by Octavia Kore
There was a sudden weight in her arms, a comforting warmth against her breast that made her eyes fly open. Bright red eyes stared up at her, peering into her soul as a shimmering opalescent hand reached out to brush against the skin of her bare chest. A hungry little mouth rooted against her, and Esme shifted so that her nipple touched the corner of the baby’s shimmering lips a moment before they latched.
With the baby cradled against her, Esme ran her fingertips over the delicate mauve skin of a cheek and brow as a tiny tail wrapped around her wrist. Although the baby appeared to be mostly human, there were slender vines intermingled with the feather-soft hair and opalescent patches on the lips, chest, hands, and tail. Esme smiled down at the baby who nursed happily, eyes half-closed as her belly filled.
Her baby was beautiful.
“Esme?”
The image began to fade and the weight in her arms lessened. No! She tried in vain to clutch her child to her, to keep her from disappearing as she always did, but nothing stopped it.
“Come on, Esme. Time to wake up.” Someone was speaking to her, interrupting the peacefulness of a scene that would never be.
“I want to go back to sleep,” she whispered as the cool air of the ship washed over her body. When she finally pried her eyes open, Telisa’s smiling face swam above her. The senator was kind and out of all of the survivors, Esme felt like Telisa judged her the least. Even so, Esme wanted nothing more than to shove the woman away and curl back up into the pod.
“We’ve all been out for a month, girl. Rise and shine.”
The last remnants of the dream faded from her mind, and Esme swallowed the lump that formed in her throat, pulling herself up inside the cryopod. She could still feel the weight of her baby in her arms and the tiny mouth against her breast as she placed her hand against her suit-covered chest.
There was no amount of sleeping or dreaming that would bring her child back. Esme knew that, but a part of her wanted to lie back down and close the lid to the cryopod. Maybe they would just forget her and she could spend the rest of her life in that moment. Esme shook her head and dragged her legs over the side, closing her eyes against the dizziness.
Her baby was gone. It was time for her to figure out how to get back to Earth and try to piece herself back together.
Chapter 1
Esme
A couple days later…
Esme curled into a ball, squeezing the front of her thighs and knees against her chest and pressing herself into the cold wall at her back. There was an ache forming in her hips and shoulders, but she didn’t dare move or even breathe too hard as strange voices filled the interior of the ship. Whoever was out there was getting closer.
“Showing up in a braxing Grutex ship,” someone spoke. “Do you think we can trust what the Havacker is saying?”
There was a solid thud and an annoyed grunt. “Don’t you ask that again, especially not where General Brega can hear you, pup. There might be horrible stories of her behavior toward Havacker Brin, but she won’t hesitate to gut you for questioning his word.”
Esme sucked in a breath and held it as they moved past her, their booted feet making the floor and the panel in front of her tremble.
Don’t stop here, don’t stop. Keep moving.
“Come on,” one of them said after a moment. “If we keep the General waiting any longer, we might not live to see the next sol.”
The breath she’d been holding released slowly as the sound of their steps faded and she rested her head against the wall in relief. Esme waited until the ship was completely silent before sliding the panel to the side and crawling out of the hole she’d hidden in. Using a few tools she’d lifted from Brin during their time on the other planet, Esme had searched for a spot to slip away, to hide from the other humans whenever she was overwhelmed. Their feelings and emotions were so loud and intense that they made her want to crawl out of her own skin at times.
The massive doors to the cargo bay were wide open, and she could hear a commotion outside, raised voices and lots of movement. So this is Venora? She felt so tiny and insignificant as she peered out at the aliens. They brought the entire army, she mused, watching those assembled outside. The thought of having to be near them, of not knowing if she could truly trust these people, soured her stomach.
A breeze tossed her hair around her shoulders, and Esme turned her face away, breathing in the salty air. In the distance, beyond the landing pads was an all too familiar tree line: black-barked trees with twisting trunks and massive canopies of red leaves stretched up into the sky.
Esme gasped. It was as if someone had plucked the scene from her dreams and set it into reality.
My baby.
If the forest was real, then her child had to be in there, and she wasn’t about to wait a moment longer to find out if she was right. Shoving away from the open doorway, Esme bolted across the landing pad, ignoring the shouts and calls from the small group of humans. She had a purpose again, a mission that she refused to fail. No one was going to stop her.
She needed to get away from them, all of them; the humans, the aliens. They wouldn’t understand if they caught her, and they wouldn’t allow her to search for the baby she knew was in this forest.
Run!
Tree branches lashed against the exposed skin on her face and neck, tearing at the Grutex suit as her arms pumped at her sides and her legs propelled her forward through the forest. Get away! Hurry! They weren’t safe here. She wasn’t safe here. Jun and Telisa had promised it would be okay, but how could it be when they were on a planet filled with aliens? Maybe to them this was safe, but it was a chance Esme wasn’t ready to take.
How much more could she allow them to take from her?
