Deception

DAR

I looked at Kenna. Though she seemed deeply concerned, she was in complete possession of herself, as usual. She picked her way across my bedroom. Although I decorated the room with solid, well-made furniture and rich red velvet, it was a mess. She was forced to skirt around some of our clothes that we had carelessly tossed on the floor while still in the grips of passion.

She held up her fancy dress to keep it from falling, not having bothered to fasten it in the back. When Mana and Jared banged on the door in the middle of the night, we threw on whatever we could find.

"What do you mean, we're going on a little trip?" she said, coming up to me. She was standing close enough that she had to tilt back her head a little because of the difference in our height. "You're the king. You can't be risking your precious neck going on missions. Shouldn't they be handled by someone more experienced, like your trusted Senior Advisor?"

Mana nodded her head vigorously in agreement.

"And your newly appointed Head of Security." She indicated Jared, who nodded too, his blond curls bouncing solemnly.

"I agree with Kenna," Mana said, her eyes troubled. "We almost lost you at the volcano. There's no need to endanger you again, going up against some unknown threat. As Senior Advisor — and as your friend, your majesty — I recommend against it."

With both Kenna, the love of my life, and my oldest friend siding against me going on out into space, I reconsidered the idea, dropping down into a chair. Maybe they were right. It didn't make sense to risk the head of state's...well, head...on a mission that could prove fatal.

Then again, I wouldn't want to send Mana and Jared into that situation either. At least if I were there, I could make command decisions for my planet.

Come on, Dar, I told myself, what's the best decision for your people and your friends? Think. Think.

Susohn recently negotiated a treaty with the humans. Earth would share both the maintenance and protection of Wormhole 87 and also the profits that made from any interstellar traffic that came through.

The humans had been in charge at the time when an anomaly appeared. We weren't sure what it was yet. Immediately afterward, the entire space station disappeared along with the humans and Susohnnans stationed on it — ten thousand in all.

We had no idea what the threat was or what happened to the space station. We didn't know who did it or why. We were flying blind at the moment, and I hated it.

I had no idea how to deal with this menace, and things were out of my control. I didn't like that. I needed to do what was best for my people and my planet. To do that, I needed to know what in the name of The Three was going on.

I stood up and looked at them.

"No. I have to go. I need to know the shape of the enemy. I can't make decisions from here. And I couldn't forgive myself if anything happened to you, and I had been sitting back here safe and sound, unable to help."

"But Dar..." Kenna said. She was ready to continue the argument, but I held up my hand, shaking my head. She looked surprised. She hadn't seen too much of Dar, the king of Susohn, yet. Well, she would have to get used to this side of me, too, because I wasn't going to stop being king anytime soon.

Mana sighed. She knew the tone I was using and that there was no use arguing because I had made up my mind. Jared shrugged and grinned, his blue eyes twinkling.

"Glad to have you aboard, man," he said, ignoring the fact that I was not a man, but a Susohnnan. Yes, we were genetically identical, and both humans and Susohnnan came from the same Great Race, but there was a difference all the same. It was cultural, I supposed.

I used to be very prejudiced against humans, but Kenna and Jared had changed my mind. I now considered them our equals. Almost. Susohnnan were slightly more equal.

"He's not a man," Mana said, sounding a little annoyed.

"Sorry, babe," he said. "'Glad to have you aboard, Susohnnan' just doesn't have quite the same ring to it, though."

Kenna laughed, but Mana glared at him.

"And don't call me, babe."

"Whatever you like, Manadwell."

"Mana is fine," she said coldly and turned away from him, clearly irritated.

I stared at her. Normally, she was so unruffled and calm. What was going on with her?

"You insist on going along with what is apparently becoming a fool's errand?" she said, turning her irritation on me.

"Yes," I said, hating to go against her advice. In the past, it had usually been a bad idea to ignore what Mana recommended. She pressed her lips together.

"And if Dar's going, I'm certainly not going to sit at home working on my embroidery or something," Kenna added. "So you can forget that if you thought you were leaving me behind."

I smiled wryly.

"I never imagined it was even a possibility," I said. "What's embroidery?"

"Never mind," she said. "I'll tell you once we're on our way."

"The four of us are going — plus crew to pilot the shuttlecraft?" Mana said. "What class of starship?"

"Better take a Class 4, Mana," Jared said. "It would be suicide to take anything less. Even the firepower on a Class 4 is...." He tilted his hand from side to side.

"Is what?" I said.

"Inadequate." He frowned. "Especially if we run into any real trouble."

"Like if we happen to meet any aliens who can spirit away an entire space station without a trace in mere seconds?" Mana muttered sarcastically under her breath.

"Make it a Class 5, Jared," I said, ignoring Mana's comment. "And have it outfitted with extra weapons. Oh, and ensure that the transporter's range and power are more than doubled, just in case."

"Will do," Jared said, turning to go. "Come on, Mana. We have work to do."

"I know that," she said, crossly. "I've been working here a lot longer than you, man."

"Hey, chill out. I was just..."

Their voices faded as they walked away.

I stood for a moment, completely overwhelmed. How were we ever going to solve such an enormous problem? How could I protect my people from this threat?

Then I felt Kenna's arms come around me. I turned to hold her.

"I don't know what's going on or what's going to happen, Dar," she said. "But I promise, we'll face it together. Okay?"

She stood on tiptoe and kissed me softly.

Yes, that was a good point. If I were about to die, at least Kenna and I would be together until the very end.

KENNA

I stood looking out the viewscreen at the spot where the space station had once been. Everyone else was behind me at the conference table, still hashing out more ideas — trying to figure out what we could do.

This danger terrified because of the unknown. We had no idea who or what had destroyed the space station. It gave me the shivers to think that someone erased ten thousand people from existence in a heartbeat. And what had killed them? We had no idea.

We didn't have much information. There was no debris to analyzed. There were no survivors to question. Dar was frustrated, and he was ready to tear his hair out. We had gone over the area with a fine-toothed comb, using every sensor and instrument we had aboard to try and figure out what had happened.

Nothing.

I felt more than a little out of my depth, while Mana, Dar, and Jared worked on the problem. They were amazingly intelligent, and I tried to bow out more than once, but they insisted that I remain at the meetings because I could offer a fresh perspective on the situation.

Maybe I did provide a different viewpoint, but I felt like a lowly human. I didn't even feel like an exceptionally smart one! The highly intelligent Susohnnan were capable of using a higher percentage of their brains than us Earthlings.

