A New Reason To Fight: An Intergalactic Romance

by T. J. Brandow

  Finally, Dedron’s wait came to an end as official Commander’s guards came walking in to the prison to take him to the site of the arena.

  “Dedron Fildred, you are to come with us to the arena,” one of the officials in a silver robe stated. Herboran was nowhere to be seen, and for a moment Dedron wondered if the rebellion was really going to come off the way he had hoped it would.

  Dedron was led to a hover car similar to the one that had brought them to the prison. Inside, Laura, Kadija, Langur, and Donna were already seated in handcuffs. Dedron was placed beside Langur who looked over him with a knowing grin. The ride to the arena seemed to take an eternity, but they arrived in less than an hour. The arena was on the edge of the affluent district. It was a large, amphitheater-like building that brought to mind the construction of the ancient Romans with a touch of modernity. Perbron’s guards thoroughly searched any of the citizens that sought entry to the area, but no one was turned away. Perbron wanted his people to see what happened to his enemies. However, on the edges of the arena’s vicinity, armed members of the Remoir rebellion waited for their moment. Perbron had rounded up his most loud and vocal supporters to get the best seats in the arena. They shouted pro-Perbron statements pumping their fists into the air.

  “Kill the Defense Squad!” someone shouted.

  “Death to the Earthlings!” another yelled.

  The Defense Squad members were lined up in their handcuffs on the stage with armed guards on either side of them below a large virtual reality screen. Within seconds, the image of Commander Perbron appeared on the screen.

  “Citizens of Remoir and the city of Gertron, today is a proud day for us. For today, we will see the beginning of the demise of our enemies, the Defense Squad. This group, founded on an enemy planet, the Earth, was formed for the express purpose of undermining everything the Remoir civilization has worked towards. Last year, we suffered tremendous losses at their hands during the siege of Guanthan. Today, payback will truly begin. One of these cowardly Defense Squad members will face a formidable foe. If they are successful in defeating the foe, I will release their loved one. If they are not successful, their loved one will die alongside them. Either way, death is inevitable for each of the squad’s members!” This last statement made Perbron’s supporters erupt into a cheer.

  Donna looked up from where she stood beside Dedron at a large platform above them. There she could see all of the Defense Squad members’ loved ones lined up in handcuffs including her mother who was at the far right. She locked eyes with her mother who was staring back at her.

  “There they are,” she said to Dedron who looked up at them.

  “Do not worry, my dear. As you know, Perbron is not expecting the attack that is forthcoming. He will not know what hit him.”

  “I hope you’re right,” she said, smiling at him.

  “Now, I will announce the first competitor in this duel,” Perbron’s voice announced. “Our first competitor is…. Donna Stevens!”

  Dedron looked at her with a look of dread.

  “It’s ok, I’ve been training for this. Let’s just hope your friends decide to go through with the attack as planned,” she said, fearlessly.

  “Donna will face the soldier that some call the Crusher: Uteron Dread!” Perbron announced as his assembled crowd went wild. Two Guards walked up on either side of Donna and led her down the platform to an open space in front of the crowd. On either side of the open space were selected weapons including energy swords and more primitive weapons such as knives, shields, daggers, and swords. The energy swords were the most hi-tech weaponry; there were no laser guns or the like.

  The guards dispersed, leaving Donna standing there in her usual outfit of a t-shirt and short shorts. She pulled back her ponytail and tied up her raven black hair. Opposite her, a tall Remoir appeared in one of the silver robes. He removed the robe to reveal a muscular physique and the ugliest face Donna had ever seen. He had a large slashing scar across his cheek. It was truly a case of beauty vs. the beast.

  “And now the opponents will have their choice of weaponry in order to go head to head in a fight to the death. Let the fighting begin!” Perbron announced as the crowd went wilder than ever.

  Donna slowly began to approach Uteron with a scowl on her face.

  “They have picked a female to go against me, have they? This is going to be easier than I thought!” Uteron said as he grabbed a spear form the cache of weapons behind him and began to charge at Donna. She moved quickly to one side, slid the spear out of his hands and with a slashing motion, tripped Uteron. The crowd in the front made a gasping noise while the others further back began to cheer. Uteron got to his feet and let of a growl that sounded so evil, it made some of the crowd back up. Without even choosing another weapon, he came at Donna and attempted to tackle her. He managed to wrestle her to the ground, but she was within reach of her own cache of weapons just behind her. She managed to grab a dagger and hurled it at her opponent. It landed in his shoulder, causing him to give off a scream that echoed across the amphitheater. While he removed the dagger, Donna took the opportunity to jump up and grab an energy sword. Uteron smiled evilly and went to the other side to grab his energy sword. He turned it on and it gave off a bright purple beam, unlike Donna’s red beam. With a shout of rage, he ran at Donna swinging his energy sword right and left. Donna managed to duck to the left and run under his legs to avoid being hit. Once she was back on her feet she took a swipe at him, giving off a loud grump. Uteron moved his body back, avoiding the blow and struck her in the side of the arm with his beam. Donna cried out, moving her arm backwards to keep him from taking off her arm, but she was badly burned. She fell to the ground, gripping her wounded arm. The Remoir in the closest seats began to cheer as Uteron stood over her wearing the same evil smile. He held the energy beam over his head preparing to deal her a deathblow.

