Aliens Abducted My Heart, page 1
Aliens Abducted My Heart
Awakened Womb Book 1
Hawke Oakley
Copyright © 2023 by Hawke Oakley
Cover Illustration by Fox Atreides
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Created with Vellum
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Contents
1. Levi
2. Zat'tor
3. Levi
4. Zat’tor
5. Levi
6. Zat’tor
7. Levi
8. Zat’tor
9. Levi
10. Levi
11. Zat’tor
12. Levi
13. Zat’tor
14. Levi
15. Zat’tor
16. Levi
17. Zat’tor
18. Epilogue: Levi
Also by Hawke Oakley
1 Levi
It occurred to me twenty minutes before our crash landing that the blinking red light above the console was probably a bad thing.
But the Levi from twenty minutes ago wasn't concerned with that. What did concern him was that he had to appear calm, cool, and collected to the other two men on board the ship. Because that's what captains did. Captains weren't supposed to botch their first big interstellar mission because they were afraid of looking stupid.
Unfortunately, crashing your spaceship on an alien planet very much constitutes stupidity. Good job, Captain Levi.
Before all hell broke loose, I was sitting in the cockpit double-checking the coordinates to our destination. Despite all the advances in technology, teleportation was still out of reach, so it would be a few hours before we reached the designated planet. My team was part of an ongoing correspondence with their leaders. Our job was to make first contact. We’d ensure their planet hadn't blown up, and that they weren't trying to make our planet blow up.
It was a simple job. That's why they only sent three men on the ship. Me, the captain; one diplomat; and one doctor, just in case. The ship was relatively small, and most of the upkeep was automated, including food preparation and landing protocols. In theory, all I had to do was steer.
Easy, right?
Haha, no.
“Hey, Levi?” Paz asked.
Great. Not only was the blinking red light situation happening, but someone else was here to witness it. I put on a confident smile that I hoped didn't look too forced and straightened my shoulders.
“Yes, Paz?” I said.
He gestured casually above the console. “That light's been blinking for a while now.”
Paz was our diplomat, and since his name meant ‘peace,’ I could only assume his parents had wanted that to be his future career.
“Yes, it has,” I replied. My smile didn't fade as I scrolled through some flight information on a separate screen in an attempt to look like I was doing something important.
Paz tilted his head. “It's not, like, a problem, right?”
His tone implied that he was trying his hardest not to offend me while hoping to sate his morbid curiosity.
“Oh no, not at all,” I said, giving him a smile.
God, I hoped I didn't just lie to him.
My response made his shoulders slacken. “Okay, capitão. Just checking.” To my horror, he sat down in the spare seat next to me and riffled through his pack before pulling out a stick of gum. “Want one?”
“No, thanks.”
He shrugged and tossed a piece in his mouth. The overwhelming scent of artificial cherry was a momentary distraction from the stupid light.
“How far away is this planet again?” Paz asked.
“A couple hours.”
Blink. Blink. Blink.
A bead of sweat rolled down my brow. I ignored it.
Paz yawned and stretched, nearly knocking his arm into me. “You'd think engineers could design faster ships by now, huh?”
I grunted in response. My stiff hands kept rooting through the information trees on the screen. I was trying to find out the light's purpose as discreetly as possible. At least Paz seemed more interested in reading the joke on the back of his gum wrapper than in what I was doing.
“Hey, Levi—”
“You know, it's Captain Levi,” I said before punching the troubleshooting menu.
“Right. Hey, what do you call a male alien who's interested in another male?"
The troubleshooting menu had no mention of the blinking light. I ground my teeth and broadened my search terms.
“Do you know what the answer is?” Paz asked, grinning. “A gaylien! Man, that one's cheesy...”
I sure wished a gaylien mechanic would come fix this fucking light right now.
“How about this one—”
Paz was interrupted by a loud, neutral-toned beep.
My blood ran cold.
“What was that?” Paz asked mid-chew.
“Nothing,” I said quickly.
This wasn't my first time piloting a ship. I was a seasoned captain with thousands of hours of practice flights and real low-orbit ones. Never in that time had I seen this irritating red light, or heard that godforsaken ominous tone.
And then the worst possible thing happened: the blinking light and the tone synced up.
They were related to each other.
A string of curses ran through my head. The tone was an alarm, one that went hand-in-hand with the visual light cue. That could only mean that whatever malfunction the light indicated was getting worse. More urgent.
“Guess that's not your choice of in-flight playlist?” Paz asked.
“Don't worry about it. Everything's under control,” I said through my teeth. It had to be. Otherwise...
Actually, I didn’t want to think about otherwise.
Now I was starting to freak out. I checked the map system. Our destination was light-miles away. There was no way we'd reach it before whatever was wrong with the ship struck first.
