Beyond the Stars: INEO (2 page)

I looked at Urit with empathy. “But why would they take Nia? I thought they weren’t permitted to take Katarians,” I stated with uncertainty. “It’s your agreement, right? Maybe they will bring her back. Surely they’ll want to keep the peace.”

“Yes,” Tyden agreed.

“Regardless, they broke the treaty,” Gaelan stated with agitation.

Tyden frowned. “Without a doubt,” he said, before addressing the room. “It’s in our jurisdiction to recover Nia without the Council’s involvement since a delay in action could jeopardize the mission. We’ll act in a rational manner and plan to retrieve her without forging an attack. I have no desire to start a war. Nia Lapinmaki is a distinguished scientist. If she’s aboard the Dreon’s ship, I want to avoid having her blood on my hands.”

Urit grimaced.

“Hmm,” Gaelan cleared his throat and gave Tyden a disapproving look.

Gaelan was probably trying to make Tyden be more sensitive in front of Urit. At times, Tyden—a large black man who seemed to be serious about everything, including his buzz-cut with impeccably groomed sideburns and perfect posture—tended to sound callous. His bluntness and stern demeanor used to scare and intimidate me. Actually, it still did, but I knew it was just the way he was. To my relief, we had developed a mutual respect for each other, and I admired his ability to remain calm under pressure.

I vaguely knew the history about the apocalyptic war that occurred one hundred years earlier between the Dreons and Katarians. The fight started after the Dreons began abducting and experimenting on the Katarian people. Although the Dreon’s had more advanced weapons, wiping out over half of the Katarian’s population, they, too, suffered terrible losses. Desperate to end the battle, they accepted the Katarian’s offer—ongoing fresh samples of their DNA in exchange for a promise that they would never take a Katarian again. The agreement had been honored until now.

Gaelan huddled me, Urit, and Tyden together. With a distressed look on his face, he said to us in a low voice, “Something is seriously wrong. Why Nia? Why now? The Dreons have Nia’s genetic codes registered in their data banks. They would have returned her right away if it were an honest mistake. Whatever they’re up to, it can’t be good.”

We all looked at each other silently.

Tyden’s eyes met Gaelan’s. “Tracking them is not going to be easy,” he said with frustration, backing away.

Urit gazed up at the ceiling and bit his lip. “We should check the trading post. Perhaps they may have stopped in for supplies. I know they frequent the place,” he said.

“Yes,” Tyden answered without hesitation. “We’ll make a quick stop at the trading post and dig for leads. If nothing turns up, we’ll proceed to Spaceport Five. When I received our flight itinerary, the Council gave us an option to stop on Spaceport Five before returning to Earth. They wanted us to offer transport to anyone wishing to leave. I had originally said no—”

Gaelan smirked. “Because you hate the extra baggage,” he interrupted.

“Yes,” Tyden agreed. “But now, we might find their services useful.”

“Tyden, you’re a genius.” Gaelan’s eyes brightened with the idea.

“Why?” I asked.

Gaelan turned to me. “Spaceport Five is central to all ten of our Spaceports. It receives updates from every passing Starship we have out there, and it’s only a little bit out of the way.”

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Urit said impatiently.

Tyden seemed to share his urgency. “Attention all crew: prepare for departure and commence with lift off.” His deep voice resonated with authority when he spoke into his ship’s communicator.

My pulse quickened when I heard Tyden continue with the ship’s launch. I was more than ready to leave Kataria. With our course set, Urit gave Tyden a nod and left the command deck in a rush. I was tempted to follow after him so I could offer my support, but knew it would have to wait.

Without further orders, the surrounding crew on the command deck had already returned their attention to their stations, faced the holographic monitors in front of them, and appeared to be concentrating. I returned to my seat beside Gaelan and watched in awe as the ship appeared to function on autopilot.

“Are we taking off?” I asked when no one around me moved.

Gaelan appeared to be concentrating on something. “Yes … just a minute, Sami,” he answered me. “Okay, good. We’re underway.” He looked at me with his full attention.

I felt the ship move a little. “What? How did you do that?”

“I’m at the helm. The controller’s interface is implanted in my head, so I can operate the controls remotely,” he said with a meek look.

“Of course it is. Why waste energy moving around when you can just think it?” I said sarcastically.

“Yes, I thought you’d understand,” he said with a slight smile.

Gaelan was fully aware of my discomfort with their advanced society. He knew his people were technologically superior to the people of Earth, but at least he was always kind about it.

“How can you control your thoughts like that? I would start thinking about eating lunch or doing work and probably wreck,” I teased.

“No, believe me, it’s not that hard.
Hey,
there’s an earpiece we give to beginners who are learning to drive. You have
to earn
the implant,” he said in a lower voice. “I could teach you. Actually, no—you have to learn. I would feel so much better if you got used to operating our ships. I don’t want you to be ill prepared, and you’ll like it. It’s quite fun,” he said with excitement.

“I don’t know. I can’t even read your language.” My palms started to sweat just thinking about it.

He shrugged. “You don’t have to. You just think the commands.”

“No, really, I don’t want to crash and kill everybody.”

“Great, then it’s a date. We can start tomorrow,
after
you’ve had a good night’s sleep,” he said with a grin, referring to how he had kept me up most of last night. Not that I had any complaints.

“Fine, it’s your death wish,” I said, knowing he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

He looked away, appearing to hold back a satisfied grin while he leisurely adjusted himself in his seat.

