Alien Beast's Warrior Bride - Juno Wells Page 0,6
to the war effort.
However, they have been granted amnesty on the Draconian home world, and our task today is to retrieve and store as many as possible in these hibernation chambers. I count four canisters, and we have no idea how many each will hold. I pray it is enough, because our alliance was predicated on saving them all, and for some reason the Draconians are absolutely obsessed with maintaining their alliance.
We’re crossing the East China Sea from Busan headed to Fukuoka, Japan. Our forces waged a brutal campaign to retake this barren area from the Moltan. Once the fighting was over, we discovered the alien species. They’d gathered with the intention of hiding in the last place the enemy would expect them to be, in the deep aqua filters beneath the surface of the enemy’s own base. That worked out well right up until it didn’t. By the time we killed the last of the Moltan, there were only a few thousand left. I’ve never seen one with my own eyes, but Chantel did. My daughter said they’re tiny and look like a bioluminescent strand of hair. Eyeing the containers again, I think maybe we can fit them all in there. My stomach grumbles but I ignore it.
Suddenly, a huge hand comes out and slaps something to my chest. Borak practically snarls, “You hunger. Eat and gather your strength.”
My mouth falls open. “What in the world? Is that what you were growling about?”
“Your stomach makes noises when it wants food. Feed it or I will.”
I tuck the food bar into my uniform shirt and reply curtly. “You’re not my keeper, Borak. I’ll eat when I’m ready. Keep your mind on the mission.”
His voice lowers. “You are my responsibility.”
I snap my head around to look at the big brute. “I’m in charge of the mission today. If anything, you’re my responsibility.”
He grumbles, “I am your assigned protector this day.”
Bringing my hand down to rest on my plasma pistol, I reply blandly, “Don’t need a protector. You worry about you and I’ll worry about me.”
As if navigating my instinct, he stares at me as he lowers the vehicle to the ground near an old abandoned temple ruin. “It will be as you say, General Watson.”
Damn right it will be as I say, because I won’t tolerate insubordination, not even from our Draconian allies. Since I was the first onto the platform, I’m the last off. The damn shifter hits the ground running and is gone in a flash, with Borak’s sons hot on his heels. “Why can he never wait for the rest of us?” Though I don’t mean it to, my irritation bleeds through in my tone of voice.
Borak’s response catches me off guard. “We seek to rescue his kind. He’s excited and wishes to get to them as soon as possible.”
“That makes sense, I suppose.” We take off jogging to catch up with them, and when we do, I see Borak’s sons and several other warriors standing over the shifter’s prone body. There is a minuscule open hole in the back of his neck. It’s where the creature’s tiny wiggling brainstem-like body disconnects from the one he created by rearranging matter. I don’t know all the ins and outs of how he does it, but just the idea of his slipping free and leaving this living breathing corpse behind creeps me the hell out.
I try to remember what they told me about how this creature functions. Staring down at his still form, it’s like his body has muscle memory that keeps his heart beating and his lungs breathing, but the lights are out otherwise. How does that even work? If a human’s brain doesn’t work, their organs shut down.
Maybe he artificially created enough of a brainstem to keep the body alive for a while when he vacates it. My mind drifts along a strange path of wondering how long the body can exist without brain activity. Would it be possible for humans to eventually develop something similar?
One of the warriors steps out of the temple. “Bring the hibernation pods. Our allies are ready to be removed from this world.” Several warriors hustle with the canisters while others stand watch, facing out with their backs to us.
Curiosity gets the better of me and I follow them into the temple. It’s dark with only the light pouring in through several large arches along the walls. The floor is made of huge blocks of flat stone. The sound of our footsteps echoes