Alien Ascension

by Tracy Lauren

  As the night wears on and the crowd becomes wilder and more untamed, the feeling inside me starts to take a turn. Instead of being a pleasant thrill, I begin to feel dazed.

  Chapter 30

  V

  I feel guilty about coming here tonight, but I couldn’t resist The Oscillion’s invitation. After everything that’s happened between me and Dax, well, I just really wanted to flaunt it. Dax is my mate. I’m giddy when I think about what that actually means. It sounds like a forever kind of thing. My heart swells with joy at the prospect.

  Truly, I love Dax. I have never been so open with anyone in my life, never felt so close. I haven’t had this feeling of being cherished and protected since my grandmother took me in, but of course it’s different from that. It’s so much more. In all this time I never thought he would be interested in me. I mean, I never thought I deserved him. But the fact that he feels the same way I do? The fact that he thinks I do deserve him? I had to rub that in The Oscillion’s face, if only just this once.

  I hate The Oscillion and the way he’s constantly judging me, pigeonholing me as Prudence. If I show him that Dax loves me, that he and I are together now, that’ll prove The Oscillion wrong about me. Or maybe I’m trying to prove myself wrong. I honestly don’t know anymore, but when The Oscillion talks to me it’s like he speaks to all my deepest fears, he’s telling me I’m bad and not worthy. Coming here with Dax is like shouting in his face, Yes, I am worthy! I’m worthy, because Dax loves me. Because Dax sees the good in me and I can be that good person again.

  I didn’t want to be Prudence anymore. What I wanted was to find myself out here in this new life. I think it took the relationship Dax and I have built to see myself a little more clearly. It’s like he’s helped me grow into something I didn’t know was possible. I mean, I still have a long way to go, but he’s shown me what can be. For the first time, I’m actually hopeful for what the future holds. Maybe I’m seeing myself through his eyes. Whatever it is, I can finally lay the past to rest. And yeah, I just want to rub The Oscillion’s nose in that for a bit.

  “From what I’ve seen, you are a female of many talents, V,” The Oscillion says. “It makes me wonder what other things you might be capable of.”

  Confident as I feel tonight, I still shift on Dax’s lap. I don’t know what to say to The Oscillion when he talks like that. It makes me uncomfortable to hear him sing my praises. It doesn’t feel like a compliment coming from him. It feels like there’s some underlying meaning to his words that I’m not getting.

  The Oscillion leans forward, taking glasses. He uncorks the bottle of liquor and pours more into each glass, but hesitates before handing them back over.

  “There seems to be something different about you tonight, but I simply cannot put my finger on what it is,” he says with a knowing smile before passing the drinks to Dax and me. I leave mine on the table, but Dax picks up his cup and sips at it.

  I hate this. He’s trying to make me feel uncomfortable and it’s working. This wasn’t the plan. I wanted to make him feel stupid, not the other way around.

  “So, how did you get here, Osc? You don’t look like a native of Quar,” I ask, trying to turn the tide of the conversation.

  “Osc…” he muses. “I like that. As a matter of fact, there are no natives of Quar. When I purchased the planet—”

  “Wait, what? How can you purchase a planet?” I question.

  “With lots and lots of credits. For enough credits, you can buy anything. I could even purchase your planet,” he says pointedly, giving me an uncomfortable feeling. “When I purchased Quar there were no residents, only the occasional military squatter coming to enjoy the old tracks. But I saw more to Quar. Not only do the tracks present an opportunity for large racing events, but she also lies in the perfect position for trade.”

  “So, you’re like an entrepreneur just on a really big scale—a planet-sized scale?” I ask, still trying to make sense of a person buying a planet. I mean, buy a hotel or a restaurant, sheesh.

  The Oscillion laughs at my description. “An entrepreneur, that is exactly how I would describe myself. Though I have never met anyone else who would say the same.”

  “Oh,” I say, at a loss for words and feeling a bit naïve. I poke at the food on the plate Dax and I share and finally push it away. I glance behind me at Dax, but he looks sleepy and rubs idly at his chest. When he sees me looking at him he gives me a lazy smile.

  “Maybe we should get going?” I say, more to Dax than The Oscillion, but it’s The Oscillion who replies.

  “Nonsense, it is still early,” he says, leaning over to top off our beverages. Not that I’ve been drinking mine. Still, he pours more liquor into my glass it sloshes over the sides, overfilling. Dax seems like he’s zoned out and continues to sip at his newly filled cup. The band starts playing a more intense song and the people on the dance floor respond. Someone drops a tray near the bar and I jump, looking back at the chaotic scene of spills and broken glass. The Oscillion has so many guards, I can hardly see past them. There’s even more than when we first arrived. I feel weary, overwhelmed. I want to leave.

  “Tell me, V, how did Dax find you?” The Oscillion asks.

  I don’t have an answer for him. I mean, do I tell him Dax rescued me from slavers? Would that information put us at risk? Dax said The Oscillion was dangerous, what if he finds out I’m worth credits on the black market? But The Oscillion looks expectantly at me, waiting for my answer.

