Chapter Three

 

“The Earth Council has provided the route the transporter was to take.” Koran brought up the holographic image. “They were due to arrive tomorrow, which should have put them here.” He pointed at an area close to Zerconia then frowned. “That’s nearly in our airspace. How did this happen so close to us and our satellites did not pick it up?”

“Because they weren’t taken there.” Rich brought up his own map. “They were taken here.” He pointed at what was open space.

Dex frowned. “But that is at least three days’ travel in the wrong direction. “Why would they be there?”

“For the same reason they never contacted you guys with a mayday,” Rich told them. “Because the crew organized this.”

“Why would they do this? Endanger these females?” Koran appeared outraged.

“As hard as it is to believe, not all humans like the deal made between Earth and Zerconia. They’re not as open-minded and enlightened as I am.”

Annabel snorted. “You’re as enlightened as a dinosaur.”

“They arranged to have the women kidnapped?” Dex sounded as incredulous as Jaxan felt. “Is that not extreme?”

“About as extreme as bombing the original transporter.”

“That’s right. And weren’t some of the crew on the ship at the time it was blown?” Annabel asked, staring at the image.

“Yes. They had to be replaced.”

“This is unbelievable.” Koran ran his hand over his face. Then he shook his head and gave Rich a suspicious look. “How do you know where they were taken?”

Rich smiled. “Because a few years ago, I gave Alice a communicator, the same one she used to contact me with.”

Jaxan was confused. What did a communicator have to do with anything?  

Suddenly, Annabel smiled. “You’re tracking her.”

“Yes, I am. I’m going to find her. Who’s coming with me?”

***

Alice stared down at the aliens striding through the corridor beneath her. There were so many. One after another, they swarmed through the ship. They had similar frames to humans, two legs, two arms, one head, but they were far larger. Most of them wore a green, sparkling jumpsuit that was molded to their bodies, leaving very little to the imagination. A few of them had pale blue uniforms. She wondered what the difference was. They were all completely bald. In fact, she couldn’t see any sort of facial hair. Were they hairless everywhere? How did they tell each other apart? They all looked identical.

The cold way they pounded through the ship, trashing it room by room, made them seem monstrous.

As if sensing her fear, Sophie reached across and grabbed her hand. Saffron had left them to do some recognizance, warning them to stay silent.

Alice could barely breathe, she was so terrified.

Finally, the last of the aliens trampled past, and she let out a shaky breath.

“I hope Saff is okay,” Sophie said so quietly that Alice had to strain to hear her.

“She seems pretty capable of looking after herself.”

“Yeah, she lets people think that.”

Before Alice could question her, they heard Saffron approach.

“You two okay?”

“Yes,” Sophie whispered back. “What did you find?”

“Come with me. If you see any of them, freeze. Although I don’t think they’ll hear us over the noise they’re making.”

They followed Saffron through the maze of vents. Alice had wondered how they knew their way around until Sophie explained that they’d been in the vents many times, practicing in case they needed to hide. It had been their escape plan, she’d explained.

Saffron came to a stop. She pointed down at a grate before moving over it so Sophie could have a look.

The other woman took in a sharp breath before moving away. Alice peered down into the room below. At first, she didn’t know what she was seeing. Then she bit back a cry of horror. Bodies were sprawled inside the small storage room. At first glance, it appeared they were sleeping. Then she noticed the patch of red on one of the men’s chest. There were seven, she counted. Which meant there were five missing. Five crew.

Had the others murdered these crew members before escaping? It certainly seemed that way. Who was missing? She forced herself to study them closer. Both the pilot and co-pilot were absent. Mark and Jon weren’t here either. Maisy had been right about Mark then. She prayed her friend was all right. What if they had forced her to go with them? Alice let out a shaky breath. She didn’t have time to fall apart. She took another look. One of the cooks was missing too. The one she’d overheard say that today was the day. Had he been talking about this? What was going on?

A terrified scream broke her thoughts, and she stiffened, raising her head to look at Saffron and Sophie.

“Looks like they’ve found the women,” Saffron said.

Oh God. Alice wasn’t sure she could take much more.

***

Jaxan took a seat in the meeting room aboard the small spaceship. This ship didn’t carry as much weaponry as one of their larger ships, but it was light and fast.

He looked around at the other warriors, who looked tense and angry. Sitting around and waiting wasn’t easy for a warrior. Zerconian males tended to be physical. They liked action. But for now, they had to wait.

Because this ship wasn’t fully armed, they’d have to use stealth rather than outright force. Two of their warships were following, but they were more than twenty-four hours behind them. Que was commander for one of those ships, Alek was commander of the other. Toriq had requested to be on this ship. While most females feared him because of his size, Toriq would lay down his life to protect a female.

