Rai

by Maia Starr

  Finally, I was moved into an interrogation room. It was exactly like the ones we had on my own planet, as it should be. We were all of the same race, just on different sides. They sat me down in a chair and strapped me to it.

  “What the hell is going on? Why am I here?” I shouted at the warriors; they just grinned and then continued out of the room. They locked the door behind them. I sat in there for about an hour. Then finally, Ephane came into the room. He had a satisfying and arrogant grin on his face.

  “I hope I did not keep you waiting long,” he said.

  “Where is she? What did you do with her?” I growled.

  “You do not need to concern yourself with the human female. She is safe. She is resting,” he said with a smile that said I should not believe what he said.

  “Now, Commander, are you going to tell me what you were doing on Earth?”

  “Now that you have the human female, I think you know. I was looking for a human mate, just like all of us Draqua.

  “Is that all?”

  “Yes, what else would I be doing on Earth? I cannot be there alone and stay there for very long. It is too dangerous. As you know. I flew in found a human within an hour, took her, and left. Then you came upon me. I tried to get away, but your pilot was faster than I am.”

  “Yes, that was some good flying on your part, but not good enough. It seems that we caught you by surprise.”

  “Yes, and that is the only reason I am here. You caught me by surprise,” I said to him.

  “Still, I think there is more than you are saying. But fortunately for you, it will have to wait. I am in the middle of a very big project of my own. Because of that, you will have to wait in the prison cells for a few days before I can see to you. I just wanted to let you know,” he said as he began to walk out.

  “When will I see her? Where is she?!” I shouted at him over and over. He closed the door, and I continued to shout. I had to make it look good. I had to make it look real.

  An hour later, I was taken below the decks and into the dark cavern where there were many prison cells. I was struggling with the guards and asking for Maria. I had to stay consistent. They threw me into a cell and locked it behind me.

  “Cerik? Is that you?” I heard Maria's voice say.

  “Maria? You are here? Are you alright? Did they hurt you?” I said, getting to my feet and moving over to the bars of my cell. I wrapped my hands around the bars and looked across the corridor to another cell. Maria was sitting on the ground; she looked weak. I felt a rush of hate fill my deepest core. If Ephane hurt her, I would kill him. She looked as though she had just woke up.

  “I am not sure. They gave me a shot, and that is all that I remember. I passed out. I don't know what they did to me. Now I am very weak, and I can barely stand on my feet.”

  I wanted to punch Ephane in the face right then and there. I felt very guilty that I had put her in this position. When I first made up this plan for this mission, the human female that I was going to take from Earth was a faceless person. But now she was a real human, and I had started to feel things for her. Now I hated myself as well for putting her through this. She could never know that I was doing this on purpose. She would hate me forever, and I did not want that to happen.

  “It sounds like they put you to sleep. Was it a shot with a very long needle?”

  “Yes, that is exactly what it was. It hurt like hell too, but only for a minute, and then I felt nothing. Then I woke up here. I woke up only minutes before now.”

  “They put you to sleep. I have no idea why. Do not worry. We will not be here for very long; I promise you that. I am going to get us out of here. I'm going to get us both out of here; I promise that to you, Maria.”

  “I hope that you can keep that promise,” she said.

  “I am already working on it,” I said, moving over to the lock on my cell. I made quick work of it, and in no time it opened.

  “How did you do that? How did you unlock your cell? Do mine,” she said.

  “Can you stand up?”

  She tried to stand but could not. This was going to be a problem. I had to go into the space station and be stealthy. I had to find what I came to find and I could not do that if I had to carry a human female. I would not blend in at all .

  “I cannot stand. You will have to carry me,” she said.

  “Then you will have to stay here. I'm sorry,” I said.

  “What? What do you mean? Don't leave me here”, she said in anger.

  “I will be back for you. If someone comes, just say that a warrior came to fetch me. That will keep them busy for a while as they try to figure out who took me from the cell and why.”

  “No, don't leave me here. You won't come back. You will leave me here stranded. I don't know what they have done to me or what they are going to do to me. You cannot leave me here, Cerik.”

  “Listen to me, Maria. I am going to go and find an easy way to get us out of here. But it is going to take me blending in. I cannot do that if I am carrying you. It will give us away. I am sure that there are not very many human females on this ship, if any at all. But I promise you that I will come back for you. I just need an hour or two, and I will be back. In the meantime, try to get your strength back. Try to stand and move your legs around. I promise I will come for you,” I said as I began to move down the hallway.