I had to stay calm. I didn't know for a fact what was wrong, so there was no need to jump to conclusions. Maybe it was just alerting me to the lack of ice in the juice machine.
The tone got louder.
Okay, fine. It wasn't the juice machine.
“This track would sound better with vocals,” Paz joked.
At least he was still in a good mood. Meanwhile I was rapidly descending into panic. Not a good look for a captain.
Stay calm, I repeated. The others need you to focus.
As if on cue, the sliding door opened behind me.
“What is that racket?” Jaeyoung grumbled.
Paz grinned. “It's Levi's hot new track, available on starTunes.”
“Hilarious,” Jaeyoung deadpanned.
I chewed the inside of my cheek. Jaeyoung was a doctor, but he also had a degree in engineering. If I swallowed my pride, I could ask him for help. But this was my mission, the first serious one I'd ever been sent on. Asking for help would make me sound weak, or worse, incompetent. I couldn't let the admiral think I was some newbie who didn't know what he was doing. I deserved this position as much as any of the older pilots, and I'd prove it.
Was the light getting redder or was it just my frayed nerves?
I felt the gazes of both my crewmates boring into my head. They trusted me. I couldn't let them down.
This ship was not crashing, dammit.
...But just in case it did, I swiped the map closer to our coordinates. My heart flipped when I saw a nearby planet, one we could reach within minutes if needed. We were flying right over it and I hadn’t even noticed. How was that possible?
I furrowed my brow at this odd new planet. There shouldn’t have been a planet here at all, not according to my maps, positioning systems, and general knowledge. It was like the planet only appeared to the naked eye after the ship’s automated systems failed... Did it have some kind of masking presence to avoid detection?
“That’s not our destination,” Jaeyoung said behind me.
My jaw tightened. Unlike Paz, he didn't miss anything. My pride wanted to tell him to stop backseat piloting, even though I secretly wanted his help.
"We might need to stop here and refuel," I said, hoping my lie wasn't paper-thin.
But if my lie was paper, Jaeyoung was a pair of scissors. "We have more than enough fuel for the entire round trip. What's going on, Levi?"
My gut twisted. I wasn't even annoyed that he didn't call me "captain"—I certainly didn't feel like one right now. Not a good one, anyway.
Just as I debated whether to keep lying or fess up, the whole cockpit was bathed in red.
My heart dropped like a stone. Now the whole ship screamed, 'hey, asshole, something's broken!'
Paz glanced at me, looking nervous. “That's not mood lighting, is it?”
“No,” I admitted.
Upon hearing the note of dread in my voice, Jaeyoung charged clo
“Shit, Levi,” he muttered. “Why didn't you tell me sooner?”
My ears flushed hot with shame. He was right, but admitting it felt like walking on coals.
“Wait, what?” Paz asked, his voice going up an octave.
Unfortunately, I could no longer reassure him. I was just as baffled as he was.
Jaeyoung scowled at me, his face menacing in the red glow of the cockpit. He had to raise his voice over the alarm's increased volume. “Tell me what's happening. Are we going down?” he demanded.
I grimaced. “I don't know.”
Jaeyoung didn't waste time scolding me. His fingers flew over the screen, but all he did was cycle through the same useless menus that I did.
“Are we seriously gonna crash?” Paz cried. “Oh my god, I knew it, I knew I hated space! I don't know why I ever agreed to do this interplanetary diplomacy crap!”
The ship jolted, knocking us sideways. Paz shrieked as my shoulder jarred into him. Jaeyoung cursed under his breath, grabbing the console so he didn't fall.
This was bad. I needed to rein in the situation now.
“We won't crash,” I stated. I righted myself and grasped the manual controls. “We're going to make an emergency landing.”
“Oh, like there's a difference,” Paz snarked.
“There is. We might lose the ship, but we'll survive.”
“And where exactly is our landing strip? In a black hole?”
“No.” I rerouted the map so my crewmates could see the planet below us—the one we were rapidly approaching. “This one.”
Jaeyoung frowned. “I don't recognize that planet.”
Paz groaned, sinking back in his seat. “Oh, great. Not even the smart guy knows where we are.”
The ship sputtered, violently shaking the interior. I gripped the controls harder and forced them steady. The ship shuddered and stalled, then I felt the explosion of energy against its hull when we entered the planet's airspace. Paz was thrown out of his seat. He yelped as he tumbled across the floor. Jaeyoung grunted with effort as he gripped a bolted-down chair for dear life.
The strange new planet approached fast. I only saw it as a blur of color: pink, green, and blue, all tainted by the blaring red of the cockpit. The ship shook so hard I couldn't make out any discernible features of the terrain. I desperately hoped we would land on something soft.