Along with Jaxan and Toriq, there were twenty other Zerconian warriors aboard, including Macon. An argument had erupted when Rich and Annabel had insisted on joining them. Macon had refused to even contemplate the idea of his mate joining them. And he hadn’t wanted Rich to come either.

Rich had put an end to that when he’d pointed out that he was the only one with access to the tracking software, and that Alice was his responsibility. It had taken longer for Annabel to change Macon’s mind. Jaxan knew he still wasn’t pleased she was coming with them, but when Empress Zoey and Mila supported her, Macon must have realized he was fighting a losing battle.

Annabel walked in and sat next to Rich, glaring at Macon who stood at the head of the table. He had taken command of this ship.

“She should not be here,” Toriq muttered. “What was Macon thinking?”

“I imagine he was thinking that he wanted to keep his shaft attached to his body,” Safan muttered from Toriq’s other side. “That female is fierce. Do not worry. I believe she can take care of herself.”

“She is still a female,” Toriq replied stubbornly.

“We are making good time,” Macon said suddenly, staring around at everyone as they quieted. Everyone except for the pilot was gathered for this meeting, even Racar, their healer. “The tracking signal is moving in this direction.” He pointed at the holographic map. “However, it is moving slowly. It should take us less than twenty-four hours to reach the ship.”

“What then?” Safan asked. “We are in no position to attack without back-up. Particularly if this is a large warship.”

“We will gather what intelligence we can about who we are up against. Our warships are not far behind us. We will wait for them to make a move.”

“And if we can’t wait for them?” Rich asked. “Who knows what is happening to Alice?”

Jaxan felt that fear himself. He didn’t know this female, but he could only imagine how terrified she was right now, how lost and alone she probably felt.

Macon turned to him. “Nobody likes waiting, Rich, but we have to see what we are up against and formulate a plan. We will find Alice and the other females.”

We are coming, little female. Just hang on.

 

***

Alice drew in a deep breath, fury clawing at her, ripping her apart from the inside out. She had never been so utterly furious in her life. An alien grabbed Margo, pulling her roughly to her feet. She cried out and the alien back-handed her, his voice sharp and filled with anger. As she fell to the floor, the other aliens let out this strange snorting noise that she guessed was laughter. Her hands balled into fists, as she listened to the helpless cries of the women below them.

She hated this. Hated it.

As she watched through the grate, the aliens placed collars on each of the women. Only two women objected, Maria and Sara. The aliens tore their clothes off, ignoring their cries, and slapped at their bodies, hitting their breasts, stomachs, legs, and backsides until the women crawled into balls on the floor. The aliens roughly placed collars around their necks. The other women watched on, sobbing, their faces filled with horror.

Tears dripped down her face. She needed to do something. Yet, what could she do? She was one woman against hundreds of monsters. When all of the collars were secured, a light on them flashed red. Suddenly the women were pulled into the air, they cried out, clawing at their collars as though they were strangling them, their legs dangling in the air as the aliens laughed once more.

Another command was barked out, and the women were dropped to the floor, panting heavily.

“What do you want with us?” Bianca asked, talking in Standard, the common language used by a number of races for trading purposes.

Alice wasn’t sure they’d speak Standard. So it surprised her when one turned to Bianca and spoke. “Do with you? We plan to kill you.”

That awful laughter broke out again. Then the same alien barked out a command in his own language, and the women were herded down the passageway.

The silence they left behind was deafening—and more terrifying than anything she had ever experienced.

***

Jaxan stared out at the enormous spaceship before them. Anger filled him, making it hard for him to think.

“Stars! Coizils.” Toriq stood beside him.

“In the biggest motherfucking spaceship I’ve ever seen,” Annabel added, looking up from where she was working on her tablet.

Motherfucking? Wasn’t fucking another word for joining? Why would you wish to fuck your mother? That was disgusting. And how did that term apply to a spaceship? Jaxan looked over and found Toriq appeared just as confused as he was. He shrugged it off. They had more important things to worry about right now.

Like how they could they possibly win a fight against this spaceship? Even with Kyle’s cloaking invention, which gave them some advantage, they were still outnumbered and outgunned.

“How do you know it’s Coizils?” Rich asked.

“The yellow symbol on the side of the ship,” Jaxan explained. “They place it on all their ships.”

“Subtle,” Annabel said.

“No, not subtle at all.” He shook his head at their arrogance.

“Toriq, contact our warships,” Macon ordered. “Apprise them of the situation and tell them to approach using stealth mode. Safan, contact Koran. Tell him we need more back-up.”

Safan and Toriq nodded and left the room.

“They really can’t see us, can they?” Rich mused. “This cloaking device Kyle invented is amazing. You could make a fortune selling it.”

“Not for sale,” Macon told him.

“In the wrong hands, it could be disastrous,” Jaxan added.

“You guys are so noble it’s sickening.”

“They just have morals, unlike you.” Annabel smiled, softening her words.

