft loomed above. The people who had chosen to remain behind snapped picture after picture, but no one wanted to get too close. There was a difference between curiosity and outright suicidal stupidity, after all.
For over twelve hours the ships just sat there, still. Nothing got close to them, and nothing got off of them. People began to wonder if maybe they were empty. If maybe this was just a scouting mission by whoever had sent the ships, just to collect data. People began to relax.
And then, at 7:46 in the morning, there was a sound. A hissing sound like an airtight seal giving way. And slowly, ever so slowly, a hatch began to open.
No one had known what to expect. Of course everyone had seen movies about little green men and tall, spindly aliens with large heads and bulbous eyes. They’d entertained thoughts about slimy creatures who fed on human flesh and burrowed their way into people’s bodies to lay eggs that would hatch and destroy.
All of that was the stuff of science fiction, though, and when it came time to face it in reality, no one knew what would happen.
The outcome was both anti-climactic and worse than they’d feared. When the first alien stepped off the ship, descending a long set of stairs to the ground, the world held its collective breath.
He was a giant of a thing, easily seven and a half feet tall from head to toe, and there were a set of massive, curling horns on either side of his head like a ram. Red hair fell to his shoulders, and against his deathly pale skin, it looked like blood. He was naked from the waist up, showing off bulging muscles under his skin. Fingers were tipped with clawed fingernails, and there were markings on his skin in a dusty brown color, swirling over his chest and down his arms in stark curls and lines.
The creature looked more like a beast from fantasy or a video game than a thing from another planet, and as everyone stared at him on their television screens, the cameras left behind picking up every motion, the beast lifted his head and let out a blood curdling cry.
It sounded more like a declaration of war than anything, and it began the conflict.
More and more of the creatures began to pour out of the ships, all of them large and pale, their eyes nearly glowing in the weak light from the overcast sky. All around the world the ships were opening their hatches and spilling aliens onto Earth’s soil, and no one knew what they had come for, but it didn’t seem like it was anything friendly.
Most of them were armed, thick fingers wrapped around the hilts of axes and swords, some gripping guns of all shapes and sizes that were unlike anything the humans had ever seen before.
The army, who had been on call in case something like this happened, moved in, and most of them were decimated in a matter of moments.
Without even seeming to speak or plan, the aliens moved as one, forming their ranks and cutting down their opponents with ease. The scene was so gruesome that the cameras stopped transmitting it, leaving the public in the dark.
Children clutched their parents, shaking in fear and horror. Those who were so inclined offered up prayers to their deities, kneeling in front of altars, clutching Bibles, counting beads on their rosaries.
It was a threat that no one was prepared for, that no one knew how to meet, and after that first show of strength, no one was quick to rush in again.
The first alien who had disembarked in the United States growled something in a language that seemed to be all consonants and then turned to get back on the ship.
And just like that, the first wave was over. All of the others got back on board their ships as well, and for a moment, it seemed like maybe they would leave. But the ships didn’t go anywhere, continuing to sit, pointing downward, in the ground.
There were twelve of them in all, and judging from how they seemed to be in the countries that held the most influence, it was clear they had done their research. The theory that they were just mindless beasts was thrown out the window.
They clearly had technology the likes of which humans could only dream of, and so some of the brightest and best minds in the world met in a summit to try and figure out a plan to beat this enemy. Or at least to reason with it if there was nothing else that could be done.
In the end, it was reasoning that saved them.
Dr. Richmond Anderson, a noted scientist and scholar who had been doing research into the possibilities of life on other planets stepped forward and offered to be the one to parley with the creatures.
He was warned, time and time again that it was dangerous and that likely, the aliens wouldn’t know what it meant to parley and would kill him on sight.
But he believed
that they were more advanced and intelligent than anyone was giving them credit for, and he went, stepping up to the ship that had landed in the United States to wait to be noticed.
He was gone for three whole days and nights, and the world was already prepared to mourn for him, assuming that he’d been killed on one of their ships. But at the end of the third night, like some kind of hero, he emerged from the ship, stepping off of it with a slightly shell shocked expression, but nonetheless whole.
What he returned with was more than he’d been expecting, and he hurried straight to the government to relay the information he’d gathered.
The creatures were called Calphesians, and they were from the planet Calphas, somewhere so far away that human technology couldn’t quite reach it, yet. They had come with the intent of destroying the human race and taking over to live on the planet since their own was dying and there was nothing left there for them.
They were a warrior race, prizing strength and survival above all things, which explained why they had defeated the first wave of armed forces so quickly.
At his information, some people wanted to launch another attack, they wanted to try to get rid of them so they’d never be able to hurt humans again, but Dr. Anderson knew better. He knew that even if we could beat them, it would be at great cost and would likely mean the deaths of hundreds of thousands before we won the war. He suggested something else.
He suggested peace.
Of course his suggestion was met with mixed reactions. Some people said that peace was impossible and the day we started reasoning with aliens was the day human beings became slaves to other kinds. Some people (mostly those from smaller, less well defended countries) insisted that peace was the way it all should have begun and that it was humanity’s own fault that those people had been killed for trying to attack first and ask questions later.
A vote was taken in the end, and trying to reason with the Calphesians was the clear winner, as it seemed that most of the world’s leaders were not looking forward to a war with a race of aliens they still knew very little about.
And so Dr. Anderson was sent back to that first ship, and the Calphesians were waiting for him. This time it didn’t take three days, it took less than three hours, and when Dr. Anderson disembarked from the ship, he held a tablet in his hands containing the first rough draftings of the Treaty Between Worlds.
At its core, it was a simple thing. The Calphesians wouldn’t attack or otherwise harm humans if they were allowed to live on this planet and go about their business freely. They would allow human scientists and engineers to have a look at their technology and human doctors to have a look at their bodies in order to advance their own knowledge; in return humans would provide them with women to help keep their population from dying out.
