3. Vanessa

Chapter 3

"It's nearly time," a lilting voice said by my ear, and I woke.

I opened my eyes and blinked up at the plate of glass so close to my nose my exhalations coated it with steam, wondering where I was and what had happened to me.

Memories rushed in of the robocops grabbing me, injecting me with something that made me pass out. Vague memories followed that, of them loading me in a vehicle and driving forever, of one of them slinging me over their shoulder and running, leaping over a very tall fence topped with electrified wire. Sirens rang out, lights flashed, but the robocop carrying me kept going. He didn't stop until he approached . . . I frowned.

The spaceship I'd seen on TV—the one heading to Mars?

Nah, that couldn't be right. No one was allowed close to the launchpad unless they were part of the team.

There was no way the robocop had . . . I remembered it carrying me inside something that looked an awful lot like the ship before laying me gently inside a long glass cylinder.

One like the arched glass structure encasing me right now.

"Wake," the melodic voice said in a less soothing voice. "Your new life is about to begin."

Whatever I lay in jostled, and with a hum, the glass overhead slid to the right. Mechanical arms lifted me out of the . . . Yes, when I looked down, I could see it was a pod like the ones the people were supposed to sleep in while the ship took them to Mars.

This . . . I couldn't be one of them. I couldn't be on my way to Mars.

The arms drifted across a long room, carrying me above more pods, each containing a woman dressed in a simple white gown that came to their mid-thigh just like the one I now wore. Where had my top gone? My jeans? The apron I'd worn when I worked in the diner's kitchen?

The women inside the pods were stirring, too, and other metal limbs were lifting them, carrying them in a long row behind me.

"Ahhh!" A woman with long red hair cried out. She struggled inside her pod, but the arms only tightened their grip on her arms and lifted her into the air.

I wanted to kick and flail, but I couldn't make my arms and legs do more than flop.

The mechanical arms flew me out of the pod chamber and down a hall with yellow lights flashing on both sides.

Behind me, the other women were woken as well.

"Fuckin' A," someone shouted. "What's going on?"

Another one whimpered.

Others bellowed, and I heard what sounded like an arm or a leg smacking against the wall.

"Talia? Talia!"

"What's happening, Maggie?" The latter voice quavered, and I made my head move, peering back to see two women with long black hair, one with a braid coiled on top of her head, straining their arms out to reach for each other. They had the same facial bone structure and deep brown eyes. Sisters?

The redhead glared at the arms and thrashed her legs.

A woman at the end of the line with curly blonde hair remained slumped in the mechanical arms' grip, her head lolling.

Wake up,I wanted to shout, but I couldn't make my mouth form the words.Something horrible is happening to us and you need to see.

"Maggie . . ." Talia cried, big fat tears etching down her face. "I'm scared."

"It's going to be okay. I promise."

Did she truly think she could keep a vow like that? I had no clue what was happening, but whatever it was, it wasbad, and we had absolutely no control.

The mechanical arms jerked me around a corner, and I noted a track overhead. They appeared to be carrying us through a spaceship, but this couldn't be real. I must be dreaming. I'd finished my shift, gone home, had a nice glass of wine, and I was asleep on the sofa—the usual for me lately.

The track split at the end of a hall, and each of us was channeled into our own path that ended at a door that swept open before we reached it. Inside, I was deposited inside another cylinder. The arms retracted, and a glass lid slid into place above me. Before I could yelp or try to break free, the wall by my feet exploded outward, revealing an endless night scattered with stars and constellations different than any I'd seen before.

The cylinder plunged down a chute like I was part of a bobsled ride to hell, shooting me out into the darkness. On either side of me, other cylinders like mine, each holding a panic-stricken woman, burst from the silver ship. They flew swiftly in a line behind me toward a planet made up of blue, purple, and splatters of red. I'd taken astronomy as an elective, but nothing in the textbook I'd pored through each night gave me a clue of where I could be.

Terror shot through me. Why couldn't I move? What was happening to me?

Where am I?

Lights flashed as the tube holding me plunged through the planet's outer atmosphere and shot toward the surface. A jerk of my head, the only part of me I could move, showed the other cylinders coasting behind and beside mine.

