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

  There is a brilliant flash outside the windows that hurts my eyes to watch. We must have jumped to their equivalent of warp speed or something like that. I am, of course, basing everything I see on sci-fi movies. And to think I’d thought my love of Star Trek would never amount to anything useful!

  Sagren has just . . . disappeared, and the constellations around us are frighteningly unfamiliar. I’ve never been a huge fan of science, but something tells me this is a whole new galaxy. As abruptly as it started, the feel of the ship changes once again, like an amped up version of what happens to your stomach when an elevator first drops.

  We have slowed down to a different speed. I’m so freaked out that I’m starting to hyperventilate. I sway uncertainly on my bound feet, afraid I’m going to pass out and land on my face. Trident man reaches out and touches my arm. The metal wire turns to a cool silver liquid, and drips down my wrists.

  I really hope that wasn’t mercury, because that stuff is dangerous. I’m instantly free to move my hands. I shake out my fingers and then the rest of me starts shaking too, except this is an involuntary reaction. I’m freaking the hell out.

  Then he leans down and with a touch of a metal finger causes the wire on my ankles to melt down my feet. I look up at him, too stunned to move now even though I’m free. I’m completely out of my element here. There’s a scared little girl voice on a perpetual loop in my head shouting, “I wanna go home.”

  My friends’ terrified voices jerk me out of my stupor. I twist around to see them being dragged across the room. They’re still bound hand and foot. All five of them are struggling and screaming at the top of their lungs except for Iceree.

  The poor Krinar looks almost catatonic. She’s not fighting at all. She just lays loosely in her captor’s arms and stares listlessly in front of her.

  I think the other robots are trying to undo everyone’s restraints, but my friends don’t understand what’s going on so they’re struggling. Honestly I feel like kicking and screaming myself, but since my Krinar buddies are all losing it big time I’m going to have to remain strong for them. The best part about being a leader is that I don’t have time to focus on my own panic attack. Eclipsa is the closest to me, so I try to get her attention.

  “Eclipsa! Calm down! Get everyone to quit fighting!” I call out.

  She has a confused look on her face, but she has stopped thrashing around and is looking in my direction. I raise my hands to show her that they are free. “Let them undo your restraints!” I shout

  Eclipsa convinces the others to stop fighting, and soon their arms and legs are also free. It’s not much, but it’s a start. The Trident man says something in his harsh guttural language that sounds like VASTU, whatever the hell that is. Then he’s pointing his sharp tipped weapon toward a hallway.

  I look back at my friends. They’re trembling in fear, and honestly I think I’m every bit as afraid as they are. But I try not to let it show. I learned from a young age not to let the bad guys see my fear. No matter how scared I was I would stay strong for the others.

  “VASTU!” he barks out again.

  I don’t understand his language, but it’s clear he wants me to go with him when he starts pulling me by the arm. My initial reaction is to dig my heels in and resist, but when I see the other robots are bringing my friends too, I follow him through the corridor. He stops in front of a metal door that looks like an elevator.

  Two shiny silver panels slide open, and I see that I’m right. It is some kind of elevator. We are all herded inside and, it’s a tight squeeze, but we fit. The doors slide shut and I feel an airy sensation in the pit of my stomach as we momentarily lose gravity. I don’t see any buttons, but we’re going up all the same.

  The robot releases my hand and I move to huddle in the back with my friends. We link hands to share our strength. Of course Iceree doesn’t join in the group hug. She’s no longer bound, but she’s still lying limply in her captor’s arms. Whatever is going on inside of her head can’t be good.

  The doors slide open and we’re herded out into an open area. Trident man says something that of course we can’t understand. We look at him blankly, and he says it again and louder. Why do people always assume that yelling is somehow a magical translator?

  “KAAY-K’AH!” he shouts, pointing. I take that to mean we are supposed to sit. There are enough metal chairs and tables to accommodate all of us, so I sit down and my Krinar friends follow my lead. All except Iceree, who needs help. Her alien lays her down gently on a chair and she doesn’t so much as blink.

