by Stella Sky
“So what is it? Why are you here?” Dean asked, the kindness gone from his voice. Now he was stern and serious, and I felt a keen pressure to submit to his severity and tell him something good. But all I had was the truth.
“We are afraid that the Doyan of Helna, Grod Curad, is going to launch an attack that will destroy the Earth as we know it and all those living upon it,” I said quietly.
“I refuse to see the war my ancestors have waged come to an end like this simply because of the greed and short-sightedness of my brother,” Pax said, staring at Dean. Dean didn’t seem eager to acknowledge Pax, but he did anyway.
“And what do you expect us to do about your brother? Why aren’t you up there stopping him right now?”
Pax sighed deeply. “Because he is bringing reinforcements. If you know anything about your friendly, parasitic alien races, then you will know that they rarely come alone or with a penchant for compromise.”
“The Larex then, is it?” Dean said quietly.
Pax and I exchanged brief, curious looks, and Dean sighed. “This isn’t the first time your people have had dealings with those intergalactic bullies. When are they planning to strike?”
Pax wasted no time in replying. “It could be as soon as tomorrow.”
“What of the weapon, Ali?” Dean asked. “Is it ready?”
“It just needs a small finishing touch, and it will be.”
“There is just one small thing,” Pax said.
“What is that?” Dean asked, his eyes serious.
“They have the Yorga with them. Or they may. We still don’t know for sure yet, but that’s what my intel has been telling me to look out for.”
“Are you serious?” Dean exclaimed.
The whole room was suddenly bustling with activity, and they quickly had Pax out of his confines, and soon, they were leading me and the Verian man through some large double doors where we were rushed into the back room and we spent the rest of the evening coming up with strategies for battle.
It was surreal to be working alongside Pax and Dean, who were soon getting on like old buddies. I wouldn’t have ever believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself, and by the end of the night, they were smiling and laughing. Dean led them out to the ship to make sure Pax was treated with respect as he left, and stood outside the base, looking up at the sky.
“It’s so strange to think that up there we’re surrounded. We had picked up something on the satellites, but we thought it was just the usual stealth mission. I had no idea…”
“Well, the scope of this would shock anybody. I would have known nothing about it were it not for a dear old friend who happened to want to help.”
“Well, what are dear old friends for?” Dean asked.
Pax grinned, and soon we were on our way back to the base. When the ship landed, Pax led me to his quarters where we fell asleep together on his cot, holding each other closely and intimately in a way I had never dreamed I might hold anyone.
“You are going to be safe, Yula,” Pax whispered to me, his voice deep and soothing in my ears. I nodded, somehow allowing myself to believe his words just long enough to drift into a fitful sleep.
Chapter 8
Second-in-Command Pax Curad
Ali had already left my quarters, leaving the bed warm behind her, when I woke up. I felt great, better than I had in years, and stood up right away, almost forgetting to take my Vari-X.
My mind immediately went to the necessities of the day. We had come up with a strategy that somehow seemed feasible, but until Grod showed up ready to betray us, as far as our troops knew, we were here to fight humans and humans alone.
It would take the full and utter betrayal of their leader for the troops to believe that they were better off following me and the humans into a battle of unknown outcomes. The idea of working together with humans unless out of necessity would probably strike them all as bizarre, and I was reluctant to break the news to them.
I dismounted the ship and looked to the sky from the base I had created near the original mine where I had met Ali, and readied myself for the battle ahead.
The alarm bells began to ring much sooner than I had anticipated, and the black ships of the Yorga began to appear one by one in the sky. My blood curdled when I saw three round figures, imposing against the blue of the Earth’s sky. They were not ships. They were large, balloon-like creatures with round, sadistic eyes. The Larex.
Behind the three Larex was the ship that was perhaps the most disturbing of all, but only because I knew that inside that ship was a man I knew and had loved once as a brother. Grod.
“Attention, creatures of Earth,” Grod said, his voice echoing from the ship sinisterly. “We have come to take this planet as our own.”
I could hear the bustling of the humans as they began to come out of their shelters in the Zones, and the electronic charges of superweapons that were prepared to take on any threat.
“But we are not just here on behalf of Earth,” Grod said, his voice smug. “We are also here because we are planning a pretty hostile takeover. And unfortunately, I am going to be the last Verian standing in the universe. And it is all thanks to you, people of Earth, and my own troops for making this possible.”
The eyes of the frightening Larex rolled with pleasure, and the lights of the ships of the Yorga began to shine, locking on targets to attack. Unsurprisingly, I was one of those targets.
“Goodbye, Earth, and all its inhabitants,” Grod said, a shrill giggle echoing over the loudspeakers. “It was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?”
I immediately went to my control panel and got on the wire to all of my ships. Fortunately, they were all already in position, and still well hidden from the Yorga. But that wasn’t going to be enough. I just hoped against hope that Ali’s weapon and the humans on the ground would be enough to prevent the impending tragedy.
“Fire!” I shouted.
