The tunnels went much deeper than I’d realized. They were an intricate maze that wound through the mountain. I tried to keep track of the turns and twists, but I lost count. Had they built this themselves or was it naturally made? I wanted to know more about what their position was.

  “How long have you lived in these caves?” I asked.

  Strix slowed his walk and fell in step with us. “My grandfather escaped from the cities when he was but a boy with his family. Many of our mountains have these caverns that were carved out by Psesos over a 100 years ago. The Psesos have long since been eradicated thanks to the orion but the safety they created remains.” He lifted his hand. “We have been living down here for many years and built our own home outside the orion control.”

  “But the orion know that you are here?” I asked. They’d mentioned something about scans.

  “They do not know our exact location. We use jammers so when we shoot down their ships, they have no way of knowing where we are actually located. They are looking for us. That is why we need to get the cruisers operational. We need a way to leave our home. A chance to go someplace where we no longer must look over our shoulders.”

  “I wish there was such a place. I do not think it exists. The orion’s reach stretches to every planet I have ever been too.” It was the truth. Even planets like Haven that were supposed to be safe had the orion guards all over them. This place was the safest place for them.

  “I refuse to believe that we must constantly live in fear. Our children need sunlight. They need a place they can go to play outside. We have the orion and the struzots. It isn’t safe for them to step outside. It is causing our children to be frailer and sicklier than the previous generations. I fear for our survival if we do not do something soon,” Strix said, his voice growing grave as he spoke.

  “How many cruisers do you have?” I asked. If they had a community, they would need several or more to take them off this planet.

  “Seven. Eight if we include yours. We haven’t been able to move it into the caverns yet. The struzots will scour the area most the night looking for anything that might still be alive,” Strix said.

  “How do you keep the struzots out of the big cities? Could you do something like that here?” Max asked.

  “There are shields around the cities, but that takes a great deal of energy. The orion would be able to detect it. We only have power within the walls of the caves. The density of them makes it hard for the orion to pick up on our technology. We unfortunately do not have the tech available to create one outside here safely. Not without being detected anyway. It is why we feel we must leave this planet,” Strix said.

  He stopped and turned to face us. “We do not get many outsiders in our camp. Many have never seen another species. Forgive them if they stare.”

  I was used to it. Grik’s were rare. It had been a long time since I’d seen another one of my kind. Max was even more of an oddity, I was sure. How many humans were in our galaxy?

  We followed Strix into the main cavern. It was bigger than I could have imagined. Tunnels led out of the area into other areas. There were hut like houses that were assembled in this large cavern. There appeared to be a dining hall and several other places. It was a small city. There had to be at least a hundred people here, probably more.

  “Come we have a few free houses ready,” Strix said. He motioned for us to follow him again.

  He was right. We were getting stared at. Most everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch us. Max inched closer to me, and I dropped her hand to wrap an arm around her shoulder instead.

  “Why do you have extra housing?” I asked.

  “We try to plan ahead for refugees. After surviving the journey, they are often tired and hungry. We want them to be welcome.” Strix led the way through the area and to a hut. He pushed on the door and motioned for us to go in first.

  I went in and Max followed behind me. Strix came in too. “It isn’t much. We have communal meals and showers. Everyone has a job to contribute to the community. Yours will of course be working on the ships. We can get you clothing if needed and some more linens as well.”

  “Extra clothing and linens would be appreciated.” We only had the clothes we’d been taken in. I wasn’t wearing an orion uniform.

  “I’ll have them brought to you after our morning meal. We have food offered for about an hour at each gathering and you can come anytime you like during the hour.”

  “Thank you.” I was still weary of them, but so far, they seemed to be what they said they were. They’d been far more accommodating than I’d anticipated. I hadn’t expected a whole hut to ourselves. It consisted of one room and one bed. At least there was enough room for me to sleep on the floor.

  Strix bowed to us and then left the room, shutting the door behind him.

  Max went to the bed and sank down on it. She pushed her hands into the furs and then laid back. “It’s actually quite comfortable. I didn’t know what to expect for an alien mattress.”

  “You can have the bed to yourself. I will take the floor.” I wanted to clear the air right away, so things didn’t become awkward.

  She sat up and crossed her legs in front of her. Her eyes narrowed and she chewed on her bottom lip for a moment before she spoke. “Why did you tell them we were mates?”

  “Not all men are understanding of women who are unclaimed. They would insist on taking you for themselves.” I’d seen it happen many times. Not all species bore a mark when they’d met their eternal love, so it was an easy enough lie.

  She nodded in understanding. “We have men on Earth that can be pretty deplorable too.”

  “That is unfortunate. I think it is safer for us to continue to let everyone believe we are mates. I do not want anything to happen to you.”

  Max smiled at me. “I appreciate that. Loc, you have been amazing. I hate that I was abducted but I’m glad that since I was, I’m with you. You’ve made this ordeal a whole lot easier.” She studied me for a long moment and then began adjusting the furs on the bed. “I can’t let you sleep on the floor. You need rest even more than I do. You were injured and they are counting on you to fix their ships.” She patted the bed which she had somehow made in to two different sections. “We can share.”

