AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Suffice it to say, half the ship seems to admire Captain Warren, while the other half seems to plot against him. I can’t help but wonder what my father would do if he were still alive. Would he plot against his own brother? Or would he think the deal with the Darrvasons was the only way to save humankind?
I despise the alliance because it took away my sister. But if I’m being honest, I’m not certain theJansonnawould’ve lasted much longer without the aliens’ interference. We were stuck in a strange area of space, unable to make the jump to hyperdrive, when the Darrvasons encountered us. Nearly out of fuel, nearly out of supplies. Or at least we were until the aliens offered us an alliance. If the Darrvasons hadn’t come along, I’m not sure what would’ve happened.
When I notice my mother frowning, I perk up and try to act like my old self. The happy, carefree, annoyingly optimistic person I was before Ellie left. I smile and stir my utensil in the steamed vegetables, acting as though I’m impressed by this evening’s fare. I take a bite and moan.
“Mm. Dinner is excellent tonight. Don’t you think?”
Mom stares across the mess hall, as though she’s looking for someone. Finally, she jerks her eyes to mine and nods. “It’s okay, I suppose.”
“Well, I think they must’ve used a new combination of seasonings or something. Perhaps an exotic ingredient from the Darrvasons. Who knows? I heard they delivered hundreds of boxes of food to the mess halls on every deck.” I keep my tone upbeat, but my spirits sink at the dullness in Mom’s eyes. Ever since Ellie’s departure, she’s been a shell of her former self. She took a brief leave of absence from teaching after Ellie left, but when she recently went back to work and invited me to coteach the specialty class she offers, History of Earth and Humankind—the class she once taught alongside Ellie—I was hopeful she was bouncing back from the terrible loss of her firstborn daughter. But now I’m not so sure, and I’m fearful she’ll lapse back into another months-long depression like when my father died two years ago. Not that I could blame her. A person can only take so much loss, so much grief.
“Do you think,” my mother says carefully, her expression one of deep thought, “if Ellie has a baby or two, the Darrvasons might allow her to come back?” She peers at me with a sudden hopeful look that breaks my heart anew. “They need females for breeding purposes. Maybe once Ellie has a few children, they’ll let her go.”
“Mom, I don’t think…” My voice trails off. I swallow hard and debate lying to her. I’ve spoken to Nathan a few times about the Darrvasons. He’s observed several meetings between the powerful aliens andJansonna’scommand team, which means he knows a little more about their customs than the average person on the worldship. Everything he’s told me indicates the Darrvasons have no intention of returning any women they take.
“It could happen.” Mom wipes away a tear. “I don’t care what anyone says. It could happen. I’m not giving up hope.”
I reach across the table and grasp her hand. “While I’m not certain the Darrvasons would consider giving any of the women back after they produce a child, at least we can rest assured Ellie will be well taken care of. The aliens seem to prize females, which means they won’t mistreat them.”
“They breed the old-fashioned way.” Mom goes pale. “The Darrvasons are huge, freakishly muscular and well over seven feet tall, and they engage in physical congress to accomplish pregnancy rather than artificial insemination. It’s barbaric. It’s monstrous.”
My mouth goes dry. I’ve heard the same, but I was really hoping my mother hadn’t encountered those rumors.
“What if they’re hurting Ellie?” Mom continues as she wipes away another tear. “What if she’s being passed around from alien to alien?”
“They don’t pass their women around,” I say as I debate how much I ought to reveal. I heave a long sigh. “According to the negotiations Nathan has witnessed, it sounds likeoneDarrvason male claimsonefemale, and they refer to their women asbridesormates—they seem to use those two words interchangeably. So, Ellie’s not being passed around. She has one husband, or mate, and that’s it, and she’s probably being treated with kindness. Please try not to envision the worst, Mom.”
“Treated with kindness?” She scoffs. “I highly doubt it. The Darrvasons are nothing but brutes. Ellie is scared senseless right now. I can feel it. She wants nothing more than to come home to us.”
“I heard they beat their females to keep them obedient,” says a man I don’t recognize as he carries his tray toward us and sits down next to me. Awesome. Apparently, we were talking loud enough to draw the attention of a man who clearly doesn’t approve of the alliance, judging by the outrage that’s flaring in his eyes.
