Page 30 of Relyn (Warriors of Etlon #6)

Nora

A s far as a prison went, Alana’s ship wasn’t half bad.

She had a bed, and a replicator with a limited menu.

She stuck to the food cubes, not knowing if her system could take anything else.

Nora was not planning on poisoning herself and she wasn’t sure she trusted the little blood tester that checked individual species for nutritional needs.

Nora had been smart enough to grab her tablet that was filled with books to read and vids to watch, so she had plenty to entertain herself with.

The door was locked, but after a few minutes of inspection, Nora was pretty sure she could pop the lock whenever she wanted to. It wouldn’t be a huge problem.

No, the problem was going to be getting off this ship in one piece. She had no idea where they were going, or where they’d hide out. Alana had told her they would be reaching a planet soon, where they could transfer and she’d have a lot more space to move around.

It was like she’d been transported into one of those classic James Bond vids where the arch villain seemed like a great host until they opened a vat full of sharks wearing lasers and told them to climb in.

Honestly, Nora could see where Alana was coming from.

The Mahdfel laws and regulations clearly treated women as second class citizens, but there were plenty of other ways to resist the patriarchy rather than working with the Suhlik.

Everyone knew the Suhlik were out to do one thing: take over and exploit the resources of their empire without thought or caution to the creatures that lived in it.

Working with the Suhlik was like being a Nazi corroborator, and not understanding why dealing with the devils was not going to end up going bad. The minute the Suhlik didn’t need her, she’d be dead. That’s the way that they worked.

Nora couldn’t just sit around and wait for Relyn to rescue her, because she had no doubt that he would, eventually. There were things she needed to consider, and plans to make. She decided to make a list.

Number one on the list was to survive. That was easy, though it was a chilling reminder that hostages didn’t always survive.

Number two on the list was to tell Relyn that she loved him.

She thought back to all those freshman classes, teaching Romeo and Juliet, talking about how in real life, Romeo and Juliet probably would have had an unhappy relationship if they’d lived.

After all, Romeo was sick and moping over another girl just minutes before meeting her.

“You just have to put all your doubts and modern ideas aside and believe, bam, that they are instantly, truly in love,” she’d said time and again.

Nora didn’t know much about Relyn, other than he seemed to like vanilla ice cream and he could beat the crap out of anyone that got in his way, but most of the time he chose not to.

He was quiet, didn’t talk much, but he went out of his way to give her anything that she wanted.

Nora had never been in love before, but her bond with Relyn made all her old boyfriends pale in comparison.

There were whole cultures on Earth that believed in arranged marriages.

Meeting a stranger and marrying them on the spot.

Maybe relationships were more like something in the middle.

They could start out burning hot on top, but deepen, forming coals that put out the heat that people craved for hours, or years.

Number three on the list was where Nora began to falter.

Marco. He needed help and she just couldn’t abandon him to the legal system without at least figuring out how to help him.

Living on Earth with Relyn just wasn’t an option, which brought her to number four.

She couldn’t imagine him in her house, bumping into her ceilings, cooking dinner in her tiny kitchen.

How would she explain him to the neighbors who didn’t take well to strangers living in the neighborhood, nonetheless ones that could change their shape?

Perhaps he had a human form. Of course the government would be all over the place, especially after the Mahdfel had assured them time and again that shape changing aliens did not exist. Government agents would probably descend on their house and take him away, Mahdfel or not and perform experiments on him.

No, Earth was right out. Nora would sell her house, liquidate her assets, and they could find somewhere else to live.

Etlon Two was nice, but the lack of teaching positions there didn’t make it ideal.

Maybe she could start a school for the wives.

Meadow would love that. They could pair together and form a schedule of classes.

But what would Relyn do on Etlon Two? He was a Mahdfel designed for sneaking and going on missions. His work would inevitably be dangerous.

Nora felt for Alana in that moment, knowing how the torment of losing two husbands and a child to the cause must have been.

Losing Relyn would be heart wrenching on its own.

No, she couldn’t think about that. Step five was to tie up all the personal ends on Earth and make a clean break.

She hadn’t been able to say goodbye to her parents like she did every year on her birthday, right before she headed off to the lottery center.

Which made her remember to check, number six.

