by Zara Zenia
Alien Gladiator’s Mate
A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Celestial Mates)
Zara Zenia
Illustrated by
Kasmit Covers
Edited by
Teresa Banschbach
Contents
Mailing List
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
About Zara Zenia
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Copyright © 2017 by Zara Zenia
All rights reserved.
Cover design © 2017 by Kasmit Covers
Edited by Teresa Banschbach
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the authors’ imagination.
Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.
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Chapter 1
Gar’zul
There was the smell of fire, sweat, and fear in the air. It stung my nostrils as the smoke drifted into my eyes. Bodies were pressed up against me, pushing me forward until the cold steel of the enemy ship was jammed into my legs. I turned round and looked at the troops under my command. They were all staring at me with wide, expectant eyes, waiting to hear their orders.
Inside the enemy ship, the natives were becoming restless, nervous and angry. I could hear them shouting, could sense the terror that was emanating from them. Seeing a nearby rock, I climbed on top to address my regiment. They looked up at me as though I was a god, and for the most fleeting of moments, I felt as though I was.
"Shocktroopers!" I shouted with my rifle held high over my head.
The youngest were lined up in front of me, their blue, baby-faced naivety more evident now they were about to be thrust into the danger zone. I took a deep breath and parted my lips, ready to say the inevitable word that would lead at least one of them to their immediate death.
"Shocktroopers... Advance!"
They charged the ship, the door flying off its hinges in a hail of gunfire. The enemy troops were unprepared and out of sheer fear, flung themselves at the regiment with their limbs flailing. Shots were fired, blood sprayed the air and bodies hit the ground. I could smell the death in the air but I had little time to dwell on it. We were inside the ship, the horror and carnage now in front of my face made the reality loud and clear. My heart hammered in my chest while my mouth was as dry as the desert. The wind kicked up dust around us. There was screaming everywhere and the agonized shrieks of dying men as bullets penetrated their bodies. Then the bone-crushing sound of the metal surging through their limbs rang in my ears.
We were in close quarters, our bodies crammed into small hallways as we advanced through the ship. Something hard hit my jaw and for a moment I was knocked into the wall, a wave of dizziness and nausea sweeping through me.
"Fuck!"
I jammed the butt of my rifle into the face of an enemy trooper. He was the same height as me but twice as wide. In the closeness of the narrow corridor, this made him impossible to pass. He laughed as I hit him, chuckled to himself as he wiped the blood with the back of his hand.
"Bastard!" I yelled.
Hitting him again, the rifle connecting with his mouth, I dislodged two of his front teeth. He ran a finger over his gums and snarled.
"How dare you?"
I took my chance and fired five shots in quick succession. The bullets penetrated his armor with ease and I watched as his blood poured out of the perfectly carved holes.
"How dare you?" he repeated, his voice now desperate and shocked.
He stumbled backward and struggled to regain his balance. So much blood ran out of him that after a few seconds, there was no more left in him. His body crumpled to the ground and at last, I could advance. Stepping over his body, my boots sticking in his viscous blood, I shouldered my rifle and continued to fire into the distance, taking out another three enemy troops.
Approaching a bend in the hallway, I reloaded my gun and advanced with caution. Then it hit me, a strange sensation in my gut. Something wasn't right, something was about to happen. My troops were in front of me, ready to step around the corner.
"Wait!"
They halted.
"Just wait," I said. "Be careful.”
The dark, gloomy feeling remained. Something was about to happen, something deadly. Below us, the floor began to rumble.
"Troops! Stand back. Stand back!"
It was too late. Missiles were launched. They ricocheted off the walls, piercing through two troops in an instant, their screams eclipsed by the sound of the explosion.
"Advance!" I yelled to the remaining soldiers, but they failed to move.
One of them looked over his shoulder and his bloodshot eyes met mine.
"We'll die if we go round there," he said.
The rumble started again.
Boom!
Another blast. Another missile. The young man was splintered and broken apart by the shrapnel, his shredded body falling at my feet. I was consumed with rage.
"Monsters!" I screamed as I began to run.
I threw myself around the corner until two enemy troops stood before me with missile launchers pressed up hard into their chests. Moving fast, I fired into their faces, taking them down before they could kill any more of my regiment.
"Advance!"
I waved on the young infantry who were lingering behind me.
"To the bridge!"
