Collision (Colliding Worlds Trilogy Book 1) Page 3

  Lucky for her, those instruments were just parts for a faulty wall panel being repaired. Unlucky for her, the scanner the doctor used wasn’t calibrated for human physiology, and she ended up with second-degree burns over much of her back. The base’s primary doctor, Fayel, whom she called Doc, had the disposition of many doctors she’d met in her life. Apologetic for the harm he’d caused, he’d used salves to ease her burns, and she found it easy to not fear him.

  She’d been given the day to recuperate, since that was when the Sephians rested. Exhausted, she fell asleep. It helped that Legian didn’t snore to remind her that she wasn’t alone in the room. Even so, she shot awake often as memories mixed with unfamiliar surroundings to create new and horrible dreams.

  She had lain awake in bed for a couple hours before Legian woke and got ready for the night. Before he left, a Sephian female arrived.

  “Hello, Sienna. I’m Nalea. I’m here to give you a tour of the base,” she said. She could have been a double for a young Sigourney Weaver; almost a double, but not quite. Nalea sported glittery skin, pure ebony eyes, and long pitch-black hair.

  They stepped into the dim hallway, and Nalea handed her a pair of sunglasses. “Here, these Draeken tensatlen will help you see.”

  Sienna slid them on. Immediately, the hallway lightened to where she could see all the details. She did a three-sixty, taking in everything. She lowered the glasses for a moment before pushing them back up her nose. “Wow. Sunglasses that brighten everything.”

  Sienna walked alongside Nalea through the long hallway, noticing screens on the walls and touchpads at every door. “This base isn’t really a base,” she said. “It’s simply our ship. That’s why the doors and walls may seem overbuilt.”

  “It’s huge,” Sienna said.

  Nalea shrugged. “It’s the largest Sephian ship, but it’s tiny compared to a Draeken core ship.”

  As they continued their tour, Sienna noticed Nalea watching her. “What?” Sienna asked.

  “Have you figured out any escape routes yet?”

  Sienna became rigid. “What are you talking about?”

  Nalea rolled her eyes. “I’d be doing the same if I was in your shoes. I saw you checking out every nick and cranny.”

  “Nook and cranny,” Sienna said.

  “What?”

  “You said it wrong. It’s ‘nook and cranny’. Nick is a guy’s name.”

  “Oh,” Nalea said. “I don’t blame you for looking for ways out. But even though you can’t leave, you aren’t a prisoner.”

  Sienna’s brows rose. “Being held against my will is the exact definition of ‘prisoner’.”

  “Or ‘slave’,” Nalea said. “That’s why we came to your planet. Let me tell you about the Noble War to end slavery and how we drove the Draeken from Sephia…”

  Nalea spent the rest of the walking tour telling Sienna the history of the Sephians and the Draeken, and why both had ended up on Earth.

  The tour ended at a large circular room lined with tables. “This is the Commons,” Nalea said. “It’s the only room, other than the hangar, large enough to hold everyone at once. We eat here and have ship-wide meetings here. It’s the heart of the vessel. As you can see, all hallways merge here.” She motioned to the hub-and-spoke architecture before turning back to Sienna. “You must be hungry. Let me show you how to get food and drink.”

  Nalea led Sienna through the food line, which was incredibly similar to how a school cafeteria would work, except the food here was made to order. The cook spoke English, but Sienna recognized none of the dishes—all looked like brown mush. Nalea ordered for Sienna. “Mulhean is our most popular dish. I think you’ll like it.”

  Sienna and Nalea sat at a table near one of the hallway entrances. Sienna’s stomach growled. With the exception of a couple protein-like bars Legian had given her in the morning, it’d been a full day since she’d eaten.

  Nalea dug in. Sienna took a big bite of the paste. It had a mashed consistency with crunchy, crystalline something to add texture. The only flavor she could glean was akin to Lima beans. She slowed her chewing.

  “Do you like it?” Nalea asked.

