Star Catcher (14 page)

“Why is that?”

“I did not understand her words, as I had not received a translator bud yet, but the female held tight around my neck. She nearly climbed up my body. I believe she feared Krael’s troops and thought I would help her, as if I were one of her kind.”

Noth silently thanked his earlier insistence that his medical team receive lash and brow implants. The human-looking appearance of the men who worked under him—even without crown hair—would put the women more at ease. After being immersed in the culture and witnessing countless human men with bald heads, Noth did not believe the lack of crown hair would greatly alarm the Earth women.

“I understand. Did you activate the
tvolt
system?”

Noth referred to a natural herb that was distributed through the air-duct system. Humans were found to be particularly susceptible to the plant, and it would help to keep the captives relaxed. Artanians were not as sensitive to the aroma, but if it made Krael and her troops the slightest bit calmer, it would be to everyone’s benefit.

“I did, sir. All surrogates have received their ovulation-regulating hormones as well.”

Blast it!
The documented introduction of hormones would limit the time he had to plan an escape. It would make the humans ready for implantation too soon.

“Thank you, Uryu. Refrain from further injections except for emergency situations. I will be there shortly.”

“Yes, Doctor Zobor.”

*

Stella’s nose itched. There was an odd chemical smell in the air. She needed to open a window and air her room out, but her eyelids felt like someone had taped quarters to them.

Wow. Where was I partying last night? And how much did I drink?

A sneeze threatened, and Stella attempted to rub her itchy nose, but her arm wouldn’t obey.
What the heck?

Her wrist was immobilized! Both of them were held firmly at her sides, and her feet were spread-eagled, strapped down in a similar fashion.

Panic swelled in her breast, but she forced herself to think hard. Snippets of the night before tumbled back to her like the first falling rocks before an avalanche. But the big revelation wouldn’t come.
Noth.
She remembered waiting for him at the restaurant and driving … somewhere.
Oh, yeah! The maze party Rayna told me about.
But what had happened after that?

It took a ton of willpower to keep her eyes closed now that the memories began to take shape. Stella needed to look around, to figure out where she was and what had happened to her. She could make out faint voices somewhere nearby, and she didn’t want her captors to know she was awake yet. The element of surprise might be all she had to work with. She’d watched enough movies to know stupid girls opened their mouths when they should be listening.

She relaxed her trembling eyelids and let her limbs fall back lifelessly against the thin mattress. The speakers were female, and their weird voices flicked her memory, teased her with their familiarity. She struggled to identify the words. One sounded like
eat
in the language Noth had been teaching her.

Noth! What the hell have you done?

She heard
human
spoken in English.
Eat human?
God, she hoped not! Maybe she was taken by a crazed band of Russian cannibals? Her mind felt disjointed enough to almost latch onto that scenario.

This isn’t a movie, Stella! Focus. Figure out what in the world is going on!

There were many words exchanged between the two women, though, before their voices faded with distance. Most likely they were discussing feeding their captives. She thought she recognized
beds
and
food
in their language.

It was interesting that they said
human
in English. Like they didn’t have a word for it in their language.
Shouldn’t they be calling us Americans?

It was strange.
Why doesn’t that make sense?

Stella’s foggy brain practically hurt as she tried to work it out.

Wait a second. No word for human?

Because they are not human?

Stella’s pulse began to hammer even faster. She took a shaky breath, fighting against the weight that abruptly dropped inside her belly. Her eyes popped open, all thoughts of covertness abandoned. She was in something like a hospital ward. Her trip to the ER as a child for a broken arm came flooding back to her. Stella had fallen out of a tree. Following her older cousins around had resulted in countless unfortunate incidents in her youth. This place reminded her of the triage suite she was parked in for much of that long night, only this was infinitely scarier. And it wasn’t exactly the same.

She lifted her head and saw the flooring was made out of dull silvery metal. A rolling cart near the bed was littered with vials and equipment she did not recognize from any prior doctor’s visit.
On Earth.

I’ve been abducted by aliens. And they speak Noth’s language.

Stella shook her head in disbelief, even though her heart knew the cold truth.

She and a bunch of other women had been captured by an alien race.

Shut away in a small, private room, she still felt the promise of other suffering bodies nearby. Somehow, she knew she was not alone in this horror. The atmosphere was sterile, sort of familiar, but with a definite off-tune ring.

The bed was wider than a gurney, twin-sized or thereabouts, but longer, as if made for taller people.

Taller things, you mean. Because they aren’t people, Stell. Noth isn’t a person.

Stomach acid singed the back of her throat. How could she have given herself, heart and body, to a member of an entirely different species? An alien?

How could something so against nature have felt so undeniably right? His hands on her breasts, his warm mouth on her lips, and his massive body on top of hers—inside of her—seemed like kismet. They were made for each other, fit together like two puzzle pieces that would never join the same way with anybody else. She felt a tear slide down her cheek and drop onto the skimpy pillow behind her head.

And it wasn’t even that he was an alien. Okay, that was devastating. But the knowledge didn’t change the way she had felt about him, the way they had connected over the past two months. It was his betrayal that hurt so badly. Their romance felt like a lie.

Had he only been with her to entice her into this abduction?

Then again, she hadn’t even been invited here by him. Had Noth deemed her unworthy to be used for whatever evil plan was in store for the women from the corn maze? Did this really have anything to do with his sister’s infertility? Had he tested Stella out, but decided she wasn’t worth buying after all?

Stella’s stomach heaved, but nothing came up. Clenching her jaw and swallowing the nausea back down, she turned her head to inspect her bonds. They were made of a thick leather-looking material with a locking metal piece. It was a hospital-grade type of restraint for the most deranged. Maybe it was not impossible to get out of, but it certainly wouldn’t be easy. She’d need something sharp to cut through the straps. Or a key.
Dare to dream.
Only there wasn’t even a keyhole, just a silvery square.
Finger pad?

