Aevar: Trekkers (A SciFi Alien Human Military Romance) (5 page)

T
he commander leaned
over his long wooden desk. Aevar had filled him in on everything they found out, but he failed to mention the part where they gave up who they truly were. He knew he had to keep that secret between him and Ivy.

“So you're sure this is what they said? A space station? I just can't believe it!” the old man said, tossing his arms up in the air as he walked around the desk.

Aevar nodded. “Yes, sir. They were very clear. We confirmed the trader’s stories with a couple other locals before you extracted us out of the area. Other people mentioned seeing them steal tools and large pieces of metal. They are definitely refurbishing a space station.”

The commander leaned against the front of his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “There is a space station of ours that has been out of commission for about five human years. Recently, we've been getting some thermal readings off of it. We assumed that some sort of Pirates had taken it over, but there was nothing there to salvage. The reason we abandoned the station to begin with was because the oxygen levels were far too low to survive on. It just wasn't worth fixing, not with all the technology we have now. That piece of junk was probably built ninety human years ago.”

The commander was frustrated, and Aevar understood that. But if Ivy was right and these people weren't really people anymore, the oxygen levels and the living conditions wouldn't matter to them.

“I think they were just looking for a place to regroup, Sir. I don't think they really considered the level of care that they would be giving people. It's not high on their priority list.”

The commander shook his head. “When you’re sucking the lives of the people, I guess not. What did Ivy call them? The Harvesters?”

Aevar nodded. “Apparently they used to tell children on her planet about Harvesters when she was a child. She thought it was a scary story to keep them out of the woods at night. But it turns out it was people who had gotten the plague, and it mutated into something completely new.”

“I just don't see how we didn't know about this before.”

“We don't engage with a lot of those outer rim planets. They hardly acknowledge that the Alliance has full control of the galaxy. Many of them don't even adhere to our laws and traditions. They have their own governing bodies and their own elders and fables. It's just that we didn't realize that some of the fables were truth.”

The commander pinched the bridge of his nose. “What does that mean for the rest of the outer planets? How many times have we heard stories that we ignored?”

Aevar shrugged. “Thousands, probably. Which means there were probably other warning signs that we missed. Times when we should've paid attention, but we let it go. Where this all could've been avoided.” Aevar had been feeling that way ever since he realized the Ivy's stories from her childhood were real. Had he and other members of the Alliance acted when they heard rumors for the first time, her family would still be on Jubar with her. Maybe he wouldn't be trying to convince the commander to go on a rescue mission to a decommissioned station that they had left so long ago. Maybe…

“So when do you and your team want to leave?”

Aevar stood tall. “As soon as possible, Commander. And I'm sure you understand that Ivy wants to go with us.”

“That's out of the question! I can't even believe that I let her go down to Goya with you. I see the way you look at her, Lieutenant. I know what's truly going on there.”

Did he? Because Aevar wasn't so sure himself. As soon as they had been extracted off of Goya, he spent the majority of his time with his team and the commander trying to come up with a plan on how to rescue the Jubarian people. And also how to blow that space station straight out of the sky.

But he knew he couldn’t lie to him either. “My feelings for her are secondary. And while I deeply care for her, the mission comes first.”

The commander pushed himself up off of the desk and approached him. “This mission is what some of the people in the old days called a suicide mission, son. And the only reason you're willing to put yourself in harm's way is because of this girl. Now I understand that you feel strongly for her, I've seen it before, but if you take her with you and something happens to her… What will happen to you?”

Aevar's heart fluttered inside of his chest. Nothing would happen to her, he was sure of it. And as long as she was by his side, he was stronger. If anything, they were more lethal together. “Sir, I hate to say this, but she knows what she's looking for. My team and I have never seen these people.”

“So what you're saying is you’ll only rescue Jubarian people? What happens if that station is full of colonists? Are you going to leave them there to die?”

Aevar shook his head. “You know I wouldn't! I'll save every last one. With minimal casualties. Except on the enemy side, of course. I'll kill as many of them as I can.”

The commander rolled his eyes and turned away from Aevar, walking back around his desk before sitting down in the creaky old chair. “Fine,” he said as he waved Aevar off. “You be careful out there. Having an untrained person on your team, someone who isn't used to the way that you work, can be a deadly mistake.”

Aevar saluted his commander before turning on his heel and leaving his office. He knew the commander was right, that bringing Ivy with him wasn't safe. But he wasn't sure how safe she was without him, either. He knew how she made him feel, and he needed her by his side. So taking her along wasn't just to appease her, it was an advantage over the enemy.

