* * * *
Grace awoke when jostled. Her seat bounced and her mask slipped off. She grabbed for it but the air was clear. No more oxygen flowed from her mask. All around her, people were waking, both passengers and stowaways. Everyone looked as dazed and confused as she felt. Stacie was stumbling and crawling back down the aisle to her. She dropped heavily into Grace’s seat, almost landing on her lap.
“What is it?” Grace cried out.
“We hit something,” Stacie panted. She shook her head in an obvious effort to regain her senses.
“Are we at Ulsy?” Grace asked in a panic.
“From the way the captain is swearing and how pale Adams is I’m guessing no.”
Grace looked out her window. A massive piece of metal was slowly spinning away from the shuttle. She swallowed hard. The mangled object looked like an Earth craft. Chase was yelling orders and Grace felt her heart begin to hammer in her chest.
“Straighten it out!” Chase bellowed.
“The controls are not responding!” Adams yelled back.
“Oh God,” Grace whimpered.
Up ahead was a giant black hole. They were headed straight for it. The engine spluttered and creaked eerily. Ever so slowly the vessel slipped forward on a collision course with empty nothingness. The lights flickered off and they were flying blind. The entire shuttle was enveloped in darkness.
Grace stretched her seatbelt over to fit the both of them. She struggled to click it together, but her fumbling was successful. Both women clung to one another. The shuttle was spinning in the air. Once more it became hard to breathe. People were screaming.
With a bounce they exploded from the black hole. The engines kicked on for a moment. A planet appeared and they hit the atmosphere. It felt like being shoved down by a large wave. The engines whined and groaned and once again shut down. They were jerked from side to side.
Grace had never been fond of amusement rides; this was like the roller coaster from hell. An explosion sounded and Grace screamed when a jagged blue flame seared a crack in the hull.
The captain was shouting at everyone to put their heads down.
“Our force field has been breached! There’s nothing to stop the hull from being crushed!” the captain bellowed.
“Kiss your ass goodbye, Grace. It was nice knowing you!” Stacie yelled.
The vessel slammed into something and spun around. Something large sent it reeling in another direction.
Grace screamed when the vessel snapped almost in half. One entire section was propelled away from them and flew off in the distance taking half the passengers. Grace could see daylight, and very tall, massive trees. The shuttle hit the ground and bounced. Stacie crashed into her side. Grace gasped for breath. The shuttle rolled again and again until it finally teetered, groaned, then settled. Grace remained head down, with her arms clasped over her head.
“Are we dead?” Stacie whispered.
“I don’t think so because your bony hip is digging into me,” Grace whispered back.
Stacie clicked open the safety belt.
Grace rose to shaky feet. On wobbly legs the women stood at the side of the open shuttle gaping. Huge trees with long vines stretched before them. The dust was settling to reveal lush green, purple and red vegetation. It was like nothing Grace had ever seen before. The colors were so incredibly vibrant she was in awe. Earth had been so gray the last year, Grace had seen only bleakness. This was breathtaking.
“I can breathe this air,” Grace said excitedly. “Have you ever smelt anything so incredibly fresh?”
Both women ventured forward. They were followed by a few others. The ground beneath their feet was spongy and soft, almost bouncy. It was no wonder their vessel hadn’t just broken into pieces on impact. The air was clear and neither warm nor cold. The sky was a darker blue than Grace was used to, but it was bright outside. She understood why when she saw two suns and the outline of four close moons. She moved forward and touched a tree. The bark was as smooth as velvet and soft like the ground. She pushed into the tree bark. It was like foam except after a few inches it became very hard underneath.
All around her the others were gaping and exclamations of wonder were heard.
“Everyone stay together. There could be danger out here,” the captain’s booming voice stilled everyone’s motion.
It was hard to imagine anything evil in this picturesque place.
Adams came out from the shuttle looking grim. “We lost two stowaways. Two of the men who weren’t wearing seatbelts. They must have been ejected when the ship split. They’re both face down on the other side of the shuttle. From the window I could see they suffered too much damage to be alive. I don’t know about the others. I don’t see their bodies.”
Grace looked around. Dustin was still with them; he had apparently settled himself beside one of the passenger women. Their number was eight. Three women, five men. The others must have been in the other part of the vessel that broke off. Grace wondered at their fate. The captain was also looking at Dustin and Grace was remembering what Adams had said. When the captain’s gaze settled onto the man with narrowed eyes, Grace reacted. Without thought she screamed at the man to run, but it was too late. Chase grabbed Dustin and zapped him with the stun gun.
“For mutiny,” Chase ground out.
Dustin sank to the ground.
“How could you?” Grace screamed. “We have no idea where we are and you killed an unarmed man.”
“You all saw him charge me and Adams,” Chase replied calmly. “He would have killed us all.”
“But you stopped him from being a threat,” Stacie argued. “You murdered him in cold blood. I’ll testify to that. They must have laws on Ulsy.”
Chase glared at her and looked around. The man who had been giving food and water to Stacie wasn’t among them. The captain grinned at Stacie then and moved forward toward her, fists balled. Stacie paled and took a step back. Grace maneuvered herself in front of her. She put her hands up on Chase’s chest. Adams stepped forward as well.
“You have no idea what the real laws of Ulsy are.” Chase sneered.
“Chase, we have a bigger issue here,” Adams said. “We have no idea where we are and the part of the console that ripped off is in the other half of the shuttle. Our communication is severed. We have no way to contact Ulsy.”