Yes, we were genetically identical, and both Susohnnan and humans descended from the same Great Race. Humans had regressed because of the catastrophic incident that destroyed all our technology and civilization. The Susohnnan continued to develop, and they were now able to access 12 to 15 percent of their brain capacity. In theory, it didn't seem like much more than our 10 percent but I assure you, in practice, it was much more.

Jared was human like me but was clearly well-educated. He hadn't given us much information about his background. What he lacked in brain capacity, he made up for in knowledge and training.

He knew all about space travel, spacecraft, and higher mathematics and physics. He, Dar, and Mana would go on about quarks, gluons, hadrons, and other particles that I had never known. I felt like the village idiot and wanted to crawl under a rock.

If you asked me to name any plant in the boreal forest and its medicinal uses, I could probably tell you. Ask me to grow a garden, and I'm your girl. I knew I was capable and intelligent in my way.

But I had never had any further education past high school, and they were downright intimidating me. What use were knowledge and training about how to grow food and heal using plants out here in the cold depths of space where nothing could grow or thrive, far from the sun and the earth?

I sighed and turned away from the view screen. I looked at the three people before me, who were discussing something intently.

Mana was a beautiful Susohnnan female. I had a tiny stab of jealousy when I had seen Dar hugging her for the first time. They were so glad to see each other. It had made me envious of their relationship.

That was before I knew that she was his oldest friend from childhood and his Senior Advisor, who had worked with him ever since he had taken over as king. Their relationship was completely platonic and had always been that way.

She was of medium height. Her slimness made her seem tall, or that was my impression. Her honey blonde hair was down, but she had braided it and coiled it around her head like a crown. Her blue eyes were light and crystal clear. She wore a favorite Susohnnan style — navy blue pants that hung loose and flowed from her hips to her feet. Her top was white with large diamond panels cut out of the back; the front showed her flat stomach and nice little belly button.

She had the body of a model she didn't seem to notice. Dar had said she had her doctorate and was much more concerned with applied physics than with her appearance.

She had her eyebrows drawn together right now in a frown, and I wondered what she looked like when she smiled. So far, I had seen her angry, worried, upset, and expressionless. Dar had said that she was uptight, but I never imagined that anyone could be that tense. He loved her as a sister, though, and I was trying to like her — for Dar.

Jared sat on one of the chairs, his legs wide, leaning back in a relaxed position. He watched Mana with an amused expression on his handsome face. He had curly blond hair that sometimes fell into his eyes, and a charming grin that was completely disarming.

And in spite of the terrible experience he had recently gone through of losing his girlfriend — a human terrorist organization called the AEA had killed her in a mass execution — he seemed to be bouncing back. He still had his low points when I would come upon him, and there would be a dark or desolate expression on his usually sunny face. But in general, he seemed to be getting on with his life.

He and Mana had become friends — or something — which I hoped was helping him. We all liked him. And Dar had appointed him Head of Security when the previous guy had retired.

Dar felt that someone younger and more current on what was happening in the galaxy would be a better choice, than some of the more senior politicians who were hoping to be appointed. The older men had experience but not much beyond their planet.

Jared had toured most of the galaxy and had been on many planets during the time when he had been forced to work for the AEA. He had an incredible storehouse of knowledge about weapons and fighting, most of which he had learned while working for the terrorists.

I studied him. He was leaning forward and making some point about a physics concept that I didn't understand. Something to do with wormhole stabilization and what would happen if it became destabilized.

He was a smaller man than Dar, but still taller than Mana and I by quite a few inches. He had a strong, wiry frame that looked like he had got his muscles by doing things, not working out in a gym. And his eyes were a green color that was almost mesmerizing.

I glanced at Mana and wondered if she had ever been fascinated by those eyes of Jared's. Right now she was glaring at him. They reminded me of a boy pulling a girl's pigtail, and she pretended to be mad. She secretly liked the attention, even if it wasn't quite in the form that she had hoped it would take. Was that Mana? I didn't know.

Dar and I said that we loved each other, but I didn't know what that meant for the future. I knew that we were together. And I knew that I wanted to be with him, and he wanted to be with me. But how we were going to do that with the differences between our cultures and his responsibilities as the king of Susohn, I had no idea.

I turned my attention to Dar and noticed that he had stood up and was pointing to the board, at a drawing he made. I watched him and barely listened to his words. He was so tall and strong. I knew every plane and hollow of his muscular body by now, so I could imagine in vivid detail what lay beneath the black, loose-fitting pants and white button-up shirt. His clothes reminded me of the kind that pirates wore back on Earth.

Thinking about his body beneath his clothes gave me another shiver. The good kind. One that sent a tingle straight to my core. He made a frustrated sound and ran his hand through his black hair. I attempted to rein in my runaway libido. I tried to avoid thinking about what I was wearing (or rather, not wearing) under my respectable looking dress.

I admired Dar's intelligence, even though it made me feel inferior sometimes. I was also amazed at his ability to lead. I was seeing a different side of him now that he was back in his role as king. When we had been escaping the terrorists together, we had been partners, and he used my skills to save us on Dobu. Then once we were back on Susohn, he was his mother's son and then we had been prisoners together at the mercy of her crazy scheme to break us up.

Now that we were out of hot water and he had put back on his crown, I was seeing a side of him that I hadn't seen before. He was very, very smart, a good decision maker. He was charismatic, easily persuading others to do what he wanted them to. But he listened too, to Jared and Mana, and me.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. When he opened his eyes, they fell on me. I gave him a little half-smile, and his face lit up.

Oh dear. I so loved this guy.

"What do you think, Kenna?" he said.

Uh oh. I hadn't been paying attention at all. I licked my lips nervously.

"Um, well, about what?"

Mana rolled her eyes and flopped into a chair. Jared laughed. Dar frowned a little bit.

"Weren't you listening?"

I felt my cheeks get red as if I had been caught daydreaming in school.

"Um, no. Well, it was a bit over my head," I said, honestly — feeling even more embarrassed. "Can you just tell me what you wanted my opinion on?"

"Of course. Sure." Dar was looking at me, with a troubled expression on his face.

"Dar?"

"What?"

"What did you want my opinion on?"

"We were thinking about sending a small team through the wormhole."

"Into God knows what? That's a suicide mission," I said, appalled that they were even considering it.

"Exactly," Mana said, giving Jared a look.

"I wouldn't care," Jared said, without a trace of his usual charm. "Sounds like the perfect mission for me."

DAR

Was Jared willing to volunteer for a suicide mission?

