by Maia Starr
I waited for her in the dark shadows of the underground passages. This structure was below the stone fortress on the asteroid Seeduon. It was put there in case of emergency situations, such as if the fortress were ever under siege, but it was not used otherwise. It was the perfect place to meet someone and tell secret information, like what I was about to tell the human female Vera. I heard light footsteps on the stairs coming down, and I knew it was her.
"Hello? Are you there?” Her voice was delicate and soft.
"I am here. It is Truo. Do not be afraid,” I said stepping into the light.
"I did not know this existed,” she said as she took more confident steps into the passage.
"Many do not know of its existence. It is for emergency escapes only. It is not used otherwise,” I said to her.
As she came into the light, her beauty startled me. She was wearing a blue dress that fit snugly to her curvy body. Her long brown hair was down spreading out over her shoulders and down her chest. She was breathing heavily in her frightened state.
"We must be quick before someone catches us,” she said.
"This way,” I said as a grabbed her hand and pulled her deeper into the underground passage.
"What is it? I'm very nervous down here,” she whispered to me.
"Vera, my name is Truo, and I must tell you something that should have been said to you long ago," I said as I stopped walking once we were in a wider area of the passageway.
"What is it? Is it my husband? Is he down here? Are you taking me to see him?” she said in a quiet panic.
"N, Vera. I am sorry to tell you that your husband is not down here. He has never been down here. He has never been in the dungeon cells. There are no prisoners here,” I said to her.
"What do you mean? My husband is a prisoner here. Cyro is keeping him captive. He has told me so himself,” she said loudly.
"He has lied to you. Cyro lied in order to get what he wanted from you,” I said to her.
"No, my husband is here. If he is not in the prison cells, then he is being held somewhere else,” she said panicking.
"Vera, I have to tell you the truth. Your husband is dead.”
She gasped, “How can you say such a thing? It is a lie,” she said to me.
"It is not a lie. I would not lie to you about this. I thought that you should know. Your husband never made it here to Seeduon. He was eliminated on the spaceship. It is the truth,” I said to her.
She began to cry hysterically and scream at me, “You lie! You are a liar! Why would you say that?!” She pounded her fists against my chest, hitting my scales.
I captured her wrists in my hands and stopped her, “I am sorry, Vera. It is wrong. It is very wrong. You should've never been taken. It was wrong to take a human female with a husband. I am very sorry for telling you the truth; I know that it must hurt.”
"No! No! No!” she cried and crumbled to the ground. I had never seen such emotion. This was not what I was expecting. Clearly I knew very little about humans. The Corillion were not so emotional; it was a sign of weakness. We were warriors.
"Marcus…” she cried.
I was in shock and unsure how to deal with this. I planned on telling her the truth so that she could know once and for all. But I had not planned on what to do when she crumpled and broke into two.
I stared at her, the delicate heap on the floor shaking uncontrollably as she cried. I moved down to my knees beside her and wrapped my arms around her for comfort. She pushed her face into my chest and cried. She cried for a long time. We said nothing. I just let her cry.
It was unlike any experience I had ever had up to that point. I did not know how this helped the human female, but it seemed too. She started to calm down, and before I knew it, she fell asleep in my arms quietly sobbing. I let her rest. It was obvious that the news was a shock to her; it was too much for her. Had I known this was the way a human would react, I would've been more delicate with the matter. I was only concerned with telling her the truth because it was not honorable what Cyro was doing to her.
An hour passed and she slept in my arms, and I knew that we could not stay in the underground passage for long. It was not safe, and in a couple of hours, the light of the sun would reach this side of the asteroid surface.
"Vera… Vera, please awaken,” I said nudging her. She woke up startled and confused about where she was for a brief second and why she was in my arms. Then I saw the look on her face as she remembered what I had told her and why she was crying. Anguish came over her.
"I should get back before I am missed. I do not to feel so good,” she said as she tried to stand.
"Here, let me help you," I said, helping her to her feet.
"Thank you, Truo, for your honesty. I must go,” she said, walking away from me towards the staircase.
"Vera, I urge you not to change your behavior with Cyro. He will know that you know and that can be very dangerous for you,” I said to her.
She turned to me and looked up at me with her green eyes that were bloodshot from crying. “I understand.” She said it so weakly that I could barely hear her.
"It is for your own protection,” I said as I walked her to the bottom of the stairs. “Promise that you will say nothing, that you will act the same.”
"I promise to act the same, as much as I can. I have my own bedchamber away from Cyro; he only comes to me to use me. I hate him now more than ever. I don't know how I can go on living like this. Goodbye, Truo; thank you for the truth,” she said as she ran up the stairs.
