Aevar: Trekkers (A SciFi Alien Human Military Romance)

by Terra Wolf

  “Keep your head down. Don't make eye contact with anyone. And just trust me.”

  “You know that you’re telling me to do everything that I absolutely hate, right? I'm a Trekker, Ivy, I get the job done.”

  “I know how you do things, Aevar, trust me, I do, but now isn't the time. We just have to remain calm and cool until she arrives.” And just like that, Ivy's luck changed. The older woman entered the bar, and as she began to walk toward the bartender, Ivy waved at her. The woman shuffled her way toward them and sat down at the table, her tail resting on the floor behind her.

  “Ivy? What are you doing here without your father?” she asked in a rushed whisper.

  “He's away on business. I was wondering if you could help us. We have a couple questions.”

  “Not with your father, but with an Alliance fighter… You and I both know he's not away on business, Ivy. Now what's really going on here?”

  “How did you know?” Aevar questioned while studying her weathered face closely.

  “Son, you smell like you’ve been aboard an Alliance ship. And the nose knows,” she said, tapping her nose with her pointer finger.

  Aevar raised an eyebrow but didn't put up any more protest.

  “If you came all the way here, something else is going on. Now Ivy, tell me, where is your father?”

  Ivy shook her head, “I don't know, Maeve. I wish I could tell you that I did, but I don't. He's either dead from the plague or he's been abducted.” She rushed out the words as fast as she could. She was afraid if she didn't, she would break down in the middle of the bar.

  “Abducted? By who?”

  Ivy chewed on her bottom lip, but Aevar spoke up. “We believe some type of Pirate.” He slid a piece of paper across the table. “Do you recognize this emblem?”

  Maeve pulled glasses out of a bag that was slung over her shoulder and held them on the bridge of her nose. Grey wisps fell around her face, only showing more of her age. “Yes, I have seen that. A ship came in a couple weeks ago, and it had that emblem on it. Men had it branded onto their forearms and shoulders, I've never seen anything like it. You think these men took your father?” she said, turning toward Ivy once again.

  “I think maybe. What else do you know about them?”

  Maeve pushed the paper back across the table. “Nasty bunch. Didn't really want to trade well, made a lot of people around here angry.”

  “Do you know where they went? Where their ship was headed next?”

  She shook her head slowly. “I'm afraid that I don't. But I could probably find out,” she said, sounding a little hopeful.

  “Are you going to be here a little while? Give me some time to talk to people?”

  “Yes,” Ivy said, confident that if anyone could find out any information, it was her.

  “How long do you need?”

  “Probably not very long. I know a couple of the men who are in this bar right now are some of the ones who traded with them. Just give me a moment.”

  She shuffled away from the table and Aevar looked at Ivy pointedly. “You just laid it all out there for her? That was your big plan? What about us being undercover?”

  “I trust Maeve with my life. That old lady knows more about this entire galaxy than any of your intelligence could figure out. You just wait, she’ll lead us in the right direction.”

  Moments later, Maeve arrived back at the table flanked by two large men. One was a Killin, with two humanlike arms, but fingers like tentacles coming out of them. He also had a wide nose that was flat against his face with only slits. The other man was human, but larger than most; there was a chance that he was a hybrid.

  “These men traded with those animals. They'll tell you anything you want to know.”

  Both of the men pulled up a chair and sat down at the table. Ivy knew it was making Aevar nervous to be sitting with two Pirates, so she rubbed his leg to keep him calm.

  “They were bastards, really. Stole an entire supply ship from me. That was not what was offered.”

  The other man grunted in agreement. “Same here. I had some black market medical supplies, not that the Alliance would be interested in that, correct?”

  Ivy looked at Aevar, willing him to say no.

  “No, of course not, go on.”

  “But when I made them the offer, they acted like they didn't need any medical supplies. I mean, who doesn't need medical supplies? Anyone with a decent size ship needs to take care of their people. But they weren't interested. Instead wanted some mechanical items…”

  Aevar interjected. “For what? Repairing a ship?”

  The man scratched his bald head. “Nah, more like putting together a space station? Or maybe refurbishing an old one? It didn't make a lot of sense to me.”

  A space station. So they weren't hiding on one of the outer rim planets, they created their own place amongst the stars. Hiding in plain sight, it was smart.

  “I know why they didn't need any medical supplies,” Ivy said to the man. “It's because they don't want to be fixed.”

  The man nodded. “So then you've seen their faces? Those guys don't look like anything I'd ever seen before.”

  The man with the tentacles for fingers also nodded. “Only one of those men looked familiar, and he looked like some type of human hybrid. Large, but with a pale bluish tint to his skin.”

  “So then he wasn’t effected by the plague,” Ivy offered. “Or he was vaccinated. But I find it interesting that they have someone to put in front of people, so they know how disgusting they look.”

  “You know what else I thought was funny? They didn't request any food. It was like they didn't need it. Never seen anything like that before.”

  “Maybe they're feeding on something else.” Ivy had a feeling that she was right, something much more sinister was afoot. Why else did they need humans?

  And then she realized why.

