Chapter 3

Lucian and his lovers were lying on cold, hard floor; talking animatedly; they did not seem to mind as their bodies accustomed to the cold surface, their thoughts drifted further and further away. Lucian was still feeling Liza’s teeth on the head of his member, dazed by the dull pain, he would momentarily come back when one of the girls would kiss his neck; gently dissuading any pain from coming back; both of them could only imagine how he felt. Both women had adoration in their eyes and for some reason he felt at ease with both of them. Gazing longingly into each of their eyes he wondered what he did to deserve this amount of good luck. He proceeded to wonder what happened to him during those 3 years, but managed to bury his dark fears.

Unceremoniously peeling off from both women then kissing them both for few minutes he stood up grabbing both of them with ease and gently placing them on their feet. Even though they did not consummate their apparent feelings, he was more than happy to see that these two women were so happy. Past could wait as present was calling out to him.

Liza’s eyes were full of compassion as she said, “I’m very sorry about doing that, I’m still very inexperienced. I hope I did not hurt you.” Again she hid two of her arms.

He shook his head taking her in his embrace kissing her lips gently, gently holding her by her neck and spending few delicious minutes practicing their kisses. Finally releasing her and staring deep in her eyes, he said “Never mind that. Our second time will be a lot better.”

Ericha smiled and took Liza’s hand, “See, he’s a real gentleman.”

Both women shared a smile while they moved and hugged him for few moments, leaving Lucian to forget about his past and only focus on this moment. Present-day is deliciously sweet. He thought.

After several blissful moments that seem to end way too soon they peeled off as Ericha said, “We have other duties to attend to, but we will be back soon, make sure you are well rested.”

Leaving him behind, she turned her luscious body and winked in his direction, taking Liza with her, finally leaving him anxiously waiting for their next meet up.

Taking few moments to tally the day he forgot the last time he thought of his home. Usually he would be interrupted by his rehab, practice with Liza or talking to Luca. Both people made his stay on an alien planet much more rational and bearable. He had moments of severe melancholy when he thought of various things, the way he lost 3 of his years. The worst thing was that he could not remember, no matter how hard he tried. It was one day; he was down on earth running a raid on tactically placed environmental boss, minding his own business, true, bunch of aliens bent on apparent galactic enslavement waltzed in and took him and bunch of his people into slave colonies and the next day he was on board of a transport flying his way through the stars. Sure, there was the little thing about aliens appearing from the skies, apparently kidnaping him, but hey, at least he met aliens.

*See, silver lining already found.” Again he thought.

His parents’ haven’t seen or heard from him in three years, he wondered, Lucian desperately wanted to know if they kept the hope alive, if they thought he was somewhere out there. Or have they written him off. Three or four days of mourning before business as usual. He snarled. Sudden burst of anger as he threw a white-green pad at the wall with all his might.

“Damn them!” Exclaiming he caught himself in an unusual burst of dark emotions.

Suddenly he felt embarrassed; how long has it been since he threw a temper tantrum. Not since primary school. Hopping that no one had seen him during one of his low points. Suddenly he felt an unusual wave of tiredness wash over him, he was now desperately searching for anywhere to lie down before he passed out.

Moving toward the bed he had one of his moments thanking everyone that he could remember. Slowly the anger drained him of energy. Again, while attempting to sleep he thought of home. While he was angry that his family might have moved on, he was now thinking what if they were enslaved, like he was. He thought of his mom, dad, brother and sister. What did happen to them? Are they safe?

Previous ecstatic atmosphere was pushed away, slowly replaced by the grim and sobering reality. He clutched his pillow, tears formed on his face praying that his family was safe.

As he woke from his sleep he noticed that the day had already started its drift toward evening, throwing a look at the clock he noticed that he slept an entire day away. Stretching his arms and knowingly enjoying the fresh new round of energy that was coursing through his body he managed to make few wise conclusions.

The day before he was too tired to notice how his lovers were behaving and hoped that it was not some sort of tired mirage. No man should be this lucky. Lucian noticed his body odor and moved with pep in his step through his room and into the bathroom.

