by Cara Wylde
“Poppy, would you like to see… more of the Swetho?”
“We can?”
“Sure. I can go wherever I want on the ship. Well, except the stargate room.” She smiled and shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal.
Avery blinked in surprise. She needed a second to process the information because she wasn’t only paying attention to her words, but also to her small gestures and non-verbal cues. There was so much to make sense of!
“I could stretch my legs,” she murmured.
Grace beamed at her, then stood up and offered Avery her hand. On their way round the table, they also took Kaylee with them. Her master, Drav, shot the redhead a quick glance.
“Don’t go far,” he said in a low, guttural tone. “I might need you.”
Kaylee rolled her eyes and followed Avery and Grace through the small crowd.
They waited until they were out of the grand room. Grace led them down a narrow corridor. They reached a wide, open space, and Avery and Kaylee realized there was another level below them. They were currently one level above what looked like a common room for civilians. Avery walked over to the railing and looked down. There were two sets of stairs, one to her right and one to her left. The wall in front of her was dominated by two large windows through which she could see another spaceship in the distance.
“That’s the Hordaa,” Grace said as she leaned against the railing.
“Wow! I never thought I’d say this, but it’s beautiful.”
Indeed, it was shaped like a heart. To an ancient people who didn’t yet have the notion of symbols, she could see how they would see a lime tree leaf when looking up at a Kralian ship in the sky.
Kaylee joined them, and the three of them simply looked at the Hordaa for a few minutes, enchanted by the way it seemed to float in the infinity of space. It was magical and frightening at the same time… the thought that they were so far from Earth, and no one from down there knew it.
“You two have changed,” Avery said finally. “You seem so different now.”
“Yeah, well… you can’t be a victim forever.”
Kaylee’s words shocked her.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean… it’s done. It’s been decided. I’m never going to see my family and friends again. Even if Drav agrees to take me back to Earth one day, he’ll never allow me to leave his sight. What’s the point in fighting all this? At the end of the day, he treats me right. And now, he treats me better.”
“Now? Why now?”
Kaylee touched her belly just like she’d done before. Avery didn’t miss the small gesture.
“Are you…?”
“Yes. I found out a week ago.”
Avery turned to Grace. “Did you know?”
Grace smiled. “Yeah. Gorgan and Drav are pretty close, so Kaylee and I see each other a lot. I’m so sorry Kryan and Aedar are keeping you away from… the other wives and mothers. From us. I do envy you because you get to live on Earth, but don’t you feel alone there? You can’t tell anyone what’s happening, you can’t talk about your feelings, fears, worries… I don’t know what I would do if Kaylee and the other girls weren’t here for me all the time.” She leaned to look past Avery and catch Kaylee’s gaze. “Gorgan said we can spend even more time together. Now that the girls from the harem are gone, I’m going to need some new best friends.”
“What?!” Avery couldn’t believe her ears. “The girls from the harem are gone? What has Gorgan done to them?”
Grace chuckled. “They’re fine, don’t worry. Actually, they’ve never been better. He let them go. They’re free to live on the Swetho, find their place among the Valgans, and be with whomever they please. You could say they’re the first pleasure slaves who regained their freedom.”
“Wow! I don’t know what to say. Are they really free when they are forbidden to see their homes ever again?”
“Gorgan says we won’t be trapped on this ship for too long. Neither us, nor his people. I know that if we’re ever able to… err… relocate on Earth, our planet will not be the same. It will not be as I remember it. Still, it’s better than nothing, right?”
Avery wanted to scream. She pushed herself away from the railing and started pacing the floor. All of a sudden, she couldn’t care less about how pretty the Hordaa was, or about how Gorgan’s new rules could be considered a step forward. They weren’t. Or, okay, maybe they were in comparison to the time when he’d had a harem of young women, but the situation was still not ideal. When she’d left the table, she’d hoped she would get the chance to tell Grace and Kaylee who she really was. She’d decided she could trust them. Her new friends needed to know that they weren’t alone in this and they hadn’t been forgotten. There were people on Earth who were working day and night to set them free. Now, she wasn’t sure anymore. It didn’t sound like they wanted to escape.
“Kaylee, what about you? You said that Drav is awful. That he is a sick bastard who asks you for the most horrible and humiliating things.”
The redhead sighed. “Yeah, well… I don’t know. We make it work. I give him what he wants, he treats me like a princess. Now that we have a baby on the way, it’s like he’s changed. I guess I…” She hesitated, looked at her hands, then back up and out the window. “I’m aware of how bad this might sound, but I guess I came to… like him. Appreciate him. I don’t know. He’s not that bad. A bit twisted, yes, but nothing that I can’t handle. To tell you the truth, I don’t remember any of my boyfriends back on Earth treating me as well as Drav does.”
Avery shook her head in disbelief.