Soon the sky was alight with the blaze of rockets and lasers, and three Yorga ships were engulfed in flames and plummeting toward Earth. I wished we could have done something to prevent damage to the foliage, but I pushed the thought from my mind and took the opportunity to relocate my ship to a vantage point. I refused to let Grod just watch from behind everyone who was doing the actual fighting. My issue was with him. If it weren’t for my selfish brother, I would not be risking my life to simply save the planet. I would be fighting a war for the right to live on that planet.
Deafening explosions echoed in my ear as I made my way up and into the atmosphere of Earth, where Grod was sitting in the captain’s seat of his huge, ugly ship. Sure enough, there were no other Verians in the ship with him, just a small handful of Pelin.
“Surrender, brother,” I demanded through my own speaker. “You will not win this battle.”
“Never!”
The ship I was in was hit by a sudden explosion and careened off to the side. I returned fire, and soon both of our ships were plummeting to the ground. Grod emerged from his wreckage, disoriented and furious, as the Larex circled around the planet, watching the chaos unfold with greedy, disgusting eyes.
“Once again, you have betrayed me, Grod,” I growled, stepping out from my own ship.
All day long I had been feeling stronger than I had in years and years, and I made my way confidently toward my brother, righteous fury brewing in my chest.
I marched up to Grod, who was no longer feeling very sure of himself stuck on the very planet he meant to destroy, and soon we were fighting unlike any fight I had ever experienced before. He had put me down and bullied me for so long that it was all I could do to keep from killing him right then and there. But he was my brother. I would much rather imprison him and make him pay for all he had done.
Unfortunately, there was no way to end this war without casualties. Ship after ship dropped to the ground, some of them Yorga, others of them Verian, with Grod and I brawling on the ground all the while.
Grod finally yelped in pain, surrendering as I whipped hi
m around and broke one of his arms. I shoved him down and stepped on his chest, looking up into the sky in concern. Another wave of Yorga ships had arrived, and they were sending down the foot troops.
“You are going to pay for this, you krocha!” I spat down at Grod, who didn’t respond; he only grunted in pain.
Just when it looked like all would be lost, a brilliant blue light snaked throughout the air. I thought I was seeing things, but it happened again, and soon the whole sky was filled with flashes of blue.
“It’s working!”
Ali’s beautiful voice filled my heart with wonder, and I turned around just in time to see her running toward me, her cheeks ruddy and her eyes sparkling.
“Dean got it to work! We’re going to win this thing after all!”
Human troops were being deployed on the ground, with an advantage of three troops to one Yorga warrior. It seemed to take no time at all before Ali’s weapon began to prove its worth, and ship after ship lost power and crashed down, most imploding before they even reached the ground.
The round eyes of the Larex watched this in disbelief and anger, and they opened their mouths as if to prepare for an attack. Before they had the chance to follow through, however, beams of blue light began to dance around them, and soon they were being electrified beyond recognition.
They seemed to deflate and fluttered to the ground, leaving the sky free of all threats.
I looked down at Ali in disbelief, and she smiled at me, pride and pleasure etched deep in every line of her face. I knew at that moment that I had claimed the right person, and no matter what I would be proud and willing to call her my own.
“What did you think?” she asked me, referencing her weapon.
“I think it was amazing, Yula,” I said, kissing her forehead. “And now that we have finished destroying, I think that it might be time for us to rebuild.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The foundation beneath human and Verian may be cracked, but there is the possibility to heal all wounds. If we can move forward together, perhaps both of our species can learn to coexist and live in harmony, just as we band together to absolve the threat of the Larex and their Yorga warriors.”
Ali smiled, her face more beautiful than I had ever seen it before.
“I don’t think I would like to see anything more than I would like to see our people living in peace and harmony.”
“From here on out, that is exactly what we are going to do,” I said, holding her close and dropping a tender kiss on the lips of my human. “Starting with getting rid of the law that forbids love between species.”
Ali held me close, each of us appreciating each other more and more. Now that the battle was over, our lives could truly begin.
The End
Cylo-Dragons Of Kelon
By Maia Starr
CHAPTER ONE
MELODY REEVES
I saw a large dark shadow just underneath the surface of the water. The massive ripples let me know that it was something fast. It looked dangerous, but I could not look away. I took a few more steps and got as close as I could to the edge of the cliff jutting over the Pacific Ocean. I was very scared of heights and I did not want to be anywhere near the edge, but I had to take a look. My knees grew weak as I looked out over the water.
"Are those wings?” I whispered to myself as I watched the dark shadow underneath the water get closer to the surface and create a dark outline. It looked like a very large bird swimming underneath the water.
"That can't be, Melody. I think the pressures of being the president's daughter have finally caught up with you,” I said as I rubbed my eyes and shook my head from side to side as though I could make it disappear.
