by J. J. Lore
Evernight Publishing
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2014 J.J. Lore
ISBN: 978-1-77130-902-8
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
FORBIDDEN
Planet Alpha
J.J. Lore
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
The rank smell of them made Aura Tremain’s stomach heave even after hours of their stench crawling into her nose. Or maybe her nausea had more to do with the fact she was on a crowded ship with poor artificial gravity. Then again, being captured by hulking aliens who struck without warning or reason as they’d herded a crying, shocked group of women and children on board this stinking freighter would turn anyone’s stomach.
She’d been minding her own business, waiting in an endless, futile line for a ration of food or water—she couldn’t remember which—when there had been shouts, shoves. The cluster of people waiting in the alley had panicked, and she’d been caught up in the rush, only to find herself stunned to immobility. She’d woken up in the crowded hold of this terrible ship and had known immediately her life as she knew it was over.
Another lurch of the ship, more screams and sobs from the people swaying around her, barely able to keep on their feet, and she found herself glaring at the closest alien as he surveyed her fellow captives. Not a smart idea to show even a spark of resistance to something that looked like a childhood nightmare come to life. Its wide, cold gaze was momentarily obscured by a forked tongue slipping out and curling in the air. Disgusting.
Aura forced herself to lower her eyes, to stare at the filthy decking covered with scraps of dirty cloth and clumps of mud. All that was left of Earth for her, for all of them, now. She knew they’d left the planet’s surface even though she’d never traveled farther than fifty kilometers from her home in her life. There was no other explanation for the high pitched sound of the ship, its shudders, how her ears had popped, how everyone had momentarily become weightless. She supposed she should feel grateful her distressed innards hadn’t resulted in vomiting like so many of the people around her, but it was small comfort. An uncertain future at the claws of aliens was nothing to look forward to.
There was another lizard hiss, and Aura risked a look up to see one of the aliens reaching into a huddle of crouching figures. One of its clawed hands wrapped around the thin arm of a teenage girl. Her eyes flew wide, and she pulled back with a terrified shriek. Some of the larger women around her reached for her, to tug her back to the safety of their huddle, but the creature croaked out a string of unintelligible sounds and swung its free arm at them, striking a few, who fell back with squeals and curses.
The creature’s back was to Aura, and she watched it lurch away with its struggling prize. The girl thrashed and dragged her feet in the debris on the floor, then lost her footing and went sprawling in the dirt. Aura winced for her. The alien’s skin flushed in waves of red-orange as it crouched over the girl staring up at him, her wide blue eyes filled with tears. With a quick movement of a claw, it shredded her trousers from her hips, exposing her sex to the horrified gazes of all the prisoners. The aliens appeared to be fascinated, all their attention riveted to the horror about to commence. It seemed sexual violence was the same in every culture.
The looming alien hissed and dropped its weapon on the floor next to the girl, then swiftly unfastened the front of the silvery pants it wore. A huge, engorged cock sprang free, bright purple. There were some gasps and stifled shrieks from the women around Aura as they pulled children close and covered their eyes. Of course it would be rape, that age-old punishment of victors upon the helpless. Aura’s fear and confusion twisted into a fiery knot of rage. Before she even realized what she was doing she pushed past a few women and stomped towards the beast, reaching out with two balled fists to punch him away from the girl frozen beneath him. His skin was slightly ridged and covered with such hard muscle, and she knew she’d have bruises on her hands as soon as she struck him. The thing didn’t even flinch.
She wished for strength, wished for some way to fight back against these horrible creatures, but all her bravery fled as soon as it turned its head, cold black eyes surveying her. Ice filled her veins as soon as she realized what she’d done. She hadn’t saved the girl from attack, only delayed it for the seconds it would take for this animal to destroy Aura. As her late mother had constantly warned, Aura’s impulsiveness had landed her in dire trouble, although confronting a ferocious-looking rapist was a far cry from leaping from the window to see if she could fly when she was five. She barely saw the raised arm, the alien male was so fast. The first blow stuck her so hard across her cheek her head snapped around, everything in her vision a blur before searing pain erupted. She didn’t even have time to flinch before he hit her again, this time a crushing blow just where her arm joined her shoulder. Everything spun as she fell, unable to stop herself since her arm didn’t work anymore. Her face smashed into the hard decking, adding pain on top of the agony blooming from her shoulder and cheek.
A few more blows fell on her back, and she stopped breathing for long moments, her lungs unable to expand as her ribs cracked. There was a howling scream, and for a second, she wondered if the sound had escaped her throat, but realized that was impossible since she couldn’t breathe. The whole ship seemed to be tilting. For a dizzying second, she flew up into the air, some small part of her mind marveling that she was being struck so hard she could fly, but then she saw other women tumbling around her, their screams joining the squealing din surrounding them all. Black shadows crowded the edges of her vision, and her last conscious thought was that she was finally going to escape through death.
