Chapter 1

~ Helena ~

Helena Watson drug her tired, sorry ass into her cramped quarters and immediately began unstrapping her weapons. Coming off her ninth double shift in a row was starting to make her feel like a walking zombie. Earth Gov seemed to be rubber stamping every galactic mates offer they received these days, which in turn meant the Galactic Council’s shiny new space station orbiting Earth was now crawling with more alien species than she could identify. Add to that the fact that every human wanted to do business with them and you’ve got dust ups happening on a very regular basis. It took every set of military boots on the ground to keep the peace. Every Earth Gov soldier she knew was working doubles both on Earth and on the orbital space station, even Private Nobodies like herself.

Earth Gov politicians were desperate to keep the population fed and housed and the aliens swarming their world were single-handedly propping up Earth’s failing economy. Their never-ending quest to prove they’d visited Earth drove them to spend millions of credits on any and everything that looked human, not to mention the gifts they showered on the human women they hoped to take as brides. Their insatiable thirst for all things human now represented Earth’s best chance for continued survival.

Hanging her utility belt on the proper peg, she wondered what in the hell kind of woman saw a scaly alien and immediately thought jumping his bones was an outstanding idea. Snorting a laugh, she realized that she knew the answer to that question already. Young trendy, fearless girls like her youngest sister wasted every hour of the day, dreaming of laying on a sandy beach somewhere with a hunky alien and a half dozen hybrid children. She blamed Earth Gov for that one. If they hadn’t initiated a one-child policy all those years ago, young girls wouldn’t…

Suddenly the door snicked open and her sister Alexis came running through it. “Hel, I’ve been looking for you. We got a serious problem.”

Shooting the frantic woman a weary look, Helena shook her head. “I don’t want to know. Earning enough to support us all is my job. Handling problems is your job. I haven’t slept in almost thirty-eight hours, and I’m going to catch some winks before my next shift.”

Folding her arms over her chest, Alexis asked politely, “In that case would you mind if I borrowed your weapon?”

Stopping dead in her tracks, Helena turned to look at her sister’s pale face. Alexis’s long dark hair had been pulled up and arranged in an elegant style and her clear green eyes held Helena’s without blinking.

Shooting her older sister a look, Helena knew her sister hated weapons after being injured in battle. Something serious was amiss.“What the hell are you talking about, Ally? You haven’t picked up a gun in over three years.”

“You know the military drills that kind of skill to every soldier. It’s not something I’m likely to forget.”

“Just tell me what’s going on?”

“It’s Penny again.”

Stalking back over to her gear, she weaponed up. “What did she do this time?”

“I left her in Learning Lab Eighteen long enough to go purchase her school supplies with the credits you gave me.”

“Let me guess. You came back and she was gone?”

“Worse. Word on the street is she’s gone to visit one of the Terillian freighters bound for the Sylon home world.”

“She’s seventeen. They won’t break orbit with her.”

“Bringing her to the space station was a bad idea. You know how alien crazy she is.”

Throwing her arms up, Hel responded angrily, “Like I had a choice. I’m in the freaking military. They make the assignments and if I don’t want to be booted out on my lily white ass, I follow them.”

“We definitely can’t afford for you to be unemployed.”

“You don’t earn nearly enough dealing cards at that fancy casino to keep food on the table, much less pay the rent on this place.”

“I won’t argue with you there, but we’ve got to get her back. I know you think her age is a barrier, but I think she’ll make up some sob story and they’ll cart her right off.”

“Fine. I’m blistering her backside when I find her though.” Slamming her hand against the control panel, Helena steeped out the moment the door opened.

Following her out, Alexis murmured, “You always say that, but you never do.”

“Maybe that’s the damn problem.”

“I doubt it. She’s at that age. If I recall correctly, you were a pain at seventeen as well.”

Glancing over her shoulder at her older sister, Helena smiled. “Yeah, but you kept me on the straight and narrow.”

“God only knows how I managed that impossible feat. All I do know is it’ll take both of us pulling together to keep Penny out of trouble.”

“God, Alexis. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Blow your brains out with that high caliber handgun the military requisitioned to you, I imagine.” Her sister’s sarcastic voice spoke volumes about how unlikely she though that would be.

