Isaran Military Command Center:

Translated for Human Understanding:

"Sir, the Princess's ship is on the designated course returning from the planet Aquitine. Approximate arrival time five hours and seventeen minutes."

The lieutenant looked up and behind him at his superior, sitting at the high backed commanders' chair on a slightly elevated platform.

"Location?" The Commanders' voice authorized power and confidence that demanded obedience from everyone in the room.

The lieutenant efficiently pulled up the requested location information onto the l

arege screen, spanning from one end of the wall all the way to the other.

"Sector Seven, Sir. Now approaching the asteroid belt."

The Commander tapped his long, dark fingers on the sleek metal armrest of his chair. He leaned back before shifting his sharp gaze on someone else, a rookie, not yet familiar with protocol.

The rookie stiffened under his gaze.

"Velocity." The Commander, despite his young age, did not hesitate in ordering his men, some much older than him, stridently. His men, in turn, did not show the slightest inkling of objection to his unquestioned authority.

The rookie scrambled to pull the information and analyze the coded text of the large screen before him.

The click of the Commanders' fingers on his chair were uncomfortably audible. Finally the correct data was found and read aloud.

"Ship now approaching asteroid belt in Sector Seven. Decelerating and shifting to manual mode."

The rookie glanced at the Commander at the corner of his eyes, and satisfied the Commander wasn't going to punish him for being slow, continued monitoring the Princess's ship.

All was quiet for a moment, only the metallic beeps and clicks of the Isarans in the room hard at work. Then the alarms went off, intruding the peace as the screens began to flash blindingly as error code after error code began to light up the usually unanimated screens.

"We're losing her!" The Lieutenant yelled.

The Commander shot up and briskly walked toward the Lieutenant, his black cape, with the royal emblem, a circle with two horizontal lines going through the middle, flowing behind him.

"Status report."

"They were going through the asteroid belt in manual mode to navigate through the belt and were hit by a sizable rock."

"I told them not to let her drive." The Commander muttered under his breath.

"Sir..."

"What? Out with it lieutenant!" The Commander was getting irritated. He'd been through this situation more than once. The Princess, hard-headed as she was, had a knack for damaging one thing or the other. The first few times, the Commander had felt the panic and concern bubble up, but by now, only a slight irritated feeling filled him.

"There's more. Our sensors detected a laser. It hit the ship, now the systems are failing."

Only this time, the threat was more serious than the Commander first believed.

"Tell them to fall back into autopilot."

"Communications are down. I can't raise them."

"Then override the ships control and fly it yourself you idiot!"

"Yes, Sir." The Lieutenant's fingers furiously flew over the screens, pulling up the override controls.

Everyone in the room scrambled to fix the problem as the lights flashed on. The room became noisy as data and codes were yelled from one person to the other. The tension in the room escalated.

Then all of a sudden, red lights blazed across all the screens as a red alert blinked on and off. The room grew quiet.

"Sir, we lost them completely. Sir-"

"Don't say anything." The commander said sharply, holding a rigid hand up for emphasis. "Just pull up the last transmitted location."

The Lieutenant hesitated before reading off the screen.

"Sector seven, section four, quadrant three."

"Earth?" The Commander let out a sharp breath. "Are you positive?"

"I'm afraid so, Sir."

There was a pause as all eyes turned to the Commander, obediently waiting for orders. The air was still as the lights blinked on silently.

"Lieutenant!" The sudden, sharp bark of the Commander's voice made everyone jump slightly in their seats.

"Call a conference with the King... Tell him it's urgent."

Isabella:

My knee was bleeding, but I could barely feel it. The blood ran warmly down my legs, thoroughly soaking my jeans. Yet all I could think about was getting away.

I ran from it. From the noise, the blood, the guns. And most importantly from them, the aliens.

The sounds of battle were fading, but I couldn't stop. I kept going until I was positive there was nothing following me, throwing paranoid glances over my shoulder as I went.

I collapsed on the sidewalk, heaving from the effort of running so hard. However my relief of getting away was short lived. Something felt wrong.

The atmosphere around me felt tense, like the world was waiting for some unknown catastrophe to strike. My heart rate elevated as I turned around in a slow circle, scanning the area.

I was on the wide gravel road between two abandoned warehouses.

I looked up at the sky, coincidently spotting an object racing across, a streak of black smoke and metal. It looked like a...spaceship?

And it was heading right for me. I turned, already sprinting away, but it was too late, The ground shook with the sheer force of the impact, preceding the explosion that followed mere seconds later.