“
S
o he said
I can come?” Ivy asked, her eyes wide in anticipation of his answer.

He nodded. “Yes, you just have to be careful. And you have to follow all of my orders. No questions asked, no second-guessing me. Is that clear?”

She never heard him sound so official. He had hardly ever been this formal with her, but as she grabbed on to his forearms to stop herself from jumping up and down, he loosened. “Aevar, I can't tell you how much this means to me! And I will listen, I promise!”

“You better. Because my guys are trained to kill on sight. If uou are anywhere you're not supposed to be, they won't think twice about pulling that blaster trigger. And you know how that feels.”

She nodded. “Yes, I do. And I don't want it to happen again. I promise I'll listen! You can trust me,” she said as she laid her fingertips along his jawline. “You and me? We're in this together. I wouldn’t be able do this with anyone else.”

Aevar dipped his head forward and his lips met her chaste kiss. She wanted it to be more, to go deeper, but she heard footsteps behind them and pulled away quickly.

“Ivy? What's going on?”

Maggie.

She turned around again and bent down so that she was eye level with her younger sister. Maggie wasn't much shorter than Ivy, but she took her hand and pulled her over to a bench to sit down so they could be completely on the same level. Ivy owed her that. Aevar walked to the door and stood in the doorway looking out into the hall. She knew that he was trying to give them some privacy, but that he didn't want to be far away from her, either. His being in the doorway was a good compromise.

“Sit down. We need to talk.”

Maggie raised an eyebrow at her, “You think I don't know what's going on? You got information down on Goya, didn't you? You’re going to save our parents. And our people.”

Ivy nodded solemnly. She knew that she was risking her life by going on this mission. Goya's pirates and evildoers seemed like nothing compared what she was about to face. “I have to go, Maggie. I just need you to understand that. And above all else, I need you to stay safe! I can't be worrying about you when I'm out there. I’ve got to have my head on straight.”

Ivy's eyes lifted up to Aevar's back, and she watched the chiseled outline of his body. He didn't have a shirt on again; he really needed to start wearing one of those around her. Otherwise she wanted to jump his bones every second of the day. Definitely a note for their mission: wear a shirt so she could focus on killing the bad guys.

Harvesters. In her mind, she wanted to just see them as just another pirate. A killable enemy. But part of her also recognized that they knew hardly anything about these creatures. They knew what they were made of, but not how hard it would be to kill them. They had killed one and done the autopsy on it, but there was no telling how many blaster hits it took before it fell. That was something that they were going to have to learn.

“What if I never see you again?”

Ivy put up her hand. “No. Don't say anything like that! I'll be back.”

A tear slipped down from Maggie's eye and fell onto her sandy colored dress. “You don't know that. You can't promise me that.”

Ivy knew that she couldn't. She was the last thing that Maggie had in this galaxy and she was risking her life to potentially save hundreds, if not thousands, of others. She had to do this. It felt like destiny.

“You're right, I can't. You’re strong and brave. You would be okay without me.” It killed her to admit to herself as she was saying it aloud. But she knew she was right. Maggie was feisty and intelligent. She wouldn't even let the Alliance fighters aboard the Titan push her around, and all of them were more than twice her age. She would be okay, with or without Ivy. She had to be.

Maggie's eyes welled up with tears as she wrapped her arms around Ivy’s neck, gripping onto her tightly. Ivy returned the gesture and inhaled deeply, trying to hold on to the scent of her little sister. She would cherish this moment forever, especially if it was the last.

Aevar arrived next to her. He had walked silently over from the door. “Take your time. But the commander has approved for my team to leave today. I'm going to assemble them, and then I'll be back for you.”

When Ivy and Maggie separated from their embrace, Aevar was gone. Maggie wiped her cheeks to remove the salty tears. “He really likes you, you know.”

Ivy smiled at her. “I really like him too.”

“Do you think he's the one? Your mate?”

Ivy raised an eyebrow at her. “Let's focus on one thing at a time, shall we? Now let's go up to the bridge and find someone to take care of you.”

“You just said that I could take care of myself!”

Ivy relaxed a little, hearing her sister’s strong and confident tone. This was exactly what she meant by being able to take care of herself. “Fine. You're right. But I would still feel better if I knew the commander was looking out for you. Your favorite pilot will be joining us on this mission.”

Maggie had a devilish smile playing on her lips. “Do you think the commander knows how to play cards?”

Ivy rolled her eyes and playfully pushed her little sister. She would be fine, there was no doubt about it.