Laughing, she replied in kind. “Oh, hell no. I might shoot at other people when the need arises, but I’d never shoot myself. I like me way much for that shit.”

Rolling her eyes, Alexis deadpanned back. “I can vouch for that. Come on, I think I know which freighter she’s interested in.”

Hustling down a maze of corridors that looked eerily similar they found themselves in front of a door with Docking Platform Fifty Seven printed in multiple languages.

Rushing through the door, Hel saw a huge Terrilian freighter loading cargo. In her mind, she singled out the alien who appeared to be in charge and approached cautiously. He appeared to be reading from an electronic tablet, ordering people around, and checking merchandise off his list as it was loaded.

“Excuse me, sir. We have a missing child. I’m going to need to look through your cargo.”

Looking up from the tablet, he smiled broadly as he took a step closer to them. “Earth women are always so polite. Would either of you like to take a ride in my freighter? She’s one of the fastest ships in her class.”

“No, thank you. I’m afraid we don’t have time for such entertainment at the moment, sir. As I said we are searching for a missing child. Can you open your pallet crates for a visual inspection, please?”

“Most of this is exotic foodstuffs. The crates have been hermetically sealed. I am not permitted to open them myself. As you know, Terrilians just deliver the cargo. You must contact every owner individually and ask their permission if you wish to open and inspect their property.”

“We don’t have time that.”

“I believe you should look elsewhere. It is highly improbable that a child would be in a hermetically sealed container as there would be no oxygen to sustain them.”

Frowning, she didn’t agree at all with the man’s flawed logic. If the crate had been breached, it would no longer be hermetically sealed. Still, the man had his own set of rules he was forced to operate by and, since she couldn’t claim it was an official request, she decided to snoop around on her own. “Thank you for your time.”

“Speaking with you has been my greatest pleasure of the day.” Flipping them a tiny sliver of clear film with a holographic image hovering above it, he dipped his head slightly. “Always remember Dock Track Freighter Number 568 for your cargo delivery needs. We are the only freighter in the galaxy that can move a metric ton of freight for one hundred credits. We are only a com message away, Earthlings.”

Giving him a tired little two-finger salute, she replied, “I’ll try to remember that. You guys sure do have good customer service skills.”

The three legged alien preened a bit before walking back to supervise the last of the cargo being loaded. His long dinosaur-like tail slid along the ground after him. Movement in the back of the freighter’s cargo hold caught Helena notice.

“Heads up, sis. One of the boxes moved.”

Grinning, Alexis replied, “The last time I checked, hermetically sealed food didn’t move of its own volition.”

The crew tried to slam the door shut, but it jammed. They talked back and forth for a few minutes before walking around a huge loading machine. Hel could see they were heading for huge open case of tools.

“Come on, let’s grab her and get out before they see us. I can’t have a complaint against me for boarding a vessel without permission. They consider it similar to breaking and entering.”

Following her over to the open freighter, Alexis quipped quietly, “That would be a career ender for you, Hel.”

They hurried over and worked together to squeeze through the boxes. Tearing back the loose lid on the crate, they peered in to find nothing but food. Glancing around, Hel saw several more boxes moving.

“For crying out loud, she’s trying to give us the slip.”

“What?”

“She’s headed to the back of the cargo bay. It might only take them seconds to get the door working properly. We’re risking being stuck on board the ship when it disengages from the docking platform.”

“We can’t leave her and we can’t call her in as an official missing person. She’s been in trouble twice already. Remember, they have that crazy old fashioned three strikes rule. She’d end up in detention.”

“Crap, you’re right. Let’s hurry.”

Shoving their way past tons of perfectly stacked merchandise, the pair made their way to the back of the gigantic cargo bay. As the back of the bay came into view, they heard someone sobbing.

“She sounds hurt. We need to find her.” Helena’s desperation and frustration made it hard to concentrate.

Pointing to a long strand of dark hair draped over a box, Hel stated, “She’s there.”

Running over, they muscled the box out of the way, to find Penny hiding behind it. Looking up at them, Hel saw not only her tear streaked face but the bruises on Penny’s face. Anger rose fast and hard when she saw her little sister’s shirt was torn in the front.

