Page 8 of Captured
Chapter Five
Rakir
This planet is filled with life that has evolved into a unique, glorious display of chaos and brutality. The vegetation grows with fury, the leaves shoving each other in their quest for sunlight. It leaves me speechless and awed, but it also leaves me wary.
I haven’t found any living animal in the dense forest, not even after a full hour of stalking the thick overgrowth. I know they’re here, I can feel eyes on me as I move under the leaves and over the roots. But they all remain stubbornly hidden.
This means only one thing. They recognize the predator in me. It also means there is another apex predator on this planet, stalking the land, unafraid of consequences. This will change quickly.
I am always the apex predator.
But this doesn’t mean I’m about to let my guard down.
Maybe the apex predator on this planet isn’t in the area, maybe he’s watching from afar. My goal is to assess the safety of the area close to the ship and it’s as secure as it’s ever going to be. I’m halfway up the closest mountain, a perfect vantage to observe the surrounding area.
The lake stretches like an endless sea into the distance, but with the early morning light, I can see the outline of more mountains on the other side. My ship shines under the sunlight, the solar captors absorbing the energy, storing it into the fuel cells in the hold below. The water should do a fine job of cooling them.
I used all the remaining energy of the cells to heal the human female. It will be a full day before there is enough energy stored to send a distress signal to my brothers. I don’t regret it. I had no choice.
She was so close to death when I found her, merely moments away. The healing station had to draw every last bit of the energy my ship had stored, totally emptying the fuel cells to fix her wounded body, replace the lost blood in her veins and stitch her cells back together one at a time. My royal cruiser is equipped with the best medical technology in the Drakian world. Even then, it had been a close call.
My cock stirs as I remember her. The female is not the first human I have seen, but she’s by far the most attractive.
I hadn’t planned on having sex with her, not really. The energy coursing through her body during the medical procedure had filled her with an unbridled lust and she had needed the release of a climax to complete the healing. I had only planned to pleasure her and send her back to sleep, but in the end, I hadn’t been able to resist. Taking her had been more pleasurable than I had anticipated.
She’s still sleeping now and will be for a long time. She’s small and fragile, her entire body made for pleasure and softness. I have no idea what a creature like her was doing in a fighter ship, but I intend to find out. I need to question the female as soon as she wakes.
I only hope to the Silent God that she’s not working for the Senators. I would hate to have to pull the information from her unwillingly, but I will stop at nothing to fulfill my mission.
Even if it means being forsaken in her eyes. The very concept sends my stomach into a strange knot.
I shake the alien feeling away. It’s no use worrying over things I cannot control. If the human female is working for the Senators, then nothing but her total surrender can save her.
Satisfied that my ship has landed in a safe location, I start to make my way down the mountain when something moves to my right. I stop and stare as what looks like a large leaf, at least ten feet long and wide, begins to morph. The green, shiny surface of the leaf curves on itself until it molds into the form of a large creature. Six legs stretch, green as the forest beyond, digging in the dirt with talons six inches long. A face appears in the soft, bendable surface and a set of four eyes as dark as the void of space stares at me.
This is it. The planet’s apex predator, hiding in plain sight. This is the reason why no creature has dared to move while I stalked the forest. It was there all along, observing me. Studying the intruder in its territory.
The creature moves, its movement fluid, its footing confident on its six legs. It’s large, much larger than I am and it thinks it has the advantage over me. It’s wrong, and it will learn its lesson too late if it decides to attack. I won’t kill it if it leaves, though. No point in destroying life pointlessly.
My exoskeleton spreads in a single second, covering my skin in the impenetrable armor of my kind. The apex predator hisses, opening a wide mouth lined with a long row of thin, razor-sharp fangs.
My muscles clench, readying for the fight to come.
Suddenly, the sound of an explosion blankets the forest, sending a wave of scorching, dry wind up the mountainside. The apex predator hunches on its legs, its tiny black eyes widening in obvious shock. It hisses again as it turns its head toward me, but the next instant, it runs away, scurrying in the overgrowth, disappearing from view. A thick column of black smoke rises in the air, unfolding in the pristine air like a macabre flower.
The explosion is coming from my ship. My mind blanks for just a second, then I run.
The female, my female, is in the ship, sleeping. Dead, maybe.
Just the thought sends a powerful current of energy down my limbs and for the second time since meeting her, I run for her.
I can see them now, the creatures of the forest, moving high up in the trees, scuttling on the ground. They’re coated in green leaves, their skin a perfect camouflage. I can see a lot of things I missed out on before, tiny movements, beady eyes staring from under the cover of a large leaf. Only it’s not a leaf. It’s some sort of skin that molds to the creature’s body, moving gently like under a breeze. A perfect camouflage for a world blanketed in vegetation.
I can’t lose time reflecting on the dangers such a world can hide. I have to get to the ship. I have to get back toher.
It seems like hours, but I’m back down the slope and onto the rocky shore in just a few minutes. A thick column of smoke rises from the side of the ship where a hole three feet wide rips the metallic body like some monstrous wound. I don’t stop, my mind entering the crystal clear state where no emotion can filter in, where every action is as precise as the movement of a machine.
My first priority is to save the human female. Then I will salvage what I can of the fuel cell and the solar captors. As long as I can get a message to my brothers, that’s all that matters.
