From up in space, everything looked tiny and beautiful. I glued myself to the window of our small cruiser as we approached the moon, Vetov. Cloud-blurred contours and a mottling of oranges and purples covered its surface. I assumed they represented oceans and continents. Nothing near as beautiful as I remember Earth from space with all those spectacular blues, but it still left me in awe.
With an utter lack of motion from our ship, we descended to the moon’s surface.
So many emotions jumbled into a heap inside me, tugging me in every direction. Derrial and Thane didn’t say a word, but left me alone with my thoughts. My heart raced while my knees bounced in my seat.
An urgency pulsed through me that I had to hurry to find my mother, that I was running late. Fear brought on darker thoughts.
Derrial murmured something into his ear piece about us coming in for a landing. And it didn’t take long before we descended. I could make out a landscape of orange and green meadows and bright yellow trees. Mountains in the distance crowned the area. One thing about these alien planets were how spectacular they were with the bright colors.
There were no docks to pull into here, but open territory, which meant lots of walking to reach nearby settlements.
My heart skipped a beat as we hurried down. The moment we landed, I unbuckled myself and leapt to my feet, too restless to sit a second longer.
“Slow down, my pet,” Derrial said, his brow furrowed as he studied the comms screen on the dashboard of the ship. “I need to get locations of all settlements first.”
I grunted and stepped into the back of the cruiser where Thane grinned at me. He snatched me by the hips as I passed and drew me toward him. I fell onto his lap, my arms reached for his shoulders out of instinct.
“It could be dangerous out there, so you stay with us at all times. No running off, understand?”
A few months ago, I would have disagreed. Except now, I nodded because it wasn’t just my husbands or myself I might put in danger anymore. But our baby. “I know, I’m just excited and nervous, and feel like I might explode from all the waiting.”
He cradled me in his arms, holding me close against his chest, and kissed my brow, my nose, then my lips. “I know how you’re feeling. I’m hoping this is the place, and we find your mother quickly.”
“Me too.” I leaned against him and tucked my head against the curve of his neck. He ran his hand over my hair, which calmed my nerves.
“Alright, I’ve got it all,” Derrial announced the moment I finally relaxed.
We stepped outside into a cold atmosphere, despite the lack of clouds and the sun out in full force. The air smelled fresh with a hint of pine…except there were no pine trees in sight.
Derrial stood at the rear of the vessel where a latch opened up. Thane went to join him, while I looked around. It didn’t look anything like Earth’s moon. This place was lush and inhabited.
The door to the cruiser slid shut and the whole thing shimmered to an invisible finish. Corran explained to me once that the effect was created with a reflective mirror technology and a bit of illusion.
I looked around and found no sign of my two husbands, so I assumed they were still behind the cruiser.
The crunch of grass sounded behind me, and I spun around.
An invisible window rolled down in front of me to reveal the inside of a car. Derrial sat in the driver’s seat of a vehicle also with invisibility shields that reminded me of a 4WD in height. “Get in,” he said.
I approached the back and stretched my hand out through the air until my fingers brushed a metal finish. Running my hand down the surface, I found a latch and flicked it. The door opened in front of me.
Not wasting a moment, I jumped in and shut the door. Black leather seats, dark upholstery, this car reminded me of a limousine. “This is a very fancy ride.” I leaned toward the front where the men sat. Thane stretched his hand between their two seats to reach me and took mine in his. “The vehicle is a bit run down, but it does the trick.”
“Run down? This looks fancier than my whole apartment.” I laughed as I settled down and Thane turned back to face the front.
And we were moving. Just like the cruiser, the drive was smooth, with what I imagined was the universe’s best suspension.
An array of buttons covered the door offering various drink choices, each filled with different colors, from blues, oranges, and greens. I pressed the clear one. A panel instantly popped out, and I flinched. A glass slid out, filled with what looked like water. I picked it up and smelled it. No real scent, so I sipped it. Refreshing water ran down my throat. Then I gulped the rest of it down in one go.
When I set the glass back down on the panel, it drew back into the door and the panel shut. The technology in this world astonished me.
As I sat back in my seat, I noticed Derrial looking at me through the rear-view mirror, his gorgeous eyes smiling.
We kept driving, and I looked out at the open landscape of rolling hills, then we drove around an enormous purple river. The surface was pristine, the sun glinting like jewels against the water.
How could something so beautiful be home to the vicious Khonsu? Last time I encountered them I’d been kidnapped, then I was forced to participate in an insane Mating hunt. So the idea of going anywhere near these aliens again terrified me.
“How much farther?” I asked.
“First settlement isn’t far,” Derrial explained. “This must remind you of road trips humans take often.”
I shrugged. “Sort of. Guess there are some similarities, like we’re in a car and driving.”
