Page 3 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)

- Umbra -

“Target Red Shadow, converging!”

The two men kick off from the walls of the training cube and launch themselves at me, one from each side. It’s a good attack — I can’t get at both of them. But now they can’t control where they’re going until they get here. There’s only air between them and me.

I feign uncertainty, looking this way and that, before I squat against the wall, looking as if I’m going to kick off straight to the red wall opposite me. Both Vic and Jack, callsigns Vector and Hammer, reach their hands out to grab me, fingers splayed.

Instead I duck and flatten myself against the wall, just out of their reach. I can feel the air pressure as their fingers go past, finding nothing.

The two Space Force sergeants crash with each other, swearing and yelling as they lose all their momentum and are left spinning on the spot in thin air.

There’s no gravity to help them, no wall they can kick off.

Vector reacts first, grabs Hammer, and flings him at the opposite wall, which has the effect of pushing himself into this one.

Just as he grabs a handhold, I kick off for real and float casually away.

“Good going, Shadow!” Emma shouts from straight ahead. “They got really close that time.”

“Not close enough,” I reply, looking at a triangular feature on the wall and thinking about how it might be useful. “Easy on that patch, Hammer. It's not rated for your bulk.”

“ Impact stress at eighty-one percent,” Vera warns from my wrist. “ Recommend lighter kicks.” Everyone on the Space Force station has one of those AI watches strapped to them, and they are so advanced that they have developed their own personalities. Vera is a meddling type more than most.

Training how to fight unarmed in weightlessness is one of the more physical parts of being a Space Force officer. I’m not sure who thinks we’re going to need to know how to do it, but it’s not a bad way to get used to being in space.

But I suppose practicing how to fight in space makes some sense.

All we know about aliens is that their behavior towards us has been pretty bad, stealing college girls and taking them into space for some mysterious purpose.

The owners of the flying saucers that abducted hundreds of women one night years ago are clearly not our friends.

Some day, we might have to fight them. And I’ll be ready.

The arena is just called the Cube. It's a modular box bolted into the station’s core, built extra light to not influence the space station’s movements too much.

Its walls, thinner than the main hull, flex under strain.

A patched conduit panel on the far wall gleams unevenly.

It was reinforced after last month’s micrometeorite scare, a weak spot we’re told to avoid.

But of course, I think to myself , the whole station is a weak spot . Light and flimsy materials are the rule. Heavy stuff is expensive and difficult to get up into orbit.

Hammer crashes into the wall on the other side. He stays there, yelling his plan to Vector in a sports code they’ve worked out. “Thirteen one six! Target Echo.”

Emma and I don’t have a secret code to communicate with. But I don’t think we need one, either.

“We’re doing good!” I yell. “Stay slippery, Echo.”

“Always!” she laughs. “Nobody can hold on to me, Shadow.”

The cube is full of obstacles, technical equipment and such, mimicking the packed and tight guts of a spacecraft.

One of the walls of the cube is painted bright red.

The purpose of this game in total weightlessness is to get a member of the other team to touch that red wall, losing them a point.

Or ‘neutralize opposing combatants by forcing contact with the designated boundary,’ as the instructions state.

It’s a way to get used to moving fast and accurately in zero gee, as a preparation for fighting aliens we might encounter in space.

Most people on the station dislike this part of their duties. I love it. Nothing on Earth feels like this.

We started with three points for each team, but now the two men are down to one and Emma, and I still have two.

Despite being smaller, lighter, and not as strong as the guys, we’re more limber and harder to get hold of.

And we have more experience with this environment, especially me.

This, being in Space Force, is all I ever wanted to do.

I've spent a lot of my free time in the Cube.

The guys are being aggressive, not wanting to lose. Probably because I’m a second lieutenant and this is one of the few places on the space station where no ranks are used — it’s a straight fight, and nobody can pull rank during the game. Or maybe it’s because we’re girls.

Vector suddenly launches himself at Emma with surprising force. Well, he does have the thigh muscles for it.

She responds by kicking off from the wall, heading for the big metal cage in the center of the cube, where she can get some distance between herself and him.

