It was like the morning of his birthday when his father would come into his room and give him a small gift. No matter how hard Rikka tried to guess, his father always chose something that was exactly what Rikka wanted, yet had no idea he needed.
It was like a sixth sense. As Rikka got older, he would spend the whole year trying to look for the signals in himself that his father noticed. All those little signs that led his father to his choice. Yet not once did he guess the gift, and not once was he disappointed in his father’s choice.
Would one of these females make him that happy? Did one of them possess the ability to give him exactly what he wanted, but didn’t know he needed? Would he once more feel like the child he once was, or would she leave him bitterly disappointed.
Before he looked on these faces, he hadn’t cared, but now he did. He found himself wanting to experience what Okil did everyday with his mate, Tikki. And as Okil looked at Rikka, he gave him a look of deep understanding.
“Embrace the adventure,” Okil said, and then took a step down the ramp, with Rikka following.
Rikka had landed on planets where he had no idea of what he would find, what adversity he would endure. Yet taking his first step onto the planet Earth, to stand before the lottery winners, was the most frightening step he had ever taken. Ridiculous, when you were a mighty warrior of Karal!
Chapter Three – Gaia
Gaia stood alongside the other six females who were about to embark on a new life on a distant planet, and excitement filled her. Until the spaceship had landed in front of her, she had thought that maybe she would wake up and it would all be a dream, or the lottery was one big joke. Aliens couldn’t possibly be real.
Yet two of them stood in front of her. Both impossibly tall and broad, like human men of centuries ago. Lack of food and good clean air had diminished the human race, and the men were often weak and pale. These two Karalians were a stark contrast; dark haired and dark eyed, they had an underlying vibe of danger. That once the gathered females stepped on to their ship, their free will would be taken from them.
Gaia felt a shudder of apprehension. The lottery was backwards in so many ways: the winner got to live on Karal, with good food and clean air. But in return, they gifted a part of themselves to Karal. Once she entered the spaceship, she would relinquish her freedom and agree to breed the next generation of aliens. The aliens were the real winners in the lottery.
Was that what she wanted? Or should she turn and walk away now? Turn and run back to her old life and her old home with its ghosts of the past?
“Welcome, ladies.” One of the Karalians spoke, his voice softer, more gentle, than his manner conveyed. “I hope you are all looking forward to this new adventure. If you bring your luggage, Rikka here will show you where to stow it. Then we can depart. Our first stop is a space station that orbits Karal; from there we will travel to our beautiful home planet.”
“I might need some help with this,” one of the women said, indicating her suitcase, which looked huge.
“I’ll help,” Gaia said, stepping forward. She shouldered her pack and went towards the woman, who scowled, making Gaia pull up short. “Or did you want to struggle on your own?”
“No. What I wanted was for one of those strapping young Karalians to come to my aid,” she said bluntly, but then her face relaxed. “Sorry. I have been dreaming of meeting the Karalian of my dreams and I can’t wait to get to know them. Silly, I thought maybe this would be love at first sight.”
“You don’t even know if these two are any of the aliens who will be matched to us,” Gaia said, holding the handle of the suitcase in one hand and lifting it. “What have you got in here?”
“Shoes. It’s my passion and I couldn’t bear to leave them behind. I’m Issy, by the way.”
“Gaia.” She nodded to Issy as they lurched forward with the overpacked suitcase. “How many pairs have you brought?”
Gaia only owned three pairs of shoes; they were seen as a luxury to most people. One for everyday use, one for when the ground was wet and muddy, and if you were lucky, one pair for best. Although the best pair were often poorly fitted hand-me-downs.
“Twenty. And then there are matching purses.”
“Matching purses? I only have three pairs of shoes and one purse,” Gaia said. “Why would you need so many?”
“For going out. You know, to the malls and restaurants.” She looked up at Gaia’s expression. “You’re a skim?”
“Yes. And I guess you are a pent. A very rich pent,” Gaia said, trying not to let it sound like an accusation, but knowing it did.
“A pent, yes, not so rich though. My mom owns one of the boutiques in the Regale Mall. She gets shoes at wholesale.” They reached the bottom of the ramp and began dragging the suitcase up the steps.
“And you think there will be an opportunity for you to wear all these shoes on Karal?” Gaia asked. She had always imagined the planet to be wild and untamed, a bit like the two aliens who were waiting at the top of the ramp as they heaved the heavy suitcase up. One thing for sure, they weren’t gentlemen. They were happy to stand and watch while the two women struggled.
“Why not? And if not, then it’s something I could help them with. Have you ever thought about how many women are going to be coming to live on Karal over the next few years? Soon they will have to speed the lottery up even more. My mom said they will need to clothe them.”
“And your mom wants to expand her business to a new planet?” Gaia asked, admiring the thought process of Issy and her mom. “Is that why you entered?”
“Partly. And partly because I wanted to see something else, other than the inside of a mall. I know you think we are lucky, but life does get dull. There is only so much coin a person can spend before it becomes meaningless.”
“Tell that to the skims who have no roof over their heads,” Gaia said.