"Jared," Mana said, apparently upset at his words. "Don't talk like that."

Jared's eyes looked dead, and he stared at the floor as if he didn't care whether he lived or died. That's when I realized that we were wrong about him getting over his girlfriend's death. He had been acting for our benefit, playing the part of the happy guy. Maybe sometimes he did forget for a moment, but inside he was still hurt and grieving. I sighed deeply.

Kenna looked sad.

"You're outnumbered, Jared," I said. "And my decision is that we shall not begin such a mission unless there is no other choice. We need you here too much. Whether or not you value your life right now isn't important. We will value it for you until you can once again appreciate the miracle that you are."

It is ingrained in Susohnnan culture to treasure life in all its forms above all else.

Jared looked at me for a long moment. Then his eyes looked bright, and he turned away, trying to control his emotions.

"For now, we wait."

"Wait?" Kenna said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

"Wait. There is nothing else to do. We need information. Perhaps they will strike again and then we will know what we are up against."

Either that or we would be dead too.

"Dar." It was Kenna, running to catch up to me after our meeting adjourned. "Dar."

I slowed down but didn't stop. I had much to do. There were samples to analyze. I needed to do another brainstorm myself to see if I could come up with any more ideas of how to prepare for what might come through the wormhole.

My mind went on making a mental list of all the things I needed to do.

I also needed to talk to Earth's President Mahaar. She and I needed to figure out how to rebuild the space station as soon as possible.

We couldn't leave the wormhole without personnel. Someone would think we weren't taking care of our responsibilities and report us, which could jeopardize our status in the Union or lead to hefty fines. Neither of these outcomes was particularly appealing to me. It would certainly be bad news for her, as her planet was much less affluent.

"Dar," Kenna said again, more forcefully, waving her hand in front of my face.

"Yes, what, Kenna? I know we decided to wait, but I have many things to do."

"Don't talk to me like I'm one of your staff," she said, irritated.

"I'm sorry, but I'm very busy and I don't have time to chat right now," I said barely able to focus on her face as my mind kept thinking.

"I don't want to talk," she said, pushing me suddenly against the wall of the spacecraft and kissing me soundly. Her soft body was flush against mine, and I closed my eyes as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

My mind completely shut down as I got lost in the sensation.

When we came up for air a minute or two later, I gazed at her, my eyes unfocused. I couldn't remember what I had been in such a rush to do.

"You need a break," she whispered, pressing her hips towards mine, where I felt myself getting hard. I was starting to agree with her. Our quarters were on the other side of the vessel. I looked around. Across the hall and down a few doors was the med bay. I grabbed Kenna's hand and pulled her towards me.

I scanned my retina, and the door slid open silently. We stepped through, and I shut the door, locking it so that no one but me could get in. When I turned around, Kenna sat up on the examining table with her legs in the stirrups. Her dress dropped to her hips, and I saw that she wore absolutely nothing underneath. Thank God I hadn't known that during the meeting, or I wouldn't have been able to focus at all.

"Oh fuck," I said.

"Yes, please," she said, and I felt myself harden a little more. "Doctor, I've got an ache..."

She touched herself between her legs, licking her lips. I sucked in a breath.

"...just here. Maybe you can help me?"

How had I gotten lucky enough to find a female like her, I didn't know. But I was grateful that I had.

"Kenna," I breathed.

She unbuttoned the top of the dress, and I saw that her breasts were unfettered, too. She had definitely come prepared to seduce me today.

I loved it.

I walked over to the examining table and took one lush mound in each hand. She moaned and arched her back towards me. It had been a few days since we had made love and I guessed that she was feeling it just like me.

I massaged her soft breasts, tweaking the tight buds to make her gasp. I could smell her arousing scent because she already spread her legs. I wanted nothing more than to fuck her until I didn't know my name.

But that's not how we do things on Susohn.

"Do you want me, Kenna?"

"Yes, please, please, Dar. Soon. Now. I need you inside me."

I shook my head, walking around to where she exposed herself to me. She breathed heavily as I sat down on the stool.

"I think you need a little examination — a close examination."

I could see her swallowing and closing her eyes. Her legs were trembling in anticipation, and I inhaled her female smell that made me breathe a little heavier myself. I spread her lower lips until she was completely open for me, and I heard her panting as she waited for my touch.

KENNA

Oh my fucking God.

What was I doing, I wondered as I spread my legs and slid them into the stirrups, letting my dress drop to my hips.

I was vulnerable and open for him, and it was making me hot. When he turned around, I saw his eyes darken. And in his already bulging pants, his hardness jumped as if his shaft couldn't wait to penetrate me.

I breathed in short, harsh gasps as I begged him to fuck me. But instead, he walked around and sat down on the stool between my legs. He bent his face towards me, and I felt him spread me open. At the first touch of his tongue on my clit, my hips bucked up. His large hands brought me back down and pinned my butt to the examination table as he got busy.

I twisted and writhed beneath him as he slowly brought me towards my climax.

"Dar," I whispered, threading my fingers through his hair as he pleasured me.

I groaned in blissful agony when he inserted two fingers and rubbed my G-spot, plunging me over the crest in a burst of ecstasy. I cried out his name as I came, convulsing. After a minute, I lay still, my legs limp.

I felt him move away and then he was back — his rigid flesh pushing against my opening. My eyes flew open as he slid into my warm, soft wetness. I took all of him until he was as deep inside me as he could go.

"Oh, yes," I said, feeling the pleasure building already. He stood between my legs and thrust into me as I arched my back in abandon and longing.

I needed this so much. I needed him. No one else could make me feel this good.

Suddenly he pulled out, and I made a small mewling sound. I wanted him to fuck me in the stirrups, but he had other ideas. He lifted my legs out and flipped me over so that I was lying on my stomach, sideways on the table. I put my feet on the floor, and he spread my cheeks, his hot flesh sliding quickly inside me once more.

"Please, Dar. Please," I said, as my orgasm started to build. He thrust in and out slowly, slapping my butt cheeks and bending over and kissing my neck. I pushed back against him, grinding my ass into his pelvis. In response, he pounded into me harder, and I whimpered in bliss.

I allowed the pleasure to build until he thrust deeply one last time, and I exploded, moaning and spasming around him in ecstasy. He pumped into me several more times before he stiffened and pressed hard against my butt, emptying himself deep inside of me.

I collapsed on the table, and he fell onto me. We rested there utterly spent until we couldn't stand up anymore. Then he pulled out of me and climbed onto the table. I sat beside him, and he wrapped his arms around me.

