Lost Among the Stars (Sky Riders) (14 page)

One by one hundreds of Lephus fighters took off out of the huge warship. It had taken a lot of time and money to rebuild his force since the last war. As each fighter flew out to fly alongside his warship he smiled. This armada would be the largest he ever had. Every available man was trained as a pilot and assigned to a
fighter. Only those too old to fly remained on Lephus with the few females and children he had.

An hour later all fighters were deployed. It was a glorious sight to see all of his work come full circle finally. The trek to Qetera would pass-by quickly with the new engines his engineers had designed.
Good old Etor wouldn’t see him coming.

Chapter 16

Maggie woke up the next morning feeling sick to her stomach. She had to have picked up a bug or something. The last week she had more upset stomachs than she ever had in her life. It was really becoming annoying to wake up and have to run straight for the bathroom.

A knock on her came just as she was walking out of the bedroom. She opened the door to find Kelly standing there with two mugs of steaming tea.

“Good morning sleepyhead!” Kelly slipped into the room and handed her the hot mug. “Just the way you like it.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled as she followed behind her.

Kelly plopped down on the extra-large sofa and looked at her. “What’s wrong? You look a little pale.”

She sat down on the opposite end of the sofa and tucked her feet underneath her. She blew on the hot tea then took a tiny sip of the delicious liquid. “Girl, my stomach has been so upset lately. It’s got to be the food here.” She rubbed her belly as an indication of it being upset.

“I’m okay and as far as I know, so are Hunt
er and Lexie. We stayed up late last night and no one said anything about feeling ill. Maybe you should give Jonik call. Maybe you picked up some strange Qeteran bug.” Kelly sat her mug on the side table then reclined on the puffy cushions. “Damn, I love this sofa! Feels like I am sitting on a cloud.”

“I guess I should call Jonik. Funny thing is, it goes away during the day most of the time. It’s just when
I wake up it hits me.”

Kelly shot up straight on the sofa. “Whoa! Did you say it’s mostly in the morning?”

“Yea, why?”

Kelly rolled back on the cushions hooting and laughing hysterically. “Oh. My. God.” She had tears trailing down her cheeks she was laughing so hard.

“Come on, Kelly. Be serious. Why are you laughing?”

Kelly calmed enough to sit back up and loo
k her in the face. “Girl, you’re pregnant!”

The world fell out from underneath her. Her breath started coming in little gasps and her face felt flushed. Pregnant?

“Mags, you’re knocked up!” She leaned forward and hugged her friend. “This is incredible!” She planted a kiss on Maggie’s cheek.

Maggie was stunned. Was she really pregnant with Etor’s child? Come to think of it, she hadn’t had her cycle since before leaving Earth.

“Say something, Maggie!”

“I…I don’t know what to say,” she said.

“Say that you’re happy about it. I know I am!” Kelly jumped off the sofa. “I got to go get Hunter and Lexie! Be right back.”

Kelly ran out the door before she could even stop her. She needed some time for this to sink and to tell Etor before the entire house knew. But, how long would Etor be away? He had told her only a day or two but things could always change. She would make her friends promise not to say anything until she had time to tell Etor. A baby!

The door to her room swung open with a loud bang on the wall. Kelly tugged a sleepy Hunter and Lexie into the room then shoved them down on the sofa. “Go ahead. Tell them, Mags!”

She watched the two women who didn’t look pleased to have been dragged out of their beds by an overactive Kelly. Hunter yawned while Lexie leaned on the nearest pillow with her eyes closed.

“Maggie, tell them!” Kelly bounced up and down like a child on Christmas morning.

“I think I’m pregnant.”

Silence filled the room for about a half second before all hell broke loose. All three of her friends screamed and shouted. Hunter and Lexie came instantly fully alert and joined Kelly in her bouncing up and down. Then they pulled her off the sofa and wrapped her in group hug. At that point she couldn’t help but join in and laughed right along with them.

“I knew something was wrong yesterday in the garden. I noticed you kept rubbing your stomach,” Lexie said.
“It’s the nurse in me.” She smiled at her.