After his much needed shower, he noticed that he did not meet with either Ericha or Liza. Strangely he missed them immensely and felt a profound emptiness in his soul. Like they were permanently gone. But that would be ridiculous. Right?

Turning off the shower, grabbing a towel from nearby rack he managed not to run to the door and out of the room screaming for their names, pausing in front of the bathroom mirror and saying, “They should be fine.”

Managing to calm himself by saying those words, what the fuck was that? Panic attack? he slowly thought.

Uncharacteristic round of emotions for people that he knew only for few weeks. It was weird, as nauseating panic soon ebbed, knowing what he felt; he was embarrassed that he would feel this way, people back home would sneer at his strange display of worry and emotions for girls he met just moments before. Sure there was ‘love’ but for most people back on earth, especially men in mid-20’s, as he knew few souls that romped the night away and never dealt with a woman again, leaving her for another round of morally deplorable fucking. At least in his mind’s eye.

His parents did give him great guidance about how to treat women. With kindness and respect. He never felt sorry about himself when women used him to get back at those kinds of men, sure, there was not a single iota of sex involved as he thought that was their spiteful attack at all the men that wrong them. He understood the finer nuances about dating, treat them as you wanted to be treated; he chuckled that a man almost 2000 years knew how to treat human beings, and yet with all of our modern tech we couldn’t even spare an emotion for those in need.

Oh how his friends would sneer if they saw him, and his love for these wonderful women. He smiled at his image, thanking his doting parents for great guidance. Again pausing to let hope wash away, they should be fine.

Staring into the mirror he evaluated himself for the first time in few days. It was not a narcissistic view of someone’s body, but that of awe and mystery. Only few weeks ago he saw his degraded image and crumbled down, almost lost his mind while Ericha took steps to ensure that his mind would remain intact. His grotesque scars healed in record time with excessive help from futuristic medicine, but still he could feel them under his skin. He voiced few concerns with Liza and his doctor, but they firmly stated that it was to be expected as his mind needed time to overcome the trauma of what he saw.

“Lucian?” He heard voice of Luca Prom calling out for him behind closed doors of the bathroom.

“In here.” Lucian answered.

Opening the doors and drying his hair he said, “Sorry I desperately needed a shower, slept all day.”

“I need to have a chat with you, please.” Examiner Luca started grimly making Lucian’s heart leap few beats in fear of what’s about to be presented to him.

Lucian slowly sat on his bed looking straight at Luca’s eyes. “Sure, what’s up?!”

“How do you feel?!” Luca’s voice was even.

“About what?” Lucian asked.

“I think you know what I want to talk about.” Luca’s voice remained calm, there was no hint of this being a silly prank.

“I have no idea, Luca. I suggest you stop beating around the bush and tell me what you want.” He managed not to sound too cold.

Sighing he said, “You are on an alien world, far from your home. And by all our knowledge, your world is such that we know that it has no Drive and is basically in its modern infancy. You saw first aliens just few years ago, sorry, day’s ago. We still do not know why you lost your memory. That should never happen. None of other slaves have memory loss. So we suspect few things, and yes I’ll keep them to myself, for now.”

Taking a deep breath, he continued “You do not know about your family’s safety. So I was just asking; how does all of this make you feel.”

Lucian took a long look of the man that stood before him, he managed to remain calm when he said “I’m scared, lonely and confused. I’ve been here not even a month and I met 2 amazing women. I want to go home, but I do not want to leave them behind.”

Tears started to appear in Lucian’s eyes, he managed to choke out “I want to be strong and heroic. But fuck me I can’t. What did I do to deserve this?”

“I just want out.” He finally broke down and started slowly weeping.

Lucian was afraid of condemnation, but found Luca to be surprisingly sympathetic. Luca moved toward him and grabbed Lucian by his shoulders, “It’s understandable that you would feel that way, I can’t pretend to know how you feel right now, but I can promise to help you however I can.”

There were several long moments of silence. After some time there was a soft chime on the door.