"That was incredible," he said.

"I agree," I sighed.

He leaned back against the wall, and I slid back, too, putting my legs over his and snuggling in close.

He made a happy sound and unbelievably, I felt him hardening under me again.

"What?" I whispered. Then I frowned. "Wait, is it..."

"My mating cycle? It is! The first day, I can go for hours."

"Holy shit," I said. "You may be able to, but I can't."

His eyes flew open.

"You humans — especially the women, I have heard — have a very mistaken view about of what your body is capable of."

His eyes had taken on a distinctly dangerous glint.

"What do you mean?" I said, my mouth going dry as the moisture went elsewhere. I wondered again at how he could bring my body alive again with merely a look.

"I mean," he said, putting his hands on my butt and lifting me over him. I helped by spreading my legs as he positioned me over his thick cock. Slowly he buried himself deep inside me. I pressed my forehead against his at the new sensations this position produced. "That you are capable of many, many orgasms if you don't let your mind get in the way."

I impaled myself on him.

"Move," he whispered. "Ride me."

I began moving up and down, shifting until I got the perfect angle of penetration. I lifted myself up until he was completely out and then dropped back down onto him, letting him fill me. I sank onto him again and again, while he simultaneously took one of my breasts into his mouth.

I moaned as he sucked hard on my nipple, sending shock waves straight down to my clit grinding against him. He switched to the other breast licking and sucking and nipping, making me wild.

I rocked faster, feeling the unmistakable rising of a third orgasm. My mind protested the thought of three orgasms in such a short period but I stopped thinking.

"Look at me, Kenna," he said and I dragged my eyelids up to look into his eyes. "Women can have orgasm after orgasm if they want to. Let go of your mistaken notions."

I licked my lips, and he captured them, kissing me deeply. His tongue thrust in and out of my mouth, mimicking what was going on below and I felt heat spreading through my body, scorching me.

After a few minutes of this, I couldn't take it anymore. I sped up my rhythm and Dar started whispering — his breath hot and wet in my ear.

"You are sexy, Kenna. I have never seen a woman as beautiful as you. That feels good, doesn't it? Focus on the pleasure. Do you want more? Do you want to come again? Do you want to fuck me until you shatter into a thousand pieces? Then do it. Fuck me, Kenna. Faster."

He continued urging me on until I felt something burst inside me, releasing an intense orgasm that shook me to my core. I shuddered and convulsed around him, unable to control the sounds of uninhibited rapture.

At the feeling of me squeezing, he let go, and I felt him spilling his seed deep inside of me with a harsh cry of male satisfaction.

"Oh, by The Three, Kenna, I do love you," he said as we leaned on each other, completely exhausted and sweaty. He pulled me so that we were lying on the narrow table, spooning. As we lay down, I felt his arms come over me again. He held me safely against him.

Feeling secure, protected, and above all completely and utterly satisfied, I fell instantly asleep.

DAR

I woke from a deep slumber and realized that I stuck to Kenna. My communications device was beeping in my clothes, where I had abandoned them to make love to Kenna.

I lost myself with this female. I could never forget her.

I had a hazy memory of helping her achieve three fantastic orgasms before we had both collapsed. But why was my bed so hard? I opened my eyes and saw that we were in the med bay.

I propped my head up on my elbow to look around. Then it all came back. The meeting. Kenna kissing me in the hallway. And me looking for a place to fuck her immediately. I was a beast, but she didn't appear to mind. She stretched against me and made a little sigh, a big grin spreading across her face.

No, I was pretty sure she was satisfied with her triple orgasm experience. I hoped I had been the first to give it to her.

"Dar?" she said in a sleepy voice, rubbing against me in a distracted fashion. "I had a dream…"

She opened her eyes, and her voice trailed off.

"Oh." I could see her taking in our clothes scattered over the floor and our bodies stuck together with sweat. She sat up and her breasts looked good enough to taste. "It wasn't a dream."

The communication device had stopped beeping. I sat up, my cock popping up to remind us it was still my mating cycle.

"Oh, no you don't you little devil," she said, shaking her finger at it. She jumped down and started putting on her clothes. "I need a shower. And so do you."

She turned to me.

"Okay," I conceded.

"Come back to our quarters and I want you to get cleaned up and eat before you go back to work." Her words were accompanied by a look that I already knew meant that she was serious.

"Sure," I said, kissing her cheek. But she pushed me away.

"Don't start that. You know where it will lead. Even an innocent kiss turns into a full on screw fest when you're on your mating cycle."

I hardened a little more at her words, but she was having none of it.

"Shower and a meal," she said, glaring a bit.

"And then… ?"

Her face relented, and I saw that her nipples were hard under her shirt.

"Then we'll see," she said. "You were pretty persuasive last night."

She checked her hair and we walked out of sick bay trying to look innocent.

After I had taken her in the shower and we'd had another quickie on the counter in the kitchenette, I finally remembered to check my comm unit.

"Shit."

"What is it?" Kenna said, looking quite respectable, not at all like she had just had five orgasms in the past ten hours. Her cheeks were a nice rosy pink and she was glowing.

"I've been ignoring my comm unit."

"Uh, yeah. I noticed. You were paying attention to other things," she said, blushing a little. "So?"

"So, Jared's been trying to get hold of me," I said, pulling my comm unit onto my left forearm. "An alien vessel has appeared out of the wormhole. And it's like nothing we've ever seen in this galaxy."

I burst onto the bridge, pulling Kenna by the hand. Jared frowned.

"Nice of you to show up." His voice trailed off as he took in Kenna's glow, and my relaxed posture. The frown turned to a grin.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner, Jared."

"No, no." He held up his hands. "Far be it from me to interrupt the happy couple."

Kenna turned red and I heard him mutter as he turned back to the viewscreen.

"Somebody ought to be getting some."

"What's going on?" I said, afraid that I had missed something important when I was out enjoying my female.

"Don't worry, Dar. You didn't miss anything. The ship appeared about an hour ago, maybe two — you can check the ship's log."

"And?" I said.

"And nothing. It's just sitting there. We've tried to scan it, but it has some technology that interferes with our scanning devices. The only thing we have learned is that there are no life forms aboard."

"No life forms?" Kenna repeated She was as stunned as I was.

Jared shook his head.

"None."

We all stared at the view screen in consternation. How could this be?

Mana walked on to the bridge then.

"So you heard, sir?" she said.

