A strange voice sounded in the darkness, guttural rumblings coming out of the darkness and forming words she couldn’t understand. Someone snatched her attacker and hauled her from his arms. She tumbled to the ground and then scrambled backward until she felt the hard hull of the ship at her back. Then she froze in place, unwilling to take her attention off the one who held her prisoner only moments ago. In front of her, two gray-scaled aliens shouted foreign words at each other. Even her TransComm Implant couldn’t decipher the words. She didn’t understand anything they said, but based on the tone and aggressive postures, they argued with rising heat. One even drew his sword and held the other at bay with the sharpened blade.
More reptilian aliens appeared, some covered in red or brown scales intermingled with those with gray scales. The red aliens pulled the gray aliens away from the group of humans. Some brandished weapons and shouted in threatening tones. The threats didn’t faze some of the gray lizardmen.
Then another strode into the group, taller and more muscular than all the others. He stood rigid and raised his chin as he stared down at them—shouting in a commanding tone. The other gray aliens shrank back and lowered their heads, weapons quickly sheathed.
The tall, commanding alien looked at Kalinda and her breath caught in her throat. There was something exotic—thrilling—about his slitted eyes. It was strange and alluring at the same time. Kalinda had never been more frightened in her life, but at the same time, this strange creature drew her. Drew her heart. Drew her soul. If only…
Kalinda woke with a start, a small hand gripping her shoulder and nudging her. A yelp escaped her lips before she could silence the sound and she jolted upright, arms held in front of her. Her breathing came in sharp gasps and adrenaline rushed through her body, surging in her veins to consume her. She quickly scanned her surroundings and soon relaxed.
“Are you all right?” Ivy—one of the women from the ship—backed away from her. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Kalinda looked to her friend and released a relieved sigh. She took one breath and then another, searching for a calm that seemed just out of reach after her nightmare. She placed a hand over her heart and willed it to slow. “It… it was nothing.” She shook her head, banishing the lingering effects of sleep. “Just a bad dream.”
Ivy grimaced and nodded. “I’ve had my share of those.”
Kalinda closed her eyes and focused on her rapid heartbeat, hating that it continued to race out of control. She’d been dreaming of their arrival and first night on this alien world. At the time, she’d known nothing about the strange aliens or the new world they inhabited. It’d been a true living nightmare filled with frightening beasts that could have torn her apart at any moment. She was fortunate that she hadn’t been harmed but that didn’t dissolve the niggling fear at the back of her mind that told her she wasn’t safe just yet.
But at least she understood them now. Since their arrival on the alien world—Atera—her TransComm Implant had finally translated the language. It’d allowed her to gradually learn more and more about them. The Aterans all lived within three territories on their desert planet, each territory led by a warlord. As far as Kalinda could tell, each warlord reigned supreme within his lands. Though from bits of conversation she picked up here and there, it seemed there were political intricacies she couldn’t begin to understand. There weren’t any elections or a system of democratic government, but there were subtle undercurrents that she sensed just beneath the surface. For the most part, though, their new alien “friends” were all warriors. Leadership appeared to be determined by strength and might with the strongest ruling them all.
“Well, if you can shake off your nightmare,” Ivy murmured. “They’re calling us to breakfast.”
Kalinda peeked out of the window of the small stone hewn building they’d been given. For the first few days, they’d traveled north across the searing desert. She’d been brought to the Hard Sands along with seven other human women from their crashed ship. The others from the IGMA Tranquility—nearly twenty more—had been separated from them and taken in different directions. With no communication equipment and no way to get a message to the other women, she’d had no contact with them from that point. The Aterans informed her the others were taken to the Red Sands and Living Sands, the other two territories on Atera.
She’d been assured the women were being well-treated and cared for, but she had her doubts. They were at the mercy of the reptilian aliens. They could abuse the others and there wasn’t a damned thing she could do about their actions. They were at the mercy of the aliens’ kindness and who knew if they even held themselves to morals similar to humans.
At first, she’d thought they had no technology, and she could have handled their lack of advancement. They had swords instead of blasters and rode animals for transportation instead of shuttles. In their early days, they’d slept in tents during their journey across the desert. It wasn’t until they reached the edge of the northern territory, the Hard Sands, that she’d been shown the truth. She’d been taken into a tunnel where a sleek underground hovertrain had carried them for the rest of their journey. It seemed the Aterans were very advanced but were forbidden to use technology in some areas due to their religious beliefs that she didn’t quite understand.
Now, in their temporary quarters, there was no sign of advanced technology at all. The furnishings consisted of wooden chairs, tables, and cabinets, and the storage niches were carved directly into the stone walls. There were no electronics, televisions, refrigerators, or anything else to indicate modern society. If she hadn’t already seen the underground trains, Kalinda would have been certain they had a society similar to the medieval times of Earth.
Gaze still focused outside, she let her attention sweep her surroundings though nothing had changed since the first day they’d arrived. They remained in their mountainous region, surrounded by an endless expanse of hard-packed gray sands, reminding Kalinda of the Mojave region on Earth. The building they stayed in was perched high on the mountainside, carved out of the rock wall. More buildings stretched above and below them on the rocky slopes. Further below them, the hard-packed sands stretched out far into the distance. A few roads led off in different directions, alien hovercraft gliding over the paths. Though the hovercraft were an uncommon sight, with many Aterans riding large, hairy herd beasts called ceaq as they made their way around the city.
“It looks like a sandstorm is coming.” Kalinda looked out over the horizon. The sky darkened in that direction. The Aterans had warned them about sandstorms and told them not to venture outdoors when one struck.
“I guess we’ll take the tunnel then.” Ivy gestured toward the back of the building.
At the rear, a naturally formed tunnel led deeper into the mountain. When they’d been brought to the Hard Sands, the Aterans told them to stay out of the deeper tunnels for their own safety. The tunnels twisted and turned throughout the mountains that led deeper and deeper into the earth. They’d been given free access to the local branches between their dwelling and the central communal areas, leaving all else off limits.
Kalinda and Ivy headed that way, following the alien markings on the tunnel walls that led them west—a short distance to the main cavern. The pathway was lit by overhead lighting—the only sign of technology within the mountain itself—but only in the main tunnel. Many of the side tunnels were dark, and she’d spied the lizard-like aliens carrying lanterns when they ventured deeper into the cave system.