“ That’s going to be a hard crash,” Vera chirps from my wrist. “ Impact velocity critical!”

Vector’s feet miss Emma, grazing her jumpsuit, and slam into the conduit panel with a metallic groan. The patch buckles, and a hairline crack splits the wall. Air hisses, then roars, as the hull behind it ruptures, sucking debris toward a growing void.

“Vera, alert engineering — seal the cube!” I yell, heart pounding.

Emma’s caught in the vacuum’s pull, drifting toward the breach, arms flailing in zero gee. That small hole could actually suck her right out into space. And that would kill her in a handful of seconds.

“ Shutters deploying,” Vera reports fast. “ Medical and engineering alerted.”

But our problems aren’t over. Hammer launched himself at Emma at the same moment the wall split, and he’s still coming for her really fast. He’s going to hit her and slam her right into the hole. She’ll be sucked out!

I hook a foot in the mesh of the cage, squat for maximum power, and launch. Debris whip past, air screaming. I grab a strut overhead, swing to redirect, then shove off a console, curling my body to work against the wind that tries to bring me with it.

Hammer comes, eyes glassy as he waves his arms in an attempt to change direction. “I can’t stop!”

I’ve built up momentum and spin, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him collide with Emma.

I grab his boot, then use his own speed and weight to fling him around in a wide arc that misses Emma by the width of a hair.

His great mass makes me groan with the effort, and I’m sure I must be pulling every muscle in my body.

I let go and see him tumbling towards the red wall.

I still have speed and momentum, and I just manage to snatch Emma’s wrist. With a yank, I spin us toward the cage, hooking a tether loop in my belt to anchor us as sparks flare from the breach and the air is still being sucked out with an otherworldly howl.

“ Single contact!” Vera announces as Hammer, tumbling wildly after his impact with me, hits the red wall.

The buzzer sounds, and the cube flashes red. Red team victory. Game over.

Emma grips my arm, coughing. “Hell of a save, Shadow… owe you one.”

“Guess I’m the vacuum’s worst nightmare,” I mutter, chest heaving but pride soaring.

Vector glides over, face pale. “She’s okay?”

“Barely,” I say, glaring at him. “You hit the patch much too hard.”

“I misjudged the force,” Vector mutters, rigid.

“There is such a thing as playing too hard,” I state. “Report to debrief. The Cube ” s done.”

Hammer comes floating back. “Target blindness,” he says. “Sorry. And the suction from the hole messed up my aim.”

The wind in the Cube suddenly stops as the outside shutters close the hole.

As we converge at the exit, the stark white light of the station corridor beckons.

"The incident was contained within the training environment," Emma states, her voice firm despite the pain she must be feeling. "Any resulting injuries are a consequence of the exercise."

"The after-action report will reflect the events as they transpired," Vector says flatly, his posture now rigidly formal as we clear the Cube's threshold and the station's centrifugal gravity gently asserts itself. "The chain of command will determine any further action."

We transition into the familiar spin of the station, the simulated gravity a welcome weight.

"Sergeant Major, escort Lieutenant Morgan to medical," I instruct, my rank reasserting itself in the station's operational environment. My internal assessment: Vector's aggression was a liability. Hammer had bad luck. Emma's resilience was commendable. My maneuver… effective, but risky.

"Aye, Lieutenant," Vector responds, snapping to a more formal stance. He carefully supports Emma as they move towards the clearly marked medical bay signage.

"Well executed, Lieutenant," Hammer says. His earlier frustration has given way to a more professional demeanor. "Debriefing?"

"Later, Sergeant," I reply, my gaze lingering on the departing figures. "We may have to analyze the rules for this activity. There's a fine line between aggressive training and unnecessary risk."

“Yes, ma’am.” He spins around and marches off.

I allow myself a tight smile. We won! Against two burly sergeants. And I really enjoyed flinging Hammer through the air, spinning like a windmill.

- - -

“ W hy did you join Space Force, Umbra?” Emma carefully adjusts her position on the metal ventilation box she’s sitting on. It looks unpleasant, but better than sitting on the floor, like me.