Nova: A Scifi Alien Romance (Rebel Lords) (13 page)

T
he clunky craft
was moving on its linear route as smoothly as ever, with hopefully only hours to go until the return home. Arlo and I leaned against the cool metal wall. The Thinsulate body suits were warm, but not exactly warm enough to protect you from the cold coming from 50,000 square feet of ice. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you where my train of thought had been, I suppose just lingering deeply in the never-ending inner-monologue about how cold it was—whatever I was thinking, though, was ended abruptly by Arlo.

“What I wouldn’t give for a bowl of my mom’s beef stew right now,” he sighed, followed by ‘mhmm mhm mhmmm’. “Warm me up and fill me up. Tired of those nasty bars they feed us.” He gave his arms a rub, a shiver running up his spine. Arlo had been the closest friend I had on the godforsaken ship. He was rather handsome with rich dark brown skin and brown dreadlocks with big caramel eyes and kind smile. In my couple of years working there, Arlo had become a brother to me; the only family I ever felt like I had since leaving home.

I couldn’t help but chuckle, “What I wouldn’t do just be home right now. I would eat those nasty bars for the rest of my life if it meant I never had to come back on the
glorious
Union Jack.” While the meal supplement bars that had all of the daily vitamins and fiber you needed, they tasted like boiled garbage with a strong iron aftertaste—yet I would submit to eating those if it meant I could stay at home forever and not have to worry about that ship or these impossibly long mines for ice. Home being a tiny but cozy apartment in an urbanized area of planet Cycle. When it came to space, it didn’t really matter much when you are gone for days to weeks at a time for work. So as long as I had a place to sleep and shower, I was content.

“Isn’t that the truth,” Arlo chuckled. “I can’t wait to be home. So glad we have a week off before the next trip out. When we land, I’m gonna collect that money and take my brother hoverboarding on the comet strip outside the mesosphere. Well no, first it will have to be to go to my mom’s house to get her cooking.” Arlo’s caramel eyes searched off into the distance as he thought fondly of the return home. After a long content sigh, he finally glanced over at me. "What about you, Amelia? Got any plans for that paycheck?”

“Pay rent first of all,” I snorted. “Other than that, I suppose Cycle is my oyster for seven whole days.”

Just as Arlo opened his mouth to speak, the ship suddenly jolted downwards, making us fall to the cold floor. We started to our knees before the Union Jack tilted sharply to the left. Our bodies tumbled into the wall with a painful thud, luckily we were in a barren hallway so nothing came flying at us. Then, just as quickly as it happened, the ship leveled back out. We both stayed on the ground, looking around as if for some sort of annotation as to what had just happened. We looked at each other and began to give quiet, nervous bits of laughter. Then, the ship seemed to take a nose dive and the red warning lights all about the hall went off, blinking rapidly in every direction.

Grabbing onto the metal column next to the wall, Arlo and I managed to pull ourselves to our feet and held to the column to keep on our feet. There was a metallic click before a voice started in on the intercom, “Attention crew there has been a malfunction in Engine B, so we are heading in for a crash landing on the nearest colony planet. So hold the fuck on!”
Eloquent wording, Captain Hamish
, I thought bitterly to myself. Captain Hamish was nothing less than a brute—a stocky, asshole of a brute. Another metallic click gave before he began to speak again, “Looks like the nearest colony is on Shaviro. So hold on and brace yourselves.”

“
Shaviro?
" Arlo exclaimed. "Great. Well, it was nice knowing you ‘Melia!”

I inwardly groaned. Shaviro was a newly established colony, and word had gotten around that the colony there was at war with the natives. And from the rumors going around, the natives were beast-like and bloodthirsty. Yeah, that definitely wasn't somewhere I would opt for going to. All of the men aboard had all heard the same rumors from the colonies we delivered ice to for a resource of water. No one would want to go there, I was sure of it. But there really wasn't anything anyone could do if we were crash landing.