Rich didn’t seem to take offense. “So what’s the plan? How are we getting them out?”

Macon shook his head. “We cannot do anything against such a large battleship. It is like nothing I have seen before. I did not realize the Coizils even had such at their disposal. We need to follow them and wait for back-up.”

“And how long will that fucking take?” Rich snapped. “We can’t sit here and do nothing. What if they kill Alice while we just stand around with our thumbs up our asses?”

That sounded disgusting. But Jaxan understood Rich’s frustration, he felt it deep in his gut. They had to get the women out and the quicker, the better.

“We will be slaughtered if we try to attack,” Macon stated. “Even with our two warships, we are outnumbered. We do not know what capabilities they have. We wait.”

Annabel smiled. “Actually, while the rest of you are busy arguing, some of us were working. Look.” A holographic projection of the warship appeared in the middle of the room. “I’ve hacked into their system and downloaded blueprints of the ship. Here it is laid out at each level. This thing is huge. And it’s well-fortified. It’s going to take a lot of firepower to take this sucker down.”

Jaxan’s frustration mounted as he studied the plans. There were at least four times as many weapons on this ship as there were on just one of the Zerconians warships.

“We have to wait for more back-up,” Macon stated.

“But your ships all have stealth mode. Doesn’t that give you the advantage?” Rich asked.

“Not as much of an advantage as having a kick-ass hacker on your team,” Annabel said, pumping her fist. “I’m in.”

“In what?” Macon asked.

“In their system. Like, totally in. I could take it over if I wanted. Well, not all of it. They’ve been smart, and not everything is run by one system. You have to enter each separate system.”

“Could you shut down the engines and weapons?” Macon asked.

“Sure could. If I had time. But we don’t have hours. Plus, even if we shut their weapons and engines down, we’re outnumbered four to one by my calculations. We can wait for our two war ships to arrive and enter by force, but it’ll be a tough fight. But I have another plan. I can open the cargo doors, we could sneak inside, grab the women and get out.”

 “With no one noticing?” Macon said skeptically. He shook his head. “No.” He paced back and forth across the room. “I need to speak to Que and Alek. We will formulate a plan.” He strode out of the room.

Rich leaned back in his chair. “Jesus, I’ll be old and gray before they ever come up with some sort of plan.”

“You’re already going gray,” Annabel told him.

Jaxan tuned them out as his sense of urgency grew. They had to rescue these women. Now.

***

“We have to help them,” she urged Sophie and Saffron. “You heard that alien. They’re going to kill them.”

“And how can we help them without getting killed ourselves?” Saffron asked. “There are three of them against how many of them? They’re bigger than us, they’re armed, and they outnumber us. Not to mention we have no idea where they’ve taken the others, and even if we do find them, what then? How will we free them? Where will we take them if we do free them? How are we going to get fifty women off this ship?”

“You make it sound impossible,” Alice muttered.

“It is impossible. We wait here.”

“Look, my cousin will come for me. I contacted him before we were taken and he’ll find us. But I don’t know when he’ll get here. They could kill those women before he arrives.”

“Your cousin? You spoke to him?” Sophie asked.

“Well, no, I left a message.”

“So you don’t even know if he’s coming or not. And how is he going to rescue us? Is he bringing an army?” Saffron scoffed.

“Rich has his way of getting things done. He’s coming.”

“All the more reason to wait here, where it’s safe,” Saffron pointed out.

“Safe for us. Not safe for them.” It didn’t feel right to just sit doing nothing.

“Have you tried contacting him again?” Sophie asked.

“No, I turned my communicator off. I wanted the charge to last as long as possible. I’ll turn it on now.” She switched it on, and it beeped wildly.

“I’ve got twenty messages.” She scrolled through them. “All from Rich.” Rather than go through them, she decided it would be easier just to speak to him. She placed the communicator on speaker so the others could hear.

“Alice!” Rich’s voice reverberated through the vents, making her wince. She turned the volume down. Saffron kept watch through the grate. “Where the hell are you?”

“Hi, cousin. How are you?” she replied weakly.

“Where are you? Are you safe? How the hell did you manage to get yourself kidnapped by Coizils?”

“I didn’t do this to myself,” she said, offended. “How do you know who took us?”

“Because we’re looking at their ship right now.”

“You are?” Thank God. “How did you find us?”

“Your communicator has a tracker in it.”

“You put a tracker in my communicator? That’s how you always knew where I was. Smart.” She smiled. “But I turned it off. How did you still find us?”

“There’s a little chip inserted into the back cover of your communicator. It’s not powered by your communicator.”

“I’ve never heard of Coizils. Why would they take us?”

“They’ve got a hard-on for the Zerconians. We’re guessing it’s revenge.”

“Rich!” Someone protested before there she heard some scuffling noises. “Alice?”

