Seed: A Dark Sci-Fi Omegaverse Romance (Alpha Unknown Book 2) Read online

  A look of pure anger was written all over him. Revenge was brewing.

  Revenge for locking him up. Revenge for bringing him here. Revenge for being a woman. I was ready for him, but not for what was coming.

  He bit his lip until blood trickled down the sides of his mouth. His eyes were black as night. He punched his plastic tray, sending food flying above our heads. I should have been quick enough to lock him down, but it happened so fast.

  “It’s your job to deal with life,” he said. “But keep one thing in mind when dealing with me, woman. It’s my role to expose what’s wrong with the world, and I won’t stop until someone makes me. Get it?”

  I nodded. Everything felt wrong, and I didn’t dare breathe. The whole crew was watching from their tables. No one made a sound.

  He had won the game. As I sat, closed mouth and dumbfounded, I knew that everything had changed. We looked weak.

  “Great. Truly grand,” Cade said.

  Juliana locked him down. I dropped into position, searching him for any weapons. I pulled out a shank and pocketed it.

  “Alright, alright,” he growled. “Ease up, Hoss. I’ll leave peacefully.”

  “Back to your quarters. You’re under lockdown. If I don’t get pinged that you made it there, you’ll spend the rest of your days in solitary,” she said.

  “Wait,” I said. “A sedative for you. Extend your arm.”

  Cade grinned. “Be my guest.”

  I injected the tranquilizer into his arm and felt his muscles instantly give way. I could finally stand and breathe.

  “Mm. Thanks, honey-pie.”

  “Runt,” I said, ignoring him. “Escort him to his quarters. You hear me?”

  Runt did as he was told, leaving us alone with the rest. “Sit down. It’s over. Eat. Be Merry. Whatever,” I said, waving the syringe.

  “Seriously, you can’t let these monsters get to you,” Juliana said.

  “They’re not monsters,” I reminded her. “Most of them are human beings.”

  “Most of them,” she warned.

  But her nostrils were wide as they sucked in air, and I knew she was as freaked out as I was. We were two women, hired to keep the peace in the middle of the widest landscape known to any being: the universe. The final frontier was even scarier than we thought.

  “I only listen to a few people around here,” I said. “You and—”

  The door whooshed open, causing me to forget what I was about to say. Manny, the shuttle’s mechanic came running in. “Ya’ll need to see this. Something’s up.”

  Manny was an overweight specialist in engines and fraud. Somehow, he was one of the trustworthy ones.

  He knew a thing or two about the ship, making him a valuable member of the crew.

  Sweat stains littered the front of his shirt. He was out of breath, his eyes scanning the ceiling. I hadn’t ever seen him look this worried before. Palm searching for a place to sit, he found the table and finally leaned his weight against the metal.

  Juliana saluted him, as did I. Protocol, I suppose. “What’s the problem?” she asked.

  My mind instantly shot to Cade, but when Manny looked at the side doors, I knew something was going on in the cargo hold. That’s where he said he’d be, working on separating out the fuel cells we’d need to complete the journey.

  “Downstairs,” he said, breathing erratically. “Something—someone—”

  “The cargo hold?” I interrupted. “No one is allowed down there. The doors won’t open for anyone but you, Juliana, or I.”

  He swallowed and turned back toward the doors. The sweat covering his face and upper body was making me realize my panic. “I will show you what I saw, but you ain’t going to be too happy about it,” he said.

  No shit.

  Regardless of our worry, we ran alongside Manny, slowing down when we got to the massive doors to the cargo bay. Boxes were everywhere. Food supplies had been ripped open. The whole place had been ransacked. But that wasn’t all. There was a thick, sticky substance running over everything, and it carried the smell of something peculiar.

  Juliana stopped and shielded her nose. “Jesus fucking...”

  Humming came from below the deck. I dropped to my knees, easing down to lie on my stomach. I placed my ear against the metal and listened. I heard the sound of an engine. It sounded nothing like ours.

  “Another starship,” I muttered. “Someone has docked to us.”

