I was in this weird, awe-struck state of shock.
It almost felt like my brain was glitching out or something.
Why did I feel extremely hot all over, all of the sudden? Why were my cheeks burning? My heart was racing. My hands were shaking.
First of all, I couldn't believe my own reaction to this dreamy… hunky… stud of an alien standing in front of me. Was this my first time ever being attracted to someone else? If so, I kind of liked it. It was thrilling, yet super scary at the same time.
I can't even describe just how absolutely gorgeous he was. I couldn't stop staring at him. I knew I was probably gawking, but I couldn't help myself. I felt like I was literally losing control of my own body. I couldn't peel my eyes away for anything.
He was just so… majestic looking. He was wearing this shiny jewelry, huge golden, silver and crystal necklaces around his neck that looked like they probably cost more than my rent.
He was wearing a weapons sling that made him look like a bad ass warrior from the future or something.
Let me just start by saying that I didn't involve myself in attraction to the opposite sex, much less put myself in a situation where I would be involved in any kind of committed relationship.
It just wasn't wired into my DNA. Not only did I not bother to subject myself to that kind of lifestyle of tedious dating trying to waste time on finding a companion to share my life with, but I didn't seek it out because I didn't want it. Frankly, I didn't really see the point in bothering.
I was thirty-two years old, and I wasn't embarrassed to admit that I'd never been in a serious relationship in my life, ever.
Of course, there were probably others who might find this type of behavior a little on the crazy side, maybe even going as far as to call me a pitiful tragedy, but that certainly wasn't the way I chose to look at it.
I made my own choices, and I lived my life the way I wanted to. Growing up in the foster care system, I never felt like I had my own voice. I never felt like I had control over my own life.
Now that I was an adult, I had the reins. That meant that I had no problem holding on for dear life to the power over my own situations.
I didn't have time to invest in a companion, anyway.
I put a lot of pride and intelligence into my work, and there honestly wasn't room for much else.
I guess what I was getting at was, all those rules and regulations about dating and the emotions that came along with it— well —they ultimately flew out the window as soon as I laid eyes on this beautiful alien.
He was unbelievably attractive in the best kind of way. He had this instantaneous effect over me that raptured my soul or something.
This was why I was struggling to understand where all this was coming from. I'd never been interested in anyone— man, woman, alien, whatever.
I had just never experienced true attraction to another being before, so I was a little caught off guard when it happened after seeing this majestic hunk in front of me.
He was tall, and I mean exceptionally tall. I guessed at least seven feet tall or maybe more. He was also burly, but in a toned, muscular way. His body was heavenly sculpted. His physique was surreal. He was smoking hot. I felt like my blood was sizzling inside my veins.
He was brooding, but not in an intimidating way. He had kind eyes that made me feel safe and warmed me up from the inside.
His skin was a muted leaf-green color that intrigued me and complemented his almond-shaped black eyes. His nose was the strangest feature on his body, being flat, and he had a tuft of thick, short, fluffy white hair atop his head.
"Who are you?" I finally asked after it became clear that he wasn't going to immediately kill me. "What are you doing here, and why do you want to help me?"
There had to be a catch to all this. Maybe it was just my cynical side coming out, but I seriously doubted he was going to just help me out of the goodness of his heart. Sorry, but no one was like that, even in deep space on a spaceship or wherever the hell it was that we were.
"My name is Cyburn," he said and pointed to himself.
Then, he glanced beside him at another male who looked similar to him, at least in skin color, although his was more of a deep, emerald green. This second guy was particularly huge, however. He practically had to bend his head and shoulders down to fit properly in the lower ceilinged corridor.
He had jagged scars all over his face that frightened me a bit, but I pretended as hard as I could not to appear too rattled about it.
"This is Nix. He is my best friend and the First Mate gunner on our ship," Cyburn introduced.
"This is your ship?" I asked.
"No." Both Cyburn and Nix simultaneously shook their heads adamantly. "We stormed this ship in an effort to take it over. It belongs to the Belic."
"The Belic are the cyborgs who abducted you from Earth," Nix added.
"You came here to rescue me?" I asked, blinking at them.
"Yes, and to raid any supplies to bring back to our own ships," Cyburn mentioned. "The Belic race is our sworn enemy. Their empire successfully overran our home planet of Alesis."
My head was getting bogged down as I desperately tried to process all this strange, new information. Of course, I had no reason to doubt what they were telling me, but it was overwhelming, nonetheless.
"We roam through space on experimental generation ships," Cyburn explained. "There are roughly ten-thousand of us Alesians who were lucky enough to escape our homeworld before the Belic killed the rest of us off. We live on these three ships, along with the remnants of our military force. We are waging war against the current Belic outposts. We are trying to conquer their shipping lanes whenever we can and take back whatever worlds in our solar system that we can harbor and harvest along the way."
"It sounds difficult and complicated," I said, trying to sympathize with what they were telling me, but I still didn't fully understand the magnitude of it all.
"It is, but we make do the best we can," Cyburn said. His black eyes flickered with resolve. A humble smile curled at the edges of his lips that helped me relate to him better, even though I was still daunted by his stature and his alien look.