"Heard what?"

She pivoted on her heel to face the view screen, too.

"That we're fucked."

KENNA

Dar, Mana, Jared, and I sat in the cafeteria grabbing a quick lunch before heading back to the bridge. We had been on alert for twelve hours already waiting for the alien ship to attack — but nothing had happened.

The ship only sat there.

"We need to make a plan to find out what the ship is and what it's doing there. We should be on the offensive this time," Jared said.

"But we have no way of knowing that it's the same kind of ship that came through the wormhole as before, do we?" I said, taking a bite of my salad. It had Susohnnan vegetables that looked weird but tasted good. "What if we attack a vessel that means us no harm?"

"We are currently contacting all the planets that use the wormhole. We can reconstruct a schedule for who is expected to come through in the next week or so," Mana informed us.

"There are no records for us to be able to tell if it's the same kind of ship," Dar said, answering my first question. "Anything that would have been recorded is normally stored on the space station, but now it's gone."

"Wait," Mana said, putting down her spoon. "No."

Her eyes lit up.

"There is a feed that is relayed back to Susohn every twenty-four hours or so. It is stored on our servers as a backup. This way, in case of emergency, we have a record of what was happening on the ship. Legally we're required to keep it. I had totally forgotten about it."

"Like a black box on an airplane or space shuttle? It helps investigators figure out what happened in the case of a crash?" Jared said, getting excited.

"Something like that. It contains various forms of input — readouts from all the sensors on the ship, information on the physical status of the crew, data about the functioning of the computer systems and machinery, audio feeds from the public areas, as well as all the video feeds from the view screens and security cameras."

She smiled and thumped her fist on the table.

"Mana, you're brilliant," Jared said, standing up. "Let's get those records."

"No, you're not done," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder and making him sit again. "I already ate my soup. You finish eating and I'll meet you all on the bridge in an hour. It will take that long to get an interplanetary transmission set up and have the information downloaded to our computers."

"I'm finished," Dar said, standing and picking up his plate and utensils. "I'll come with you. You'll need the highest level codes to get that information."

He bent and kissed me on the cheek.

"See you," he said.

"See you," I echoed, watching as they quickly left the cafeteria.

"So you're seriously dating the king of Susohn?" Jared said, a teasing smile on his face. He speared something that looked disgusting, but he seemed to be enjoying it.

I chuckled.

"I guess so. When you put it that way, it sounds ridiculous."

"No," he said. "I didn't mean it that way. I was only wondering..."

He paused to fork another one of the strange looking pieces of food, his eyes getting a far off look.

"What is it like to be with one of them? Is it different than being with a human?"

I took another bite of my salad and chewed it, considering exactly what he might be asking.

"What exactly do you mean when you say being with?"

"Are they different from humans? I don't want to offend one of them by asking, but I thought maybe I could ask you, Kenna," he said. "I'm just curious."

I thought he was more than just curious, but I let the comment go.

"You know they have two dicks, right?"

He burst out laughing.

"Okay, okay. They're not aliens, in the way that we think of them on Earth." I said, starting with the easy part of the question.

"They're not?" He didn't look sure. "I don't know much about the Susohnnan, other than humans generally don't like them because they have more than we do. As far as I can tell, we're basically jealous of them."

"Look, I'll explain it to you. Humans and Susohnnan are genetically identical."

"We're exactly the same?"

"Well, no. Not exactly. On a genetic level, we're like the same species or something. I don't exactly understand the biology."

"So..." he looked a little embarrassed. "They have the same equipment? Sexually speaking."

"Yeah, all that's the same, except for one thing." I stopped and knew I was blushing. "I don't know how it is with anyone else, but with Dar, he always ASKS if I am willing."

"Willing?"

"Yeah, like he makes sure I'm consenting to having sex with him."

"Every time?"

"Pretty much. And well, the sex is out of this world fantastic. But that could be just him. I don't know if all Susohnnan are like that. And they have this rule or something..." I was blushing again.

"What is it?"

"Well, the woman comes first, or no one comes."

"What?"

"It's the male's job to make sure the woman has an orgasm before he does. And if she doesn't then neither does he. The Susohnnan have much healthier sexual relationships than humans."

"I'll have to remember that," Jared muttered to himself. And I wondered who he was thinking about when he said that, but I kept my questions to myself.

"Oh, and he always kisses my scar. It's to show respect for the woman. He used to kiss my upper thigh even when there wasn't a scar there."

"The scar. Can I see it?"

I pulled the waistband of my pants down a little on the left side to show the bright red triangle. He inspected it.

"And you almost died to get that?"

I nodded.

"You must love him," he said a little wistfully. "Are you going to marry him? You made that deal with his mother, right?"

"I'm not marrying him because I was forced in order to get us out of the volcano. I'm marrying him because I love him, Jared. Although technically, he hasn't actually asked me, yet."

"He will," Jared said. "I see the way he looks at you. Couldn't you ask him? Women don't have to wait for the men to make the first move anymore."

I smiled.

"That's true. But I guess I'll wait. In Susohnnan culture, it's still traditional for the men to do the asking. He might be offended. But even when he does ask me, we wouldn't be getting married right away. The traditional time for a Susohnnan engagement is very, very long."

"How much time?" Jared was fascinated by our discussion.

"Years, usually."

"What if you want to get married sooner?"

"I don't know. You have to get a special dispensation from The Conveyor of The Three or something."

"The what?"

"As far as I can figure out, he's a high priest, like the pope."

Jared nodded.

"Aside from sexual issues, there are some other small differences, like an increase in their brain capacity from 10 percent to 12 - 15 percent. As you might have noticed, they're highly intelligent."

I laughed for a second. "I sound like an encyclopedia!"

"I noticed," he said, with a wry smile.

"Hey, you're not doing too bad. What kind of an education did you get on Earth?" I asked, hoping that he might tell me a bit more about himself. "You seem to follow a heck of a lot more of that technical stuff than I do."

"Yeah, I have a couple degrees. It's fairly standard in my family."

"A couple degrees? What kind?"

"I got my bachelor's with a double major in computer science and engineering. Then I started what I consider to be my professional student years. I went back and did another degree in biology. My mother wanted me to be well-rounded so when I went to study for my master's, I took environmental science."

"You have two bachelor's degrees and a master's?" I said, raising my eyebrows. I was more impressed than I had expected. This guy was smart and hard working to have finished that much schooling.

