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“You didn’t give us a lot of choice, Captain Welks,” a man in a lovely dark purple suit snapped as he patted the hand of a woman with vividly dyed violet hair and wearing a large quantity of genuine furs and gemstones. Even her stoles seemed to be dyed a sort of lavender gray, a shade lighter than the pearls clustered around her neck, all of which tied in with a level of coordination that Jill found amusing. She shook her head, unable to imagine having so much money to color coordinate everything from the hair down in such a precise fashion. “Margaret has low blood sugar,” he continued, “so I hope there is an adequate reason for having us all standing out here for so long.”
“Yes, I apologize, Mr. Brunswick,” Captain Welks replied quickly—a bit evasively, in Jill’s opinion— “I was just about to get to that, actually.” His throat worked for a moment. “I am sure there are those who have seen the unidentified object that came from the nearest coordinate of the fault.” He paused, giving space for the worried murmurs of agreement from the crowd as many heads nodded. “Good. Then at least that won’t surprise anyone. What you may or may not have witnessed was that the object wasn’t merely passing through space but slowed and redirected its course.” He cleared his throat again as a tense silence suddenly fell over everyone.
Even though Jill had lingered long enough to witness it herself, his words seemed to make everything more real, as if she’d had any hope of pretending that it had all been in her head. She stiffened, every muscle in her body tightening as Captain Welk’s gaze slid over the crowd. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. A significant part of her wanted to go back to her quarters and burrow under her blankets until they arrived at Mercurium port.
Because what he was about to say was not something she wanted to acknowledge. Humanity had begun venturing out of their own solar system, but no one had encountered anything that he seemed to be implying.
“About forty-five minutes ago, an alien vessel docked with our ship. They’ve taken command.” A roar of panic rose through the , and Jill cursed as several people turned and nearly pushed her over. They didn’t get far, however, before security corralled them back among the other passengers. People protested with frightened and angry shouts, and Captain Welks raised his voice above the din, his hands patting their air. “Remain calm. They do not mean us any harm. They have assured me that our presence here was unanticipated by them. So long as everyone remains calm, there should be no incidents while they negotiate with Earth.”
“For what?” A woman shouted out as she swiped her short-cropped brown hair from her eyes furiously. Jill immediately recognized her as a fellow passenger from her level bound for Ganymede. “What exactly do they want?”
He shifted and glanced back toward whoever lurked unseen in the hall behind him. He must have received some communication that no one else heard because he suddenly nodded and withdrew several steps back.
“I think I will leave it for them to explain.”
A heavy silence quickly descended, all eyes turning toward the hall as something large shifted within the shadows. The click of boots had weight behind them as a shadow solidified and something stretched and flexed. Jill’s heart hammered in her chest and somewhere a woman screamed as a large alien became visible. His buffed, almost metallic looking deep purple skin possessed an inhuman appearance offset by numerous twisting spikes that rose from his brow to either side of a collected crest of blue feathers. Wings stretched subtly, the small plum colored feathers fading out to larger blue feathers that ran along massive wings. Amber eyes skimmed over them with a predatory and detached coolness that chilled her blood. She’d once looked into the eyes of a crocodile at the zoo as a child, and the alien’s gaze reminded her of that experience. There was nothing even remotely human about him. Several other males in a variety of hues piled out from behind him, a striking pair of which caught her eye from their bold coloring, but she quickly tore her gaze away and frowned as she refocused on the male at their head.
His hand lifted presenting wickedly curved claws in a gesture that might have been vaguely one of greeting—or a reminder for everyone to remain quiet. Jill was betting on the latter.
“Humans. I am Commander Zherist of Geminos. On behalf of my people, I apologize for any alarm that our presence may cause, but it is for good reason. We have a ship of roughly eight thousand displaced families, males, and females from a world dying within our sector. As we must see to our people’s safe resettlement, we are taking temporary control of this vessel in order to communicate our wishes with your home world.” He cocked his head, peering at a mother clutching her children to her. “We have no desire to harm anyone, but we will defend ourselves if attacked.” He let out a hissing sound that fluctuated slightly, like a dry chuckle. “And I would not try it. Our species have significant physical advantages over your own. Just continue about your business as if we are not here and soon enough, we will depart once we’ve secured the moon.”
Jill blinked in sudden comprehension. “Wait, you want Ganymede?”
She immediately wanted to shrink into herself as that laser gaze snapped toward her, but thankfully, she was spared by several other women and men suddenly protesting loudly at what they were likely seeing as an unavoidable loss of their homes and opportunities. Jill’s stomach soured as it dawned on her that she could lose everything. Going to Mercurium port, as much as she’d dreaded the flight, had been her last opportunity to escape the crowded work mills on Earth. Mars was an option, but not a good one. It had opened for colonization when she was a child but getting a permit to relocate there was next to impossible.
