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Alien's Mate: A Sci Fi Alien Romance (Abducted Brides Book 1) by Harper Star (17)

Seventeen

If I’d realized just how dangerous it was for Vax to bring me back to the Argonia mothership, I never would have done it.

We file onto a craft that will take us from the Riga spaceship to the Argonian mothership. The main room on the boarding craft is a spacious looking lounge which reminds me somewhat of an airplane. I take a seat and we lift off a few minutes later.

The Riga mothership shrinks below, paled against the great blue oceans of earth. The short journey to the Argonian mothership only takes a few minutes, and our pilot circles around the station to enter through the back, allowing us to see the damage from the Horkax attack.

The great silver maraca that was the Argonian mothership hovers against the vastness of space, broken into two parts down it center. Between the mammoth halves there are thousands of tiny worker ships zipping about the blackness to reconnect the station. We get a brief glimpse of the station’s layout because of the bisection.

The walls of a hundred floors and rooms stare back at us as a mangled grid. Most of the ‘cut’ has been sealed off with silver plating of some sort, but many of the rooms are still open to the cold of space, sitting there in the vacuum. Silent shrines to the contents that were destroyed within.

Our boarding craft floats around to the opposite side of the intact mothership and enters through a small hole on the endless chrome façade. Once inside, we exit and find ourselves standing on a large platform that looks out over a field of fighter ships. I recognize the chrome orb right next to our ship immediately and see its owner walking over to greet us. Vax.

My heart jumps in my chest a little at seeing him. I knew he was coming with us, but it still takes me by surprise. I’m still angry and I still feel betrayed, but I want to try and get a moment alone with him to talk at least.

Three other Argonians soldiers are with Vax and they approach too. Our small Riga party looks quite comical against the Argonian welcome. The four men tower above us. The guards hold black staffs and wear strange metallic helmets that look almost Roman.

“So it is true,” the guard at the center says with a voice that is almost comically deep. This guard in particular towers above the other Argonians here. He’s so tall and wide that he almost makes Vax looks small. There’s a hardness in the guard’s face that I don’t like. “The great warrior Vax Enzala has disobeyed his own kind and returned with an earthling. Commander Orbis will be most displeased.”

“Silence,” Prita says with a cold voice. The mammoth guard seems to shrink at her words and shuts up immediately. “Take us to Orbis. We wish to speak with him.”

We climb onto a small chrome shuttle that carries us across the labyrinth of the Argonian mothership. I get the impression that my being here is not a good thing because we’re hurried about quickly, taken down back-corridors and generally kept clear of crowds. There’s a city inside the mothership, just as there was with the Riga mothership. Our shuttle takes us to a building of red and black marble. The guards escort us through a door in the back and we walk through portrait-lined corridors until we reach another meeting room of sorts.

A long black table takes up the length of the room. It looks like a room designed for a hundred, but there’s only half a dozen Argonians in here. The Argonian sat at the head of the table stands at our arrival and we walk over to him. He bows slightly.

“General Prita,” he says. “It is an honor to have you here with us.”

“The honor is mine Commander Beck Orbis,” Prita says, bowing back. “I’d like to introduce you to Piper Denzel and Vax Enzala.”

Orbis looks at us both with a solid gaze that is silent and somehow powerful. He is of a similar height and stature to Vax, but the blue in his skin is much darker, almost looking like midnight ink. His eyes are much lighter, a pale blue that looks like summer sky. Despite that lightness there is a fierce edge in his eye that demands respect. He wears a pair of black space trousers that are threaded with fine lines of white and gold. A white staff sits against the tall throne behind him and he wears golden greaves on his hands.

There are many things that set Orbis apart from the rest of the men in the room, but the most distinct is the giant scar running down the right side of his body. The white scar runs as a jagged line from his left brow all the way down to his right hip.

“Psion laser,” he explains, having noticed me staring. “Earned while fighting Aroks on the moon base of Elra 5. You fought in that fight Vax Enzala, did you not?”

Vax nods, holding his arms behind his back. “That is correct Commander Orbis. The Aroks fought with honor.”

Orbis smiles before turning his eyes back on me. “That they did, but the Horkax eliminated the Aroks recently, and they took their technology. They Aroks were a nightmare, but they were a kind with great creative minds. Their technology was the physical embodiment of efficient destruction, but they had the tact to only use it when necessary.”

Orbis paces but continues his speech. “The Horkax took that technology and seized the most dangerous aspects of it. They found a Psion beam that can cut through planets. They decided to try it out on Earth. We barely had any time to react when our radars detected the blast. I ordered our men to move the Argonian mothership in front of the Psion blast. And now our ship stands broken as one.”

