Ajos: The Restitution - A Sci-fi Alien Romance, Book 1, стр. 34
Ajos heard it too because his gaze lingered a little too long.
Jerking his head in what she assumed was a nod, Ajos pulled his gaze away.
As the lights in the shuttle dimmed and the aliens in front of her initialized the lift-off sequence, she couldn’t help but stare at him.
The night before, after she’d exited the shower and he’d brushed against her…
She shouldn’t be thinking this but…
What would a relationship with a being like him be like?
Athena and the other three women who’d been rescued first had formed relationships with the aliens. Close relationships.
It felt wrong to be thinking about something so trivial now, in the middle of a war, and when the lives of not only everyone in this shuttle but everyone on the base hung in the balance.
But…
Still…
The thought lingered.
And she supposed it had a strong basis to stay.
There weren’t any human men to form relationships with. If this was her life now, was she going to spend the rest of it alone?
Ajos wasn’t human…
But he was handsome in a sort of way that had her staring and admiring from afar. His bone structure alone…
He looked like he was carved from something else—some other material that she wasn’t made of.
He wasn’t just carbon, oxygen, and the other nine elements essential for life.
He was other.
He was something else.
Ajos glanced back at her and she blinked rapidly before looking away.
What was she thinking?
She didn’t know how it worked with Athena and the other women, but she doubted such a thing would work for her.
What if he found her strange-looking?
Her skin was pale; his was rich in color.
His body was strong and hard. Hers, in comparison, was weak and soft.
They were opposites.
Yet, the way he looked at her…
“Here we go,” V’Alen said, cutting through her thoughts.
The shuttle lifted off the ground and shot into the air so fast, she hardly had time to register what was happening.
It didn’t feel as if they were going fast, but based on the blur that was the outside, she could tell they were going much faster than any craft she’d ever been in before, even faster than the transport up to the sky tower.
It didn’t take long before they were in space again above the planet, and V’Alen spoke once more.
“Get ready for the jump.”
She knew he was saying it for her benefit, since both he and Ajos knew exactly what they were doing and what to expect from the journey.
But jump?
“We have to jump?”
“Choria G622 would take three day and night cycles to get to if we use this shuttle. It is easier if we jump,” Ajos answered.
“Okay.” Kerena nodded.
“Engaging hyperdrive…” V’Alen murmured.
Nothing happened for a split second and then, the ship shot forward and they were there.
Hyperspace was strange.
It felt as if they’d brought the shuttle into a strange other dimension full of colorful, parallel lines.
It was like having a weird dream where she was in a car that was going so fast, she couldn’t see anything outside.
Just as she thought that, the ship began shaking.
“The signal Iceon mentioned,” V’Alen said. “It’s interfering with our instruments.”
“Qef,” Ajos uttered. “Take us out before we get lost and end up somewhere we don’t want to be.”
“Noted.”
It lasted for what could only be a few more seconds before the lines suddenly disappeared and a huge sea of asteroids appeared in front of them.
The change was so sudden, her sharp intake of air into her lungs was audible.
Actually, the asteroids were all around them.
They were in the middle of an asteroid belt.
“Engaging autopilot,” V’Alen said.
The thrusters fired up, and the ship began weaving around the asteroids.
It was so quiet out there, and inside the ship too, and Kerena couldn’t help but wonder if both Ajos and V’Alen were as awed as she was by the magnificence before them.
Huge asteroids moved as if floating on an invisible ocean. There was a gentle sway to the rocks, as if they were all moving in harmony and Kerena could only stare in wonder.
Their ship came close to many of the giant masses of stone—close enough for her to see the details on some of them.
They looked like giant, jagged brown boulders floating.
“We’re almost out of it,” Ajos murmured, glancing her way, and she knew he spoke for her benefit.
She gave him a small smile and was looking out the large transparent shield at the front of the shuttle when her heart suddenly stopped.
It came out of nowhere.
A dark ship. One so dark it seemed as if it sucked in and destroyed the light of the star within itself.
The ship just appeared and then, boom, it was gone, colliding with an asteroid and erupting into a giant fireball.
It all happened so quickly, she didn’t have time to process it before another dark ship appeared.
This one wasn’t as unlucky as the first.
One of its wings skirted an asteroid as if whoever was controlling the vessel had lost control, but they managed to not suffer the same demise as their companions.
There was something ominous about the second ship, just as the first, for as soon as she saw it, there was a deep dread within her.
Evil emanated through the strange ship’s metallic hull.
“Hedgeruds!” That was all she heard Ajos shout before their shuttle was hit.
The vessel shook and Kerena bit back a scream as she held on to V’Alen’s seat in front.
It was an enemy ship, and they were firing at them even as their own ship spun out of control.
“Disengaging autopilot,” V’Alen spoke as he took hold of the controls.
Kerena watched in horror as the enemy seemed to regain control of their ship and shot towards them, firing what looked like green laser beams.
Their shuttle banked hard to the right, barely missing an asteroid. It shuddered and Kerena knew they were hit.
“We’ve taken damage!”
“Employing evasive maneuvers.”
The ship sped up but the enemy ship swerved and, for a moment, she didn’t see it.
Tension rose.
“They are heading to Choria G622,” Ajos said.
“Yes, and that