I looked back at the water. Whoosh! Suddenly the creature burst from the surface of the water and flew straight up, shooting into the sky, into the blinding light of the bright sun. It was so fast that I could not exactly see what I was looking at. But in the backlight of the sun I saw a brief outline as the creature spread its wings out from its sides. They look to be at least 10 feet across and my mouth was wide open as I stared at it. What the hell was I looking at? Was it some form of dinosaur that we thought was extinct, but would reappear now and then to create a legend like the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland?
I took steps backward as the creature seemed to hit the highest point of its flight and change direction, toward me. It was diving very fast. I kept my eyes on it but walked faster; I could not run. I was too frozen with awe at the sight of this strange thing.
Boom! The ground seemed to shake underneath me as the creature landed a few yards in front of me.
"Holy shit," I whispered to myself as I put my hands over my mouth. I could not believe what I was looking at. It was a man. It was a very large man, almost 9 feet tall. His very broad strong chest was naked, and only a simple loincloth covered his waist down to his thighs. He was very muscular, toned, with six-pack abs that looked chiseled. His jet-black hair was long down to his jaw, and a 5 o'clock shadow beard covered his face. But as he took slows cautious steps toward me, it was not these features that made me feel like I was losing my mind. It was the imprint, almost like a tattoo, that covered his right arm from his wrist up to his shoulder. It looked like a strange pattern, and the very large wings that he had folded behind him let me know this was something not human. My breathing grew heavier, and I knew then that this moment was the start of something that would change my life forever. But little did I know exactly what it all meant.
I couldn't believe that all of this was happening simply because my friend Gloria had recommended I take a hike to clear my mind. I was the daughter of the current President of the United States, President Reeves. The pressure of all of it was getting to me, even though I lived all the way across the country in California. Being the daughter of the president was not all it was cracked up to be. I hated politics. But I hated even more the intrusion of privacy that came with it. I was a writer, and I wanted nothing more than to have an adventure in order to write about it. But I was never able to really get away without people knowing who I was. My father's security detail watched my every move. Even though I was 25-years-old with my own life on the other side of the country, my father ran my life. I could not wait for his term in office to be over. It affected my life more than anything, and that included my romantic life. I never knew if a man was interested in me because of my own personality or if he was just using me for my position in the world.
Just like the guy I had been seeing: James Buckley.
"Are you going to eat that?” James said as he sat across the table from me at a romantic restaurant. We had been dating for two months, and he was a very dashing, rich, Ivy Leaguer. My girlfriends loved him and thought he was perfect. I, on the other hand, thought he was just okay. He was nice and did everything by the book, but I found him to be very boring.
"No, I'm not,” I said pushing the plate of veal toward him.
"Good, I am famished.”
I looked down at my very expensive pink and maroon Dior dress and heels. “What a waste,” I said under my breath.
“What was that, Melody?” James said.
“Oh nothing,” I said.
“I worked out for two hours today before dinner. I'm working on my quads. Have you been able to tell?” he said.
"No, I have not really—”
"I'll show you later back at your place. My personal trainer says that I am doing really well. Maybe you should start going to him too. You could use a little strengthening,” he said squeezing my arm.
"You want me to go to your personal trainer?” I said, looking at him with annoyance.
"Sure. It's not like you can't afford it. Just tell your dad to cover it. You could use some working out.”
"I will consider it,” I said simply because I knew that opposing him would keep him talking about it. I did not have the energy to deal with that.
"Speaking of your father, when will you be visiting him? I would l
ike to go with you if I could. Or better yet, when is he coming here? I'd love to show him around my office. I think he would be very excited about some of my proposals,” he said to me.
"I don't know,” I said rolling my eyes and turning my attention to the attractive waiter walking by the table. A part of me wanted to grab that waiter and take him home. I just wanted to have some passion without the man putting his agenda on me.
"Or, you could email him some of my proposals…” James continued talking about my father, and I tuned him out. This was how it went. This was always how it went. Even before my father was president, he was the Governor of Connecticut. Even then when I was dating, the men in my life always had a political agenda. It did not matter if I was dating a veterinarian or a stockbroker, they always found a way to try to help their position in life through me, and through my father. I wondered if I would ever find someone that did not care who my father was, someone that would really fall in love with me, me as a person.
"Ready to go back to your place?” James said as he pushed the bill toward me on the table. I gave him a look. I knew that he was rich. Why was he not going to pay for dinner, again?
"I think it's your turn to pay,” he said as he looked at the bill and stood up from the table. I sighed and took out my wallet and placed a couple of bills to cover the cost and tip on the table. Then I followed him outside.
Twenty minutes later, we were in my townhouse in Santa Monica that overlooked the ocean. The security detail was parked outside across the street, keeping an eye on my place, as they always did. Walking in with James, they knew that I was going to have sex, and that really bothered me. Would they be reporting that to my father as well? They reported everybody that I dated to him because everybody had to be checked out; they could be a spy from another country or an assassin. It was all ridiculous. So when I finally found someone that was cleared, I had a habit of sticking with him even though I did not like him simply because it was a major hassle to date someone else.
