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.
"Excuse me," Alice spoke sharply and Erena looked over to see one of the bigger, more brutish looking aliens pulling at the captain's clothing, "I don't know if you can understand me but that is not polite. I do not want you to do that. We are explorers representing the human race. If you would allow us, we would like to-"
She was cut off once again as the large alien, with a grunt of annoyance, punched her in the face, knocking her out. The rest of the team exploded into shouts of anger.
Sergei tackled the alien nearest him and Paolo and Finn rushed to help him. Erena was still trying to get her bearings back from hitting her head on the seat, but she snapped into focus as she saw the thinner alien trying to drag Alice away.
"Hey!" she shouted, running at the creature, "Let her go!"
A whip like tail appeared behind the alien seemingly out of nowhere and struck Erena in the neck before she was even within arm’s reach of the creature. At once she staggered, a weird heat blossoming from where she'd been punctured, which slowed her down and made her stumble, falling to her knees, and then to the ground completely, unable to move her body.
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STRANDED WITH THE ALIEN ASSASSIN
CELESTIAL MATES BOOK 3
In a shocking turn of events, Jayne Mannet ends up stranded with an alien assassin, causing a conflict between her heart and her head.
In Imdali, it has always been about what the eye doesn’t see.
To a fast-talking girl from New York, it was never a place Jayne Mannet should have been. Being kidnapped and sold to the highest bidder, Jayne must find a way to escape and make her way back home, all the while trying not to lose her h
umanity in the process.
But that becomes difficult when one of them responsible for her kidnapping, a mysterious, secretive alien named D’Anil Troga, becomes closer and closer to her in ways that Jayne could have never expected, causing a conflict between her heart and her head.
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Aiten Tau, the mysterious and powerful commander of the alien’s military forces, is put in charge of Penny and her team, and takes particular interest in Penny.
They struggle to understand each other in time to prevent a cosmic catastrophe, but their growing feelings for each other may only get in the way. Giving in to her passion for the Alien Commander could make Penny the vanguard of an interplanetary war…
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Royal Protector: Battle Of Love (Celestial Mates Book 8) Page 10
