Pax

by Stella Sky

  "Exactly. But she knows to go there, and so do I. I only hope that she listened when I told her too. There is nothing left of her building in capital city. If she stayed, then she did not survive. In fact, I'm not sure that anyone in the city did,” I said.

  "I'm going to land on that patch of grass over there. Then we will have to hide the ship. I would want to sink it into the lake, but we might need it. So, hiding it is a better choice," he said.

  "That is a good point. We might need it."

  We searched the island by flashlight, and finally, I came upon a familiar sight. It was a mailbox with the initials A.R. on it. I ran up to the door and knocked.

  "Who's there? "My sister's voice said through the door, and I nearly broke down and cried in a pile on the porch.

  "Adelaine it's me! It is Lily!"

  "Lily! "She shouted as she fumbled to get the door open. Then she flew into my arms, and we cried together.

  "I thought I would never see you again," she said.

  "I thought I never would either. I am so glad that you are alive. I am so glad that you are OK."

  "How did you find me?" she asked.

  "I thought you might come here since we talked about it so much when we were little, and we would look at the photos in the book of this place. We always talked about coming here one day. "

  "I am so glad you remembered. I am so scared. I don't know what's going on out there. Lily, it is like the end of the world."

  "Yes, I know it is worse than you can imagine. The capital city is gone," I said to her.

  "What?! "She said with tears in her eyes.

  "Yes, there is a lot to talk about. But don't be scared. We are here now, and we are going to look after you, "I sent to her.

  "We?" she asked. I turned behind me to Zian. She gasped.

  "But Lily, he is one of them," she said with wide eyes.

  "I know. But he is different. He helped me escape. He flew me here in his ship. He can be trusted," I said to her.

  "If you say so, sister. I am just glad that you are here. Come, come inside before someone sees you," she said to both of us. We entered the small house and locked the doors behind us. We didn't know what to expect, and we were not prepared. But one thing was certain, I now had everyone that I loved in my life, my sister and Zian.

  The battle that day was unlike anything I had ever seen. We lost almost every major city and millions of human and Corillion lives. It was a battle that wiped out resources for both humans and the Corillion. It left both sides crippled. It was a dumb battle in the end. It seemed like neither side won. There was no clear victor as each had fought equally and had defeated each other. It was almost like a tie. That did not do anyone any good. At least with a clear winner, there would be someone in charge. But instead, there was just complete chaos because no one had won. Now everything was in complete ruins, and we had to start from the ground up again. It was time to rebuild, and Zian and I had to keep our promise to be the ones to do it. We had survived for this.

  "Do you want me to take him inside?” Adelaine asked me, as she held her hand out to my son, Earthane Crace.

  "Yes please, this is going to take a while. Go with your aunt,” I said to him as I gave him a kiss. Earthane was born nine months after the battle, and he brought us great joy. It was terrifying to be pregnant in a postwar world, but our hybrid son was the future of the planet, and we were going to do whatever we could to make sure that it would be a good place for him.

  “How far along are you on that project?” Zian asked, as I looked over the blueprints of a new registration system. It was the same bridal registration system that I had negotiated with him.

  “I think I am half way there. Of course, once it is actually put into action I will know more about what needs to be done. Right now it is just a framework, but I think it will be a good one.”

  “I know that it will be, because you are the one creating it,” he said.

  We were sitting on the porch of the small house that we all shared: my son; my sister; and my husband, Zian Crace. We were still on the island in the middle of Lake Michigan, one of the few areas spared by the battle, mostly because the Corillion did not know that it existed. We were fortunate to have local food sources consisting of fruit trees and fish. But the rest of planet, and especially the cities, were not so lucky. Most had relocated from the city and began the simple life of farming.

  "Have I apologized today?” Zian said to me.

  "Yes, a hundred times already. I have told you over and over again that you do not need to do this,” I sent to him.

  "But I do. It is all my fault. All of this. I am the one that set the plan in motion. I am the only one to blame for all of this,” he said to me. He had been taking the blame, and taking it hard ever since the battle.

  "I will tell you what I have told you before. I am glad that it was you. A war like the one we had with the Corillion was going to lead to that massive battle one day. It was going to be someone else if it wasn't you. But I'm glad it was you because you changed, you've allowed yourself to change. If it had been anyone else, it would have been much worse. We would've never had the data on the formula to the solution that contaminated the water, and so we wouldn't have been able to come up with a cure to the water contamination. You are the one that gave that to me. No other Corillion would have done so. It was you for a reason. Even though it is a heavy burden to carry now, you were chosen."

  "You truly believe that?” he asked me.

  "With all my heart, because I could not love you if it weren't true,” I said to him. And it was true. Ever since that day we had never separated. He was right all along. We would need each other after all that we had been through. Now, the Earth needed the both of us. We were rebuilding, and we were rebuilding in a world where the Corillion and the humans had to coexist on one planet.

