Aevar: Trekkers (A SciFi Alien Human Military Romance)

A
long time ago
, in a galaxy far far away… wait, this isn’t that story. Nope. This is a story about a guy and a girl who are not related. (Because that was kinda gross right?)

Floating along in space is the Titan, a monster size ship with, well, monster size men on it. You’re welcome.

They’ve got a hundred varieties of space men, but they all have one thing in common. They’re delicious. And looking for love. Sometimes in all the wrong places.

No one on the Titan realizes quite what they’re getting into with human women. Mates are forever but they haven’t been part of the Trekker way for nearly a century. But now some of the military operatives have found that they’re willing to risk their mission, possibly even their lives to keep these women close to them and safe.

Good luck Trekkers. You’re going to need it.

A
evar slowly cut
into his dinner. The Titan just hadn't been the same since Nash left. Things were a little bit slower, calmer in ways. But that didn't make Aevar happy—he was bored. He and Nash had been different regarding warfare. Whereas Nash never wanted to fight, Aevar was ready for anything at any time. He had never seen the galaxy at war, so maybe that played into it. He didn't know what real warfare was like, but he was dying to find out.

“Something on your mind?”

Aevar shook his head. He knew he couldn't tell Raelor what was going through his mind or not—it sounded silly and childish. And Aevar was trying his best not to seem different since Nash had left the team. Aevar had been his second-in-command and now that he was the team leader, he had to demand the respect. “Where's the next vaccination mission? Has anyone been told yet?”

A couple of the other guys at the table shook their heads. It didn't look like anyone knew any new information.

“Someone said that we might just be floating for the next couple weeks. I haven’t been given any piloting instructions,” Raelor said, sipping down a spoonful of soup.

“A couple weeks?”

Aevar could hardly contain his disappointment.

“A couple weeks off wouldn't be bad, boss,” Raelor said. “I mean we've been traveling for the better part of a human year now. It would be nice to just have some downtime.”

Many of the men around the table mumbled in agreement while Aevar wanted to do something. He needed to be active, sitting around made him feel useless. If he was the team leader now, he wanted to show that he deserved the position.

Just as he was about to tell them that they should all start a new exercise regimen together, his communicator went off in his ear. “Lieutenant, please report to the bridge immediately.”

Finally, something to do.

“I'm off, boys. Somebody mind returning my tray for me?”

One of the newest recruits nodded to him. “Of course, Sir.”

He could get used to that.

Aevar stood and began to walk away from the table, noticing that Raelor had caught up with him. “Going to the bridge?”

Aevar nodded to him. “I guess you got the same call?”

Raelor set his lips into a thin line. “If we’re both getting a call, you know what that means…”

Aevar finished his sentence for him. “It means we have a job to do.”

T
hey walked briskly up
to the bridge, not trying to seem too eager, but following orders nonetheless. The commander stood over a table that had a low green light emanating from it. The top of the glass would light up if there was a communication from one of the planets. Someone could send a video message and they would be able to communicate with them directly.

“Commander?”

The commander turned around and both Raelor and Aevar saluted him.

“Lieutenant, pilot.” They nodded to him over their salute. “What can we do for you, Commander?”

“We just received communication from Jubar. It seems that they've been sending out a distress call for the better part of a week.”

Aevar cocked his head. “A week? Why didn't intel say anything sooner?”

“I don't think they knew. Seems the signal was very weak, and we only just found it because we’re close enough now to respond. They've been looking for an Alliance ship, and they need our assistance.”

Raelor spoke next. “Did they say what with, Sir? Seems awfully odd to be going to Jubar. They don't even have any Alliance military in their colonies.”

“Maybe you should just see for yourself.”

The commander stepped aside and Raelor and Aevar moved forward, looking onto the green screen as it began to take shape. An older man stood before them, wringing his hands as he spoke in a feverish whisper.

“If you are hearing this, our colony has been overtaken. The plague is running rampant and what's left in its place is a monster like nothing we've seen before. We’re desperate for any assistance that you can give us, whether that's firepower or aid. We just need someone and fast. I fear that if this doesn't get to you within the next day, I will no longer be myself either.” Aevar leaned forward and examined the man's face; he looked terrified. Just then the man paused in his speech and Aevar could hear banging from behind him. “They've arrived. Good luck to you if you should choose this mission. I don't know that I would myself.”

The video began again. It must have been playing on a loop. Aevar wasn't sure what to make of it.

“Sir?”

“Back when Ellora was on the ship, she mentioned that some people at Lazio's bar locations were discussing that the plague had become something different. It was changing some of the species. I think that's what this man is describing. We’re taking a direct course there, but I need to know that I have my best men on the ground. Can you put together a team, Aevar?”

Aevar nodded firmly. “Of course, Sir. It would be the highest honor.”

“Good. Make sure they’re armed and prepare your men for anything. I don't know what you're going to be walking into.”

Aevar saluted the commander and left the bridge. He didn't know what he would be walking into either, but he just hoped it wasn't a graveyard.

I
vy sat by the fire
, pulling her shawl tighter as the wind whipped around her cheeks. She rubbed her hands together in front of the flames, trying to warm herself.

Her house was gone.

Her parents were missing.

And all that she had left was this fire, her shawl, and her little sister. She looked around her and saw dozens of other Jubarian people lying around her trying to get some rest. An older woman was sitting by a tree drinking water from a pot. She should've known that they would've come for that resource. Water was such a hot commodity in the galaxy. The humans on Earth had wasted most of the resource so many centuries ago that anytime they found a planet with running, fresh water, the planet became volatile almost immediately. But somehow, Jubar had completely avoided that. Up until now.

