Her Alien Rebel by Presley Hall
Ren
Almost there. Not long now.
I check the controls, meticulously going over the coordinates and double-checking the mapping equipment to make certain that nothing has gone wrong.
The trip to get to Nuthora hasn’t been an easy one.
There was no question, once I heard from Droth, that I would be the one to go to help him and the other banished Voxerans. But coming to their aid meant stealing a ship and piloting it on my own. The rebellion back on Vox has been mostly crushed by Drokar and his army, and I couldn’t risk depleting those numbers any further by asking for assistance. If I’d been caught trying to steal the ship, or if anything happens to me on the way to or on Nuthora, at least it will only be me.
I’m only one man. The resistance can afford to lose me. It can’t afford to die out entirely.
I’ve piloted the ship manually for most of the journey, which has taken several days. But even I, as dedicated and single-minded as I can be, have to sleep sometimes. Sitting at the control deck for the long stretches of travel has been tedious at times, but I’ve spent the days researching Nuthora and its environment and history. I want to be as prepared as possible for anything I might encounter when I get there—and fully equipped to bring my prince and my warrior brethren back home.
After double and then triple-checking, it’s clear that everything is in order. I’ve pinged the communicator that Prince Droth used to get in touch with me, so I know their location. And thanks to my research and what Droth was able to tell me during our brief conversation, I know that the solar council that’s responsible for running this prison planet doesn’t often monitor incoming ships, just the ones leaving. After all, the ships coming in are typically dropping off prisoners that no one cares about anymore, leaving them to fend for themselves here and kill each other off at will.
Getting in isn’t going to be the difficult part.
Leaving is.
Still, just to be on the safe side, I throttle the ship back when I reach the edge of Nuthora’s atmosphere. It’s a lovely planet—its surface appears green and white from space, with swaths of blue interspersed. A wide ring surrounds it, and I navigate carefully to avoid getting too near the broad band of orbiting debris.
The beauty of the view below me belies the ugliness that I know awaits on its surface. From what I’ve learned, it’s a wild and untamed land with a great many vicious creatures and dangerous plants. But that’s just the environment—nature has a right to defend itself. It’s the sentient beings on Nuthora who are the problem, the scum of the universe all tossed into one place.
And then there are my fellow Voxerans, banished for trying to protect our people from a usurper.
I wait for another ship to pass by—a prison ship bringing a fresh batch of convicts to drop off—and tail it carefully, staying in the blind spot of the larger vessel, but close enough that hopefully I won’t stand out on any radar. It’s a bit tricky to maneuver, but I manage to pull it off, my hands tense on the controls as I watch for any sign that I might have been spotted.
Both the larger ship and my own bypass the ring surrounding the planet, and as we get closer to the ground, I split off, well below the radar that could alert the solar council to my presence now. I relax a little, speeding over the surface of the planet as I look for a space large enough to set the ship down once I reach the pinged area.
I gaze down at the surface, wondering what Droth and the others have been doing for the past five years—what their lives have been like in a place like this. When I followed him with the others into rebellion against his uncle Drokar, I always knew there was a possibility that we might not win. But I followed Droth anyway, because it was the right thing to do. He was—and is—my prince, and the rightful heir.
But when I considered the possibility of loss, of capture and punishment, I always imagined being with my brothers through it all. Instead, I was injured in the fight, knocked unconscious by an explosion in the palace as we attacked. Because my body was hidden under rubble, I wasn’t captured with the others, and by the time I regained consciousness, it was too late to help them.
Droth and the warriors with him had already been rounded up.
Furious at the attempt to dethrone him, Drokar acted quickly. The captured rebels were banished, the rebellion quashed, and the usurping traitor was firmly installed on the throne.
Even now, five years later, my gut still twists with guilt and remorse at the memory. But there’s nothing I can do to change what happened.
What I can do is try to get them out of this place now.
I push thoughts of the past aside as I near the signal, rubbing one hand absently over my jaw. The scar tissue covering that side of my face from the burns I sustained in the explosion is familiar now, so much so that I often forget about it. And after all, it’s not as if I’ve had to worry about what someone else might think of my looks now. Since the rebellion was driven into hiding, finding a mate has been the last thing on my mind. Even the simple pleasure of spending the night with a woman hasn’t been a priority. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed the touch of a female companion.
But none of that matters right now. I have a new mission, a singular purpose—to bring my prince home, so that we can finish what we started five years ago and end Drokar’s reign once and for all.
The radar on my control deck lights up, a green circle expanding to show me that I’ve reached the area where I last picked up a signal from Droth’s communicator. We didn’t talk for long, in order to avoid the chance of being noticed by the solar council, so I’m not sure of the exact location. But this is near enough that I should be able to find them without too much difficulty.
I find a clearing sizable enough to set the ship down. The vessel I stole is larger than I would have preferred, but Droth told me to bring as big a ship as I could manage. Once I’ve cut the engine, I disembark fully armed with blasters and a pair of hunting knives, wanting to be prepared for anything that I might come across. There’s a strange mix of nervousness and anticipation in my chest as I exit the ship. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a new planet and had to face unknown and unpredictable dangers.
The foliage around the ship is dense, and I keep a careful eye out as I push through it with a knife in one hand, scanning my surroundings not just for wildlife that might attack, but vegetation too. There are a great number of poisonous plants here, according to my research, as well as carnivorous vines that can be well-disguised. The entire planet seems designed to try to kill anyone who attempts to live here, which, I suppose, is what makes it an ideal place to dump those that the universe’s authorities most want to be rid of.
I shove through a particularly thick tangle of branches, stumbling a little—and when I look up, there’s someone directly in front of me, so close that I almost run directly into them as they come out of a stand of trees just ahead of me.
Directly into her.
The woman—it’s almost certainly a female, though one of a species I’ve never encountered before—lets out a startled yelp, her hands flying up as she stumbles backward.
Akhi.I curse inwardly.
I don’t know who else might be in the vicinity, but as she opens her mouth again, I react immediately, worried that any other noise she makes might alert enemies to my position. The last thing I need is to be set upon by some other band of prisoners before I find Droth and the others. For all I know, she’s part of some dangerous group of outlaws. She might even have been sent to scout me out, if my ship was noticed by any of the prisoners living in these woods.
I lunge forward, too fast for her to escape, and grab her arm. Yanking her backward, I pin her against my chest with my arm across hers, holding her tightly as I press the tip of my knife into her side, just below her ribs.
“Hey! What the f—”
She squirms in my grasp, but the moment she feels the blade pressing against her, she goes very still. I can feel the rapid rise and fall of her chest, the way she’s trembling, and it sends a sensation through me that I haven’t felt in a very long time. The awareness of how her body feels against me, soft and lush.
“Quiet,” I tell her harshly as she draws in a breath to scream again, pushing all other thoughts beyond my mission out of my head. I have one reason for being here, and if I’m lucky, this woman might be able to help. If she’s wise, she’ll tell me whatever she might know about the whereabouts of my brethren.
I push the knife more firmly against her side, dropping my head a little to speak low in her ear.
“Tell me where the Voxerans are.”
