Jay
The smell of hollow fear, the feeling of anticipation, the sound of my heart pounding in my chest; this was a fight. The natural light of the chamber was decreasing fast, and these Tidreg-like creatures seemed to hunt in places like this. I had to do something, or they would tear us all into pieces.
I knew that the easy solution would be to run away and save myself, but there was something different in that human’s eyes. I felt like she was the most courageous female I had ever met, and that sounded like a lot. My mind was a mess of random memories popping up from the back of my head. I tried to recollect the name of that part of my brain, but the names slipped me off every time I sought them.
Growls and hisses came from behind me as well. Twelve beasts, twelve predators that could kill us all in seconds, and yet, I felt calm. Yes, my heart was pounding, yes, my muscles wobbled, and I couldn’t fully control my limbs just yet, but my mind was calm.
I must have faced many situations like this in the past. So it meant that those beasts were no match for me. I looked around me, and I saw that my new company had been driven to the wall. The hairy man, the other human, tried to intimidate the rough predators by growling and yelling from time to time, but I could smell his fear from here.
I couldn’t trust him to help me. I was all by myself.
Before I took a step forward, I saw the human female at the edge of my eyes. She seemed afraid, but there was also something else coming from her. A feeling I couldn’t place in this battle. I lowered my guard, and suddenly an excruciating pain penetrated my left arm. My other hand moved instinctively, hitting the damned monster between the eyes. But, its long teeth served one purpose: to hit hard and hit deep.
It had penetrated my muscle and even a vein or two. Fuck. And there were another eleven of that bastard waiting.
These monsters seemed to pick their enemies intelligently. They attacked me, the most dangerous one, first hoping to kill me fast and then move on to easier targets. I swiped the air behind me with my right arm, hoping to get even one of them, but I missed. I tried to move them away from the hopeful bunch, but they were smarter than they looked. All this time, they drove me away from them. My eyes fell to the frightened female; again, I lowered my guard.
What is wrong with you Jasih? She’s one measly human, certainly not one important enough to save.
And yet, my mind seemed to get even more absorbed in her safety. I continued to move back, lost, confused, unable to find a way out of this alive when…
...a fucking pain hammered my head. What in the holly fuck was going on? I felt my hands cold, and I was unable to move them for a whole second. I lowered my head and saw a black matter covering my entire body. I smiled.
“Well, well. It was about time to wake up!” My voice was loud, as it should be. I saw a pack of -are these Tidreg?- some strange beasts before me, driving me away from a bunch of ugly looking people. Well, half of them were ugly; the black haired one was kinda okay. A hoarse bark tried to draw my attention, but as I turned and saw the puny little dogs, they didn’t seem all that dangerous anymore.
I heard the screech of talons scratching the metal floor as two of them jumped to hit me. Let’s see if I remembered the steps correct.
One, two, three…I counted in a dance-like pattern, hitting my first target with the back of my fist in midair while dodging the other and stomping it down the floor.
Oh, the fresh blood and the feeling of kicking the life out of someone; I missed it. Now I hummed, getting back my lovely mood.
Four, five, seven… and I strode my way to the remaining nine doggies. They squealed in such a nice way; they were certainly worth of this long-awaited breakfast. The cracking sound of their necks breaking, the fear in their eyes, it made me move faster, harder, stronger.
And...eight. And just like that, I was out of targets. I heard two of them running for their lives, but I lost my mood for a fight. Now, I was just plainly bored.
A yawn surfaced from deep within my chest. “Which one of you is the leader?”
They looked at me like I was one of those monsters I had just killed. I was not sure that sitting on top of one of the lifeless husks helped, but they were still warm and comfortable. It would be a shame not to use them.
“I’m Chronicler Eladia. And you are?”
She looked uncertain, certainly not worth killing. Although I was somehow intrigued on how her neck would sound if I snapped it in two. Still, it would be a shame for a neck like this.
