Jax’s Mission: Scifi Alien Adventure Romance (Science Fiction Alien Romance) (Galactic Survival Book 1)

by Hana Starr

  Lashing out as well, Jax caught the tentacle in his palm. It stung, slicing deep into his flesh; clamping his fingers around it, he dug his nails in and jerked on it. As the slug stumbled forward, he closed his eyes and sent a jolt of electricity racing through it. Time seemed to slow down as he saw the crackling bolt of blue-white pour down the length of the slimy limb. That horrific cry came again as the slug wrenched its arm back, blackened and reeking.

  The other made a move now, rushing at him with surprising speed. Jax set his feet firmly against the stones to ground himself, gathered lightning in his palm, and then threw it with everything he had. The Yire howled and waved its arms, beating at itself frantically as the liquid content of its slimy body vaporized.

  An engine whined and he lurched to the side just in time to avoid being moved down again by another of the compact little vehicles. Another swerved around from following the other, trying to adjust to be the one to hit him.

  Feeling a bit more in his element now, Jax stepped aside again. As the ground vehicle flew past, he reached out and tapped the side of it with a handful of electricity. The engine exploded, and the rider flew into his stalled companion, knocking both of them to the ground. That only left one more.

  His eyes burning blue, his blood boiling even as it continued to spill from his wounds, he started to drag himself towards the stationary rider, who had so far not done a single thing.

  The slug swiveled its eyestalks around, taking in the sight of its fallen companions, and then spun around on the vehicle and bolted away. Jax stared after it for a moment, deliberating, before deciding to get it go. That one would return to the others and bring news of how much of a threat he was.

  In the meantime…The two he’d attacked directly were still writhing, like aquatic creatures out of their natural habitat. Jax stumbled over to one and shoved lightning into it. If this had been a creature he studied more extensively, he could have directly attacked the brain or heart.

  Damn things are heartless, though. And brainless.

  And so, he just fried it until it quit moving. Then, he did the same with the next. When he was done, their slime had been completely drained of moistures and flaked from their immobile bodies in huge, scaly chunks.

  When he looked up again, the rider who’d brushed past him without harm was zipping away far out of reach. The other, however, was only twitching.

  Jax dragged himself over to it, noticing the enormous hole blown in part of it from the explosion. He killed it to put it out of its misery, and then collapsed onto his hands and knees. All his energy was gone, expelled from him as hard as he could into his enemies. With nothing left for himself, he could barely breathe.

  His thoughts were growing duller, as well. He wanted to just sit there and wait to feel better, but he knew his wound wasn’t going to stop bleeding on its own. He didn’t have very much left in him, but he couldn’t stand anymore. Crawling was near impossible with one side gone bad, but he dragged himself forward as best as he could with his arm before kicking out with his leg. There was no way back over the drop in this condition, which meant he had to go all the way back around.

  Bit by bit, he did. Every bump of stone against his battered body, every wrong move that jostled him even slightly, made his vision blank. Each time, it returned a bit dimmer around the edges than before. He lost track of time, and lost track of himself. His senses narrowed down to the hot, ozone scent of his own blood and sparks of pain.

  His fingers brushed against the side of a box. Blinking rapidly, he tried to remember what he was doing and saw that the broken box had contained little bottles of pills. There was no time to read what they were for; he grabbed the nearest canister, snapped off the lid, and shoveled four into his mouth. They were white, round, and bitter as hell.

  Somehow, focusing on the bitterness helped. Jax set another on his tongue and held it there to help himself concentrate as he located another box nearby. This one mostly intact still, but he was able to stick his arm in and bring out…ah, bandages!

  Exactly what I needed, he thought dully, and began to clumsily wrap the length of it that he held about his abdomen. He really should have found some antiseptic or wound sealant first, but there was no way he could even keep going on. This was the best he could hope for.

  After he finished wrapping himself, he found that his fingers felt too fat and numb to maneuver them enough to tie the edges, so he just left it. Wrapping his arm around himself to press his hand on the wound, Jax slowly slumped against the ground and curled up. This planet isn’t so bad, he decided woozily. Not hot, not cold.

  And stones were a perfectly acceptable bed, at times.

  Tucked up against the box of bandages, Jax fell asleep.

  That was where Peace Federation found him two-and-a-half days later. Later on, he remembered very little of his rescue, though he was told that he needed to be fed and watered like a baby. His first clear memories were that of staring up into the face of his commander, another man from the same planet, and briefing him on all that had occurred.

  His commander was not pleased at all, and his temperamental scowl only deepened. “Warrior, do you realize how much harder you’ve made this mission by dragging us all the way out here?”

  Jax bristled, though it was hard from how tired he was. It also felt odd to have grown enough bodily hair to be able to have it bristle when he was agitated, prickling on his arms and legs and the nape of his neck. “The engine faltering was not my fault. I did the best I could.”

  “Your best wasn’t good enough!” the commander snapped, thumping his fist on the space between them. “Just look out there. My men, doing menial labor because of you. This isn’t what warriors are meant for.”