Then she was gone. All that had happened with this human female astonished me. I was shocked that she had such a reaction to what I told her. I was only telling her the truth because it was the honorable thing to do, but her reaction stung me. In consoling her, I wanted to help her. She seemed so fragile and delicate at that moment. I wanted to take away all of her pain. Holding her in my arms made me feel something I had never felt before, and I did not know what that was or why I felt that way.
I wished that there was more that I could do for her, but she belonged to the leader. There was nothing that I could do. Telling her the truth was the only thing that I could do at this moment, yet after holding her in my arms while she cried made me want to do more for her. I yearned to help her, but I knew that I could not.
Chapter 3
VERA RODANTHEE
I was in such hysterics after the alien warrior known as Truo told me the truth about my husband. Could he be lying to me? Why would an alien warrior go out of his way and risk getting caught in order to tell me such a thing? No, he had to be telling the truth. This was why Cyro had not allowed me to see my husband: he was not on the grounds of the fortress. He had never made it here. Cyro had been lying to me all along in order to get me to go along with his plans to impregnate me. The bastard. I could kill him. He had murdered my husband, and I could never forgive him for that, nor allow him to touch me.
I stormed into my bedroom as the sunlight began to filter into my room. I threw myself on the bed and cried hard. I was in such grief that it made me feel as though I was losing my mind. I got up from my bed and grabbed a chair and threw it across the room, hitting the wall. I had nowhere to put this anger and grief. I cried hard. Eventually, I fell asleep again on the floor. I did not know if I could do what I promised Truo I would do, to continue to act normal. I would have to try, I thought as I drifted off to sleep.
“Wake up, Vera. Why are you on the floor?” I heard a deep voice say. I opened my eyes to find Cyro hovering over me. I was still on the floor, and I was still a mess. I was not expecting Cyro to visit me so early.
"Why do you look like that? What has happened?” he asked.
I realized that he was not used to seeing me in a distraught state like this. So I went along with it using it to my advantage. “I have a sickness. It is a human sickness called the flu; it is very contagious,” I said to him.
His eyes grew wide and he backed away from me immediately, all the way to the do
or. “How long does the sickness last?” he said to me in fear.
"Two to three weeks at most. It requires rest and nourishment in order to be rid of it, but it is a virus that must work itself out. I do not know what this virus will do to the Corillion race, so it is best that all stay away,” I said to him with a sniffle.
"Understood. Keep the door closed, and I will have food brought to you on the tray outside the door. You be well again soon; I will have food brought to you now,” he said as he closed the door behind him and left in a hurry. I could hear his boots moving down the hall moving quickly. I sort of smiled to myself.
"That was quick thinking, Vera,” I said under my breath. I pulled myself off the floor, glad that my quick thinking would allow me some time to figure something out. I had to get out of there. I could no longer do what Cyro requested of me. I had lost my husband, and at least the two to three weeks of faking being sick would cover up my grief on my face. It would give me the time alone that I needed to mourn and plan.
A few moments later, there was a knock at my door. “Food!” the voice shouted, and then I heard the boots leave the hallway. I opened the door to find a tray of food on the table outside my door. I grabbed it and brought it into my room, but I did not have an appetite. I drank the hot liquids and water, and that was all. I could not eat, I could not sleep, and my heart was broken… Marcus. He was all I could think of. For the next two days, I sat in my room crying, sleeping, and overall grieving. I could hardly eat anything, and it helped make myself look very sick.
On the third day, I was all cried out. I couldn't cry anymore and thinking about my husband's death and the fact that it was kept from me made me angrier and angrier. I needed to know more; I needed answers. There was only one Corillion that I could get answers from: Truo. Hours passed as I was stuck in my bedroom chamber and my mind was filled with questions.
Later that night, as I stood at the window of my bedroom staring out over the stark gray landscape of the asteroid, my thoughts turned to the alien warrior that had told me about my husband. I now understood why he had always stared at me whenever he saw me: it was because he was keeping this secret about my husband and he wanted to tell me. That entire time he was trying to tell me with his eyes, but I could not get close enough to him to hear his words.
I looked out over the fortress courtyard to see that it was very quiet; there was not an alien warrior stirring. It was midnight. I wondered if Truo went to the underground passage often? I wondered about this so much that I found myself sneaking out of my room once again and going down the hall, following the directions that he gave me to the staircase and took it quietly down to the bottom.
"Who goes there?” I heard a deep voice say at the bottom of the stairs.
"Truo?” I said.
"Vera, what are you doing down here?” he answered as he stepped into the light.
"It is midnight. I took a chance that you might be down here. I need to know more,” I said to him.