I
vy strapped
herself into the pod seat, her trembling hands fighting against her. She watched as the other men of Aevar's team confidently did their own jobs inside the pod. This time, she was sitting on one of the seats on the interior of the pod. Raelor was piloting and Aevar would be sitting next to him, directing the mission. But as she put the last latch into place, he sat down next to her.

“Shouldn't you be sitting in the lieutenant’s chair?”

He shook his head. “I'd rather be next to you.”

He strapped himself in and then took her hand and intertwined his fingers with her own. “How do you feel?”

She set her lips into a thin line. “Fine,” she lied.

“That all sounded semi-confident. Good job,” he said as he squeezed her hand a little tighter. “I won’t let anything happen to you,” he whispered into her ear.

“I believe you. But we don't know what we're up against. Doesn't that scare you?”

She watched as Aevar surveyed the pod, looking at each team member. “No. The Trekker team is the best one that the Alliance has. These guys have fought everything in the galaxy. We’ll be fine.” He sounded so sure that it calmed her nerves a little.

She felt a jolt in her stomach as they took off, speeding away from the Titan. It would only take a few hours to get to the space station, and the plan was to enter from the rear. Since it had been an Alliance station at one point, they knew of all the false entrances and secret passageways.

The plan was to enter into a small entrance that only held one or two pods. They would then make their way to the main control room and pull the power on the station. They would use their advanced goggles to see into the dark and determine friend from foe. Then once they had disengaged the enemy, the Titan would come and retrieve all of the colonists, returning them to their homes. This would be the end of the Harvesters. At least, that was what everyone had told her.

“Just close your eyes. Visualize the mission. That's what all of these guys are doing. It'll help you stay calm,” Aevar instructed her, lightly rubbing her arm with his free hand.

She nodded and took a deep breath, doing as she was told. She imagined herself holding the blaster out in front of her and decimating any Harvester in her way. She would make them pay for what they did to her and her family. For her people. For everyone that had died at their hands. Revenge would fuel her to do the unthinkable. She would take lives. She would go home to Maggie.

“
H
ey boss
, the commander was right. The pod entrance that we were hoping was open is closed. But I know of another one underneath the ship. How is that going to factor into our endgame?”

Aevar released himself from the straps. Ivy looked up at him with terrified eyes. He had just been telling her to visualize the mission, that they would be safe if they could put all the pieces together in their heads. But this changed everything.

He walked across the pod and the new recruit that was sitting in the lieutenant’s chair got up and offered him his seat. Aevar couldn’t sit down; this change made him far too anxious. He leaned on the back of Raelor's pilot chair and said, “How long will it take us to get to the control room if we enter through the bottom of the space station?”

The recruit spoke this time. “An extra eight human minutes by my calculations, Sir. And we’ll be entering right through some of the living quarters. I don't know how many men they're going to have on this ship, but entering through the living quarters sounds awful risky.”

“I know it sounds risky. But I don't really have another choice. It's either that or abandon the mission. If I come into the front door, we’re sitting ducks,” Raelor argued. “All the weapons are on that side of the space station. I know there are several other entrances on the bottom, probably some passageways that no one knows about, without weapons.”

Raelor had a point. They had to stay underneath the space station or behind it, and as it spun on its axis, Aevar realized that he needed to make a decision and fast. “Go from underneath. That's the best way to do it. Blasters up, everybody. We’ll be docking shortly.”

The entire team disengaged their safety belts and pulled their blasters up in front of them. Four men stood at the back of the pod, ready to run out of the hatch as soon as it opened. Ivy stood behind them next to another new recruit.

“Tallon, this is Ivy. You are to stay with her at all times, do you understand me?”

Tallon, the newest member of the team, nodded his head vigorously. “Yes, Sir!”

Ivy turned around and wrapped her arms around Aevar. “I know that this is unprofessional right now, but I can't help myself. I just need to feel you next to me, just one more time.”

He smoothed her hair with one of his hands. “Nothing is going happen to you. Tallon and I will stay with you the whole time.”

She chewed on her lower lip as she backed away from him. He knew she was scared, but they couldn’t wait. It was time to move.

“Goggles on, communicators on. Blasters up!” The pod rocked as it docked onto its station. “Raelor? Ready?”

Raelor left the pod running and pressed the button to open up the hatch. In only a second, he was next to Aevar with the blaster in each hand. “Ready.”

The hatch opened and they stealthily moved out into the docking bay. It was eerily quiet. Considering they were right near the living quarters, if there were men on the ship, they should've heard something. But there were no sounds. Their goggles had an oxygen mask attached, but still, some of their skin was exposed. He watched as Ivy rubbed her cheeks with her hands. The dusty air must have stung. He kept forgetting that she was human, not as strong as they were. Though she would never admit to that.

