Alexei

by Serena Simpson

  Janelle jumped to her feet. “My money is on the wild cat, even if there is only one of her, she’s a worthy adversary worth fighting to save.”

  “I agree,” the other three chimed in. “We fight for the wild cat.”

  Amber wiped the blood from her split lip. She stood proud, the Sirens would fight.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “You did it.”

  “I didn’t do…” Maybe she had done it. Fighting Janelle wasn’t what she went there to do. She was determined to follow directions and let Alexei lead, the way they were instructed when Aran sent them on the mission.

  Janelle challenged everything she stood for. Not just with Alexei and it would have been over her dead body that the female would have ever touched him. She didn’t know what tomorrow would bring for them, but she already proved she wouldn’t be giving him up without a fight. But there had been so much more. The Earth was her world and she loved it even with its manic happiness and depression. There were days when she wanted to halt the rotation of the planet and get off, but she would not, could not let some alien from space, who cared about nothing and no one, destroy her planet without standing up and trying to halt the outcome. She wouldn’t be human if she let that happen and no matter what abilities she possessed, she was human.

  “I did what needed to be done, now they’re willing to fight and there’s a lot of them, kind of makes me feel sorry for New Orleans.”

  “Let’s just say I never plan to make my home there. The Sirens are safe from me.”

  “Darn straight you’re not.”

  “Wild cat, I love the name. I was waiting to see you burst out into a beast.”

  “Human not Hybrid.”

  “So you keep telling me, but the way you fought you could pass for Hybrid.”

  Her rich laughter echoed through the hover car. “Does that mean I can pull hair with the best of them?”

  “No, it means I’m proud of you for meeting another species of superior strength head on and not pulling a dirty trick like stabbing her in the heart.”

  “I used the wind.”

  “She used her strength, you met her on an even playing field and you won her respect. Well done, Amber.”

  She smiled, feeling pleased with herself. She spent so much time being taken care of. In some ways she thought of herself as Ash’s little princess, mostly because she realized early in life that if he lost her the world might not survive the devastation to him. So she didn’t take risks and kept her behavior to such things his Created heart could tolerate. Today she stepped into the female he raised her to be, self-sufficient and able to hold her own on the battlefield. He would cringe when she told him the story but he would also be proud.

  “Where to now?”

  We have another group to contact, but it’s too soon. We could go back to my house.” The hopeful note in his voice was combined with his hand rubbing gently over hers.

  “I would like that,” her voice hitched.

  He flicked the ignition on and the car gently rose above the tree line. Getting home would take a couple of hours.

  “Can you believe all this is happening?”

  “Which part? I can believe our skies are covered with ships because I was raised on threats of war. Fighting the Vahyr that my father fought just a few times, that’s hard to believe. The Vayhr thinking they could take over as the president and vice president simply shows me the planning that has gone into this. They would have pulled it off also, if not for the fight we had with the first Vahyr and the fact that I actually know the president and vice president.”

  “I know we’re planning our next move, Alexei, but what do you think their next move will be. It doesn’t do any good if we are behind them in this war.”

  “Hard to call it a war so far, but I have no doubt there have already been casualties. We know about the ones we have dispatched. On their side, I am sure they have killed some of us.”

  She nodded in sorrow thinking of the waste of lives that should never have happened.

  “Alexei, what’s that?”

  He was frantically fighting the controls of the hover car trying to turn it around but it seemed to be locked into place.

  “It’s a trap,” the frustration in his voice dripped as the car maintained its straight course.

  “Was it meant for us?”

  “It won’t matter who it’s meant for if we go down in it.”

  In front of them was a thick brown discoloration in the sky. It reminded Amber of a net, the type used by fishermen to capture their catch, but there were no holes to let the water drain.

  The hover car slammed into a force field and a net swooped them up taking them higher than they were originally flying.

  “Looks like we are going to get our tour of an alien space craft.”

  “Haven’t you been in the ship the Created used to come here?”

  “Of course, but that’s not an alien craft.”

  He shot her a grin, easing the fear and tension that gripped her and making her heart pound for a different reason.

  She reached out and took his hand.

  “No matter what happens, we are in this together.”

  Amber nodded; what he said made sense to her.

  “Ok, when should I start worrying?”

  “Take your cue from me, don’t worry until I do. Stay calm. If I have an oh shit moment, then worry.”

  “We’re here.”

  “That was fast.”

  “Their technology has improved over the last thirty years.”

  The net they were caught in became transparent, allowing them to look out the windows of the hover car to see the side of the ship above them open like it was a huge hanger bay in the sky. The net drew them in and lowered them on the deck with a slight jarring.

  Alexei touched the control. The car was unresponsive. The net dropped from around them and the emergency feature of the car kicked on allowing the doors to open.

  “Where is everyone?”

  “Good question.” Alexei moved through the room. It was an expansive area covered with a grayish metallic like substance.

