Alien Appetite: A Krinar World Novel (A Hot Alien SciFi Romance Book 3) Read online

  Too bad both of my options suck. Since I don’t see the metal heads, I can only hope they’re not onto me. It’s probably just a random patrol. Or maybe they are nocturnal, and they’re going to the cafeteria for a snack. Do they even eat the same food as us?

  Maybe they can smell my rank B.O. and to them it smells as yummy as a roast that’s been simmering away in a crock pot all day. God I hope that’s not the case. One thing’s for sure, I don’t have time to stand around deliberating.

  My eyes dart down the hall one last time before I sprint into the supply area. If I can just get behind the wall before they come this way, we should be safe. They’ve been in this room before and didn’t detect our hiding spot.

  “Lund! Hurry!” I whisper outside the secret panel.

  It instantly opens and I climb in, spinning around to fit into the tight space. The first clue I have that my jumpsuit has come unzipped is when the water bottle falls out and crashes to the floor outside the wall. It’s kind of hard not to feel like the universe has it out for me lately.

  “Shit!” I toss the snack bars to the floor inside the wall and reach out to grab the glass shards, which slice neatly through my palm. So maybe that was a dumb idea. Dehydration doesn’t exactly bring out my inner smarts.

  I cradle my hand, resisting the urge to call out in pain. The broken water bottle is just going to have to stay where it is. Maybe I’ll get lucky and it will dry before anyone notices it.

  Since I’m already frolicking around in the land of dreams I get even wilder with my unrealistic hopes. Who knows, maybe my own personal prince charming will show up on the scene and chase all the bad guys away and carry me off into the sunset. Apparently blood loss makes me even more sarcastic and pathetic than usual. My stupid hand is throbbing.

  Lund closes the secret panel and I hold my breath. The walls aren’t all that thick, and I can hear the aliens enter the room. Funny, I used to think of the Krinar as aliens, but now they’re my friends. As for these metal heads . . . well something tells me there’s nothing friendly about them.

  I can hear myself and the rest of the B team breathing, and I just pray that the wall is muffling the sound. I hear heavy footsteps thumping closer and closer. Then they stop right in front of me on the other side of the wall. I really, really want to believe that it’s just a coincidence, but I’m too much of a realist for that.

  The water! Tessa you idiot! They’ve seen the water!

  One of the girls on my left whimpers, and I grab her wrist, hoping to quiet her just as a bone jarring thud slams against the wall in front of my face. I hear more whimpering from others in our group, and honestly I’m about ready to break down myself. I flinch each time the sledge hammer sound hits the wall in front of me.

  The pitch black of our hidey hole is breached by pinpricks of light that enter where the wall begins to break down. Should we start running, or rather slithering away? Maybe if I stay behind as a decoy everyone else can find a new hiding spot.

  My ear-piercing screams are every bit as loud as the others when, with the next blow, a fist-sized hole breaks open in the wall in front of me. I continue to shriek and after several more blows the hole is the size of a small window. That’s when I get my first terrifying glimpse of our attackers.

  Robots? What the hell! The aliens are actually metal robots? The one directly in front of me is a polished silver color and uses a trident shaped spear to peel the pieces of the shredded wall aside. He reaches a hard, metal hand in to pull me toward him. I try to resist but I’m no match for his strength.

  I stumble out into the room, knowing that this is the end for me. I find a minute portion of relief in the fact that since they’re robots I won’t have to worry about them eating me. They’ll probably just kill me and be done with it.

  I stand as tall as my petite, five foot five frame allows, and pretend to be brave. I’ve always been a scrapper, and I am determined to go out fighting. I see two more robots coming for me, and raise my fists. The enemy is made of metal, and I don’t know what possible harm I can inflict with my bare hands and feet, but I’m going to try.

  Fighting isn’t foreign to me. I had lots of practice when I was younger. Unfortunately, I don’t even have on shoes to cushion the blow when I kick them. But I have to try. If it means I get to live, I can certainly deal with some bruised or even broken toes.

