Chapter One
She was trembling in my grasp. Far too weak to try and escape, and from the looks of it she knew she had no where else to go. My grip on her wrist was the only support keeping her legs from collapsing under her weight. Her doll-like face was drenched in sweat and blood that mixed with the tears spilling from her eyes. She was speaking frantically in a language I couldn't understand and yet I knew exactly what she wanted from me. Mercy.
I was the only force keeping her from being captured and put into the hands of a species that'll tear her apart just as they did to me. Use her for everything she's worth then throw her away to find another. There were many things I did during my time as a pilot amongst the stars, and the majority of them I regretted deeply. As I looked into her large, doe-like eyes I saw a chance to for once, doing something against orders, something right.
The guards were approaching my door and I had to make a choice; turn in the alien that crashed landed into our space station, or protect this alien girl that looked at me with eyes that begged for help.
The guards knocked at my door and I released her. She hit the ground with a 'thud' and a breathless gasp. "Hide" I ordered, unsure if she would understand but she did as I told. I opened my door to a salute from the guards. I kept my door partly closed with only enough space for my shoulders so they could not see into my quarters.
"Commander Shiro, we've been ordered to searched these parameters."
"Yes, and I can assure you my quarters are secure" I kept my voice stern and un-bothered. They glanced at one another skeptical of my reluctance. "We are under strict orders to search for the alien, Sir." The one to my right replied, his voice more unsure than their first attempt.
"I've been searching for hours, Let General Smith know I turned you away, and I assume the barracks are locked down and the higher-ups have come up with a 'solution' to the pod collision?"
"Yes Sir, The station has been briefed to believe it was a failed flight test of our newest tech."
"Good, now carry on, I don't want to be disturbed with this anymore" They nodded and I closed my door hearing only a whisper under their breath about how I've changed over the years into a 'Scrooge' of some sort. I could care less what anyone thought of me now, I've devoted my life to better man kind. I've traveled further than any man has every been and seen galaxies only existing in the most complex theories.
But the universe ages you, and I am only a man, a tired man, very tired. I retired from travel three years ago at 24 years old, but I felt twice that age.
I turned to see her lying very still on my floor and I ran to her side. Checking her pulse, I breathed a sigh of relief that she was still alive, although her breathing was very thin. She wore a dress that was almost ripped to shreds, her hair, white as bone look dirty and tangled. I carefully scooped her into my arms and laid her down onto my bed, I needed to treat her wounds before they got worse. If she were human I'm almost positive she'd be dead. She suffered from burns and cuts so deep I was afraid to touch her. I couldn't even fathom the amount of distance she must have traveled to get here.
The first alien Earth has even encountered.
My palms hovered over her shoulders and yet I couldn't bring myself to touch her. I sat back on my heels and dragged my hand across the back of my neck.
What am I doing?
If I was caught with her here the punishment would be severe, I'd loose my status, my benefits, my home. I'd be forced to go back to Earth, or worse. ..ejected into space, left to travel aimlessly. I've worked too hard for this, way too hard! Why shouldn't I give her over? The government will only hide her existence, like we are doing now. They'll probably study her, find out where she came from. Whatever they do with her is not my problem, it shouldn't be. I lead space exploration expeditions, I'm not qualified for this.
"No, I can't," I sat up and tucked my right hand under her neck while my left cupped under her knees. As I began to lift her a whimper escaped her battered lips and I cringed.
Setting her back down I studied her face, preparing myself for the consequences I'd later face. She needed my help, I wasn't going to hand over an innocent regardless if they were human or not. Where ever she came from, she fled for a reason.
I figured out of her courtesy I shouldn't be the one undressing her and tending to her wounds; especially to avoid the possibly of her waking up in the process. I stood and walked over to my computer. Typing in the security code I brought up a private communication link. The loading took longer than usual. Her collision took out the station's main electricity output and wireless connections; I'm thankful for that because that also meant the security cams were blacked out.
"Hello?"
"How fast can you get here?"
"Professor Shiro, The stations' on lock down, I can't find a way ou-"
"Nice try but I'm not an idiot, you students are always sneaking out of the barracks. You more than anyone, knows how to hack into places you shouldn't. Get here fast and unseen."
"Can't get anything past you Sir." She chuckled. "Give me ten minutes."
I ended the call and waited.
-o-
"This is. . .This is dangerous." My brightest student Pidge glanced over her shoulder with worry in her eyes. She turned back to the unbelievable sight of the slumbering alien in disbelief.
"Do you know how much trouble you could be in? Hell, how much trouble we could be in? Thanks for the head's up by the way, I wasn't planning on graduating any time soon."