“That’s just lies spread by those who want to raise our taxes,” Issy laughed.
“I have seen plenty of people who have no homes. Even in the small town I live in. We do our best, but yes, when there is little in the way of work, people go hungry and lose their homes.”
Issy stopped, standing up straight to look down at Gaia. “I always thought that was a lie.”
Someone bumped into the back of Gaia, and she turned round to see a nervous-looking slim woman. “Sorry. Was too busy looking at the aliens to see you stopped there.”
“No problem, come on, Issy. Time to get your travelling boutique stowed away.” Issy took hold of her handle and began to tug the suitcase up the ramp.
“You know, I have no idea about the world really, do I?” Issy said.
“That’s not true,” Gaia said. “You know lots about your life, I know lots about mine. But as of right now, none of that matters.” They had reached the threshold of the spaceship. “Because as of right now, we are about to enter a new life, in which we are all equals.”
Her eyes met one of the Karalians and she smiled; he just stared at her. They weren’t exactly the friendliest of people, but then taking a gaggle of females in a spaceship halfway across the galaxy might not be the most appealing thing to an alien. Especially when behind her, raucous laughter erupted as someone’s suitcase toppled off the side of the ramp and landed with a crash on the ground, its contents spilling out.
“We can all see the colour of your underwear,” one voice yelled and then more laughter erupted. A small timid-looking girl ran back down to retrieve her belongings, and from the shaking of her shoulders, Gaia was sure she was crying.
“Can you help Issy from here?” Gaia asked the woman behind them. Before the woman answered, Gaia had gone back down the ramp, pushing past the laughing women and jumping off the edge of the ramp to help the timid girl.
“Here, let me help you,” Gaia said.
“You don’t have to. I can manage.”
“No problem. Quicker we get it all packed away, the quicker we can get going. Here.” She passed her a hairbrush and a lac
y bra. “I’m Gaia, by the way.”
“Berni. And thank you.”
“We should all help each other,” Gaia said, and handed over more lacy underwear and a pretty dress covered in a floral print. “You have some lovely clothes.”
“My mom brought me pretty things to disguise the fact that I am so plain.” Berni pushed her curly hair back from her face. “My mom is stunningly beautiful; she never quite got over giving birth to a plain Jane.”
“Berni. You are beautiful; we all are in our own way.”
Berni shook her head. “It’s why I entered the lottery. My mom said I would never catch the eye of anyone eligible on Earth. She laughed when I won and told me that at least the alien who was saddled with me wouldn’t be interested in my face … just what was … well, down there.”
Gaia laughed. “She might be right. I had never thought of it that way. Oh well, we really are all the same now, aren’t we? Seven Earth females about to be fed to seven horny aliens.”
“Do you think they really are horny?” Berni asked fearfully.
Gaia placed her hand on Berni’s. “I think they will be kind. And I think you will be happy.”
Berni smiled and her eyes lit up, making Gaia wonder how her own mother could ever have called her plain. But a sadness settled on her heart. At times like this, she missed having a mom, even one as mentally unstable as hers. Fighting back tears, she gathered up the rest of Berni’s belongings and helped shove them in the case and shut it securely.
As Berni stood up, Gaia pressed her hand down onto the hard ground and said a final farewell to the Earth and all of her memories.
Chapter Four – Rikka
“Do they always make so much noise?” Rikka asked as he waited for clearance to leave Earth.
“Yes. When they are together. Tikki often invites her sister and some of the other females over on an afternoon. They make more noise than a herd of coracora.” Okil laughed. “But when you go into space there will only be the two of you, so make sure you choose a female who you can talk to.”
“Or one that knows how to sit in silence for long hours. I do not crave, nor do I desire to listen to a female talk to the edge of the universe and back.” Rikka had spent his previous deep space missions with other Karalian warriors; they sometimes went days without speaking more than the minimum of words to each other. And those words would be details about the space cruiser, not discussing how pretty the inside of a wormhole was.
“You will learn to appreciate the chatter,” Okil said, his eyes filled with amusement. “Even our great leader, the Hier Ruler, was not immune.”
“I sometimes wonder how he came to take a female. I always thought him sensible, immune to the distractions the rest of us have to endure.”
“Wait until you have chosen. And then you will take her to your bed, and the world will seem a different place. There is little more I can say. It is something you will experience. And then you will get to know her, and she will begin to understand you and the two of you will form a bond so close, you will wonder where you end and she begins.”
“You are a romantic fool, Okil.” Rikka could never allow himself to think or behave in such a way. He had his pride, after all.
“I’ll lend you some old Earth movies to watch. They are quite enlightening in the ways a woman likes to be spoken to and treated.”
“So that is what you do all day? I wondered how you learned so much about Earth and its inhabitants.” They had clearance and he powered up the engines, the vibrations making the cruiser shake and the cacophony of noise in the hold went to a whole new, ear-splitting level.
“No. I learned it from the first females. Knowledge is a thing learned through experience, not the watching of movies. Or interacting with the sim,” Okil advised.
Rikka slid the controls forward and the cruiser began to lift off the ground. They held steady for a moment and then they were powering away from Earth, the atmosphere slowing their speed for a heartbeat, and then they were flung out into space.