“Alpha Team, take the right. Find the control room in the center of the ship. Beta Team, you’re with me. Ivy stay behind us. Raelor, do you have my six?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Aevar took the front of the line, with Tallon flanking him while Ivy walked behind them. As they made their way through the maze of hallways in the lower portion of the space station, Aevar couldn’t believe the silence.

“It's a little weird, isn’t it?” he heard Raelor say into the communicator.

“Very weird. They supposedly have almost a thousand souls on this vessel, but I'm not hearing anything.”

Suddenly, they turned a corner and Aevar realized why. What had once been living quarters was now some type of medical bay. A huge glass window stood in front of them with an eerie blue light illuminating the room. Several hundred people were laying on the cots, the floor, any available open space. Some were even stacked on top of each other. He heard Ivy stifle a scream. He turned and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Don't look! Just don't look.”

Her hands came up, covering the oxygen mask. “Aevar, what if it’s my parents? They’re all dead!”

Aevar shook his head. “Don't think like that.”

Tallon cocked his head at the glass, examining the people. Aevar wished that he would just leave them alone. “Sir? You need to look at this.”

Raelor walked up and stood next to Ivy. “I've got her, Sir.”

Thank the stars for Raelor; he was a solid friend. “What is it?”

Tallon pointed beyond the glass. “They're not dead, Sir. I think they're sleeping.”

As Aevar squinted, his eyes looking for signs of life, he realized that Tallon was correct. Their breathing was low and shallow, but every person inside the room was alive. These weren't dead bodies; they were put into some type of a coma.

Ivy came up behind him. “What is it?”

“They're not dead.”

Ivy's eyes widened. “They're preparing them. Harvesting from live bodies would be more difficult. They could fight against them. They must be subduing them, like an animal with its prey. Ugh! This all makes me sick!”

Aevar felt the same way. These beings were monsters. But were these all the colonists on the ship?

“Tallon, go in there and figure out a way to wake these people up. Signal back to the Titan that we have several hundred people to evacuate. We’ll work on taking care of the Harvesters.”

Tallon saluted and then took off running down the hallway toward a different entrance. That kid had skills with electrical; he would get these doors open no problem as soon as he found a box.

Aevar motioned over his shoulder to keep moving. Ivy followed him, with Raelor just behind her. They slowly crept through the hallways until they reached a staircase. The lights were on up here. Aevar could hear people moving above them.

“Time to go to work,” he said before sprinting up the staircase and pushing open the door in front of him. There were three of those soul sucking demons standing there, looking lost. He unloaded the blaster three shots at a time into the first two, but the third one whipped around and saw him too quickly. He got close to him as he shot into the third but he only got one shot off before a blaster beam came over his right shoulder and directly into the head of the beast. It fell to the ground, twitching like the other two. He hit each one in the chest just once more and they became immobile.

He turned around, expecting to see Raelor with his blaster up, but instead, Ivy had her eye on the gun. She had taken the shot.

“Good job. You're nearly as good as I am.”

She pushed up against him. “If you're not careful, better than you by the end of this mission.”

Swuya
, she was feisty. He smiled at her as they stepped over the bodies and continued to move through the space station. Once again, it was quiet, except for footsteps above them. They must've only had a few men on each level; the space station was massive. And hopefully, there weren't as many of the Harvesters as they thought. This might be an easier mission that he originally thought.

Suddenly, he heard shouting above them.
Swuya
, confidence always got him into trouble. The sound of blasters barely drowned out the deafening roar of one of the Harvesters. A scream erupted and they moved back to the staircase as quickly as possible, ascending the stairs. Aevar pushed open the metal door in front of him and immediately started shooting anyone that wasn't in the Alliance’s dark gray uniform. He got two Harvesters right in the head, and they collapsed, twitching on the ground just like the others had. Another one was feeding on one of the new recruits. Ivy and Raelor shot at that one until it stopped moving. Where was the rest of the team?

He watched as Raelor kicked the soul sucking body off of the recruit and checked his pulse. But he just shook his head. The kid was dead.

“Where is everyone else?”

Aevar shook his head. “I don't know! I don't understand. A Trekker would never leave one of our own behind.”

Ivy pointed on the ground. “Look! Blood marks. I don't think your men left willingly.”

Suddenly, they were plunged into darkness. Someone had cut the power. Was it one of his guys, or one of the enemy?

Tallon came over the communicator. “I signaled the Titan, Sir. I also figured out how to cut the power from down here on the lower level. I'm inside the medical bay, but I've no idea how to wake these people up. I'm doing the best I can.”

