by Maia Starr
We even had study hours, where we would go over every detail of the mining planet on maps, and plans. We went over the geography, the plant life, and how to survive in the wild alone using local resources in case we were separated from our troop. We were set for a long-term invasion. I was not infantry, like Mason. He was a ground soldier. He was the one that would run straight into battle trying to take back ground we had lost. I, however, was a sniper. I was a gun specialist, and I could shoot a target from one mile away.
There were very few women in this troop—only about four others. The other women were pilots, doctors, and engineers. I was the only one that was a combat soldier. I was pretty much a tomboy and always had been. Though it always shocked people when they first saw me, because of my looks. I had blonde hair, blue eyes, and long legs at six feet tall. I was a slender woman with an ample chest and an ample bottom, but underneath, I was hiding long, lean muscles and incredible fighting skills. No one ever expected that I could kick some serious ass, but I could. It was what I loved. My father, a military combat general, raised me so it was in my blood. I was glad to join this mission to fight for Earth. But I did not know exactly what I was giving up when I left. I had no idea that I would never return, or that I would never make to the mining planet of Dartu. But of course, I could not know any of that then.
After my shower, I was growing very impatient waiting for Mason. I wanted him; I was feeling very turned on. So instead of waiting for him to come to me, I went to him. I knocked at his bunk door. The door slid open and he stood there with a towel wrapped around his waist. His short, black hair was still wet and there were beads of water on his body. I wanted to lick them off of him.
"You are taking too long. You know how I hate to wait," I said to him as I pushed him back with the palm of my hand on his strong chest inside the small room. The door closed behind me.
"You just take what you want whenever you want, don't you?" he said with a grin as he put his hands around my waist and gave me a quick kiss.
"I think you already know the answer to that, Mason Ludlow," I said as I grabbed the towel and whipped it off of him. He laughed as I looked down at his hot body and got my fill of him with my eyes.
The room we stood in was very narrow. It only fit the bed and nothing else. There were over a thousand bunks just like this on the massive ship. They were squeezed in side by side and stacked on top of each other. With the doors closed, they looked like bricks. It was an efficient way to create private sleeping spaces to keep the mostly hot-headed soldiers from killing each other on this long journey. This offered a place to escape, but Mason and I were using it for far better purposes. I pushed him and he fell backwards on the bed. He was already hard. I pulled my tank top off and slipped off my boots. I unzipped my olive-green cargo pants and panties, pulling them to the floor. Now I was completely naked, just like Mason.
"Straddle me, Special Forces Serena Swands," he ordered me.
"Sir, yes Sir," I said as I climbed on top of him with one leg on either side of him. I slowly lowered myself down onto him, teasing him. I kissed his lips and ran my hands over his shoulders. I had been waiting for this all day.
This had begun as something very casual, as these things often did. However, over the last few weeks I started to develop something else for Mason. I started to look forward to seeing him; perhaps I was even falling for him. But I could not admit that to myself.
"It's lights out. You know what that means," he whispered in between kisses.
"No. What does that mean?" I said to him.
"It means that almost everyone is in their bunks as well. It means that you can't be shouting at the top of your lungs, no matter how good I make you feel," he whispered between kisses. I sort of laughed and put his lower lip in my mouth playfully.
He was right. It was lights out and everyone would be in bed, or were heading to bed by now. Since there were bunks on all sides of us, it would be very easy for them to hear through the thin metal that separated the closet-like rooms.
"I think you were the one shouting last time," I said to him as I bit lightly on his neck. He let out a groan. He sucked in a deep breath of air as I massaged his shoulders with my hands. He let out a slight cough with that breath of air.
"What is that?!" he said in an alarming fashion. I followed his gaze toward the door. There was fog coming in underneath the door—a very unusual sight. We immediately jumped to our feet.
"Fire?" I said.
Mason inhaled another breath and said, "Gas!" He grabbed two masks from a shelf, throwing one at me and I put the other one on. Then there was a sudden shift in the ship and it rocked hard. Boom!
We were knocked off of our feet and against the wall. We were still naked, with just our gas masks on. The ship groaned as it made a massive shift. It was obvious that the ship had either hit something, like an asteroid, or it had been hit by another ship. Since there was poisonous gas entering the rooms, we both knew that it was an invasion. How had we been caught off guard so quickly?
As soon as the ship stopped rocking and we were able to stand without assistance, Mason and I both put on our clothes as quickly as we could. We opened the door and moved into the hall. It was so filled with gas that we almost couldn't see. Mason ran to the alarm and pulled on it while I pounded my fist on the surrounding bunk doors.
But I knew that it was too late. If these soldiers had been sleeping, the gas would have knocked them unconscious. Sirens blared as soon as Mason pulled the alarm. There were red lights flashing. A couple of soldiers opened the doors to their bunks and jumped out wearing gas masks. But it was less than half of our population.
We were all trying to yell at each other through the mask.
"What happened?"
"What type of gas is this?"
