Kyro - A.G. Wilde Page 0,3

about.

As if his thoughts had summoned her, she was right there.

Her hair blew in the slight breeze as she walked on the street two levels below his quarters, a small basket clutched tightly in her hands.

“Kyro?”

Rokan’s voice seemed far away and Kyro was rising from his seat before he even realized.

“Sincere apologies, Rokan. We must continue this conversation at another time,” he said, setting his writing instrument down.

“What’s the rush?” Rokan, eased off the table as he watched Kyro head for the door.

“I’ve just...seen someone.”

Rokan’s gaze moved to the window.

“Who?” he asked, mild interest in his voice as his gaze searched the streets, but there was no answer.

Kyro was already gone.

2

There was a slight wind today, just cool enough for her to tolerate the blazing heat.

It was nice weather. Nice enough to make her want to smile.

If she squinted, she could imagine she was back on Earth on some island getaway with an ethnic vibe.

Or maybe the streets of Cairo...this section of the base definitely reminded her of Cairo.

Loud.

Busy.

Colorful.

Walking along the unpaved streets, her shopping basket clutched tightly in her hand, Evren kept her gaze forward.

Squinting, she imagined all the aliens moving around were humans. She could forget their blue, green, or even red skin. She could forget the hilts of swords jutting from their waists or over their backs, the rifles and other strange weapons she’d never seen before. She could forget their strange alien features.

All around her, males and females walked and none of them were human. They were all fighters, rebels, and they looked it.

The females were strong and the males brutal. If they didn’t sport bulging muscles, they had an assortment of weapons strapped to them to back them up.

How did she end up in such a place as this where she stood out like a sore thumb?

She carried no weapons. Her muscles were questionable.

The only things she fought were pages that stuck together in her science books.

She didn’t belong here. Everyone around her was out there kicking the dickens out of those horrible toads that had abducted her. She, on the other hand, would prefer if she never had to see those toads again.

Her days used to be spent burying her head in data when she wasn’t out studying some strange creature of nature.

She was an ecologist...not a rebel fighter.

Clutching her basket tighter, she tried not to draw attention to herself. Luckily, these were the good guys.

If not for the rebel alliance, she and the other human women would not have been saved from what would have been a life of slavery, torture, and even death.

They’d been lucky and she appreciated all that the good aliens had done for them so far.

Yet, she couldn’t help the feeling that was gnawing in her chest.

She felt...just a bit lost. It was an emotion that made her anxiety levels rise.

Life had been going good for her on Earth.

Great job she’d loved.

Nice house.

Good salary.

She’d just moved to California with her cat, Nigel, on a new assignment studying organisms in Yosemite National Park.

It had been a new dawn to a promising future.

After years of studying to become an ecologist, after working her butt off to get there, she’d finally reached her life’s goal.

Then bam, like a plot twist she hadn’t seen coming, she’d been abducted by aliens.

Now, what was a girl to do when the world she’d focused so hard on building for herself was suddenly ripped away? What did that leave her with?

Nothing, that’s what.

A big fat NOTHING.

Maybe that was the feeling she was having in her chest.

That gaping hole inside of her was a nothing hole.

She hated nothing holes.

As she walked, the wind playing with the strands of her hair, Evren straightened the brown tunic that she was wearing.

She was very aware she looked like a walking potato. It was nothing more than a crocus bag with armholes. And it itched.

It was the main reason she was heading to the market.

After she and the other women had arrived on the base, she had been given her own living quarters, a datapad that was like a smartphone with credits, and the brown tunic she was currently wearing.

Apart from the itchy tunic, the other two things were great. Her living quarters were like a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor of a two-floor building.

She had it all to herself. Free of charge. And it had come fully stocked with food to last at least a week.

She was still waiting for the catch, but she supposed the catch was that if