“Annabel?” Some of the tension left her as she heard her cousin’s voice. “Are you okay? Did you have your mating ceremony?”

“We’ll chat later. Right now, I need to know everything you can tell me about your situation.”

“Okay. Well, I’m all right. I’m hiding in the vents of our transporter. Two of the women are with me. We hid here when we realized some of the crew deserted us and took all the escape shuttles.”

Annabel drew in a deep breath. “What?”

“Yeah. There were plenty of escape shuttles, but they took them all. There are about fifty women still here. Some of the women must have gone with the crew. Oh, not all the crew, though. W-we found some crew. They’ve been s-shot.”

“All right.” Annabel’s voice remained calm and steady. “So you’re safe for the moment.”

“Yes, I guess so. The other women aren’t, though. I tried to convince them to hide, but they wouldn’t listen.” Tears dripped down her face, and she wiped them away.

“Not your fault, Alice,” Annabel told her. “You were smart to hide. You’ve got to stay hidden until we get to you.”

“But the other women, they’re going to kill them!”

Annabel took in a sharp breath. “They said that?”

“Yes. We watched as they captured the other women. They put these collars around them, then marched them out of the transporter.”

“Collars?”

“Like they were animals. The collars had flashing red lights.”

“Slave collars,” Annabel said grimly. “If they get away, they can track them. We’ll need to remove them. Good, you’re doing good, Alice.”

“No, I’m not. I have to do something. Only I’ve had it pointed out that three women against hundreds of these aliens don’t stand a chance.”

“Hey, I’d put my money on you anytime. You’re worth a thousand of these idiots.”

There were more scuffling noises.

“You stay where you are, you hear me?” Rich ordered. “You’re not to risk yourself for a bunch of idiots who were too stupid to hide when they had the chance.”

Her cousin wasn’t the most empathic person. She noticed Saffron nodding in agreement.

Alice sighed and rubbed the headache forming in her temple. “I couldn’t live with myself if I sat around and did nothing while they were being harmed.”

“You will live, though. We’re making a plan to sneak on board. You wait for us. Right there, Alice. Hear me?”

“You’re yelling loud enough to start an avalanche. I hear you.”

There was the sound of arguing in the background then more static. What was going on there?

“Alice Carmody?”

She didn’t recognize the low, commanding voice.

“Y-yes, who’s this? Where’s my cousin?”

“He is otherwise occupied.”

She frowned as she heard yelling.

“You better not harm him,” she said fiercely.

“He is well.”

She relaxed slightly.

“For the moment.”

She tensed once more. “Who are you?”

“I am Macon. Annabel’s mate.”

“Oh, hi, I’m Alice. I guess we’re cousins.”

“Zerconians do not have cousins.”

Okay, she guessed that was his way of telling her he didn’t want to be related to her. It was fine. She wasn’t hurt or anything.

“We do not usually have siblings. But you are Annabel’s family, therefore my responsibility.”

She didn’t like that word, responsibility. Made it sound like she was a nuisance.

“You’re right, we’re not cousins. So I’m not your responsibility.”

“I am not interested in your opinion on this.”

She almost gasped. What a-a rude man. She could think of stronger words to use, but that wasn’t who she was.

“I wish to get you and the other females out of there safely. The threat against the females means that we will have to risk sneaking on board. Annabel assures me she can open the cargo doors without setting off any alarms. But we need to know that the cargo bay is clear. I do not like to ask this of a delicate female, but can you help us?”

Delicate female?

“Wow, it’s kind of hard to believe that you are mated to Annabel,” she muttered.

“I need to know the situation before we progress. Can you get this information for me, female?”

“Alice. And yeah, I’ll get it. Ten-four, rubber ducky out.” She turned her communicator to silent.

“Rubber ducky out?” Saffron stared at her incredulously.

She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not certain these Zerconians are going to be quite what I thought.” Not if Macon’s attitude was any indication. But perhaps she should be more forgiving. He was probably tense because of the situation. They were risking themselves to save her.

Yes, he was probably just a bit grumpy because he was scared.

“I can’t believe they’re going to sneak onboard,” Sophie said.

“They’ll get us out of here. Rich doesn’t give up once he’s made his mind up about something. I guess I need to go make sure there’s no one in the cargo bay when they sneak in.”

The other two were silent for a moment. Oh sugar, she’d really been hoping they would come with her. It didn’t matter. She was tough. She was smart. She could do this on her own.

She hoped.

“I’ll come with you,” Saffron told her.

Relief made her light-headed. “Oh, thank you.”

“Me too,” Sophie offered.

Saffron shook her head. “You stay here. In case something goes wrong, one of us needs to be safe. And it has to be you, okay?”

They stared at each other for a long moment, having a conversation without actually speaking. Finally, Sophie nodded. “All right.”

“Good.” Saffron rubbed her hands together. “Now, we’re going to need some weapons.”