by Stella Sky
The door of the safety area creaked open, much to the horror of the men inside, and Brian shouted again.
“Ariel! Hurry!”
“I can’t!” I growled, taking care to steady my hand as I dropped two small bubbles of alcohol into my beaker. A hissing noise erupted, and my heart tremored in excitement. I was truly doing it. A vaccination to the disease was in my reach. I could save Greandol Blu. And with it, I held the power of life and death in my hands.
“Damn it, you stubborn fool! You need to get in here, now!”
I turned to face the two-way mirror in the lab, where Dr. Vincent, Brian, and the other scientists were surely glaring at me, but when I did, my heart jumped into my throat.
“Human.”
My skin grew cold and clammy, and I backed away from the startling Verian man. He took a slow step forward, and I looked up in terror. His lithe, muscular body was towering over me, his long, silver hair loose over his shoulders, hanging forward, close enough to touch me as he bent forward to study me. He was handsome, that much was sure, a milky white skin tone and deep, penetrating eyes that seemed to be picking me apart without my even having to speak a word.
“Get out of here!” I spat, sliding one of the wheeled tables full of beakers and scalpels between us. “You don’t belong in this lab! You don’t have clearance!”
“Clearance?”
The Verian laughed, a deep, pleasant sound that brought a blush to my face. Was he making fun of me? Sure, I could have thought to say something a little less idiotic, but what was the point now? It’s not as if I expected to encounter the alien menace every day. And besides, how had he managed to get down here?
“I’m serious,” I growled, reaching behind my back and feeling for the small laser gun I kept in my belt. The cool steel of the handle reached my fingertips, and I brought it out in front of my face, my hands shaking. “You need to leave this place.”
“Oh, I’ll leave,” the man said, coming close enough that I could see the flecks of red in his peculiar golden-green eyes. “But you’re coming with me.”
Before I had a chance to respond, the laser was knocked out of my hand and flew onto the table where I had been working, crashing against the beaker I had been so stupidly eager to study. It pained me to see all of my work ruined, and be unable to protect it. Fortunately, I had all the calculations in my head already. I was one of the leading scientists of all the Zones on Earth, and had been brought to the lab on Center Island to harness my full potential. And now, my hubris had gotten me into trouble. Surprise, surprise.
I sighed as the Verian man gripped my wrists and tugged me painfully forward, as Vincent’s voice shouted at him through the speakers to let me go. But the Verian man refused, and I closed my eyes, deeply ashamed that I had been captured, and even more so, irritated that my work had been interrupted. I probably would have been more afraid if the alien’s strange eyes had lingered on me a bit longer, but I had always been a foolishly stubborn woman, and the only thought in my head was, “Damn him, I was so close!”
However, when my eyes were forced to adjust to the brilliant light of day, and my body was thrust forward, it suddenly dawned on me just how serious my situation was. I remained somewhat in shock until I found myself weightless in the air, looking out over the island as the Verian ship teleported me inside. As I floated upward, my eyes lingered on the small hill where Greandol’s little shack was hidden in the brush. I wouldn’t be able to help him, or anyone else for that matter, ever again.
***
“Stop squirming! This will be a lot easier for you if you don’t resist!”
“Like hell,” I grumbled, pulling away from the Verian man with all my might. But it was no use. Even though it was clear he was suffering from the same disease as Greandol was, he was still far stronger than me. That, and I could tell by the deep blue-black uniform that he wore that he had been well-trained for combat. He seemed able to predict my every move. It was discouraging.
“Human,” he said sternly, staring into my eyes with a dark expression. “I’m tiring of your nonsense. Either you cooperate, or we are going to do this the hard way. And you really aren’t going to like the hard way.”
I sighed and submitted. These were strong, serious men who would do anything to win the war. Whether they were deceptively handsome or not, it didn’t mean that I was safe. In fact, shouldn’t I have been a little bit more concerned that I was never going to go back to my home planet again? That I was being held captive to ultimately serve an alien agenda? So why was it that more than anything, I was still pissed off at this guy?
“I don’t know what you think you’re doing with me but you’re not going to get anywhere,” I said, glaring at him hard. I was so sick and tired of men trying to bully me around: tell me what to do, how to do it, and just expect me to listen to them. Nobody, not on Earth and certainly not on the planet Helna, had the right to order me around. And that was the end of it.
“Whether we get anywhere or not isn’t for you to decide,” the Verian man said, his voice dark as he gazed into my eyes and shoved me into my cell.
The door was whirring as it locked, a primitive mechanism from what I could tell, and another Verian, stouter than the first, came up beside him.
“Yul Pyre! Did you get the right one?” he asked, staring at me with bitter, beady eyes. “Wow, humans look strange up close.”
“Enough, Harlaw. Yes, I got the right one. I’m not incompetent.”
“Well of course not, Yul. I was just worried…there were many heat signatures in that underground building…”
“And only one of them belonged to a female, or could you not tell after all of that training?” Pyre said coolly to the smaller man beside him. I almost felt bad for the guy; he looked like somebody had just kicked his puppy. Almost. “Do not second-guess me again or it will be the last time you wear your uniform.”
