Page 31 of Protected By the Alien Commander

Ava screamed. "Are there invisible monsters on this planet? Oh my God, we’re going to die!”

And Doshax was out there carrying one of his men on his back. That wasn’t a fair fight, especially against something invisible.

I ran down the short corridor, took a fast right, and ran into the first room where we had stored all the stuff from the cruise ship. Grabbing two long light sticks, I flicked them on, then ran back and jumped out the door.

"What are you doing? You're going to get killed!"

I ignored Ava and ran towards Doshax, who had his blaster now trained on the guy on the ground. I got close enough, then waved the light sticks in the air. "Hey! Hey! Come after me! I'm right here!"

I snuck a peek at Doshax to find him staring at me. I couldn’t see his eyes though, as he had sunglasses on.

"What are you doing? I told you to stay in the ship."

"I'm distracting the invisible monster so you can get inside before you get attacked again! You can't exactly defend yourself well with one guy over your shoulder."

You’d think he’d be grateful for the help. I could have sworn he raised an eyebrow at me, even though I couldn’t see them behind his sunglasses.

"I can not defend myself?"

Oh. Whoops, he sounded peeved. I should have known a warrior like him wouldn’t like to be told they couldn’t defend themselves. "I said the wrong thing. I know you can totally defend yourself. You can kick anybody's ass. I just wanted to make sure that it was a fair fight. And I could help by distracting the invisible monster. I wanted to help!”

The guy on the ground had gotten to his knees but couldn't stand. He also sat there, just staring at me. He was gray with big black eyes, and bald. Okay, no big deal, just another alien. I’d freak out later that he looked like a cross between a Roswell alien and a human.

“Where did the other guy go? I thought there’d be body parts from the monster grabbing it."

Then I realized nothing had attacked me while I had been out here. There hadn’t even been any signs of movements like dirt puffing up from footsteps. Nothing had attacked Doshax either. I slowly lowered my arms and felt like an idiot.

Doshax still stood in the same position, with his blaster trained on the guy on the ground. Both still staring at me.

Okay, fine. I had just totally made a fool out of myself. "So is there an invisible monster?"

Doshax paused before answering. "I do not think so. The prisoner was here, and then he was gone. No sound, no movement. If I did not know better, I would say he was teleported somewhere, but there was not the typical whine of a teleporter. He just… vanished.”

I didn’t feel too good standing out in the open with a rogue teleporter sucking people away. "Okay, I'll help you get back in the ship.” I turned to the prisoner kneeling on the ground. “Get up."

"Don't touch him."

I frowned at Doshax. “How are you going to help him? You're holding a blaster."

“I can manage. You keep an eye on him and hit him with the light sticks if he tries anything."

He sounded a little testy, but I nodded anyway because at least he was acknowledging that I could help. So I kept my eyes on the prisoner as Doshax pulled him up one handed while keeping the blaster steadily trained on the prisoner. All the while carrying a big guy slung over his shoulder. How strong was he? It felt a little wrong to be so turned on by his display of strength.

"You don't have to force me,” yelled the prisoner. “I don't want to get sucked up or disappeared or whatever happened to Mack!”

He hopped towards the ship and I ran to catch up to him.