Mom directs a franticI-told-you-solook my way and then focuses her attention on the newcomer, who’s quick to introduce himself simply as Tim, an engineer from Deck Two who was relocated to our deck when some of the lower decks became uninhabitable several months ago.
“On the day the Darrvasons collected the first thirty women,” Tim continues in a trembling voice, “Captain Warren told Admiral Tornn that if any of the women were disobedient, the Darrvasons could feel free to return them for alternates. But Admiral Tornn only looked at the captain mockingly and said, ‘If any of the human females are disobedient or prove uncooperative, they will be swiftly punished and forced to conform to the Darrvason way of life.’ That’s a direct quote. My son guards the command team sometimes, you see, and he memorized the whole conversation.”
My mouth goes dry, and despair rolls through me when I notice Mom has gone completely pale. “What else can you tell me?” she asks.
Tim glances from side to side. Once satisfied that no one is eavesdropping, he leans forward and says, “I’ve heard the Darrvasons have already located a habitable planet for us and that we’re currently on the way there. You know we’re in a shared hyperdrive bubble with their entire fleet, right? Well, we stopped briefly about ten days ago, and then we suddenly started moving again, back in hyperspace. That’s when we changed course for the habitable planet.”
My mother gasps and covers her mouth, while I sit frozen. Alarm mingles with hope. I remember the fleet pausing about ten days ago. In the mess hall at the time, I’d suddenly felt a jolt and then peered out the viewscreen to realize we’d dropped out of hyperdrive. But a few moments later, the fleet started moving again in a shared hyperdrive bubble. A technical issue, I’d thought. It hadn’t occurred to me that we’d made a course correction because the Darrvasons had already located a potential planet for humankind.
Though I’m hesitant to encourage Tim and his gossip, especially since the news he’s brought is upsetting my mother, I’m desperate to learn more. I clear my throat and catch his eye. “Why hasn’t Captain Warren made an announcement about the planet yet? If we’ve already made a course correction, why are we being kept in the dark?”
Tim glances between us, his gaze briefly lighting with suspicion. “The captain really doesn’t tell you ladies much, does he?” He gives a derisive shake of his head, and the suspicion fades from his beady dark eyes. “My son says it’s because the aliens have renegotiated the deal with us, but the command team doesn’t want the new terms to become common knowledge yet.”
A sinking feeling comes over me, and I make an impatient gesture to the small, elderly man, hoping he’ll spit it out.
He waves a hand at theHaxxal, the largest ship in the Darrvason fleet, which is clearly visible in the viewscreen. “It’s big, shocking news, but don’t worry—the number of human females being given to the aliens hasn’t changed. It’s still set at two thousand one hundred and thirty, may God help all those poor girls.” He shoots me a pitying look and my stomach lurches.
I’ll be nineteen in eight months—the age at which Darrvasons seem to believe a female is mature enough for mating. While I doubt Tim the Engineer from Deck Two knows my exact age, he obviously believes I’m at risk of being surrendered to the Darrvasons—a prospect that has left me tossing and turning more nights than I would care to admit.
“Well, it’s like this,” he continues with another dramatic wave of his hand at the alien fleet, “humankind isn’t the only race looking for a new planet. I don’t know what happened to their homeworld or even where it is—orwas—located, but the Darrvasons need a planet too. And they’ve decided the planet they’ve located, which I’m told is named 58-Z, though I’m not certain what Z is short for, is large enough toshare.”
Large enough to share. My mind reels, and I feel cold all over. The thought of the Darrvasons settling on the same planet as us is frightening indeed. What if they terrorize us? What if, later on, they decide they want more human females?
But another thought strikes me, one that fills me with hope and helps wash the coldness away. Ellie. If we’re living on the same planet…
I meet Mom’s tear-filled eyes and know what she’s thinking. Trying to evoke what’s left of my optimistic side, I beam at my mother. “We’ll see Ellie again. On 58-Z,” I tell her. “I promise. Whatever it takes, we’ll see her again.”