"Guns, we need guns! Everyone to the artillery[SBM18]!"
Soldiers shouted in the chaos. We all began to run toward the artillery at the end of the hall. Mason kicked the door open. Within minutes, we were all armed, and ready to hunt.
"Call the deck! Get the captain on radio!" I shouted. A soldier went to the wall and pressed the intercom communication.
"Captain! Captain, report! What have we hit?" The soldier yelled over and over into the radio. But there was no response.
"We have to get there. We have to get to the command deck. They may need us. They may need support," Mason said.
"Or they're all dead," another soldier said. We were all quiet, but only for a moment.
Then Mason took charge again as he said, "We're stuck on the ship. Retreat is not an option out here in space. Whatever it is, we either fight to keep our ship, or we die trying."
We all looked at each other and realized that he was right. We did not have any options here and we were trained for this. We were just caught off guard and it shook us up a little. But this was our ship and we could still come out victorious to this situation. I knew how hardcore Mason was and he was willing to give his life. He stood proud and strong in front of the battalion and shouted, “Are you with me, Soldiers?!”
Every single soldier let out a grunting "Who-ha!" [SBM19]in agreement. We were armed and ready, but we had no idea what we were walking into. Had I known exactly what was going to happen, I would've forced Mason to retreat with me into an escape pod. True, they were not capable of long-distance travel to get us back to Earth. But I would've taken my chances alone with him on some foreign planet. It was better than the fate that lay ahead of me. I looked at Mason as he led us quietly down the long and massive corridors to the deck.
He turned me and gave me a knowing look, and then he signaled quietly with his hand as everyone fell in behind him. We quietly ran to the command deck. As soon as we came into view of the door—
Pew! Dew! Pew! The sounds of blaster guns flew by our ears. We shot back, not knowing exactly what we were firing at in the gas-filled fog of the ship. A full on battle raged, and we seemed to hold our own for a few minutes. It was a dangerous situation. These shi
ps were made to handle a certain amount of gun blasts, as could be expected. But this was an all-out battle, and at any minute, it could blow a hole in the ship and we would all be sucked into space.
I crouched down, trying to get a better view. The gas began to clear and we were able to finally see the enemy. I knew who they were as soon as I saw them, even though I had never seen one before. But their reputation and appearance had preceded them.
It was the warrior race known as the Kalazaron. The blue tint of the skin that was exposed under their battle garments, their extremely tall size, and their close resemblance to man made it unquestionable that it was the Kalazaron. They had been known to act like pirates in space. They would send out scouting parties thousands of light-years away from their planet and commandeer other space ships. They would the passengers as prisoners and slaves. They were known to be ruthless, and we only had fleeting reports that were made before capture, as no one ever returned from their planet back to Earth. I sneered at them.
"The captain is down! The whole command deck crew is down!" Mason shouted.
"Are they dead?!" another soldier asked.
"I think they are just gassed! We have to go in there and pull them out!" Mason shouted.
"No! Don't" I shouted at him but it was too late. He was already charging forward. Every soldier looked at each other for a second, and then we blindly and faithfully followed our rebellious leader on to the command deck.
Gun fire grew heavier. One soldier after another went down beside me. I went as low as I could. I did a somersault across the floor, dodging laser bullets. I couldn't see Mason anymore. My heart raced. Now there were physical altercations breaking out as some soldiers began to fight in hand-to-hand combat with the Kalazarons. We all still had our gas masks on and it made it very hard to see.
A very strong arm came across my waist and lifted me off my feet. I looked down at the arm and saw the blue tint of the skin and unusual tattoo designs that I had never seen before. I was not going to let this Kalazaron take me. I squeezed his forearm with my hand digging my thumbs between my belly and his arm just enough to push him off and slither downward, dipping underneath his arm but still holding it in my grasp and twisting it around.
I now had his arm twisted behind his back and I stuck my foot out in front of his ankle and pushed him forward. I did all of this in a blink of an eye, before he even knew what had hit him as he went crashing forward onto his belly. I grabbed my gun and held it to his head. I was about to shoot when I heard, "Drop it! Or he dies!"
I turned around to see very clearly what the situation now was. Every soldier was either dead or down. There were over one hundred Kalazaron pointing guns at the soldiers. We had lost. But the one that was shouting was directing his shouts at me.
I looked to him. He had jet-black hair with a large, light-blue streak framing his face. One side of his head was shaved just above his ear and his hair fell over to the other side, like some punk rocker from Old Earth times. He had lots of tattoos, and his thick, black eyebrows were furrowed at me over brown eyes that pierced right through me with hate[SBM20].
In his hand was a gun. That gun was aimed at Mason's head. My heart dropped to my stomach. I felt so much hatred for this Kalazaron warrior as he held my lover’s life in his hands.
"Drop it!" he shouted one more time. He did not need to shout again. I stopped, backed away from the warrior that I had knocked on the ground, and dropped my gun. I put my hands up and surrendered. The warrior sneered at me. His lips curled into a devilish grin. He looked at Mason. Pew!