  "There is no other Corillion that I would want by my side other than you. You have given me our son and saved me. You have saved me more than once. If you had not abducted me when you did, I would have died days later in the capital city at the embassy, since it was the first building to be bombed. That's where I would've been. I wouldn't be alive except for you. I wouldn't be here to help rebuild and to create the system that we need to be able to coexist. My sister wouldn't be alive if you did not have the heart to allow me to call her that day to tell her to get out of the city. You did that for me, and you did not have to.”

  "You always see the better side of things,” he said to me.

  "And you always see the darker side of things."

  "I guess that is why we are good together. We balance each other out,” Zian said as he pulled me onto his lap. I gave him a kiss.

  "Well, that and many other reasons,” I said with a smile.

  "That is very true,” he said as he kissed me again. I was in love with him. I loved him more than I could ever imagine and it blew my mind that the ruler of the alien race that I had hated had become everything in my life. It was now centered around him and my son. I never ever thought I would be a Corillion wife, but it had to happen. Our union created a jumping off point for Earth and the Corillions to begin peace talks. It was a very important union, and I was glad that so much good could come out of our love and marriage.

  Over the past year, we had come up with many new plans, new plans that allowed both of our peoples to flourish. Only we would have been able to produce the results we had, because of who we were and our experience from both sides, Earth and the Corillion. It had taken us to create a new system, and it took all of our energy. But it was worth it; it was worth all our work so that our son could grow up in a place where he was accepted. Through our marriage came peace. Through our minds came a new system. And through our hearts came a new love. We were happy, even though we were living in a dystopian version of the Earth that I used to know. I was happy to have Zian at my side with my family. It was a new beginning. It was a new everything

  THE END (P.S. See next page for more bonus books!)r />
  LAIKE: Aliens Of Jenalk

  (A Sci-Fi Alien Abduction Romance)

  By Maia Starr

  Chapter 1

  Emily Hart (Director of Engineering)

  I turned off the television set, agitated by the voices of the Vellreq. These monsters had invaded the Earth about three years ago, right when the automotive industry had reached an environmental crisis. The Vellreq had offered solutions, but I was an engineer; I knew that most of what they were proposing were half-baked ideas at best.

  But real solutions weren’t what our governments was after. I had been working in my field for long enough to know that much. In fact, real solutions seemed to be a real turn off. What the government seemed to want these days were ideas that would leave humanity stalled and line their pockets. And there was no shortage of such ideas from the Vellreq.

  Suddenly the apartment door slammed open and shut, and the rustle of bags filled the room.

  “Em! Wanna hear a joke?”

  “Not really,” I said, grinning despite myself.

  My roommate, Therese, was always trying to make me laugh, but all of her jokes were about electrical engineering. We had met at a seminar, and she had found it all but impossible to believe that I had mastered three fields of engineering, none of them being electrical.

  “Tough,” she said. “This is a good one! Three guys in Vegas get locked up in jail. The first one—”

  “Therese…”

  “Fine, fine,” she said, a goofy grin lighting her face. “But I swear, this is one you’d get.”

  “Are you hungry?” I asked, changing the subject. I was a practical type of person, and to be honest, jokes seemed like a waste of my time. I was always trying to solve one problem or another, and jokes, not to mention other people in general, usually posed an unwelcome distraction.

  “Starved,” Therese replied. “I’m going to put these groceries away.”

  “All right,” I said. “I made spaghetti.”

  “Yesss!”

  Therese’s voice echoed excitedly from the kitchen, and again, I couldn’t help but grin. She was one of a kind.

  When she returned from the kitchen, she had a plate heaped full of spaghetti and plopped down on the couch behind me.

  “You know, there was a woman today working on Project Orion—you know I’ve been following them since the Vellreq arrived—and she saw a ship leave a planet they thought was mostly dormant. Weird, huh?”

  I cringed. “Is it anything to be worried about?”

  “No, it’s mostly just scientific curiosity at this point. But she got an award and stuff for it.”

  “Cool,” I murmured. It was always nice to hear about other scientifically inclined women succeeding. “Speaking of scientific curiosity, how was work?”

  Therese exhaled and threw her head back dramatically. Her red curls bounced off her shoulders, and she frowned at me. “Hard. I thought it would be cool that we’d have a new project to work on, but the designs aren’t…Earth designs. If you know what I mean. I’m worried they have me working on the next A bomb or something.”

  This news chilled me, and confirmed my already rampant mistrust of the beings visiting our world. “You can refuse any project that makes you uncomfortable, you know.”

  Therese sucked her breath in and looked down at the floor. “Not if I signed a contract…”

  “Therese!”

  “I thought it was union work! I’m basically stuck working for this shady company until this project is done! And then, if I blab to anybody about it, the government will be knocking on our door to cart me away.”

  “But you just told me,” I reminded her.