“I… I did not expect this. I mean… Grace, I’m happy for you. I’m… glad you get to wear normal clothes, and that you’re not considered a pleasure slave anymore. I’m glad that Gorgan has released the other girls in his harem. Kaylee, I’m happy for you, too. You guys don’t deserve to suffer, and it’s good that things are going well, but you also didn’t deserve to be kidnapped, to be taken away from your homes and your lives without your consent… I get it. Trust me, I get it. You’re making the best of what you have. Lemons… lemonade. But… but… don’t you want to be free again? Like… completely free? Truly and undoubtedly free?”
Grace placed both her hands on her baby bump. She turned to Avery and fixed her with a sincere, intense gaze.
“There’s a ninety percent chance that my baby will be born with dark green skin. Yes, some babies look human, but most don’t. I want to be a good mother to this child, and if that means spending all my life on the Swetho, with Gorgan, then I’ll do it. I’m sorry, Poppy, but for me escaping is not an option anymore.”
“And not for me, either,” Kaylee said. “If you still want to escape, we understand, Poppy. We do. We felt the same at first.”
“I… I don’t know what I want.”
“Your masters are treating you well. Better than Drav treated me for a long time. Gorgan wasn’t some prince charming to Grace, either. But Kryan and Aedar… I saw how they look at you.”
Avery swallowed hard. She didn’t like the direction in which this conversation was going.
“How do they look at me?”
“Like you’re the most incredible being they’ve ever seen. Even when they try to be cold and detached, it’s pretty obvious it’s just an act.”
“That’s not true. You got it wrong, Kaylee.”
“Nah. I think I got it right. My intuition never fails me. There’s something between the three of you. Something special.”
“That doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t make it fair. None of this is fair.” Avery motioned toward the whole ship. She’d raised her voice more than she should have, and she was thankful no one was around to hear her or see the exasperation on her face.
Neither Grace, nor Kaylee said anything. Grace looked down at the level below them, and Kaylee kept her eyes trained on the window. Eventually, Avery sighed deeply, shook her head, and told them she was going back to the party. As s
he walked toward the noise coming from all the aliens and the human women gathered in the grand room, she forced herself to push her erratic emotions aside and think straight for once. Everything that had happened since she’d stepped through the stargate and on the Swetho had messed with her head big time. She was there to help Kryan and Aedar look good in the eyes of the Alliance, and also to gather all the intel she could for the SPG. They were still facing a problem that was bigger than them, and they still needed a viable solution. What the Kralian captains had suggested wasn’t going to work. Avery could feel it deep within her heart. What could they possibly cook in their labs that would emulate the incredible link between Kralians and humans? And if they did manage to come up with something, it would be completely artificial. She was pretty sure that anything that was artificial would eventually fail in the long term.
Avery made her way through the crowd, and when she reached the main table, she sat down between Kryan and Aedar. Instinctively, they leaned toward her, as if they could feel she had something important to tell them.
“I know what we have to do. What happened between your ancestors and mine in the Danube Valley is happening right now, before our very eyes. Can’t you see it? We don’t need to create a solution. The solution already exists. All we have to do is speed things up.”
Kryan cocked an eyebrow. Aedar straightened his back, crossed his huge arms over his chest, and looked around him, as if he was trying to see the aliens and their human slaves from a shifted perspective.
“What are you saying, Poppy? Generations must be born and die before that sort of connection builds between extraterrestrials and Terrans.”
“What about Gorgan’s new rules? He set the girls in his harem free, did you know that?”
“I’ve heard…”
“It’s a sign.” She paused, then reinforced her idea: “I choose to take it as a sign. They’re not kidnapping human women because they’re evil, they’re doing it because…”
Kryan squeezed her wrist, and a jolt of electricity ran up her arm.
“Not here,” he said between gritted teeth. “Not now. We have time to discuss all of this when we’re not surrounded by the people we want to cross. Let’s… enjoy the party.”
Avery closed her eyes and let out a heavy, almost pained breath.
“Yes, let’s.”
END OF BOOK FOUR
BOOK FIVE
CHAPTER ONE
Avery was pacing the floor while talking and gesticulating emphatically. The living room of the SPG HQ was full, and she wouldn’t have had anywhere to sit even if she’d wanted to. It was okay. She felt too restless and edgy to sit.
“Look, I know this is a stretch, but if we manage to come up with some sort of plan, it might work. It’s already happening. I’ve seen it with my own eyes at the party on Swetho.” She turned to Kryan and Aedar, whose wide, strong frames were occupying the only couch available. It was weird to see them in designer suits while sporting their natural, purple skin. “They saw it, too.” She then nodded toward Meadow Summer, who was perched up on the armrest next to Kryan. “Medo can confirm.”
The Kralian woman shrugged. She had taken her bracelets off, too, and her purple skin was glowing in the few sun rays that penetrated the blinds. Why did Avery always have to turn to her when the captains didn’t seem willing to intervene? Oh, because they were playing the grumpy card, and Avery hated it. The agent needed to see action, involvement, enthusiasm… And she needed to see it now. Since she’d been back on Earth, she’d been buzzing with impatience, calling meetings with the SPG, involving the Kralian captains, and even asking for the assistance of a licensed therapist. Medo smiled as she sneaked a side glance at the 40-year-old-something man sitting is a chair close to the door. He seemed lost in deep thought, and that made him seem even hotter and more mysterious. “Mr. Dan Jeffreys,” Medo mused, “This whole situation between humans and Kralians is causing so much stress… Fear, even. I might need an appointment soon.”