"A few thousand of our own kind have already been liberated and have now settled on a few of the outer worlds in our solar system," Nix added.
"What about you guys?" I asked, glancing between them, wondering aloud about their fate.
"I am the crown prince of our republic and the planet of Alesis," Cyburn said, pointing to himself again.
"You're a prince?" I asked, feeling another ripple of shock.
"My father was the king of our planet. He died on the ship, and I took over for him, attempting to take our worlds back from our enemies," Cyburn explained.
"That sounds like a lot of pressure," I admitted.
"It hasn't been easy," Cyburn agreed with another humble smile that lit up the corridor where we stood.
Part of me wondered whether he was trying to subtly flirt with me. Of course, I didn't really have much experience in that department. I was just a robot-constructing nerd.
I found it highly ironic that I ended up on a ship with a bunch of cyborgs who wanted to take me apart piece by piece, just as I did on a routine basis to robots back on Earth. Was I somehow getting a dark and twisted taste of my own medicine?
"So… now what?" I asked.
I was trying to circle back to the catch I still expected— the curve ball so to speak.
"If you agree to help us, we can provide safe refuge for you on one of our ships," Cyburn said.
"That seems fair enough," I said. I was willing to agree at this point, especially since neither of them seemed particularly fixated on hurting me.
Cyburn and Nix exchanged a relieved glance with each other.
Cyburn steered his glance back to me. "Excellent. How long ago did the Belic abduct you?"
"You know what, I'm not really sure," I explained, attempting to job my memory. "I remember leaving work one evening in Boston, a city where I live on Earth." I glanced up at them to make sure they were keeping up with my story. Their eyes were curiously rooted on me as if they were hanging on every word I said.
I pressed on. "I'm Carmela Cosgrove," I said, since I hadn't formally introduced myself up to this point. "I'm thirty-two years old, and I'm a doctoral candidate."
"What does that mean?" Cyburn studied me with a frown.
"It means I'm a roboticist graduate. Ironically enough, I was working on my own prototype AI when I was kidnapped. I felt this weird sensation come over my body. Then I couldn't move, and this weird light encapsulated me. The next thing I knew, I woke up, naked and strewn across a cold, hard, metal table where there were a bunch of probing cyborgs huddling around me with sharp looking syringes and other nasty looking instruments that looked like they could do a whole hell of a lot of damage."
"That must have been so awful for you," Cyburn said with a genuine frown. "You must have been so afraid."
"It was horrible," I said. "Once this shrill alarm went blaring through the room, the cyborgs panicked and started scattering. They all but forgot about me and left me on the table. I quickly fetched my clothes from another table and then disabled a remaining guard in the room who started charging toward me. I managed to steal his ray gun, too." I held up the gun again and grinned proudly at my own accomplishment against the odds.
"You said you were a roboticist?" Cyburn arched a curious eyebrow. "We could really use someone with your experience on our team. It seems too good of a coincidence to not take advantage of it. Pardon me for being so forward but—"
"No, it's okay." I smiled warmly at him, and that gooey sensation of pure, uninhibited attraction and longing flooded me once again. "Like I said, it's kind of ironic. I believe that in life, that there are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason. I don't know why I'm here yet, but it has to be for something."
"That's certainly a positive way to view the horrible kidnapping you endured," Cyburn admitted.
"Call it a survival instinct," I said with a chuckle. "I've had a lot of practice," I added after a short pause. I skipped the gory details of my stained past, how I'd felt abandoned and 'thrown away' in the foster care system for most of my life.
A moment later, the sound of footsteps padded closer to our direction. A gut-wrenching sensation twisted in my stomach and my heart began to pound violently again. The hair stood up on the back of my neck and I was unnerved instantly.
Cyburn put his arm on mine. A tingle ruptured through my body at his warm touch because it felt so gentle and protective.
"We have to get out of here," he whispered to me as he nodded to Nix for equal confirmation. "We can't let them find us."
"Who is looking for us now?" I asked.
"The Belic security robots, undoubtedly," Cyburn explained. "We have to be quick and avoid them at all costs, because trust me when I say that they are ruthless."
"If you get me out of this retched place, I'll agree to do anything I can to help you," I promised, and I wasn't using empty words, either.
Cyburn took my hand. That rapturing feeling of paradise made me sway, made me feel imbalanced in the most sensational way.
"Come on, I will keep you safe. These vile robots are going to be scouring the halls left and right as well as up and down. We need to find somewhere to hide to wait it out until all the turmoil dies down. Then, we can plan to sneak back to the hangar where we have hover bikes concealed and waiting to flee on. From there, we'll head back to our main generation ship."
I nodded my approval of the plan.
It wasn't like I had much of a choice, anyway. It was either go with them or die.
As we hustled down the hallway, I knew I could trust Cyburn. I couldn't explain why, but it was just one of those instinctual feelings. Sometimes, you had to take your chances out there, especially when bigger threats loomed even larger all around you, determined to take you out.
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