Chapter 14
Miranda
I was having a harder time dealing with Evlon then I thought possible. He was very persistent, and every time he tried to kiss me, I would melt into his arms as though the fact that we were enemies did not matter. I was growing more and more attached to him as the days went by. He seemed to be less and less arrogant with me. He was changing. It was less about lust and more about a desperation for my attention. I could not put my finger on why he was doing this. But it was very obvious to me. It seemed like he was beginning to care for me. That thought startled me. I was glad that today it had been five days since he gave us the message from Leader Rangellis.
Now we were sitting in our dwelling, waiting to be summoned to the meeting. Everyone was on edge.
“I don't understand what is going on here on this planet and in this city. Have you seen one human slave? Where are all the humans that they have taken from Earth?” Captain James asked as he walked back and forth in the room.
“No, I have not seen one human at all besides us since we have been here. Though we have been kept prisoner in this room. But where are the humans? What do you think they do with them? Are they in a mine somewhere digging out gold?” Trevor asked.
“If they wanted us to see the human slaves, they would show us. I don't doubt that we will eventually see them,” Brad said. He had grown more and more suspicious of the alien enemy than the rest of us after his injury. I did not know if he had seen me with Evlon that day in the wargame complex when we were kissing. If he had, he did not tell me anything about it. Maybe he was waiting until we got back to Earth to rat me out. Either way, he was keeping it to himself, and it only added to my anxiety.
I walked back and forth in the room going over the speech I had practiced in my head for almost a year. I was the one that was going to try to persuade the alien enemy to speak to Earth about negotiating a peace treaty. I was not here to strike up that treaty, only to convince them that there should be one. I was very nervous as I went over my notes. I could do this. I had to remember.
I was only anxious because I was being a hypocrite. They were the enemy, yet I had slept with one of them twice already. I had no self-control when it came to the alien Evlon. Now I wondered if the leaders knew.
Why wouldn't they? They could have orchestrated the whole seduction as far as I knew. These aliens were not to be trusted. Yet Leader Rangellis had been drilling it into our heads that it was important for us to establish trust between us before we even spoke about peace. I guess he felt we had established that trust by now because today would be the day that I would speak to them.
“They are ready for you,” Evlon entered our dwellings.
“Thank God. We are ready,” I followed him out.
A few moments later, we were standing in front of Leader Rangellis as well as two other official-looking Zenkians. But they were not alone on the platform. There were three human females with chains around their necks. I clenched my fist as I saw them. They were in a bad way.
My team did not stay silent about it.
“What is this? Let them go!” James shouted as soon as we walked in.
“James, calm yourself. We know they have human slaves. They are trying to entice you to act irrationally. Keep it to yourself,” I whispered to him. I could see my team clenching their fists and restraining their anger. We stood in front of the platform. This was going to be a mess.
They began speaking before I could. I would have my chance, or so I thought.
“Thank you for coming to our planet of Anvin,” Leader Rangellis said.
“Thank you for allowing us to come here in order to talk about peace,” I replied.
“Yes, peace. Thank you for giving us the time we needed to think it over. After careful consideration, we have decided that we will not be opening any sort of talks of peace,” Leader Rangellis said.
“But I have not said what I came to say. You cannot make a decision without hearing us out. We came all this way in order to discuss. We have discussed nothing,” I panicked.
“This is not what we planned when we contacted you and asked to come. We have done nothing but been kept in a dwelling and shown around your city. Now let us do our work,” James said.
“It is not what you planned, but it is what we planned. You see, when you contacted us asking to come here to talk peace, we laughed about that. We have no interest in peace with the humans that live on the planet that we will soon conquer. There is no point in it. But there was good reason to have you come here. You are very useful to us,” Leader Rangellis said.
The entire team, including myself, stirred on our feet. We grew defensive. Soldiers suddenly came into the room and surrounded us. We were going to be captured. We had been captured the whole time without realizing it. But now they were making the truth known.
“What is going on here?” I asked.
“That is a good question, Miranda. I am going through with my plan. These last few days we have kept you here for many reasons. For one, we wanted to take your ship and reconfigure it for our needs, which you will find out about in a few days. Secondly, I wanted to establish trust with you to make you think that, yes, we would be talking about peace. It is very important that you thought that because I wanted you to learn a lesson. I wanted you to learn that you can never trust a Zenkian. We will always lie and deceive the humans. Now you have learned that lesson. You could only learn it by going through it. Lastly, one of you will be returning to Earth with this information. You will return to Earth and tell them that we will never stop conquering Earth. We will continue to steal your resources, humans, and eventually take over the planet. You will tell them that we find battle to be so pleasant, we make games out of it. You will tell them that you can never trust us no matter what we say. You will return to Earth and say this, but only one of you,” Leader Rangellis said.
