Gar and Char had done it. They’d a close call with a trio of ships which had passed earlier in the second night of their trip back to the landing zone. One of the pilots must have seen something which concerned him because the ships had banked, turned and headed back toward the two Zaytarian men, circling overhead for nearly half an hour. The two soldiers were well-trained and neither had moved a muscle, even Gar who had been in a considerable amount of pain.

When the ships had moved on, still the two men waited, fearing a trick. An hour later they up and moving once more, their rifles slapping against their backs with each sprinting step.

“We’re going to need to pick up at the landing zone in an hour,” Char called into his radio.

“Copy,” a voice replied.

“Advise. We have one injury, possibly mortal. Immediate medical intervention required.”

“Copy that,” said the same voice.

Less than an hour later Char and Gar had made it, and the ship was swooping down to them. In the distance they had heard a massive boom, and fire and lava spat from the volcano.

“Sarah!” cried Gar. “No!”

Suddenly Gar collapsed, he had been running on nothing but adrenalin and the desire to live, and now that he was so close to the ship he could no longer sustain himself. Char reached down and hooked his hands under Gar’s arms and pulled him up.

“Come on, friend,” Char said, as he walked Gar up the ramp.

“Sarah!” Gar cried out again.

Once they were aboard the ship, the ramp closed and the ship took once more to the sky. The pain became too much for Gar, and his world went black.

There was a beeping sound, faint but annoying, and the slight hiss of machinery. Gar’s throat hurt. He opened his eyes to see dim lights above him. A hand reached for his mouth, found something there; a mask over his nose and lips. He pulled it away. A rubber hose that had been run down his throat coming, too.

“You ought to keep that in,” a voice said.

Gar looked toward the voice.

“Doctor Bak,” a pale yellow Zaytarian said, his hair shorter than most males, his fingers long as he tapped his name badge. “You’re aboard the medical ship Shining Health.”

“Sarah,” Gar said.

“I don’t know anything about a Sarah,” Doctor Bak said.

“The weapon…” Gar tried asking.

“You should really not talk,” Doctor Bak insisted.

“The weapon,” Gar said once more.

“Ah yes, you were with the team that was tasked with that ordeal, your chart says here,” Doctor Bak answered, flipping through the pages. “Well, you’ll be happy to know that you and your team succeeded. The volcano erupted, and it’s tearing the Aeon home world apart. The war is over. We’ve won.”

“Sarah.”

“I don’t know a Sarah,” the doctor once again insisted. “Someone will be along to brief you shortly, I am sure.”

As much pain as Gar was in, he knew this to be true. If there was anything his military liked, it was briefings. Gar thought back to Sarah at that. He had longed to fight, and she was the reason he had been given the chance. He had been punished, kept from being a warrior, but when his people had seen the relationship he had with their savior, things had been different. He had been on that mountain because of her. He had almost died because of her, and it was an honor that he had never thought possible.

“You’re going to live, if you were interested in knowing. Touch and go for a moment there, but I think we worked everything out,” Doctor Bak told him.

Gar could do nothing but nod. He was weary, exhausted really, and sleep took him once more.

When he woke again, a dark blue female was sitting at his bedside.

“Ah, you’re awake,” she said. “I’ll be briefing you.”

And at that, the woman told Gar a lot of what he already knew, and then what he was dying to find out.

“Your friend Sarah, and our friend Fib made it to the weapon, where the Earthling deposited her crystal into the mouth of the volcano. This created a large reaction that we didn’t expect to happen so quickly. It looked as though the two would be lost.”

“But they weren’t? Gar asked.

“No, they were picked up by a ship,” the woman said.

“That’s great news,” Gar said with a smile. It was quickly wiped from his face.

“It was not one of ours,” the woman finished, and Gar felt an anguish and despair he had never known.

****

Moments after boarding the ship, it rose in the air and flew away from the exploding volcano. A door slid open nearby, and Sarah’s mouth fell open as a familiar presence entered her mind.

“Hello, love,” Henry said.

 

THE END

 

You've enjoyed the Sensual Abduction story, and now it's time for it to end. Aeon End is the fourth and final entry into the steamy series, where Sarah and her alien lover Gar fight to end the Aeon terror once and for all, while striving to keep the passion between them burning.