“Sir, we are prepared to leave.” A man in his 20’s stared at Lucian as he entered, a sad look crossed his face.

“I’ll be right there. Tell the pilot we will bring guests.” Luca said.

“Yes sir.” The man said, saluted and left.

Lucian was staring at the departing man. “Why would he salute you? Aren’t you just a medical officer?”

“That’s need to know. And you do not need to know.” He cackled loudly. “On a serious note, HyduN division is essential in Star Republic the men and women we recruit, aim to become the best healers in the Republic. Moving around the combat field and even on ship itself is something that these people will learn to do, a good medical healer is irreplaceable.” He explained.

“Weird that you keep calling them healers.” Observed Lucian.

“What do you mean?” Luca asked

Lucian took a deep breath, but inwardly he was feeling butterflies in his stomach. He was actually asked to explain something, “Well the healers I know of use fantastical abilities that aim to restore his allies’ health.”

Luca looked intrigued, “What do you mean ‘fantastical abilities’?”

Lucian stood perplexed. How to explain something that’s derived from fantasy in a different world and in a short amount of time, he took a deep breath and hoped his own explanation would suffice for now, “Well for one in gaming, healers usually use light or nature powers to cast healing spells on other...” He abruptly stopped as he saw the look on Luca’s face.

Breathlesly Luca simply said, “Well I’ll be damned. Listen, 10 000 years ago our people were living nomadic lifestyles, wondered our world, they were essentially roaming the plains that had only the next meal on their minds. People do get hurt and during that time healers would wonder around entering villages and offering to heal people. The name did not change. What we do today would probably look like some sort of magic spell to them. And to your people.”

He took another look at Lucian and said, “Many people experiment with dark arts, what we call them, your world too has some taboos that normal healers dared not to cross. But there are always others. So there are probably something that we do not understand or our brain would grab the closest thing we are familiar with.”

After Luca got his breath back he said, “Let’s go we will take you back to your home.”

Luca said that with finality, taking confused Lucian by his arm and guided him through the door.

Lucian stopped for few moments, “Why would you... ?”

Taking one long look at him Luca begun explaining, “You aren’t the only one that wanted to know why you can’t remember anything. There might be many reasons, but for now let’s say we do not know. As we worked on your body these past few weeks, we also worked with your mind.”

Lucian saw Luca go silent and start walking so he stopped him by saying, “And? Did you find anything?”

“Yes, and no.” Luca’s answer was brusque, he did not want to go into details for some reason and Lucian started to feel rage boiling in him again.

Managing to collect himself he suppressed the rage by asking, “Tell me!”

“What we found is that your mind has traces of tampering, but as our scans can’t tell precisely of what we will go and see someone that can do it unobstructed.” Luca said with finality which in turn relaxed Lucian.

Both men started to walk and Luca stopped to open the door for Lucian. Outside he surprisingly found Ericha and Liza standing and waiting for someone, he hoped that he was the lucky man. His hopes were answered when both women waved at him with smiles lighting their faces.

“We will come with you.” Ericha said.

“But, what about your...”

“I got bunch of time off and my superiors approved of this temporary leave of absence.” She interrupted him with a giant grin on her face.

Lucian glanced at Liza and her purple face lighted with a giant smile, “I’m still a student here so you, my love, can take me wherever you want. I can continue my classes from wherever I want.”

Lucian nodded, finally hugging both women as his eyes moistened at the gentle loving touch of his two companions. They eventually separated; each of the women took one of his hands and they started the long walk towards the waiting shuttle.

While they walked Lucian noticed that there weren’t many people outside at this time of the day, few men in what it seemed police outfits took rounds and scouted the premises for any sign of someone that should not be there. Probably.

Lucian immediately took comparison to his time in college when uniformed guards would take turns and walk around campus. Shuttle was standing idly by, when they approached, he could see that it was standing on a something that reminded him a lot of art canvas, white and propped by unusually designed metal. Climbing few steps they reached the Shuttle itself.

