A New Reason To Fight: An Intergalactic Romance

by T. J. Brandow

  Once the entire crew was off of the ship, they were still being stared at. To their right was an assembled group of mostly humans with a few other races of beings including slimy, yellow Hoffenders and two giant, muscular Pendamoaners.

  “What are a bunch of humans, a Lanthan, and a Baringge doing in a Remoir fighter?” a burly man dressed in a dirty space suit asked the group as they walked by.

  “It’s really a long story,” Donna said as the group kept walking.

  “I got time for you to tell me,” the man replied as his eyes washed over Donna. Dedron’s nostrils flared and his expression became a red-hot glare.

  “Too bad I don’t,” Donna replied, causing the man’s companions to laugh at him.

  “Shut up!” he told them. “You can’t handle me, anyway baby!” he called after them.

  Past the blacktop where the various ships were parked was a walkway to the settlement. There were no moving walkways or other modern conveniences. Beings of every description came and went along the walkway, although the vast majority seemed to be humans. Soon, the walkway ended at a wide avenue lined with stone and wooden storefronts that looked hastily assembled. Merchants of every description sold goods of every sort. The air was full of the sound of bargaining merchants and customers. There were weapons, food, and even sex being sold everywhere they looked. The women in the group felt nervous and annoyed at some of the looks the males gave them.

  “Where is this guy’s shop and when will we get there?” Laura asked impatiently.

  “We are almost there. His name is Charlie Kendall. I’ll do the talking,” Ken said, proudly. Although most of the group was focused on the shops ahead and on either side of them, something prompted Donna to look behind them. Far off in the distance, she noticed a large, worm-like creature whispering to what appeared to be a Remoir guard. Donna turned back and waved for her companions to follow her into a nearby alley.

  “What is it?” Dedron asked her.

  “I just spotted a Remoir guard back there,” she said.

  “Oh crap!” David said.

  “Was he looking at us?” Dedron asked.

  “No, he was talking to some, eh, wormy thing,” she said.

  “Oh, those are Mustionas,” Ken shared.

  “Well, whatever is was, we need to make sure it doesn’t spot us. Although that Remoir may just be here trying to buy something like everyone else, he may be here trying to look for us. Everyone be on your guard,” Dedron said. “Can we get to your friend’s shop through these back alleyways?” he asked Ken.

  “Yeah, I think I can get us there this way. Follow me,” Ken said.

  After a few bends in the road, they made their way back to one of the main streets. There were spaceship dealerships lining the entire street with customers coming and going every which way. As the group of companions made their way down the street, many of the salesmen barked at them like carnies at a sideshow.

  “You need a great deal? We’ve got one at Sam’s discount spaceships!” one tall man with a five o’ clock shadow and a cheap-looking suit barked at them. They ignored this man and kept walking.

  “It’s just down this way a bit further,” Ken insisted. Donna was nervous. She kept her eyes peeled for the Remoir that she’d seen earlier. Much to her relief, he was nowhere in sight. Finally, they came to the end of the row of dealerships. An old neon sign with two letters burned out beckoned the group: “Charlie’s Deal of the Century Spaceships”

  Charlie was a portly man with a spacesuit that he wore as a sales gimmick.

  “Come right on in here, folks. Have we got a deal for you!” he said.

  “Is that so?” Ken teased.

  “Ken Densmore?” Charlie asked as his face lit up.

  “The one and only!” he said.

  “Well why didn’t you say right away it was you. Come on in here and bring your attractive companions with you. What brings you to this shithole of a swamp?” he asked.

  “We came here to see you,” he said. “We have a genuine Remoir Kebroran Fighter Rocket that we’d like to trade in for the fastest, most well-armed rocket you have,” Ken answered.

  “A Remoir Kebroran? How the hell did you come to have one of those?”

  “It’s a very long story.”

  “Is it stolen?”

  “Not exactly?”

