I didn’t see his action coming, but I should have. Cade lashed forward, hands edging around my throat. His smile widened as he closed his palms.
“I want to fuck that pretty mouth of yours, slut,” he sneered.
“Stand down!”
Juliana came rushing to my aid. She pulled him back, but he quickly turned her around and firmly planted her arms behind her head.
“Oh, what a day!” he shouted. “Two for the price of one. Now, now, Juliana. Don’t sit so still. You’ll take all the fun out of this.”
I ran my hands across my throat. I caught my breath. Disbelief ran through my mind as I dug through my jacket, looking for a weapon. I wasn’t thinking straight. He tried to kill me. I wanted to do worse.
I went to grab my remote, but it fell from my hands. Cade hammered his fist against Juliana’s cheek and came after me, laughing maniacally.
“No.” I screamed and kicked my heel against his chest. I grabbed ahold of the railing above me, twisting around in order to fight back. But I was powerless, and he knew it.
“I have you now, little puppet,” he whispered.
Juliana was down. I could feel his fingers grasping at my clothes. I gasped, saw the look of determination in his face, and then I saw him.
From above, I saw him waiting in the vents, eyeing us. Eyeing me.
His body was massive, strong, and covered in tribal markings. As Cade tried to have his way, our eyes connected, and the being shown himself in all his glory. He dropped to the floor, but Cade was one step ahead of him. From his ankle, he revealed a kitchen knife. He swung it into the alien’s gut.
Strangely, the being did not move or indicate pain. He swung down, taking Cade’s hand and squeezed it until the fingers cracked loudly. I jerked out of Cade’s grasp, watching as the alien rose, pulling Cade into the air like a small puppy.
The alien was incredibly tall and muscular in a way I had truly never seen before. He was magnificent.
Before he acted, he turned to me and growled. “Death.”
“Don’t,” I said. “Don’t kill us.”
Without a word, the alien huffed and dropped Cade to the floor. He pulled the blade from his abdomen and dropped it. With haste, I grabbed the remote and smashed th
e button with my thumb. Cade’s ankles and wrists locked to the metallic floor.
The alien left. He went straight back into the mess of ceiling vents, cables, and piping.
“What the f—“
I kicked Cade’s side, causing him to groan and shift in pain. ”Do not fuck with me.” I warned.
Of course, when I looked up, everyone was coming our way. Whenever these situations happened, I had to calm my fears, or the prisoners would revolt. One by one, they could take this entire starship down.
“Did you see it?” someone gawked.
I cracked my neck and straightened my back. “Everyone in the fucking cafeteria!” I screamed. “Now.”
I turned to my folder of recordings and flicked it back on. “So, now you know what we’re dealing with. Goodnight, cruel Earth. Sleep tight, whatever century it is.”
3
Talis
We were slaves. Forced to toil on the land, we broke our backs until the sun burned our flesh. We lost our women, our families, and the homes we owned. Everything, in one instance, was taken from me.
Our unified Nyelan Empire heeded the Sankarian’s warnings. They wanted our resources. It was a risk to stand up against an entire invading civilization. There were great wars throughout history that shattered entire cultures, memories, and knowledge.
I knew the risks. I chose to fight.