  I growl in what I hope is a menacing way and raise my fists at them. The alien robots say something in their strange language. Clicks and rasping sounds, mixed with what has to be words. Of course I don’t understand any of it, but they seem to be arguing with each other and, for the moment, they’re ignoring me.

  The one who pulled me out roars at the others and shouts something that sounds like DAS GAHMEN with more clicks than consonants in the mix. He pushes them away with his trident. They yell back, but with a bit less intensity than him. Tension fills the air as they all face down the trident guy, and then they back off.

  Looks like Mr. Trident is the head robot. He looks at me intently with his iridescent blue eyes, and I’m about ready to pee my pants I’m so scared. He lifts my arm and I flinch and try to pull away but it’s as futile as trying to fight my way out of a pair of vice grips. He looks at my bleeding hand, then picks me up and carries me across the room.

  He may be a robot, but he’s certainly been fashioned to resemble a man. He’s like a bulkier, more savage version of C-3PO from the Star Wars movies. I’m like a coiled spring, ready to jump away or start fighting at the first opportunity.

  But he’s not giving me the chance. He sets me down on a table and turns to grab a towel from a stack on the counter. His metal hand holds the towel against the gash in my hand, applying pressure to stop the bleeding.

  What the hell? Is he actually tending my wound? I don’t know what to make of his strangely charitable behavior. Shouldn’t he be busy crushing my fragile skull?

  He seems to have lost all interest in the destructive chaos around us. My friend’s shrieks pierce through the fog that has enveloped my brain and my attention is ripped from my captor back to the chaos that fills this room. I look at the other robots who have gone back to their continued destruction of the wall. Why didn’t my friends try to run while the robots were busy fighting over me? It’s like they have no sense of self-preservation!

  The metal creature with a chainsaw arm has cut a line through the wall high at the top. Another alien has wicked spikes around his wrists which he uses to dig into the wall, removing a chunk at a time. A mammoth robot with a massive hammer instead of a left hand strikes at the wall with a relentless rhythm.

  The pounding of my heart matches the staccato beat of his blows. Every robot except the one tending to my hand is wreaking havoc on the wall of nanos. I’m not a structural engineer, but even I can see it’s about ready to go down.

  A particularly huge piece is ripped off revealing Eclipsa. Her terrified cries mingle with the others as the rest of the wall crashes down and one by one my Krinar friends are yanked from the hiding place.

  “Run!” I yell at my friends. But my advice comes too late, and they’re too cowardly to act on it anyway.

  I’m expecting carnage, but the metal attackers seem to be treating everyone pretty gently. I’m astonished. That all changes when they pull out Lund.

  All hell breaks loose. Five of the metal monsters converge on him, screaming and yelling. Something about Lund is making them ballistic. One of them shoves him hard and his head strikes the wall with a loud crack that pierces through the rest of the noise.

  He looks stunned but still conscious as they force him into a chair. One of them pulls Lund’s arms behind his back. Another one presses a button on his inner arm and silver wire shoots out. He wraps it around Lund’s wrist, then secures him to the chair with more wire.

  They’re all screaming at Lund, and he tries to communicate with them, but no matter how many differ
ent languages he uses, they can’t understand him. It’s obvious that just like me, he hasn’t a clue what they’re shouting at him. My captor presses a clean towel to my palm, and I look at him. I mean really look at him. He’s a bright silver metal. I have no idea if he’s truly a robot or if he’s a flesh and blood alien in armor. There is a black mesh material where the pieces of metal plating join. This must be what allows him to move so fluidly. I see now that the trident weapon isn’t actually part of his arm because he’s set it on the table next to me.

  He’s studying me, so I lift my head to look at him. He stares unblinkingly with eyes unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Iridescent blue orbs look into my hazel eyes. I unflinchingly meet his alien gaze as the tears begin to leak from the corners of my eyes. We are so screwed.

