Hello! This is my first installment this story. I'm unsure how many Chapters it will end up having, so please be patient and stick around. I love reading comments so please do drop me a line and let me know how you're liking it! Enjoy...
~~
Zoe frantically flicked through the readouts on her terminal. There had to be some way to increase power... Another blast rocked the ship and she ground her teeth, glanced out the viewport. The ship was drifting as the second engine sputtered out. She cursed under her breath, tried to hold onto her threatening panic. Beside her, Rin cursed loudly as he thumbed at the weapons array. Zoe knew it was no use, she'd already tried to reroute the power from weapons to the engines and everything was fried.
Rin turned to her, his face angry. "Any ideas? Looks like we're screwed."
"Reason with them?" she said drily.
Rin snorted and pulled out his sidearm. "Let's take out as many as we can."
"Won't that just provoke them further?" Zoe said, but pulled out her pistol as well. As one, they turned to the bulkhead door and Zoe gripped her pistol between her sweaty palms.
A grinding sound suddenly broke the eerie silence and sparks began to fly on the door. Any moment now. Rin again looked to her, his eyes narrowing with determination. "Remember, save your last round, better to die than be taken. You know what they do to prisoners."
Zoe set her mouth. Would she rather die than be taken? Death seemed so...final. With life...even as prisoner of the Oathkeepers, there was always a chance. A chance of escape. Of revenge. She gritted her teeth and raised the pistol.
~~
Aegis tensed his fingers; Scout was nearly through the door. Word was there were two inside, the pilot and a captain. Male and female. As the door crashed open gunfire sounded within. Aegis threw up his shield in front of the others and stepped into the room, taking in the two humans in an instant. Average male, older with the blue flight suit of the confederation. The female gave him pause. She was...unique. He felt a moment of pity for the lovely woman with her pale hair and wide blue eyes. Then Wing dashed in behind him and quickly disarmed her. As his comrade knocked the woman to the ground, Aegis watched as the male raised his pistol. Realization hit him almost too late, the male aimed his weapon at the blond woman. Aegis quickly sidestepped, blocking her and Wing from the pistol fire. Dropping his shield, he lunged towards the men, knocking him back against the wall. With a sickening crunch, the man crumpled. Damn, he'd hit him too hard. Aegis realized instantly the man was dead.
Scout came up next to him, glanced down at the bleeding human on the ground. "That was unnecessary," his friend quipped. Scout glanced to Wing and the female. The slender warrior was pulling the human to her feet. She struggled, her eyes growing frantic as the three looked her over. Aegis felt another pang at the terror that was apparent in her face, she ground her teeth and continued to try to pull her wrists from Wing's iron grasp.
"If you struggle you only hurt yourself," Aegis said in his attempt at a calming voice. It didn't work, she shrank from him, a shiver going through her as he stepped forward. He couldn't hold it against her. Humans were so small, so fragile compared to his kind.
"Scout, strip the ship," he commanded. "Wing, bring her." He turned and exited back through the destroyed bulkhead into his ship. With luck, they'd be gone in only a few short hours. He kicked himself for killing the male. Paragon would be displeased. It was a waste of resources. Inefficient. Hopefully the lovely female would make up for it... Aegis glanced back to Wing and the woman. She'd set her mouth in a hard line, but seemed to have accepted there was no escape. It boded well for her that she learned fast.
~~
Zoe's wrists were aching as the slender alien dragged her after him. The leader-she presumed-stalked ahead of them. She'd never seen an Oathkeeper in the flesh. They were even more intimidating than the pictures her instructors at flight school at painted. And so very tall. She knew they could reach heights of nearly eight feet, by the looks at how the leader towered over the other two, she was guessing he pushed right at the top end of that spectrum. Zoe had always felt tall, at 5'10, she was used to being imposing...but now surrounded by these savage, monstrous aliens she suddenly realized how vulnerable she was.
The one that dragged her seemed to be of the blue class, average height for an Oathkeeper, with pale blue skin, though she knew some blues' color ranged to a deep indigo. The one they'd left on her ship was the white class and the smallest with pale skin that ranged from milky-white to soft beige. But then there was the onyx class, like the leader that stalked in front of her. Jet black skin that rippled and shone in the light. She'd seen the psychic shield he'd thrown up as they barged onto her ship. His was a class meant only for war, their gifts were weapons and shields and other instruments of destruction.
Of course, it wasn't just their size and strange coloring that set them apart from humans. The taut wings that sprang from their backs gave them the look of demons. But they weren't devils or angels. They were aliens. Aliens that were very unhappy at the human confederation that pressed into their territory.
The little group stopped in front of an arching doorway and the leader swiped at the door, it slid open and he stepped to the side. The blue one that still grasped her wrists shoved her forward into the room. Zoe stumbled, before she could turn the door whooshed shut behind her. She was alone. Shivering, she hugged herself and turned in a circle around the room. Or cell. She supposed it was small for an Oathkeeper, just a simple bed, a sink and toilet. Everything seemed oversized to her though. Like she was goldilocks stumbled into the wrong house. Sitting on the bed, Zoe finally felt the adrenaline drain from her limbs. It seeped from her fingers, her toes. Tears sprang to her eyes and she again glanced around the room, tried to push away the image of Rin bashed against the wall. He'd been trying to kill her. Better dead than captured... Zoe didn't want to die. But now, surrounded by aliens, on the way to their Paragon...she knew no humans ever returned. She would likely be tortured or put to work in a labor camp. Likely both.
Setting her mouth and pushing the tears away, Zoe stood. There was always a chance. As long as she was alive. There was a chance.
~~
Scout set the ship on course back to Homeworld and Aegis finally relaxed. This mission was nearly a disaster, he was still annoyed at himself for killing the male. But when the man raised his weapon to the female, it was unacceptable. She was the priority after all. Aegis hoped Paragon would understand...
Standing from the command center he stretched, let his wings unfurl just a bit. "All right, I'm going to check on our passenger."
Scout chuckled as he set his short legs on his console. "Check? You going to test her out before Paragon?"
Aegis glared at him. "You know that's forbidden."
Scout smirked, "I know."
Aegis rolled his eyes and exited the command center. Padding down the long hallway he came to the human's room. He pulled up the video feed on the screen next to the door and saw she'd fashioned a sort of rope weapon with the blankets from her bed. He chuckled and swiped open the door.
Her eyes went wide in surprise as the door slid open and then she was moving, lunging at him swinging her weapon at his head. Aegis smoothly stepped to the side and grabbed up the rope, realized she'd wrapped her shoes in her blankets.
"How barbaric," he rumbled as he jerked the blanket from her hands. But it was wrapped around one of her wrists and she surprised him by growling and trying to tug it back. Annoyed, he pulled again, reeling her in. He grabbed at her arm, wrenched one hand up and quickly unraveled the make-shift weapon.
She snarled at him like a wild animal and tried to pull from his grasp. Sighing, Aegis grabbed her around the waist and tossed her back onto her bed. She bounced with an indignant squeak, then scrambled backwards. Her eyes had gone wide again, starring at him with a mixture of anger and fear as she huddled on the bed. He was suddenly struck by how attractive she was. Though a savage human, she was very appealing. Curled on the bed like she was, he imagined for a moment lunging in after her. She was so delicate, so soft and lovely with her bright pink cheeks and dazzling blue eyes. And the hair, he'd never seen pale golden hair like hers except on a queen Oathkeeper.
Swallowing, Aegis shook himself back to the present. "You are Zoe Reynolds."