“Chronicler? What is that?”
“I...I...don't know if I can explain it to you without showing you my work. Well, in short-”
“Don’t bother. I’m bored. I’m Prime Officer Jasih. Isn’t there anything else to kill?”
My eyes fell to the fit-looking hairy one in the back, and in the peculiar robot beside him. They looked weak, but not weaker than this human. Weren’t humans supposed to be extinct already?
“Prime Officer Ja...? Still, can’t pronounce it,” she mumbled to herself. “Are you still Jay?”
“Are you mad, woman? My name is Jasih, and there is no other Jasih among my people. Who is this...Jay, you’re talking about?”
For a leader of their group, she didn’t sound all that much smart. She turned and talked to the silver-looking one. They were all so boring. I needed something to kill, but I thought I had enough for the day.
In the end, she turned and looked at me with a whole other look. Her eyes were full of determination, and I could finally see her will to lead.
“Can you please tell us more about your rank?”
She demanded to know, and something inside me wanted to answer.
This was going to be interesting.
Chapter Five
Eladia
The wild animals fled. Hell, if I could, I would run behind them and fight them every day than face the...thing that Jay had become. His platinum skin had changed to a dark silver one, as well as his pitch-black hair into white. Everything on him was the same, his violet eyes and his statuesque build, but he now seemed like a whole different person.
“What do you want to know about my rank? Isn’t it clear enough that I’m a Prime? Oh, right. I forgot. You’re human. Maybe your tool can help you by explaining these things to you.” He smiled, but I think he just wanted to taunt us.
“We don’t know what a Prime Officer is, or who are you, or what your species are. We, me and Silver, we just came here looking for something and instead we found you inside a cryo pod. So can you please explain to us, what are your motives, and what a Prime Officer is?”
He sighed, but never leaving the body of his dead trophy. It fitted him like a throne fitted a king’s butt, and to be honest, he was kinda the king of this place. He could kill us all in seconds, if I wasn’t careful on how to handle him.
“Okay, okay. It seems that I’m way too far off my planet so that you know about our ranks out here. Well, a Prime Officer to our people is a big, badass soldier who controls other soldiers in battle. It’s kinda like the greatest rank a soldier can achieve.”
“So, you’re a General or an Admiral of some sort. I get it. And, what are you doing out here? This planet, Earth, is abandoned.” At the moment the words came out of my mouth, I saw his expression change. His arrogant sneer and powerful smirk faded off his face.
“Abandoned? I don’t understand. When did you monkeys abandon your own planet? I thought you were still swiping from one tree to the other.”
I squeezed my hand into a fist, tried to get past his insults. I was seriously ready to punch him in the face, though. “We have left this planet for a hundred years now, and expanded all the way to--”
“Oh, shit. How long was I asleep?”
Yes, I was certainly punching him in the face when I would get the chance. “I don’t know. A hundred years, give or take. At least, that’s what...that’s what we estimate.” I felt Silver behind me get restless. If I told him the truth, that there was another Jay, a silver-looking
one, other than him, he might got violent not believing us. For him, we were strangers.
“Fuck. One hundred years? That’s a lot. That’s a fucking lot.”
He finally got off the dead beast and moved closer to me. He checked me from top to bottom, probably trying to decide if I was useful or not. He nodded to himself and smiled again. “Tell me, human. Did we win the Magna Bellum?”
Again with those wars. Magna Bellum, Latin for the Great War. What was this Great War he kept talking about? “I don’t know. I don’t even know what species you are.”
As soon as he heard me utter those words, he got serious once again. “Do you dare not recognize the great...the great…”
He was amnesiac as well. “Don’t worry, it’ll come to you. You must have hit your head pretty badly after crashing on Earth.”
“I’m not a puny little human like you to hit my head and lose my memories. I could pierce through stone walls with my head and still not feel a thing. No, someone messed with my head.” He stopped to think, but I didn’t like the direction this conversation took. “You. You’re the only one here. It makes sense now. You want to trick me into believing you don’t know about my people and me so that your experiment is successful.”
