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Prologue

Earth

Aculus

“Well this mission went soft fast,” Aculus grumbled as he sat in the cockpit of his cruiser.

Anxiously he waited for Ashtoret to hail him with the location where the Cadi male could be picked up.

At least I haven’t lost his signal again.He glanced at the blip on his communicator.

The moment Vintor and Ashtoret landed near the human’s military base their tracking signals had gone dead. He’d searched for them, but even with all the tech at his disposal he hadn’t been able to pick-up their signal till recently, and then it took several attempts before Ashtoret answered his comm.

“Primitive species my shell!”

The humans possessed some sort of technological advancement outside what initial scans revealed to be able to mask a tracking signal that effectively. They’d come to the little blue planet to set up a cloaking device that would hopefully hide the developing species from bastards like the Jurou Biljana, but it was looking like the humans might already have all the help they needed.

And apparently, they think we’re the threat, he sighed in frustration.

It was discouraging to learn Vintor and their human liaison, Brennan, were captured by the human authorities. They’d been warned the humans would react poorly, so none of this should have come as a surprise. Thankfully, Ashtoret was getting help.

He said Providence’s sister is helping him.Aculus smiled and shook his head incredulously. That shouldn’t have surprised him either, and yet it did over and over again. The handful of human females he’d met were absurdly brave.

Still, there was only so much Ash and the female could do when up against a whole government with unexpected technical advances.

Come on, Ashtoret.It was taking forever for the Cadi warrior to contact him again.

Aculus focused on the viewscreen, studying the marshy landscape outside his cruiser. Hopefully he hadn’t been detected when he landed on the tip of the peninsula called Florida. He didn’t like how close he was to the sprawling human city, but he wanted to be nearby when Ashtoret hailed him. Besides the birds and reptiles, he didn’t see any unusual movement amidst the trees branching out of the stagnant water.

“So much water,” he murmured in awe.

He’d travelled to numerous worlds, some totally covered in water, and yet it still amazed him, coming from a planet where the resource was scarce. With all the wispy clouds in the bright blue sky he might get lucky enough to see rain while here.

Aculus tugged off his harness and pulled himself out of the seat. With time to kill, he might as well do it taking in the lush planet. He wound his way through the cruiser and opened the hatch door. Aculus stood up tall as he pulled in a deep, appreciative breath of fresh air. He was accustomed to the manufactured air on his ship. It wasn’t that bad, though it lacked the depth of fresh air. Every planet smelled different. This region smelled earthy, because of the decaying vegetation in the marsh. But he could also scent the salty humid air blowing in from the nearby ocean.

“That’s good.”

Cautiously he stepped off the ramp. The ground was soggy but it held. He casually walked around his cloaked cruiser, panning the tangled glade and slow-moving water. A flock of long-legged birds abandoned their bath and took to the sky the instant they saw him. Aculus smiled as the mass darted this way and that, chattering wildly, obviously disgruntled with him.

Sudden movement in the shallow water, followed by a flurry of motion in the tall grass captured his attention. His eyes widened seeing the long scaly reptile emerging from the water to stalk its prey. The slow-crawling beast had knotty ridges running along its back and down its tail.

I think that’s the thing they call an alligator.

While waiting to hear from his Cadi friends, he’d tapped into the human’s communication network, hoping to learn more about the area. Past missions taught him it was important to know the landscape, and since the humans freely projected their information network, he took advantage of the intel. Although most of the information he’d found was dedicated to commerce and socializing, he had located some useful data on the flora and fauna of Florida. This scaly beast was one of the predatory creatures that were common here. Though not nearly big enough to keep him at bay.

“Did you find yourself a meal?” He strode toward the curious beast to get a better look.

The alligator swung toward him, its long mouth full of pointy teeth opened wide in a threatening display. The moment the scaly beast was distracted, the tiny creature it was hunting made its escape up a nearby tree. It was little more than a ball of fluff.

Aculus looked from the menacing alligator to the trembling furball doing a terrible job scaling the tree and instantly felt sorry for the prey.

“Take off,” he growled at the alligator. “That scared thing wouldn’t even be a decent snack for a beast your size.”

The alligator lunged, its jaws snapping closed on his calf. Its sharp teeth shredded his pants, but couldn’t make a dent in his shell, no matter how hard the beast bit down.

“Stop, that tickles,” he chuckled when the alligator attempted to tug his leg out from under him.

After another failed attempt, the ill-tempered beast swung around with a thrash of its tail and disappeared in the shallow water.