The ship gave a heave as the Captain set the course for Shaviro, steadying out as its course was set. The projection was still at the nose dive angle, making the ship accelerate at an even faster speed despite the ships struggle to boost into warp drive. Arlo and I held to the column for dear life and prayed that the landing wasn't a complete crash. If I was going to die anytime soon, I didn't want it to be on the Union Jack or Shaviro.

M
y thoughts seemed
to only sour as we moved through the thick jungle, batting large leaves from my path as we searched for prey. It seemed as though even in the deep jungles of Shaviro, there were reminders of the humans lingering in the balance. Scratches covered some of the trees from stray fire from the humans’ guns. My heart gave a painful ache at the reminder of what the war between us and the humans had on the environment as well as the clan itself. Our numbers seemed to slowly deplete by the day. With the only livable area being around the equator of the small planet, and being in a constant conflict with the human colonists, it made it difficult to expand our clan.

We had lost so many lives in the name of useless bloodshed. I yearned for all of it to finally come to an end, to live in peace with the humans or for them to just leave. I was sick of coming back to the clan to find more widows had been made and more children orphaned. Many felt like just giving in, but that would never be the way while I was in charge. Never would we give up our own planet just for these pale beasts to destroy the planet. Already they had dug vast holes into their earth to mine for minerals and metals. They removed the tall, ancient trees from the soil to make way for their expansions. The humans were wasteful, greedy, and violent creatures. Something needed to give and soon, if the clan and our environment were going to prosper into the next generation.

“Dracon, there’s prey up ahead,” Brun called back to me, pulling me from the gloomy thoughts that haunted my mind. I gave a sharp nod and we grew silent, stalking through the trees. Shan and Brun were my two best warriors, Shan being my right-hand man. They were trustworthy men who would put their lives on the line if it meant protecting the village another day, and that was something I would never lose touch of.

“Let’s get this and head back to the village right away. We’ve been gone long enough,” Shan whispered to me. We neared the edge of the tree-line, our slender frames hid well behind the trees. Holding perfectly still, I could hear the faint crunching of leaves underfoot of the prey. Once they were at a certain distance, I gave Brun and Shan a nod. All at once, we launched into the clearing. At first, my eyes widened at the sight of five men; I thought it was going to be wild game, not
humans
. But from the ill-standing between the humans and us, it wasn’t as though we could just retreat and act as though nothing happened. They would think of us as weak for retreating. So, it had to be done.

There was no exchange of words needed between us, and there was no hesitation. Going at the five humans full force, we drew our weapons. Grabbing the metal shaft from my back and giving it a swing, the laser battle-axe took shape. Running at high speed, I swung the ax above my head as I leaped and struck a man down on the shoulder. His flesh was sliced as easy as a piece of fruit, blood spewing from the bone-deep blow. His body fell to the ground with a thud. With one last blow, the man's head was separated from his body. Shan and Brun were already tackling down two of the others, shrieks coming from the unprepared travelers. The sound of their cries attempted to break my resolve, but I held strong as I took down another human with a single blow. Within just a couple of minutes, five bodies were on the jungle ground with various chunks of flesh and body parts missing due to the effective laser weapons. I stood in silence as we stood over the bodies; my eyes fixated on the man I had given a single hit to the back of the head, splitting his cranium open. His thick red blood oozed into the soil. For that long moment, I stood there in anguished silence, I wondered just how much Navanian and human blood had seeped into the ground. Too much, far too much.

My heart went out to these fallen men. How were they to know they would cross our paths and die on that spot? If only the humans would be reasonable, to find some common ground between the species. But we were treated as though
we
were the invaders. Man was a brutal, close-minded and greedy species… but as I stared at the bodies, I knew no one deserved that sort of end. No matter race, no matter species, no matter origins.