  Glancing out the window, he did feel a bit guilty watching those valuable men wasting their time combing through the wreckage of Beatrice’s ship like they were prisoners on clean-up detail. However, he knew just as well as any of them that sometimes the call of duty required unusual activities; none of them seemed to mind as much as the commander did.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Jax said stiffly, looking down to hide his frustration. “I’ll do better next time.”

  “If there is a next time,” the commander sniffed, and Jax’s heart sank as he realized that meant he’d lost his chance to join Dark Peace. “Well, in any case, what’s done is done. We will make note of this location and return when we’re more prepared. For now, we’ll leave as soon as this cargo is loaded.”

  “Wait!” His sunken heart now rose again, bolstered by the buzzing anxiety in his stomach. “You aren’t going to just…leave Beatrice Noble here, are you?”

  “We can’t risk so many resources for one civilian, Jax. That isn’t how this operation works. It’s for the greater good.”

  Before he got to know her, Jax would have agreed. He probably would have agreed right up until he heard her screaming. Now, he knew there was no way he could abandon her to that fate.

  “No,” he said, and stood up. “I have to save her.”

  “In that condition? You can’t save anyone, warrior.”

  He wasn’t exactly back in fighting condition, even though his wound had been sealed over, but he had to do this. “Let me do this. Let me regain my honor –for myself, if not for the Federation. Give me a day. If I haven’t returned by then, we’re a loss and then you can leave. But until then, you must agree to stay.” Suddenly, he was so tired of this life he’d gotten himself involved in. “Or leave. Whatever you wish. I’m saving her anyway.”

  As he stepped out of the ship, he heard the commander say from behind him, “Twelve hours.”

  So be it.

  Ignoring all the others who stopped to watch him, Jax walked as confidently as he could back to where the abandoned one-rocket vehicles lay. They were un-corroded due to the nature of this planet, and as raring to go as any other machine he’d ever piloted.

  Driving one without knowing how was going to make this a rocky trip, but Jax had already decided he w
ould do anything for Bea. Anything at all, including risk his life to make up for what he’d done by ignoring her.

  Chapter Ten

  Despite all her plans, when the door opened again after what felt like an eternity, Beatrice was just too surprised to do anything in retaliation. The slug that filled the entryway was enormous, the largest one she’d seen yet.

  In halting business language, his words squishing around the edges, the Yire alien said, “You…come.”

  “What if I don’t want to come?” Beatrice snapped back, feeling rather stupid and childish that that was the only thing she could think to say.

  The alien didn’t even seem to notice that she’d spoken. Perhaps they couldn’t hear well? She certainly hadn’t been able to see whether they had ears or not, but then why would the communicate vocally if they couldn’t hear?

  Maybe the anatomies of some things just aren’t meant to be understood, she thought. She wasn’t going to struggle or try to do anything to harm this one. No, she was going to be obedient and bide her time. She’d gone through her mental map so many times for fear of losing it, that she was pretty certain she would remember it for the rest of her life.

  The slug reached out and wrapped its slimy tentacle hard around her wrist, curling until she felt her bones grind together and her fingertips swell as their circulation was cut off. Her arm rebelled and she twitched, but she bit her lip and got it under control.

  Then, as the slug moved, so did she. It began to lead her down a new series of hallways in a different direction than she’d been brought, and she paid close attention to that, too.

  The slug brought her to a round room with a low ceiling. In the middle of that room…Well, if she’d thought this slug was gigantic, this one was large enough to eat it for dinner.

  The top of its slick head nearly touched the ceiling, and it was as wide as a car. Every move it made sent a ripple down its gelatinous body, and it had to bend its eyestalks to avoid scraping them on the stones above.

  Releasing her, the Yire which brought her here quickly exited the room. She didn’t blame it, actually.

  There was such hatred in this thing’s eyes…

  Bea couldn’t help herself. “Who are you?” she asked quietly, automatically slipping into the universal business language. She was a bit rusty with it, as her Chip hadn’t had enough exposure to it, but she considered herself lucky to be able to communicate at all.

  A deep, wet rumbling sound came from very deep within the enormous alien’s body. “Who are you?” it grumbled right back at her.

  “My…my name is Beatrice. I…why was I brought here?” Her hoarse voice broke, too fragile after being screamed raw and then denied water or food for days. “Why wasn’t I just killed?”

  “I have a vendetta against humans,” the Yire said. She didn’t see a mouth on it anywhere, though a patch of slime on its face did seem to bubble when it spoke to her. “If you were not a human, you would have been dead long ago.”

  Beatrice shivered. “What kind of a vendetta?”

  The alien didn’t answer and simply started to reach for her with a tentacle so large it was practically a tree trunk. Backing up across the room, she pleaded with it. She pleaded with the only thing she could think to say. “Don’t I deserve to know?”

  The tentacle paused, and she rushed on. “It wouldn’t really be a fair death if…if you didn’t tell me why, would it? I’m sure that you’re…just as Noble as I am.”