  Manny’s eyes widened. “Well, get them the fuck off!”

  I looked toward Juliana, but I had read all of the manuals she had. The defense field was supposed to protect us from harm, data disruption, and intruders. The main airlock was guarded, but we hadn’t seen a thing since we passed through Earth’s atmosphere.

  It could have been an alien. It could have been something or someone worse. There were other ships just like ours. What if something went wrong and one found us? What if they were waiting to board our ship, one by one? Or maybe… they already had.

  I stood up and wiped the compounding sweat off my forehead. Searching through the rubble and discarded packages, it wasn’t obvious what was stolen, but a cold chill ran through my heart.

  “Somebody’s on the ship.” Did the words come from my mouth? Yes. But I didn’t feel them.

  Panic.

  I searched around the room, hands covered in the thick substance. I couldn’t concentrate. My heart raced at a million miles per second. Who the fuck was on board? What was?

  An oily paste dripped from the edges of the pipes in the ceiling, black as blood, but it didn’t appear to be of human source.

  I turned to Juliana for answers, but she shook her head. “No. No way.”

  “You have to tell them. We’ve been invaded,” I said.

  “If we tell them, they’ll go crazy. I’ll have a fucking mutiny on my hands, and don’t for a second think you won’t be involved,” she whispered.

  Manny threw his set of tools across the room. “All of our fuel cells were in those boxes. Not to mention, our food.”

  I bent to pick up Manny’s mess and found a lone frag grenade. If one was to go off, it would decimate the entire shuttle. I quickly pocketed it.

  “The real question is what has come in?” With her arms outstretched, Juliana looked vulnerable.

  I took a deep breath, falling back with slight dizziness before wrapping my palm around the exit ladder. Juliana knew what was going on. We all did. It was an invasion.

  What was it, though? A stalker. An alien. A giant fucking cockroach that managed to scurry underneath the cracks of our sink?

  Everywhere I turned, I saw nothing, but I felt the presence lurking. Was it benevolent? When was an alien ever benevolent? I tried to think of all the movies I had seen in the 90’s, but reciting the lines of Independence Day wasn’t going to save my life.

  Judging by the massive handprints pressed into some of the metal carriers, I’d say that it was something inhuman. I wasn’t so sure they were the balloon-headed gray alien type. In fact, I imagined much worse. Then again, could anyone be worse than Cade?

  I doubled back and climbed the ladder, smacking the red emergency lockdown button. I heard Manny and Juliana’s pounding footsteps behind me, heard them screaming my name to get me to stop, but I was gone. The prisoners’ rooms would latch and secure automatically, but they would re-open in approximately thirty minutes.

  I had to initiate the lockdown. Otherwise, everyone would have been in danger. That thing was in here somewhere, most likely above us. I couldn’t let it get to the others.

  We would reconvene in the cafeteria. That was the rule. It was safe there. It was an okay place to gather, but none of this was sitting well with me, and that thing could have already made it to the dining tables.

  “Mia!” Juliana stopped, heaving in huge breaths of synthetic oxygen. “Mia, what are you doing?”

  I focused on the circular hallway in front of her, lit up by iridescent lights and sequenced displays of color from the mach
ines. How could everything around us be so silent and peaceful when there was an intruder stalking us and waiting for one of us to fuck up?

  “We meet in the dining hall,” I said.

  “We gave Cade a heavy dose. He might be zonked out,” she said.

  “Then, we’ll get someone to drag him in. I want everyone in that room.”

  Juliana sighed, but she looked completely lost. She was a great navigator, but when it came to dealing with this type of danger, she was a novice. They should have hired soldiers to stand guard.

  Quickly, we ran to the cockpit. I gazed at the navigation systems. The planet we were supposed to call our new home was suddenly nowhere on the display. Nowhere. All I could see was an empty screen and the occasional field of debris. My bad feeling got worse.

  “You good with calling the shots now, captain?” Juliana asked. “Are you sure you can handle this?”

  Manny laughed. “Maybe the alien came to get an insight on the birthing process...”