Entering the shuttle Lucian was, to any outside observer, calm, cool and collected. But in reality he was bundle of nervousness and he anxiously waited to enter the craft. Lucian, for the first time saw the interior of the shuttle in all of its glory. The size of the craft was not as large as he initially thought. He did not remember much when he was carried weak and wounded, his head was covered and obviously he saw nothing of the interior.

Six seats were neatly arranged just beside the door. Placed in such a way that the 4 seats were facing each other. He could see that 2 of the seats were divided by a path that person could walk through. Those two seats faced the opened door that he just came through. Two dark bulk heads were behind and in front of the seats. There was plenty of room for them to walk around and when he moved through the aisle to his seat just beside the opened door he could clearly see doors on either end of the shuttle, just where the bulk heads were situated. Seeing people in the front part of the craft he correctly assumed that they were pilots and preparing for launch.

Ericha took the free seat beside him, while Liza took the seat right in front of him. As Luca glided past them and with another man sat in the seats that faced towards Lucian and the door. His stare was emotionless as Lucian wondered is he in any kind of trouble. Thinking that the Luca’s behavior was strange. Indeed.

They started to take off and suddenly he felt scared. He started imagining many horrid events that might have befallen his home planet. He imagined Earth in bunch of rock clusters. Too small for anything to survive. But still carrying his old home in its wake. Debris were not empty soulless husks, as he could still remember the pictures that astronauts took of his home. His hopes were non-existent, the visions were horrid and Lucian could vividly see their trajectory. As they were alive. Such were his dark thoughts.

Slowly he drifted into worried sleep.

He was nudged by Ericha’s arm.

Thinking that she was about to show him some of the sights he was surprised to see her unbuckling and standing up on her feet.

She smiled, “We arrived sleepy head.”

“Already?!” Surprised by the speed of the small craft.

“Yes. What did you think it would happen?” Ericha asked smiling.

“I do not know. A good sightseeing flight.” Lucian answered.

“Pilots usually just zip through. We will see the sights, if you want, after you see your family.” Her voice suddenly became quiet.

“If you decide to come back with us.” Ericha silently said.

Lucian did not know what to say. Could he lie to the woman and reassure her? It went against everything that he stood for, and he stood for many things. Many of them were unimportant for everyday living, but some could be applied to this situation.

No. He decided not to make any false promises. He just nodded and looked at the woman with sad eyes.

Ericha led Lucian and Liza out of the shuttle and onto a large deck, turning towards him she said.

“Welcome to Star Republic home station Grimova.”

Grimova was positively brimming with life. Lucian could see various different species of aliens moving about and doing their daily duties. With corner of his eye he saw a strange four legged creature that was standing near their shuttle. Attracted by its doglike features he was amused how something so simple could remind him of home, the very mug of this creature reminded him of his own dog back on Earth. The mutt will probably be ecstatic after he was away from her for so long. Thinking he should get her a chew toy just to say sorry. But he did not know if this place even had chew toys for dogs from Earth.

Though this creature was twice the size as his own dachshund. Widely grinning he approached and kneeled petting the catatonic creature. Thick purple skin was nothing like his pet’s, eyes’ almost reminded him that of humans, almost radiating intelligence that he was unaccustomed seeing in animals. Although unusually calm on the front part his back side was telling another story.

The dog’s behind was happy getting petted, scratched and hugged by Lucian’s dexterous and nimble hands. Lucian was for a moment surprised and scared when a large, dexterous tongue appeared from its mouth and slobbered all over Lucian’s face. Dog - like creature jumped on him wagging its tail, no, it was wagging his entire rear end. Lucian happily giggled and tried to calm down the ecstatic creature.

“I ‘ould stop if I ‘ere you.” A gravelly voice warned him behind his back.

“You don’t know dog’s like I do. I own a similar one.” A little bit overconfident, Lucian was confused and did not understand the voice at first, moments later the giddy creature jumped in the air into Lucian’s open arms. The voice behind him said, “Don’t say I didn’t ‘arn ya.”

