by Maia Starr
“This way,” I said.
He looked bewildered when we pulled into my own home. It must have been strange to discover that there was an emergency with an Earth female in my home. But he didn’t ask questions and followed me silently into the room where I had left Emily.
“What the gods is this, Laike?” he asked finally, his voice higher than usual.
“I found this woman in Zod’s quarters,” I whispered. “She is not one of the abducted accounted for in the camps. I fear he took her secretly for abusive purposes.”
“Laike, do you know how much danger you’re going to be in if Zod finds out about this? You took away one of his toys! He isn’t the forgiving type!”
I pursed my lips grimly. The thought had occurred several times, but the risk paled in comparison to Emily’s life.
“It doesn’t matter what happens to me. Please, just help her.”
Kelron sighed heavily and approached the bed with caution. It occurred suddenly to me that he had never seen a human up close before, and I hoped more than anything that he would be able to help her.
Compassion creased Kelron’s face as he gazed down at the Earth woman on the bed.
“She is pretty,” he said quietly, moving forward to listen to her heart beats.
“She has only one!” I interjected.
Kelron laughed softly.
“That’s because Earthlings have only one heart,” he said. “But hers is strong. Don’t worry.”
I felt like bursting as Kelron slowly examined her.
“It looks like Zod did a number on her. Did you see her face? Those are injuries. Her skin tone should be like this, everywhere.” He lifted the woman’s elbow and pointed to the soft, pale skin of her arm.
“Human brains are highly sensitive. Either it is bleeding, or it is swelling. Neither are very good.”
“Are there any remedies?” I asked, panicked by Kelron’s words. I couldn’t let this woman die at the hands of Zod. Especially not in my home. She was mine now.
“Only a few that I know of,” Kelron said. “And they have never been used on humans.”
I frowned. “Do you think they would work?”
“Well, Zerk’k Arkti chose humans for breeding because of their biological similarities. It could be worth a shot.”
“Well, what are they? How would I get them?”
“You leave that to me,” Kelron said. “For now, just make sure she doesn’t move too much. Do you mind if I take your hovercraft?”
“Of course not,” I said, slinking numbly to the floor beside her bed. I hoped that I could trust Kelron to bring the remedies. If not, both I and the Earth female were doomed.
***
“Laike?”
I was startled out of my dark thoughts by the gentle voice of the human.
“Emily, are you all right?”
“I feel fine,” she said, attempting to push herself into a sitting position.
“No!” I barked. “Lie still.”
Her face, if possible, grew even paler, and she became still.
“We are waiting for help.”
“I don’t need help,” Emily sighed. “I just need to go home.”
“Don’t tell me what you need,” I said darkly. “That is up to me to decide now.”
All the worrying had made me feel surly, and I wasn’t about to let her ruin her chances of recovery.
We were both brooding silently until finally, the sound of the hovercraft outside made my hearts constrict. If Kelron was alone, then everything was going to be all right. But if he had gone to seek help from the authorities, then I was going to lose everything. Even, probably, my life.
I held my breath until Kelron’s footfalls paused outside of my doorway. I dared to look up finally, and nearly cried out in happiness and relief. He was alone, holding two small bottles.
“These serums are for the brain,” Kelron said, walking to me and offering them. I took them curiously, stumbling over my words.
“What do I—”
“The red one is for swelling, and the blue one is for bleeding. Since we can’t know which is the issue, we should administer both. They counteract each other, so do each a few rotations apart, twice every day.”
“How much?”
Kelron was silent for a moment. “Well, human brains are clearly smaller, so…”
“There is no way that my brain is smaller than his,” Emily interjected. Kelron’s eyes widened with surprise, and he smiled down at Emily.
“I see the patient is awake,” he said.
“And for that matter,” Emily continued, “it’s rude for you to talk about me like I’m not here.”
Kelron’s smile widened.
“She is quite fetching,” he said decidedly. “You are a lucky man, Laike.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Unfortunately, I didn’t hide it quickly enough.
“I don’t belong to him,” Emily said. “I don’t know why you’re congratulating him.”
“Well,” Kelron said, turning away from the human and fixing a private smile on me. “Good luck.”
***
“Please,” I begged. “Take it!”
Emily frowned at me. “I don’t even know what it is.”
“It’s for your own good!”
“How would I know that?”
“Zod injured you! What if it’s too severe to survive?”
“That shouldn’t concern you,” Emily said. “Besides, I’d rather die than be your slave until further notice.”
“Slave?” I asked, baffled by the thought. What exactly had I forced her to do since she came into my home, other than stay put safely? “Slave?!”
Did Emily really just view me as some sort of a captor? The combination of her defiance and her negative opinion of me snapped something inside of me. I had been working so hard to make sure that she was safe. And she was the rudest, most ill-behaved female I had ever laid eyes on. Not only that, but she was an ingrate who refused to take the medicine I had put my life on the line to get for her.