  I rolled my eyes. To most of the prisoners, I had very few reasons to be here. When they signed up, they didn’t realize they’d have to give their semen to a woman every week. Some told me it was emasculating. To me, it was work. Grueling, disgusting work. Others kept their concerns low key, if they had any concerns at all. Sick bastards. Everyone needed constant supervision if my fertility experiments were going to achieve any actual success.

  “We are the leaders of this mission. We have to figure this out. ,” I said. “We’ll talk with them in the cafeteria.”

  Juliana took my hand and squeezed, nodding as if it to say that she was putting all of her trust within me. It was a heavy burden to bear, but I had already lost everything I had loved on Earth. I was ready for a problem like this to arise.

  I hesitated, looked at the bright cafeteria walls, and toughened up. Juliana trusted me to figure this out. I couldn’t ruin this. She punched in the code to get into the safe space of the dining hall. “All right, come in. Let’s deal with this shit, and try to stay alive.”

  “One second,” I said. “I forgot something at control.”

  Before I could make the leap, I doubled back and made my way through the claustrophobic and round corridors, toward the control panel. I grabbed my bag and paused when I saw the green light from the recorder. Clearing my throat, I sat and made one more recording for Earth.

  Earth was gone, but in some fashion, it could still be there. We could still see the bright lights that came from our solar system. Time didn’t work in the way we thought. Time was circular. Like a snow globe, everything remained intact as stars. From far way, time made things appear alive.

  “Starship T1-95 Pandorum to Mission Control. Another day away from finding sanctuary, as they say. All systems are in place. I repeat, systems are...” I sighed and nearly broke down, focusing on the eye scanner. “There is an—”

  Intruder.

  A warm hand fell against my shoulder. Hot and commanding. Juliana? I held my fingers over the keys, but I couldn’t begin to type. No. It wasn’t Juliana. It was the touch of a man.

  I stood still and closed my eyes, nerves shot to hell. I held my breath and listened to the slither of his voice, the control he wanted to convey. “They won’t hear you, you know.”

  Cade. God. I thought it was it, the alien.

  “Who let you out of your cell?” I asked, throat closing tight. “We’re meeting in the cafeteria.”

  But before I could make my point, the lights dimmed overhead. The heavy sounds of generators slowly lost their power. Leaning back against the exit, he grinned. His voice was smooth, but high-pitched and worn down.

  As he started to laugh, I could see every crack that ran into the enamel of his teeth, all of the blackness that had started to mold. He hadn’t showered in months. I was sure of that because he bragged about it during body check.

  Looking at him now, I realized how on the edge he could be. He was turning feral. If it got any worse, there would be no controlling him. He knew this place too well.

  “Cade. Don’t lose it,” I murmured, hands out to stop him.

  “Down here, we all lose,” he muttered, eyes glazed with passion.

  “Don’t you mean up here?” I asked.

  He immediately shook his head and ran his fingers through the grease of his shaggy hair.

  “There is no direction, doctor. No comfort. No one to calm the fear. There is only novelty,” he warned.

  “We are on the right path. If you stick to the plan, we can—”

  “We’re lost, and we’re running out of fuel. Can we really expect to land on the right coordinates when we don’t even know where we’re going anymore?” he went on, inching closer to me.

  Though I was prepared, I was beyond frightened. He had every reason and opportunity to take me. Instead, I stepped forward and looked up at the ceiling in wonder.

  Something real had found us. Finally. It didn’t matter if we reached our destination or not. Whatever life form attached itself to our ship knew everything. It had to.

  “Please. Help us,” I thought.

  We could find out the truth about the universe. Maybe, I could gain some clarity surrounding the process of life and death. If they were advanced, they were bound to know every fertility hack in the book.

  Cade ran his finger under my chin. I winced and took a step back, breathing carefully through my nose. “Stand down, inmate #31,” I choked.

  “Precious little cunt,” Cade sneered. “What’s the matter? You’ve pumped me enough times to call me by my first name.”

  The tests. I could use a day off. “What do you want with me?” I asked and took another step back through the circular corridor. I could faintly hear Manny address the crew inside the cafeteria.