As if her thoughts had triggered it, a piercing pain tore through her lower abdomen, taking her feet out from under her as her knees buckled. Animals called out all around her, their cries and howls echoing through the air as she pushed herself up. She spun, trying to gage which direction to head in.
Preferably the one where my baby is and without all of the aliens.
The pain lanced through her again and she doubled over, her breath catching and her vision going black around the edges. No, no, no. Not now! Her lungs spasmed as they tried desperately to expand and bring in fresh air. The entire world pitched to one side, and Esme heard herself make a godawful raspy croak as she stumbled toward a tree.
You’re all right. Count, Esme. You’ve got this. Ten… nine… eight…
When she reached the number four, she felt her chest and shoulders relax and she inhaled. With each breath, Esme could feel the panic abate a little more. If she let the memories grab ahold of her, she would slip right back into that state of constant and debilitating fear. Jun and most of the others were lucky. None of them had gone through what she had, none of them had experienced the real horrors of the lab… or what was outside of it.
The others hadn’t seen exactly what the Grutex were capable of. Esme had been their toy, but they’d broken her, and just like any other broken toy, they’d tossed her out.
“Pathetic.”
“Useless.”
“Fix it!”
His words tried to fill her mind, but she shook her head, slamming the mental door on him like Clara taught her during their time on the planet they crashed on after their escape. He wasn’t allowed to take up space there. Her mind was her own. She missed Clara, and although the woman had trusted Nuzal, Esme still wasn’t completely convinced he had nothing to do with her death. With Clara’s ability to see into the Grutex’s mind, it made sense that he might want to be rid of her. Nuzal was a scientist, just like he was, and saying that Esme was weary was an understatement.
She breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth as her body swayed. Esme imagined herself standing behind the counter of the small diner she worked at back home, a full pot of steaming hot, black coffee in one hand as she poured Mr. Henley his first cup of the morning. What she wouldn’t give to be back the
re serving her regulars, free of all the nightmares that had befallen her since she was captured.
If Bane had just been born with a backbone…
She scowled at the bark of the tree in front of her, knowing she shouldn’t think that way about him. Her boyfriend had been scared, and who could blame him? The Grutex were monstrous in appearance, not to mention incredibly strong and fast as hell. Even if Bane hadn’t shoved her into their waiting arms, they still would have caught her that night. If she ever made it back to Earth, she hoped he would have the decency to never show his face again.
God, how was she going to hide her child from prying eyes? What would happen if The One World Council ever found out about her?
Warm wind whispered over the fine hairs on the back of her neck, and her head swiveled as she glanced cautiously around her. There were noises… Voices? Was there someone, or something, in the dark depths of this alien forest? Was she being followed? Esme sucked in a breath, looking to the ground as pain shot through her foot. The coral from her dreams. She had to be close now.
I’m coming, baby.
The treetops swayed as the wind picked up, whipping through her hair with a mighty wail. When she’d peeked out of the ship, the sky had been a beautiful green, but now it was darkening above her, turning a deep and ominous gray as cumulonimbus clouds towered in the distance. Massive rainbands stretched toward her, and if she closed her eyes and inhaled, Esme swore she could smell the storm coming.
Shit.
She took off again, taking a sharp right and doing her best to stay in front of the ring of clouds that swirled off to her left, but she knew it was useless. Esme stopped when the first big drop of rain hit her cheek, kicking up a row of coral that clattered against the trunk of the tree she braced herself on. The pieces bit into the suit, but the organism held strong, protecting the pale, delicate skin beneath it.
The wind whipped a shard through the air, cutting her cheek, and she hissed as she pressed her fingers against it. Thunder shook the ground beneath her, rolling through the forest like a shockwave.
“Female?”
The voice was soft, barely audible over the din of the approaching storm. It moved over her like a caress, so warm and gentle, the way a mother touches her baby’s face. The thought brought back the ache in her heart, and Esme’s eyes darted around, struggling to focus on the spaces between the trees. She didn’t have time for distractions.
Where are you, little one? Help me find you. Give me a sign.
Her legs itched to run, to put distance between her and whoever had spoken, but something in that silky feminine voice made her pause.
“Little human?”
Esme’s head jerked in the direction it came from, and she was stunned when a tall, slender woman stepped out from behind a nearby tree, her hands up in front of her as if trying to show that she meant no harm. The alienness of the woman struck her first.
She had dark vine-like tendrils like the Grutex, but they grew closer to her face, just in front of a pair of delicate pointed ears, instead of her neck, where gills flared along the pearl-colored skin. There were lights on her body, like the ones on Jun’s Venium mate, Brin. They pulsed a beautiful aqua as their eyes met across the space, reminding Esme of the sweet little parakeet she loved as a child.
Esme watched as the woman stepped closer, her movements deliberate and slow as if she was afraid anything more would cause Esme to bolt. For a moment, she remained frozen, watching as the woman drew closer, but something tugged at the edge of her mind, a warm, familiar presence.
“She’s here!”
“Wait!” the woman cried out as Esme took off through the brush like the hounds of hell were on her heels.