  “Cargo Bay?”

  The room had small two, three, and four man ships in it. The two-man crafts were sleek and small, much smaller than the hover car they arrived in although the hover car could sit five comfortably and six in a pinch.

  Amber rubbed the two seater, “Ash would love to get his hands on this.”

  “We’ll work on bringing one home to him it will be my ‘Sorry I got your daughter caught by aliens’ gift, but first we have to figure out what’s happening here.”

  “What if they don’t know we’re here?”

  “They caught us, Amber, of course they know we are here.”

  “Alexei, think. The air has become a dead zone, no planes flying was one of the first decrees when the president took to the air waves. If you’re traveling you’re driving and he advised against that also. With nothing in the air except birds, why would they think they caught someone?”

  “You might be right,” Alexei said. “That would give us the advantage of being able to look around and get information back to the Created.”

  “Will we get back to the Created?”

  “In every war there are acceptable risks, but you aren’t one of them. I will figure out how to open this hanger door and get you out of here. The car should work when you’re away from the ship.”

  “You should figure how to open it up now because when we’re running for our lives we won’t have the time. If you stay, I’m staying with you.”

  “Amber.”

  “Don’t Amber me. If you’re staying, I’m staying. I’m not getting in the car with a chance of going splat on the ground all by myself. Besides, you need me. I can do what you can’t.”

  She turned to the huge bay door that shut after they entered and began to tug on it. Beads of sweat covered her face as she used her gift, her muscles tensed never having to move anything that solid before. Slowly it
began to give way before Alexei broke her concentration.

  “Stop, Amber we don’t want them to know we are here yet. You can open that door when we need to leave.”

  Alexei changed into his beast. He moved behind their hover car and began to propel it across the room into a row of other crafts that sat close to the large door. After making sure it was secure he changed back.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “Not only will you have to help open this door, you’re going to have to pull our car out of here probably breaking the restraint system around it. I wanted to give us the best chance possible.”

  “I understand. Let’s get started.”

  They scouted the room looking for the door that would lead into the ship and looking for any type of device that would allow them to be watched or recorded.

  “I think I found a camera or what we would call a camera.” She pointed to a small round object on the ceiling that seemed to face the hangar door.

  “It probably records what happens in here but no one seems to be monitoring the feed so unless they go back and look they shouldn’t realize that we’ve infiltrated their ship. I found the door. Let’s go while we still have a chance.”

  Amber turned to follow him. The ship was huge. This bay didn’t seem to take up even one fourth of the space. That meant there had to be more of these bays around. They would have to be careful when marking their path to come back to the right hanger.

  They slipped out into the empty corridor. There was a fine buzz humming through the ship. She thought it was just something in the hanger due to all the ships being in there but now that she was hearing it in the corridor she re-evaluated her first thought.

  “Alexei,” she whispered, “Do you hear that buzzing sound?”

  “I hear it; I think its music.”

  “Music? Are they having a party? Do aliens have parties?”

  Forget the party. Could she freak out now? Up until now she took everything with a grain of salt convincing herself it would all be ok. But now this was the real deal, she was on a ship full of beings that would kill her for being the one thing she couldn’t change, human.

  They were celebrating, which probably meant that every life on Earth was one step closer to being destroyed and all she wanted to do was hide in the corner for five or ten minutes. Sighing, she pulled up her big girl panties that happened to be a pretty thong, “Thank you, Rena” and followed Alexei.

  They moved slowly up the corridor going into a room that opened as they approached. There wasn’t much to see on this level; they found another larger cargo bay on the opposite side of the ship as well as several rooms that seemed to be storage areas. They tried the next door to find it was a lift system. Alexei led her inside and gave a command in a language she never heard before. The door slid shut and they began moving.

  “Did you learn that in school?”

  “Yeah. My dad taught me a lot as well as my uncles, and languages was one of the courses. There are several common languages in the galaxy.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “One floor up. Every ship carries two commands centers at least every ship this big. It allows the captain to have a fall back room if needed. The second command center won’t be occupied except in cases of emergency because it’s much smaller, thus easier to protect. If we can find that room, it should give us enough time to figure out some of what is going on and get it back to Earth.”

  “How will we do that if we get caught?”

  “Uncle Hale will be monitoring everything, all we have to do is get it in the air waves and he will pick it up and decipher it.”

  “All right, let’s go play heroes.”

  They left the lift walking quietly down the hall.

  Chapter Sixteen

  There were three aliens standing at the other end of the corridor. They hadn’t turned around, yet. Alexei put a hand on her arm and placed a finger before his mouth. He motioned her to stay still as he crept silently up the hall.

  They turned to see him. Instead of raising an alarm they grinned and stalked towards him.

  Words came out of their mouth she didn’t understand but were translated by the corridor. It must do that to allow all the different aliens to live and work together. It did amaze her that it translated into Earth languages also.