"I also have a Ph.D," he said apologetically, as if he wasn't at all proud of such an accomplishment. "I enjoyed environmental science so much, I decided to do a research project on the economic and political viability of harvesting and marketing non-timber forest products. You know, instead of cutting down all the trees."

"I know. I grew up next to a forest that was continually being threatened by deforestation. My Gran owned the land, though, and wouldn't even consider selling to the timber companies."

"It's hard to believe that people still think it's a good idea to cut down forests," Jared said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, crazy," I said, putting my last bite of salad into my mouth. I swallowed my mouthful and decided to change the subject a little bit. There was so much I wondered about Jared. "Are you close to your mother?"

He frowned.

"Not exactly. We used to be but the last time we saw each other, we argued." His eyes fell to his half-eaten plate of food, and he dropped his fork. "We didn't part on good terms."

"That's too bad. I don't have any family. My Gran raised me, but she died quite a few years ago."

"I'm sorry, Kenna," he said, his green eyes compassionate.

"It's okay. It was a long time ago. Maybe you could call your mom and talk to her. Holophones don't cost that much and you would feel like you're in the same room as her."

I knew that Dar paid him enough to be able to afford a holophone call. If Gran was still alive, I would certainly spend the extra money to feel like I was in the same room as her and be able to touch her.

"Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen," he said, looking angry and a little hurt.

"Why not?"

"Because she's kind of busy. She's always been about her career — even when I was a kid. She's never had time for me. I was raised by nannies and tutors and servants."

"Really?" I said, and it was my turn to feel compassion. Gran and I might not have had much, but she always had time for me.

"She's got more important things to do than talk to me, Kenna," he said, standing up and picking up some trays on the table.

"Oh, come on, Jared. She's your mother."

"She's the woman who gave birth to me," he said, a sad look on his face. "I'm not sure she was ever my mother."

He turned and walked to the dirty dish wall. When he pressed one of the trays against the wall, a slot opened up and took everything.

"See you on the bridge, Kenna," he said.

I took the things off of Dar's tray and put his plates under mine. Then I piled all the dishes on and went to put the double tray into the wall.

I had learned a few things about Jared, but I wondered if we would ever really know who he was. As I had that thought, my comm unit beeped.

"Kenna, come to the bridge, immediately," Dar's excited voice came through. "We've got the information."

"Okay," I said. "On my way."

I made my way through the halls as quickly as I could, saying hello to the crew members that I knew and smiling to those I didn't.

As I came around the corner, I saw my favorite engineer. We had breakfast together sometimes in the cafeteria. He was an older man and always cheerful, friendly, and kind.

"Hey Carson," I said as he approached me.

"Kenna, how are you?" he said, giving me a broad smile.

"Good, just heading over to the..."

My voice trailed off as I stared at the spot where Carson had been standing a moment before.

He was gone.

And not like it had been a transporter beam, either. There was a shimmery quality to a person the instant before they were transported.

Carson had suddenly and silently, with absolutely no warning whatsoever, completely vanished.

Oh shit.

It had begun.

I took off at a run.

"We need to infiltrate," Jared was saying when I arrived.

"Dar," I said, out of breath from running so fast. "Dar!"

"Kenna?" he said coming over to me, with a concerned look on his face. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Carson. The engineer."

"Yes, I know him. What about Carson?"

"He disappeared."

"What?" he said, in alarm.

"I said hello to him, and he vanished. No transport. Nothing."

Mana got up from her console. Jared turned away from the view screen where he had been studying the alien ship. Fear was evident on their faces.

"Then it's begun," Mana said.

"Like I said," Jared repeated, his face taking on a stern expression. "Someone needs to infiltrate. We can't possibly plan an attack or even a defense if we don't know who the enemy is. Trust me. I attacked enough planets, space stations, and vessels in my time with the AEA to know. They always sent someone in to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the other side."

"It's too dangerous," Mana argued. "These aren't descendants of the Great Race. We're in completely alien territory."

"No pun intended, I assume?" I whispered, and I saw Dar smile before his face got serious again.

"Jared, she's right. There's no way we can risk you going in there alone. Who knows what you might find? And how are you going to get inside? We can't transport on to their ship. We've tried hailing them — nothing. You may be walking right into a trap."

"I've done these missions before. They're dangerous but I came back from every one of them," Jared said, his eyes intense. "Kenna, Dar. You guys saved me when I would have let myself die. Let me do this for you. I'm the only one on this ship who has the necessary experience and training to pull it off."

"You're not the only one," Mana said, her face expressionless. "There is one other person on board who has served in covert operations."

"Mana, no," Dar said, frowning.

"Who is it?" I said, not following. "Who else has the training?"

The men stared at Mana. She looked me in the eye before speaking.

"You're not going in there alone. Prepare a shuttle for us, Dar. He's right. It's our only option."

DAR

"Mana, I can't let you do this," I said, staring at my oldest friend with fear and sadness in my heart. What if I never saw her again?

"You can, and you will," she said, her face showing only a trace of sorrow as she strapped on a pack and prepared to board the ship. She was wearing black combat gear and had her blonde hair braided neatly. She always kept her emotions under tight control, but I knew she was as affected by this parting as I was. We had known each other a long time.

We had already said good-bye to Jared, who was on board and starting a systems check. She shook Kenna's hand and then turned to me. I felt like crying but held it together.

I pulled her into a tight hug, and she hugged me back.

"I love you," I whispered in her ear.

She nodded, her eyes bright with tears.

"I'll be back. Don't worry. Jared and I know what we're doing."

"And you've got the tracking devices, right?"

She held up her left arm showing the thin screen I plastered on the inside of her forearm. We had several other gadgets installed so that we could hear them and monitor their vital signs. They also had cameras strapped to their foreheads for us to see what they saw.

"May The Three keep you safe," I said and put my hands into a triangle, making the sign of The Three. She did the same and then boarded the space craft.

As the door closed, I felt my heart clench, and I wondered once more if I would ever see my best friend again.

"Come on, Kenna. We've got work to do," I said, taking her hand.

"I'm surprised you didn't insist on going yourself this time," she said as we walked down the corridor.

"That would have truly been foolish. I cannot risk my life like that. It would not be responsible as the king of Susohn," I said.

I might have sounded a tiny bit pompous.

"Oh," she said. And the word spoke volumes.

I supposed that she was right. It had been careless and irresponsible of me to come on this mission in the first place. Three more crew members had already disappeared, and it was entirely possible I could be next.

But boarding the alien vessel would be way past what could be considered a reasonable course of action.