"Sorry to drag you in, I can't trust anyone else with this. Not yet anyway."
"It's alright, this might be worth it. Failed flight test my ass. ." She adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose as she examined the alien like Dr. Frankenstein building his monster.
"She looks, almost human?" Pidge whispered in surprise. If not for her pointed ears, and pink markings, she would look as far as we could physically see, a female human being.
"What's your plan?" She asked. "We're on a space station, Sooner or later they'll have to find her, where else is she gonna go?"
"I know," I groaned.
"Isn't teaching part of your retirement plan? If you get caught all that's for nothing."
"I'm already aware of that," I replied rubbing my temple trying to fight off a headache.
"And are you also aware we have no idea if she's violent or not? How do we know she wasn't running from some alien government and crash landed here?"
"Pidge."
"Or maybe she's carrying some alien pathogen that we'll catch and all end up dead! Or maybe-"
"Pidge! Just help her Okay. Lets start there."
"Fine Fine." Pidge set down the emergency kit I asked her to bring and I tossed her a black body suit that should fit the alien once she was awake. "I don't think human tools will be much help but let's find out." She began peeling away her tattered clothes and I looked away.
I felt a tap on my shoulder as Pidge announced she was finished; a bag of bloody cloth and gauze in her hand that she tossed in the contamination bin to be burned. I turned to see the alien's chest wrapped in gauze with the bodysuit acting as pants.
"Start finding out what we know about the ship she arrived in, or what species she might be, anything. ." I sighed.
"Sure thing," She placed her hand on my shoulder, "And take it easy. You look beat." She sat on the floor beside my desk and opened her laptop and portable drive she never went anywhere without.
I set my head in my hands and tried to take a small nap to fight this galactic migraine.
A few hours passed and we both began to grow impatient.
"How long are we supposed to wait?" Pidge asked.
"I don't know, when I found her hiding in my room she could barely walk, you saw her wounds. I wouldn't be surprised if she slept the rest of the day."
"Yeah, she looked like she fought in a war." Pidge's eyes lowered. "Apparently she didn't win."
"You find out anything?" I asked.
"Well, I'm looking at the security feed right before her ship hit." Turning the screen towards me I looked to see the footage running frame by frame. "If you look at the shuttle," She tapped the screen to zoom in on the woman inside. "She's not piloting the craft."
"So an autopilot with a predetermined destination. She was sent here? That's makes no sense?"
"Or maybe we she wasn't. She could have been hit off course and we just so happened to get in the way."
"Can you find out where the ship was originally set to land?"
"No, I'd have to get in the ship to do that. And there's no way they're letting anyone in it."
"Not entirely. ." I corrected, "They'll most likely let me examine the ship since I'm the only one whose been further enough into space and studied planets this alien might have come from."
"But you've never found any alien tech? Have you?" Pidge looked up at me with doubtful eyes. I clenched my jaw as she looked up at me with wide eyes. "Shiro."
"There's a lot the government doesn't release to the public." I muttered. I looked away as Pidge's stare burned holes into my face. Her father, a traveler like myself was contained for spilling secrets he shouldn't have. I knew how much Pidge believed her father's talk of aliens was true, and that the reason she studied so hard to be a pilot was to find the secrets he uncovered. Clear his reputation of a scientist gone mad.
He was much braver than I was, I kept my mouth shut; did what I was supposed to. We did find trinkets of tech from other worlds, and our scientists took them, studied them, only to use them for our own benefits.
When they arrested Pidge's father, I kept quiet, something I still deeply regret.
"He was right," She whispered turning back to her computer, her brows furrowed into a hard line. "And they still took him away, he was only doing his job. And now I have the proof I need."
"Pidge." I warned,
"Calm down, I'm not gonna report you. This is bigger than us." She stopped typing, "And I can trust you'll do the right thing for my father. .When the time comes."
Another hour passed when we heard the jolt from the metal hinges of my bed. Pidge jumped out of her slumber beside my desk, adjusting her glasses as if ready to analyze our captive. I stood from my desk staying close to Pidge, my nerves a little on edge. The alien sat up, remaining very still.
Her eyes darted between Pidge and I several times; she was searching for some indication that we were not a threat. I lifted up my palms to her and took a cautious step forward. "What's your name?. . .Where are you from?"
She furrowed her brows at my question and looked down at her chest wrapped in gauze. She released a sudden gasp and a look of urgency spread across her face. She began yelling in that language once again.
"Shiro! If she doesn't quiet down they'll come back!" Pidge held up her com-link and recorded the alien's voice.
"I know! Pidge search up her language or dialect? Something!"
"I already did! The voice scanner can't detect the language!" She grunted, tapping her link furiously. I took another step towards the alien.
