The others immediately dropped to their knees and opened fire. We couldn’t see who was firing at us, but we could see where the beams of light originated from.
I heard one scream, then a second, and a third… But each was matched with one of our soldiers falling to enemy fire.
There were too many enemies, too much firepower for us to mount an effective defense.
After less than two minutes, only me and Stari remained.
I expected a bolt of plasma to zip from the mist and catch me between the eyes. My breath rasped in my throat.
So much for trying to save Chax. I doubted I could even save myself.
“Self-destruct has been initiated,” Computer said. “T-Minus three minutes.”
A squad of Changelings stepped from the mist, blasters trained on us.
I thought it was the end.
I thought we were dead for sure.
But they didn’t fire.
Then they came to a stop three yards from us.
And waited.
A silhouette appeared, twice as large as the Changelings.
“Hold your fire,” he said. “We wouldn’t want to hit the star of the show now, would we?”
My insides turned to water and my stomach clenched.
Iron Hoof limped into view.
Stari stiffened. She took aim with her pistol blaster.
She was met by half a dozen Changeling blasters.
“Drop it,” Iron Hoof said. “If you don’t, you both die.”
Stari screwed up her face. She looked about ready to call his bluff and pull the trigger anyway. Then she eased up and lowered it.
“Good decision,” Iron Hoof said.
He grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt and hoisted me up onto my feet.
“You’re both coming with me,” he said. “Control will be very pleased to see you’re still alive. So will the audience. For the time being, at least. They can be very fickle. Maybe Control will let me have a little taste of you both before they make their final plans for you. I imagine it’ll be quite something.”
“Yaaarrrghhh!”
The scream was loud and powerful as Chax stormed from the mist and slammed into Iron Hoof.
I was thrilled to see him, and yet dismayed he might lose his life just to save mine.
The Changeling soldiers shifted target and aimed at Chax. They wouldn’t dare shoot in case they hit their boss.
Chax knocked Iron Hoof off his feet and pulverized him with one blow to the face after another.
“Go!” Chax bellowed at me. “Go! Now!”
There was no way I was leaving him. Not with the enemy surrounding him.
Stari grabbed me and yanked me into the thick mist. I pulled my arm away and moved to help Chax.
“We have to help him fight!” I said.
“We’ll never defeat them all,” Stari said. “And they won’t kill him. They want him for their show. Come with me.”
No. I had to help him.
“I lost him once,” I said. “I won’t lose him again.”
An arm wrapped around my neck, putting me in the sleeper hold. I would pass unconscious in seconds. Stari tightened her grip and hushed calmly in my ear.
My hands and knees went weak. I felt sick to my stomach.
I flailed with my arms, my legs, but Stari was too strong.
I heard the meaty slap of fists on flesh on the other side of the cloud of dust. I wasn’t sure who was winning and who was losing between Chax and the Iron Hoof.
Chax was outnumbered. The chances were, he was the one receiving them.
I felt every blow he received.
All to save me.
My eyes fluttered closed as darkness finally took me.
I veered in and out of consciousness as the soldiers carried my aching body across a vast sea of sand, tinted red by the passing moon.
It took me a moment to recognize where I was—not that I knew exactly where that was. The soldiers were taking me to their “emergency base” where we would develop a plan to counter the Changelings’ earlier attack.
It seemed an impossible mission.
We no longer had access to the tools and machines the Yayora had before. And still, the Changelings had come and defeated them.
It was easy to forget that not so long ago I was on Earth and had no idea about the existence of alien species. Never mind an alien TV show that wanted to use me for their own entertainment, with the end result decided long before I unknowingly stepped in front of their cameras.
And Chax.
Like every Earthling female, I dreamed of getting married one day. I even had a practice marriage to my childhood sweetheart Jamie McAllister at the tender age of eight and a half on the school playground.
Who would have thought my one true love couldn’t be found on Earth but far in the outer reaches of the galaxy?
I spied the starry night sky and was reminded of the time I spent in that fragile attic space of the dilapidated barn. Chax and I made love—real love this time and not the angry aggressive act of our first encounter—and lay on our backs, sated and satisfied. We peered up at the same sky through a hole in the ceiling and held hands, wondering if this was the start of a new beginning for the both of us.
Instead, it signaled the end of that happy time of lovemaking and looking to the future.
He’d been taken prisoner by the Changelings.
And I let it happen.
He never should have thrown himself at Iron Hoof like that. They wanted me, not him.
I felt angry that he threw away his freedom, his own life for mine. I know he did it from a place of love but I still hated him for it.
But the hate couldn’t last. I loved him too much for that.
I needed to help him, to spring him free from whatever new prison they kept him in.
I knew where they would take him. I knew because I used the Changeling’s technology against them.
I knew where their Control Room was.
I knew where they ran their twisted little gameshow from.
But time was running out.
If I wanted to rescue him, I needed to act