  Sienna forced herself to swallow. “It’s… interesting. A bit bland. Do you have any salt?”

  Nalea shook her head and frowned. “No. This is our most flavorful dish. Want me to get you something else?”

  Sienna shook her head. “No. This is fine.” She forced down the rest of the meal and drank a full glass of water. At least the water tasted normal.

  As Nalea talked, Sienna found herself entranced by the woman’s tattoos, which were lighter than those she’d seen on Legian, Bente, and Apolo. Nalea glanced at her hands and back up at Sienna. “Ah, my soullare intrigues you.”

  “Soullare? Is that what you call your tattoos?” Sienna asked.

  Nalea smiled. “Soullare is not a tattoo. We are born with it. They say it was camouflage for our ancestors, but all Sephians still have it, though for some reason it’s far darker on men. Our soullare is unique to each of us and is a source of pride.” She wagged a brow. “And, it can be very sexy.”

  Sienna grinned as she took another bite. Talking with Nalea was easy, as though they were friends. She began to wonder if the Sephians weren’t so different from humans or if she was developing Stockholm Syndrome.

  As the days passed, Sienna looked for exits less and, instead, sought opportunities to learn more about the Sephians and how she could help stop the Draeken from enslaving humans.

  By the third week, her body had adjusted to Sephian food, and she finally felt at full strength in the opposite circadian schedule.

  She had also picked up on the now-familiar scent every Sephian naturally carried. It had taken a week before she noticed the base smelled like a faint, soft rain. Now she couldn’t imagine how she hadn’t noticed it right away.

  She also no longer feared Legian, although she still didn’t know what to make of him. He had an aggressive personality and often bossed her around, telling her what to do and where to go, but as soon as she snapped back, he’d back down and become a puppy. She hadn’t seen him do that around others, and wondered if he feared her because she was human.

  Then, one evening, she walked into the bathroom, not realizing he was in there. She plowed right into his bare chest as he stepped out of the shower.

  “Sorr—” she began, but the word melted away as she took in his nakedness.

  He stood there. “When you look at me like that, I want to—you shouldn’t look at me like that.”

  She looked up to find him watching her intently. In a rush, she spun around, closed the door, grabbed a drink, and sat on the edge of the bed, looking away from the bathroom. It had been over three years since her husband, Bobby, was killed by a driver too busy texting her BFF. Three years since she left the city life behind and moved away from humanity, away from senselessness. And three long years since she thought about touching a man. She reminded herself that Legian wasn’t really a man. He was an alien.

  After the shower incident, conversations were awkward, and it seemed that Legian and Sienna often only saw each other during the days. But every time he looked at her, he had the same look that he’d had in the shower. She found it both frightening and exhilarating.

  Over the next month, she’d come back to their room and sometimes find a surprise he’d left for her. One time it was the Xbox and games from her cabin. Another time it was a painting of a forest to remind her of what was beyond the walls of the windowless base. She needed those moments since she was still the outcast; many Sephians eyed her like she was the alien.

  It was near the end of her second month at the base when she made up her mind. She stripped out of her clothes and waited on the bed. When he opened the door, he stood and stared.

  “Close the door,” Sienna ordered, “and come to bed.”

  His look of shock morphed into one of pure excitement, and he then spent the day proving to Sienna that some pleasures were universal.


  Legian never slept on the sofa again.

  “You’ve been here for nearly a year already,” Sienna said. “The Draeken have been here even longer, and who knows what they have planned. Time is running out to get my people on your side. It won’t matter that you followed the Draeken here to stop them.”

  “It is still too early,” Apolo said.

  “If I was a Sephian—”

  “But you are not a Sephian,” he corrected.

  Her lips thinned. “You’re right; I’m not. I’m a human, and I know I’d want to meet aliens face-to-face rather than find out they’ve been skulking around for a year.”

  “We’ll talk more tomorrow,” Apolo said and turned from her.