I'm not quite sure why I had insisted on coming at all. I guess I was getting a bit tired of my straight-laced life. Going to that party with the commoners and meeting Kenna had been the start of it all.

The adventure Kenna and I had when we escaped the terrorists made me feel alive.

I didn't want that feeling to stop. Coming on this mission was a way of prolonging that sense of freedom.

I strode onto the bridge and nodded to the officers on duty. On the view screen, Jared and Mana's shuttle was moving away from our ship. A moment later, they cloaked and vanished. We continued to track them by computer, a blinking dot showing their location as they approached the vessel.

I felt a lump in my throat as we watched them link with the enemy ship. Kenna took my hand and leaned her head on my arm. Jared and Mana were no doubt breaking into the alien vessel as we watched. I turned my eyes away, unable to look any longer in case they were vaporized, blasted, or boarded.

Instead, I looked at a screen on the side wall that was monitoring their vital signs. It showed their head cameras in small squares in the bottom corners of the main screen. I spoke to an ensign, and the audio feed began playing.

There was a muffled bang. I imagined an explosive going off, blasting a hole in the hull for entry. The cams showed the hole as Jared and Mana crawled through.

I held my breath as they stood up inside the enemy spacecraft. We had no idea what was on the other side of the wall.

"Ensign, please show the two cameras split screen on the main view screen."

"Yes, your majesty," she said.

We watched as they turned and looked around at their surroundings.

"What the hell is this place, Mana?" Jared's voice came over the audio feed.

"If I had to guess, I'd say it was a jail," she said.

She was probably right. It looked like a big holding cell. There were four walls, but no furniture. A toilet sat in one corner. The door was thick reinforced metal with only a small window near the top. There were manacles hanging from the walls.

"Forty-eight, forty-nine...fifty," Jared said. "Fifty sets of handcuffs, Manadwell."

They tried the door and found it open.

"We're on the move," Jared said into his comm device.

They walked down a metal corridor with grate flooring. Mana peered into each room, and we saw that every single one was exactly the same. I could hear Jared counting the doors as they walked down the hall.

"Wait, stop, Mana," he said after about half an hour of this. She turned to look at him, and we had a clear view of both of them in the other's head cam. "Fifty manacles in each cell. So far two hundred cells in this corridor alone. That's..."

"Ten thousand," came her answer without a moment's hesitation.

"Ten thousand and we didn't even finish this corridor. Did you do that scan?"

"It's done," she said interrupting him. "Whatever was blocking our scanning devices before, isn't in effect here. I'm transferring the data now."

Another screen began to scroll through information from Mana. A floor plan flashed past.

"Ensign, pull up that floor plan on another screen, please."

I stared at it in horror.

"Oh no," Kenna said, putting her hand over her mouth.

There were thousands upon thousands of the cell blocks like the one containing Mana and Jared.

"Your majesty, those blinking dots are Carson and the other crew members that disappeared," the ensign said.

"Jared and Mana," I said, speaking to them directly for the first time. "It looks like they're planning on collecting a hell of a lot of bodies."

"Roger that, your majesty," came Mana's voice.

"You are to return to the ship immediately. We know enough to guess that you are in grave danger. I repeat, return immediately."

"But Dar!" Jared said, about to protest.

"That's an order," I said.

"Yes, sir," Mana said. Jared wasn't happy but followed her at a jog back down the endless corridor of cells.

I watched them nervously, feeling like I was watching a movie where the heroes are almost home free, and you're rooting for them to make it out of danger.

We DO have movies on Susohn, by the way.

When they got back inside their entry cell, I breathed a sigh of relief. They would make a clean getaway.

Time to release this tension.

As soon as I could see they would be safe, I whispered in Kenna's ear. "I need you."

She looked at me, puzzled. But the urge to make love to her was becoming too pressing to ignore. I had to take her desperately.

"I need you." I repeated.

She still stared at me, not getting it.

"It's my mating cycle," I whispered. "Please. It will only take a minute."

"Sounds romantic," she said. "Where?"

"There's only one place that's close where no one will be able to reach us," I said. "Follow me in a second."

I walked purposefully towards the exit that led into the captain's office.

"Ensign Moray, you have the bridge. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Yes, sir," she said. She didn't even looking up.

I could feel Kenna following me. As soon as we were through the doors, I locked them. There was a spot on the wall that required both a retina scan and a saliva sample for entry. A door slid open, and we stepped through.

I stepped through. Kenna paused at the entrance.

"What the hell is this place?" Kenna said, looking around at the small room. The sparse furnishings consisted of a bed and a tiny kitchen in one corner. The other corner was a bathroom big enough for exactly one person.

"It's a safe place for the captain when assailants attack us. We call it a strategy room, but I think you might be more familiar with the term 'panic room'. It will do for our purposes. There are no communications in here, and transporter beams don't work."

I grabbed her and threw her on the bed.

She let out a squeak, and I had her pants around her ankles in a matter of seconds.

"Do you want me, Kenna?" I said, not forgetting.

"Strangely enough, I do," she said, her breathing coming faster. I leaned over and planted a kiss on the triangle shaped scar the graced her upper left thigh.

I remembered how much she had risked for that scar, and I thanked The Three that she was still with me.

She hissed when my lips touched it and when I slid my finger between her thighs a moment later, I could feel the gush of her arousal. She was slippery. I wanted to slide deep inside her immediately.

But Susohnnan males are trained from adolescence for two things about relations with a woman: to get verbal permission to make love to a female and to make sure she always comes first.

And the fastest way to get a woman coming that I knew of was...

I bent my head and flicked her clit with my tongue.

"Oh, holy Mary, mother of God," she said, and I spread her legs wider. I tasted her again. Fuck, she was sweet.

Soon she was moaning and thrashing. She pulled on my hair, making me get up.

"I want you inside me, now," she said, her eyes hazy with lust.

I flipped her over, pulling her butt to the edge of the bed, and knelt behind her, sheathing myself deeply in one hard thrust.

She groaned in pleasure.

I began thrusting as hard and fast as I could.

"Yes," I heard her say. "Yes."

I reached around and gently circled her clit as lightly as I could. With the other hand, I palmed her breast, tweaking a nipple.

"Oh, God, yes," she said, and I knew by the sound of her voice that she was close.

When I felt her sex spasm around me and her butt press back against my groin, I sped up the pace and pounded into her. Sinking into her tight wetness again and again, I fucked her until I couldn't hold back anymore, and I let go in a shattering release. I stiffened and pressed my hips hard against her soft ass as I shot my seed deep inside her.

