Chapter Eight
Roxie
Dead?
“They are trying to kill us?” I demand, my voice cracking. It’s been a pretty long goddamn day and I would kill for some food and water, to be honest.
“Well,” the alien says, glancing to the side before allowing his piercing golden gaze to once again rest on my face. I feel the heat and the weight of his look, and it makes me feel exposed again. “Me.”
When we touched before, it felt … well, like something, for sure. No Earth man ever made me feel so electrified before. I haven’t actually met a Mahdfel in person before, but I had heard stories of how handsome and strong they were. I remember I would always scoff.
I’m not laughing anymore.
“It’s OK,” he says, letting out a breath. “I believe I know who it is shooting at us from the ship, and why they haven’t hit us critically yet.”
“You do?” I ask, wondering if I should be terrified or relieved. “Your friend, is it?”
“Actually … yes.” He glares over my shoulder at the rapidly approaching vessel. “Admiral of the fleet, and my superior.”
I understand the implications of this, and I can’t manage not to ask. “So you’re in the Mahdfel military?” I toss a glance over my own shoulder as another beam narrowly misses us. “Care to explain why his aim is so poor?” My eyebrows raise. “Is he missing on purpose?”
The alien looks grim. “Yes. I believe so.”
“Wow … as a favor to you? This is all getting pretty complex, right? What exactly is going on here?” I can feel my heartbeat kick up a notch. This is far more excitement than I think I’ve experienced … ever? And it’s all unravelling so fast.
He lets out a breath and looks away for a moment before answering. “No. I don’t believe so. This … this is his ship. I think he doesn’t want to damage her.”
I snort with unexpected laughter. “That’s genius! You planned that, right?” He shrugs and turns to walk away.
I can’t help but let my gaze linger on what looks like a rock hard sculpted ass underneath the thin material of his robe. “Hey,” I say, wandering after him. “I’m not going back into the cell, alright? Can you get me a shirt?”
Without thinking, as we pass his quarters he shrugs off the robe and hands it to me, and I catch a flash of purple butt just before his door shuts. When he returns, I am wrapped in the robe with it tied around my waist and he is dressed in what looks like a military uniform. Tight dark material with unrecognizable stripes at the collar. I guess that was all there was available to wear, and he does look a little uncomfortable in it. As if he doesn’t feel he deserves it.
Whatever he did, it wasn’t good.
I am reminded that, even though I don’t actually feel threatened, I am trapped with a fugitive warrior alien who is being pursued by one of the most powerful military forces in the known universe.
I should be keeping my guard up much more than I am, but for some reason I just feel at ease.
“What did you say your name was?” I pipe up as I trail after him to the bridge.
“I don’t believe I did,” he grumbles, settling himself down in front of the controls and letting out a breath. “Give me a moment, I must recall how to use this ship to the best of its abilities.”
“That’s fine,” I say, rubbing my upper arm. This is my chance. Before we engage warp drive or whatever he has up his tight sleeves, I could hop into the escape pod and see if the Admiral will pick me up. He might be suspicious but I’m sure I could explain myself.
That is … if he chooses to stop completely to pick up an unknown pod during the pursuit of a wanted criminal in his own ship. I’m not so sure how likely that rescue is. I rub my face hard.
The further I let him take me, the worse this is going to end up being.
“Vyken,” he says finally, grimacing at the controls in front of him.
“Is that a Mahdfelian curseword?” I ask.
He smirks. “It is my name. And for the future, Mahdfelian as a concept does not exist. The Mahdfel are a … cuckoo race. We latch onto the culture of our mother species. So the correct question would be if it were a Firosan word. And, actually, yes it is. It means…”
“No translation found,” my translator interrupts, shocking me to my core. “Closest approximation would be the relief that courses through the veins after finally giving in to bloodlust. It is a common name among warriors.”
I totally hadn’t asked. I wrinkle my nose at this new information. The guy in front of me, who kidnapped me while I was striding around lost in a bikini, is named after ‘that feeling you get’ after quenching a thirst for murder.
Great.
“Yours?”
I rub my arms, warmer now in this robe -- not that the ship is exactly cold, but I was still breaking out in goosebumps -- and wonder if I should fight my urge to answer truthfully. What use is there in lying to him?
“Roxie,” I say finally. He gives a terse nod, tapping something into the console in front of him. “You didn’t know my name? You didn’t know who I was?”
“I knew nothing,” he says, as if this throwaway piece of information is not important. I really beg to differ.
“So, um, why the hell did you take me, you goddamn animal?” I demand.
“Hold on.”
“Why? Why should I wait? You didn’t wait when you--”
“Roxie,” he growls, and the sound of him rumbling my name with authority makes my core clench and I hate that. “I mean hold on. Now!”
I catch his meaning just in time. I grip onto the chair nailed down beside me and my teeth chatter as we lurch before a slight ‘pop’ echoes through my ears. I don’t know anything about space flight, but one of my ex boyfriends was pretty into science fiction, and I wonder what is happening right now. Is this warp speed?
There’s a faint humming in my bones from the very belly of the ship as it hurtles through outer space, and then finally we stop accelerating and regulate, and I am able to swallow and take a seat, my eyebrows probably permanently raised now.
“Success,” he says with a giant grin. Then he turns to me. “Now. We are on our way to the planet Fera and I will take you as my prisoner to meet with the Oracle. Tell me -- how does that make you feel?”
“I’m not happy about you calling me your prisoner,” I snap. “Or the kidnap thing. The part where you took me away from my home planet … or the Oracle part, honestly, because that sounds sinister as hell. Does that answer your question?”