  She glared, stood, and left his room. Legian followed her to their room. Once inside, she plopped onto the sofa. “I’m sick and tired of no one listening to me because I’m human. They should be listening to me because I am human. I know my people, and they aren’t fond of squatters.”

  “I agree with you,” Legian said softly as he sat down next to her.

  “That’s great,” she said dryly. “Now all we have to do is get Apolo to agree.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that.” He paused for a deep breath. “I know of a way.”

  She spun to face him. “What is it?”

  He reached out and clasped her hand in his. “If you were to accept to be my tahren, you would be recognized as a Sephian and become a member of the Sephian community.”

  She frowned. “Tahren? Like, soul mate? I thought that was a biological thing. I thought you can’t choose your tahren. I thought the whole Sephian energy force thing chooses your tahren for you. You can’t just pick someone to be yours.”

  He gave a small smile. “And you are correct.”

  “Legian, thank you for offering, but you can’t do that for me. What if you find your tahren? No. I’ll find another way.”

  He chuckled. “Sienna, I wish you could feel energy like I do. I knew you were my tahren the moment you touched me. I fought against the bond for so long, thinking it impossible for a Sephian and a human to become tahren, but I know now that it is real. I know not what lies ahead, but I do know that I’m not willing to sacrifice an opportunity given to me—to us—by the gods. You are my tahren. There is no mistaking that. I’ve only been holding off on informing Apolo until you had a chance to understand us better.”

  She sat there and said nothing as she considered his words. In his mind, clearly, his proposal included no subterfuge. She had feelings for him, but she wasn’t sure if it was love or simply a blend of passion and friendship. Her brows knit together. Maybe there wasn’t a difference.

  After losing Bobby, she’d never wanted to care for someone enough to go through that kind of pain again. The problem was, she already did care for Legian too much.

  She reached out and grabbed his hand. “So, you’re my tahren. What do we do now?”

  Chapter Four

  Sienna walked into the country bar and scanned past the line dancers for the man she’d come to see, nearly missing him for the cowboy hat he wore. He had bellied up to the bar, drinking a frosty draft.

  Tonight was her first mission. It had taken over a month for the Sephians to trust her enough to not track her every move and another two months before Apolo agreed to leverage her race. Unfortunately, as humans went, she brought few connections. Even though she’d done plenty of disaster response planning, most of her military involvement had been at the enlisted and noncommissioned officer level. Her best option was Bobby’s unit.

  Taking a deep breath, Sienna gave her late husband’s friend a quick smile. Before walking over to him, she scanned the bar for anyone else from Jax’s platoon. In her email, she’d pleaded for Jax to come alone, but he was a soldier first, which meant he wouldn’t be alone.

  Her gaze stopped on a man sitting in the booth at the other end of the bar. Sporting a buzz cut and sitting too uptight for a night out, the fifty-something man didn’t fit. She had no doubt the 51st Division, a joint Army-Air Force operations task force focused on space warfare, was here.

  Straightening her posture, she considered walking right back out the way she came in. But Apolo was counting on her. Last week, a Draeken scout ship had been spotted flying over the base. If the Sephian base hadn’t been discovered yet, it would be soon. It was just a matter of time.

  She turned back to Jax and found his chair empty. Frowning, she spun around, only to come to a hard stop against a cowboy who filled out all ten gallons of that hat of his. A large hand latched onto her bicep, and she looked up into Jax’s eyes. His hand lowered to her wrist. Their feet crunched on broken peanut shells littered across the hardwood floors as he led her through the bar and toward Buzzcut. Inside, frustration and fear prickled her.

  “I told you to come alone,” she ground out through clenched teeth.

  “This is bigger than both of us.”

  “I know,” she said. “But I’m trying to keep things from escalating too fast.”

  “I think it’s too late for that,” Jax said.

  Buzzcut looked up from a barely touched beer when they stopped at his booth. The older man pivoted on his red bench seat, hopped to his feet, gave an overly generous smile, and held out a hand. “You must be Sienna Wolfe.”