  “I don’t care if it is. I always burn off any of the serial numbers when I purchase a ship. If any of those Remoirs were to come sniffing around here, god forbid. So who are these companions of yours?”

  “This is Donna, Laura, Kadija, David, Dedron, and eh……” he said, as he tried to think of the Lanthan’s name.

  “Langur,” he squeaked.

  “Langur. We were all selected to be part of the Intergalactic Defense Squad before the Remoirs attacked us.”

  “Wow, you DO have a tale to tell don’t you?” he said. “Well come right this way, and I’ll show you what kind of a trade we can make for your Remoir Fighter Rocket.”

  As they walked, Dedron took Ken aside to whisper something to him.

  “Listen, I want to caution you about telling this man too much about what’s happened to us. I’m aware that you have known him for some time, but we shouldn’t trust anyone at this point.”

  “No worries, man. I got this,” Ken said, confidently, but Dedron was worried.

  “Alright, let’s see what we have here. How about this beauty,” he said as he turned to his right and motioned towards a large rocket. It was white and silver and with two large wings that protruded from either side of its elliptical body. Although it looked a little used, there was no visible damage that could be seen.

  “This here is a Kat Fighter x-15. They were built a few decades ago to fight against the Remoirs actually,” he said.

  “And why did they stop using them?” Donna asked, skeptically.

  “Well that’s an easy one, missy. They stopped using them because they came up with something that could attain greater speeds. Still, it’s hard to go wrong with this beauty,” he said, confidently. Dedron climbed inside the ship while the others were listening to Charlie.

  “Eh, hold on there, man…” Charlie called after him. Dedron tried to start up the ship, but no matter what he tried, it wouldn’t start.

  “This one’s no good,” Dedron said.

  “But it just needs fuel.”

  “The fuel gauge says otherwise,” Dedron said. The others all gave Charlie a disappointed stare.

  “I have some other models that would serve your needs much better than that,” he joked, but the others were not amused.

  Chapter 9

  Charlie walked further down the line of ships in his stock looking them over with his hand up to his chin like he was deep in thought. The majority of the ships that they saw looked run down in one form or another. Dedron and Donna looked at each other, and both shook their heads dubiously. They were beginning to wonder if they should take their business elsewhere.

  “Ah, here we go. This is the one for you!” he said stopping beside the last ship in the line. “I’ve been saving this one, but since Ken is an old pal of mine and you have a Remoir fighter to trade, you can have it,” he said.

  The crew looked at the ship expecting another hunk of junk. However, the ship they were looking at appeared to be in good condition.

  “This here is last year’s addition of an American Air Force Space Fighter 3k. I got a hell of a deal on it after the new ones came out. A retired soldier sold it to me.”

  “Legally?” Dedron asked.

  “Don’t know, don’t care. This is the black market. If you want something with a cleared serial number, you’ve come to the wrong moon,” Charlie responded. The crewmembers looked up at the ship to size it up. It resembled a bullet with its cone-like shape and silver color. It had too thrusters and two broad wings. The group walked onto the ship and looked around. It was spacious with a round bridge and plenty of weapons including four rapid-fire laser cannons and a blaster gun in the very
front. Everything looked to be in tip-top shape, but Dedron went to the engine room to make sure. The others were examining the rest of the ship including the bridge and its computers and control panels. Charlie stood nearby with his arms folded.

  “Well?” he asked after about the crew had been inside the ship for nearly an hour.

  “Can’t find anything wrong with it,” Dedron said. Ken smiled; he was feeling satisfied that he’d made the right decision by bringing them there.

  “Of course there’s not anything wrong with it,” Charlie said. “Now, let’s go have a look at your fighter. Let’s take my hover car.” He walked over to the vehicle, which was parked nearby and everyone piled in.

  “So you did remove the tracking device on the Remoir fighter, didn’t you?” Charlie asked once everyone was inside the vehicle.

  “Tracking device?” David asked.