It was night here, and the stars and two slivery moons—two!—shone down on the planet's surface.

Iwasdreaming. None of this could be happening. No, it wasn't a dream but a nightmare. My scream echoed around me, and breaking free from whatever had restrained me, I clawed at the glass surface overhead, trying to scrape a way through.

Before the pod could smack into the ground, it leveled off, skimming along twenty feet or so about the surface. The other pods holding women split away from mine, heading en masse in another direction. All except one. That one soared somewhere else.

Mountains loomed ahead, and my cylinder flew up over strange, spiky purple trees and dipped down into small valleys covered with tall, stiff golden grasses that barely shifted from the air this pod must be creating.

Its speed slowed as it coasted above stubby trees speckling the slope of a tall mountain. With a screeching whir, it bumped down onto the ground, taking out a few trees that shattered like glass as the pod skimmed along before coming to a jarring stop.

My body kept going, scrunching me into the bottom of the pod.

I screamed again; my voice too shrill for my ears.

The whirring sound ended. Silence echoed with only my ragged breathing and the heavy thud of my heart sounding in my ears.

A hiss rang out, and the top of the pod slid back. Cool air rushed in, making me shiver in the skimpy gown.

At least my body worked. I sat up, clutching the sides and took in a mountain range coated with trees in varying shades of purple. The peaks were golden, a gold similar to what covered the ground around me.

Low thuds grew in volume until they made the cylinder shake. I'd seen enough movies to know that when a person found themselves in a strange world and the ground shook with heavy footsteps, it was a good idea for the main character—who I worried was me—to hide.

A clear open-top pod wasn't going to do a damn thing to protect me.

I scrambled to my knees and bailed over the side of the cylinder, landing hard enough on the rocky soil to knock the wind from my lungs.

More heavy thumps made the ground shake beneath me.

Shit, shit, shit.Get up, Vanessa!

I rose to my feet, clinging to the side of the pod, and peered into the dark world surrounding me.

This . . .

. . . wasn't Earth.

Memories of the robocops flashed through my mind. They'd taken me to . . . the freakin' space station and onto the ship destined for Mars. But this wasn't Mars. I'd seen enough footage on TV to know that planet was red, not gold and purple.

Had they stolen the ship?

They must've.

So . . . So . . . Had I been abducted and sent somewhere else?

"No, Vanessa," I whispered. "This is a dream. Any minute now, you're going to wake up and laugh about this. You can tell Franklin all about it during your next shift at the diner."

Heavy footsteps echoed around me. Something big and alien was approaching. I pressed myself against the side of the pod.

I enjoyed sci-fi romance as much as the next woman. Big peens? Take me to your leader. But whatever the enormous thing stomping toward me was, it would have a peen too big for my body to handle. Dino porn was fun and all that when you read it for the titillation factor, but I wasn't ready to start being the vessel for dino young.

Dream or not, it was time to get out of here.

I tiptoed away from the pod, cursing the stupid gown I now wore and . . . what the hell was I wearing on my feet—slippers?

If this was real (ha, it couldn't be!), I was going to complain to the robocop abduction crew for not dressing me appropriately for an outer space adventure. Like, I needed thick canvas clothing, boots, a helmet with a breathing apparatus in case the air I was sucking in much too fast contained microbes that might kill me.

And the pod needed beautification. A cushion might be nice, folks.

A cave along the side of the mountain caught my eye, and I hurried in that direction. For all I knew, the cave might contain something important. Like food and water. A big boulder to hide behind.

Dino condoms.

The stomps grew louder and more furious, and when they were followed by a roar, I spun around.

It wasn't a dino, but it might as well be.

A ten-foot-tall furry beast that reminded me of the abominable snowman only with purple fur scrambled toward me on all fours, sending stubby, darker purple trees flying and leaving literal tracks in the soft soil. His gaze locked on me, and he tipped his head back, beat his chest with his fists, and roared.

"I don't want to stay in this nightmare any longer," I cried shrilly. "Wake up, Vanessa. Wake the ever-loving, fuck up!"

It wasn't working.