“Medo?” Avery stepped closer to the purple woman and waved her hand before her silvery eyes. “Tell them what you told me.”
Medo sighed and reluctantly turned to address Captain Shaw. It was her own fault. Avery was dragging her into this because she had indulged in a bit of gossip on the Swetho two nights ago, just as the party was coming to its end.
“Agent Tonkin is right. Even though no one is saying it out loud, and even though I’m inclined to believe most of them aren’t aware of what is happening, of the changes that are coming, the process has begun. The Valgans, Norgavians, Cattalians and Minarians are starting to give their pleasure slaves rights and privileges. They consider them wives and mothers now, and even though the situation is still twisted and confusing, I believe it’s headed in the right direction. The other four races don’t yet have the connection that we, Kralians, have with your species, but it’s clear that they’re getting there. Without realizing it, they’re working toward unity, toward a future together, a future where race won’t matter anymore.”
Avery straightened her back and smiled triumphantly.
“Now, Captain, all we have to do is speed up the process. It took our ancestors…” she motioned toward the Kralians as to include them, too, “generations upon generations to build the powerful telepathic connection that we have now, but we can’t possibly wait that long. We have to use this to our advantage.”
“Peace…” Ben Shaw murmured. His troubled gaze was slowly studying Kryan, Aedar, and Medo. He was probably making them feel uncomfortable, but their comfort was the last thing on his mind.
“If I may,” Zadie Childs from Dreamland intervened shyly, “what Agent Tonkin is proposing is not just peace. Simple, balanced… fair peace. The aliens have kidnapped our women, taken them away from their homes, their families, their planet. They forced them to obey masters and carry babies most of them surely didn’t want. Is this the kind of peace that the human race deserves? Are we willing to simply forgive and forget?”
“We talked about this,” the Captain answered, although silently and carefully. “We decided to investigate the connection between us and the Kralians, find out how it came to be, and then replicate it. If we want to avoid a war we know we’ll lose, if we want to avoid the deaths of many, many innocent people, then this is the only way.”
“Replicate it…” Carter Bloom, the IT guy, looked as if he was thinking out loud. “A telepathic connection so strong that the aliens would be able to feel our emotions as if they were theirs. The masters would feel their slaves’ pain, fear, despair, longing… So much so that… what?” He raised his gaze, pushed his nerdy glasses up the bridge of his nose, and looked at Captain Shaw. “Sir, if you could feel the agony and terror of a woman, or a child… what would you do? Say, your goal was to save the whole world from certain extinction, but if that means putting a woman through so much pain, feeling it as your own… would you still do it? Or, would you… step away?”
“That’s it!” Avery pumped her fist in the air.
Aedar shuddered and changed his position to hide his unexpected reaction. He looked at Kryan and saw how pale his brother had suddenly turned.
Avery, unfortunately, was too excited to notice their distress.
“Replicate the connection, but not so we could all live happily-ever-after on Earth, but to convince them to… leave.”
Kryan stood up abruptly. He cleared his throat, then dug his hands into the pockets of his dark dress pants and fixed his gaze on Avery.
She almost gulped. Even though he was a few feet away from her, she could still feel his strong presence, his unwavering will, and the intense power he had over her.
“If we leave, we die.”
“No, no, no! Not you! Not the Kralians! This is your home, too. You’re staying.”
Aedar chuckled darkly. “Seems a bit unfair, though. We came here with the same intentions as the Valgans, Norgavians, Minarians, and Cattalians: to manipulate you into submission
so we could take your planet and use you as our slaves. We find out that our ancestors used to be on good terms with your ancestors, and… what? It suddenly absolves us? We get a free pass?”
Avery bit the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t sure what was happening and why her lovers had suddenly flipped. Her theory and conclusions made sense in her mind.
“Your ancestors helped ours overcome a plateau in their evolution. If it hadn’t been for the Kralians, we probably wouldn’t have had the knowledge and technology we have today. Who knows how many thousands of years they would have lived in caves, unable to build better homes and tools, clothe themselves better against the harsh winters, and record their own history? It has been proved that without written language to pass the stories and information along to the next generations, species disappear. The Kralians who landed in the Danube Valley gave our ancestors the only tool that could ensure survival: the alphabet. You have a right to this planet just as much as we do.”
Aedar shook his head slowly. “So? We tell the rest: ‘Look, we’ve been here before and we’re the reason why the human race has made it this far. You’re going to leave now, and we’re staying because… we’re brothers and sisters, you see.’? Sounds good? Shall we go with this, or prepare another script?”
Avery rolled her eyes. “Now you’re just being… ugh!”
Ben Shaw lifted an eyebrow in slight confusion. His dark eyes moved from his agent to the two brothers, then back. Odd, but he felt like he was missing something.
Lisa Jenkins cleared her throat and stepped forward.
“This isn’t what we agreed on.”
“No one agreed on anything,” Bloom tried to interrupt her.
