Lost Among the Stars (Sky Riders) (2 page)

“I didn’t notice. Maybe it’s just safer to travel that way. You know, separate the men from the women so no trouble arises.
I’m actually glad we’re separated.” She looked around the room to make sure only women were still present.

Kelly was about to respond when a male voice greeted them from the front of the room.

“Welcome aboard, Ladies. You are on Transport seventeen and I am your captain. If you would all take a seat everything that will occur while you are on board will be explained.”

Next to the captain stood another man. This man didn’t look as trustworthy as the captain did but it could just be her nerves getting the best of her. The man’s appearance wasn’t as tidy as the captain’s and added to the feeling she was having.

“Ladies, the journey you are about to start will bring you to a new life. A life many of you are dying to have. The other sixteen transports that have made this same journey have successfully reached their destination on the planet of Lephus. Once we arrive you will be grouped together with a liaison who will help with the necessary arrangements of finding you all a place to stay. Our main concern for the time being is the journey there.”

The women in the room whispered to each other in excitement.
Maggie wasn’t so sure she was excited about travelling to an unknown planet. She was nervous as hell about hearing more information from the creepy looking man speaking to them.

“First, Lephus is approximately twenty-four light years from where we are and…” he was cut off by a woman who shouted out to him.

“What? How the hell far is twenty-four light years? No one said we would be going that far.”

“If I could please finish I am sure I will answer all your questions.” He waited for the woman to sit back down before he resumed. “As I was saying, Lephus is quite a distance away from Earth and it would take an incredibly long time to get there if we travelled by ordinary means. This is not the case with the transports. These transports were built and are owned by the people of Lephus. Their technology far surpasses our own and it was by their request that women be brought to there.” Gasps went through the group, but the creep continued on without pause. “Since Lephus is so far the speed we must maintain is not suitable
for a human’s body. In this case, the Lephus have designed sleeping tubes that each of you will be put into for the journey. Once in the tube you will be put to sleep by a special gas that will not only let you sleep but will also pressurize the inside of the tube to basically freeze your body. This means as long as you are in the pressurized tube you will not age, not eat, not use the bathroom. The time it takes to reach Lephus is about three months, far too long for a human body to with stand the effects of the speed we must travel at. Are there any questions?”

Two hours later they were finally exiting the room and heading to the sleeping tubes. Each transport could hold up to fifty tubes with no problem. Any more than that the ship would start to experience problems with having to sustain the sleeping tubes. The tubes were situated into rooms of four
tubes, making a total of twelve rooms. Each group of four was led to their room and prepared to enter the tubes.

“This is creepy, Kelly. What if we don’t wake up?” Maggie stripped off her clothes in order to put on
a specially designed unitard or leotard, which one preferred to call it. Hers happened to be green and was made out of a material she had never felt before.

“What is this made out of?” Kelly asked as she pulled the suit up over her ample breasts.

“Heck if know, but it feels great!” the third woman in their room, Hunter, said.

The fourth woman, Lexie
, hadn’t uttered a word since she had come into the room. She looked terrified as she struggled to put the suit on.

“Need help, honey?” Kelly asked her.

“Yes, please. Something seems to be twisted.”

After Kelly helped Lexie
finish getting dressed, they sat on the edge of their open tubes waiting. They tried to joke and talk to make the air lighter but when they heard the approaching footsteps they all shut up.

“Ready, Ladies?”
It was the creepy guy from earlier.

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Hunter said.

“Good. Go ahead and lie back and make yourself comfortable. After the clear hood closes, it will take about two minutes for the full effects to take place. You will smell something sweet as the gas enters the tube and within seconds you will start to feel sleepy. Don’t try to fight it. Just let your body take over and before you know it you will arriving on Lephus.”

“See ya later Mags!” Kelly called out.

“You too Kelly. See you on the other side!” Maggie said.

“Oh man, that was so lame!” Kelly laughed.