“So, what’s missing?” Thane asked, glancing at me over his shoulder.
“Music, snacks, lame jokes...a fun destination. But to be fair I’ve only ever been on one road trip with my old friend.” Cherry came to mind, the only close friend I thought I had, except turned out she was only using me. In truth, I was too scared to do anything about it, as I didn’t want to be alone after losing my parents. I sighed heavily, remembering life before I left Earth. That girl who was timid and scared was no longer me. I’d come so far since arriving on Veon, since falling in love, since surviving so many almost deaths. And… I lowered my attention as I rubbed my stomach, which almost felt like a little bump. Or it could be all those waffles I ate for breakfast.
A sudden explosion of fast beat music burst from the car speakers. I jumped in my seat as Thane rapidly pressed buttons on the front dashboard of the car.
Derrial was saying something, but it was too loud to make it out.
“That’s very loud,” I called out.
The panels on the doors flipped open and threw out green crispy packets at me. I flinched back at the sudden commotion. I snatched one from my lap to see an image of a snapple on the front, so I ripped it open to find fresh slices of the fruit.
“Sorry,” Thane yelled, just as the music flatlined.
“Oh, that’s better,” I said, and pushed a piece of snapple in my mouth. It was crisp and moist.
“The music only has one volume level, and well, at least you got some snacks.”
I nodded and swallowed the food. “Not exactly road trip food, but it’s good.”
Thane’s smile was contagious, and I loved seeing him proud. “Do you still miss Earth a lot?”
His question threw me off guard. “Parts of it. Like the places where I hold the fondest memories. The botanical gardens. The zoo where Dad would take me. Feeling safe most of the time… I miss that part a lot.” I shrugged. “I used to miss it a lot, but lately, I’ve hardly given it thought. My home now is where the three of you are.”
Thane blew me a kiss, and my heart beat a bit faster.
I leaned forward in my seat and stared out through the front window at the path we drove alongside a lofty stone mountain without anyone in sight.
“Why couldn’t we just fly here if you have an invisible aircraft?” I asked.
“Space cruisers are easily detected, so we can’t risk being seen near any villages to avoid an all out attack. They will shoot before asking questions.”
Suddenly, I lost my appetite, and I pushed my third packet of snapple slices on the seat next to mine.
Up ahead, a crowd of trees clustered together. We slowed down as we approached and parked on the outskirts.
Panic skittered down my spine. “What now?”
“You stay here,” Derrial explained. “And we go and scope out the area and make sure this is a camp.”
I frowned and sighed loudly.
“We want to know you are safe,” Thane added. “Even if this vehicle is detected, which is highly unlikely, the locks are impenetrable.”
My muscles tightened, but I nodded as both of them stared at me expectantly.
“Good. We won’t be long.”
“Be safe,” I said.
They shut the doors, and I watched them sprint into the woods, vanishing into the shadows. I slumped back in the seat and reached for my half uneaten packet of snapple, suddenly hungry again.
The car still ran, as it pumped out cool air, and I kept looking out to see if they had returned, even though they’d just left.
Anxiety stretched through me as I sat there and waited. And waited. And waited.
When I caught movement from up ahead, I shuffled forward in my seat. Derrial and Thane strolled back almost casually, which told me this settlement wasn’t a camp. Now fear gripped my spine at the possibility that the rumor they heard about this moon having female camps was just that - a rumor.
The next two locations on the map proved just as useless. We reached the fourth place, which consisted of a group of over-sized warehouse buildings huddled in a large circle. We pulled up toward the rear of a shed, when the car made a strange clunking sound. Then it stopped suddenly. I lurched forward from the movement, and fear shot to my heart.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, glancing out to the metal buildings not too far from our position. I didn’t see anyone walking around.
“Fuck,” Derrial growled. “We don’t need this now.”
Goosebumps swept down my arms.
“Engine failure? How the fuck?” Thane muttered.
“I don’t know, unless I check the motor, and that means standing out there in plain sight.”
“Are we still invisible?” I asked, gripping onto the door handle.
“Unfortunately, no. And if we can’t fix the motor with no tools or parts, we have no choice but to go on foot.”
A terrible feeling sank through my gut.
Derrial tapped his comm on his wrist and raised it to his mouth. “Corran, we need urgent extraction. I’ll send you coordinates.”
Corran was probably too busy sneaking about a lab right now to hear our call.
“So, what do we do?” My brain stuttered, and I felt vulnerable out here. We were sitting targets. “Wait for Corran to come get us?”
“We need to move on foot and fast,” Thane answered, and I didn’t like his answer at all. Us out there with nowhere to go.
“And pray to the universe no one finds the vehicle before Corran arrives.” Dread wove through their words, and now fear coiled tighter in my chest.
We were trapped. This couldn’t be happening.