****
There were so many of them. That was Leontus’s first thought as he watched the human refugees stream off the just arrived ship. The vessel’s skin was still steaming from the heat of reentry as the first of the women and children stumbled down the landing ramp, preceded by two Alphan centurions. The humans were directed his way, and he gestured for them to enter the hastily erected tent behind him, where they would be evaluated and registered. After those preliminaries they’d be fed while his commander decided what he’d do with them. They’d gotten the call about an hour before. A scout ship had come upon a Xyran raider and had boarded to find a hold full of kidnapped humans. Leo’s base on this damp and unimpressive planet was the closest secure landing. The centurions needed to return to patrol duty, and they couldn’t do that with several dozen human civilians on board.
The first of the rescued humans passed him, faces drawn with shock, barely looking around as they made their way into the confines of temporary housing. Dirty, matted hair, bruises, thin limbs, he automatically calculated their physical states as he looked them over. These women and children had probably been in poor condition before their abduction by the Xyran bandits, but time spent with the enemy had certainly degraded them further.
One of the centurions approached and made the proper salute based on Leo’s shoulder insignia. He still held rank, even though he was no longer a fit warrior. The reminders only hurt a little now, just as his damaged feet did whenever the barometric pressure varied.
“Sir, are you available for a medical issue?” The centurion’s question put him on alert. All warriors were tra
ined in basic medical care the better to treat their fellows’ battlefield injuries, so this had to be a severe case. As ward manager for this remote field hospital on the unsettled planet of Vashon, Leo had to be a fair hand at triage in addition to overseeing all manner of logistics and supplies.
“Of course. Where is he?”
The centurion indicated the ship, and Leo picked up the med kit he’d automatically carried with him since the distress call had come in. He trotted past the dwindling line of humans. They shuffled away from him with wide eyes, and he slowed his pace, not wanting to startle them. Ducking past the last of them, a frail woman clutching the hands of two tiny, shivering girls, he entered the hold of the ship to find a few centurions clustered around a small body on a makeshift pallet of folded blankets. This was no Alphan cut down in battle.
The gathered warriors shifted aside for him as he knelt to observe his patient. For a second, a painful obstruction filled his throat as he took in the petite human woman’s injuries. A shattered cheekbone distorted her face, blood and bruising marring her swollen skin. Someone had rolled up some sheets to form a brace for a badly dislocated shoulder, and judging by the rips in her clothing exposing abraded skin, she had even more injuries hidden from view.
Fortunately, she was unconscious, breathing shallowly but without struggle. He picked up her uninjured arm and felt for a pulse on her wrist, the tiny bones feeling incredibly delicate under his fingertips. A tingle of awareness glowed from where her skin met his, and he blinked with momentary confusion.
“What happened?” Perhaps the boarding had been more violent than the initial report indicated, but a quick glance around didn’t reveal any more injured waiting to disembark.
“According to a witness, she was beaten by a Xyran just before we captured them.” A lieutenant spoke up, his golden eyes gleaming with some simmering emotion.
“Beaten? Don’t they prefer to keep their goods in prime shape before market?” Leo looked back at the fallen woman. Her pulse was rapid. She needed to be brought to the ward for treatment, which was exactly where his commander didn’t want any of these vulnerable humans. Too disruptive to his patients. The commander had decided this within moments of learning they’d be hosting unexpected guests. But it couldn’t be helped.
“She attacked one—” a centurion began before he was cut off by another.
“Was defending a child.” The second centurion’s expression was openly admiring. Leo considered her with new eyes. This fragile woman was brave beyond her size.
“The child?”
“Unharmed.”
“Then she was the victor. All of you, lift her carefully. Don’t shift her.” He directed the eager young warriors as they grabbed edges of the blanket pallet and rose up with their slight burden. They shuffled down the ramp and into the weak sunlight of Vashon, veering toward the right and the medical unit rather than the left where her fellow humans were lodged.
Reviewing the logistics to come, Leo had them carry the woman to the far corner of the open ward. There was no privacy to be had in this forward medical unit. Warriors suffering from traumatic injuries didn’t require it. In fact, their recuperation was faster if they could be among their fellows as camaraderie aided in recovery. Their facility was made up of temporary structures easily dismantled and loaded onto a ship headed for the next planetary system where the fighting was hot. The patients were awake, beds squared away. Some were walking with bondmates, testing out repaired limbs; others were reading, talking, all the typical activity one would expect from a group of trained warriors sidelined for a time to recover from injuries received in battle. All the men in the vicinity watched their procession with interest from their places on neatly ordered beds and squared-away chairs.
As Leo was struggling with how to solve this dilemma, Doctor Welwyn arrived with a worried frown, and Leo’s bondmate, Deklan, in tow. He gave his bondmate a loaded look, which Deklan returned in full. He hadn’t had any opportunity to talk with Deklan since the call had come in and was wondering what the other man thought of the hubbub. He was probably enjoying the break from the routine.
“What is she doing here?” the doctor asked as the men carefully lifted the woman’s limp form onto an empty bed. She didn’t move, and Leo again reached out to check her pulse. Still faster and weaker than it should be.