W
ell
, the crash wasn’t exactly what I would call smooth, but it definitely wasn’t as bad as it could have been. By some miracle, the drunken Captain Hamish managed to angle the Union Jack in such a way that we gave jolting skips against the ground before coming to a stop- the alternative being crashing violently and in a sonic explosion, obliterating all life and nature around the crash. That wasn't to say it felt nice, Arlo and I had been tossed around the metal corridor, leaving each of us with pretty nasty bruises and killer migraines. How I wasn't dead after my head smashed against the floor as we made impact was beyond me—not like I was complaining, though.

All of the exits opened on the craft, a port just on the other side of the hall opening. Arlo grunted and held his arm as he stood and moved to hop out of the ship. I was a little slower, my head absolutely screaming from the pain. It would pass, but it couldn’t pass soon enough. With one hand holding the top of my head, I managed to climb down from the ship. Stumbling back a bit, I gave a look to the ship along with all the other crew members who stood in the grass. It really didn’t look too bad, but that sparking engine on the back of the ship was definitely causing the problem. My only wish was that the locals could fix it soon and we could hurry home. Our week off between trips was not going to be spent on some savage planet.

Just off in the distance, I could hear someone speaking to Captain Hamish. With one eye closed from the pain of the pressure of my migraine, I glanced over to see what looked like the leader of that colony conversing with Captain Hamish. Captain Hamish was nearly pirate-y looking in contrast to the colony leader. The Union Jack captain was short for a man, with long frizzy white hair, and physique resembled a bowling ball with arms and legs. The possible colony leader was strong with defined muscles, salt and pepper hair, combat styled clothing, and finished off with a robotic arm and eye. The wars there must have been worse than I thought for their leader to get in the cross hairs…

"Oh, of course we can repair the damages. Though those parts you are needing are not cheap, especially for a remote, newly colonized planet like ourselves. Why don’t we go to my headquarters to discuss price and payments,” the local gave the captain a friendly, but seemingly menacing grin.

Hamish just huffed and grumbled something under his breath before turning his head towards the disembarked crew. "Amelia, come with us," he called over to me. Oh, the wonderful perks of being the communications officer… I was hesitant to move from a mixture of my agonizing head, and the fact I just wanted nothing to do with Shaviro. Nothing good could come of crashing there. But… there wasn’t anything I could do to change it and so I may as well do what I can to try and prevent any more madness. Giving a glance to Arlo, I moved to join the captain and the local.

The man with the robotic eye gave me a professional smile, sticking out his robotic arm for a handshake. Grabbing the metal hand, I shook his hand as he introduced himself, “I’m Lyle Grain, leader of the Shaviro colony.”

“Amelia, as I assume you heard,” I gave back a rather forced, pained smile.

“As I did,” he gave a chuckle and then moved to walk them towards headquarters. “You guys are lucky to have crashed within the walls of the city,” Lyle told them. My eyes glanced about to see in the distance a massive white wall surrounding the perimeter. “If you would have landed on the outside of it, there is no telling how long you would have lasted. Probably not long enough for us to get to rescue you.”
Well, that's comforting
. We walked through the city; it looked just as all the other new colonies did. Tall complexes of apartments, strips with shops and factories. It puzzled me really with how ordinary it looked. If this was just like most of the other colony planets, why choose one with dangerous natives to live on? Then again, from what I’ve heard about Shaviro, it hadn’t been fully explored—so most of the people there probably were holding out hope that they would find something worth money.

Finally, Lyle led us into a building in the middle of town, what appeared to be a town hall. The inside was made entirely of an exotic looking wood that I had never seen. It was a brilliant golden yellow in color with the most unique looking grain. My eyes seemed to be consumed by my surroundings, trying to take it all in. We walked through a door and the door closed behind us. Lyle’s office looked like a military tactical tent with maps of local areas displayed on holograms all over the room and attack plans arrayed on each wall. I was in awe, unable to comprehend what life must have been like there. Lyle walked over to his desk and sat in the hovering wingback office chair. He looked to Hamish and me, and Hamish was just as distracted by all of the décor as I was. “Please, have a seat,” Lyle called to both of us, gesturing to the two sleek, hovering chairs in front of his desk. Hesitantly, we walked and sat in front of him. Fat Hamish seemed to grumble and shift quite a bit to get comfortable in the rather small chair.