  “They're feeding on us,” she said, barely above a whisper.

  Aevar’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

  “They're feeding on us,” she said, this time more confidently. “I can't believe I didn't realize it before. The Chancellor said something about eating the souls of the people. It’s an old fable that we were told by the elders as children. I thought it was all a ruse. But it’s not. They're sucking the life out of people in order to feed themselves.”

  Even the large man with the bald head looked disgusted.

  “Are you sure about that, girl? I've met some dark characters, but nothing like that.”

  She sat up straight. “Yes, I’m sure. And now we need to go stop them.” She paused. “We need to see any navigational maps that your guards up at the front gate have. And anything that would have seen them come in and out in the past several weeks. We need to know where these men went. It’s the only way to figure out how to stop them.”

  Both of the men nodded to one another and Maeve waved them off with a flick of her hand. It amazed Ivy that this woman who was barely four feet had such control over these large men.

  “Go get whatever they request, and if those dummies at the front gate question you, tell them I’ll deal with them later.”

  After the men departed, she turned to Aevar and Ivy. “Are you two ready for what is to come next?”

  Aevar stood. “I'm always ready.”

  She smiled at him. “A Trekker to the very end. You chose your mate well, Ivy. If your father ever gets the chance to meet this man, he’ll be very proud of you.”

  Ivy looked up at Aevar, who was standing like a statue. Everyone in the bar was staring, but she didn't care. Let them know who she was with, they'd be dumb to try to take them. With a fire in her belly and a blaster in his hand, they were unstoppable.

  Chapter 12

  Aevar

  The commander leaned over his long wooden desk. Aevar had filled him in on everything they found out, but he failed to mention the part where they gave up who they truly were. He knew he had to keep that secret between him and Ivy.

/>   “So you're sure this is what they said? A space station? I just can't believe it!” the old man said, tossing his arms up in the air as he walked around the desk.

  Aevar nodded. “Yes, sir. They were very clear. We confirmed the trader’s stories with a couple other locals before you extracted us out of the area. Other people mentioned seeing them steal tools and large pieces of metal. They are definitely refurbishing a space station.”

  The commander leaned against the front of his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “There is a space station of ours that has been out of commission for about five human years. Recently, we've been getting some thermal readings off of it. We assumed that some sort of Pirates had taken it over, but there was nothing there to salvage. The reason we abandoned the station to begin with was because the oxygen levels were far too low to survive on. It just wasn't worth fixing, not with all the technology we have now. That piece of junk was probably built ninety human years ago.”

  The commander was frustrated, and Aevar understood that. But if Ivy was right and these people weren't really people anymore, the oxygen levels and the living conditions wouldn't matter to them.

  “I think they were just looking for a place to regroup, Sir. I don't think they really considered the level of care that they would be giving people. It's not high on their priority list.”

  The commander shook his head. “When you’re sucking the lives of the people, I guess not. What did Ivy call them? The Harvesters?”

  Aevar nodded. “Apparently they used to tell children on her planet about Harvesters when she was a child. She thought it was a scary story to keep them out of the woods at night. But it turns out it was people who had gotten the plague, and it mutated into something completely new.”

  “I just don't see how we didn't know about this before.”

  “We don't engage with a lot of those outer rim planets. They hardly acknowledge that the Alliance has full control of the galaxy. Many of them don't even adhere to our laws and traditions. They have their own governing bodies and their own elders and fables. It's just that we didn't realize that some of the fables were truth.”

  The commander pinched the bridge of his nose. “What does that mean for the rest of the outer planets? How many times have we heard stories that we ignored?”

  Aevar shrugged. “Thousands, probably. Which means there were probably other warning signs that we missed. Times when we should've paid attention, but we let it go. Where this all could've been avoided.” Aevar had been feeling that way ever since he realized the Ivy's stories from her childhood were real. Had he and other members of the Alliance acted when they heard rumors for the first time, her family would still be on Jubar with her. Maybe he wouldn't be trying to convince the commander to go on a rescue mission to a decommissioned station that they had left so long ago. Maybe…

  “So when do you and your team want to leave?”

  Aevar stood tall. “As soon as possible, Commander. And I'm sure you understand that Ivy wants to go with us.”

  “That's out of the question! I can't even believe that I let her go down to Goya with you. I see the way you look at her, Lieutenant. I know what's truly going on there.”

  Did he? Because Aevar wasn't so sure himself. As soon as they had been extracted off of Goya, he spent the majority of his time with his team and the commander trying to come up with a plan on how to rescue the Jubarian people. And also how to blow that space station straight out of the sky.

  But he knew he couldn’t lie to him either. “My feelings for her are secondary. And while I deeply care for her, the mission comes first.”

  The commander pushed himself up off of the desk and approached him. “This mission is what some of the people in the old days called a suicide mission, son. And the only reason you're willing to put yourself in harm's way is because of this girl. Now I understand that you feel strongly for her, I've seen it before, but if you take her with you and something happens to her… What will happen to you?”