Satisfied with his own deduction, he turned his back on me, laughing. My whole body was trembled, too much to hide it. But, in the end, was there something I could have said to change his opinion? He would kill me, and there was nothing I could do about it.
“What’s your name again human?”
“Eladia,” I answered immediately.
“Eladia...it has a nice ring to it. Well, Eladia you’re lucky I fought those puppies or else I would have to kill you. Now, I’m bored again, and you seem too fragile for my tastes. I’ll let you go, but by the time I wake up again, I’d like for you to have returned my memories.”
A deep relief left my chest in the form of a sigh. The huge man walked away from me, got to the other side of the spaceship, lied against a wall and tilted his head to the side, getting ready to fall asleep. In a matter of seconds, the dark matter that covered him before, slowly started to wash away.
“Quickly, Silver, scan him,” I uttered amidst my confusion.
Just like before, the dark matter vanished into nothingness, the same way the water evaporated. His hair slowly changed back to their safe, black color, and fortunately, by the time the thing that had covered him vanished, he was back to his usual, stoic and cryptic self.
“Eladia, it’s amazing. It’s as a different organism exists in those dark particles. If I could make a wild guess, then Jay’s species are symbiotic organisms. Dark Jay works the same way a parasite works, and Jay is the host. The only thing is that they also share personalities and memories.”
Silver talked as fast as she could, afraid that by the time Jay woke up, he would be as hostile as his dark counterpart before him. Yet, I didn’t sense the same blood lust coming off him. Not that it would matter, but this Jay looked different. Logical and safe.
I turned and saw the other human, my feral cousin. “What did you learn about him? Can he be of any help to us?”
Silver made a sound that greatly resembled a laugh. “Him? He’s harmless. Before, he thought you were going to harm Jay, so that’s why he attacked you. But after I talked to him, it seems sentient enough to communicate.”
As I checked him out I noticed that his eyes, a bright mix of brown and green, tried to understand me as well. He must have been aware we were talking about him. It would be better if I introduced myself. I stretched my hand and pointed at my chest. “Eladia. Human.” Then, I pointed at him. “You? Your name?”
His eyes brightened up after I was finally interested in him. “Zan...Zan.” He pointed at himself and continued uttering his name; in the end almost chanting it. Silver laughed and truth be told, I felt somehow better myself.
“Zan it is then. Keep talking to him, Silver. We might need him to lead us to the relic, when and if we finally find it.” A pinch ached my heart. If. Would this all be for nothing if we didn’t find anything after all?
“I would love to. He’s great. It’s like I’ve just gotten my first pet!” Silver said.
I hit my face with my palm and shook my head. “He’s every part human as I am Silver. Don’t do anything inappropriate to him.” As I turned to see Jay, I heard Silver changing. “And no physical experiments. Just scan him or ask me anything you want to know about him. Is that understood?” I told her, not even turning. I only began to go on after I had heard her changing back.
Jay was sleeping soundly, probably trying to recover his powers. But still, for a man like him to move so fast, and come toe to toe with those animals; it seemed impossible. He moved like a shadow, his hands striking like thunder, his feet stomping their way through every obstacle. This is an Originator for you. I had heard rumors about them being able to win a whole battle by themselves, but I never believed it to be true. Now…now I wasn’t so sure anymore.
I took two steps to the front, towards him, and I could hear his breath whiz. For all that mattered, Jay was a gorgeous man. Strong, powerful, awe-inspiring and even sacrificing himself to save a bunch of strangers. And yet, his eyes had that cold feeling, the feeling that he had seen too many horrible things in his past. For a moment, I almost wished this man never recovered his memories, but the scientific interest of his past was too great to hope for something like that.
I just had to keep following him until I found out more about him. And of course, he might helped me find the Nusae relic...if it existed.