“Does Etor know?” Hunter asked.

She shook her head. “No, he left early this morning before I got up. Kelly is the one who told me what it was.”

“You still need to confirm it with Jonik, but there’s no doubt about it. You’re prego, my friend.” Kelly flopped back down on the sofa. “We should get dressed and go over to medical clinic right now.”

The sound of glass shattering filled the room. The women screamed and covered their heads as glass flew everywhere. The sound of running footsteps next filled the air as they crunched over the broken glass on the floor. Maggie screamed again when someone grabbed her hair from behind and jerked her head back until she looked up at the face of a man she didn’t know. She heard Kelly shout as the wave of soldiers stormed the room.

“What the hell! Let me go!” Kelly screamed and kicked out at her assailant.

Several soldiers rushed to help subdue Kelly. Hunter and Lexie were sprawled on the glass covered floor each with a knee in their back as another soldier secured their hands behind their backs.

The one holding her sneered down at her as she tried to get him to let go of her hair. “So, you are the whore to the commander. Not bad looking I must say.” He pulled her off the sofa until she stood up in front of him with her back to him.
“Where are the others?” he asked.

In the mist of the pain he was causing, she heard him ask that strange question. “What others?” she hissed out as he squeezed tighter.

He let go of her hair only to jerk her around to face him. “Don’t play games with me! Where are the other Earth females being held?”

His breath smelled like rotten meat as he shouted in her face. Her stomach flipped in protest to the disgusting smell. “There aren’t any other women.”

He slapped her with the back of his hand nearly knocking her to the ground. Kelly continued to fight with her captors as she screamed at the man. “Get away from her! Don’t touch her.” She succeeded in landing a knee in the crotch of one of her captors.

“I will ask you one last time. Where are the other females?” He shook her until she managed to answer him.

“There aren’t any other Earth women! We’re all there is. The rest died on the transport!” He had to stop shaking her or she was going to throw up all over him.

“She’s not lying!” Lexie called from the floor.

The man looked between her and Lexie. She guessed he was debating whether or not they were telling the truth. “How is that possible? And I warn you, do not lie to me or I will shoot you right here.”

“You asshole! Our transport was hit by an asteroid. If it weren’t for the Qeterans we would have died too.” Kelly was now pinned to the sofa and was being restrained
the same way Hunter and Lexie were.

Zol’tsa drew in the deepest breath he could. He would be abl
e to smell the lies if the females were truly indeed telling them, but what hit his nostrils was the pure truth. “They tell the truth.”

“What do we do then?” one of the soldiers asked.

“We take these four and get out of here,” he said.

The women were quickly bound and gagged by the soldiers then thrown over the shoulder of one. Zol’tsa personally held onto Maggie. This one was to be his prize as promised by his king.

The group exited the same way they had entered. With the females’ silenced and unable to move, their escape was unheeded. He thought for sure the Commander’s guards would have come running at the first sound of the break in and it confused the hell out of him until they were almost across the open field behind the house.

A fireball flew closely overhead and crashed with a horrendous explosion into the ground. The explosion knocked all the running soldiers to the ground stunned. The women had tumbled a few feet away and were crying and struggling to get free. The one called Kelly tried to say something but the gag in her mouth prevented him from understanding until she jerked her head up. His eyes followed hers.

There in the sky was the reason why their escape had gone unnoticed. Qeteran fighters were doing battle with Lephusan fighters! Ruehar had moved in without letting him know. Blasted fool! How was he going to get off the planet with a full fledge battle going on in the sky?

The scene away from the house was chaos.
People ran in every direction to get out of the way of falling debris. Several building had caught fire because of the burning fighters that fell to the ground after being shot. The Lephusan fighters not engaged in a fight were systematically destroying buildings with the green pulsars shooting out of the bottom of their ships.

“Let’s move!” Zol’tsa shouted above the noise that now filled the air.