Lucian had no time to react as he saw an open maw coming towards his head. Moment later entire area of the station erupted in joyous laughs. Lucian thought he would feel pain. There was no pain, heck there were no teeth in its mouth. Mostly saliva from the creature’s mouth. Lucian stood up so the animal would let him go but the thing stayed tightly clamped on his head.

There were chorus of laughs and giggles from people that were around the ship, including Liza and Ericha; hearing their joyous voices put him at ease. But it did not help that he was getting drenched in this mutt’s saliva.

Poking it with his finger he tried to get it off his head, but only managed to make the crowd laugh harder. Eventually it relented and released Lucian from its ‘deadly’ grasp. Breathing out with all of his might Lucian was glad he did not wear the dog as a hat for his entire life. Eventually chuckling to his own silly adventure.

Grabbing both of his arms, the girls led him away from the catatonic creature. Since it spent so much time in the grasps of such activities the creature just remained standing, its unblinking stare glued to the departing group of people, evaluating the worth of their lives with his probing scrutiny.

The three people were inspecting various stalls that had many goods that Lucian had never seen. Animated plants, various materials, animals that came from ones deepest nightmares. Reverent space bazar. ‘What you think of, we probably have it.’

“How does it look?” Ericha asked.

“It’s pretty overwhelming. I’ve never seen items and people around here.” Lucian answered.

Liza was inspecting bunch of items on a nearby stall that contained something that reminded Lucian of plants; considering the surroundings he was in, Lucian was sure he would never correctly guess what the stall actually contained.

“This is one of 3 biggest trade hubs in this sector. It helps being around our Star Republics Capital planet we get most of the trades that various species around want to sell.” Ericha slowly explained.

Liza brought back with her 3 long green stalks of something smelling really good. The smell reminded Lucian of citrus. Lemon and orange zest. He made sure to watch the girls how they ate their own pieces, and after they started nibbling on the top of the stalks he too started to eat his.

“Yuck. This tastes like shit.” He exclaimed after taking a large bite of his own.

Two girls were laughing cutely, “Hahahaha. You actually started eating.”

“It’s not like I know how to eat it.” He grunted at their mischief, still eating the chunk of plant in his mouth.

“Sorry. I could not stop myself from pranking you. It’s called linola. Usually you cook it then serve it.” She said.

Lucian smiled and started nibbling again. Liza pouted saying, “Hey, I thought it’s disgusting.”

“Yeah it is, but now the taste kind of grown on me.” Lucian shrugged.

“By the way. Are we going back to the shuttle?” He asked.

Snapping her fingers Ericha said, “You’ll see. This is not just a trade hub. For a limited time only it’s where our taxi will be waiting for.”

“Um, taxi?” Walking through crowds of people all three people linked their arms together and moved extremely easily.

“It’s a surprise. No more talk of it.” Ericha said.

“Ok.” While saying it Lucian shrugged his shoulders, while the faces of his parents were on his mind.

“I know my love. I can only imagine what you are experiencing.” Liza dropped her head.

They were silent for couple of minutes. Lucian mulled over what he could say. What he should say to this sad alien woman, he decided to be silent and just live in the moment. He gently hugged this woman that was leaving everything for him, for few weeks at least.

Ericha and Lucian both shared a look. Ericha was now too in the group hug and comforting Liza with her whispers. The hug was in the middle of the bazar making the people that were around them walk by them and gaze at the emotional display.

“Come on, our taxi is waiting for us.” Ericha quietly said.

The group came to a spot that overlooked a bunch of docked ships of all sizes. The hub was massive, which confused Lucian as they walked for a long time; imagining they walked around the station. Apparently not even 40% of the structure, as the mammoth proportions of the station itself was before Lucian. They stepped on a motionless floor pad and in minutes they arrived at what he thought was top, but very soon he saw they were in the belly of the beast.

“Woah! This is nuts.” Lucian exclaimed.

He was ecstatic as he gazed at mammoth proportions of docked ships. There were all kinds and shapes. And he could only smile as he felt giant butterflies in his stomach at the unusual sight. Being a massive Sci-fi fan it did not help his mounting happiness.