I felt my feet leave the ground and then everything grew quiet as darkness fell, like a thick enveloping blanket. I didn't even feel myself hit the pavement.

Princess of Isara:

Colored lights danced before my eyelids. Immense heat radiated from my surroundings. I opened my eyes and found myself staring at a sky so blue it seemed surreal. Everything was so bright, something I'm not used to.

On my planet, the sun was farther away, the land cooler. Then a rush of memories flashed through my mind. There was a gun that shot us out of the sky, sending us crashing down towards the blue planet, Earth.

Confusion engulfed me. We were shot down by an orbital gun. The only others who had technology that superior and would rashly shoot down an unknown ship without clearing it as hostile or friendly were the Espheni.

I pushed myself up slowly, taking stock of any injuries.

My ceremonial dress was in tatters. The sleek purple material seared and burned in some places and ripped in others.

My guards, all five of them were collapsed around me, no doubt dead, though I hoped otherwise.

They had pulled me out of the wreckage of my ship, which now lay in charred ruins, the metal infrastructure exposed and barely holding what was left together while everything else had been ripped apart and strewn around me.

I hauled myself over to the closest guard. They had formed the protective circle around me, facing outward with me in the center. They were slumped over, gripping their staffs.

Their bodies were still warm, they couldn't have been dead for long. I muttered the sacred incantation for the dead before picking my way to my ship, hoping to find something useful. I couldn't help anyone but myself now. I was on my own and my first thought was trying to find anything on my ship that is salvageable.

Just as I was picking my way around the rubble, a slight moaning sound became audible. Crossing over to the other side of the ship, avoiding hot metal, I found an inhabitant of the earth, lying on her back drifting to and from consciousness.

Intrigued, I approached closer. I've never seen a human before. My father keeps constant tabs on the humans, and we've sent special undercover missions in centuries ago to study them, but I myself have only seen pictures.

She was a young female, by the looks of her, and she was hurt. Her skin was badly burnt to a near black, the only place that seems to have escaped were parts of her neck and face.

I drew closer and kneeled down next to her. Her head shakily followed the sound my feet on the gravel. The fear in her eyes was evident as she saw my face.

My father always told me we couldn't trust the humans yet, they weren't as technologically advanced or superior. They were on the low end of the scale when compared to all the other races in the universe.

But looking down at this human, I felt a sharp pang of sadness. I don't know her and I don't know if she'll survive, but what I do know is that I need to help her in any way that I could.

I reached out a hand towards her face. Her eyes grew wide and she began to whimper slightly, but she was in no position to resist. Placing my fingers spaced out between her upper neck and cheek bone, I closed my eyes and concentrated.

I dug through her mind, pushing and prodding my way in. Her weak form was no challenge, I slipped in easily.

Then suddenly, without meaning too, I stumbled into her ongoing thoughts. Instantly I was filled with the same fear and pain as she was. Images flashed through my mind, memories of the girls. A fresh wave of pain hit me, as I realized the girl was nearing the end. Painfully. I tried to pull myself away from her and break the connection, but I couldn't.

The girls panic and fear of death became mine. I could feel myself slowing loosing myself, drifting deeper and deeper into the girls subconscious.

The fear of dieing with her was too much, filled with a fresh wave of energy, I yanked, myself out. My eyes flew open, and I could once again see my surroundings, not the girls memories.

My hand was still resting on her neck. The last few drops of life were trickling out of her. Then the strangest thing happened. My hand began to morph between my eyes. Shocked, I didn't move, but watched in horror as it grew smaller and paler, resembling what the girls hand would have been like hadn't she been burned as terribly as she was.

I yanked my hand away from the girl, hoping that the release in contact would stop and reverse the process taking place before me. It didn't. Pale flesh creeped up my arm, reaching my shoulder. The bloody cut on my collar bone bone also took on a humanified form. I scratched at my skin furiously, where the old me was turning into soft vulnerable flesh, trying to hold onto what was left.

Flashes of images, memories, and thoughts that didn't belong to me shifted through my mind, trying to implant themselves in. But like there was a bad connection, everything began to fade.

I shuffled backwards, trying to get away from the girl as I continued to morph. My hand sliced on a broken piece of sharp shiny metal. Blood, a different shade of red than what it should be, flowed down my palm. I snatched up the piece of metal and watching aghast as my head shrunk, and hair sprouted from head, the exact same shade and length as the girl lying in front of me.

I realized what I had done then. I had somehow, someway tapped into what had been a sacred power that had been considered lost. I had merged with the human girl.