Regaining their footing, they restarted their run across the field. They needed to find a way to their ship or they all would surely die! They decided to take a chance and run along the stream. It was less crowded with buildings and homes so they should have a relatively easy time getting through.

Just as they were about to round the corner of the supply building a loud growl vibrated the air. “Halt!” he called out and motioned for his men to move against the wall. He peered around the corner to see what was near them. He nearly passed out when he saw the dragons flying alongside the Qeteran fighters,
taking out enemy fighters with one blow of fire.

“Shit! We got problems!” he yelled back behind him.

The soldier standing right behind him chanced a look then moved back into hiding. “Sir, there’s no way we are going to be able to get to the ship. Those dragons will take us out the instant we lift off.”

“”Don’t you think I know this?” He needed to think quickly.

“Sir,” the same soldier called, “What if we steal that shuttle over there?” He pointed to the Qeteran shuttle sitting inside of a hanger with the doors open.

He thought for a moment before he nodded. “Not a bad idea, soldier. We need to move to that hanger without being seen!” he shouted to all. “One by one, I want you to run to that hanger as fast as you can. “I’ll go first to get the shuttle started. As soon as I reach the hanger the next one goes. You three with the women are the first to move after me, got it?”

All heads nodded in agreement. “Oh, and make sure you don’t get shot because no one is stopping to pick your unlucky ass up!” He took off with Maggie on his shoulder.

He ran as fast as he could. A piece of metal whipped by his head barely missing him. The air around him and the hanger was heated due to the amount of dragon fire being blown into the normally chilly air.
Another loud roar caused his ears to rings. This time it was the sound of a dragon falling to its death. The ground shook as the giant beast hit the landing pad and remained motionless.

Breathlessly, he slipped into the hanger. He signaled the next man to move then headed for the shuttle whose door was already open. Rushing inside, he
tossed the female onto a seat and ran for the pilot’s chair. It would take some doing but he was positive he would be able to hot wire the ship and bypass the security system.

The sound of running footsteps drew his attention. One of the soldiers carrying a female ran into the shuttle and began to strap the females down. He worked reverently as he pulled this wire and that wire out from under the control panel. He struggled to find the third wire he needed. His patience was wearing thin, so he got down on the floor to search for the blasted wire.

“Where’s the damn wire?” He pushed his hand into the tight opening to push the other wires to the side. Tucked up high underneath the panel was the thick wire he was looking for. “Got it!” He pulled the wire out to connect to the other two then twisted the three together. Standing back up, he looked to the back of the shuttle for a quick count. “Is everyone on board?”

“That’s it, Sir.”

He took his place in the pilot seat and prayed to Ruehar that the thing started. The switch that needed to be flipped instantly lit up when he turned it on. His thumb hovered over the start button for a second before he pressed it down. He closed his eyes and smiled as the engine fired up.

“Here we go. Better say a pray to whatever god you pray to if you want to make it out of here alive.” He pulled back on the throttle slowly. He could hear the females in the back crying or trying to talk and it annoyed the hell out of him.

“Shut them up!”

He concentrated to moving the shuttle out of the hanger. As soon as it was clear of the building he looked up into the sky to find a clear path. Just as he was
about to takeoff, a dragon with a rider on its back swooped down and blocked their path. He feared the rider would recognize him as a Lephusan but quickly realized the rider would not be able to see into the ship. The windows were protected from the glare of the two suns if the shuttle was used to fly into space.

He held his breath along with the soldier sitting next to him. The Sky Rider and dragon stared at the shuttle too long for him to feel comfortable. If need be he would take his chances and rush the dragon. Seconds ticked by before the Sky Rider turned away from the shuttle. The blue dragon used its massive talon feet to push off the landing pad and fly up into the sky, disappearing
behind a black cloud of smoke.

He and the soldier looked at each other and let out the breath they were holding. “That was close.” He checked again for a clear path and found it. Two Qeteran fighters were currently engaged in a dog fight with three Lephusan fighters. If he mo
ved the shuttle forward then make a ninety degree turn straight up he would be able to get the shuttle through. “I hope everyone is buckled in!”