I have to gasp. The Argonian race had jumped in front of a planet-cutting blast to try and save earth.

“That’s right,” Orbis says. “Our shields deflected most of the blast’s energy, but it overwhelmed our defensive capabilities and cut the mothership in two. Residual energy from the blast still reached earth and ignited a third of the atmosphere. Earth is okay, but many were still killed.”

“Many more would have died were it not for the Argonian sacrifice,” General Prita says.

“Maybe so,” Orbis says. “But my decision to put earth before Argonia has brought much tension to my people. The Horkax attack not only bisected the ship, it bisected my people.”

Vax steps forward. “We are at war with ourselves?”

Orbis shakes his head. “Not quite, but it is definitely looming. A young Argonian—Garen Agrax—seeks to lead a rebel uprising against me. We are fortunate right now that the Horkax have begun their second attack already, it is the only thing holding back Garen and his people. You chose a very bad time to return here with an asset like Piper Denzel, an asset that is important for the future of our race.” Orbis looks over at Vax with fire in his eyes.

“Commander,” Prita begins, but Orbis interjects immediately.

“Silence!” Orbis shoots a finger out at Prita and holds his gaze on Vax. “Answer for yourself soldier. What business do you have returning here, disobeying direct orders from Commander Raka. Returning a prized asset to a warzone?!”

Vax holds his superiors’ gaze, not betraying a single thread of emotion. He keeps his voice calm and composed. “I fully acknowledge and accept responsibilities for the above. The burden is mine to bear and mine alone.”

Orbis shakes his head in disbelief. “Your insubordination cannot be comprehended, and you will be punished for it sufficiently. If you cannot control your property, then how can you—”

It’s at this point that I step forward and clear my throat. Call me crazy, but there’s only so many times one can be referred to as ‘property’ before you break. “Listen here Commander. I’ve had enough of being called property. I’m not Vax’s property. I’m not your property, and I’m not a god damned asset!”

The bright-eyed commander stares back at me in shock. Was this the first time a woman had talked back to him? “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I’m a person. I’m not property, and you will do well to remember that. Vax didn’t want to return here with me. He was directly against it. He didn’t want to betray Raka’s orders, he didn’t want to return here and risk me getting hurt. I made that choice and I alone made it. If you want to berate someone then you berate me. Leave Vax out of this. The fact of the matter is that you need me to help with your invasion.”

“Is that right?” Orbis says coldly.

“It is,” Prita says. “Piper has an ability to differentiate between Horkax soldiers. She has demonstrated twice now that Hive theory is true, and we have witnessed one of those times ourselves.”

Pale blue eyes study me momentarily. “Intriguing, but Vax Enzala’s failure to carry out his mission still stands. He needs to be punished.” I’m about to open my mouth to snap at the scar-faced idiot again when Vax jumps in.

“He’s right Piper. Upholding commands is one of the strongest moral tenants we have in Argonian society, hence my reluctance to return here.”

“Your failure to carry out basic orders is not your only transgression Vax Enzala,” Orbis says. “You brokered an alliance with the Riga and for that I am extremely grateful, but the conditions in which you did so are equally unforgiveable.”

“Excuse me?” I say, finding that I’m genuinely confused.

Apologizing?” Orbis drops the word from his mouth as if it’s ash. “Surrendering fault on our own people to find a middle ground? That is not the way of the Argonians, Vax Enzala. We are a race of our word, so I cannot undo the words you already put forth, but your settlement made us look weak. It made us look like losers!”

I can only stand there staring at Prita and the other Riga women in sheer disbelief. Was Vax really getting chewed out for apologizing? I wanted to open my mouth and scream at Orbis some more, but something told me my sense wouldn’t get through his thick skull. Without Vax the Riga wouldn’t be here. Without the Riga, I wouldn’t be here. Without this union we might not have a chance.

“You’re right,” Vax says. “I used an unusual tactic in the war of discourse. It won us a favorable outcome, but I weakened the Argonian image in the meantime. That is equally unforgiveable.”

“You Argonians are ridiculous!” I yell. “Apologizing doesn’t make you weaker, it makes you stronger!”

“Not in our kind, Piper,” Vax says softly. His eyes are on the ground. He can’t even look at me. “I tried to tell you, I tried to make you understand, but—”

But I wouldn’t listen. I was so busy trying to change Vax and do what I wanted that I never considered his side of things. He had seemed headstrong, small-minded, and outright possessive to me when we first met, but I realize now that it’s just who he is. It doesn’t make him a bad person, he can’t go against the innate drive of his own kind. I’d been almost convinced I could fix him up. I was convinced he needed fixing up.