  “I’m not sure that is wise. We are unmated.” I couldn’t believe what she was offering. I wanted to share a space with her, but the bed was small. There was no way we wouldn’t touch. If I found her body pressed against mine, I had no doubt my body would react.

  “If you’re worried about my virtue, don’t. That ship sailed a long time ago.”

  “I...what?” I had no idea what she just said.

  “I’m divorced.”

  My confusion grew. The language chip only did so much. Some of her words didn’t translate into any known words which was making this conversation a lot harder.

  “I had a mate. He decided he wanted to be with someone else instead,” Max said. The smile fell from her face, and she looked down at her hands as she flexed her fingers and wiggled them.

  “Your mate left you for someone else?” I couldn’t believe it. Max was gorgeous and strong. She had a fiery disposition, and she didn’t quit. Why would any man leave her?

  She shrugged. “He’s an asshole.”

  Asshole didn’t translate but I got the gist of what she meant by it. “He is an asshole,” I agreed. “Any man that would leave you is a fool.”

  “Thanks.” Her smile came back but it looked sad. “My family keeps telling me that, but you know, they are my family. They have to say that.”

  “Your family sounds very wise.”

  She laughed out loud at that, and I couldn’t help but smile. Her laugh was like the sound of waves crashing on my home world, magical. “Don’t let them hear you say that though. Especially my brother Eric. It will go straight to his head.”

  “I would like to hear more about your family,” I said. They sounded similar to mine. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about them.

  She patted the bed again. “Only if you come sit down.”

  I shouldn’t join her. My feet had another idea. I shuffled over to her and sat on the opposite side of the bed. She rewarded me with another bright smile.

  “What would you like to know about my family?” she asked. She clasped her hands together and then lay back making herself comfortable.

  “You have a brother?” I prompted.

  “Yes, an older brother, Eric. He’s married and has two kids, Lexie, and Bryant. They are amazing. I love spoiling them, so do my parents. My mom and dad have been married for almost forty years. I’m kind of the black sheep in my family. Everyone else is disgustingly in love. I thought I had that with Doug.” Her face fell. “He didn’t think so. He fell in love with my best friend, Lara. Some friend, huh?”

  “They sound very dishonorable.” Both of them sounded like fools.

  She shrugged. “They didn’t seem to care too much about honor. I can’t believe I was so stupid.”

  “Love blinds us at times. We see only what we want to see,” I said. It was something my mother had told me after my grandfather had suddenly passed away from an illness. He’d seemed fine. No one had known he was dying until he was gone.

  “What happened to your family?” Max asked.

  I looked down at the furs. It had been a long time since I spoke of my family. It was too painful. “Griks are known for fighting. We fought off the orion for many years. But their ships were more advanced than ours. Eventually we lost, unable to keep up with their tech. They took family units and added them to the gladiator arena. My parents, younger brother and sister were all put in the arena with my father and me. I’d started training to be a warrior. They hadn’t. The griks were so busy trying to protect their families that they didn’t revolt against our orion masters.”

  “I’m sure you would have if it had been a choice,” Max said quietly.

  I considered her words for a long moment. “Perhaps. It was a challenging time for us.” The memory of our capture and sale into slavery was a bit hazy for me. We’d been drugged until we reached our new home in the arena. Then we’d been kept separate, even from our own family. “When they took us from our homes, they sold families off to gladiator slavers. They put grik families against seasoned gladiator groups to see which were the strongest. We had no choice but to fight.” I drew in a deep breath as the horror washed over me again. I’d watched each of them die and had been powerless to stop it. “My mother was the first to die. She died defending, Ezette, my sister. She was killed by a man from our village. They made us fight each other, and if we refused, they tortured us. Doxon, my brother was the next to die just a few days later and then my father. I tried to protect Ezette, but I couldn’t.” Shame filled me. I’d never forget the day I lost Ezette. She’d looked up at me with her bright blue eyes full of pain.

  Max put her hand over mine. “It’s not your fault, Loc. You were put in a horrible situation.”

  “We should have banded together to fight the orion slavers. We could have overpowered them. We were so blinded by our love for our family that we turned on each other to protect our own. It is shameful.” We were responsible for our own extinction. There were only a few of us left and there was no way we’d be able to repopulate our species.

  “It’s still not your fault. Family always comes first. That’s my motto. In the same situation so many others would have done the same thing.”

  I looked at my hands. I could still see all the blood on them. In my heart I knew it was the orion’s doing, not my own. “If the other grik families that were held together at the arena had banded together somehow to overthrow them we might not have lost so many.”

  “Is that how you got away, by banding together with other gladiators?” Max asked.

  I nodded. “It wasn’t until years later. Their deaths did nothing to ease my pain. Too many died in the arenas. Good people. I heard another person bought the arena and it started up again with all new gladiators just a few rotations later.”

  “Rotation? Is that like between day and night?” Max asked.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s awful. And nobody stops the orion?”