  “So it was a Created that infiltrated our ship and not a flock of birds. We will be respected after we bring him in, we’ll keep the human for ourselves. Come here pretty human.”

  Amber rolled her eyes and returned to watching Alexei. She kept the aliens in the corner of her sight not wanting one of them to approach her unawares.

  “Let’s kill him so we can have some fun.”

  The first changed form into a huge snake creature. His tail had sharp black barbs on it and his skin was a reddish metallic color. If he wasn’t a snake out to eat them she might have found him fascinating. The other two kept their human appearance.

  “You really freak me out when you change to your natural form,” the one with more of a gold hair color said.

  The snake hissed the translator version “all the better to eat him.”

  The two stayed back and the snake struck out with its tail at Alexei who jumped to avoid it. The spike at the end of it looked deadly.

  “Come Created, don’t fight and I will take it easy on you,” the snake hissed.

  “I should tell you I hate chatty aliens,” Alexei changed forms.

  “Created taste good in their natural form.”

  “I believe you would consider yourself lucky if you were able to even lay a tongue on a Created, but I’m hybrid and I believe I’m poison to you as I’m part human. Hiss on that.”

  The snake deflated some, “You’re lying.”

  “There’s only one way to find out.”

  Alexei dove at the snake’s soft underbelly avoiding the tail that lashed around trying to rip him to shreds. The snake’s deadly fangs came close enough to take a bite making him release the hold of his claws and roll off. The snake was bleeding from where Alexei clawed into him.

  “I’ll kill you for this.”

  “Would you mind telling me what the party is for before you try to kill me?” Alexei’s voice was pleasant belying the fact that he was trapped between the snake and the wall.

  The snake hissed, his tail came up catching Alexei as he jumped across his upper body. One of the black barbs tore through him eliciting a cry of pain as Alexei jumped on its back. Using his claws, he tore through the tough scales doing his best to avoid the barbs that were tearing into him. The snake bit into his arm ingesting his blood. The body of the snake began to convulse.

  “I did warn you,” Alexei slid off trying to put weight on the leg that dripped with blood from where he had been hit by one of the barbs. The snakes convulsed a final time and died.

  Amber placed her hand over her mouth to keep from crying out as the snake bit into Alexei.

  The other two stood wide-mouthed for a moment looking at their friend. Anger and fury took over their expressions when they looked at Alexei.

  “You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that.” They both changed into tall beasts.

  Amber watched as Alexei stood tall not letting his enemies know he was weakened by his leg. He was protecting her. Her heart went out to him even as she kept watch, making sure no one sneaked up on her or him.

  “Two against one that hardly seems fair, at least your friend, the snake, fought me one on one.”

  “We know better. Just because you’re hybrid doesn’t make you any less dangerous in your Kunq form.”

  Alexei smiled standing straighter as the other named his beast.

  “Smart move not to underestimate me. I will repay the same courtesy to you.”

  They moved out encircling him. Alexei turned bringing both of them in front of him placing his back against a wall.

  They would be deadly as a pair. They were usually born as twins and fought in tandem. If one died the other would
choose death over loneliness. They were formidable enemies, but they didn’t usually pick on those weaker than themselves.

  “I see some things have changed over the years. You now choose to pick on those weaker than yourselves. You are no longer worthy of the name enemies.”

  “We have no choice in some things, debts must be repaid. Even when the debt was made by those in charge of your planet.”

  The one speaking lashed out at Alexei catching the tips of his claws in Alexei’s arm. Alexei rammed him catching him in the mid-section, he picked him up and body slammed him. The other one jumped on his back taking Alexei down to the ground. He clawed Alexei down his back.

  He was torn away by Amber as she panted softly at his weight. Alexei stood to his feet wobbling unsteadily, his back was bleeding profusely. He limped over to the one still on the floor and broke his neck. Amber had the other one pinned against the wall. He fell to his knees; she took her knife and used it to cut the aliens neck. She fell to the floor as the body fell, its head leaning at a grotesque angle.

  “We have to get them out of the corridor.”

  She nodded and clawed her way to her feet. She used her hand to start an invisible wind lifting the body she killed and moving toward a door Alexei opened. He lifted the second creature and placed him in the room. They worked on the snake creature together.

  When the hall was empty of bodies Alexei took her hand and gently pulled her forward. They didn’t have time to stop. He had no idea when they would be missed or someone would stumble across their bodies.

  “You’re hurt. Maybe we should leave. No one expects us to do this,” Amber said exploring his back.

  “The second command center is at the end of this corridor.” They turned to a new corridor staying flat against the wall. This one was empty. “Let’s hope the specs haven’t changed.”

  “Alexei!” She whispered a note of desperation in her voice.

  “I have to do whatever I can, Amber.” She sighed and nodded.

  “How do you know what the specs of this should be?”