  “We didn’t know about it,” Dedron said. Charlie looked in the rear view mirror with a worried glance.

  “Let’s hope that they haven’t tracked you yet,” he finally said. When they reached the large blacktop carved out of the surrounding swamp, they were alarmed by what they saw. Remoirs holding laser cannons had surrounded the fighter, and guarding it closely. Charlie parked the car at the far edge of the blacktop.

  “We’ve got problems,” Charlie said. “Remoirs always track their ships. Whenever I got one in my shop that was the first thing that I would do was remove the tracking device.”

  “Well it’s a little late to suggest that now,” Donna said.

  “What are we going to do?” Kadija asked.

  “We are going to take the fighter back,” Dedron said.

  “How?” Laura asked.

  “I know. Let’s create a distraction to draw them away from the fighter. You know blow something up or something,” David said.

  “Yeah right, that’s not going to work,” Laura shot back.

  “I think he maybe right,” Dedron said to the amazement of the others.

  “See, I told you it was a good idea,” David said, high-fiving Ken.

  “I have a couple of the blaster grenades in my bag just in case,” Donna said.

  “Great. That building over there; is it used for anything?” Dedron asked, pointing to what looked to be a rundown abandoned warehouse.

  “Not anymore. It used to house research equipment by some Earth scientists that were studying this moon,” Charlie answered.

  “Perfect,” Dedron said. “Let’s have that blaster grenade,” he said extending his hand towards Donna. She looked at him as if lizards were crawling from his ears.

  “I can do it, thank you very much,” she said. Then, she ran over to the warehouse. She pulled the pin and threw the grenade into the warehouse and ran back towards the hover car. In a matter of seconds the warehouse blew sky high as flames leapt up into the air. The captain of the Remoir guards yelled for them to go check out the situation, so they all ran towards the warehouse. Donna was now safely back inside the car.

  “Drive to the fighter!” Dedron said to Charlie. He stepped on the accelerator and drove them right up to the fighter.

  “Alright, everyone stay here. I’ll fly the fighter back to Charlie’s dealership!” Dedron said. He got in the cockpit and initiated the launch sequence. By the time the Remoirs started coming back, Dedron was already in the air. The Remoirs began to shout to each other, pointing at the fighter above their heads. One of them lifted his laser cannon as if he were prepared to blast the ship to bits, but the captain shouted for him to lower his weapon. They obviously wanted to recover the fighter without damaging it if possible. The Remoirs turned their attention to the hover car that Charlie was backing away from the fighter. Charlie drove as quickly as he could to get away from them. At the edge of the blacktop, the Remoirs had their own fighter ship that they boarded. Charlie knew all of the shortcuts back to his business, so he flew above the back roads while the others braced themselves.

  “Hang on everyone!” Charlie said. Donna looked out of the window and saw the Remoir ship closing in on them.

  “Can this thing go any faster? They are just above us now!” Donna yelled.

  “I’m going as fast as I can,” Charlie answered. A second later, the Remoir ship shot a laser beam at the car. Charlie made a sudden turn to avoid the beam, which disintegrated a nearby building. Unfortunately, the Remoir ship wasted no time in shooting more beams at them. Again, Charlie maneuvered the hover car in order to miss the beam.

  “What are we going to do? It’s only a matter of time before one of those beams hits its mark!” Laura declared. The others were so scared, they didn’t even respond to this.

  Just when things seemed to be at their most hopeless, Dedron appeared in the other Remoir fighter, heading straight for the Remoirs that were attacking the hover car. Without warning, Dedron fired a series of laser beams and a guided missile for good measure. The attacking Remoir fighter blew apart as the companions in the hover car let out a cheer.

  “Go Dedron!” David called out.

  “Alright!” Ken shouted.

  “Woohoo!” Laura exclaimed.

  “That’s my man, eh, Barringe,” Donna belted.

