Page 1 of Summer

PROLOGUE

In 2035, the skies opened, and the first alien tourists landed on Earth.

For the previous three thousand years, Earth had been declared a protected planet. The first Halsten emperor wandered on Earth and found the beings there charming, if not primitive. Earth was so new compared to other planets of the galaxy, so fresh – it must be protected.

So came the decree – Earth was not to be touched. If they sent you a space signal, you mirrored it back to them. If their satellites flew toward your planet, you shut them off.

No pictures. No correspondence.

Some tried to break the rules. Youth, mostly – daring to fly over cornfield and shed their lights on the humans as they ran and hid. Some crash landed in deserts, never seen again. The orders were the same – if you were lost on Earth, no one would retrieve you.

Then, in 2034, a startup king from a faraway planet decided the Halsten empire had lasted too long.

War broke out – great blasts across the reaches of the galaxies, lighting the sky up like fireworks. Even Earth knew something was amiss, though their scientists couldn’t describe it. There’d been no sign of intelligent life in all their explorations. What did these bursts of light mean?

King Frin became Emperor Frin, and the hold on Earth was eliminated. Space travel was encouraged, exploration celebrated.

In less than a year, Earth as the humans knew it was decimated. Displaced aliens from the war saw it as a place to settle. Earthlings knew nothing of the technology or the language of the aliens. They’d been separated in their own bubble, far removed from the advancements of the last several centuries. They had no way to defend themselves.

Some turned to space – the last great frontier. Perhaps they could find help, or a home.

When they looked back at Earth, they saw a land they didn’t recognize.

Their monuments were felled, either in land squabbles or to erect new ones praising Emperor Fran. Great curiosities, like the Grand Canyon, crumbled under the weight of the ships that landed on them. The water turned gray with waste; the sky clogged with emissions.

So, humans dispersed into space – a rare race, one seen as exotic. A collectible.

And from this thought process, the Protegre School for Human Women was built.

1

SUMMER

The barred windows and high fence around Protegre proved that it’s not a school, but a prison. That – and the tracker around my wrist that’s rubbed it nearly raw the last three years.

“It’s for your protection,” the headmaster said on day one. He was a tall alien, willowy, some species I’d never seen before. Even after nearly a decade in space, I still wandered onto entire species of aliens I’d never seen or heard of. It’s not as if there’s a guide or an encyclopedia. That would have been too kind; god forbid they give humans an ounce of help.

Fuck Earth, right?

Our protection. That’s what Halsten II said in their great decree several thousand years ago. Apparently, there was once a time where humans were ignorant of aliens. Halsten II visited Earth and found it primitive and decided to place an embargo on it. No one could communicate or visit, lest it disrupt the fragile species found there.

Then Emperor Frin turned a black hole onto Halsten II and ended its reign of the galaxy.

Embargo lifted. Earth’s – and several other planets’ – sheltered peace destroyed.

Now humans are currency, and what was once home is little more than a barren wasteland of war, disease, and alien colonies. I was born there, but any memories I have of Earth are viewed through the sheen of youth. Tall green plants that sway in the wind, a dog, a family.

All I’ve known the last decade is the great expanse of space – at least until three years ago when I was captured by bounty hunters for breaking a few small, very measly, very silly laws. It was either the death prison on Dedo or Protegre School for Human Women.

I question whether I made the right decision every day.

It wasn’t like I had planned on staying. In my mind, a school was easier to vacate than a prison, especially one created for the expressed purpose of killing you. A school? For human women?

Easy.

I eyed up the tall gates as the carriage bumped over the dirt road from town to the school. I could probably scale it, but then I’d be too exposed. Maybe under it? I didn’t know what the soil was like here. Previous trips to Gagos were to the city center, where most of the trade in this part of the galaxy took place. The suburbs – or wilds or whatever you wanted to call this part of the planet – was unknown to me. I’d been to plenty of planets where the ground was made of diamond or metal.

I’d have to test it out.