  “DO IT!” The crowd in the closest seats chanted in unison.

  “NO!” The crowd chanted behind them.

  Uteron looked around at the cheering crowd for a moment, and turned his attention back to Donna. He lifted the energy beam even higher in the air and was about to strike her down when a massive explosion took place just to the east of the arena. A second explosion followed on the west side. Uteron stood there stunned while the crowd began to panic. Many of them were already attempting to flee the arena. The guards had turned their attention to the site of the blast, and many of them were already running towards it. The other guards were attempting to calm down the panicking crowd. Outside of the gates, Rebroan, the tall leader of the Remoir rebellion gave his men the order to charge the gates. There were only a few of the guards left, so the rebellion forces quickly overcame them and entered the arena area. The guards that remained realized how outnumbered they were and most of them fled rather than choosing to fight the angered masses. Some of the assembled crowd decided to join in with the rebellion forces, throwing rocks at the guards and chanting that Perbron should come out and fight.

  Donna took advantage of the opportunity to run back up onto the platform and help her fellow Defense Squad cut the ropes around their wrists with the dagger she had used in combat. By the time they had climbed off of the platform, the whole area was in complete chaos. Most of Perbron’s men had either fled or were killed. The angry rebellion forces were trying to force their way inside of the building behind the arena where it was thought Perbron himself was being housed.

  “Bring him out!” the forces chanted, but there was no one left to hear their response.

  “Come on, let’s get up there to our loved ones!” Dedron said as the others followed him up a series of moveable walkways. By now, there were only a few guards left to make sure the Defense Squad members’ loved ones did not get away in the confusion. They began firing at Dedron as he got closer. He and the others ducked to avoid the beams and continued to advance up the walkways. The guards took the nine loved ones towards a doorway behind them, but Dedron had reached the platform and was
right behind them. Dedron caught up to the closest guard who continued to try and shoot Dedron and tackled him to the ground. With a grunt, the guard dropped his laser pistol. Dedron grabbed it and took off after the other guards. The hallway opened into a large room that looked to be a warehouse of some kind. Dedron, followed by Donna, Kadija, Laura, and Langur entered the warehouse and began to fire at the guards. Dedron hit one of them while Donna threw her dagger, which stuck right in the throat of the other guard. Donna’s mother ran over to her and threw her arms around her.

  “My baby, I knew you would come and save me. I don’t know how, but somehow I knew,” she said, burying her head in Donna’s chest.

  “Come on, everyone. We have no time for this now. We must get back to our ship if we can,” Dedron said. They made their way out of the building near the arena. The crowd had mostly dispersed and the rebellion forces were cheering. Dedron noticed that Rebroan was stepping down from the platform at the arena after addressing the crowd. He wore a victorious grin on his face. Dedron and the others ran over to him.

  “Rebroan, I want to thank you for…” Dedron began, but before he could finish, Rebroan hugged him as a huge cheer went up in the crowd.

  “No, Dedron of the Intergalactic Defense Squad, we need to thank you. For you have lit a spark that needed to be lit, providing us with the perfect opportunity to take back what is ours: our freedom!” A huge cheer followed this statement.

  “Well, it was not my idea to hold the event. I would have to credit that to Perbron. Were you able to find him and bring him to justice?” Dedron asked.

  “Alas, no, but Perbron and his men have fled the vicinity. We now have control of the city of Gertron! It is a humble but important beginning!” Rebroan announced. The crowd went wilder than ever. Soon, Herboran came over to shake Dedron and the other’s hands in a gesture of solidarity. Now, the Defense Squad members did not have to flee so quickly. They stayed on for another night to celebrate the victory for the citizens of Gertron before departing the planet of Remoir. For Perbron was plotting his next move, and they didn’t want to be within easy striking distance once his latest plan was hatched.

  Dedron plotted a course for Earth, ready for the Defense Squad to return to the place where General Barron told him he and Donna would be treated as deserters. They could only hope that their acts of bravery would put them back in the general’s good graces. Donna walked on to the bridge after all the others were asleep to have some time alone with her man.

  “Mind if I join you?” She asked.

  “I insist,” Dedron said. “As long as you can assure me that your mother and everyone else is asleep,” he said.

  “Rest assured,” she said as she began to climb on top of him. She removed her top, and kissed his neck. Dedron used the control panel to switch the ship into autopilot mode and eased the seat back as a blanket of stars surrounded the two lovers.

  Beyond Reality

  An Unusual Alien Romance Story

  T.J. Brandow

  Table of Contents:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

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  ONE

  Maggie Wallace was tired. Bone tired. And not just because she’d just finished a long haul from Albuquerque, New Mexico, all the way over to Fort Worth, either. No, this weariness was something else entirely. And his name was Fred.

  No, scratch that, his name was ‘two-timing, waste of space jerk, Fred.’ One needed to say the whole thing if they wanted to get it right. And that little waitress, Jeanie, was probably back in his bed right this minute, too.