“Come out, sweetness. What happened? You can tell us.”

“I can’t.”

Gently drawing her out, the sisters sat on either side of her. Pushing back a strand of hair from Penny’s face, Alexis murmured soothingly, “Who hurt you, Penny?”

Shaking her head, Penny closed her eyes.

Hel knew it must be bad for her try to escape on a vessel. “It was someone important wasn’t it?”

“It was that commander of yours; the one with the red hair. He found me admiring the alien ships and got mad.”

Commander Connor was in charge of all Earth Gov soldiers on the orbital space platform. He was a nasty piece of work, but Hel never thought him capable of attacking a minor. “What was he mad about?”

“He said all women want these days is filthy aliens instead of decent men.”

“Go on, tell us the rest.”

“He grabbed me and shoved me into an office. He said if I wanted to whore myself out, it should be with a human.”

“I’ll gut him.” Hel whispered under her breath before she could stop herself.

“He slammed me down on a table and hit me. Some other soldier heard the noise and came running in. God, he was huge, like an alien but as human as you or me. They began to argue and when they started fighting, I just ran.”

Without needing to be told, Helena knew the huge soldier was Captain Douglas. He was the man in charge of overseeing the development of the new human colony on Sylon. If there was anything left of Connor when the captain was finished with him, Connor would end up in the brig. Douglass had a reputation as being hard as nails and everyone knew he had zero tolerance for anyone coloring outside the line. His short visit to the space station had been marred with complaints already. One thing bothered her though. “Why didn’t you come to us?”

“You need your job to survive. I remember how hard it was before you joined the military.”

“You thought that if you left, Hel could keep her job and he could never get to you again.”

Nodding, Penny tried to wipe her eyes with her sleeve. “I should have stayed in the learning center. Leaving was a stupid thing to do.”

“You’re seventeen. I did worse when I was your age.” Hel pointed out, as she glanced at Alexis.

Alexis caught her eye and when she spoke, her voice terse and worried. “What do we do now?”

“That jerking you felt a few minutes ago was the crew shutting the door. I imagine we’ll be undocking from the orbital platform any minute now.”

“How are we getting back home?” Penny stared up her, clearly mortified at the situation she landed them all in.

Sighing Helena calmly explained. “We aren’t going back home. We’re going to give the Sylon home world a shot.”

Both of her sisters stared at her wide-eyed. “What about our stuff?”

“You know the rules. We have very few keepsakes and we keep them with us at all times—”

Penny finished the thought. “—In case things go bad, so we can be among the first to move. It’s worked well for us so far.”

Alexis grinned. “Everything I need is right here.”

The three women leaned forward in a short group hug. When they pulled back, Hel spoke. “Empty your pockets, ladies. Let’s see what we have to work with.”

All three women began unloading all their gear. Staring at the pile, Hel took an inventory. “I’ve got my last three months pay tucked away in Galactic credits. It ain’t much, but it’ll give us a start. Alexis, your tip money will come in handy. Penny, why in the hell do you have a dozen energy bars in your coat?”

Looking sheepish, the young girl admitted, “Since that time we went without eating for three days, I’ve kept them on me. I trade them out for new ones as I eat them. They’re the high nutrient kind, so we’d only need one a day.”

“That gives us four days. I don’t want to break into the cargo crates if we don’t have to. If we’re real lucky, we can slip off the ship unnoticed when we get to their first stop. If we end up stealing from them, we’ll owe what little credits we have in retribution.”

“We still need water.”

“That’s going to be a problem. Maybe I can sneak into the crew portion of the ship and find something to drink.”

“That sounds dangerous.”

“Lucky for you two, your sister thrives on danger and intrigue.”

For some reason, Penny hurled herself towards her. When the girl’s arms wrapped around Hel, she began to cry again.

“Hey, everything’s going to be fine. You wanted to go to the Sylon home world and I’m in the mood for a change as well.”

Alexis smoothed her hand down her younger sister’s hair. “That goes double for me. I’m so tired of dealing cards I could scream.”

“See? We’re all up for an adventure.”

Snubbing back more tears, you youngster nodded.