  She inhaled before accepting the offered hand. “You must lead Jax’s company.”

  “Among other companies. Major Sommers; at your service.” He motioned to the booth and she slid in as he sat back down. Jax slid in next to her, effectively locking her in the booth.

  Sommers put both elbows on the table and leaned forward over his beer. “Jax mentioned that you might like some assistance with some illegal aliens.”

  “I like to think of them as friends in from out of town,” Sienna said. While anyone overhearing the conversation would assume they were talking about workers coming over from Mexico, they both understood the true meaning of his words. She glanced at Jax before turning back to Sommers. “How much do you know?”

  He shrugged. “I know our friends have been here for some time, long before the night they took you.”

  She’d kept warning Apolo that the U.S. military wasn’t half as dumb as he thought, but the Sephians had one major flaw: they thought they were smarter than everyone else. Not exactly an ego boost for a lone human in a bunker of five hundred-plus aliens. Then again, they’d won their freedom through blood, tears, and death. They earned a little self-righteousness, no matter how frustrating that could be at times.

  “Why don’t you fill me in on what you know?” Sommers asked.

  Clasping her fingers, she leaned forward. She spoke as if her insides weren’t tied in knots. “I was asked by Apolo—he’s the Sephian leader here on Earth—to reach out to someone I knew and trusted in the military.”

  Sommers nodded. “You chose Lieutenant Jerrick because you knew him through your late husband.”

  She gave a quick glance to Jax. “Yes. Bobby trusted him, so I trust him.”

  “Your late husband was a trusted NCO in the 51st. I wish I’d had the chance to meet him,” Sommers said before continuing. “Why don’t you tell me more about Apolo and why he asked you to contact Jax.”

  There was so much to say, she struggled with where to begin. “Apolo wants to make official contact.”

  Sommers raised his brows. “Then why hasn’t he contacted us?”

  “It’s not that easy. The Sephians don’t exactly blend in, what with their gold skin and black eyes. Apolo knows that once they’re out of the so-called closet, there’s no going back. He wanted to take things slow and play their cards right.”

  “Invading our country is an act of war,” Sommers cautioned.

  Her jaw tightened. “They’re not invading. They didn’t even want to come here.”

  “They why are they here?” Sommers asked.

  “They followed the Draeken here to prevent them from doing to us what they did to Sephia.”

  “And what d
id these Draeken do to Sephia?” Sommers asked.

  “They enslaved the Sephians,” she replied. “From what I’ve learned, the Draeken arrived on Sephia and conquered it during what they call the Great War. From what I got, this war was worse than all of ours thrown together, condensed into one massive attack. Anyway, the Draeken had advanced technology. They slashed the Sephian population in half within a couple weeks. For a couple centuries, the Draeken ruled with the Sephians as their slaves. Then, about twenty years ago, the Sephians rebelled in a drawn-out guerilla war that decimated both races. It was called the Noble War, and that was when they finally drove the Draeken from their world.”

  During all this Sommers listened but said nothing, so she continued.

  “Kudos to the Sephians for getting their planet back. Bad news for us, because the next habitable planet along the space highway was Earth. Fortunately, the Sephians found out the Draeken had come here, so Apolo led a group of five hundred or so Sephians to a world they’d never heard of, a world they had no reason to care about, because they didn’t want to see another world enslaved. And that pretty much sums up why the Sephians are here.”

  There was a long drawn out silence as Sommers seemed to ponder her words. “How many Draeken are here?”

  “I don’t know. Apolo seemed to think they escaped with only one ship and that it wasn’t full. But it could still mean a few thousand.”

  He frowned. “If the Draeken came here to take over the world, then why haven’t they tried to do so already?”

  She shrugged. “Apolo thinks they’re lying low to build infrastructure to implement their plans. He’s been searching for their earthside base but hasn’t found it yet.”