"That database is supposed to know every language known to man!"
"Yes Shiro! Keyword being known to man!"
The alien saw the bandages wrapped around her arms and began prying them off. I ran to her and knelt down to her height. "Stop!" I ordered, pulling her hands away from her arms, "You're not healed yet! Please calm down!"
Her petite hands struck my chest like colliding into a brick wall and sent me flying several feet backwards, only to meet an abrupt stop with my back crashing into edge of my desk. "Shit!" Pidge yelled.
"She's stronger than she looks." I grunted, my back radiating pain. "Ahhh!" I sat up hearing a sharp crack in my spine, a small dent now in the thin metal of my desk.
"Please! You have to be quiet if you want us to help you!" Pidge pleaded. "She doesn't understand Pidge" I muttered, slowly standing to my feet.
"Then make her!"
I strode across my room and placed her hands on my face. She stopped cold, shocked by the sensation of my skin against hers. My breath was low and controlled, the beat of my heart as calm as I could make it; I couldn't think of another way to show her there was no reason to fret, other than physically. Being this dangerously close to her I was willing to accept another hit to the chest or anything else she was capable of doing. Completely at her mercy.
I couldn't help but notice her body temperature was scorching hot compared to mine, like holding a medium hot iron directly to the skin.
Her large multi-colored eyes locked onto mine as her frantic breathing subsided. As she gazed into my eyes I became lost in hers; like watching a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colors. I hadn't noticed she leaned forward until her lips pressed against mine. She desperately pushed her face closer; like she was searching for something, like she needed something only I could give her. It caught me so off guard I couldn't find the words to reply to Pidge's bewildered question as the alien woman pulled away.
"Shiro?" Pidge repeated, "What the hell was that?"
I shook my head and stood, taking a few strides back from the alien. Looking over at Pidge I was just as confounded. "I-I don't know," My teeth setting into my bottom lip, remembering the imprint of hers.
"My name. . .Is Princess Allura of Altea. ."
Both of our heads snapped towards that voice almost in disbelieve that it came from her. Pidge threw her hands up in frustration. "So you can speak English?!"
"No she couldn't, what did you just do?" She titled her head, processing my question. "My people are. .adaptive, we can learn another tongue through lip contact."
Pidge and I shot a quick glance of incredulity. "What do you mean by adaptive?" Pidge asked, still a little on edge. She was a lot less human than we initially thought.
Allura looked at Pidge, silently analyzing her features. Suddenly, her smooth Chestnut skin began to fade into the same pale-ish hue that resembled Pidge's skin tone. The pink markings on her face vanished and her hair took the same orange-blonde color.
"O-oh kay that's what you meant." Pidge stammered.
We both looked at each other agreeing it'd be better to just accept what she says. Analyzing something other-worldly would only add to the confusion. Her appearance changed back to her original form and she brushed her fingers over the bandages she had torn-putting them back into place.
"Great, now she knows English and Japanese." Pidge added, sarcastically patting me on the back as I brushed the tips of my fingers over my lips. She walked back to her laptop and continued to search through the stations data. "And Spanish," I shrugged earning an eye roll from Pidge.
Hearing the metal hinges of my bed creak I turned my attention back to the princess.
"Hold on!" I shouted as she stepped off my bed. She fell against my chest and I hooked an arm around her waist. She whined clutching her rib cage, her porcelain face scrunched in pain. "You've been injured very badly, you need to rest." She shook her head, "My wounds should be healed by now,"
Looking at her arm devoid of the minor cuts and bruises she suffered. She was indeed a species that healed faster than humans. "Do you not have healing pods?"
I helped her sit down and crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm afraid not."
Her face suddenly looked very concerned and that's when I realized she'd been this way since she woke up. Alert and analytical; as if she was thinking of multiple things at once, planning for something. She ran her hand across her thigh, feeling the fibers of the body suit she was wearing. She glanced at Pidge working on her laptop then up at me. "How terrible, your technology is ancient."
Pidge scoffed, "Whenever you have some alien upgrade for me, let me know."
"Pidge." I glared, shooting my student a stern look.
"What sector am I in? What planet is this? How long was I asleep?" She cringed, placing her hand on her head as I could imagine was still aching.
"Take it easy," I sat beside her earning a curious look from the princess. "It's been a tough few hours, definitely longer for you. But we're going to sort things out, we're going to help you."
She looked up at me shocked almost as if asking herself what she did to deserve such kindness. "Thank you. .?"
"Shiro." I added.
"Shiro," She repeated.
(Did I borrow the Tamaranean trait of kissing to learn other languages from Star-fire?. . .yes, yes I did. Reviews would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading! :3)