A/N: I don't own Twilight or the lovely characters. I do own a computer that is on the brink and a unhealthy obsession with the supernatural and science fiction. The inspiration for the title and the story (loosely I may add) is The song by Daughtry called Who's They. Some of the names of the planets and the solar system was inspired by Doctor Who. I don't own those names either. Thanks to my awesome beta… Southern Heifer. Love ya heifer. Now we just need to get our pitchforks and bitchslaps ready for the lovely Queen. Ok Read on. Hope you like it.
Summary:
Bellka (Bella) is stuck working for a queen that she doesn't agree with all because of her intellect. The queen is taking the smarter of the people and forcing them to build weapons for her ultimate goal of taking over the universe. Edward is a space traveler who knows that there is life out there other than Earth his pals Emmett and Jasper are just along for the ride. On one of their exploration missions they crash on Pooshka and Queen Victanya wants to find out all she can from them so she can take over their planet and solar system. Will Edward help Bellka realize that she can change her destiny and will Bellka be willing to follow her heart?
Chapter One:
As I sit at my desk of my little office and stared out the window at the three moons of Pooshka, I couldn't help but wish things were different. If it wasn't for Aliska and Rosaylay, I would run away and never look back. If I did that, though, they would have to sell themselves into slavery or some other less than wholesome profession. However, since I send them my meager pay check each month, for now- they are safe.. See Valtun- our home, is the poorest country on our planet, and I refused to let my sisters become prostitutes. When Queen Victanya took the throne, she forbid the people from traveling to other parts of the country for work unless it was for her benefit. My job as Queen Victanya's technology advisor is to help develop the technology. As a way to improve the plight of our planet, I invented a universal translator so that the people of Pooshka could speak amongst themselves; thus, I was hoping that from this development, prosperity would begin to take hold. That was the idea when I designed it anyways. However, Queen Victanya refused to let everyone have one, only the government officials and anyone that worked in the palace for the queen were privy touse them. If Queen Leaha was still alive things would be so much different.
"Lady Bellka, the Queen would like to see you immediately." Samuhel the queen's personal butler said as he bounded in on all fours. Samuhel was from the Quileute tribe of the Dogania continent. They are half humanoid and half canine in appearance. They can be very shocking at first because their faces have long snouts and droopy ears. They are very friendly and loyal and not fighters that I know of, no one has actually wanted to make them mad. They were Queen Leaha's most loyal and hardworking allies.
"Ok Samuhel." I sighed as I gathered my view pads and prototypes. Queen Victanya wanted me to design a weapon that could be disguised as common everyday item. She's sure that she is going to come under attack. Pooshka is a peaceful planet at the edge of the Whovian solar system. We were explorers until Victanya took over.
I bowed as I entered the throne room and glanced around as I rose. Seated around the queen was Prince Jamys, Victanya's son, and Jessaria the representative from Dogaria.
"Belka, have you gotten any progress made on our project?"
"No milady, everything gets very volatile when trying to condense it." I said as I handed her my view pad that showed explosion after explosion of our prototypes.
"I expected more from you Belka. I'm going to have to put a dead line or something similar to motivate you if something doesn't change soon." The queen sneered.
A cold chill ran down my spine as I bowed again and turned to leave. As I did, I noticed Jessaria looked so sad and torn. What did Victanya have over her head? I shook my head and hurried out to my office.
"How did it go?" My assistant Angrika asked as I walked in the door and slumped down in my chair.
"Great, but if she wants me to make progress she's going to have to stop treating me like a prisoner of war." I growled as I threw the view pad and notes onto the table.
"Does she ever tell you why she's doing this?" She asked.
"No, I wish I knew. If I had my choice I wouldn't be here." I groaned in frustration as I pulled at my hair.
"She has you by the balls too huh?" Angrika muttered.
"Yeah, basically, if I refuse to work for her, my sisters are sold into slavery to pay a debt that no one knew my dad owed. If it even exists. Who knows anymore?" I said as I threw my hands up.
Angrika is here basically for the same reason I am. She created an armor that could only be pierced by validium. The good news is that Validium is rare here; the bad news is that other planets in the Whovian system had access to it. Victanya swore that it wasn't common anywhere outside of Pooshka, and what she says is law whether it's right or wrong. Victanya kept Angrika's father in the dungeon for an attempt on her life, which was supposed to be punishable by law but when she found out what Angrika invented she just keeps him prisoner or rather an insurance policy for Angrika's continued service.
Several hours later and with no progression made, I suggested we turn in for the night. I washed my face and pulled back my long hair off my face and crawled into bed. Just as I was almost asleep I heard a large explosion that shook the castle. I heard shouting and barking so I jumped up and ran out the door running in to Jakob in the process.
"What's going on? What was that?" I asked as I helped him up. Jakob was the only dogarian that I knew who chose to walk on two legs instead of four.