He shot anyway. He shot Mason in the head. I screamed in panic as I ran toward him, "No!"
Then I felt a sharp stinging on the back of my head and everything went black.
When I awoke, I was sitting on a blue-colored floor. My hands were tied behind my back. My ankles were tied together and there was a gag in my mouth. I looked to the side of me to see that Margaret, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Maria were all tied the exact same way, sitting on the floor. They had looks of anger, fear, and disbelief on their faces.
I looked around and realized that the room was foreign to me. My heart sank to my stomach as I realized that I was no longer on the Madera. We were now on the Kalazaron ship. There were many blinking lights and lots of smooth surfaces with holographs on them. Then I remembered. Mason was dead.
Anger filled me and I quickly rolled to my side and pulled my arms around my body over my bottom and behind my knees all the way past my feet until they were in front of me. I untied the rope around my ankles and pulled off the gag. I got up and ran toward a small, circular window. Outside the glass, I could see the Madera. It had lots of damage to it and various liquids and smoke were floating out from it in the vacuum of space. Then, out of nowhere, an orange streak of light hit it. The ship exploded on impact.
"No!" I could not believe it. The Kalazaron were ruthless. We had done nothing to them. They roamed the universe, scouting ships to take for their own plundering. I looked back at the women and said, "They've blown up the Madera."
They began to cry and shake with anger. I was angry too. But I did not cry. I would be damned if I was going to allow them to take me captive and make me some sort of slave. No, I would die. If I were going to die, I would do it while getting revenge for Mason. The face of the Kalazaron that killed him flashed in my mind. I would never forget him. He was now my enemy and I was going to do everything I could in order to bring about his demise.
I moved over to the door and looked out the small, rectangular window. I could see Kalazaron warriors loading artillery into a massive room. It was artillery from the Madera. Weapons from Earth. Why did they need our weapons? Their weapons were far more advanced than ours.
Then I saw him. The Kalazaron that had killed my Mason was headed toward the door. I quickly looked around and found a pipe-like piece of metal in the corner in some clutter. I picked it up and stood behind the door, waiting for him. The women were moaning, urging me not to do anything stupid. But I was unreachable. I was in a range for what he did.
The door opened and as soon as he stepped in I swung the pipe at his head. But I misjudged his height and it hit his shoulder. He quickly turned and grabbed the pipe in his hand and tried to yank it out of mine. But I held onto it. He growled at me as I lifted my leg and kicked him in the side. He moved his hand to hit my leg but I quickly blocked it with my other arm. He looked up at me, startled. He threw the pipe on the ground and smiled. It only made me angrier. I was ready to get in another blow, but before I knew it, he went low and grabbed my waist and flung me over his shoulder.
"Let me go, you alien bastard! I will kill you!" I shouted as I banged my fists against his back. I hit him as hard as I could and I heard a groan come from him and I knew that at least I was hurting him just a little bit. He threw me on the ground sitting next to the other women. I was about to get back up and kick him when he said, "Move and one of them dies!" He was pointing at the women.
I narrowed my eyes at him in anger and I could do nothing but obey. He walked back and forth in front of us, and he was a very commanding presence. If I didn't hate him, I would have been intrigued by him. But now I would hate him for the rest of my life. He was the worst alien being I had ever encountered.
"You have been taken by the Kalazaron of the planet Kaethon. I am Commander Jaylin Brakin. This is my ship. You will obey me. You will respect the ship, and no harm will come to you. I guarantee it. You are now property of the Blue Mountain Base. You are our captives. You are being taken to our home, which is now your home. It is a long journey. You will be brought nourishment. You will be allowed to sleep. Anyone caught out of this room will be forced to kill one of you. Is that clear?" he said as he looked at me particularly.
I looked away from him. I could not look at him without thinking about Mason. The other women nodded in agreement.
Then he knelt down and picked up the ties that were on my hands and feet. They were now thrown on the ground. He looked at me and s
aid, "Untie the other human female slaves. There is nowhere for you to go." He threw the ties at my face and then he walked out of the room. I was so angry that tears actually began to water my eyes. I fought them back. We were in a hopeless situation. He was right. There was nowhere to go. Unless….
I stopped untying Maria's ties and she gave me a look. But I was lost in thought and planning. Every ship, no matter what alien race, had escape pods. They were lifeboats. I knew that I was in space where I could never be rescued. But being in an escape pod would at least give me hope and give me the freedom of not being a slave to the Kalazaron. Maria nudged my arm.
"Sorry," I said as I continued to untie her. Moments later, all of the women were untied and together we paced back-and-forth in the room, not saying anything. This sudden change in our life was a lot to take in. None of us had the words for it.
About an hour later, or what I assumed was an hour, a warrior walked in, followed by two more. They were all carrying trays of food. They set them on the floor without even making eye contact with us. I thought it was unusual. They were males, and I assumed they would tease us or try to touch us. But they acted like we weren't even there.