Ivy and Raelor looked as relieved as they could be as Aevar saw them through his goggles. “Good job, kid. We’re just taking care of some things up here, so we’ll come back to help you as soon as possible. Ivy has medical knowledge. She may be able to help.”

He looked at Ivy, but she adamantly shook her head. “I'm not leaving you! Nice try, though.”

She turned around and put her blaster up, stalking down the hallway. “What level are we on? How much further to the bridge?”

A scream ripped through the air. “Should be up only one more level and down to the left. Let's go!” Aevar said to them as they took off through the hallway toward the screaming. They found another staircase at the end of the hall and ascended it slowly as the screams continued. Whoever they were torturing, he wasn't going to make it.

Aevar was at the back of the pack this time, with Raelor taking lead. He had his hand on the metal door and opened it just slightly, throwing a smoke bomb into the open space in front of them. A loud boom rattled the staircase that they were in. Aevar switched his oxygen mask to diffuse the smoke in the air as it came into his suit. Raelor pushed the door open in front of them and they heard shouts and yelling from all directions.

Blasters went off to Aevar's right multiple times and he felt the floor shake as one of the creatures fell at his feet. Ivy took off in front of him, directly disobeying his orders to always stay behind him. Not that it surprised him in the least.

He followed her and watched as she took down two of the creatures in front of her. He couldn't wait until all this was over and he could get her back into his bed. Watching her with that gun in her hands and a black jumpsuit that hugged every curve of her body was more than he could handle.

He looked behind him to see Raelor with both blasters going at once. A couple Harvesters descended upon him but he took care of them with ease. Ivy found herself against a metal door and she looked to Aevar for permission to push it open. At least she had enough sense to not go completely off on her own.

Aevar nodded to her and helped push the massive door open, which led them into the bridge. Only one man stood at the helm, the bluish creature that the man on Goya had described.

“I see you found our little station,” he said without turning around.

“Drop your weapons and surrender!” Aevar yelled, his blaster pointed at the man’s head.

The man turned around. He was dressed in all black, with a collar that went all the way up to his blue chin. Buttons were placed every couple inches all the way down to his knees. Black pants then went all the way to the floor. It made the blue tint to his skin stand out even more.

“Surrender? Why would I do that?”

Aevar could feel Ivy seething just behind him. “Because you're sucking the lives out of people! I don't know what you've been told, but we don't really eat people in this galaxy.” Aevar looked over his shoulder at her; she still had her blaster up, ready to strike. Good girl.

“We do what we need to do to survive.”

“Is that what you're doing here? Because I could've sworn you were building an army,” Aevar said as the realization dawned on him. They weren’t subduing these people in order to feed on them, they were doing it to give them the plague. See who would survive and turn into one of the Harvesters. Anyone that had been eaten was already disposed of.

“An army?”

Ivy also shifted her eyes in Aevar's direction. “That's why all those people are downstairs sleeping. You're going to give them the plague, to make them like your other minions. What did you do with the bodies of the people that you ate?”

The man laughed. It was a high-pitched cackle that made Aevar’s skin crawl. “We floated them long ago! Don't worry. None of them were your beloved Jubarians. They're all still downstairs.”

“Why are you building an army? What is it that you want?”

The man walked around the control station, dragging his finger along the metal. “Complete control. Though we will have to start somewhere new after you've ruined my space station.”

Ivy shook her head. “You're not starting somewhere new! You're going to die.”

And that was when Aevar noticed it, a flicker of the man's features. His flat nose against his bluish skin. “He's not really here,” he said, lowering his weapon.

“What do you mean?” Ivy asked him, startled.

“You're not, are you? You’re somewhere safe, far away from here.”

He was a hologram, just as the Chancellor had been. But he wasn't recording; wherever he was, he was doing this live. He could see them just as much as they could see him. Aevar looked around the bridge and immediately saw four cameras shining down on them. He took his blaster and took each of them out, one by one. Only one camera was blinking from above the main control panel.

“You figured me out. But will you figure out the rest of my plan? Before I take out the Alliance you love so much?”

Aevar raised an eyebrow at the hologram. “You’ll never take out the Alliance. Good luck trying.” He shot one more time and took out the final camera.

“Now we've got rid of your eyes, let's get rid of the rest of you.” He shot into the main control panel and the hologram disappeared. The man was gone.

“But if he's not here, where is he?”

Aevar shook his head. “There's a chance we'll never know. But at least for now we saved all of those people downstairs. Got rid of as many Harvesters as we could.”