"It is very dangerous for you to be down here," he said.
"I know. But I must know more about my husband's death. You are the only Corillion that is kind to me. If you have the answers to my questions, I hope that you will share the information with me. Then I will be on my way back to my room,” I said to him.
He looked around the dark passageways searching for anyone that might be down there. Then he gave a heavy sigh and said, “Come sit with me,” he said as he pointed towards a stone wall with two steps perfect for sitting. I sat down next to him. He was massive, and I felt very small this close to him.
"What is it you want to know, Vera?”
"How did he die? When did he die?” I asked my voice quivering a bit.
"Are you sure you want to know this? It's better that you don't know and do not see it in your mind,” he said to me with concern.
"No, it is important that I know. If I do not know, then the question will forever linger in my mind, and I will not be able to move past it,” I said to him.
"Very well. I was not on the ship with Cyro when you were captured. But I know what he had told us, and the council. He said that you and your human male were captured on Earth by dosing you with sleeping spores. This would put you and your husband to sleep. You were both taken onto the ship. Once aboard the ship, you were taken to the Corillion galaxy. Then your husband was released into the darkness of space, and would've died instantly. I hope that you find some solace in knowing that,” he said to me.
I broke down in tears. And hearing of his death was more than I thought that I could handle. I sobbed uncontrollably, and Truo pulled me into his arms and held me.
"I am sorry. I warned you that it was better that you did not know," he said.
"No, I needed to know,” I said between sobbing.
"I am very sorry, Vera. What Cyro did was very wrong. It is not the Corillion away. The council almost punished him for it, but then decided not to. But now there is a rule that a human female cannot be taken if she wears a ring on her left hand showing that she belongs to a human male.”
I looked at my ring finger. The tan line from my wedding band was still there. Cyro had taken my ring from me in the short ceremony that made me his wife. I wanted my ring now more than ever.
"I understand. I don't understand why my husband was not just left on Earth then? Why take him? Why not just take me instead? He did not need to die,” I asked him.
"There is a good reason for that as well. You se, because of our relations with the humans, and this constant battle between Earth and the Corillion galaxy, Cyro did not want to leave evidence that he had stolen a human female. If he had just taken you and not your husband, your husband would remember what happened and it would be reported. Then we would no longer be able to go to that area on Earth to find human females,” he said to me.
"It is wrong! It is all wrong! You should not be allowed to steal human females at all! Do you not see that it is wrong?!” I shouted at him in anger.
"I do. I do see that it is wrong. But the survival of the entire Corillion race depends on it. If we do not mate with human females in our first 22 years, then we die. It is the only way to keep the race going. I wish there were another way, but there is not. This is the only way. The Corillion way,” he said.
"You die?” I asked him.
"Each Corillion alien warrior has 22 years of life. At 22 years, if I have not mated with a human female, then I will have used up my 22-year cycle and will die. It is like this for all Corillion alien warriors. Many perish this way, but it is why there are so many of us. A small percentage of survival is possible when there are many,” he said to me.
I looked at him in shock and said, “So if I would not have mated with Cyro, then he would have died?”
"Yes. But now that he has and that you are with offspring, he will live,” he said to me.
"I wish I never would have. He led me to believe that I would see my husband again if I did and that he would be saved, the lying bastard. But I am not with offspring. I have not become impregnated by Cyro,” I said to him.
"What do you mean? You have been with him for a month now?” he asked.
"Yes, but I am not with offspring. He continues to be angry about that fact, but it is not my problem. I do not know what is wrong, but I am glad that I am not with his offspring.”
"This makes sense. This is why he asked me to bring him a second human female,” Truo said.
“Then do it! Then maybe he will be done with me, and I will be able to return to Earth,” I said pleading with him.
"But you see, a second human female might not be the problem. It might be Cyro. He is unable to produce offspring. He is a terrible leader, and it would make sense that he cannot create offspring. He is defective," he said.
"Then what shall happen to me? He thinks that I am the problem,” I asked him.
"I do not know, Vera. You have given me much to think about. But you must return to your room now; it will not be good for either of us if we are c
aught here,” he said, pushing me toward the bottom of the staircase.
"Truo, will you meet me again tomorrow night?" I asked him, unsure of why I was asking other than the thought of not having anyone to talk to. Not having anyone to confide in was hard to deal with. Knowing that I had him gave me hope.
"We should not, Vera,” he said to me.
"Then I will come down tomorrow at midnight regardless. You can either be here or not,” I said as I turned and made my way up the stairs. I tried to keep my crying to a quiet sob as I did so. I could not stop thinking about my husband being pushed into space. It made me want to kill Cyro. It made me want to seek vengeance for my husband.