  ***

  We’ve been prisoners for days, but none of us have been injured. Well, except for Lund that is, but they haven’t hurt him since their initial confrontation. They even released his ties after a few hours. We’re being watched, but so far we’re free to move around and help ourselves to food and water.

  The aliens brought in a bunch of weird looking plants, supposedly for us to eat, but for now we’re all sticking to the packaged food that we know is safe. I don’t know how many of the metal heads there are total, but there are always a couple dozen guarding us. They rotate in and out so it’s not always the same ones.

  Last night the trident man left for the first time since we’d been captured. I’d been relieved. There’s something very unnerving about the way he stares at me.

  Eclipsa, Lund, and I are sitting at one of the tables in the cafeteria, quietly running through our options, or lack of them. I’m pushing for an escape, but surprise, surprise . . . they think that would be too risky. We stop discussing it when we’re joined by Nokey and Xairia. Nokey used to make me laugh with her quirky opinions, but she’s turned serious and introspective ever since the invasion.

  “Have you noticed how interested they are in all of you women?” Lund asks.

  “I have,” Eclipsa agrees. “Trident Man has hardly left Tessa’s side. They’re all pretty gentle with us, but you get nothing but glares and hostility.”

  “Yes,” Nokey says as she begins to analyze this. “Their tones are dulcet and calm when they try to communicate with us, but not with you, Lund.”

  “Yeah. And the blankets and pillows they brought in made it much more comfortable to sleep here in the cafeteria,” Xairia agrees.

  “I was shocked when they threw that pile of clothes on the table yesterday,” Eclipsa says.

  “Yeah, me too,” I agree, as I glance down at the jeans and shirt I’m now wearing. The material is thin and they’re soft, faded with age. There are rips at the thighs, and I’m not sure who they actually belong to, but they’re not covered in dried blood like the jumpsuit was, so I’m thankful for something clean to put on. “Too bad they didn’t include underwear.”

  “Who wears underwear?” Nokey jokes, sounding a little bit like her old self.

  “That hammerhand one keeps bringing me strange food to eat. It’s weird,” Eclipsa says.

  “Why haven’t Vorek and the expedition team tried to rescue us?” Xairia whines.

  “They will,” Lund says confidently. “I’m sure they know something’s up. I haven’t checked in with them on our communicators in days. Rest assured they’re coming up with a plan as we speak. We should just hang tight and wait for them to come. Unlike us, most in that group have fighting skills. Dorn and Preen are unbelievably fierce warriors.”

  “I can’t bear the thought of Sarah or the others being injured trying to save me,” I say miserably.

  “Vorek will keep her safe. She is his charl, and I’m sure—”

  Eclipsa’s words are cut short when we hear what has to be gunfire coming from somewhere in the dome.

  “What did I tell you?” Lund says excitedly.

  “Yes,” Xairia exclaims. “It must be Vorek and the others coming to rescue us!”

  All of the metal men in the room start yelling. The strident tones of their alien language are horrifying. A loud chattering fills the air, and as one they rush toward us. Before I know what’s happening they’ve used metal wire to bind our wrists and ankles. I struggle against my restraints and watch helplessly as they use the wire to tie Lund to the chair again.

  They’re screaming at him, as if they expect an answer. Over and over he says he doesn’t understand, but obviously they don’t care because they don’t stop shoving and yelling at him. It quickly escalates and one of the aliens uses his hammer arm to strike a blow to the side of Lund’s head.

  I scream in outrage and try to stand, but I don’t get far with my feet bound. One of the metal heads grabs me from behind. I’m not giving in easily, and when a second one reaches down and grabs my legs, I kick with both feet into the only place I think may do some damage . . . the black mesh between his legs.

  I thrash my body like a maniac, kicking and screaming as I trying to get away. An authoritative roar fills all our ears, and everyone, including my attacker stops what they’re doing. I look to the doorway and see that it’s Trident Man who has gotten everyone to stop.