Hell, she’d married a Mahdfel, was she entitled to compensation?

That would go a long way to making her parents feel comfortable with the loss, and let them both retire in style.

There were entire communities in Florida full of grandparents who were funded by their daughter’s jetting off into space.

Number seven was getting tricky, as she was getting closer and closer to trying to figure out what to do about her current predicament.

There was no assurance that her next jail cell would be as nice or as easy to break out of.

But there was also nowhere to go. She was on a ship in the middle of space and her skill set didn’t exactly lend itself to breaking out and commandeering a vessel to fly back to…

and there was that problem. She had no idea where to go.

There would be help back on Etlon Two, or even Etlon One, but how did one go about finding planets in space.

Were all the coordinates in a computer somewhere, kind of like a giant GPS system? A Google Universe?

Nora didn’t have too long to ponder the question, because she felt the ship shudder. From her brief experience, she thought it felt like a ship going through the atmosphere and getting ready to land.

She put her jacket back on, amazed that no one had yet to think of checking her for weapons, and soon enough, another one of those black aliens met her at the door.

She wasn’t sure if it was the same one that had watched her change or not, and he didn’t say anything, so she decided it would be a good thing to practice hostage one oh one, make the captor see you as a person.

“This is a nice ship. You like Alana? She seems like a personable boss. I’ve got a great boss, or at least had a great boss. He made sure to recognize how hard we all worked for him every chance he got. As long as you were honest and upfront with him, he’d go out of his way to-”

“Shut the fuck up,” the alien said as he gave her a push forward.

“Yes sir,” Nora said.

“Good, ‘cause I really hate dragging dead weight,” he said.

Nora shut up. She definitely wanted to be awake while she entered so she’d be ready to find her way out.

As she walked down the hatch ramp, the cold wind hit her and Nora felt her vest kick on, protecting her core from the cold.

There was no snow, but it was definitely cold enough.

It was just rock and desert as far as the eye could see.

Her breathing became labored and she knew the air was definitely foreign to her system and didn’t have enough oxygen.

He pushed Nora onward through a gate and sealed it behind them.

Immediately breathing became easier. She looked up and could see the shimmer of a dome high above their heads to encompass the entire compound in a more comfortable atmosphere.

Here the temperature began to rise and she could see the green of potted plants scattered around the brown and silver buildings that lay within.

The buildings looked newly placed, like those portable classrooms they put out in the parking lots of overcrowded schools. They were modular and meant to be more functional than pretty to look at.

The alien escorted her through an outer ring of these buildings and into what looked like a center ring that formed a courtyard. She went through the doorway in the center and the alien did not. He shut the door behind her without another word.

Women began pouring out from the rooms around the courtyard. Nora had to blink twice, but she realized most of them were human.

“Hey, look. This one came in on her own two feet. Most of us were dragged or carried in,” one woman said as she looked Nora over. “I’m Denise, by the way. Nice to meet you.”

“Nora. How many-”

“Let me guess, you were wandering on a station, or a planet, and this woman approached you,” Denise said.

“And she was human and told you how much she missed seeing other humans and how homesick she was, and she invited you over for dinner,” one woman said.

“Or lunch, and so you said sure, and you went over there, and the next thing you knew, you woke up on a ship,” a third one continued.

“And then they brought your ass here,” Denise finished.

“No,” Nora said. “How many of you are there?” she said, trying to count.

“You are lucky number fourteen.”

Nora looked over the growing crowd and spotted three in the back. They were clearly Etlonian, but she didn’t see any other species.

“What about the Etlonians? What happened to you?”

“You know about Etlon?” the nearest one perked up. “I am Pari of Etlon, mother of three sons.”

“I’ve been to Etlon Two,” Nora said. “In fact, I was traveling with Bright. Do you know her?”

“Of course. Our first sons were of the same age. I do not know if mine yet lives.”

“Hers does. He is living on Etlon Two, along with a good number of other Mahdfel, but don’t worry. She’s going to rescue us.”

“Sweetie,” Denise said. “We’ve all been waiting for a rescue. Some of us for months. Just don’t get your hopes up. No one even knows we’re here.”

“Relyn does. And he’s going to get what Alana wants to trade for me. And trust me, we’re not leaving all of you here, either.”

They didn’t look very impressed.