Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 62128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
“You heard the doctor when we questioned him.” Wrath grins. “Mating humans could result in hybrids. And hybrids breed fast, do as they’re told, fit into smaller spaces, are more agile, and more importantly, have no official rights in saurian society. The alpha’s law only applies to saurians. That’s why they’ve been able to take the humans as they please. It’s the same as taking anything, isn’t it. Same as picking up a lizard and making it a pet, or dashing its brains out on a rock and turning it into a snack. They can be used.”
“There’s a ship full of human wombs. We’ve seen it docked just outside the city. They think they’re invisible, but they’re not. Maybe the alpha can’t see them, but our surveillance frequencies make the thing light up like another moon.”
“Could be males on board.”
“Good. Males can be slaves. Females can be breeding stock. They’re all ours for the taking.”
The saurians hoist big cannon-type weapons on their shoulders. At first I am not worried, because they look like they’re probably small missiles, and they won’t touch the Mare. She’s armored pretty heavily.
Then I notice something else. All the shoulder cannons have a thick lead from the rear. There’s no actual missile loaded. They’re not what I thought they were. They’re not primitive weapons loaded with projectile ammunition. All those leads go back through the undergrowth.
I sneak back, following them through the forest to find a great big humming power bank on wheels. I didn’t see this until now because this is the direction the saurians came from and I was trying to avoid being caught.
“Lettie to Mare,” I whisper into my communicator. “They can see you, and they intend to shoot you down. Ascend into orbit immediately.”
“You won’t be able to transport back to the ship if we do that.” I’m not entirely sure who it is behind the comms, because the connection is rough and I have a hard time distinguishing voices sometimes. That means I don’t really know who I am about to yell at. Well, whisper-yell at.
“They have a fucking energy weapon aimed at you. Move NOW!”
I’ve never given an order before. It feels quite interesting. It also feels very hopeless, because there’s no way for me to tell if it has been followed. I can’t see the ship. One good sign is that comms have dropped, which does suggest they’ve moved.
“AIM! FIRE!… FUCK!”
There are shouts of disappointment in the mid-distance, followed by what I hope is a belated discharge of the weapon. I see a dozen flashes of light go up from the forest and into the sky, joining together as they rise upward. Singly, those bolts wouldn’t do much damage to the Mare’s shielding, but together their force is exponentially multiplied.
I watch that ball of power flash through the heavens, hoping I don’t see it hit something unseen and spread out into a true explosion. I know how that will look. At first there will just be an oddly-shaped light, but very quickly the ship will blink into visual range as the cloaking devices fail. Then burning bits will start to rain downward like a super low meteor shower.
Fortunately, none of that happens. The ball shoots upward, then starts to dissipate as it loses charge and finds no solid object. I breathe a sigh of relief. That was a close call. Either these saurians would have killed a lot of the crew or captured them. The latter is probably worse than the former given the conversation I overheard.
I just need to lie low and make it to the next rendezvous point. We know that the captain and, well, the other captain are both being held inside the city proper. At last check, they were located inside the largest residence, the one belonging to the city’s alpha.
It’s practically impossible to reach that residence. Not only is it under heightened guard after what must have been recent events of some kind or another. What, we don’t know. We have been trying to keep surveillance tabs on the captain and the other captain, but Sullivan has been largely confined to the alpha’s residence since she made a bold escape attempt, and Raine threw herself off a cliff twice before being similarly confined. I wonder how they’re getting on in that house together. My guess? They’re fighting like tomcats.
I hope Sullivan and Raine can overcome their differences and work together to get out of captivity. They’re going to need each other, and we are going to need both of them to get off this planet. The crew is unanimous: we’re not leaving anybody behind. But we’re also not going to take insane risks in order to rescue the captain and… the other captain. We’re going to bide our time, wait for the best opportunity, and take it when the time is right.