For the first time since gaining the cursed ability, she was thankful she could feel the emotions and presence of others. With her eyes focused on the terrain, Esme imagined a barrier surrounding her body and pushed it forward, willing it to reach out and detect another mind. She felt the frustration and fear of the woman behind her, but up ahead, just off to the left, there was a small, but strong mind. She knew this one—had dreamed of it for so long.
The farther inland she ran, the worse the howling of the wind around her became, but she couldn’t stop now, not with her baby so close. She could hear footsteps gaining on her. Being much shorter than the woman put her at a disadvantage, but she was a mother determined to find the one thing in the world that mattered, so she pushed as hard as she could, working her legs harder than she had ever thought herself capable of. Maybe if she hadn’t gone through those horrible things in the lab, Esme might be able to trust these aliens, but the fear of what they might do, of what more they might take away spurred her on.
“Wait! It is not safe!” the female called from too close behind her.
It might not be safe here, but Esme wasn’t going to stop. The farther she ran, the stronger the signal became, pulsing like a beacon in her mind. Small, cold drops of rain began to fall from the storm clouds, turning quickly into painful, icy spears that cut her exposed skin.
She shielded her eyes and face against the onslaught and turned to the left just as fingers skimmed over her suit-covered shoulder. Too close. Faster! There was something up ahead. From the looks of the broken arms and the battered outer hull, it seemed like it was some sort of wreckage, and if her intuition was correct, her baby was in there.
Almost there! I’ve got you.
The black doors slid open with an awful screech, and Esme launched herself inside, desperate to reach the little who was calling out to her.
Mommy’s coming!
Chapter 2
Kythea
Una, give me patience, Kythea prayed as she followed the human through the forest. She wasn’t exactly sure what had spurred her initial desire to go after the female, but Ky had learned early on to always follow her instincts. Moving to the village—city—far beneath the okeanos meant she didn’t get many chances to come to the surface. The Venium saw the forest and creatures within it as dangerous things, and while they weren’t wrong, this had always been her home.
Leaving her village and the temple behind had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done, but the pain the elders inflicted on her parents and Zar made it necessary. Everything within the dome was so different. Adjusting to her new life had been difficult, and while she’d been enjoying getting to know Amanda, Oshen, and everyone in her new extended family, Ky was struggling. She was unhappy there, and the longer she pretended everything was all right, the more the emptiness within her grew.
Ky had grown up with a good deal of tech, but the Venium relied on it for nearly everything they did. The amount of it in her daily life was becoming overwhelming. The noise, the visuals, and the lights polluted her mind, making it hard to concentrate and connect with the goddess like she was used to. Being back in the forest now brought her a sense of calm and made her feel reunited with Una again.
Ignoring the sting of the rain against her exposed skin, Ky hurried after the human female, trying to keep the golden hair in sight as she weaved her way through the forest. Up ahead, tucked between the twining black trunks of a small grouping of trees, rested the wreckage of a flying dome.
No, that wasn’t it. A ship. That’s what Amanda and the Venium called them. As the wind howled in her ears, whipping her skirts around her legs, Ky watched the female disappear through the doors on the side and cursed. There was no telling who or what might be hiding out in there.
Hiking her skirt up around her thighs, Ky ran after her, stepping into the darkness just as the rain worsened. The doors slid shut with an ominous creak, leaving only a thin sliver of light from the crack where the sides didn’t quite meet. With her hand pressed to the wall at her right, Kythea made her way farther into the ship, her long, pointed ears twitching as she listened for any sign of danger or the little human who had darted in before her.
Her fushori glowed softly, sliding over her body in an anxious dance as it lit up the walkway enough for
her to make out the black metal walls and floors. Judging by the state of the wreckage, it hadn’t been here very long at all. As a youngling, Ky had spotted many ships in the sky above the village and even witnessed a crash on more than one occasion, but she had never seen one up close and had certainly never gone inside of one.
What would have caused the human to run like this? From what Amanda said, humans knew nothing about other worlds, so this female had taken a huge risk running into the unknown the way she did.
All of her senses were on high alert, and each of her steps was carefully placed as she peered around the corner into the darkness. Ky mumbled a short prayer as she moved forward, asking the goddess for her protection and maybe a little forgiveness for the close proximity to the tech of the tainted ones.
From the moment she could walk and talk, Ky had been selected to follow in her mitera’s footsteps and become a priestess. It was something she’d felt she was born to do from an early age, and serving her people and their gods had given her a purpose.
Despite their recent discovery that the goddess housed in their temple was little more than old tech left over from her ancestors, Ky knew that Una and her mates existed all around her, not just within the stone of the statue. Every aspect of her life had revolved around them, and what was she without the ability to serve her creators? Who was she without them?
It was a question she’d been asking herself a lot lately, and she still had no answer. There was something burning within her, a desire to see beyond the world she lived in, to experience more than what she knew, but if the old texts were to be believed, that would bring nothing but destruction upon her and those that she loved.