  There is a large viewing window that my eyes are instantly drawn to. Pinpricks of light from an infinite number of stars and the vastness of space surrounds us. Is it wrong of me to acknowledge the breathtaking beauty of it all? Probably.

  “Where are we?” I ask.

  “I have no idea,” Eclipsa replies with a stunned look on her face.

  “But you’re Krinar! And you’re all scientists!” I argue. “You should know what all the different planets look like! Don’t you have that implant thingy in your brain that makes you equivalent to a computer?”

  “Tessa, we’re in a place that the Krinar never knew existed. Our people have travelled the known galaxies, but there is no record of these formations,” Eclipsa says.

  “What!” I gasp. I’m stunned. We’ve been taken somewhere so far away that the Krinar don’t know about it. “Are you sure?”

  “She’s right,” Xairia agrees. “I received extensive data on astronomy before we left Earth for Sagren. I just double checked my database. The Krinar have no record of this place. We had no knowledge that these metal monsters existed,” she reiterates.

  “More aliens,” I mutter disbelievingly. I’d just gotten used to the Krinar. I so wasn’t ready for more another species.

  “They must be taking us to their home planet,” Eclipsa announces.

  “And it’s so far away Vorek and the team will never find us,” Ronja wails, tears escaping her eyes.

  “Stop it! We are not giving up hope!” I interject, before the despair can overtake us all. “They will find us. We have to believe that.”

  “But ours was a scientific expedition, not a military one,” Xairia argues. “Even if they could find us, our team doesn’t have the weapons to fight them. And the ship we came to Sagren in was dismantled to make the dome. It will take hours to convert it back to a spaceship, and that’s assuming the damage from the fighting wasn’t too extensive. And I think we’re already light years away from Sagren.”

  “I agree with Tessa,” Eclipsa interjects. “We need to keep positive; we will be rescued. It probably will take a while because they’ll need help from Krina, but the council will not sacrifice us to these monsters. They’ll come for us.”

  “Yes! You’re Krinar for God’s sake. You conquered Earth before we even knew what was happening,” I remind them.

  “Tessa is right. What are these metal monsters compared to the Krinar?” Ronja says with newfound courage.

  “Tin barbarians,” I agree. “They don’t stand a chance against the Krinar. We just have to keep it together until they come rescue us.”

  “I’ve been trying to figure out just exactly what they are,” Eclipsa says.

  “They’re freaking metal robots. That’s what they are,” I say.

  “Maybe. But if they’re robots, where are the people who control them?”

  “I think they’re conscious robots, like the ones in the terminator movies. They probably took over their planet and killed all the living people. So, no one’s controlling them. They’re the ones in charge.” Why did I have to watch so many sci-fi movies?

  “Thanks for that cheerful thought,” Xaira says, then we all shut up when a group of the robot beasts walks toward us.

  One of our captors sets a heavy platter in the center of our table. It’s piled with their alien food, the same st
uff that we had been avoiding the whole time we were held captive in the dome. There will be no more prepackaged food here, so eventually one of us is going to have to be the guinea pig.

  A robot with one metal hand, and a dagger on the end of his other arm uses his hand to pick up a piece of the fruit, which looks like a purple banana. He shoves it toward Eclipsa. She shakes her head in terror, and backs away. After she refuses it, he turns and tries to give it to me and says something indiscernible.

  “Not hungry,” I say and shake my head no, leaning away from him and his lethal looking dagger hand.

  He gets louder and is starting to make a scene about it when the trident man notices what’s going on. “DAS GAHMEN!” he shouts at the other robot, and holds his trident up in a threatening motion. For some reason trident man seems really pissed at him. Dagger man takes a step backward, but is still hovering close to me.