The sounds from the females were muted as they all looked out of the windows, their attention grabbed by the sight of their home planet disappearing below them. Rikka banked the ship and headed towards the moon. There, hidden behind it, were the beacons, which kept the wormhole open. The wormhole that made the long journey to his home planet into nothing more than a pretty light show.
Reds and greens circled the ship, and the sounds in the back changed to “oohs” and “ahhs”. But Rikka ignored them all. His hand hovered over the control stick, waiting for the moment they would exit the wormhole. It was a part of his training, and despite this wormhole being stable for months now, he could not sink into complacency. Any warrior knew that was how deep space warriors ended up dead.
“Relax a little,” Okil said, seeing the strain on his face.
“I will relax when we are back on Karal. It worries me sometimes that this wormhole has been open for so long. It was not stable when we first entered it.” Rikka flexed his hand and adjusted his grip.
“The beacons are more than sufficient to keep it open and the course correct,” Okil said. “Every time we have travelled through, I have noted the readings; they are never off by more than a degree or two.”
“It only takes a small shift and we will be flung across the universe into unchartered space.” Rikka watched for the exit hole, checked the readings, and only removed his hand from the control stick when the sight of the space station, bright in the light of the two suns, met him.
“I thought you were used to traveling through and mapping unchartered space,” Okil said, removing his seatbelt and standing up.
“Not when I am unprepared and the hold is filled with a gaggle of females. We should go more prepared, Okil,” Rikka warned.
Okil placed his hand on the big Karalian’s shoulder. “And you need to relax. The trials will begin as soon as we land. I need you to be calm.”
“I am calm,” Rikka insisted, but to himself, he had to admit, he would never know what it was to be calm and relaxed until all of these females were off his ship. He had no idea which one would be accompanying him into space. All he knew was he would base his judgement on lack of giggling, rather than their effort in the trials.
Chapter Five – Gaia
“We are about to enter the space station, There you will be assigned a decon’ room.”
“What is a decon’ room?” Issy asked.
“It is a room where you will strip and our technology will purge you of any disease or bacteria which may threaten our planet.” He went on, despite the complaints, which revolved around having to strip. “At the same time, the cruiser will be purged. Then we will continue our journey and land on Karal.”
“I don’t like the sound of this,” Issy said as she walked in front of Gaia onto the space station. “I don’t remember stripping being part of the terms of the lottery.”
“Issy, when you entered you practically gave your body to aliens. I wouldn’t worry about stripping now, I would be more worried about how big a Karalian’s cock is, because one things for sure, if it’s proportional to the rest of their body, it’s going to sting,” one of the other women said.
“What does she mean, sting?” Issy whispered to Gaia.
“I think she means when we … you know…” Gaia couldn’t say the words. The thought of being intimate with an alien seemed so absurd, and the walls of the space station seemed to crowd in on her, making her feel sick.
“Are you all right?” A deep voice, that belonging to the second Karalian, Rikka, brought her back to her senses. Her eyes fixed on his face, and she tried to use that as a point of focus, to stop the thoughts of just how far away from home they were pulling at her consciousness.
“Yes. Haven’t got my space legs yet,” she said. “That’s all. I’ll be glad to reach the planet.”
“We are safe here. The station is very stable,” Rikka said calmly.
“Yes. But it’s not the ground, is it?” she said, f
orcing her panic back down. “We’re hanging in space.”
He titled his head and examined her before saying, as if she were a simpleton. “A planet hangs in space just the same.”
Gaia frowned. “I had never thought about it like that.”
“Do they not teach you about space in school?” he asked.
“Of course. But it’s not until you leave your planet that it all becomes so real. Before I got on the space ship and left Earth, I never actually connected the pictures we see of the Earth from far away, with just how small and insignificant we are.”
The others had all followed Okil along a corridor, while she stood talking to this strange Karalian, who looked at her as if he would like to examine her further. And maybe she wanted that. He was so tall, making her feel tiny and vulnerable, despite her curvy body. He also made her want to question him, to ask him all about the universe.
“You must know a lot about space. Have you travelled much?” she asked, as if they had met in a corner store on Earth and he had arrived from out of town, not outer space.
“Yes. I am a deep space warrior,” he answered, indicating the way to the decon’ rooms. “We should go.”
“Then why are you transporting us?” she asked, hesitating as he stood outside a room, which she guessed was where she was supposed to strip.
“It is Okil’s idea. It allows me to have a longer time to choose who will accompany me into deep space,” he said.
“Into what?” Gaia asked. “I thought we were all going to live on Karal. That was what the lottery was for. To come to your home planet and have babies.”
“And that might be your fate. But there are missions to find your kind a new planet, and one of you will accompany me on one such mission.” He walked forward, his body crowding hers so that she stepped back into the room. “Strip.”
She stood looking at him, not sure what to make of his words. No one from the lottery on Earth had said anything about travelling to anywhere other than Karal. “What if we don’t want to go?”
Found: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Warriors of Karal Book 2) Page 2