The tube closed over her head, sealing her in. She heard a small hiss as the valve for the gas was opened and let into the tube. The sweet smell filled the tube quickly and reminded her of baking cookies. The creepy dude had been right, she started to feel sleepy as soon as she smelled the gas. Her eyes grew heavy and her limbs felt paralyzed. She didn’t fight the pull of sleep that called to her as the darkness consumed her.

Chapter 2

“Find out where that fucking ship is going!” Mark shouted at his henchmen. “And find who let her through and kill him!” He threw his shot glass across his office and it shattered against the wall dripping the amber liquid down the smoked stained wallpaper.

“Sure thing, Boss.” Three out of the four men left the office, leaving behind Mark’s top man, Bert.

“Boss, how are we going to find out where she went? Those transports go all over the damn place?” Bert lit up a cigarette.

“It should have never gotten this far! I had an arrangement with the head of the convention center. He was supposed to block any female with her name and detain them. The fuck I know how he screwed up! All I know is that Maggie has to be found and taken care of. I have too much riding on this to just blow her off.”

Mark had found out
by accident that Maggie had witnessed the shooting in his office the other evening. The same evening she told him she got off work early and had gone straight home. The little bitch had lied to him. She had shown up at the club and came in through the back door which he had warned his employees of locking time and time again. Now he had this big problem of finding Maggie and disposing of her before she said anything about what she saw. Not to mention he wasn’t about to let her get away that easily. He had warned her once already what would happen to her if she ever tried to leave him and now he would show her he meant business.

******

The transport flew through space at an incredibly fast sped. All was quiet on board the ship that was bringing women to the male dominated planet of Lephus. The women had been led to believe they were relocating to start a new and better life, but that was only somewhat true.

The captain and his mate, the creepy man, had been approached by the king of Lephus and
made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. A transport full of women in exchange for ten million Earth dollars. All they had to do was program the wrong course into the transport’s computer system then abandon ship. It was simple. The transport would be reported as missing, a short investigation would take place then the case would be chalked up to the hazards of space travel.

What the captain didn’t plan on was the transport running into an unexpected asteroid field. The transport flew directly into the middle of the small field and had miraculously made it through without any of the large asteroids hitting the ship. It was a smaller trailing lump of rock that succeeded in crashing into the transport.

The tail end of the ship was hit and suffered a massive amount of damage. The force of the hit spun the transport like a top out of the rest of the field, missing the remaining rocks. The rear part of the ship was where most of the sleeping tubes were housed along with any crew that had remained on board. The front portion of the transport didn’t suffer any direct damage but would feel the effects of the damage in the rear.

The alarms going off would serve
no purpose. Those in the sleeping tubes had no clue what happened and probably never would. Without someone to bring the sleeping women and crew out of stasis they would never regain consciousness. They would go on sleeping until someone found the badly damaged ship or it was destroyed by another asteroid.

The severely damaged
transport drifted through space at the same speed they had set out on but was way off course. It sped by numerous small moons and planets that didn’t have enough gravity strength to pull it in until it reached the galaxy of Yahiri.

The Yahiri Galaxy was known for its extremely large planets.
Twelve large planets circled two suns. The larger sun shined bright and was full of life while the smaller red sun was called a red dwarf. Several of the planets were inhabited with several different races, but it was the Qeterans that dominated the galaxy and surrounding area.

Qetera was the largest of the twelv
e planets. Its lush forests, crystal clear water, and mountains that reached beyond the clouds supported the numerous life forms that lived on the planet. The majority of Qetera’s residents were the Qeterans, better known as the Sky Riders.

The Sky Riders were an ancient race that dated back for thousands of years. Those destined to be a Sky Rider were born with the mark of the dragon on the lower right shoulder blade. The mark was only present on boys at birth and resembled the head of Qetera’s first dragon,
Livjatan the Life Giver. No one is sure where The Giver of Life came from but his succeeding bloodline survived and flourished on Qetera. On the day a child was born with the mark, a dragon’s egg would be presented to the infant and the infant’s parents, to be cared for in the same manner of the infant.