It was decided that the Treaty would be looked at as something almost ceremonial, a pact between worlds that otherwise might not have been able to coexist, and so it was signed into law that every five years each country where a major population cluster of Calphesians existed would offer them three women of marriageable age to marry and carry on their lines.
Many people disagreed with this part of the Treaty, not wanting of have to offer up their daughters and sisters to creatures from another planet, but when faced with the alternative, an enemy they would most likely not be able to defend against, what choice did they have?
And so the Treaty became law, and the Calphesians settled into society, building massive compounds that worked like apartment buildings with huge arenas in the middle of them. It was decided that they would figure out who got to marry the human women with a tournament to be held every five years, and they went about their business without bothering anyone.
People were wary, of course, having massive creatures with horns and weapons walking around was frightening, but by the time the first five years had come and gone, most people found that they barely even noticed the Calphesians anymore.
They went about their business and kept to themselves for the most part, mingling with humans only when they had no other choice. Humans didn’t go to their compounds unless it was for the tournaments, which everyone was invited to watch, and Calphesians only frequented those human places they had no other choice but to go to.
For the most part, it was almost like there were two separate societies existing within many major countries, and that’s just how things were.
Of course, there were those who couldn’t relax no matter what outward peace there was. Because they had to wonder if the Calphesians had made it to Earth with the intent of destroying the human race, what was stopping any other races out there from doing the exact same thing?
Chapter 2: Three for Three
The crowd was rowdy already and nothing had even happened yet. The massive man in the middle of the ring was reading from a tablet, talking about the long history of the tournaments held by the Calphesians and how glory and honor would be awarded to the victors.
When he started reading from a list of previous tournament champions, Roxanne Weaver zoned out.
She already didn’t want to be there. All around her was a strange mixture of Calphesians, clearly ready to see some action, and apprehensive humans who were trying to get into the spirit of things. Apprehensive because the smallest Calphesian was a head taller than even a very tall human, but clearly excited because if there was one thing people liked, it was a spectacle.
Roxy sniffed and rolled her eyes. She didn’t understand it, personally. These were the same creatures who had come to their planet and started making demands, started throwing around threats and waving around a dizzying array of weapons until they got what they wanted. There was no doubt that if it hadn’t been for the quick thinking of the people in charge, the death toll would have been higher and things would have turned out worse.
As far as things went, having the aliens on their planet and integrated into their society wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Ten years after the Calphesians had made their way to Earth, and having them around was the new normal. It was commonplace to be at the mall or the grocery store and see the tall, horned creatures going about their business as well.
For most people, it was easy to do. Having them around affected their lives very little now that the threat of being exterminated was lifted. For those that were called by the Treaty, it was a bit more difficult to go on with business as usual.
As stated in the Treaty, every five years, the three best warriors in the Calphesian clusters in every country where they had a significant population, would have their pick of three women of a marriageable age, picked by a random lottery. It was handled by the government and involved social security numbers and fingerprint scans, so there was no way around it.
This time, Roxanne’s name had been drawn, much to the displeasure of her and her family. She’d been given very little time to prepare, just told that she was one of the selections for this go round and ordered to show up at the tournament.
Her mother had cried, and her father had done his clenched jaw, staring at the wall bit that he did when he was angry and didn’t want to show it. But neither of them had been able to say or do anything to change it, and so now Roxanne was seated in the stands of the massive arena in the middle of the Calphesian compound, about to watch the creatures from another planet decide her fate.
Luckily, she wasn’t alone. Her best friend Samantha had been eager to see this sight for herself and had offered to come with her for moral support, though judging by the way she was leaning forward to watch as the competitors filed in, Roxy was willing to bet that there was more than being supportive on her mind.
Roxanne didn’t understand the fascination with the creatures. They were large and loud and rude, and given the choice, she would have stayed away from them. Of course, the whole reason she was there was because she didn’t have a choice in the matter.
No one wanted to know what would happen if the humans didn’t hold up their end of the TBW. There were m
any more humans than there were Calphesians, but they had weapons and technology that no one on Earth had ever seen.
Part of the treaty had allowed scientists and engineers the opportunity to examine some of their tech, which they’d leapt on, taking one of the ships that had been damaged in the first parts of the struggle into some secret lab to play with.
Honestly, Roxanne knew that the strides they could make with whatever they got from the Calphesian tech was worth trading the freedom of three women every half decade. At least in the eyes of the world’s governments, but it didn’t mean she had to like it. She sat there in the uncomfortable seat with her arms folded, brown eyes narrowed in a glare as she watched the Calphesians bring out their strongest.
“This is kind of exciting, isn’t it?” Samantha asked, still leaning forward as the horn blew and the tournament began. The first round was a contest of strength, seeing who could lift the heaviest load straight up above their head.
“It’s barbaric, is what it is,” Roxy replied. “Who cares who can lift a massive rock up over their head? What good does that do anyone?”
Samantha shrugged. “Well, if they value being strong above all else,” she pointed out. “And it’s just the first round. There’s a race and then a shooting competition and then the head to head battle.”
“Oh goody,” Roxy deadpanned. “I can hardly wait.” It was easy for Samantha to get into this. It was a welcome break from the mundanity of her nine to five job and everything that went along with that. She got a day to see something exciting and then she could go right back to her life with nothing much changed.
But Roxanne was not so lucky. After this, she’d be expected to marry one of these creatures, and her life would never be the same again.
“Which one of them do you think is going to pick you?” Samantha wanted to know. She squinted down at the assembled “champions”, preparing to lift large rocks over their heads.
Roxy fervently hoped that they’d drop them on their heads. “Who cares?”