They ran past me, their boots crunching along the ground as they hurried. The bridge was in sight. I could see the captain through the window, his face a picture of panic as he saw us approach. We fired through the glass, blowing the door apart. The captain ran for cover ducking and diving below a table as we entered the room. I laughed as I saw him quivering in fear.
"Without your troops, you are nothing!" I bellowed. "You are weak and you will die."
He poked his head out from under the table and looked up, his hands raised in front of his face.
"Ok," he gulped. "I surrender."
"Name?" I asked as I kicked the captain in the shin.
He whimpered but said nothing.
"Name!"
"Gardu!" he screamed.
After binding his arms behind his back and tying his ankles together, we gathered round him in desperate need of answers. I stared at him with fire in my eyes, my hands clenched into fists. I readied myself to torture him when a hand clapped my shoulder. Looking around, I saw my second-in-command, Zabru.
"Where have yo
u been?" I asked, my hands loosening at my sides.
"It was fierce on the lower half of the ship. I'm sorry I couldn't reach you sooner."
I waved a hand dismissively.
"You're here now and you are alive. That is all I can ask for."
He nodded and pursed his lips, his eyes glossing over as though he was remembering something he'd rather forget.
"This man," he gestured toward the captain. "What can he tell us?"
"He does nothing but cry. It's hard to believe he was a captain at all."
"He does look kinda scrawny," Zabru mused.
He crouched down and leaned in close to him, the captain recoiling and shaking with fear as neared.
"You're hiding something," Zabru seethed. "I can smell it."
Gardu trembled and backed up until he was pressed against the wall.
"Who sent you?" I asked.
He didn't answer, didn't even look at me. His eyes remained on Zabru as though the man was holding him in the midst of a magnetic spell.
"I asked you a question," I snarled as I bent down in front of him. "Who sent you?"
He flinched and at last the spell was broken. He glanced up at me and swallowed.
"It was your own who sent me. I work for your elders."
"Lies," I said as I shook my head. "Don't speak lies!"
"It's true!" he cried. "I was hired, sent out here by your very own government."
There was something genuine about the look in his eyes, something that told me he wasn't lying.
"And why would they send enemy troops to attack their own?" I asked as a feeling of pure rage started to build inside me.
He swallowed again and sniffed, looked at Zabru, then me, then back to Zabru again.
"They suspect you're harboring rebels," he explained. "That's why they attacked the villages in your territory, set them alight and put us here as decoys so that you would be distracted."
"No! You’re lying!"
Zabru was on his feet, pacing the floor and shaking his head as though he was trying to rid himself of the thoughts that were plaguing his mind.
"Don't tell me these things. Tell us the truth!"
"It is the truth!" Gardu sighed. "I am not naive. I know you are going to kill me so I have nothing to lose. I have nothing but the truth to tell you so that is what I present. Many villages have been destroyed in your home territory while you have been out here attacking this ship."
"Which villages?" I ask, falling to my knees in front of him.
I'm desperately trying to keep my cool, trying to be calm and collected but I feel as though I am on the brink of cracking.
"Tell me which villages!"
He lowered his head before saying:
"The City of Thrini, Velnias and... Lemuria."
There's a stab of horror in my gut.
"Did you just say Lemuria? Tell me you didn't!"
He gulped and sniffed, then blinked as though he was trying to wake himself from a nightmare.
"I have no reason to lie to you. Lemuria has been destroyed."
Lemuria... It was my home; the place where my family resided, the place where all our families resided.
"Survivors," I said to Zabru. "There will be survivors."
"There are no survivors," the captain said. "Everyone was slain."
Zabru and I stared at each other for a second unable to comprehend the magnitude of the situation.
"M-m-my sons," he stuttered.
"My sons and daughters," I lamented.
"Our wives," Zabru cried as he reached for his gun.
Pulling the pistol out of his waistband, he fired a single shot into the captain's head. The back of his skull fractured open, his brains scattering across the wall.
"No, no, no."
Zabru walked up and down while pounding his fist into the side of his head. The captain's blood was quickly seeping out of him, spreading across the floor and pooling beneath our feet.
In the corner sat two soldiers from the front line infantry; Kona and Kuse. Both were staring into space as they tried to cope with the news they had just heard.
"All dead," Kuse said. "It can't be. No... No."
"I was married not two weeks ago," Kona cried. "How... how can I live without her?"
"And my parents," Kuse continued. "I'll never see them again."
Kona began to rock back and forth while Kuse kept his eyes fixed on a point at the other side of the room. Meanwhile, Zabru was still pacing. I walked over and pulled his hand away from his head.