“They can’t handle these sorts of injuries in the temporary shelter.”
Doctor Welwyn shook his head as he surveyed the damage. “You’re right about that. Deklan, you assist. I’ll need your skills getting that shoulder back in place. Leo, what can we do about?” He made a gesture at the looming soldiers and the rest of the Alphan males in the vicinity who were watching with great interest.
Inspiration struck.
“Men, unfold those sheets and hold them up to make a screen. Backs to the patient, please.” Blank gazes met his for a moment before the men rallied and went to work, the patient soon surrounded by a rustling curtain. He had no doubt the warriors would hold up the fabric until their arms went numb. Leo joined them, glad for a task, as Deklan and the doctor went to work on the wounded woman. There was the sound of rustling cloth, whispered instructions, and then the harsh tear of ripping fabric. As he realized they were cutting away her clothing, his blood rushed through all his veins to his groin. He’d never seen a naked woman before, and judging by the quick glances of the Alphans holding the screen around him, they were just as intrigued.
“Eyes forward,” Leo ordered, both to them and himself. Down, he commanded his hardening staff. It wasn’t honorable to be aroused by someone incapacitated by injury.
He heard the doctor murmur something about slow and steady, and there was the sound of moving bodies, then a high pitched groan. Leo’s spine prickled at the weak, anguished sound, and he couldn’t stop himself from glancing back over his shoulder and seeing both the doctor and Deklan leaning over the woman as they manipulated her shoulder. One of her legs thrashed under the sheet as she cried out for them to stop, but he couldn’t see more of her beyond the barriers of his bondmate’s flexing shoulders. Their solid connection revealed Deklan’s distress at causing her pain, and an undercurrent of professional determination to heal her. Leo sent a calming thought his way and picked up a reassuring reply.
He returned his eyes to the sheet in front of him, willing his arms to hold steady, wishing he wasn’t sweating. A few more minutes ticked by until finally the doctor called him over.
“She needs to be cleaned up, and provided some clothing, basic supplies.”
Leo barely registered the man’s instructions and assessment of her injuries as he looked down at her, willing himself to see her as a collection of parts, a patient in need, instead of as a mysterious female concealed under a thin sheet. He’d studied human anatomy, watched plenty of vids. She would be nothing special. He knew the extent of her injuries now and didn’t have to feign detachment. Her wounds were serious enough to demand it. Broken bones, dislocated limbs, bruised internal organs.
The woman blinked out of unconsciousness for a few seconds, but then collapsed again. She had bright blue eyes. He’d never seen their like.
As Deklan applied the molecular restorer to her shoulder, Leo assisted the doctor while he treated the damage to her face. It was less extensive than he’d feared. Slight concussion, shattered cheekbone, deep bruising. A few hours under the ministrations of the restorer would set the largest breaks, and a few hours after that, all would be as they had been before the Xyran struck, other than the contusions.
Doctor Welwyn was quick and quiet as he worked, his normal demeanor even icier than usual. Leo knew he, along with the other warriors, was deeply disturbed by the abuse they saw marked on this woman’s frail body. The warriors who’d discovered the raiders’ ship and taken it in battle would be roundly toasted tonight when they had a chance to relate their exploits at the evening meal.
Just as the doctor finished his ministrations and checked her vitals once more, there was a r
ustle from the sheets surrounding them. The unit commander strode up to the prone woman lying under a crumpled sheet and frowned down at her. The older man, never especially cheerful in even the most perfect circumstances, was frowning as if a brigade of Xyran dervishes were swarming over the wall. Or as if he’d discovered the supplies closet was missing a case of cleanser. Both were non-optimal situations. Apparently a wounded human female was equally disturbing.
“We can’t have this.” The officer scowled at each of them in turn as if they’d all conspired against him and the order he demanded in the unit. “She’s not to be among the men. I can already smell the pheromones. Put her in with the other refugees immediately. There’s a ship arriving within thirty minutes to take them back to Earth. If she isn’t gone soon, we’re going to have duels fought.”
The commander was right. These were vital young men, fired with energy to fight and win, many of them bored with forced inaction. Throw a beautiful human woman, a much sought-for prize indeed, into the mix, and there might soon be new injuries for the staff to deal with.
Leo held his tongue. The doctor was the final authority when it came to medical matters, but since the injured woman was stable, military orders might take precedence.
Doctor Welwyn drew up to his full height and gave a slight shake of his head. “I cannot authorize transporting her. Her injuries are too severe, and she has to spend several hours under the cellular restorers before I can evaluate her recovery.”
The commander cleared his throat and clenched his hands against his hips. “So I’m to order highly trained warriors to continue holding up sheets to seclude her for half a day? Even more if we can’t arrange another flight quickly?”
“We could construct some screens.” Deklan spoke up, and Leo narrowed his eyes at his bondmate. It was foolish to volunteer, let alone offer a suggestion to their commanding officer when he was clearly out of sorts.