  The trident robot holds out his weapon and yells something else as he jabs it angrily toward the other robot who finally backs off slowly, and moves to the end of the table. He’s still staring at me with his freaky, red glowing eyes though, and it’s creeping me out. Mr. Trident picks up a purple banana and tries to hand it to me himself. Like that’s supposed to make a difference?

  “KAAY-K’AH,” he says in his guttural tone. I look around the table at my friends. I notice that tears are leaking down Iceree’s face, letting me know she’s more aware of her surroundings than I thought.

  The robots are really being insistent about this, and one of us is going to have to try the food eventually if there’s any hope of us being alive when our rescuers finally come. “We can only live so long without food,” I sigh, admitting defeat.

  “Tessa, no! It might be drugged, or their food might be poison to us,” Xairia gasps, horrified that I’m even considering eating it.

  “There’s no way to know without trying it,” I sigh as I gingerly take the purple thing from his hand before I can change my mind.

  I treat it with all the caution one would grant a poisonous snake. I struggle to open it. The outside has a tough shell that I can’t break through. I whack it on the side of the table, thinking that might pop it open, but that doesn’t work. I have no tools, so I stick the end in my mouth to see if I can pry it open that way.

  Mr. Trident takes it from my hand. A sharp blade slides out of the tip of his finger and slices the fruit open. Well, that’s handy . . . I guess. He hands me the inside portion, which does indeed look like a banana, only in an unnatural lavender shade.

  “KAAY-K’AH,” he repeats as I take it.

  “It’s been nice knowing you,” I tell the girls as I take a bite and begin to chew. It’s actually good, I realize as I take another bite.

  “KAAY-K’AH,” he nods his head excitedly as I finish it.

  “Well girls, that was some tasty ca ca . . . or whatever he called it. Don’t worry, it may be named after poop but it doesn’t taste like excrement. If I don’t die, I highly recommend it. It tastes like a banana, only sweeter.”

  I pull another off of the platter, and hand it to the robot to open. He seems excited that I’m eating. Only time will tell if he’s excited because he’s succeeded in poisoning me, or excited because he’s trying to keep me alive for some yet unknown purpose.

  He opens all of the fruit on the platter with his handy finger blade, and gestures toward it, encouraging everyone to eat. Everyone stares at me, panic shining brightly in their eyes. I don’t feel any ill effects, so eventually when I don’t pass out or die, I slide the platter toward my friends.

  “Dig in. I’m officially declaring the purple bananas safe,” I say as they each take a piece. That went pretty well, so I decide to try another experiment. Iceree doesn’t eat not even when we try to help her.

  “It does taste like banana,” Eclipsa agrees.

  “I’m going to walk around the room and see what they do,” I tell my friends as I stand up. “If we’re going to be here awhile it will be good to get an idea of our boundaries.”

  I stand and push my chair back. The robots that are hovering around our table have their eyes trained on me, but they don’t do anything to stop me. So, I stand slowly.

  When they don’t make any threatening moves I maneuver around the dagger one and take a step toward the wall on the far end of the room. The entire thing is like a huge window panel. My eyes focus off into the distance at the vastness of outer space.

  This whole situation is so hellishly bizarre that suddenly nothing seems real. The floor appears to tilt and I have a rush of vertigo and stumble slightly as I walk toward the window. The robot with the dagger hand, reaches out his other hand and grabs my arm. I realize that he’s probably just trying to keep me from falling, but I don’t like him touching me.

  “Leave me alone!” I holler, jerking my arm back.

  That’s when all hell breaks loose.

  “DAS GAHMEN!” the one who always seems to be near me roars. I hear a sing of metal on metal as his trident slides from the scabbard behind his back, and is held menacingly in front of him.

  Shit. He’s going to kill me! I realize too late that walking around the room must not be allowed. I scream as he rushes toward me. Just when I’m sure I’m a goner, I realize it’s not me he’s attacking but the dagger hand robot by my side.