"We must remain calm. If we fall apart, destroy ourselves with grief then they win."
"They've already won!" Kuse shouted from the floor.
"No... Not yet. We are still alive. They will not touch us."
"I don't know how to live," said Zabru. "There is no point if our lives have been smashed apart and there is nothing and no one to return to."
Kona jumped off the ground and made for the door, hooking his rifle over his shoulder.
"Halt! Where are you going?" I shouted.
He stopped in the doorway and looked over his shoulder.
"I'm joining the rebellion," he explained. "I must avenge my family's death."
Kuse was soon behind him, his face flushed red with rage.
"I’m beside you brother! We must get revenge, we must join the rebellion."
"No one is joining the rebellion!" I said. "No one... Now return here."
Kuse looked at me for a moment before pursing his lips and glancing away.
"I'm sorry, but I must go."
"You are going nowhere!" I shouted.
"I must avenge my family!"
"No... While you are in that uniform I am still your commander. You are staying here on this ship. You are not leaving and you are still to follow orders."
He hung his head and sighed.
"You are right."
"Now, Kona... What is your decision?"
He hesitated for a moment before saying.
"I will stay too."
I nodded and patted them both on the back.
"I have a plan, one that will save our lives. They will not defeat us, but if we join the rebellion, they will surely find us and we will die as traitors."
The three of them stared at me for a moment.
"What is your plan?" Zabru asked.
Hurrying to the window, I pointed out across the desert to our ship that was glinting below the blazing sun.
"Set it ablaze," I ordered. "They will assume we perished in the battle. Then we will take this ship and start again."
"Start again?" Kuse asked confused.
"We'll travel to a neutral territory; to a place where no one will know us. We will have a new life, a safe one where we will survive."
Zabru began to pace once again, his boots squeaking against the metal floor.
"What is the point? A new life? It all sounds so crazy, so pointless! Where will we even go?"
"The B'Pkadu Constellation..." I explain. "It is neutral, free of any ties to this great war that has destroyed our territory."
I could sense they were all hesitant but with no other choice, they all relented. Standing in front of the dead captain, we piled our hands on top of one another and made a pact.
"To a new life," I said.
"To a new life!" they all replied.
"You set fire to the ship," I told Zabru. "The rest of us will prepare for takeoff."
Chapter 2
Carina
The sound of the water was deafening, it went on forever. It lived in my head and never ended. At night, long after I had left the mine, I would put my head down and still hear the jets and mills as the great, gushing waves of water cascaded down over the rocks. At times it sounded like white noise and lulled me to sleep as it serenaded me from the recesses of my mind. At other times, it was a never-ending nightmare, one that refused to let me sleep. The sound of the water was going to kill me someday; it would drive me insane.
Toiling in the mine was no
t a glamorous or lucrative life but it was mine and it was all I ever knew. My parents and their parents were water miners too, collecting gallons every day to for its distribution into space. I had often joked that there was no blood in my veins, only water. No one ever found it funny because to be a water miner meant that no laughter could exist in your life. It meant no freedom, no fun, no health or free time. You mined for your survival. You mined until your legs broke beneath you from the weight of the barrels. You mined until you worked yourself crazy. You mined until you died young.
Standing at the bottom of the mill, I was trying to haul a large barrel of water down the ramp, my fragile limbs struggling to hold me upright. My legs buckled, I cried out in pain. Looking up for help I looked across the cavern for another miner to help me but no one was looking. They were all staring straight ahead at their own tasks, knowing that if they tried to help, me they would be persecuted. The barrel rolled away from me and tumbled down the ramp before cracking on the floor below.
"No!"
I ran toward it but it was too late, the water leaked out across the floor, flooding the cavern as it flowed in between my bare toes.
"You!"
One of the masters pointed at me. He strode across the darkness with the smoothness of his leather belt glinting in the dim light of the moon.
"You will pay for that! You think water is free? You think it can just be destroyed without consequences?"
"No, master!"
"Twenty lashes," he said.
"What? No!"
I had hardly healed from the previous twenty I had received a month ago. Reaching behind, I ran my fingertips over the bumpy scars and began to cry.
"Please! Take it out of my wages instead. I can't bear to be whipped again."
"Wages!" he spat. "Wages! Your wages aren't worth shit."
He lifted the whip above his head and smirked. He was enjoying every second of inflicting fear, loving the look on my face as I braced myself for the worst pain I had ever known.