It occurred to me that I hadn't checked to see if it was her mating cycle. Our cycles had never coincided before, and I didn't expect them to anytime soon.

After a moment, I got up and did up my pants. She reassembled her outfit.

"Ready to go?" she said. "You can think straight again?"

"Yes, thank you, my love," I said, kissing her deeply.

She gave me a sweet smile. We walked out of the little room and back into the captain's office. After I sealed the hideout, I checked my watch. We left for about six and a half minutes.

We walked out onto the bridge.

"Oh shit," Kenna said.

There was no one there.

I ran to the nearest console and tapped quickly, pulling up the location of all the crew members on our ship.

None.

There was no one on board the ship. Seven minutes ago, it had held nearly a hundred people.

Well, that wasn't entirely correct. There were two dots blinking — Kenna and me.

The only two people on board who had been in a transporter-proof room during the time when the aliens had stolen everyone on board.

I didn't know whether to be grateful or embarrassed.

"Dar, come here."

Kenna was busy at another console.

"We've lost the audio and video feed, but Mana and Jared are still transmitting."

She tapped quickly.

"See? She set up her scanning devices to relay back the information."

We both watched as she pulled up the floor plan of the alien ship again. There were a bunch of green dots in two of the cells — the one that Mana and Jared had been in and the one next to it. There were two blue dots in a third cell.

"Have Mana and Jared returned yet?"

Kenna turned those big brown eyes on me, and I saw that they were full of regret. She licked her lips nervously before she spoke.

"They didn't come back, Dar," she said pointing to where it showed their names. "They're the blue dots. Why are they blue?"

"That means they're unconscious. Fuck." I put my hands to my head.

I would not let this happen. I was the king. I slammed my fist into the console.

"Come on, Kenna."

"Where are we going?" she said.

"To the shuttle bay. We're going to get them back."

"Dar, surely you can't be serious. How is this different from earlier when you said it was irresponsible for you to go?"

I paused to look her in the eyes. "Now, we are the only ones who can save them."

KENNA

We locked on to the alien vessel and remaining cloaked. We hoped that they wouldn't realize we were there.

It was a long shot but better than nothing.

The plan was simple. Enter the ship from a different spot. Grab Jared and Mana. And get out of there. We would figure out how to save everyone else, once our friends were safely back on board and able to help us plan our attack.

Dar attached the unidirectional explosive and we crouched on the other side of the ship. It was designed to explode in only one direction using concentrated force. This way, even people with a minimal amount of training didn't have to worry about accidentally blowing themselves up.

Once it had detonated, we pulled the pieces of the hull out of our way and peeked through.

We attached to the alien vessel at the exact location where Mana and Jared were being held. Dar gave me a boost, and I crawled through the hole into the cell. He pulled himself through, and we quickly made our way over to where Mana and Jared were lying.

They were still unconscious, but it didn't matter. We were going to drag them into the ship and get out of there.

I picked up Mana under the arms and began dragging her over to the hole. Dar did the same with Jared. But something was wrong.

"Dar," I whispered, stopping. "Something's wrong. She's not heavy enough."

"What are you talking about," he said. "Let's just get them out of here. We'll worry about how much weight they've lost later."

But I remained frozen, trying to figure out if we had overlooked something. That's my problem, thinking about things too much.

As I sat there thinking and doing nothing, the hole that we had made sealed itself in front of our eyes.

We watched in horror as the ship appeared to heal itself like skin. Then we were transported to another cell.

As my body winked out of existence in one location, and back in another, I felt like I had been repeatedly punched in the head.

In the brief moment before I lost consciousness, it occurred to me that their alien technology may not be compatible with human and Susohnnan biology.

As I drifted awake, I heard Jared's voice saying, "Oh, we're really fucked now." I sat up, my hand to my head. It was aching so badly that I thought I would cry.

"Kenna's coming around too. What are we going to do?" Mana's voice was way too loud, and I put my hands over my ears.

"After we give them shit for coming after us and getting caught too, you mean?" Jared said.

"Jared..."

The pain receded and I carefully opened my eyes.

"Kenna," Jared said, "how are you? So nice to see you. Glad you could drop by to be imprisoned along with us."

I winced and looked around for Dar. He was still in the holding his head, trying to wake up.

I didn't say anything. It was too difficult to speak. Mana offered me some water, which I drank, then leaned back against the wall of the cell.

Dar tried to come to me, but he was too weak. Jared helped him over to where I sat against the wall. He took my hand, and I immediately felt better.

Whatever was going to happen, at least we were together.

They took us without any of our tools and only the bottom layer of our clothes.

After a while, Dar opened his eyes and spoke.

"What happened?" he said.

"Before or after you guys made everything worse by showing up here and getting captured, too," Jared said, a sour look on his face.

"We had a plan to escape," Mana said more gently. "But it depended on you two still being on board the ship."

"But you were unconscious," I said.

"We were not unconscious. We were hiding out here," Jared said, looking at us like we were crazy.

"I picked you up and dragged you across the floor over there," Dar said. "Then we all got transported."

I nodded.

"Everyone else's dots were green, but yours were blue. That's why we left the ship and came here," I said.

"You used the data from the sensors?" Mana said, frowning. "I dropped those when we climbed through the ducts."

"Then whose data were the sensors sending back?" This was getting stranger by the minute.

"I have no idea," Jared said, suddenly looking like a scared little boy. "What I do know is that we were used as bait to lure you over here. These guys are a lot more sophisticated than we thought."

"We saw your bodies." Dar said. "We lifted them."

"Wait," I said. "Remember how I told you they weren't heavy enough, Dar?"

"They must have been decoys," Mana said.

"We have underestimated these aliens considerably. We need to get out of here," Jared said. "Where is your ship?"

We both shrugged.

"Great," he said, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"We'll figure something out," Mana murmured, and he glanced at her. The look held for a moment too long. Then he nodded and let out a heavy breath.

Dar looked at me, his eyebrows raised.

"So, how are we going to get out of here?" I said, tearing their attention away from each other and back to the situation at hand.

"I'm afraid you're not," a tall man in a business suit said, materializing in front of us. We all stared. He was a big man with a broad chest. He wore immaculately tailored clothes which fit him perfectly. He looked pretty good, except for his eyes, which were cold and inhuman.

"Who are you?" Dar said, his face grim.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is who YOU are."

He glanced around at each one of us and then smiled in a way that made my stomach turn.

"You are all my slaves."