Page 2 of My Alien Sunshine

“Is that all of them?” one of the UGC officers asks as they escort the final freed slave off the Supernova. They’ve already taken away the captured Genixarian slavers, who will be put on trial and hopefully end up in prison for a long, long time. “No one else?”

“That’s everyone,” I confirm. I’m not going to mention the two humans who decided to stay behind and live with us on the ship, or the group of alien insects who snuck into the maze of maintenance walkways and ventilation shafts and probably died there. “You’ll get them home?”

The officer nods, his reptilian tail swaying from side to side as he eyes the colorful group of aliens waiting in the transporter. “Of course. They’ll get a memory wipe, then we’ll deliver them back to their respective planets.” He pauses, a slightly nervous look overtaking his face as he scratches his head. “Man, I never thought I’d see the day the famous Nova Squad went rogue.”

“We didn’t go rogue,” I reply, scowling.

“You disobeyed direct orders and landed on a forbidden planet. No offense,” he adds quickly, raising his hands as he takes a step back, “just pointing out the facts. The command is in disarray, you know? They know they should hunt you down and make an example out of you but well…no one in their right mind will go against a Voidstalker, let alone against a squad of them. They put a tiny bounty on you to appease Congress, but I don’t think anyone will be crazy enough to try and pursue it.”

“A bounty, huh?” I smirk. It’s so ironic I want to laugh out loud.

I grew up as a criminal and only joined law enforcement after I ended up in jail. Captain Zarkan helped me get straight and work on myself, and I’ve been on the right side of the law ever since. And now, we’re all outlaws, just because we chose to save a few lives instead of following some stupid bureaucratic rule. There are worse reasons to become criminals, I guess.

“Yeah, a couple hundred units. Like I said, it’s more to placate the politicians than to have you actually hunted down. Look, I…” With an awkward smile, he pats my shoulder. “We’re not supposed to be officially communicating with you, since you’re now…you know, criminals. But you still have friends back in the force. If you ever need help, let us know. We might not be super elite soldiers like you, but we’re still brothers in arms. After all, we fight for the same cause and just because you landed on some shithole of a planet, you didn’t suddenly become the bad guys.”

I blink, unsure how to respond. When we decided to disobey orders, we knew we’d be leaving our old lives behind. We knew that command would hunt for us, and our colleagues and friends would become our enemies. It’s heartwarming to see that we still have friends. “Thank you. This means a lot to us. Pakri, right?”

Pakri grins at me. “That’s right. Honestly, you guys are legendary. I kind of feel like asking you for an autograph, but, well…that would be weird, right?” he adds with a chuckle. I nod. “Good luck,” he continues. “By the way, there’s talk of military maneuvers happening soon in G-5. I’d avoid that sector if I were you. But you didn’t hear that from me.”

“My lips are sealed. Thanks, Pakri.”

Two hours later, I’m groaning as I get up from where I’ve been lying down under the diagnostic machine in med bay. I’m fine but Nikolai is learning how to use it and needed someone to practice on. We’ve become friends over the past few days and I was happy to help him out, especially if the help consisted of lying still for half an hour while Nikolai calibrated the machine and took readings.

“Thank you, Faelin,” he tells me, trying to hide his timid smile. He’s one of two humans aboard the Supernova and I know he feels anxious.

The other human, Astra, is mated to a member of my squad, which means there’s no way we’re leaving her behind. We wouldn’t leave Nikolai behind either, but he has a hard time believing it, no matter how many times we tell him so.

He taught himself medicine back on Earth, but knowledge about human anatomy isn’t very useful in a galaxy where humans are extremely scarce. Now he’s using his every waking moment to learn about other species and how to operate our on-board medical technology.

He’s also learning OmniSpeak both in spoken and written form in the hope we’ll let him join our crew if he’s useful, even though we’ve already told him we consider him a part of the crew. For such an intelligent male, he frets about silly things a lot.

I worry about Nikolai. This constant fear that we’re going to kick him off the ship if he isn’t useful enough is unhealthy. He was already stick-thin when the Genixarians abducted him from Earth, but now, there are dark shadows under his eyes, his facial features are more pronounced, and his bones are definitely protruding out more.

“Nikolai?” I address him but he doesn’t hear me, too busy reading something on his datapad. The ship’s AI, Cai, translated the database for him and is assisting him with his studies. But the computer can’t see how exhausted Nikolai looks. “Hey, Nikolai!”

He flinches, rubbing at his eyes. “Yes? Sorry, I was a little…distracted.”

“Distracted, sure. You need a break. Do you want to come to the station with me? Tareq sent me to pick up his money stash.”

Nikolai chuckles. “Let me guess, he wants to spend more time with Astra and can’t be bothered with menial tasks such as picking something up.”

“You’re not wrong,” I agree, grinning. “See? He’s a useless piece of shit and we’re still keeping him around. We’re not making you leave. Please, take a break. Come with me. I’ll buy you a drink.”

Torn, Nikolai looks at his datapad, then sets it down. “Okay, okay. I’ll take a break. But I’m not going with you. I’m sorry, but I’m just not ready to face crowds of aliens yet. I’ll get some sleep, I just need to find a room further away from Tareq and Astra. I’m happy they’re in love and everything, but man, are they loud!”

“Don’t I know it.” Originally, I picked a room next door to Tareq’s, wanting to be close to my friend. Worst decision ever.

I’m happy Tareq found his mate. He’s so content now, so complete. I really am happy for him but I’m also envious. And I certainly don’t need to listen to him having sex with Astra. All. The. Time.

Having a mate has never been on my wishlist. Sure, I met up with working girls in spaceports to take care of my needs occasionally. We’d have fun, I’d pay them, then we’d go our separate ways. Until I saw Tareq tenderly holding Astra, I never felt like I was missing anything. Now, I want a mate for myself.

Human features are attractive, and I’d like to have my own Astra, but humans are difficult to come by. Those that aren’t on Earth are usually someone’s slaves.

Even though we don’t officially work for the United Galactic Congress anymore, we’ve decided to continue our work and keep hunting down criminals. There’s a lot of evil in the galaxy, and slavery might just be the worst of it. Maybe, if I rescued a human slave, she’d become my mate, like Astra did with Tareq?

It’s a silly thought, I know, but it’s the best idea I could come up with. I’m strong and capable in combat situations but I’m not intelligent like Nikolai or D’Aakh. Even Tareq and Lyriana are smarter than me. My squad mates would laugh at my silly plan to rescue a human so she’d love me, which is why I’ve told no one. They don’t need to know.

I follow Nikolai out of the med bay to make sure he will go get some rest. “We’re going drinking tomorrow,” I tell him. “D’Aakh says we’ll stay here for several days to make changes to the ship’s signature, so we have time.”

---