  Aevar's heart fluttered inside of his chest. Nothing would happen to her, he was sure of it. And as long as she was by his side, he was stronger. If anything, they were more lethal together. “Sir, I hate to say this, but she knows what she's looking for. My team and I have never seen these people.”

  “So what you're saying is you’ll only rescue Jubarian people? What happens if that station is full of colonists? Are you going to leave them there to die?”

  Aevar shook his head. “You know I wouldn't! I'll save every last one. With minimal casualties. Except on the enemy side, of course. I'll kill as many of them as I can.”

  The commander rolled his eyes and turned away from Aevar, walking back around his desk before sitting down in the creaky old chair. “Fine,” he said as he waved Aevar off. “You be careful out there. Having an untrained person on your team, someone who isn't used to the way that you work, can be a deadly mistake.”

  Aevar saluted his commander before turning on his heel and leaving his office. He knew the commander was right, that bringing Ivy with him wasn't safe. But he wasn't sure how safe she was without him, either. He knew how she made him feel, and he needed her by his side. So taking her along wasn't just to appease her, it was an advantage over the enemy.

  Chapter 13

  Ivy

  “So he said I can come?” Ivy asked, her eyes wide in anticipation of his answer.

  He nodded. “Yes, you just have to be careful. And you have to follow all of my orders. No questions asked, no second-guessing me. Is that clear?”

  She never heard him sound so official. He had hardly ever been this formal with her, but as she grabbed on to his forearms to stop herself from jumping up and down, he loosened. “Aevar, I can't tell you how much this means to me! And I will listen, I promise!”

  “You better. Because my guys are trained to kill on sight. If uou are anywhere you're not supposed to be, they won't think twice about pulling that blaster trigger. And you know how that feels.”

  She nodded. “Yes, I do. And I don't want it to happen again. I promise I'll listen! You can trust me,” she said as she laid her fingertips along his jawline. “You and me? We're in this together. I wouldn’t be able do this with anyone else.”

  Aevar dipped his head forward and his lips met her chaste kiss. She wanted it to be more, to go deeper, but she heard footsteps behind them and pulled away quickly.

  “Ivy? What's going on?”

  Maggie.

  She turned around again and bent down so that she was eye level with her younger sister. Maggie wasn't much shorter than Ivy, but she took her hand and pulled her over to a bench to sit down so they could be completely on the same level. Ivy owed her that. Aevar walked to the door and stood in the doorway looking out into the hall. She knew that he was trying to give them some privacy, but that he didn't want to be far away from her, either. His being in the doorway was a good compromise.

  “Sit down. We need to talk.”

  Maggie raised an eyebrow at her, “You think I don't know what's going on? You got information down on Goya, didn't you? You’re going to save our parents. And our people.”

  Ivy nodded solemnly. She knew that she was risking her life by going on this mission. Goya's pirates and evildoers seemed like nothing compared what she was about to face. “I have to go, Maggie. I just need you to understand that. And above all else, I need you to stay safe! I can't be worrying about you when I'm out there. I’ve got to have my head on straight.”

  Ivy's eyes lifted up to Aevar's back, and she watched the chiseled outline of his body. He didn't have a shirt on again; he really needed to start wearing one of those around her. Otherwise she wanted to jump his bones every second of the day. Definitely a note for their mission: wear a shirt so she could focus on killing the bad guys.

  Harvesters. In her mind, she wanted to just see them as just another pirate. A killable enemy. But part of her also recognized that they knew hardly anything about these creatures. They knew what they were made of
, but not how hard it would be to kill them. They had killed one and done the autopsy on it, but there was no telling how many blaster hits it took before it fell. That was something that they were going to have to learn.

  “What if I never see you again?”

  Ivy put up her hand. “No. Don't say anything like that! I'll be back.”

  A tear slipped down from Maggie's eye and fell onto her sandy colored dress. “You don't know that. You can't promise me that.”

  Ivy knew that she couldn't. She was the last thing that Maggie had in this galaxy and she was risking her life to potentially save hundreds, if not thousands, of others. She had to do this. It felt like destiny.

  “You're right, I can't. You’re strong and brave. You would be okay without me.” It killed her to admit to herself as she was saying it aloud. But she knew she was right. Maggie was feisty and intelligent. She wouldn't even let the Alliance fighters aboard the Titan push her around, and all of them were more than twice her age. She would be okay, with or without Ivy. She had to be.

  Maggie's eyes welled up with tears as she wrapped her arms around Ivy’s neck, gripping onto her tightly. Ivy returned the gesture and inhaled deeply, trying to hold on to the scent of her little sister. She would cherish this moment forever, especially if it was the last.

  Aevar arrived next to her. He had walked silently over from the door. “Take your time. But the commander has approved for my team to leave today. I'm going to assemble them, and then I'll be back for you.”

  When Ivy and Maggie separated from their embrace, Aevar was gone. Maggie wiped her cheeks to remove the salty tears. “He really likes you, you know.”

  Ivy smiled at her. “I really like him too.”

  “Do you think he's the one? Your mate?”

  Ivy raised an eyebrow at her. “Let's focus on one thing at a time, shall we? Now let's go up to the bridge and find someone to take care of you.”