Caught Between Two Blue Aliens - Celia Kyle Page 0,81
that,” she said, grinning up at Sevith, who burst out laughing.
“Not quite,” Hiren replied as they came to a stop in front of a large, important-looking door marked with Drokten text across a flickering screen. “Though the technology is similar. Allow me to welcome you to the officers’ holodeck...which we preprogrammed with a special treat this evening.”
Ooh, this sounded interesting.
He put his palm on the panel and the door slid open to reveal a breathtaking sight. Her new husbands each took one of her hands and led her out onto what looked, felt, smelled, and sounded like a gorgeous vista on a spring-time mountain peak, the likes of which she’d never seen before.
The door closed behind them and disappeared.
She dropped their hands and stepped forward, turning around to take it all in. Her skirt fluttered in the breeze. “What...where is this?” she breathed.
“Welcome to Drokt, Jenna,” Sevith said.
“Oh my god. This is what your planet looks like?” One moment she’d been inside the narrow confines of a space ship and now she was standing atop an alien world.
“Parts of it,” Hiren answered. “This is a famous destination on our home world.”
Her brain began to process the stunning location. They stood on a mountain with its top sheared off, replaced with a vast field of lush grass. A trail cut through it and led up to what looked almost like an ancient altar made of stone. Two blazing orange suns were quickly setting on the horizon.
“This way,” Sevith said.
She followed as they all started up a slight incline to a small open air “room” that was perched on top of the meadow. As they got closer and stepped inside the altar, she could see that it had four pillars holding up an ornate roof. An enormous, soft-looking bed dominated the area. Four thin walls of sheer fabric separated the outside world from the bed. A small table held a bottle of wine with a human label, which was a dead giveaway that they’d gone out of their way to make her comfortable.
Hiren pulled back one of the panels, allowing her to step out and take in the view the went out to the horizon. She walked forward, mesmerized, and stood near the edge of the cliff, leaning against a sturdy ornate railing. The altar overlooked a field of grey, craggy mountain peaks that poked past a layer of pale violet clouds.
Her hand went to her stomach. They were up so high they were above the clouds?
The clouds were more ‘defined’ than Earth clouds somehow, but they were definitely clouds. Up above, the starry sky was winking to life, so vividly different from that of Earth’s that it was almost disorienting to look at. Several massive, shimmering spheres in the sky above shone down on them.
“Those are the moons of Drokt,” Hiren said, following her gaze. “And yes, those lights you see on them are cities.”
Sevith picked up a long, black decorative stick and scraped it against the side of a fire pit, causing the tip to spark into flame. She watched as he slowly walked to each of the four fire pits at the corners of the altar and lit the shimmering liquid within, causing a warm glow to infuse the darkening area.
“We brought you here because this location has special significance to us,” Hiren explained as he placed a hand on the small of her back and guided her back inside the room. “This peak is a place of meditation and difficult to reach for all but the most hardened warrior. Doing so on foot is an accomplishment, a rite of passage.”
“Most Drokt access this location via holodeck simulation, but I have knelt on this actual summit. I reached this peak the day before I boarded the Avash,” Sevith said wistfully, “on the trip that would become a rescue mission for Earth. Avash means torment in your language, and that was on my mind as I watched the moons drift by in the sky that night.”
“The true torment would have been to miss this chance,” Hiren said, as he uncorked the wine and began pouring it into the three glasses. “I made it up here before I left the academy and joined the military. I was a young Bahn without my Azi. I prayed to the multigods that day to show me the path toward my triad.” He turned to smile at her. “And that is exactly what happened.”
“What do you think of this place?” Sevith asked her. “This is