Ajos: The Restitution - A Sci-fi Alien Romance, Book 1, стр. 11

Craning her neck, she looked up at him. At the same time, she could hear the females around her shuffling away.

He looked imposing, so that didn’t surprise her.

“I’m sorry, I can’t understand.” He was speaking a language that sounded like utter gibberish to her. She knew that wasn’t the case, but every word sounded alike to her ears. And it wasn’t because he was speaking something alien either. She’d always been shit at languages. She was barely competent in her mother tongue, English, much less something foreign…er, alien.

“What did he say?” she asked.

“He said,” the robot began, “there were no men on board.”

Whispering ensued, but Kerena didn’t miss a beat.

Her gaze zoomed in on the robot and it felt as if she was looking into the eyes of the most advanced AI in the universe.

“You…you speak English?”

In her peripheral vision, she saw Athena and the other women exchange glances.

The robot’s face showed no emotion. Only a slight nod told her he understood her question. “I do. The human language designated as Een-Glish has been uploaded to the servers. Every being on the base now knows your language.”

That caused a lot of murmuring, and Kerena’s eyebrows shot up a little.

“So, everyone can understand us?” she asked, her gaze moving to the minty-teal alien. “You can understand me?”

“Ix.” He was still looking down at her and, for some reason, his strange golden eyes made her feel…calm.

She guessed that meant “yes.”

She looked back at the robot guy. “I don’t understand. How can you speak English, but he can’t then?”

“I am an artificially enhanced life form,” the robot answered. “I can do many things that others cannot.” He paused. “I was very…excited to meet a new species from a Class Four planet so far away—one that holds such similar biological characteristics to my people.” He paused again and Kerena realized it was so quiet, a pin could drop and the sound would ring in the air. “My name is V’Alen. I am told I must say it is a pleasure meeting you, though I feel no such emotion.”

That made Kerena stiffen a little, but the robot guy, V’Alen, didn’t appear hostile.

“What do you feel then?” It was the curly-haired woman again. Her eyes were wide as she looked at the robot, but it wasn’t fear in her gaze, it was utter admiration.

The robot’s gaze slid to the curly-haired lady.

“Interest,” he said. “I am delighted by the prospect of the data our interactions will bring.”

Kerena’s brows shot up even farther.

Depending on how one looked at what the robot said, he could either be saying he was an ally or he could be their worst enemy.

Most people didn’t trust AI even on Earth. I, Robot kind of made people super nervous about humanoid robots.

But this was amazing.

However, it was clear some of the other women didn’t think so.

Someone started saying prayers, and another woman burst into tears and began talking about the apocalypse.

Despite that, she hadn’t forgotten where the conversation had been going before the robot dropped those bombs.

“Why were there no men on board?” she asked. She watched the women at the front for their reaction, and it seemed that the answer wasn’t one they wanted to say outright.

“Foodo ki Tasqals daji teefa laji gahvu teefoo vu dafoo nee foolala,” the mint-colored alien growled.

The sound was so chilling, Kerena looked up at him immediately.

The alien’s eyes flashed anger as he crossed his arms.

His voice only seemed to make the females huddled on the floor tenser and Kerena had to admit, it was sending a shiver down her spine too—only, she was pretty sure it wasn’t fear that led that feeling.

The more time she spent in his presence, the more interesting the alien became.

Her curiosity pushed the feeling away as her gaze darted to Athena and then to the robot. “What did he say?”

Athena seemed to hesitate.

“He said the Tasqals are sick beasts who like to rape—” V’Alen started.

“V’Alen!” Athena cut the robot man off.

But it was too late.

Another wave of cries ensued and Kerena could acknowledge that was the last word anyone wanted to hear.

She didn’t need to be a genius to get the drift. There was only one reason she could think of why an alien race would abduct only females.

Still, the robot’s unfinished words made her shiver.

Athena had to raise her voice to talk over the noise and bring order back to the group.

“That will not happen. Here, you are safe from those hideous beasts’ atrocities. But we know it was not your choice to be here. And while I and the others,” she motioned to the women close by her again, “have embraced this new life, we know some of you might not want to do the same.”

There was murmuring as everyone tried to come to terms with what they were hearing.

“How do we know you’re not in on this?” someone asked. “How do we know you and those three women with you are not using us as guinea pigs in some grand scheme of yours?!”

“Yea!” someone else joined in. “I was thinking that! How do we know you aren’t working with these aliens that abducted us?!”

The women’s exclamations caused the group to go crazy. Everyone began whispering, arguments began to form, and there were so many people speaking at once that the noise level grew immediately.

Athena’s face fell, the look in her eyes was one of utter heartache, as if the accusation was one that hurt her deeply.

Behind Athena, the alien named Xul looked positively enraged. He stalked forward to stand in front of the Athena, dwarfing her.

“How dare you suggest that my Athena would do such a thing?” Xul looked furious, and his image alone made a hush pass through the group of females before him. “To conspire with such despicable beasts—scum—!” He spat the word.

Athena placed a hand on the alien’s arm and stepped in front of him once more.

“It’s okay, hon.” Her voice was low, but in the quietness of the