“Listen to me,” I growled, standing up rigidly over Emily. The defiance on her face slackened to fear, but this time, I wasn’t even sorry for it. “You will take this medicine, as I say, when I say you will, and you will do it without complaint from now on. You are in no position to argue with me. Is that understood?”
Emily said nothing.
“I said is that understood?”
I could feel the anger swirling in my chest, and it took everything I had not to hit the wall. How ungrateful could one human be? They were clearly the inferior race. I should have known that their primitive society could never be a match for the Thressl’n race. Perhaps I should have just left her with Zod. Then maybe she would have appreciated her situation a little bit better.
“Yes.”
Emily’s whisper enveloped me, and suddenly, all the anger was dissipated from me as quickly as it had set on. She was scared. That was all. She didn’t know who or what to trust here, and she must have assumed that all Thressl’n men were like Zod.
If I wanted to win her over, I had my work cut out for me.
But when I looked at her delicate features, I could feel a keenness of mind that excited me. I had never been so sure about anything in my life. This human was meant to be with me. And I was going to make her mine, one way or another.
Chapter 5
Emily Hart (Director of Engineering)
I cringed when the door hissed shut behind Laike, and once again I was sealed into this nightmare. The taste of the red liquid was sickeningly sweet on my tongue, but I had to admit that my headache was beginning to feel much better. Whatever they had given to me, it was numbing the pain, and I was starting to be able to think clearly again. That meant that I could start getting to work on a plan of escape.
Over the next couple of days, I decided to take advantage of the invalid card. Perhaps if I acted helpless, Laike would slip up and lower the security that kept me a prisoner in this strange room f
ull of trinkets I didn’t understand.
“I’m going to work,” he would always inform me. As I started healing more and more, I would climb onto the floor and look through the contraptions strewn about the room. He had far too many to clear out, and had only taken the biggest ones out of the room to make way for the bed.
I couldn’t help but admire his brilliance as I analyzed each piece of work. If a man like Laike had been born on Earth, our society would have been far more advanced for it.
All around the room were beginnings of inventions that I could only guess the full implications of. Some of the technology was similar to the type I was used to studying as the Director of Engineering. I was particularly impressed by how environmentally sustainable all of the technology was. None of it needed a dirty energy source; it all managed to be powered by solar energy or another, more elusive type of energy simply garnered from the air around the object. It was mind-blowing.
If I ever made it back to Earth, I suddenly knew what I was going to do. I would replicate all of these impressive inventions that I had found on Laike’s floor. I would introduce the advanced technologies to the human race and hope that it would slow down the destruction of our natural environment. Maybe then, we would rely less on the Vellreq and begin focusing our energy on more important things, such as rebuilding a sustainable world to live in.
“Laike!”
My heart thudded heavily in my chest when an unfamiliar voice called Laike’s name. The man shouting it was right outside my window; the window I had secretly been opening the second Laike left so I could get some fresh air.
“I took your advice, man. I finally came here instead of making you go out to the red desert. I know you hate it there.”
But Laike wasn’t home. In fact, there was no telling when he would be back. And I wasn’t sure if this was a good or a bad thing. My heart thudded in a mixture of fear and excitement. Maybe if I was discovered, somebody would be able to help me. But on the other hand, it was possible I would end up with another Thressl’n man like Zod.
“Laike, what the gods, man? Are you working on something? You never get your head out of that rubbish, do you?”
Suddenly, a dark blue Thressl’n face was poking into the window. We locked eyes, both of us shocked to see one another.
“You’re not Laike,” he said, his brow furrowing. Although the Thressl’n didn’t have eyebrows to speak of, they did make facial expressions similar to humans.
“No, I’m not,” I answered. “Who are you?”
The man hopped through the window, and I felt immediately uncomfortable. There was something off about him. The energy in the room crackled in a similar way as it had when I was in the presence of Zod. For the first time, I wished Laike was there.
“My name is Absle,” the man said, walking menacingly toward me. “Who are you, human?”
“I’m…” I was officially beginning to panic. “My name is…”
“Spit it out, female!”
“Emily,” I finally said. Why hadn’t I just left the window closed like Laike had told me to?
“Emily, you’re going to have to come with me,” Absle said, grinning strangely at me. “I have a feeling I know where you came from, and Zod is eager to have you back.”
“You can’t!”
But before the words were even out of my mouth, Absle had struck me hard on the head, and I blacked out.
***
“This is unbelievable,” Absle was saying to himself. I had regained consciousness and found that I was on the floor of a huge vehicle. I hadn’t seen what Laike had transported me in, but the sound of the engine was the same. Absle’s craft was hovering swiftly through the air, and for a few moments, I was mesmerized by the sky through the clear dome on top of the craft.
“Zod has been pestering us about something he was missing for the past two weeks. Laike has been acting bizarrely for the past two weeks. Now, I finally go to his house to see what the hell is going on, and what do I find? A sodding human! Before any of the humans from the camps have been assigned.”
Absle glanced into the back of the vehicle, still muttering to himself.