Now I really thought about it I saw just how wrong that was. Who was I to determine what a person should be like? Vax was Vax, and no amount of changing him was going to make him perfect. He was already perfect the way he was. Granny Denzel’s voice came to mind and I thought of one of her old sayings: “You can tie wings to a fish, but you can’t make it fly.”

Damn right.

“Understand that the punishment will be sufficient Vax Enzala,” Orbis says.

I feel like none of this is right, but then Prita says something that changes my mind entirely. “Come now Orbis, this is a little extreme. These are times of war. Desperate times require desperate measures. You’re treating Vax as if he’s a criminal, when he’s not.”

But he was.

That small voice in the back of my mind fills my body with ice. I was so caught up in focusing on the things I’d done wrong I’d almost forgotten about that folder. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick. He wasn’t who he said he was. He wasn’t the real Vax Enzala. He was a criminal who had taken his identity.

Did Orbis know the truth? Did any of the Argonians in this room know that Vax wasn’t who he really said he was? It might have been the Aquigen inside of me, but the thought that this man before us was an intruder made my blood boil. Not only had he lied to me, he’d given me a false sense of hope. I thought I could have loved this man. But he wasn’t who he said he was. I had to say something. I had to make it known. I couldn’t keep it bottled up any longer.

“I deserve severe punishment. I understand,” Vax says.

“Are there any more transgressions I should know about before I sentence you?”

Vax thinks about it momentarily then shakes his head. Orbis seems content enough to let it stop there, but I don’t.

“He’s not Vax Enzala!” I yell.

Everything stops in the room, and all eyes fall on me. Orbis regards me in confusion. “Excuse me Piper, what?”

Vax flashes his eyes at me now, jaw clenched, shaking his head slightly. “Piper… don’t.”

I step forward. “I’m sorry Vax, but I can’t keep it in any longer.” I turn and look at Orbis. “This alien isn’t Vax Enzala. He’s Corben Volo. A criminal. A dangerous criminal. I found his real identity onboard his ship.”

Orbis lifts a solitary brow and looks over at Vax. He huffs a laugh and shakes his head. “Hang on a moment Enzala, you mean to tell me among all this you’ve had your Idents compromised too?”

Wait. Idents? What?

Vax nods with regret. “There was a security breach on my ship. A folder containing a box of my secret aliases was compromised.”

My brow knots in confusion and my heart stops in my throat. Vax was being very open about this.

Orbis tenses. “Your Idents were stolen? How many people know?”

Vax nods and looks at me. “Piper knows for sure. A hidden storage compartment of mine was left open. I suspect a robot servant of mine was hacked. It’s possible the servant broadcast the information back to an unknown party. I will have to scrap the Idents in future missions and adopt new ones.”

“Hang on,” I say. “What? What’s going on?”

“I tried to explain to you Piper,” Vax says. “But you wouldn’t listen.”

“What’s an Ident?” I say, looking to anyone for an answer.

“Enzala is a high-level infiltration warrior,” Orbis explains. “It is his job to assemble a network of undercover profiles and use those profiles to infiltrate criminal factions. His Idents are his alternate identities.”

My throat turns to stone. “Wait… so, you’re not a criminal?” Sickness rises in my stomach. Vax shakes his head and pulls his gaze from mine. What the hell had I done? “Vax I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m so sorry.” I say the words with desperation. I say the words hoping that he’ll look up at me and everything will be okay.

Orbis laughs. “Criminal? Vax? Enzala is one of the greatest infiltrators we have, but this… this string of transgressions can go unnoticed any longer. You disobeyed direct orders Enzala, you brokered an illegal peace agreement and have compromised your hidden identities through sheer negligence. One of these counts alone would be enough to warrant severe punishment, but together… you must understand what I have to do.”

Tears threaten to spill over my eyes, I run forward to grab Vax but strong arms latch around me and keep me held back. I fight against them, but the Argonian guards keep me held in place. “No!” I yell. “It wasn’t his fault. He was only trying to help!”

Orbis continues regardless, taking no notice of my protests. “You are a traitor to your kind Vax Enzala. It brings me great regret to do this, but discipline is a necessity in times as trying as these. I hereby sentence you to exile, Vax Enzala. You must leave Argonia at once and never return.”

“No!” I scream. “No, no, no!”

Vax bows his head with a solitary nod, looks at me one last time and leaves the room without protest, flanked by guards on either side. I watch in horror as the alien I love disappears forever.

He’s gone, and it’s all my fault.