She noticed the gold ring Noth had given her and flicked at it with her pointer and middle fingers.
Hah!
It wouldn’t budge. The shackles prevented her from removing the damn thing and flinging it across the room. Or maybe she wanted to throw it in his face the next time she saw him. The steadfast gold band just added insult to injury.

But even if she got out of the shackles, how would she get back home? How far away were they? The thought of potentially unfathomable miles of space between here and Earth caused the bottom of her stomach to unhinge.

A beep startled her, and a noise like a sudden gust of wind followed as her door began to open. She feigned sleep while footfalls approached. Was it him? She forced her body to remain motionless. A cold blunt object pressed against her forehead, and her eyes flew open. Above her bed loomed a tall stranger with some sort of instrument in his hand. The machine chirped, and he removed it from her temple. He had dark eyes, sandy brown eyebrows and lashes, and a shaved head. His arms were enormous, powerful, but he wore a pleasant, easygoing smile that made him less threatening.

He looked at her sympathetically but did not speak. As he leaned over to read the instrument and take note of the result, Stella had the sudden urge to spit and decided to act on it. Her gob of saliva smacked the back of his touchpad, and he looked down at her with a mix of confusion and discomfort on his face.

Or maybe he thought she had lost her mind. As he turned and walked out, Stella looked at the straps on her wrists and felt their tug on her ankles. At the moment, even she questioned her own sanity.

Chapter 12

Noth walked the halls, a notation storage unit in his hands. Uryu had started a vital sign check on one side of the ward. Next, they planned to perform the needleless blood screen to monitor the effects of the ovulation-stimulating hormones. The females would not feel any pain during their assessments. Even the implantation process was to be gentle. Noth had made sure of it. Of course, gestation had its discomforts, but he had already sent a formal request to the Embassy for a more natural environment for the fertilized females in the future.

He had hoped subsequent women could be transferred to his home planet. Barring any physical complications, they could stay in a residential area with full-time staff available in case of emergencies. Someday they could even live with the Artanians whose children they fostered in their wombs. They would be cared for like family members during the waiting period. Unfortunately, that was never a possibility for these women. They were to be pioneers for future surrogates.

Not anymore.

Noth had already checked on a number of the females. Most were taking the abduction well, thanks to the medicine Uryu had administered and the circulating
tvolt
. He planned to re-examine the need for further medication on an individual basis, but hoped to limit its use as much as possible.

According to his records, Stella had been moved to the room he now stood before. Once the women were sedated, they were relocated to individual rooms. Hopefully they could remove the restraints soon, provided the females did not attempt to hurt themselves or his staff. Of course Krael vehemently disagreed, but if he reinforced the negative impact of high stress levels, he might prevail.

Thankfully, Krael’s military did not have an active presence in the ward now, although he had no doubt her eyes and ears monitored him from every vantage point. It was likely the only space in the satellite that did not have surveillance was Krael’s office.

Noth scanned the hallway as he pretended to be absorbed with patient data. His eyes lit on a black box the size of his thumbnail mounted near a similarly colored grate on the ceiling. A
Lans
system. Not exactly high-tech. He assumed Krael financed the installation herself, hence the less expensive technology. He was familiar with the system from a rotation in a criminal psychiatric ward during his medical training. The on-call staff used
Lans
to monitor patients and were trained in the use of the devices.

He entered a quick note on the position of the monitor. To any observer, Noth would appear to be recording patient documentation, but he was adding to a list only he could access. Already he had a good sense of where he was being observed, as well as the location of potential blind spots. Unfortunately, the
Lans
system had sensitive acoustics. If Stella screamed at him the moment he opened the door, their relationship could be exposed.

Thank Scrion, Uryu administered the
Tristayl
. Stella would not remember seeing Noth following the
wrov
attack.

Of course, that could mean a violent reaction when she saw him now. He placed a thumb on the sensor pad to open the door and stepped inside. The hatch slid shut silently behind him.

“
Necesitamos hablar solamente en español aquí
.”

We need to speak only in Spanish here.
He spoke the words as soon as the door opened. She looked to be sleeping but awoke immediately at the sound of his voice. Shock, pain, betrayal, anger—he read them all in her expression. The
Tristayl
must have blurred her memory of his involvement in the abduction, but some understanding now flitted across her face. It hurt him to watch it.

She raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t say a word.

After Stella introduced Noth to Spanish, he had purchased a Spanish language book. He planned to learn the language to surprise her. The woman at the bookstore had told him it was incredibly romantic. Now it was nothing but practical. It definitely did not have the original impact he’d intended.

“The one who is responsible for your abduction is watching us,” Noth continued in their shared language. Krael was unable to use her translators to determine his meaning. She was likely pacing about her office in frustration, wondering why Noth had not supplied translation information for this second Earth tongue.

“The small black box in the corner behind me is a camera. Do not stare. I am keeping track of them, but I do not want the soldiers to know this.”

“¿
Quién eres
?”
Who are you?

“I am from a planet in the
Qobrin
galaxy called Artanos,” he answered. “Our species is dying out. The females are no longer able to carry offspring to full term. I am a doctor specializing in fertility and the director of medical procedures here. We are on a space station orbiting approximately thirty Earth miles from my planet.”

“You collected us to…” Stella couldn’t seem to bring herself to say it. “Your experiments to help your sister … Do you even have a sister, or was that just another lie?” She looked as if the conversation made her want to vomit, but she wisely kept to speaking Spanish, despite her outrage and distress.