“I know this is exactly what Zod is looking for. And I am finally going to go up in rank because I found the prize. Yes, I did. How would Laike get his hands on a human unless he stole her? Stolen from the camps, maybe. But probably not. She had to have been stolen from Zod. I’m going to be rewarded generously for this.”
I sat up slowly, unable to hold my position on the floor any longer. Although I was afraid of Absle, I couldn’t help but stare down at the world below me from the hovering craft. It was absolutely stunning.
“Human! What are you doing back there?”
Absle was torn from his monolog by my movement, and I caught his cold green eyes glittering at me from a mirror fixed on the dashboard of the vehicle.
“Nothing,” I said quickly, sitting back against the spongy backrest.
“You’ve caused Zod quite a lot of heartache, you know,” Absle said. “But now that I’ve found you, I’m sure that he and Supreme Leader Aloitus will reward me generously for your return.”
“Please, don’t take me back to Zod,” I blurted. I would have done anything to return back to the safe little room in Laike’s house. I longed more than anything to see the kindness in his blue eyes that contrasted so starkly with the cruelty in Zod’s. Sure, I was a prisoner, but at least Laike was a merciful captor. So far.
“I’m afraid I have no choice. Laike is going to be severely punished for harboring you for so long, and I am going to be set for the rest of my life. Perhaps I will get a promotion. A high rank in the army as opposed to the lowly dishwashing position as the fleet cook.”
“I’m sure there’s another way for you to get what you want,” I pleaded. “Zod is a cruel man. He will hurt me.”
“It is not my business or concern what Zod does in his personal time,” Absle said dismissively. “What concerns me is my future. I cannot possibly wash dishes for the rest of my life. What must be done, must be done.”
I could have cried, then. There was no reasoning with men like Absle or Zod. Laike might have been made to see reason, but he was nowhere to be found, and there was a very low chance that I would ever see him again.
My gaze wandered to the window. I was too defeated to continue the bleak conversation.
“Oh gods!” Absle exclaimed. I furrowed my eyebrow, unable to understand the source of his outburst until I heard a shrill honking sound from the hovering vehicle passing by us. I squinted into the tinted window of the craft opposite us and saw Laike’s handsome face. He was smiling brightly at Absle, apparently happy to see his friend on the way home from work.
The smile faded when Laike locked eyes with me. A brief flicker of confusion, then anger, crossed his face, and the friendly honking grew angry.
“Absle!” Laike’s voice called. It was muffled through the glass, but I was impressed by its power. “Stop your craft!”
“Not this time, Laike,” Absle mumbled, throwing down a red lever. The hovercraft pushed forward, and I became immediately nauseated as we sped forward.
The honking grew faint as Laike was left behind us, and I felt my heart shattering. What had I done?
***
“Zod’s going to love this,” Absle was murmuring again.
I felt like such a screw-up. If I had just followed Laike’s instructions, I could still be sitting in bed, waiting patiently as his masculine voice hummed pleasantly in the kitchen as he prepared us an evening meal. It was shocking how many times a day the Thressl’n ate, but not at all surprising when I considered how densely built they were. It seemed like the majority of their bodies were pure muscle.
The thought sent a strange heat coursing through my body. Laike was incredibly attractive, and the forbidden curiosity of what his body might be capable of had been testing me for weeks now. I was probably just suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Still, if I had to be anywhere on this plane
t, I wanted it to be in the little bedroom at Laike’s house. And as much as I hated to admit it, I wanted to see more of the mysteries of the Thressl’n body for myself.
“Gods!” Absle shouted. I was flung painfully forward in my seat as we screeched to a stop.
“Get out of the craft, Absle.”
My heart fluttered at the sound of Laike’s voice, and I couldn’t help but stare in wonder at his handsome, determined face.
Absle’s mumbling had come to a halt, and I felt a shiver run through me as Laike’s arm suddenly shattered the glass of the dome.
“Laike, I just replaced that!” Absle whined.
“I told you to get out of the craft!”
Laike’s voice echoed off the strange metal of the craft. I could feel it reverberating through it and against my body. I caught Absle’s look of fear in the mirror and couldn’t stifle the satisfaction I felt. Laike was going to protect me. And he was going to do it because he cared about me. At least to more than Absle or Zod ever could.
Absle shouted, and I was torn from my thoughts by Laike’s strong arms lifting Absle by the shoulders out of his seat. The safety strap against Absle’s chest snapped with a loud tearing sound, and Laike held him up in the air, balancing himself on the outside rim of his own hovercraft as it hovered quietly beneath him.
“Let go, Laike. You don’t want to do this!”
“Let her go,” Laike said darkly. My heart pounded hard as the fight unfolded before me.
Absle struggled against Laike’s grip, but was unable to free himself. The show of power was intoxicating, and an involuntary desire spread through my loins. Laike was handsome, strong, and determined to look after me, no matter the cost. What exactly was it that kept me from exploring my feelings for him again?
Laike squeezed Absle hard around the neck, turning his piercing blue eyes to mine as he held his friend still in his grasp.