  “Shit,” Therese said. Thankfully she laughed. “I was just being dramatic about the bomb stuff. But I just don’t know what I’m doing, and it’s making me nervous. I don’t want my powers to be used for evil!”

  I couldn’t blame her there. I had declined several promising job prospects because I didn’t trust where they had come from. I was highly coveted in my field, but the job opportunities were limited to those with a lot of power and resources. And unfortunately, all too often that power had come as a result of shady dealings. You could never be too careful. I guess Therese had been blinded by her unfailing optimism.

  “Well anyway, the benefits are top notch,” she said, as if trying to remember why she was working there in the first place. “I can afford all the junk food I want!”

  I grinned and shook my head. “Glad to see you have your priorities straight.”

  We spent the rest of the evening watching cheesy movies that both of us were surprised by my willingness to watch. Sometimes the world just seemed too bleak, and it was nice to get my mind off of it once in a while. Not everybody could be eternally optimistic like Therese.

  Doom and gloom, now there was something I was good at. If only there was a man out there who wasn’t put off by my unfailing pessimism. It did no good to lie to yourself about the state of things. If you avoided the truth about the world, how would it ever get better?

  “Very impressive, Ms. Hart.”

  I couldn’t help but beam with pride. I had been working for a long time on my latest invention: an unlimited energy machine that I hoped might rival the gadgets created by the greatest minds of our time, but most people implied that it was a waste of time. My mentor and ally, however, understood my drive and invention’s uses immediately. As he turned the small machine over in his hands, his handsome face lit up with a smile. Too bad he was gay.

  “Thank you, Professor Winston,” I said.

  “Do you have a patent?”

  “Of course,” I said. “But you know that nobody would ever buy this. I don’t think I would ever turn a profit.”

  “But profit isn’t what this device is about, is it?” Professor Winston reminded me. “It’s about doing a service to mankind when we need it the most.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed. “Who needs to pay rent?”

  Professor Winston laughed good-naturedly. “You could always teach here if you’re worried about a paycheck. It may not be the most glamorous career, but it’s reliable.”

  “Thanks, but no thanks,” I said. I couldn’t think of anything more bleak than trying to explain my ideas to a bunch of rich kids who would rather make fun of them than try to understand them. I’d had enough of that when I was in school.

  “Understandable,” Professor Winston replied. “If you won’t teach them, would you mind terribly if I did a lecture on your device?”

  “Of course not,” I said. “The more people who utilize it the better. Or else we’re going to be in a bad way.”

  “They may demonize your work,” Professor Winston warned. “Or steal it and give it a new name so that it can serve darker purposes.”

  “I’m already registered. The patent is in the databases. If they really wanted to, it wouldn’t take much for them to take what they wanted of my work and think nothing of it. Just doing work like this in the first place poses a risk. I trust you to reveal it at your discretion.”

  “I quite appreciate it,” Professor Winston said, offering the device back to me.

  “No, I made that one for you. Sorry it’s so tiny, but I didn’t have a lot of time last night—”

  “Wow,” he breathed, studying the small device. I had never seen him so awestricken, and to be honest, it made me feel rather proud of myself. “You did all of this in just one night?”

  “Yes,” I nodded. “But the research took over a year.”

  “You’re brilliant, Emily,” Professor Winston said, shaking his head. “You’re far ahead of your time.”

  “Hopefully I’m just in time,” I replied.

  His face lit up with another handsome smile and he gave me a small nod.

  “Yes,” he said, holding the little device up to the light and circling it in his fingers once more. “I believe you are.”

  ***

  I always felt a little bit better about the world after talking to Professor Wi
nston, and made my way to the waterfront with an unmistakable hope in my breast. If anybody could get people to care about the greater good of mankind, it was him. Vellreq be damned. There was a lot to say about the human spirit. Or at least I hoped there was.

  I settled onto the beach as I did every weekend. Watching the water rolling was inspirational. All of those atoms moving together and apart, creating the rolling of the waves, sparked something creative in me. I probably never would have finished creating my unlimited energy device without it. But instead of seeking rewards, I was going to distribute my invention slyly to the people who knew how to use it. People like Professor Winston.

  Suddenly, a cold wind lifted my papers from their folder and a dark shadow was cast over me. I frowned; rain hadn’t been in the forecast that morning, and meteorology and all of its related technology had really made advancements with the help of the Vellreq. There should be no good reason for this strange weather.

  I squinted into the sky, shocked to see that only a patch of it was darkened. A shadow was being cast over me, despite there being nothing of note in the sky. My mind immediately went to the Vellreq, but their ships were quite loud and bulkier than the shadow being cast. What was going on?

  “Got you!”

  I cried out in pain as my neck was pierced by something cold and sharp. I whipped around, hoping to figure out what the hell was going on, but before I could, I slumped to the ground and entered into a deep, dreamless sleep.