Why else would they come for them? Why else were they taking her people? It could only be for one thing. Water.

One of the Jubarian elders walked back into the circle of sleeping people and quietly dropped some firewood next to the flames. Her sister, Maggie, trailed behind him. She had a stack of wood nearly as large as his. She set it down in and arranged a few new logs to keep the fire going through the night.

Ivy beckoned her over and Maggie sat down next to her, laying her head in Ivy's lap.

“It’s so cold in the woods. I don't ever remember it being this cold.”

Ivy stroked her blonde hair, just for something to do with her hands. It helped stop them from shaking.

“That's because you've always been in a house before, silly. It's always this cold in the winter. Soon the Alliance will come and transport us to a space station, and you will never have to worry about the extreme weather here again.”

“How long will we live there? Forever?”

Ivy shrugged. “I'm not sure.”

“Will Mama and Daddy be there?”

Ivy chewed on her lower lip. She wasn't willing to give her little sister an answer to that question. What if they never did see them again? Were they abducted with some of her other people? Or had the plague taken them? She wasn't sure. She couldn’t afford think about them right now; she just had to think about keeping her and Maggie safe and warm through the night.

It was the third cold night that they had endured since the attack. Dark black ships came in the late evening and descended upon them. At first Ivy thought it was the Alliance coming to help because the plague had hit them. People ran around feverishly, talking like they were living in some type of wild dream. One of the plague victims had been the person who set the fires to their homes. He said he had to burn out the disease. He was wild-eyed, with his hair sticking out at all ends and a scratch along his face from where he had harmed himself. He burned his own home first before taking a torch and lighting some of the others. The wild fire spread, and soon everyone's homes were nothing more than ash.

At first, the people saw the dark ships and they welcomed them, hoping that they would save them all, but they were wrong. Whoever had come from those ships had no intention of saving them. Instead, they scooped up groups of people and forced them onto the ships at gunpoint. Anyone who disobeyed got a blaster to the heart or worse. She watched as one man lost his head, a machete slicing through his body like it was nothing more than clay. In all the years that Ivy had been on Jubar, she had never seen violence like that. It wasn't that her people were pacifists; they got into fights with traders and other ships, but no one was as ruthless as this group. She immediately took Maggie and fled into the woods. It had taken them nearly a day to find anyone else left from the colony. And then they discovered other people, from colonies all over the planet. There was barely anyone who had survived the plague that wasn't captured.

Some of the other colonies had been burning their dead from the plague, and Ivy thought that it was a nice way to honor them. She also knew from learning from the doctors that was one of the ways to stop the plague, as decomposing bodies could still spread the virus. Her colony hadn't done that; too many of the strong men had been the ones that were affected. She should have fought harder, she should have followed the medical protocols that she had been taught. But instead, she had just done anything she could to help people survive, and in the end, that may have been their demise, after all.

“Ivy, have you gotten any sleep tonight?” Christopher, the older man who had been with Maggie, said to her.

“Yes, I got some. Thank you, Christopher.”

Ivy looked down to see Maggie's large brown doe eyes staring straight up back at her. “I can tell when you lie, you know.”

Ivy laughed lightly. It was the first time in days. “I know.”

“You can sleep for a while. I'll stay up this time. I'll keep us safe.”

Ivy didn't doubt that Maggie was a good scout, that she would protect her if it came to it. But that wasn't her responsibility. Ivy was the older sibling, and now she very well could be the only person that Maggie had left. It didn't matter that Maggie was almost a teenager, an adult by the standards of the colony—she was still her little sister. It was her job to protect Maggie, not the other way around.

“I'm fine. You rest for a while and then we'll take turns, okay?”

Maggie nodded as she shut her eyes and Ivy continued to run her fingers through her hair. Her eyes surveyed the landscape around her, constantly darting back and forth in the trees. She had to remain vigilant. She wasn't sure when the men from the dark ship would come back, and what they would do to her when they found her.

She had heard the screams as they ripped through the night, people clutching onto their children and their possessions as the men put them into the ships and tore off into the sky, leaving complete destruction in their wake. Ivy couldn't believe what was left of the colonies; there were maybe a few dozen of them remaining. What once had been a colony of thousands of people was ruined. And she knew that without aid, the small group wouldn't last much longer. She was one of the few in the group who knew how to hunt; she and Maggie were both good with the bow, and there was only one militant with them. And only a couple blasters to share amongst the group. If the Alliance didn’t step up and find them soon, they wouldn’t last through the rest of the winter. They might not even last through the week.

Ivy began to hum lightly to herself; it was just loud enough that only she could hear. It was a song her mother had sung to her as a child that comforted her now just as it had then. But in the middle of her humming, Maggie sat up straight, alerted by a sound.

“Did you hear that?”

Ivy shook her head. “It's just your imagination. Or maybe the fire. Everything's fine, Maggie, go back to sleep.”

But that was when Ivy heard it, a snap of a twig. Maggie immediately began moving around the group, waking up each individual with her finger over her lips to tell them to be quiet. Ivy grabbed a blaster and held it between her hands. She was shaky, but if she needed to, she could make the shot. She could take another life to protect her own. There was another rustle in the leaves off to her left, and she raised a blaster in that direction. “Maggie, get behind me.” She was no longer worried about being quiet. Whoever was here already knew where they were. They had come for them. Ivy wasn't going down without a fight. She clutched the trigger with her two fingers and pulled.

“
Swuya
!” she heard someone yell from somewhere from behind a tree. A man walked out with his arms up, dressed in the Galactic Alliance fighter’s uniform.

Swuya
was right.