“We need to find the other half,” Chase said.
He then looked down at Grace and gripped her wrists. He yanked her closer and kissed her hard.
Grace struggled and fought him. The kiss broke when Chase jerked forward and howled.
Stacie had hit him with a large branch across his back. Chase took a swing at her, but Stacie dodged him. She spun and fled into the brush with four others following her. Grace turned to join them, but Chase grabbed her again.
“Oh no,” he snarled. “You’re mine. I chose you as my reward for good service.”
Again Grace struggled against him wondering what on earth he meant. Did he think because he saved people with his shuttle, people on Ulsy would turn a blind eye to confinement and rape?
Oh God, would they?
Once again Grace wondered what she had gotten into. A scream in the foliage stopped them all. Grace whimpered, when she remembered what Adams had said about creatures on Ulsy.
There could be creatures here, too. What happened to Adams’ niece?
Chase pulled her away from the shuttle with Adams trailing.
Grace was hard-pressed to match the large man’s stride but she had no choice. Grace was yanked through thick vegetation. Everything was so different from Earth. Never before had she seen trees so tall or this cream-colored shade. The leaves looked prehistoric they were so large. Off to her right, Grace gasped when she saw what looked like a red frog. The thing was about half a foot in size and when it opened its mouth, she saw jagged sharp teeth—a forked tongue flicked out.
A screeching noise captured their attention and they all looked up. A bird with an eight-foot wingspan soared overhead. The creature was feathered on top, while its underside was slick as a dolphin. It squawked again with a big beak and had flaming colors of black and orange. It dropped lower and hissed at them.
Chase dragged her faster.
“You’re hurting me,” Grace snapped and yanked at Chase’s hand. “This aimless running is pointless, you big coward.”
They stopped abruptly and Chase tossed her to the ground.
Grace was breathing heavily; she rubbed at her aching wrist. She glared up at Chase then over to Adams. “So much for your crew,” she said.
“We’ll find the others,” Chase said. He rubbed at his back. “Whatever scared your little friend must have been big. Hopefully it was a painful death.”
“You’re a cruel man,” Grace said.
“I’m a very strong man,” he countered. “I’m thinking you’re going to be very pleased when I keep you safe from the dangerous things around here. And it looks like there may be a lot of them.”
“I doubt it,” she countered back. “The only dangerous
thing
I see is you.”
Chase pulled her to her feet. “You better get used to it.”
“We need to make a shelter of some kind,” Adams said, looking around at their surroundings. “Who knows what’s out there.”
As if on cue, Grace screamed when something appeared behind them from the bush. It was huge. It took a step toward her and Chase. Grace screamed again.
Adams struck at it, then howled and gripped his hand tightly when he connected with the creature. It picked Adams up and tossed him against a tree like he weighed no more than a child.
Grace’s eyes widened when she heard a sharp snap as his back bowed connecting with the trunk. With a hard thump he landed on the ground, bounced then settled, the side of his face resting against the spongy turf. His eyes remained open and fixed. Adams stayed down.
Chase bellowed like a bull in full charge and attacked the creature. Chase was a large man, but even he was dwarfed by it. Grace cried out when the creature punched Chase in the face. She heard a sickening crunching sound as bones broke. Chase went down; the solid blow had killed him instantly. The creature had literally smashed his face in. Grace choked on her vomit then gasped in air.
The being turned and looked at Grace standing there shaking and whimpering. It was at least six and a half feet. It looked like some mutant man-beast or man-machine. Its skin was ebony black and looked hard and shiny like solid armor. The eyes were nonexistent, only black protruding bumps. If Grace had thought Chase had the body of a machine, she was mistaken. This man-beast was broad and powerful. Muscles bulged and flexed. Its fingers were long and thick and curled into sharp talons. One slice across her delicate flesh and she would be disemboweled.
On the ground where it stepped, huge bare feet sank a small way into the spongy ground. The sharp claws on the ends of its toes dug into the yielding turf. Except for one that tapped in wait. The thing before her used the ground to get a strong grip. Instinctively she knew nothing would ever knock over this creature. It stalked her. Its movements were those of a predator’s. Imprints of its talons made an impression in the ground for a brief second which then sprang back into place.
The closer it came, the more distinct its features became. Two white inch-long fangs hung down past its lips like a vampire. There were strange green glowing intricate markings across its forehead and cheeks that pulsed with color as they dimmed and brightened. Its nose was thicker and broader than a man of her planet. The nostrils flared and she knew it smelled her as it breathed in deeply. It blinked at her and cocked its head. It growled low in its throat. It then threw back its head and howled the most god-awful noise she had ever heard. Goose bumps dotted her arms. Her hair stood on end. She thought her heart stopped. Grace screamed and fled for her life.
Chapter 2
So the little being had seen enough? Did it really think it could escape from him? Rask chuckled low in his throat and gave pursuit. His claws dug into the ground and he jumped to a tree. Talons and feet gripped the massive spongy trunk for a moment studying the direction the being fled and he jumped again quick as lightning, cutting off the creature’s path, and crouching before it on all fours. He growled as menacingly as he could, spoiling for a fight. The small creature howled and raced in a different direction. Rask leaped to a high moss-covered stone and was again before the wailing little being. Its arms were raised high over its head then flailing, as though it didn’t know what to do with its limbs. The being stopped, its mouth gaped wide and it spun again, racing for safety.