  The joke wasn’t well-received, if it was received at all. The whole mass of blobby alien tilted around as it considered her request. Beatrice feverishly hoped that she would be able to stall for time but she had a nasty feeling that these creatures were more clever than she was wanting to give them credit for –and that could be a deadly mistake.

  “Fine,” he conceded. “I will tell you, and then you will die.

  “Your kind think we are ugly. Your kind. Humans. Who are the ugliest of all. Yet, you hold all to your own standards of beauty. A single head, two legs, two arms. Anything outside this mold is strange. Ugly.” It rumbled angrily, and then slammed its tentacle down against the floor. Beatrice flinched away as bits of stone were cast up from the impact, flicking at her. The slug seemed to almost not be paying attention to her, though. Its eyestalks were looking at her, but they seemed further away than she was.

  “We tried to join your…your Federation. We wished for peace as much as any other creature in this realm and all others. All of us who fight your tyranny are simply wanting our own peace, a sort that you humans will not let us have. We are ignorant, you say. Simple-minded. We were undeserving of joining. We did not fit into your plans.”

  This doesn’t sound good. Beatrice knew very well that the way the Federation worked wasn’t always so fair, but they were only doing what was so best for everyone, weren’t they?

  Weren’t they?

  “First, we were cast out. And then we were feared because we were on the edge, where the same who feared us would have us stay. You humans talk pretty words, tangle up truth with lies. Soon, we were hated. And you began to hunt.

  “You humans slaughtered my people. We were forced to leave our planet –which you did not want, because it was useless- and go into hiding. What did we become? Nomads, thieves, baseless sorts with no livelihoods –which was because of you. You made us into this. Oh, there are not many of us left but we do hate you so.”

  Beatrice had completely backed up into the corner by now, chilled to the bone by the truth of this story. Non-human alien lifeforms often seemed to have elongated lifespans compared to regular humans, which meant that this king-slug, this supposed leader of the Yire, had probably been alive when the casting-out and genocide of his people took place. He would have witnessed everything, would have heard the others screaming for mercy as they were cut down by those that hadn’t even tried to understand them. It was a travesty for them, but something that human history would probably label a tragic sacrifice. It was all in the name of Peace, but it was no one’s idea of peace but the Federation’s.

  So many things had come together, but how many more of those things had fallen apart to make this happen?

  Suddenly, those eyestalks swiveled towards her and flickered. Anger and hate filled a suddenly-clear gaze, and that thick tentacle reached out for her. Slowly, so slowly, it wove back and forth through the space like a snake.

  “I swore that I would kill all humans as slowly and painfully as they killed my nest-mates,” the slug groaned, water churning in its voice. “All who we are capable of destroying must die, but humans will not be spared of their pain. Do you know what I will do with you? I will break your limbs. But not quickly.

  “I will bruise your entire body.

  “I will strip your skin from your flesh. Slowly.

  “I will absorb you into my stomach and digest you. Partly. And then I will leave you in this room to die alone, burned. Burned, suffering, tortured!”

  The Yire’s voice rose in a hysterical scream of rage, and that tentacle lashed across the wall where she’d been standing only moments ago. Rolling out of her dive and scrabbling at the wall to right herself, Beatrice stared in complete and utter panic at the smashed-in section of wall. It was crumbled, utterly destroyed. If that kind of force had hit her…

  Her chest heaved, and she looked around wildly as the tentacle came for her again. The behemoth slug alien seemed to be too large and immobile to shift around the rest of its massive weight, but those tentacles were plenty long enough. And now, as more and more began to uncoil from its mass and weave through the air towards her, Beatrice froze. Her mind blanked like it had during the crash. She was too tired, too scared. Her whole body was frozen. She couldn’t move!

  Then, there was a high-pitched whine. Muffled, and then sharp. The slug’s eyestalk whipped around, and then the already-weakened section of wall burst inward in a spray of stone and debris as a one-rocket vehicle burst into the chamber.

  For a long moment, even as Jax on the
vehicle slammed full-force into a dozen of the thick tentacles, shearing them clean off with pulses of lightning, Beatrice couldn’t register the scene. And then she was up and in his arms, tucked securely against his body with his arm wrapped around her neck and chest to protect her. Still, nothing was even coming close to registering about any of this situation, not even when Jax swerved back around the whole length of the room and they ramped up the debris and back out through the hole he’d made.

  There was another hole in front of them, which they also passed through. And another beyond that, and another and another, all the way clean through to the outside. Beatrice was crying and laughing at the same time at the absurdity of it all, her small arm wrapping around the violet alien. He held her closer, and then they were out.

  Out. Free. Headed for safety.

  Her laughter gave way to crying, and she buried her face in his chest. His static caught at her tears, drying them instantly, but more and more kept coming. All through sitting in that silent room with only her heartbeat for company, she hadn’t cried a bit. That was all changing now, as everything she’d pent up was finally able to be expressed.