The male’s wings fluttered slightly in a few brief, sharp slaps and suddenly the males behind him shifted forward and raised their weapons in front of them in a line of metal poles topped with glowing oblong heads. They did not attack, but the wall of aggression seemed to be enough to cow everyone for the time being as the raucous fell into a nervous hum of whispers. Feeling a weight of eyes, Jill’s gaze snapped over, catching the deep amber, almost orange gaze of a golden male with feathers tipped in colors of pure fire.
Unlike the long robes that hung from the commander’s shoulders, leaving only a thick stripe of muscular torso bare, this male wore nothing but tightly fitting pants and boots. A long tail slid from along his side, the end possessing numerous long flexible spines that almost appeared to be quills except they flexed and moved almost fluidly. But it was his eyes that were arresting and pinned her in place. His eyes were larger, like those of a bird of prey, and his pupils expanded as he stared at her, sending a shiver racing through her. Another male at his side, with a twilight play of silvers and blues, turned his attention toward her and his wings widened to frame them both in an impressive display. Heat rushed to her cheeks, and Jill quickly looked away.
What the hell was she doing ogling aliens anyway?
She glanced down at her feet uncomfortably and frowned as she suddenly became aware of the crowd milling around her. Her head shot back up and she looked around in confusion before realizing that everyone was returning to their decks. The familiar figure of the woman who had briefly gained the commander’s attention herded her children by, sharing only the briefest of glances with Jill. There was a faint flush visible where it had climbed to the tips of her ears, but her lips pinched, and she gave a shake of her head as if warning Jill against something before hurrying away. Glancing back, she shivered as she discovered the commander’s sharp gaze tracking the small family’s departure. Swallowing, Jill’s gaze turned toward the silver and gold males and she nearly jumped to find that they were suddenly a lot closer.
Taking a page from her fellow human’s book, Jill ducked her head and ran for the elevators. She didn’t care how long she had to wait there, squashed between passengers; she wasn’t staying where she was for a moment longer than she had to, not when she suddenly felt hunted. Her quarters never sounded more appealing than they did at that moment.
Chapter4
Agor sighed as he lazily patrolled the lower-level deck. It seemed that even on the human ship, they were destined to rot unseen, and the pretty little human female was probably hidden away on one of the levels above them. He was tempted just to leave the deck and hunt her out—it wasn’t like the humans gave them any problems anyway—but he was not in the mood for another lecture from his avrhast twin. Brydis had just finished reminding him for the hundredth time that they had been lucky to remain on the ship at all, and he was certain that he would have a lot more to say about his idea to disobey orders and go hunt out a human.
But it wasn’t any human. The female made his blood boil with interest, which was both unexpected and exhilarating.
Human. A species as different as they were similar to his own. They hurried past him, some staring and some with averted gazes as if they wished to pretend that he wasn’t there, and not one of them nearly as interesting asher. Her taliazon had called him in hints of violet that skimmed over her skin, drawing his attention unerringly to her. A taliazon was only perceivable by those who possessed the right chemical responses of a potential mate. He had seen many appealing taliazon, but nothing that had inspired his pursuit as much as the small dusky human with her mass of dark tresses.They were so similar and yet, on inspection, so different from his aguila, which were long, ultra-fine feathers that grew from the crown of his head. He wanted to luxuriate in the dark, alien strands and admire their contrast against his silver complexion.
Although it was the taliazon that drew him, heating his blood in a natural response, he had to admit that he found her human differences highly appealing.
Geminidae bore many features that were not held in common with humans, and yet there was enough familiarity that he instinctively knew that they would fit together perfectly. Even the glimmer of the taliazon around them was similar enough to work and yet captivatingly alien. Its pattern of movement was unlike that of a Geminidos and its hue, a brightness unseen among his people. The taliazon he had experienced with females in the past tended to be a paler, milkier hue of Geminidae pearls. The human’s taliazon, however, burned vividly, reminding him of solar flares off Geminos when positioned between the sun and the giant planet Githaris around which Geminos and Gawallen spun.
And he was certain that being assigned to the lower decks was the reason that he hadn’t caught sight of his human again.
“Still sulking?”
Agor glanced over at his avrhast twin, his lips twisting into a grimace as Brydis thumped him lightly with his wing.
“It’s not sulking when there is a good reason for it,” he replied with a groan. His wings stretched and fluttered briefly with his impatience. “I want to go search forher, and yet we are stuck here, our wings tied!”
His brother gave him a nonplussed look that made a sigh burst from Agor.
“You can’t tell me that you didn’t notice.”