  Thank goodness she’d said no when he asked her to move in with him. Work was difficult enough without trying to work on a failing relationship, too. But Fred had wanted her to quit driving and settle down with him, buy a bigger house, and even adopt a kid or two since she couldn’t have her own. The whole nine yards. Maybe she just wasn’t ready, Maggie thought. If she was, that whole scenario he’d described might have sounded heavenly.

  Thing was, she didn’t really need to drive her truck to make money. She owned the shipping company and could easily have paid somebody else. And she was to the point of doing that, too. Paying the driver, and paying the lumpers at the other end, and just taking it easy for once in her life. Trouble was, she just plain didn’t know how.

  Maggie was a most unusual woman, really. In a word where female truck drivers were somewhat rare, she was one of the best. Not because she was built like a linebacker intent on lifting her entire load; she was actually somewhat small as far as women truck drivers went. She wasn’t obese, nor was she overly tall at only five feet, six inches. Her body was what you’d call voluptuous, really, with a somewhat thin waistline, but with just enough cleavage and a rounded backside. All that, and the fact that she hadn’t even hit the age of thirty, tended to turn some eyes.

  Yeah, she could easily find a better boyfriend than two-timing Fred, and she had half a mind to go out to the honky-tonk to do just that. Except, she was still too tired. She was dozing out in her truck waiting for the lumpers to get finished so she could turn around and head home again. But really, she’d be better off if she just checked in someplace now that the run was over and she wasn’t due back in Plainview until the end of the week.

  Just in time to find that little trollop snoozing in Freddie’s bed. She’d given him Saturday as the date of her return on purpose. She needed to get back sooner if she hoped to prove she was right. No, there wouldn’t be any sleep for her tonight.

  “Here’s the invoice, Maggie,” said Chico Rodriguez, her man of the hour. “I added a fourth member to the crew so we could get the cargo out sooner. Hope you don’t mind?”

  “Nope, I don’t mind this time,” she sighed.

  “Know it’s none of my business, Maggie, but are you sure you’re able to drive?” he asked. “You look really whipped.”

  “I’ll be all right,” she insisted, taking the extreme length of her copper curls into one hand and her scrunchie in the other, and somehow making the two connect. “I really just want to get home tonight.”

  “Maggie, nothing could be so important that you would risk your life, and the lives of others who got near you out there,” he insisted. “If you get too tired, you really need to sleep, okay?”

  She smiled at his concern. “Rodriguez, you’re a good egg,” she told him. “But trust me, okay? I’m going to be just fine. I’ll stop by the diner and snag a huge keg of coffee. That ought to do it, right?”

  He laughed. “I’ll see you next time.”

  “One week,” she said, giving him a fist-bump. “Be there, or be square.”

  Chico watched as Maggie shifted the truck into gear and headed for the road. Crossing himself and kissing his rosary, he prayed that she’d be all right.

  *****

  “Sir, we are approaching Earth now, heading one-niner,” reported his sister Linnid, the navigations officer on their privately owned interstellar transport, in her droning monotone. “All systems are clear and ready for descent upon your mark.”

  Lobo Akito nodded once as she pushed a few more buttons. “Make it so, Linnid. Everybody buckle in. This may get rocky.”

  “This is going to be so exciting,” gushed one of the passengers as she hurried over to an acceleration couch, grinning broadly at the three other women she’d brought along for the ride. “We’re actually going to see Spring Break in person!”

  The other ladies squealed right along with her, and Lobo could feel the beginnings of a headache coming o
n. He couldn’t wait to drop off the others and then take some time out on his own. Visions of wide-open fiends and indigenous life-forms of the non-human variety danced through his head as he visualized just himself and his rover off exploring the planet.

  The last time he came down to Earth, he’d been only two years old, not much more than an infant. Hardly an experience he was likely to remember, being towed around by his mother while his father enacted his captain’s duties, ensuring that the travelers were safe and knew their lessons about the planet well enough that they would be able to blend in.

  During his formative years, while he was learning how to interact with and hide among the many different species on the planets his father brought him to, he’d never been allowed to leave the ship again. And though he’d captained his own ship for a while, he’d never come to this world with it until now.

  But times sure had changed since his last visit. Now, the Earthlings were so crazy it didn’t matter if the Karrianas blended in with them or not. They’d welcome his people just the same, maybe even better, if they acted somewhat out of place.

  “Lobo, the eagle has landed,” Linnid teased. “Are you sure you want to go planetside all alone?”

  “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” Lobo replied, rolling his eyes in the direction of the annoying females.

  Casting him an imploring glance, Linnid pleaded, “Take me with you?”

  “Forget it, sis,” he scoffed. “Dad wants you to run this mission on your own. He isn’t just going to hand command of one of the other vessels over to you until you’ve gotten your feet wet first. You know I’m really only along for the ride.”

  “How are you supposed to be my babysitter and hold my hand if you’re off doing who knows what, who knows where?”

  “I have no idea,” he shrugged. “But what I do know is, I’ve been needing a vacation for a long time. I am so, so looking forward to this.”