I sighed, turned my back to him and walked towards Silver. But then, I heard him coming to his senses. My heart beat faster. I hope he’s back to his usual self.
Chapter Six
Jay
Enough with those headaches already. I rubbed my temples instinctively, my cold hands cooled off my warm skin. My muscles felt sore, and I wasn’t sure I could stand on my feet without help. For some reason, I also found this feeling familiar, like something I was used to in the past.
And yet, I didn’t seem to remember anything about it. As I opened my eyes, I saw the human female, her robot and the wild man staring at me in fear. I smelled blood. I looked around me and saw the dead bodies of the predators that assaulted us before.
Did I do that? I want to ask them, but I knew the answer already. I did that. My body still felt the impact, and yet I was the only one scathed. A certain feeling started to swell inside my body. Thank God, no one else was hurt. It was strange for me to feel that way, but amidst the darkness of the spaceship, I didn’t want to feel alone anymore.
Alone. Alone was Esuh. A white, excruciating pain stroke my head. The word Esuh, a word that meant a lot to me, kept swirling in my head.
“You. Human. I...I remember!”
She turned to look at me, but she didn’t make another step towards me. She stayed put and talked to me from a distance. “Are you...are you Jay?”
What was that question? I just told her I remembered something so important, and she asked me if I was Jay? “Eladia, isn’t that your name?”
She nodded.
“I remembered the name of my people. And yes, I’m Jasih, the Prime Officer, and an Originator. Do you still doubt me?”
She rushed to my side. She laid out her hand wanting to help me get up, but I didn’t need help from puny humans. I could get up by myself. And so I did, my whole body in agonizing pain, but nothing an Esuh couldn’t handle.
“I’m sorry. It’s just…,” she wanted to say something but stopped.
“It’s what? Speak human!”
“Nothing. Again, I'm sorry. Now, can you please tell us? What’s the name of your people?”
She was hiding something, but I was in no mood to play her game. At the same time, she was the only one that could know what had happened to my people. “Have you heard the name Esuh? Esuh of the Two Faces?”
Her face suddenly lightened up in the hearing of the name, but I got the sense that
it wasn’t from recognizing them. “Of the Two Faces you said? Do you remember more about your people? Why did they call you that?”
My hand jolted to grab her arm. I knew I was squeezing way too much, but maybe some pain could wake her up. Anger made me talk slowly, steadily. “Don’t...you...understand...what...I’m...saying...to you?”
For a moment, our eyes met, and I couldn’t move my head. Her fearless glare matched my own in every aspect. If she were two heads taller, with bigger muscles and another color, she would have been an Esuh herself.
I released my grip, and she immediately took two steps back. “I haven’t heard anything about your people Jay. But the next time you touch me, I won’t help you even if I find something about them.”
Silver, her robot, got in front of her now, and for some reason, that feral kid also wanted to protect her. He growled at me like I’m the enemy, but they seemed to have forgotten that I was a Prime Officer, that countless Esuhes counted on me and respected me. But this funny bunch didn’t.
They looked at me as if expecting me to apologize, but I just turned my head and searched the way out of my spaceship. Before taking another step, I heard the young one yelling at me, trying to say something. I acted like I didn’t hear him, but then the robot stopped me as well. “It’s dangerous out there. Zan is trying to protect you.”
It had a name after all? “Did this Zan kill all those animals or did I?” She didn’t answer. “I thought so. Get out of my way.”
Zan kept yelling, but I didn’t care anymore. Better out there with any of those monsters than in here getting disrespected by a bunch of weaklings.
“My camp is close. You can spend the night there with us and leave in the morning.” Eladia’s voice was rough, soulless. She didn’t want me there. But I couldn’t die, not knowing the fate of my people.
“Okay. One night.” One night and then I’m done protecting your sorry asses.
Jasih: Paranormal Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Àlien Mates Book 2) Page 3