  They are all silent as he enters the room at a run, shouting what must be orders in his abrasive alien language. I am instantly dropped to my feet, and the other two step away as Trident Man rushes toward me. The air whooshes out of my lungs as he slings me over his shoulder and my belly slams into his metal armor. He holds my legs tightly with one arm, gripping his trident in the other.

  I struggle, kicking and screaming upside down as I try to escape his iron grip. I twist my torso and have a disorienting upside down view of the cafeteria as I’m carried out the door. I watch in horror as, just like me, each of my friends are plucked up and slung over a metal shoulder.

  My screams blend with theirs as we are all carried out of the room. Before I know what hit me, we’re outside. I don’t even have a mask on, let alone a protective suit. I try to hold my breath but eventually I give in and take a ragged breath.

  I’m finally getting what I wanted, but it’s not how I envisioned it. I’m outside the dome on Sagren, but I’m a prisoner and it’s not at all exciting. I crane my neck to look around my jailer’s body and that’s when I see it . . . a black alien spaceship!

  I’m a single insect in an angry swarm of metal aliens running for this miniature sized spaceship. I begin to struggle again, even though I know it’s futile. Even if I could get loose, there’s no way I could escape. We had no idea there were so many. There must be at least a hundred of these humanoid robots. I’ve never felt so helpless in my life. We’re all going to die and it’s my fault. Why didn’t I just stay on earth where I belonged?

  CHAPTER TWO

  Tessa

  As soon as we are all inside, a heavy metal door slides into place. We are crammed into a space that was obviously never intended to hold this many. It’s like being in a crowded elevator where people keep shuffling in, even though it’s already past capacity.

  All those days trapped in the wall must have raised the limit on how cramped I have to be before I start feeling claustrophobic though, because the feeling never arrives. I’m still upside down with my stomach digging into a metallic shoulder when I feel the shuttlecraft lift. Then with a sonic boom it shoots up into the air like a rocket.

  I tense, fearful I’ll fall on my head. My stomach roils. It feels like I’m riding upside down and backwards on a wild roller coaster. Then the shuttlecraft jerks to an abrupt stop. I swallow down hard to avoid throwing up. Is that all? Am I on his planet now?

  My captor slides me back over his shoulder, and holds me in front of him as the trident seems to magically flip itself around and attaches somewhere on his back. The metal door of the strange vehicle opens and he’s the first one out. We all file out into a large bay. This must be the main spacecraft. The
other must have been like the Krinar’s mini spacecraft that they use as shuttles for short distance travel.

  My own personal robot still hasn’t let go of me. Now he’s making that loud chattering sound I heard earlier. What’s more, I can actually feel his chest rumbling. Creepy.

  Then he shouts what I can only assume are orders at the others, given how the other aliens jump instantly to do his bidding. So, is he in charge, I wonder? His trident does kind of remind me of the king in the Little Mermaid so I guess that makes sense. Of course, he doesn’t have a crown so maybe I’m wrong.

  Alarms are going off and it’s a beehive of activity—a very, very cramped beehive. The robotic aliens are all scrambling around. I search frantically for my friends as everyone files out of the smaller shuttlecraft. I don’t see everyone, but before I can have a full blown panic attack another of the small X-shaped shuttlecrafts flies in and docks in the bay. As the occupants unload I’m relieved to see a few more of the Krinar females.

  They’re all still alive. For now anyway. I’d wave, but that’s impossible since my hands and feet are still bound. Finally the alien loosens his grip around me. I consider trying to bolt from him, but where would I go? I don’t know how to fly one of those little shuttle crafts, assuming I even made it that far.

  Besides, my friends are being held captive too, and even if I could escape I wouldn’t leave them. I turn to survey my surroundings. Given the size of the docking bay I can only assume we’re inside of a much bigger ship. The walls and floor are comprised of silvery glass panels and we have a clear view of Sagren’s surface just below us.

  My breath catches in my throat when I see the glowing light of the dome. How can something seem so close, yet so far away? Then before I can even register what is happening I feel another jolt and almost lose my footing as the floor beneath us shifts.