Page 2 of Alien Knight Teddy Bear Troubles

Lieutenant Charles Stephens couldn’t respond, but talking to him helped keep her focused. Besides, he would have enjoyed watching the last attack ship burn almost as much as she did.

Almost.

Chapter One

Dark One’s Harvest Ship - Holding Cell

Cassandra satcross-legged on the cold metal floor, one of at least a hundred captives crammed into the dark, windowless pit as she hummed an old nursery rhyme to Ion, the tiny child dozing so trustingly in her lap, her fingers gently stroking through his hair. If only he could sleep for more than a few minutes and get some real rest. Unfortunately, every time she lulled him into sleep, the poor darling was plagued with nightmares, tossing and turning, crying out for his mother. Or his Uncle Taegie.

Three days had passed since their capture on Mora Five. She’d barely made it out of the wreckage of her ship when the Vilitos and some sort of grotesque black creatures had descended from the sky in a massive alien vessel. They were hunting for her ship, she was sure. For the package.

Communication systems were beyond repair in her ship. When the seventy-two hour rescue window passed, she knew the truth. She was on her own. She’d done everything she could to lead them away, protected the package even though she, too, had been injured in the crash that killed most of her crew and decimated her ship. She’d buried the package, but not before looking inside the outer box and removing what appeared to be a data chip, just in case the enemy found the buried treasure. They’d have either the data chip or the package. Not both.

She’d spent a week just trying to survive. Avoid capture. Eventually they’d run out of rations. Charlie was hanging on by a thread. She’d lost one of the suits, but Smith, as he’d instructed her to call him, was still alive and refused to leave the package behind. She needed more food and medical supplies. So she’d made her way toward the lights of the small alien outpost. She’d been careful. Took only what she needed. Stayed in the shadows.

When the Vilitos couldn’t find what they wanted, they started a sweep of the entire area, killing anyone who resisted. That’s when she spotted the young boy, Ion, no more than three or four years old, sobbing over a fallen soldier; an alien warrior, with markings like the Caldorians she’d seen stationed on Earth. At the time she’d assumed the warrior was the boy’s father, as they had similar markings. He'd been trying to give the larger man water from a small flask.

Without hesitation, she’d left the safety of her hiding place in order to pull both the man and his child to safety. The Vilitos were everywhere, had swarmed the market, but she just couldn’t leave him to die. She could tell by the severity of the warrior’s injuries that he wasn’t going to survive much longer, but Ion had insisted she try to help the dying man. So she’d done what she could, forced a few drops of the water down his throat. He’d roused from his unconscious state just long enough to beg her to take Ion to safety, shove a dagger into her hands, his flask of water that she’d learned later from Ion was called maju water and had amazing healing properties, and a small pouch.

Waiting to move again until nightfall, she and Ion had painstakingly, one inch at a time, crawled their way up into the hills where she’d hoped the trees would provide better cover.

Ion had been so brave, so strong, never complaining, yet clutching a strange looking teddy bear in a tiny death grip. He’d captured her heart. No matter how hard she tried, he refused to let go of the grungy thing, clinging to the bear like it was his only friend in the whole universe, dragging it through mud and water, over rocks and around thorny bushes. She could relate. Only for her, it had been a fluffy bunny when she was his age.

They’d lasted two more days eating berries and sipping from the maju water before a drone spotted them. In the blink of an eye they’d been whisked aboard the enemy ship, herded like cattle toward hell only knew what. She barely had time to hide the data chip in one of the grates on the floor. They’d passed one every fifty feet or so. The slats were just narrow enough that she estimated the data chip could be wedged in between slats but tight enough that it would stay where she put it and not drop through the other side. Fourth grate down the long corridor, third slat. She burned the position into her mind, glanced around for any other markers that would help her get back there. Nothing. If she’d known at the time that the creatures weren’t going to search them, didn’t care what they wore or what type of bags, tools, or weapons they had with them, she would have held onto the data chip. Too late, she realized her mistake.

She’d spent the next three days trying to figure out how to escape and retrieve the data chip.I’ve checked every nook and cranny. There are no visible doors. The guards come in every few hours and take someone out. We can hear the screams for hours. Some of the others tried to trick and bribe them. Now they’re dead, too, and there aren’t many of us left. Nothing gets past them. Nothing, dammit. Nothing.

She and Ion had been put in the same dark pit with many of the prisoners from Mora Five. There were two holes where people could take care of personal business, and once a day they were subjected to some kind of solar bath. She knew that’s what it was because after each one, her long blonde hair shined like she’d just washed it, and the stench of a hundred bodies kept in close quarters magically disappeared.

They’d also been given food synthesizers to manufacture meals, but other than that, no one had come to check on them. She hadn’t expected the enemy to care about the children crying or people, some humanoid and others not, desperately pleading for their lives or making empty threats, trying to bargain their way out of the dark cell, but as the days passed and no one came to check on them, and none of the large black creatures showed up, Cassandra’s dread increased exponentially. It was as if they were cattle, to be fed and watered before the slaughter.

She had no idea where they were going or how long it would take, but at least for the time being, they were alive. She could only hope Stephens, her co-pilot, was still holding on, the package she’d hidden still secure until someone from Earth could find it.God, please let it be secure.

Ion wiggled in her lap, his eyes opening sleepily. “Cassie?” he whispered?

“Mm-hmm?” she responded, realizing too late that she’d been so deep in thought that she’d stopped humming the lullaby.

“Promise you won’t leave me?”

Cassandra’s heart hurt, it squeezed so hard. “I promise I won’t leave you if I can help it.”

“No matter what?”

“No matter what. Promise,” she reassured him, cuddling him close as he wrapped his tiny arms and legs around her.

“I won’t leave you, either. And a promise is a promise.”

“That’s right, tough guy,” she said, smiling weakly in the dark, her heart breaking into a million tiny pieces. They were all going to die there, no matter how many times the little boy insisted ‘Uncle Taegie’ was coming to rescue them. She knew better. No one knew where they were. No one was coming.

* * *

Commander Taeger Norasairjumped through space, arriving at the tip of the seven man formation, one hand flat on the hard, obsidian floor of the enemy ship’s upper corridor, one knee bent beneath him, the opposite leg stretched out behind, poised for a sprint. Heavily armed and ready for battle. Cloaked. Silent.

His team had transported from their ship to a long, black corridor perhaps ten paces wide. Black floor. Black walls. Black ceiling. As black as deep space. The ship was simple. Efficient. A three-layer construct that needed few guards.

“Once their sensors pick up any trace of us, they’ll be on us in seconds and block our transport out. No way out but through. Stay low,” Taeger ordered through his comm system. One glance at the readout inside his visor confirmed what he already knew; he was with six brave Lumerian Knights. They’d all volunteered for this mission even though they knew the odds of success were almost nil. A suicide mission. But they had to try.

They’d been in countless battles over the centuries. Nothing compared to this one; they’d transported onto a Dark Ones’ harvesting ship, the interdimensional servants of the A’Nua Na-KI, to rescue a child. Just one. The last surviving heir to the Fourth House of Lumeria. Ion Lumoi.

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