  “Prince Kellan, the King’s brother, tried once. It gave many people a lot of hope for a time. Not enough of them rallied behind him, though. They were too scared. He was defeated. There has not been an uprising since. The orion are not a strong race, but they are technologically advanced. They populate fast and they have managed to obtain a species like no other that they can control. Daemons have the ability to teleport, and they can manipulate fire. It makes them an extraordinarily strong adversary for most people.” My thoughts drifted to Kai. He’d boarded the ship with Gray. The orion had fired on us and their cruiser. Was it possible he was starting another uprising? I hoped so. I had to hope that Aurora and Echo were in safe hands with the two of them.

  “We are going to help the scurcain then?” Max asked quietly.

  “We can help them with the ships. I don’t know of anywhere safe in this galaxy to run.” I’d meant it earlier there was nowhere safe here. The orion were on every planet. The scurcain would be better off staying here if possible. Or flying the cruisers and staying in space, that was what we did on the Nightfall to avoid capture. Neither option would be good for the young. I hated to see children suffer. I gritted my teeth.

  Max yawned and stretched her arms over her head. “We will find a way. I feel that in my heart. We should get some rest. Then we can think again with a clear head.”

  I moved so that she could get some more of the furs. “It has been a trying day.”

  I watched as Max snuggled under the blankets. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her breathing evened out. Sleep would not come to me so easily. I had to think of a way to get Max home and help the scurcain.

  My eyes drifted over Max’s sleeping form. She looked so peaceful. Beautiful. She didn’t belong in my world. I had to keep her safe. She was precious. My feelings for her were different than what I felt for Aurora and Echo. I coveted her. But it could never be. I was going to get her home, and she’d already said that there was no one like me on Earth.

  Chapter Nine

  Max

  The rain had a purple tint. It was beautiful. I hadn’t had the chance to take in the scenery yesterday since we were running for our lives. The trees had a teal tint to them. The ground, I didn’t have words to describe it. It looked like rock, but the vegetation growing across it puzzled me. It was warm out, the air was fresh, but the rain was unrelenting.

  We wore something similar to a poncho as we trekked through the trees toward our crashed ship. We were accompanied by a group of scurcain, some carried blasters others carried something like a knife. The knife had a tip that glowed when turned on. I was too afraid to ask what it did if it touched something living.

  The weapons and escorts reminded me there were creatures on this planet that would kill and eat us if given the opportunity. I shuddered at the thought. It made me want to get back home. I peered over at Loc. He was facing straight ahead and didn’t seem to notice me staring.

  Wisps of his long hair had fallen out from his hood and were plastered to his poncho. When I got home, I’d never see him again. There was no way he could safely stay on Earth. He looked human in some ways, but he was very much an alien in others. It would be too dangerous for him to stay. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to him.

  After my time here, I had a feeling that there was at least a little truth to every Roswell, Area 51, and every other alien conspiracy theory there was. The orion had been coming to Earth for years. Their skin was very blue. So where did the green aliens in myths come from? God, I hoped there wasn’t another set of aliens running around and coming to Earth that we didn’t know about.

  “The ship doesn’t look horribly damaged,” Loc said drawing me from my thoughts.

  I tore my gaze away from him, realizing that I’d been staring. My eyes landed on the ship. Dirt was smeared across the front of it where it had run aground. A long scratch tore into the side, but otherwise it seemed to be unmolested.

  “Do you think it can fly?” I asked, hopeful.

  Loc looked at the ship and then back at me. “It will need some work. She’ll fly again. It’s not nearly as damaged as I thought.”

  “Do you think Suzie is okay?” I asked. Maybe it was silly of me to worry over a robot, but she’d saved our lives, and she seemed nice if that were possible.

  “If she docked properly, she should be.”

  I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face.

  “We might be able to put her to use to get supplies around the ship. She should be fairly familiar with the layout and where everything is even if she is a med droid.”

  “How bad do you think the scurcain’s ships are compared to ours?” I asked. We’d made a deal to fix them in exchange for shelter.

  “I don’t know. I know my way around a ship. If the haul isn’t damaged and we can scrounge together parts, we should be able to salvage something.”

  I hoped he was right about that. I didn’t want to get stuck on this planet for the rest of my life. My bottom lip trembled. My parents must be worried out of their minds about me. They were probably fearing the worst at this point. It would be a while before I made it home if I even did. I didn’t want to imagine what they were going through.

  “Wait.” Loc’s arm shot out to stop me in my tracks.

  I froze, his warmth seeping into me. I looked to him for a moment before movement caught my eye. The side of the ship was opening to form a ramp so we could enter. I needed to pay better attention. Strange alien planet, I chided myself.

  Once the ramp touched the ground we began to board. It was smaller than I remembered. I shuddered as we passed the holding cells we’d been in not too long ago. How many people had been prisoners on this ship? I was one of the lucky few who got to escape.

  Loc put his hand on my shoulder. I glanced back at him, surprised to see understanding in his eyes. “Come. There is nothing in there for us.”

 

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