His jaw twitches as he clenches it, and I frown and look away. “No. I wanted to know how you would feel about going to Fera to speak to the Oracle.” A pause -- I feel as though I have already answered that? “Because the Oracle is all-knowing and will want the perpetrator punished.”
“I’ve told you already, dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve got the wrong person. Maybe you went to the wrong planet, I don’t know.”
“Hmm. You really aren’t scared about facing the Oracle? Well … if you truly don’t know what happened on Fera, why was I sent to find you?”
He says the last word with the hint of a sneer and it makes my core tighten again, this time out of indignation. I think.
“I don’t know; how could I know? You’re clearly insane. And dangerous”
He lets out a snort of laughter, which surprises me, and I turn back to him with my lip twitching. He is smiling widely and shaking his head.
“I can’t say for sure I am not dangerous, but I’m sure I am not insane,” he says. “The Oracle said I wasn’t, and so did Aphrodite.”
“Right,” I say dryly, “but who are they, exactly?”
“A glowing omniscient fungus underground on a distant planet, and a disembodied artificial intelligence, of course,” he says with certainty. I flick my eyes to the roof of the ship and then back down. Even his expression falters. “I do not feel as though I am insane.”
I do have to admit, although he hasn’t exactly made a great first impression, he doesn’t exactly seem unhinged to me. He was probably right about me not getting into that escape pod.
Just as I’m struggling internally with how to feel about the man who has captured me, he stands up and regards me. “You will be hungry,” he says. “And thirsty. Would you come with me while I find you something? I don’t wish to leave you alone with the ship’s controls. Just in case. I hope you understand.”
I can’t help but laugh at the twitch in his brow when he apologizes to me.
“You’re not a very good prison guard,” I tell him.
“I am not?”
“No, but that’s OK. That’s a good thing.” I pause. “You need to take me home. You’re already in enough trouble, Vyken. This is just going to make it worse. I don’t know what the fungus told you but it’s not me you want. You have to take me home.”
We are in the kitchen now and he pauses with his fingers at the controls for the food replicator, deep in thought.
“Could it be possible the Oracle got it wrong?”
I don’t know what to say, but I can see I’m making progress so I rest a hand on his upper arm. It’s so firm that I let go again, uncomfortable at the thoughts of touching him more that are running through my head.
“Must have,” I say gently, my heart beating a little faster. Is he actually going to take me home? “You don’t want to be in any more trouble.”
He taps a couple more times on the replicator and then after a heavy silence he hands me a bowl of greenish soup and a cup of water. I thank him as politely as I can manage, and he heaves a sigh and sits down, pulling out his communicator and staring at it.
I sit there and taste the soup. It really badly needs salt but it’s asparagus or spinach or something -- definitely from Earth; it could be worse, for sure. I was expecting something alien, but the tech the Firosan Mahdfel have seems pretty advanced and reliable.
After a while he twists his lips with concern. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he says finally. “I just got a notification.” He turns the screen towards me and I scoot closer to squint at it.
“Calling all members of the Mahdfel Military.
Earth Citizen Roxie Lake, 26, has evaded her responsibilities as a DNA bride. She was last seen in the Caribbean, Earth. An unauthorized Mahdfel military vessel was also sighted in the area within the hour.
This is a serious offence. Please hand in all relevant information on Ms Lake to Earth authorities or your nearest Alliance officers.
She will face life imprisonment back on Earth, so please do not enact any vigilante justice.
Any lifeforms found to be harboring Ms Lake will be dealt with by the Alliance.”
It takes me an uncharacteristically long time to read this message. The man at the resort. The person who kept calling my name. I hadn’t been imagining it at all -- I was right to be paranoid. Ha!
Although I can’t be triumphant for too long, because the true meaning of these words sinks in to my mind and I gulp almost comically.
“Vyken,” I whisper, running my palm across my face lightly. “I can’t go back to Earth…”
He pinches the purple bridge of his nose. “If I had not picked you up, you would be in an Earth prison right now, for life, for neglecting your contract with my people. So the Oracle has saved you by sending me to you. It must believe you important.”
“So it doesn’t think I genocided a whole bunch of aliens?” I asked, folding my arms and trying to get him to meet my gaze.
“I suppose I must have misunderstood.”
“Yeah, you think?”
We sit in silence for a moment. There was nothing for me back on Earth, true, but since I did all the things I did so that I didn’t have to live an unplanned life in space with a strange, grumpy purple alien … this hasn’t gone so well.
I’m angry at myself for making whatever stupid mistake it was that led to my being caught.
I’m grateful to whatever the hell this Oracle is, because even though it sent me an impossible and conflicted alien to save me, it did save me from life imprisonment. And it looks as though Vyken has no plans to turn me in to the authorities. Which means he hasn’t even thought twice about adding to his charges -- he is going to keep me safe.
The thought warms up my stomach and I flick my gaze over him as he stares at his screen, and then looks me up and down thoughtfully.
“The Oracle did not want you to be imprisoned,” he says again, thinking out loud. “I don’t know what is going to happen next, Roxie, but are you prepared for dangers?”
He’s asking for my thoughts?
I swallow.
If I choose, technically, to continue with whatever it is this is … it’s still my life. It’s still the life I’ve chosen. And after being passed around from foster parent to foster parent, living a life I have chosen is so important to me. If I turn myself in or try to go back to my planet, it’s life imprisonment against my will, for refusing to live a life of imprisonment against my will. I want this: the great unknown, instead.
So I nod, and in that moment I mean it with everything I am.
“Whatever happens next, Vyken,” I say, “I’m in it one hundred percent. Let’s figure all of this out.”