Those chosen by the gods to be a Sky Rider would then search the universe for their one true life mate. Over the years numerous Sky Riders went without finding their one true mate, however, those without a mate by the age of forty would be granted the choice of marrying another female. A Sky Rider would
instantly recognize his one true mate the moment their eyes locked onto each other. While many Sky Riders found their one true mate on Qetera, there were those riders who succeeded in finding their mate off-world. Once a true life bond was formed nothing could break the bond unless the gods granted their permission for a dissolution of the bond.

The ruling House of Bragnar on Qetera had been blessed with three sons who all bore the mark of the dragon. Etor, the eldest, was the ruling lord of Yadell, the capitol city on Qetera. Kharis, second born son
, ruled the city of Ashme. Vulmar, the youngest son, ruled the city of Nallume. But, it was Etor who ultimately ruled all of Qetera after his father, Folmar, stepped down from his rule because of his deteriorating health.

Folmar had been the only male child of the former ruler and sole heir to the throne of Qetera. When the gods saw fit to bless Folmar and his wife, Aravae, with three sons, Folmar decided to divide the ruling of Qetera among the three. Each son was provided a city to rule as their own, but with the understanding that Etor was Head leader because he was the oldest.

As each brother came of age Folmar released his claim to the throne. There was no doubt in his mind that his three sons would rule Qetera in the same manner as the previous rulers had. All life on Qetera was to be protected, most of all the females and children. Without the females, the Qeterans would cease to exist, so at all costs, the males of Qetera vowed to protect them with their lives.

The Sky Riders also had the task of keeping their dragon safe even though they had a mind of their own. A dragon would only listen to dire
ct commands from its male or the male’s mate. A dragon was linked to a Sky Rider until the death of either the male or the dragon. If a dragon was killed the Sky Rider would not be presented with another egg. It was heart breaking to see a Sky Rider lose his dragon but it was not uncommon. Those dragons that lived until their male’s death were either taken by the gods if old age was the cause of death or sent to live with the other dragons who had lost their male.

The most miraculous thing about the dragons was they could change in size as needed. While on the planet the dragons would remain in their larger state, but could shift to a smaller size if called into their male’s home. If the dragon was re
quired to travel on one of the warships, they were required to remain in their smaller stature until they reached a planet big enough for them to change.

Etor Bragnar constantly patrolled the surrounding galaxy of Yahiri for any threats. He was off-world more than he was home which aggravated his dragon, Rhaegos. While Etor felt it was his duty as ruling lord to patrol the skies, he was also in search of his true life mate. At the age of thirty-four he was fast approaching the age when he would have to take another female as his mate in order to preserve his bloodline.

Not that he was without female companionship since he could have just about any female he wanted, he knew there was something missing from the relationships he had with the females. He knew most of the females only wanted to be with him because of who he was and his family’s status. Those were the females he didn’t keep around for long because of their selfish, greedy ways. Every mission he went out on, he prayed to Qultyx, the god of love, he would find his one true mate, but each time he returned home he returned empty-handed.

Reports had reached Qetera that their archenemy, the Lephusans,
were stirring up trouble in the outer reaches of the galaxy. The Lephusans were a cruel race that sought to capture the dragons of Qetera. They believed they were the true descendants of Livjatan the Life Giver and they did everything in their power to capture the dragons. The report also stated the Lephusans were in need of females because their own females were not reproducing at a consistent rate. Every year fewer and fewer infants were born on Lephus and those that did survive the birth often died within the first year. The Lephus believed if they mated with a race outside of their own, they could increase their numbers and their chances of conceiving a child with the mark of the dragon.

As far as Etor knew the Lephusans had been unsuccessful so far in finding females they could breed with
. He regularly sent out men to scout the surrounding galaxies for any news of the Lephusans. It was while he was out on patrol that word reached him from his brother, Vulmar, the Lephusans had made contact with a planet called Earth. He sent the order out that any and all warships or transports heading in the direction of Lephus were to be searched and any females found aboard were to be taken into custody. It was on such a mission that Etor’s warship “The Arabis” came into contact with a transport that would change his life forever.