Page 5 of Barbarian Brothers

“A proprietary substance designed to hold an entire language in the form of electrical impulses,” he says, a smile stretching across his lips.

“Lightning in a bottle,” Cynthia mumbles. “It must have a direct impact on the brain’s neural pathways, reprogramming the linguistic channels to be uploaded with a whole new language. This must be some kind of biotech.”

“It’s a good thing you paid attention in med school,” I say, then look to our captor. “What do you want from us?”

“That is a long and sad story,” he says. “Allow me to introduce myself first. I’m Umok, commander general of the Sky Tribe. One of seven charged with saving our species.”

“Umok,” I repeat his name. “Do you do this often? And by this, I mean kidnap women from other planets.”

The demon laughs and takes a step back. “It is my first endeavor of the sort. I didn’t think I’d capture four fine specimens such as yourselves in a single night, however.”

“Specimens?” Cynthia replies, her brow furrowed. “What do you intend to do with us?”

Eat us. Probe us. Slice us open. The possibilities are endless at this point. Why am I not freaking out here? How am I so calm? Jewel. She’s to blame. Her military training kicked in at the right time. We don’t have room in our minds for despair. We have to observe and analyze the situation carefully. We have to gather information, probe for weak spots, and figure out a way to escape. We have to survive. In order to do that, we must ask the right questions. I see Cynthia is ahead of the game.

It sounds silly, but I’m glad the four of us were abducted together. At least we can rely on each other to soldier through and find our way back home.

“I do not wish to harm you,” Umok says. “You are incredibly valuable to my people.”

“How so?” Cynthia asks suspiciously.

“You will make fine breeders.”

“Breeders?” I repeat the creepy ass word out loud. “Breeders? Oh, God.”

Umok smiles again. “Sunna, my world, was ravaged by a terrible plague. We don’t know where it developed first, and we do not have a cure for it yet. But it killed almost all of the female Sunnaites, leaving our civilization in ruin. Only a few women survive, and there aren’t enough of them to help us survive, which is why I, along with seven other pioneering commander generals of the Sky Tribe, have sought help beyond our star system.”

“Wouldn’t the plague be a risk to us, too?” Cynthia asks.

Umok shakes his head slowly. “I had your blood tested the moment we brought you aboard this ship. Your human bodies produce an antigen that is completely resistant to the virus. We ran a multitude of tests on other humans before we took you. We’ve been studying your planet for months now.”

“Why us?” Jewel replies.

“Convenience, for the most part,” Umok says. “I observed your cultural habits, your gatherings. Nights on the beach make for an excellent hunting ground.”

“You hunted us like wild animals.” I can’t help it. I’m too angry. Beneath the fear, I can feel the outrage bubbling toward the surface. He scoured an entire planet for a good spot to literally fish us out of the ocean. “You’re savages!”

“I resent that,” Umok replies, his slim brows furrowing with indignation. “I’m a man of science trying to breathe new life into his species so we might live to see another dawn. Your planet is overpopulated. Nobody will miss you.”

Cynthia shakes her head slowly. “We have friends and families there. You can’t just fly around and pluck people at your convenience.”

“Perhaps it’s a cultural difference,” Alicia says. “He doesn’t seem to care.”

“I cannot afford to care,” Umok replies. “My world is dying, and we need you. Everything else ceases to matter when the survival of an entire species depends upon bringing new females into the gene pool. Worry not, however; you will all be treated as queens.”

“Where is Sunna?” Jewel asks. Meanwhile, her gaze keeps wandering across the bay, her mind making mental notes and likely planning an escape route. “Where are we now?”

Umok takes another step back. The sliding doors open again, just in time for us to catch a glimpse of the view through the massive glass screen from the other room—the ship’s cockpit, to be specific. I see others like Umok, giants with horns and red skin and crimson eyes and spiked tails in gray uniforms, each of them attending to a position within the flight crew. Screens with glowing symbols, which I now recognize as numbers and coordinates, flash incessantly. Buttons and keyboards. Leversand cables galore. I have little to no technical knowledge to work with, but the view…

The view knocks the air out of my lungs as the harsh reality begins to sink in.

“We’re in space.” I hear myself say the words out loud, my voice trembling with awe and horror as the vast expanse of the cosmos opens up before us.

A planet rises ahead. It’s bright red with yellow swirls and black polar caps, slightly tilted on its axis. I can’t believe what I’m seeing, yet it is all too real. Behind it, two stars rise in unison, orbiting one another in the distance.

“That is Sunna,” Umok says, smiling gently as he follows my gaze.

Sunna revolves around two suns, I realize, gasping. “How far are we from Earth?”

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