Ajos: The Restitution - A Sci-fi Alien Romance, Book 1, стр. 3
“Stop the robots! Stop drilling the hole!” One of the humans rushed forward, her eyes haunted.
She was only pulled back by one of the commander’s team members, who caught her by the waist and held her tight as her body shook with emotion.
“That won’t stop it,” Ajos heard himself say and the human turned her haunted eyes on him. “It’s already been triggered. They will wake and slowly…” He trailed off.
Slowly, the ones inside would suffocate—the stasis pods, the things that kept them alive through the journey from their planet, would be the thing to kill them.
He couldn’t say it out loud.
If what his brothers said was true, these females had already seen too many horrors in their lifetime. He wouldn't add to their nightmares.
And the females trapped inside the stasis hold…
His life organ wrung with the pain of old—of seeing this happen before.
For a moment, he stood frozen, unable to move. It felt as if he'd been sent back to a time when he'd been helpless…
Ajos' muscles tensed.
But that was then…
He'd been young…inexperienced…untrained…
This time was different, and he refused to see the same thing happen again.
"They’re dying,” the Arois spoke, his voice still thick with that ethereal feel. “Losing oxygen.”
Cracking the bones in his neck, Ajos charged forward once more, slamming his entire body into the large outline the machines had made.
As his body collided with the metal, he was sure he heard a creak.
There was hope yet.
Between his efforts and that of the machines, maybe, just maybe he could save the females this time.
Maybe, just maybe, he’d be successful this time.
As Ajos backtracked a few steps, the huge commander took his position and charged forward to hit the same spot.
There was another creak.
As Xul backtracked, one of his team members crouched and sprung forward and against the structure, hitting the same spot.
A look passed between them and there was agreement.
To his right, Ajos heard a hum, and he looked to see V’Alen charging his systems.
“Follow Ajos. We’ll force it open,” Xul said. “Whatever it takes, get the females out. They are the priority. We’ll deal with that signal later.”
V’Alen shot forward, his cybernetic limbs carrying him quickly as he slammed his body into the hold.
There was another creak.
They could do this.
“Crank the robots up to full power. Overload their systems!” Ajos shouted before charging forward again.
The ache that filled his bones from crashing his body against the metal was nothing.
He could deal with temporary pain. He could always heal himself. What he couldn’t do was breathe life into those who’d lost it and if they didn’t get inside the structure, that’s exactly what would happen.
“Oxygen levels are critical,” the Arois said. “Their panic grows.”
A strained cry left the lips of one of the humans as she fell to her knees. “No.”
Her cheeks became wet—something that possibly meant she was so overcome with emotion she was losing control of her bodily fluids.
It only renewed Ajos’ vigor.
Once, twice, three times, he slammed his body into the side of the stasis hold.
May the gods of Tonvuhiri be on his side.
May they hear his plea.
He’d begged them only once before, and they’d denied him, but may they grant him this one thing.
It felt like minutes passed as they took turns slamming their bodies into the side of the hold, and as his shoulders ached and Ajos charged forward once more, he hit the side of the hold with all his might.
Gravity gave and he lost his balance as a part of the hold bent inward.
Triumph.
But they couldn’t celebrate yet.
He didn’t need to hear the cries of encouragement as he squeezed his body through the opening. The metal pressed against him, cutting into his skin, but as before, he ignored the pain as he forced himself into the hold.
It was dark but his eyes didn’t take long to adjust. The only lights were the dim blue strips that ran along each pod’s perimeter.
And there were many of them.
V’Alen had been right.
Over two stleks.
So many trapped humans.
In the back of his mind, he was aware that V’Alen had also managed to enter the hold.
Glancing behind him, he caught the eyes of Xul.
The female with the pale filaments on her head rushed by the commander’s side.
“Please,” she begged. “Please do everything you can.”
Ajos jerked his head in confirmation even as the female began squeezing through the hole as well.
Time was ticking.
V’Alen was already at a pod, his systems scanning the code pad to crack the key that would unlock the device.
Within seconds, V’Alen’s integrated AI returned a result.
“Code X—△□ (ex -ash zim por),” V'Alen said, as he punched in the code. The cover of the pod he unlocked began to retract as V’Alen moved to another.
The deep inhale of the first female reached Ajos’ ears before her scream ripped through the hold.
Qef.
This wasn’t how they’d intended to wake these females up.
The pale-filament female rushed to the woman. They’d been adamant about making the transition for the new females as smooth as possible.
Now, it wasn’t going to be that way.
He’d wasted enough seconds. With that thought, Ajos moved to the stasis pod closest to him. He didn’t even look at the being trapped inside, he just got to work.
X—△□.
The pod’s cover retracted and he barely registered the gasps of the human inside before he moved to another.
X—△□.
Another.
X—△□.
He didn’t know how many he opened; his only focus was on getting as many of them open as quickly as possible.
On the other side of the dark stasis hold, V’Alen worked even faster than he did, his robotic fingers flying as he entered the code and moved from one stasis pod to another.
When he reached the end of the line and glanced behind him, he realized V’Alen had already opened the last stasis pod on his side and was helping a female to step out of it.
Now, there was only one left to open.
Punching in the code, Ajos focused even as the