“O…of course, commander. My deepest apologies.”
Harlaw scurried away, and I glared after him until he turned the corner and was out of sight. Just how big was this craft, anyway? And how many other Verians were there?
“You’re a feisty one, human.”
I froze when I realized that the commander, Pyre, apparently, was looking at me again, with his icy-hot eyes flashing. Another surge of heat exploded over my cheeks. This man had a way of making me feel furious and embarrassed at the same time. I wasn’t used to anybody provoking such emotional reactions in me.
“I want you to let me go. There is no reason for me to go with you.”
“I’m afraid I have to disagree with you there,” Pyre said, running his hands through his long silver hair, his slender but well-muscled body just inches away from the bars of my small prison. “We know that you have intel that could help the Verian war effort.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I groaned. “And you didn’t want any of the other scientists in the area? Just me?”
The man’s handsome face studied me, infuriatingly calm, and nodded slowly.
“Well, I’m afraid your ugly friend back there is right. You have the wrong person. There’s nothing you’re ever going to do that’s going to make me help you. The Verians are scum.”
I felt horrible saying it as images of the young Greandol flashed in my mind. A helpless little boy if I had ever seen one; he had been a ward of the Zones. Nobody knew quite what to do with him. His parents had been an interracial couple, a Verian man and a human female, who had been very much in love despite the conventional wisdom at the time. Once they were discovered, they had been prosecuted. But nobody had known quite what to do with the weak young boy, who had suffered from the very disease I had been working so hard to cure. It had taken some time before the court decided to place him with a guardian on the outskirts, where nobody could harm him, and vice versa.
“I understand that you feel this way,” the infuriating man said, his expression impossible to read. “The Verians feel much the same about your kind. It is you who began t
his insufferable war, after all.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with it!” I snapped. “And anyone who is stupid enough to take out past transgressions on generations of innocent people is just pure evil in my book. So just get out of my face. I’m done with this conversation.”
I couldn’t believe myself as the words poured out of my mouth. I had always been a bit too outspoken for most people. I could even get a little bit aggressive when it came down to it, especially when people were treating me unfairly.
But those were traits that were looked down on in women, and my family had been ashamed enough of me that they asked me to join a different Zone. That’s where I had met Greandol. He had been nothing but an experiment then, strapped to a table and poked and prodded day and night as the scientists determined whether or not it would be dangerous for him to coexist with humans. I had been hired to take care of his medical chart at the time. Poor kid.
Working in Zone 12 was when I had discovered my passion for science, and quickly became the lead researcher. It landed me the job of working in the lab on Center Island, which would have been great, except that ultimately it had been my undoing. Because there I was, being treated exactly the same way that everybody else treated stubborn, outspoken and intelligent women like me. Except by an infuriating stranger who wasn’t even human.
“You’re bold, human, and if you don’t watch yourself, you’re going to find yourself in deep distress. Cooperate, and all will be well. But continue this feisty charade, and you are going to truly learn the meaning of pain.”
Pyre’s eyes glowed, the flecks of red in his eyes nearly glowing as he spoke, and a cold sweat sprung out onto my brow. Oh, so now I am scared? That was rich. What great self-preservation instincts, Ariel. Wait to keep your mouth shut until after you’ve already gravely offended the only Verian man responsible for your well-being. I was doomed.
“The journey will not be long, and soon you will be on Helna. Rest until then. You’re going to need it.”
The Verian’s words gave me goosebumps, and I sighed, my eyes following his large, ominous figure as he disappeared down the hall and around the corner. The last thing I needed was to make enemies here. But unfortunately, that looked to be the only thing I was ever capable of doing. Oh well.
***
“This is it, human. Let’s go!”
I frowned at the grating voice rousing me from sleep, and opened my eyes, searching frantically for Pyre, who was nowhere in sight. All I saw was the grumpy little Verian from the night before, Harlaw.
“Where’s your boss?” I asked groggily, staggering to my feet. The cell didn’t have space for a bed, so I had slept the majority of the time slumped up with my back against the wall. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best night’s sleep I’d ever had. I was groggy and irritable. And a little bit hungry. But more than that, I was irritated. They had no right to take me and treat me the way they had. And yet this was it; they were doing it. And there was no telling what kinds of abuses I might be in for.
“Verian business is none of your concern, human! Now march!”
I cried out in pain as Harlaw probed me forward with a rod that had been electrically charged. I had no choice but to do as he requested, and moved sullenly forward, unsure of what to expect.
I was led down a long, steely corridor, the frieze of the walls full of Verian words that I didn’t have time to translate in my panic. We had arrived on Helna, a planet that was rapidly deteriorating. I wasn’t going to have a lot of time to collect my thoughts before I was faced with a dying planet. For some reason, the idea of seeing the deteriorating world was scarier to me than being a prisoner.