  “Oh, you know, age-old story. Guy meets girl, sweeps her off her feet.” I shrug, trying to play naïve this time. The Oscillion looks unconvinced, so I add another half-truth to my tale. “I was with some friends, and Dax convinced me to take a little vacation with him, travel around, see the sights.” I pick up my drink and sip from it, if only to find something to do with my hands.

  “It must have been quite a shock for him. Products of war, like our Dax here, are raised to follow the path of the goddesses. He must have believed he had encountered a true deity…rather than a human,” The Oscillion chuckles. I hate the sound of it, it’s like cascading shards of metal.

  I sip at my drink again and struggle to focus with all the noise going on around us. The conversation between The Oscillion and me is running dry. I don’t remember why I even wanted to come here in the first place. Sure, I wanted to show off, but I’ve had my fill of that and now I’m ready to leave.

  “How did you know what I am?” I ask suddenly.

  “I do not believe the story of the goddesses,” he says with an unapologetic shrug. I start to feel sick to my stomach.

  “No, I mean, you called me human. How did you know I’m human?” I ask, looking up into his cold yet smiling face. He makes no effort to answer.

  Suddenly, Dax tries to set his drink down on the table and misses entirely, spilling the contents onto my skirt and the floor. I try to help him recover, but he grabs my arm tightly.

  “I am not feeling well,” he says with his lips pressed against my ear. His words sound slurred.

  “I think we should go now,” I say, standing and trying to help pull Dax to his feet. But the world seems to tilt beneath me, and I get lightheaded. A hand on my shoulder forces me back down into my seat.

  “Do not touch her!” Dax bellows and rises to his feet, but I see him sway, or maybe I’m swaying. Everything feels strange all of a sudden. I’m scared and I have this knot in my stomach, but I don’t know why or what’s going on. I can’t seem to concentrate for long enough to make sense of what’s happening. It’s Dax’s expression that I focus on instead, and I see a storm there. There’s rage and maybe even a little fear.

  He grabs one of The Oscillion’s guards by the neck and his tail whips around. I feel warmth spray across my face. Confused, I touch my fingertips to it and look down. It’s blood. When I look back up, two guards are falling to the ground and Dax is lunging across the chairs with fangs bared and claws swiping. Before I can scream out a warning, a man jams a charger into Dax’s ri
bcage and I see sparks flying. I think I’m screaming, but then again, I don’t even know if I’m moving. The sparks swim in my vision, until they are all that I can see.

  Chapter 31

  V

  I must have lost consciousness. One second everything was bright white and the next thing I know I’m in complete darkness. It doesn’t take long for the last hellish seconds in my memory to force their way to the surface. I try to jump to my feet, only to realize I’ve been bound. My wrists are secured tightly behind my back and my legs hog tied to them. Instantly, I begin to hyperventilate.

  The darkness is a result of a bag that’s been put over my head. My heart pounds hard in my chest and I feel like I’m going to suffocate. I writhe around helplessly, pulling against my restraints, too scared to call out for help. Too scared to even call out for Dax. Tears spill from my eyes when I recall my last vision of him. I don’t allow my mind to contemplate what might have happened. There are only two outcomes I can foresee, and one of those I wouldn’t be able to bear. So instead, I think about the lack of oxygen my body is getting and the knotted rope cutting into my wrists and ankles. I worry about the skirt I’m wearing and wish to God I had chosen to wear pants instead.

  Not much time passes like this before I hear a door swing open and a multitude of footsteps enter the room. I freeze, trying to hear what might be said or figure out who those feet belong to. Do they have Dax?

  “What is the meaning of this?” I recognize The Oscillion’s voice. “Get this off of her now, untie her.”

  I try to kick at the hands that grab at me, but my restraints don’t allow for it. When ropes are cut, my flesh feels instant relief. Blood rushes to my extremities, feeling like a million icy pins and needles. Someone roughly pulls the bag off of my head and I’m gasping for air. I look up to see The Oscillion at a massive desk before me and four of his largest, burliest alien guards positioned around me. I scurry away from them on my hands and knees, desperate for some distance between me and the boogeymen.

  “Please, V, get up. Have a seat,” The Oscillion bids, motioning towards an ornate upholstered chair set in front of the desk. But I can’t stop looking from guard to guard, and from my vantage point on the ground they look even more massive and menacing than they already are.

  “Leave us,” The Oscillion says, waving his men away. They do not hesitate to follow his orders.

  When the door clicks shut, I climb to my feet but remain at the far end of the room, pressed heavily against the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. It appears I’m in The Oscillion’s office. I guess I’m thankful it isn’t his bedroom.

  “Where’s Dax?” I demand as he rises from his seat, rounding his desk.

  “He is alive,” The Oscillion generously shares.

  “I want to see him,” I say.

  “That is not what we are here to discuss,” he tells me.

  I scoot along the length of the wall, trying to maintain distance from my captor, and search my surroundings for something that can be used as a weapon.