  “Your promises mean nothing,” I heard her say as I walk down the long corridor of prison cells. Her words stung. She did not believe me; she had every right not to believe me. I had promised her that we would not be captured in the first place and having broken that promise now, I was making another promise to her and she saw it as an empty promise. She was on a strange ship with strange aliens, and it was a lot for one human to take in. I hated that I had to put her through this, but I had to. I had no choice.

  I moved into the main hallway of the ship. I now knew exactly where I needed to go. As soon as I exited the prison cells, I was surprised to see that there weren't any guards posted. I moved into an empty room. There was a mirror, and I looked myself over. I pulled my long hair back into a bun. I looked for a blaster gun and found an entire closet full of weapons. I grabbed one and put it on my boot. I looked just like any of the other hybrids on this ship. There was no reason to think that I was a prisoner. I cleaned up and then I was ready. I moved back into the hallway and knew exactly where I needed to go: the archives. I had studied the blueprints of the space station well. They had been smuggled out by one of our spies. I walked down the hallway and nodded to warriors that I passed in greeting. None of them paid any attention to me other than to nod back. I made my way to the archive and walked right in. Now I was on my own. I did not know what I was looking for other than the fact that Ephane would be the leader of this big project. I sat down at a monitor and began to search his name. There was a long list of files that came up. I scrolled quickly down, looking for anything that stood out. But after fifteen minutes I was growing anxious. There was nothing unusual. But then finally toward the end of the list, there was something that stood out. It was a file that was labeled “The Key.” That was unusual. What key needed an entire file? I opened the file, and several documents came up in our own language. I began to read. I was horrified. This was it. It was a recipe for a virus. It was a virus that would cause human females to become barren. This was his big plan. I continued to read but knew that I was running out of time. I dug into the compartment on my boot and pulled out a device that I had brought specifically for this mission. I pushed it into the monitor and copied over the file labeled. Finally, it was downloaded. I pulled my device from the monitor and pushed it back into my boot. I was glad that I had not been searched, but every warrior had a device like this on his boot as a standard, and they would think nothing of it, unless they opened it.

  I took the device and left the archive. Now I would need to get Maria out of the prison cell. But how would I do this? The only way that I could see fit would be to hide her. I would have to hide her
and take her out to the landing port and load her onto a ship, whichever ship I was going to take. That was it. I was going to have to pretend that she was cargo. She was not going to like that. I moved to the landing port straight to the loading docks. There were plenty of wheeled carts with massive boxes on them. It was perfect. Everyone was working, and no one paid any attention to me. I was very glad for this heavily populated space station; it was almost like a small village. I wheeled the cart back into the hallway of the space station back toward the prison cells. I opened the door to the dark cavern and wheeled it in and closed the door behind me. I stopped and listened. It was dead quiet. This meant there were no warriors inside looking for me. So far, so good. I was getting very lucky on this mission.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  MARIA COVALLOS

  I could not believe that he left me. Would he really come back for me? Or would he just save his own skin? I had no way of knowing. I did not know this alien at all. Sure, he was defensive whenever I was taken from his ship, but that did not mean anything. Actions spoke louder than words, and he had left me in the damn prison cell alone. I hated him for it. I had hated him all along; it was just my desire for him that made me think I did not hate him. But desire and like we're two different things. You could desire someone and still hate them. That was how I felt then. I hated him to my very core.

  Still, I did as he asked. I worked on getting my strength back, not because I thought he was coming for me, but because I was going to have to get myself out of this mess. But how? I could not fly one of those ships. I had no idea how they worked. But one step at a time, and the step at this moment meant trying to walk again. I was terrified. What had they done to me? I was glad that the commander identified what had been given to me. But that did not give me much relief. Why did they need to put me to sleep to begin with? What did they do to me while I was asleep? Did I really want to know? It was possible that I would be so horrified by it that it was probably better that I did not know. I grabbed onto the bars and pulled myself up slowly onto my feet. As soon as I did, I felt the pins and needles as the blood rushed to my legs as though they had been asleep. Then I shook one leg out and then the other. Slowly, I was getting the feeling back, and my strength. I clung to the bars waiting and concentrating on waking up my body. Then I felt the feeling come back and I was less groggy. The drug was wearing off, and it must be the blood rushing through me. That was good to know; it meant that all I had to do was pump more blood into my body and it would help wake me up. I put my back to the bars and leaned against them. I moved my hands over my head, up and down as though I was doing jumping jacks, but only with my arms. It was helping. Soon I was able to stand without the help of the bars. I bent my knees and straightened and did it again and again like I was doing squats. It was getting the blood pumping through my body. I felt my heart beating faster and was less sluggish. And no time at all, I was walking back and forth in the cell. I was scared to sit down or lay down; I did not want the feeling to come back, so I began to walk circles around the cell. I wondered how Cerik had opened his cell. Did he have some sort of device on him to pick a lock? If so, why did he not give it to me so that I could try? He seemed to know exactly what to do in our situation. I wondered if he had been captured before and this was normal for him.