“Yeah. I had the very same reaction first time I was here.” Liza said.

Ericha nodded as well and continued saying instead of her lover, “Most people never see this as the main hub is for shuttle service and whatever shopping you have to do, ideally you never walk in here unless you want something major to buy or trade off.”

“Are you kidding? My people never see this unless it’s on TV or on a book cover. I think I’m dreaming.” A giant happy tear formed on his face.

“Are you crying?” Ericha teased.

Sniffling and nodding he said, “Who would not cry at this. Most men only cry at very happy or sad moments. This is one for the album. If I wasn’t so conflicted inside I’d say this would be my happiest moment ever.”

“I’m happy we provided you with that.” Liza said.

Lucian could only hug them both and smile at his good fortune. Starting to walk towards the moored ships they eventually came to another, special, hangar bay and it contained something even more exciting. He thought that it was pretty evident that this one was given some sort of special attention as it was secluded from others and fairly decently guarded. He could count at least 10 guards around the very entrance to the bay. He presumed that there were more inside. They were moving too slow for Lucian. He desperately wanted to see what it was inside desperately in need of so much security.

He begun to trot and to the delight of the two girls he managed not to get stopped by the guards that ogled them with their eyes. What he saw next took monumental resolve not to just scream like a giddy schoolgirl. As he yelled out to the giggling girls, “BEST DAY EVER.”

He came towards big white ship that had elaborate designs. At the top of the bow of this amazing white ship hull was neatly bent into an elaborate shape and its bottom had protruding edge that extended few dozen feet. Remiding him of bulbous bow’s of ships that treaded water and used it as a device to direct waves around the ship. But he knew that there are no waves in space. Right? The ship was not big, it was massive. It took him a good 2 minutes to get to its stern, as he thought it would be called. And he saw four enormous engines mounted and waiting to release its potent strength. He was almost reminded of drag racers, but as few of them had massive engines to provide the much needed power, this ship was amazingly designed, allowing its engines to practically disappear with its body. The size of the ship was taking most of the space in the docking area. The ship itself was long, elegant and appeared archaic. It reminded Lucian of Viking ships. But where the deck would usually be the ship just continued and everything was hidden neatly in the belly of the beast.

“Welcome to ‘God of War’. Our home for some time.” Ericha behind him said.

Lucian was still mesmerized by the size of the ship. Most of his friends would kill for this opportunity. A nerd’s greatest desire.

“I’ve dreamt of seeing a ship capable of interstellar travel. My God someone pinch me I must be dreaming.” Lucian exclaimed.

“OUCH.” He exclaimed as two women pinched the cheeks ass.

Dark figure was stalking down dimly lit corridors, making sure no surprises were waiting for it, sniffing silently, moving deftly it already did most of the work that needed to be done. Slowly it opened the squeaky doors. It revealed the messy room as its practiced movements managed to engage the projector, informing it where and how the rest of the people moved. While it seemed that people simply disappeared, it was not so, few beeps showed people scrambling around and leave in a hurry as their meals were still warm to its touch. The holo - image showed them jump off to the dark corridors. As it would save them. The holo-projector suddenly stopped. To know where they went it started sniffing the air. Slowly the information in the air told what it needed to know. They went down.

Down it went.

Following the scent and the stairs it was moving fast, like the wind, flipping over extra stairs and managing to slow it’s movements by kicking the wall where it left its imprint, eventually it found large metal doors. Sensing, smelling people behind them it started prying them open. The scent was too alluring for it to stop, as its fingers peeled off the pliant metal. In seconds the doors flew open from its hinges and eventually ended crashing several meters behind it. They could not look as it slowly prayed to them, both clutching each other praying for their lives.

Final thoughts that both people had was of love. They both saw each other dying. Ending up caressing the other’s face, affectionately smiling to one another.

Final two lives were snuffed out as it relaxed, muscles and tendons were aching as it used unusual amount of energy for the deeds. Crouching down it sensed something coming from far away. It turned and started running again. Muscles working its magic, making the eerie figure move with grace and dexterity.