"A rocket crashed just over the mountains." He rushed out as he ran down the hall. "I saw it falling from my window."
"Is it one of ours?" I asked stupidly.
"No, it didn't look like ours. It was sleeker and not as flashy."
"You could tell all this from the window?" I asked surprised
"Dogarians have super sight." He stated.
As I followed him I noticed the medics were rushing to the mountain in their vans and all I could think of was I hoped that there was survivors. Queen Leaha had perfected our space travel program but I wasn't lucky enough to leave the planet.
Our beliefs had taught us that we were alone but I believed we weren't alone .Queen Leaha proved we weren't with her multiple space trips. I contemplated my beliefs and watched as the medics vehicles floated off the ground and over the Nickos mountains and disappeared over the other side.
Ben, one of the royal guards stepped in front of the growing crowd asking us to all go back inside and back to bed, he claimed there was nothing more to see.
A couple days later Samuhel was again entering my office telling me of the Queen's urgent request to see me.
"Bellka, you have two months to get a working model of the weapon to me or your sisters will be beheaded. I also need you to go down to the hospital and work with the doctors to get our translators adapted. Breath a word of what you see down there to no one or you will lose your pretty little head. Got it?"
"Yes, milady." I said as I bowed and followed Ben to the hospital, only stopping by my office to grab my equipment bag making sure I had extra translators and parts.
"So Ben, what's going on?" I asked him as we walked down the long corridors to the Queen's personal hospital.
"You'll see when we get there."
Soon we arrived at the door to the hospital wing, which now there were armed guards at the entrance and even more had stationed inside.
"Bellka Swansong here per the Queen's request." I stated to the guard at the door of the examining room. I stood there glancing around as the guard checked his orders and noticed more security than anywhere else on the planet. Could this have anything to do with the rocket crash from earlier this week?
"Very well, sign here saying you won't speak of anything you see here."
I signed papers and was ushered through the doors into a room that usually housed several sick at one time. I glanced around and my eyes fell on three forms that looked like us except for their relatively darker skin and pointless ears. You see Pooskians are very pale in color, except for the Dogarians and the Catatonians, and our ears have sharp points at the top. Our eyes are all pale blue except for those of royal blood and me. My eyes are brown like mud.
These aliens looked to be male. There was one that was massive in size, he easily out-sized Jakob. The other two was very slim but still muscular. One had hair the color of of the sun and pale blue eyes. The one that was making the noise had hair the golden coppery color of the sunsets over the mountains and eyes the color of the grass by the rivers back in Valtun. We just had one problem our translators didn't recognize their language patterns and they couldn't understand us. That explained the pained and frightened look on their faces. The green eyed one noticed me and stopped making noises and just stared before he started up again, this time his noise was directed at me. I glanced over at Doctor Persia, and she motioned for me to join her in her office. I followed the cat like creature in awe at what I had just seen. You see Doctor Persia was from Catatonia and was half humanoid and half feline. They were inclined towards medicine and made up all of our medical staff.
"Bellka, they seem to be saying the same thing over and over again. I wish I knew what it was, so I could help them more than I have."
"That's why Queen Victanya sent me Doctor Persia. I'm going to try and adapt the translators so that hopefully we can understand them." I answered as the Queen sauntered in.
"Doctor Persia, Bellka, glad you are in one spot. How's your first project coming along?" the Queen asked in a sickly sweet voice knowing good and well I haven't been able to even look at it since I spoke with her over an hour ago.
"We are getting closer, but I'll need a little more time depending on how long it takes me to adapt the translators."
"Very well, I'll give you another month. Do not under any circumstance give those aliens translators. I want to understand them but not the other way around. Do you understand?"
"But if you want to question them, milady, they are going to have to have their own translators." Doctor Persia stated.
"Not true. They don't have to have translators for that. The questioners' translators will translate the questions in to the answerers' language and back again when the response is given." I explained to the doctor.
"Any progress yet, Bellka?" The queen asked again.
"No milady, I just got here."
"I want this done like yesterday."
"Yes my Queen." I said to her retreating form.
I walked out to the alien patients and sat on the stool facing them. I opened my tool kit and took apart my translator on my wrist and started adjusting the dials inside. The trio looked at me finally silent. For this to work they really needed to continue talking. I pointed to the green eyed one and motioned for him to continue talking.
Several hours later I finally found a setting that worked for us all.
"Hi, I'm Bellka." I said for the hundredth thousandth time.
"Hi Bella, I'm Edwardiar."
"Hi Edwardair, it's Bellka."
"That's what I said, Bella."
Ok, so it wasn't perfect but that was the beauty of our translators. Once they had the pattern they would continue to adapt more as it heard the language.
"Edwardair, who are your friends?" I asked
"Jasperd and Emmetash."
"Nice to meet you. Where are you from?"
"Earth."