  After about two hours, I heard a sound. It sounded like wheels being rolled along the floor. I was walking back and forth in the cell looking down the long hall. I saw a cart being pushed with a heavy box on it. The warrior that pushed it was not too visible because it was so dark. It was like a dungeon down there. I noticed that he did not have long hair; it was not the commander. I began to panic wondering what this warrior wanted with me and this cart.

  “Good, I see you got your strength back,” the cvoice said.

  “It's you! Thank God. I didn't recognize you with your hair up,” I said as I saw his face for the first time.

  “I told you that I would come for you. I promised.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  “Now let me get you out of there,” he said as he began to fiddle with the lock.

  “What is that cart for?” I asked him.

  “For you, I am afraid. It is the only way that I can get you out of here without anyone noticing.”

  “That? You want me to hide in that? I don't think I will fit,” I said, remembering just how claustrophobic I was.

  “You will be fine. Here is the plan. I am going to put you in this cart and take you out onto the landing port I am going to put you on a ship and then take off. I will come open the cart whenever I know that it is safe to do so. Do you understand this plan?” he asked.

  “Yes, I do. I wish it were a different plan, but anyway out of here is good enough for me.”

  “There, it's open,” he said opening the door.

  I quickly ran out of the cell and for some reason I jumped into his arms. I hugged him tightly. I was just so thankful that he had come back for me. I was so thankful that he knew what he was doing and had the skill to unlock the door and get us out of there. He put his large hands on the small of my back. I could feel the heat from his skin. Even in this moment of danger, I was completely aroused by him. I looked up at his towering form into his soft brown eyes. He gave me a little sideways grin. It was that arrogant grin once more.

  “I know you want me, Maria, but it's going to have to wait until we have more time. I want to make sure that I fuck you properly,” he smiled.

  “Ugh, I was just giving you a hug to thank you. Now how do I get into this thing?” I said pushing myself off of him.

  He opened a large silver box on the cart. It was very long, like a trunk; I climbed into it and laid down on my side in fetal position.

  “I am going to leave the lid open just a crack. To let some air in. I don't need you suffocating,” he said in a teasing way. I didn't know how he could be so playful at the moment like this.

  I could see out of it but just a sliver. Then the cart began to move, and it was very loud. I could only hear the sound of the wheels on the floor. It was very hard for me to not see what was going on. I did notice when it went from dark to light, and I knew that we had left the prison area. I could hear lots of voices going about their daily routine; that was good. It was better than hearing shouting. Shouting would mean we had been busted. Then I heard very loud talking and I wondered where we were. It looked very busy out of the small sliver on the box. I heard engines roaring, and I wondered if we had made it to the area that they kept the ships. Suddenly the box moved as though I were being pushed up a ramp. That was a good sign. Perhaps it meant I was being pushed into a ship cargo area. The cart was put into place, and I could see other boxes around me. Then the cart stopped. I heard a whisper; it was the commander. He was leaning down over the cart as though he was checking the cargo, but instead he was talking to me.

  “We made it onto a ship. Be very quiet. I will come for you. You will feel the movement of the ship and a fast escape. Don't get out.”

  Then he was gone. I lay there in the darkness. I did not know what was happening. It was very unnerving not to know. What if he was caught and I stayed in the trunk? What if the ship took off but he was not the pilot, and it was one of these other warriors, and then I would be separated from him? He would be kept a prisoner on the space station, and I would be taken to god-knows-where never to be seen or heard from again. I tried to keep my breathing quiet and regular. Then I felt the movement of the ship, just as he said, and I felt the vibration of an engine come on.

  Then the ship jolted, and the cart moved a few inches. All the boxes around me also moved. I felt the sensation of a slight incline and fast movement. I was happy. The ship had taken off, and I hoped that it was, in fact, the commander at the seat and no one else. I hoped that we had gotten away without anyone noticing, just a routine flight leaving the space station like normal. I waited for almost thirty minutes, and I was beginning to get very scared. How long would this take?

  “Maria?” I heard
Cerik’s voice, and it was music to my ears.

  “Yes, I am here still,” I said lifting the lid.

  “We did it,” he said as he opened the lid all the way and pulled me out and picked me up until I was on my feet. I sighed in relief and hugged him again. Without warning, he grabbed me and planted a kiss on my mouth. I was not expecting it, but as soon as he kissed me, I could not stop. I was telling myself that it was a kiss of celebration and nothing more, but if that was the case, then why were my hands moving up and down his strong chest? Damn it.