“So what kind of price range are we talkin’ here,” Hamish asked, clearly aggravated by the crash and wanted to get a move on.

"Well let's see," Lyle said before pulling out a tablet. With waving hand gestures, he maneuvered through the catalog. He seemed to move about at a leisurely pace, making a clicking noise with his tongue as he panned through the screens. "Ah, here we go. Cargo ship parts," he said, scrolling some more. "So for one replacement drive, we are looking at a cost of 200,000 rerums,” Lyle announced, clasping his hands together and looking at us both with such a cheerful expression.

My eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. 200,000 rerums!? For
one
drive for an engine? No one would pay that price! My eyes immediately fell on Captain Hamish, who looked to be battling conflicting emotions.

“Why the hell…. Why… Why is a drive so expensive here? I could buy two dozen drives on any other planet for that price…” Hamish let out in bursts of broken huffs. Ah, poor fellow. For once in his life, Hamish was caught between being an asshole, and needing help from this stranger—which meant being nice.

“Well as you probably know, Shaviro is a bit infamous for the native problem we have had since arriving here six years ago. So, it is difficult as well as expensive to find delivery services willing to do business here. I’m sure you can understand that,” Lyle told them as smoothly as possible, that condescending smile still on his face. What the hell was his deal?

"Well, I don't have that sort of money… I'm a captain of an ice hauler, not a luxury cruiser,” Captain Hamish huffed, throwing his hands up in protest and frustration. “There has got to be another way. We need to get our delivery made and back home before our generators give out and melt that ice.”

Lyle gave an uneasy sigh, clearly being theatrical. This guy was really not putting off good vibes. “Unfortunately, my hands are tied then. 200,000 barely covers the cost of the drive and the labor to repair it. Let alone the cost to house your entire crew for however long the repair may take… Unless,” Lyle’s eyes raised from the desk to Hamish with a smirk on his face. Leaning back in the luxurious chair, he tapped his fingers together, “Unless you and your crew are willing to give payment in another form.”

“What in the bloody hell does that mean?” Hamish questioned, raising one of his wispy white brows at Lyle.

“In order to earn the payment for the repairs, a team of your crew could assist in a raiding one of the central tribes of the hideous natives,” Lyle proposed. “In our years here, there has been so much bloodshed and no understanding between us and those beasts. We want to know what they have, and what materials they use. That way we know what to look for. Raid the village and bring back as many samples from their tribe as possible, and our colony will pay for your drive as well as do the repair for free.”

“You’ll pay 200,000 rerums just for us to raid some primitive village?” Hamish asked in disbelief.

Lyle gave a slow nod, "Understanding our enemy as well as what potential this planet has in terms of materials and goods is very, very important to us. We would go to extreme lengths just to get the little extra help. Even 200,000 rerums.”

“Well, alright then. Sure, as long as my ship is prepared in time for our delivery,” Hamish nodded.

My face drained of color. Was he really willing to feed his men to the wolves like that? "Sir, with all due respect, we aren't trained in any form of combat. We're ice miners, we don't fight. Sending a team of those guys out there would be sending them to the slaughterhouse," I tried to reason with Hamish. Sure, not all the men on the Union Jack were exactly delicate flowers, but hardly any of them had been in any sort of combat.

"Well, I guess you'll be learnin’ on your feet, won’t you?” Hamish spat at her with a glare.

You'll? Is he really going to send ME?
Oh, there was no way, I was certain I would die against the horrendous beasts. "But sir—"

“Suck it up,
officer
!” Hamish snapped at me, using my title as a way of ‘putting me in my place’. Hamish returned his gaze to Lyle. “They’ll do it.”

“Excellent,” Lyle grinned.

Well, it looked like I was going to die on Shaviro after all.