  I didn’t see his action coming, but I should have. Cade lashed forward, hands edging around my throat. His smile widened as he closed his palms.

  “I want to fuck that pretty mouth of yours, slut,” he sneered.

  “Stand down!”

  Juliana came rushing to my aid. She pulled him back, but he quickly turned her around and firmly planted her arms behind her head.

  “Oh, what a day!” he shouted. “Two for the price of one. Now, now, Juliana. Don’t sit so still. You’ll take all the fun out of this.”

  I ran my hands across my throat. I caught my breath. Disbelief ran through my mind as I dug through my jacket, looking for a weapon. I wasn’t thinking straight. He tried to kill me. I wanted to do worse.

  I went to grab my remote, but it fell from my hands. Cade hammered his fist against Juliana’s cheek and came after me, laughing maniacally.

  “No.” I screamed and kicked my heel against his chest. I grabbed ahold of the railing above me, twisting around in order to fight back. But I was powerless, and he knew it.

  “I have you now, little puppet,” he whispered.

  Juliana was down. I could feel his fingers grasping at my clothes. I gasped, saw the look of determination in his face, and then I saw him.

  From above, I saw him waiting in the vents, eyeing us. Eyeing me.

  His body was massive, strong, and covered in tribal markings. As Cade tried to have his way, our eyes connected, and the being shown himself in all his glory. He dropped to the floor, but Cade was one step ahead of him. From his ankle, he revealed a kitchen knife. He swung it into the alien’s gut.

  Strangely, the being did not move or indicate pain. He swung down, taking Cade’s hand and squeezed it until the fingers cracked loudly. I jerked out of Cade’s grasp, watching as the alien rose, pulling Cade into the air like a small puppy.

  The alien was incredibly tall and muscular in a way I had truly never seen before. He was magnificent.

  Before he acted, he turned to me and growled. “Death.”

  “Don’t,” I said. “Don’t kill us.”

  Without a word, the alien huffed and dropped Cade to the floor. He pulled the blade from his abdomen and dropped it. With haste, I grabbed the remote and smashed th
e button with my thumb. Cade’s ankles and wrists locked to the metallic floor.

  The alien left. He went straight back into the mess of ceiling vents, cables, and piping.

  “What the f—“

  I kicked Cade’s side, causing him to groan and shift in pain. ”Do not fuck with me.” I warned.

  Of course, when I looked up, everyone was coming our way. Whenever these situations happened, I had to calm my fears, or the prisoners would revolt. One by one, they could take this entire starship down.

  “Did you see it?” someone gawked.

  I cracked my neck and straightened my back. “Everyone in the fucking cafeteria!” I screamed. “Now.”

  I turned to my folder of recordings and flicked it back on. “So, now you know what we’re dealing with. Goodnight, cruel Earth. Sleep tight, whatever century it is.”

  3

  Talis

  We were slaves. Forced to toil on the land, we broke our backs until the sun burned our flesh. We lost our women, our families, and the homes we owned. Everything, in one instance, was taken from me.

  Our unified Nyelan Empire heeded the Sankarian’s warnings. They wanted our resources. It was a risk to stand up against an entire invading civilization. There were great wars throughout history that shattered entire cultures, memories, and knowledge.

  I knew the risks. I chose to fight.

  We were one of the unique races, existing on the outer regions of the universe. A solar system fueled by the process of renewal. Birth through death. Death through birth. In this way, I had already lived a thousand lives, though I had no memory of doing so.

  Our planet was bountiful. There were omegas to be bred, to be protected and kept. They were the only ones with the ability to complete the process. Each and every alpha had the power to transfer any genetic coding into an omega. The omega could process that DNA and produce a clone. That is how we existed, swapping one body for the next. We lived on.

  The omegas were a rare breed, and all of the outsiders in the region wanted a turn at them. When the Sankarian’s tracer ships detected our planet’s presence, we all knew we were fucked. They decimated our port cities, cut off the rivers and waterways until the people were begging to be given an ounce of water or piece of bread.