“Everybody hold on!” I yelled.
The ship entered a freefall; the controls were no longer responsive. I yanked the manual controls, steering the ship as best I could as we plummeted towards the foreign ground.
Gay or not, I just prayed the aliens here weren't hostile.
2 Zat'tor
A foul-smelling plume rose from the Sweetfields. The billowing black cloud could only be one thing: smoke.
The acrid scent soured my mood. I was in the middle of gathering herbs, but that would have to wait. I tossed my basket down and sprang into a gallop on all fours—running was much faster on multiple limbs. My long front arms and powerful back legs swallowed up the ground, propelling me towards the source of the smoke.
Fire was the ultimate enemy. It never occurred naturally on Eukaria.
Was it arson? To harm the Sweetfields, our brethren and one of our greatest treasures, was punishable by death. Whoever harmed the plants and creatures there would pay.
I raced over the expanse of rugged moss until the Sweetfields came into view. Their iconic colorful stalks were taller than the largest Maeleon. But a hard lump formed around my heart when I saw the foul blaze with my own eyes.
Who dared do such a horrible thing? What kind of heathen would set innocent plants ablaze?
Fury spurred me onward. It wasn't until I saw the sterile silver mass lying oblong in the field that I realized something was horribly wrong.
I stalled, my body freezing. Light gleamed off its too-smooth sides, and smoke spewed from its vents. The sight of the unnatural thing gave me chills.
Could it be...?
I’d heard stories of space-faring ships before, but I thought they were myths. Legends. Beings from other planets who entered metal deathtraps to explore, or worse, conquer. It sounded like an elaborate tale for entertainment. But my assumptions were wrong. The flaming hull in front of me was real.
As I got closer, the ship's black smoke petered out into hot steam. I hoped there was no more fuel to burn and the craft's dying breaths came soon.
I looked around. Among the wreckage, I saw nobody. Perhaps if there had been creatures inside, they had already perished.
But then I heard a voice, one too soft and wispy to belong to a Maeleon. Those sounds couldn’t come from a hard, scaly maw.
The voice originated from the other side of the ship. I used the crashed heap to my advantage. I kept close to the hull, inwardly sneering at its ugliness, and stalked around the side. Heat still radiated off the metal, hurting the plants beneath it.
“I'm sorry, little siblings,” I murmured. It was too late to save them, but I’d stop the beings from harming any more of our kin.
Two more distinct voices spoke up. Were there three in total?
I was too far away to hear distinct words—and even if I did, I doubted I could understand their language—but I inferred the gist of their conversation from their tone. The first voice appeared to belong to their leader. He spoke in a confident, reassuring way. There was a quality about it that intrigued me.
I angled my ear to hear the other two. One was higher pitched, squawking with fear. The second was deeper, irritated.
We were not a violent species, but if these beings came to Eukaria only to destroy, they would be dealt with accordingly.
My heart picked up speed. What kind of beings would I find on the other side? My feelers tingled, picking up minute vibrations in the air. I sensed frayed nerves and unease from the newcomers.
No longer able to contain my curiosity, I stepped out to face them.
They were... unusual.
The first thing I noticed was their short height. They stood upright on two legs, the same as Maeleons, but the similarities ended there. Strange identical coverings swallowed their bodies so only their heads were exposed. They lacked horns, tails, tentacles, and manes of feelers. Their ears were tiny rounded shells, their faces oddly blunt. Their soft flesh resembled the delicate surface of a newly bloomed petal.
They were small, frail-looking things. Where were their scales? Their bright, flashy colors?
I examined them closer. The three creatures had different facial features, heights, and flesh and fur colors, yet were clearly all the same species.
I sniffed the air. Except for the sweaty tang of fear, the beings smelled oddly sterile. I wondered if the scent of the unnatural silver ship rubbed off on them. How long had they been in there? Did they live in those things? There was so much I did not know.
I wanted to examine the newcomers longer, but the shortest creature—the one with light brown skin—shrieked. It fell backwards, staring at me wide-eyed, thrusting a shaky finger in my direction.
“N-n-n-newcomer!” it cried.
Newcomer? That wasn’t right. This planet was my homeland—these beings were the newcomers, not me.
But how did I understand its words? We couldn’t have spoken the same language.
Since communication was an option, I replied, “That is not correct.”
The other two creatures jolted and stared at me. The tallest one had pitch-dark hair and discerning eyes. It looked calmer than the panicking one on the ground.
But the third newcomer...
As I focused on him, my feelers went rigid.
Its skin was pale pink and looked soft to the touch. A tuft of dusty yellow fur sat on its head, and its eyes—
My feelers shivered. Its eyes were a cool jade green, the same as my scales.