Disagreeing with Gaelan seemed like a losing battle. He had a way of getting what he wanted. Despite thinking he was being pushy, I thought he looked incredibly sexy. Gaelan Liitanen was unlike anyone I’d ever met. He was a good-looking man with wavy brown hair and had electric blue eyes that radiated a calming essence of wisdom, probably due to his vast experience from traveling the galaxy. Despite knowing it would be completely inappropriate to climb on top of him and straddle his body between my legs, I couldn’t help imagining it in my mind. Gaelan leaned forward and gave me a soft touch on the thigh when he seemed to notice my breathing had deepened. I wondered if he was feeling turned on as well? No. I recognized his look. He was probably just pleased with his new objective to teach me how to fly. I didn’t mind. I was always drawn to men who coerced me into trying something new. Without the motivation, I knew I would be trapped, living a dull existence. I could easily fall into the rut of repeating the same day over and over again. Gaelan was similar to my late husband, Jack, in the way that he made sure my life was full of spice. He also seemed desperate for me to fall in love with Space exploration just as he had. Although he seemed to understand how badly I wanted to go home, I think he secretly hoped I would be happy living aboard the ship with him forever. However, with the way things were going, if I ever got home, I surely wouldn’t be signing up for another trip anytime soon.

CHAPTER 2

SANCTIFIED

The Katarians continued to argue about what they should do once we found the Dreon ship.

“You’re an idiot. They won’t willingly hand her over. They pirated her for a reason,” said a crewman to the man sitting beside him.

“They thought they were taking Samantha. They probably know she’s from Earth and wondered why she was with Gaelan,” said another man, giving me a cold glare.

He sounded so angry. Perhaps he resented me for interfering in his life. Or maybe he was still troubled by my intergalactic relationship with Gaelan. Either way, he made me feel like a second-class citizen.

“But they didn’t bring her back. That’s a declaration of war,” the crewman argued.

Gaelan stretched his arms behind his head and raked his hand through his hair as if he was summoning strength. “We’re not jumping into war, and we don’t need to know their motives. We just need to find their ship so we can get Nia back.”

The man huffed. “How will we get her back? Are we going to attack them and kill her in the process?”

“No,” Zaric said. “We’ll follow them and wait for them to land. They always leave their ship when they go to ports. I bet their captives aren’t even guarded, just caged.”

I gulped.
Poor Nia.

My brother-in-law, Zaric, had an odd sense of humor. He was married to Azil, Gaelan’s sister. He was an attractive man, physically fit, but not too bulky, just like Gaelan. His hair was jet black and long enough to cover his brown eyes except he kept it tucked behind his ears, and he almost always had a grin, whether mischievous or sour, on his face.

“Say we get her, what’s to keep them from coming after us? They might still want Samantha. We’re going to end up in battle no matter what,” said the crewman.

“Then we’ll deal with it,” Gaelan said with irritation.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Gaelan. I felt like the scapegoat for blame.

“Relax,” he said. “It’s just talk. Everyone here has a duty to act prudently and not overreact when it comes to using our weapons. Our weapons are so powerful, and have to be deployed so precisely that we must be careful not to
blow
ourselves up in the process.”

“That’s reassuring,” I grumbled.

As the morning went by, I found myself becoming increasingly afraid to speak, move, or even breathe. It was miserable. If I were back on Earth with my colleagues, my ideas and opinions would be eagerly sought. I knew that the relations with the Dreons had been
tolerable
until my coming aboard, but it wasn’t my fault that they were kidnappers. Compelled to help, I decided it would take more than a few grumpy people to scare me away, so I begrudgingly listened in silence, trying to act solely as an unobtrusive bystander. Despite my lack of wisdom on searching Space, I was hopeful that we could come up with a solution together. Hours passed and nothing was settled. Finally, I couldn’t obsess about the unknowns of our future any longer. I pretended to grow disinterested and went back to our room to wait for Gaelan to finish his shift.

It was late. I was tired and felt like crying. I missed being home. Participating in a wild goose chase for evil aliens in a galaxy this size felt ludicrous. Then, to make matters worse, I learned we were headed in the opposite direction of Earth. The further delay of going home made me even more anxious. I couldn’t help punishing myself by allowing every dire thought to loop over and over again in my mind. Would I ever see my kids again? What was I missing on Earth? How long would I be gone? Would I even recognize the world when I got back?

I thought about Nia—was she still alive? I worried we would never find her and that Urit would start to blame me for her disappearance and hate me forever. Enough. I put on some music, and poured myself a large glass of Katarian wine, praying it would numb my brain. Although I wasn’t much of a drinker, the need felt justified. I sunk down into the study’s soft brown sofa, covered myself with a blanket, and stared out the large wall of windows displaying a few distant stars. I knew I was at risk for falling into a deep, dark depression if I allowed it. I sipped in silence, wallowed in my self-pity, and remained in a semi-mesmerized state for what seemed like an hour. At last, I heard Gaelan come in the front door.

“Ouch, what the … Damn it,
Azil!”
Gaelan complained after he tripped on something as he entered the bedroom area of our suite.
“No you didn’t bring …
not my favorite paintings, too—
Ugh,
she touched my paint! Unbelievable. Is
nothing
sacred?”

I heard him continue to knock things over with a string of loud bangs as he stumbled through more of his stuff. It sounded as if he had started an avalanche.