In a way, it was exciting to be about to view a new planet for the first time, but still, I couldn’t help but feel frightened. And I had an intense, irrational longing for the man beside me, leading me to this new discovery, to be Pyre, not Harlaw, who seemed to delight in my discomfort. At least Pyre had seemed to have a steady head on his shoulders and hadn’t needlessly harmed me. Harlaw was his total opposite. It was easy to see why Pyre was in charge.
“Come now, human. Out you go.”
Harlaw muttered something in his native Verian tongue, something highly degrading to human women, probably all women in general, though I couldn’t hear all of what he’d said, before prodding me with his electrically charged spear again.
I did my best not to cry out this time, as it seemed to please him, and walked briskly toward the bright opening of the ship. I squinted as I descended down a steep ramp and inhaled the polluted, smoggy air of Helna. It caused me to cough immediately, and Harlaw let out an unkind laugh.
“Harlaw!”
My heart panged hard in my chest at the masculine sound of Pyre’s voice, and Harlaw cut off the unpleasant laughter at once.
“Yes, commander?” he asked innocently.
“Get the rest of the luggage out of the ship,” Pyre said coldly. “I will deal with the prisoner.”
Harlaw looked as if he were about to protest, but apparently thought better of it and turned his back on us to return inside the dark craft.
“Come human,” the Verian said, almost apologetically. “There is much left to do.”
I followed Pyre nervously as he led me through a desolate, sandy plain, until, in the distance, I saw a small gray building. It looked frighteningly tiny, and Pyre paused just as he was about to push through the door.
“I want you to know that this isn’t personal for me,” he said, his handsome face shockingly serious. “I do not take pleasure in the needless abuse of prisoners. Harlaw will be punished for his offenses.”
I glared and looked away. What good did it do for Pyre to tell me this? He was probably just trying to find a way to make himself feel better for abducting an innocent human and subjecting her to who knew what kind of torture. Well, I would never forgive him. I would never forgive any of them. Not when it meant that Greandol would continue to suffer.
“This is it, human. Come on.”
I walked gravely beside the Verian, who placed his heavy hand on my shoulder. He guided me inside, gentle but firm, and when I saw what was inside my stomach dropped.
“My freg, commander! Get her over here. It’s been too long already.”
Pyre glared at the man who spoke but followed his instruction. He handed me off to him, and I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not but he seemed reluctant to let me go.
I grimaced as talon-like fingers squeezed my shoulder and pulled me forward. Soon, I was looking in the eyes of a severe Verian man with bushy eyebrows and a plump face. He looked tired and weak, as if he had been a victim of Earth’s disease for many years now. And if the way Pyre had been speaking was any indication, he seemed to think that I had something that he wanted.
“Get her cleansed!”
I was suddenly doused with freezing cold water, and I felt hands grabbing at my body, tearing the clothes off of me and draping a heavy gown over my exposed abdomen. Pyre averted his eyes, seemingly embarrassed for me, and then disappeared from the room.
“Wait,” I whispered, my voice choked with fear. But he didn’t hear me, and soon I was left alone in the small room full of chanting Verians, smudging sweet smelling smoke around my body and waving their arms in the air frantically.
It seemed like years before they were finished, and when they finally did complete their ritual, they locked me in a much bigger cell than the one I’d had been inside while in the ship. This one did have the luxury of a bed, but it was coarse and uncomfortable, and the blanket I was meant to cover up with was full of holes and made of a material that irritated my skin.
“We know exactly who you are,” the old Verian man with the bushy eyebrows said to me. “So it isn’t going to do you any good to try to lie your way out of this. We’re going to get the information we need from you, whether we have to do it by force or not.”
He hesitated for a moment, sucking in a deep breath and crossing his hands behind his back, giving off t
he impression of a plump nobleman with an inflated sense of self as he marched back and forth in front of my cell.
“I’ve had it with humans and their incorrigible appetite for destruction,” he continued. “I’m not going to go easy on you.”
I felt a chill creep down my spine. From the look in his eyes, I knew that he wasn’t lying. I was in for a world of trouble.
Chapter 2
Commander Pyre Juno
“I must free the human in the State’s captivity. She is valuable,” I said urgently. I had donned my pure white civilian clothes after leaving the girl in Arke’s care but had been unable to free my mind of her. Ariel was a wealth of information. Information that could mean the end to our secret opposition against the Verian government.
“Are you sure, Yul Pyre? They could trace it back to you, and then they will discover the opposition. It doesn’t seem wise!” Blaithe Corra said, his voice pleading.
“She’s got to come here. You know they’re going to mistreat her for information!” I insisted.
Ever since I had deposited the human with Arke and his crew, I had been battling with a sick feeling of foreboding in my stomach. The girl didn’t deserve to be left to the hands of the cruel men in charge. They had been chosen simply because they reflected the ruthless ideals of their leader. The master of the Verians, the current Doyan Yolatz, was taking the war in a dangerous direction. One that few Verians, let alone humans, would survive. We had to stop him.
But, I also felt that it was my duty to save the human as well. I had abducted her. She was my responsibility. This, I kept to myself. The members of the opposition simply wouldn’t understand.