  “Come, V, you are not frightened of me, are you?” he asks, sitting on his desk.

  “What are you going to do with us?” I ask, my eyes still roaming the office. There are plenty of vases and small statues that look weighty enough for me to bash over The Oscillion’s head.

  “Now, that is the question, isn’t it?” he says with something like excitement in his blood-red eyes.

  “Can I be honest with you, V?”

  “Please,” I respond.

  “I want you— Now, now. Don’t look at me like that. I have not yet decided exactly what to do with you. But that is the one thing I know, I want you—”

  “Have you decided what to do with Dax?” I interrupt.

  The Oscillion pauses and assesses me with those alien and demonic features of his. “I have,” he says gravely. “He is my leverage over you. If you do not comply with the demands I place on you, Dax will be dealt the punishment. Try to run from me and I will kill him.”

  My hand shoots over my mouth, muffling a horrified gasp. “You’re a monster,” I tell The Oscillion.

  “Some might say I’m an entrepreneur,” he laughs.

  “I take that back. You’re an asshole,” I tell him.

  “Yes, it seems all humans have a colorful vocabulary. I’ve met a few, you know, and I like your kind quite a bit. I would be compelled to buy your Earth, but why buy what you can get for free?” He smiles slyly.

  There’s one obvious question looming in my mind, and I force myself to speak the words aloud, though my voice shakes when I do. “Are you going to rape me?”

  “Goodness, V, please! Don’t be so vulgar. I am The Oscillion. I have a room full of enthusiastic females who want to bed me. I have no inclination toward that sort of perversion.”

  “Then what is it!” I scream, “What do you want from me?”

  The Oscillion is nonplussed by my outburst. He smiles and seems to think about it for a while. “Recently I was visiting with another…entrepreneur, like myself. A male by the name of Antorn, and do you know what Antorn has?”

  He stares at me and waits for me to answer as if the question isn’t rhetorical. I throw my hands up, exasperated. “Like I know!”

  “A small army of elite guards. Each of which are female,” he tells me, and if The Oscillion weren’t such a cold and level man, I’d almost say he sounded excited.

  “You are new to this life, so I will explain. It is unheard of. Of course, there are civilizations or primitive nations out amongst the stars whose females are aggressive, some are warriors even. But here, in the massive territory that belongs to the United Planets, females do not lead such lives.”

  “How nice?” I say, still unsure of the point of all this.

  “It is nice. It is lovely, in fact, how Antorn’s elite could walk amongst the most dangerous, powerful, and protected entrepreneurs in the region. Gathering sensitive information or even carrying out assassinations, all because females are underestimated when it comes to defense…or I suppose, offense, as the case may be.”

  “You want me to kill people?” I ask with disbelief.

  “I want you to do whatever I tell you to do. You belong to me now, V, and if you wish for Dax to live, you will do exactly as I say. Though, to be honest, I don’t expect that tactic to last forever. As I said before, one of the reasons I have been so drawn to you is your desperation. I do not expect for you to hold your traveling companion dear to you forever. Eventually, you will consider leaving him behind, and at that point I will have to gain some new leverage over you, I suppose. Or perhaps you will come to accept your life here, I think you are quite cut out for this kind of thing.”

  Everything The Oscillion said is an affront, but what bothers me the most is that he thinks I’ll eventually betray Dax to save myself. While I did leave the other humans behind, Dax has become my lifeline, my friend, my lover. I can’t imagine continuing life without him. “You think I’d leave Dax?”

  “Do you truly think you wouldn’t? What I think is that you may be failing to consider the extent of what I will be asking of you. But we needn’t worry over any of that right now.” The Oscillion picks up a tablet-like device and types something into it. Almost immediately the door to the office opens and a huge, gruff-looking guard enters the room, heavily scarred over every exposed inch of flesh that shows.

  “Take V back to the hotel,” The Oscillion says.

  “Wait, what? You’re just letting me go?” I ask.

  “Hardly. I am releasing you to the comfort of your suite. Beyond that, where are you going to go?” The Oscillion scoffs.

  I scan my brain to think of a plan. I don't know my way back to Elysia, not that there is anyone left there to help me. We changed ships, so even if I could figure out a flight path in the computer system that retraced our steps, the farthest I could get would be Lock VI. While Dax knew people there, I don’t know which of them were friends and which of them were people like The Oscillion. Not that I would lea
ve Dax, but just to bring back help.

  Suddenly the ugly guard grabs me by the shoulders and I try to tear myself from his grip, but it is a futile effort. The Oscillion frowns at me. “We will start your training tomorrow. You are strong for a female your size, V, but you still need to learn to fight.”

  Oh, I’ll fight alright, I think to myself. “Where is Dax?” I demand.

  “He will remain here with me, fed and cared for, but confined. He will not escape, so do not count on him to rescue you. It would be an imprudent waste of your time on that hope.”

  “How do I even know he’s alive?” I question.

  “Test me and I will cut off one of his fingers to show you. Or perhaps some other precious piece of him you would be able to recognize.”