  Dagger hand roars back just as loud, and the hand that was just on my arm morphs into a dagger as well. I jump back and watch in horrified fascination as he kicks the trident, pushing it away from its path toward him. He’s taller than trident man, and he raises both arms preparing to plunge his daggers into the other robot’s metal skull.

  Trident man bends down in a surprisingly agile motion and uses the trident to trip the larger robot off his feet. Using the trident like a spear, he raises it high and plunges it into the belly of the other robot. It easily pierces the black mesh material between the metal plating, the tongs sinking to the hilt.

  He quickly jerks it back out and lifts his arms overhead holding the weapon high, ready to stab the other robot again, but it’s clear that won’t be necessary. The dagger hand robot lies on his back, not moving. The red laser eyes become dull, as if a light bulb has been turned off behind them. That’s when I notice it. A puddle of blood forms underneath his body, and runs toward my foot.

  Blood? He’s bleeding? Wait . . . how can that be? Robots don’t bleed.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Sarah

  Vorek slips into bed, waking me up. He leans over and plants a kiss on my forehead. I smile, but don’t move. I’m not sure if it’s the pregnancy hormones making me lethargic, or if our lovemaking from earlier wore me out. Whatever the cause, I’m in a sleep coma and I don’t want to leave it.

  “Sarah, wake up. We need to talk.”

  I ease open one eye and glance at the time displayed on the wall to see that I’ve only been sleeping a few hours. It must be something important, or he wouldn’t have woken me. After we made love he was emphatic that I rest. Learning that he is going to be a father has certainly brought out his overprotective side.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask sitting up to face him. “Is it time for us to go after Tessa and the others?”

  “That’s what I need to talk to you about. We were able to make contact with the council on Krina. When the metal heads left, whatever jamming device they were using must have been disabled.”

  “That’s great news,” I say excitedly. “Does the council have ideas on how we can track them down?”

  Vorek bites his lip and it suddenly occurs to me that I’ve never seen him do that before. Is he nervous? Suddenly I’m an anxious ball of nerves. Whatever he has to say must be bad.

  “Sarah, I have direct orders from the council,” Vorek begins ominously, brushing a strand of hair from my face before tucking it gently behind my ear.

  I hold my breath, knowing I’m not going to like whatev
er it is he is about to say. Now we’re both chewing on our lips. I dig my nails into my palm and try to brace myself for his update.

  “And, I want you to know that I don’t like their orders anymore than you will.”

  “Vorek, what is it?” I’ve had it with all of the pussy footing around. It’s time to rip the band aid off.

  “I have been forbidden to follow the alien’s mother ship.”

  “What?” I explode. “Vorek! We have to go after them! Every minute we wait they get farther away! Tessa and the women from the geological team are in mortal danger. We can’t abandon them!”

  “Sarah, I know that, and it kills me to let them down, but I have direct orders.”

  “But . . .”

  “I am so sorry, my charl. I agree with you completely, and it tears me up not to go after them. But, the council has very valid points. Our party is small, and we are not equipped for war. And equally important in their eyes is the fact that we have five pregnant females in our party. They will not risk you or the other mothers to be. Something on Sagren has made the impossible possible. We don’t know what it is on this planet that has allowed all of you to conceive. Five Krinar babies . . . it’s unbelievable. We have been ordered to depart for Krina immediately.”

  “What?” I ask, tears gathering in my eyes.

  “Sarah, you have to realize the importance of this discovery. You know my race is plagued with infertility. The council is informing the Elders as we speak. There is no question that they will side with the council.”

  My heart sinks in my chest. I am so torn. I don’t want to put all of our babies at risk, yet I can’t imagine the terror that Tessa and the others are going through. “There’s nothing we can do?” I ask, my voice quivering.

  “No. We are forbidden to follow.”

  Defeat weighs heavily on me. I feel as though I’m abandoning my friends to die. Angry tears course down my cheeks, and wracking sobs choke in my throat. I want to continue arguing, but what is the point?