“This is bullshit!” I shouted.
Leader Rangellis laughed. They all laughed at us. We had been played by these aliens. We had fallen for their tricks. I looked around for Evlon. He was standing behind us in the back of the room with a stone face, emotionless. He was not going to help us. He was part of this plan. They had used him to distract me and keep me occupied, and it worked. Fuck it all.
“Take them,” Leader Rangellis said.
The soldiers surrounded us as we struggled against them. But we were no match for them. They put our wrists in chains. We had been defeated and tricked. I looked at Evlon one more time, and he did not have any emotion whatsoever on his face. My heart broke into pieces. Not only had I failed this mission, but I had been deceived by this alien enemy. I had been very stupid.
“Separate them. Take them into examination,” Leader Rangellis said.
“No! Don't separate us!” I shouted, but there was no use. They were not listening, and we had absolutely no leverage or control over the situation.
We were separated, and I watched each of my team members be pulled off in different directions. I was led into another building. When I walked in, a chill ran down my spine as it looked familiar to me. It looked like the therapy rooms inside of the war games complex. This meant it was a medical room of some kind. We had heard rumors that they experimented on humans, and I was scared that this was going to be my fate. They picked me up and put me on a table. A blue light scanned over my body as a soldier stood by watching a screen.
“This human is pregnant,” he said.
“What?!” I could not believe it. I did not even think of the possibility. How could I have been so stupid? I had a medical background. Yet it completely slipped my mind that it was possible to interbreed with these Zenkian aliens.
“Then we will have to alert Leader Rangellis,” the soldier said. “Do I tell him she is pregnant with a human? Or a Zenkian?”
“Let me check,” the other soldier said. A green light scanned my body. But I already knew the answer. I was not pregnant when I left Earth, nor was I involved with anyone on Earth or my team. I already knew that Evlon was the father.
“She is pregnant with a Zenkian child. It seems that one of the soldiers has been indulging himself with this human. Inform Leader Rangellis at once. We will hold off on further examination for now. She should be taken back to her dwelling and not to the slave prisons. Pregnant females are forbidden from being in the prisons.”
“I will summon her escort to take her back to the dwelling.”
I sighed in relief. I was not going to be experimented on or thrown in with the other human slaves, for now. But I was very scared that they were about to summon my escort, which meant Evlon. Would they tell him? I was very scared.
I waited for what seemed like an hour. Then Leader Rangellis walked in with Evlon. The soldier that stood with me looked at them.
“This human female cannot be experimented or examined further. Upon first scanning, it has been confirmed that she is pregnant. Upon second scamming, it is confirmed she is pregnant with a Zenkian child.”
I looked directly at Evlon. His mouth fell open. I saw the corner of his mouth going into a smile. But he restrained himself further.
“Well, this is surprising news. Now you definitely cannot return to Earth in your condition. Not that I was going to send you back anyway. I assume that you, Evlon, are the father? Is that correct? Or has this human female been with many soldiers?” Leader Rangellis said.
“I believe I am the father,” Evlon answered.
“Good. Let us be sure,” Leader Rangellis said. He nodded at the soldier. Evlon pulled up his sleeve on his forearm. The soldier scanned the green light over it. Then everyone looked at the screen on the wall. I did not understand any of it, but it was in Zenkian writing.
“It is a match. Evlon is the father of the offspring this human carries,” the soldier confirmed.
“That is very lucky for you, Miranda. Now that you are pregnant, you will not be sent to the prisons to be a human slave. Now, you will be given to Evlon. You belong to him now,” Leader Rangellis said.
“What? What do you mean belong?” I narrowed my eyes.
“Miranda, don't. I command you to stay quiet,” Evlon ordered me. I looked at him with anger in my eyes. But I knew that he was protecting me from any vengeance the leader might take on me for saying something to hurt his ego. I crossed my arms over my chest and said nothing. I had more than myself to think about now. I had a child...I had a child. The words hit me. There was life growing inside of me. I had another life to consider in every decision and every word I said from now on. I was in hostile territory on the enemy planet, and I was walking on thin ice.
“It is settled. Evlon I grant you this human female possession. She is your slave and the carrier of your child. Take her to your home and make her yours in an official claim. But bring her tomorrow for the send-off ceremony. Although she is yours, I still have my unfinished business with this group of humans,” Leader Rangellis said and then walked out.
“Come with me, Miranda.” Evlon grabbed the keys to the chains on my wrist. He unlocked them and set me free. He grabbed my arm and held it tightly, to the point that it hurt. He led me out of the government building and into his speeder back to the tower. Everything had changed since the time we left this tower. My entire team was now prisoner. I was now a slave owned by this alien lover. There would be no peace treaty, and we had been tricked. Everything was a complete mess, and all I could think was, I am pregnant.