  “Whew,” Charlie said as beads of sweat began to form puddles on his forehead. He drove back to his dealership and arrived at the same time Dedron landed the Remoir fighter. As Dedron exited the craft, his fellow squad members all lined up to hug and congratulate him. He looked a bit nervous not being accustomed or overly fond to such attention.

  “Thanks,” he said as his expression turned ruddy for the third time Donna had ever seen it. She walked right up to him and planted a long, wet, tongue-filled kiss on him while the others stood close by. Kadija and Laura looked at each other with wide eyes as they erupted into giggles.

  “Damn,” David said.

  “That lucky son of a Barringe,” Ken said. Now Dedron was even more embarrassed than before. In addition, he was in a daze from the kiss Donna had planted on him.

  “I love you,” Donna said in a barely audible voice. They kissed again for even longer, and Dedron couldn’t help but break into a huge grin. After the excitement over Donna’s public show of affection died down, Dedron cleared his throat.

  “I want to say something. I only did what I felt like I had to do at the time. I’m sure each and every one of you would have done the same for any of us as a fellow Defense Squad member. I am now more determined than ever that we complete the mission that was put forth for us. We will proceed to Guanthan, but we should gather some forces to help us. We can contact our allies who have their own grievances with the Remoir and defeat them soundly. Also, I don’t want any of you to think that I’m trying to take the sergeant’s place. I am not making the decisions I am making because I want to be your leader. I will listen to any and everyone that has an idea or opinion about our course of action. To be decisive and take action is the Barringe way.”

  “Dedron for President!” David joked.

  “Stop it!” Laura snapped at him.

  “I’m not kidding. Dedron should be our leader. He’s already saved our asses a bunch of times,” David said.

  “Oh, I agree,” Laura added.

  “Me too,” Kadija said.

  “Well, you know what I think.” Donna smiled and put her arm around Dedron. “What do you say? Do you accept the role of Defense Squad Leader?” Donna said. Dedron looked at her and then the others and grinned.

  “If this is the will of the Defense Squad, I will be your leader,” he said.

  “Alright!” Ken called out. One by one all of the squad members came up and embraced Dedron. At this point he was blushing a deep red nearly as deep as it was the first night he and Donna had made love.

  “Congratulations,” Charlie said as he came up and shook Dedron’s hand. “So are we ready to sign the paperwork on this trade?”

  “Yes we are,” Dedron said as he followed Charlie towards his office.

  After an hour or so, the transaction was of
ficial and the crew prepared to depart the swamp moon.

  “Thanks for everything,” Ken said, shaking his old acquaintance’s hand.

  “Hey anything for an old friend. Not that you’re old; I was more referring to me,” he said with a smile. “Now, you let me know if you have any trouble out of that Space Fighter 3k, not that you should. It’s in great shape as you saw for yourself.”

  “You’re making me a little nervous,” Ken said.

  Charlie laughed and patted him on the back as the others came over to say their goodbyes.

  “Thank you for everything,” Dedron said.

  “Hey no sweat. Take out some Remoirs for me while you’re at it!” Charlie said, giving Dedron a firm handshake.

  “Thanks,” Donna said, hugging him.

  Everyone boarded the ship for departure. Due to the fact that there could still be Remoir forces around looking for them, the crew didn’t want to wait around. The crewmembers decided to take shifts manning the ship as they began the journey towards Guanthan, and Dedron took the first shift. Soon the swamp moon receded into a rich, green dot in the vastness of space. Donna and Dedron sat together in the bridge, each lost in their own thoughts. Looking down on the moon they’d just landed, Donna thought about how she regretted not being able to see the vast green swamps. Ever since her childhood, she’d always appreciated wild, green places that no one else wanted to venture into. Her thoughts turned to the future, after her mission to kill Commander Frembor was over and the Remoirs were defeated. In that future, she could see herself and Dedron exploring the wild and beautiful places of the universe together.

  CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINING CHAPTERS…

  The Zookeeper

  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