Spinning, I raced for the cave, hoping the big opening was too small for Mr. Abominable. Or that it narrowed inside, and I could wedge myself into a crevasse where he couldn't reach.

At least he wasn't sporting a woody—so far.

Something bellowed from my left. Was Mrs. Abominable slamming her way in this direction with a cast iron frying pan in her hand, ready to smack the Mister for playing with his food?

I wasn't going to wait to find out.

I slipped inside the cave, praying this nightmare didn't contain spiders. Or snakes. Or scurrying creatures in general.

While the beast outside continued galloping in my direction, whoever had bellowed came closer as well, still crying out as if he—or she—was about to challenge the world and come up the victor.

The cave was much too shallow and empty of boulders. What kind of nightmare gave me a crappy cave with no place to hide? If I was eaten, the nightmare would be over. Surely, whoever directed things like this wanted to milk out every bit of satisfaction from my sweat.

"Wake up," I hissed to myself, but my mind wasn't listening. It seemed to like this alien world and the beasts stomping closer.

Another cry rang out, hoarse and guttural. As he was ducking down to scramble into the cave along with me, the beast paused.

Teeth chattering, I looked around for a convenient stepping stool. My bones were going to be plucked. I was going to be stewed for dinner—which I guessed was better than becoming his side piece.

In a blur, a second being barreled into the abominable, engaging him in mortal combat with what looked like a long crystal sword. Make that two swords, one held in each of his enormous fists. They slashed through the air like he was a mythical warrior come to life—dressed in only a loincloth. He had tons of muscles, though I really wasn't caring about that right now.

Not too much. Hey, I was a hot-blooded woman. I'd have to lose my sight to miss something like that.

Since I couldn't run, all I could do was press myself against the damp stone wall and watch the scene unfolding in front of the cave.

The abominable swiped out with his big, meaty claws, and the alien male ducked, gouging forward the beast with his crystal blades. One nicked the monster in the shin, and the creature tipped back his head, bellowing in pain. He didn't waste time but stomped toward the crystal-bearing dude with both paws lashing the air.

With a grunt, the alien dove to the side and rolled, coming up in a crouch. He raced toward the monster, flipping up into the air before reaching it, landing on the creature's thigh. He scaled the monster from there, scrambling up the furry chest to the beast's shoulder, where he clung to its head while the abominable thrashed, trying to dislodge him.

One gouge with a crystal blade, and the furry creature staggered. He swayed and plunged toward the cave, landing face down with a heavy thud, blocking the lower half of the opening.

The alien peeled himself off and stood by the monster's back, panting, before sheathing his blades in a belt on his waist and turning toward me. His glowing teal eyes penetrated the gloom, locking on me cringing against the back wall.

With a grunt, he swaggered toward me as if I was the spoils of war and it was time to do some plundering.

Yelping, I looked around for a way to escape, spying a hole above me, though it appeared too high to jump and grab onto the edge. But I could scale the wall. People did stuff like that all the time. Not me, but there was a first time for everything. I stuffed my right slipper into a small crevasse and stepped up, sliding the tips of my fingers into a crack. My left foot was easily wedged into another fissure, but when I reached up with my left hand to poke my fingers into a hole in the wall, the alien reached me.

He huffed and wrapped a big brawny arm that had to be the size of a leg around my waist. He hauled me off the wall and tossed me over his shoulder.

"Wait. No," I cried, flailing.

He growled a string of guttural grunts punctuated with what sounded like barks, his big palm coming down on my ass.

"Hey, don't!" I squirmed, smacking his rippling, muscular back with my fists. "Let me go. Please."

My voice echoed in the cave as he strode out into the night, the steady pad of his footsteps taking me around the abominable and down the hillside.

The crystal structures I'd seen as the pod coasted above the surface winked below, every color of blue imaginable oozing in rippling waves as if they'd trapped their own version of the northern lights and were in a competition to see who could outshine the rest.

He paused at the top of the hill and released a low call that sounded like "Awww-whoop-whoop-whoop!"

Thunder erupted, and I peered up at the sky, expecting a deluge to add to my kidnapping-by-alien nightmare, but the sky remained clear.

Something moved to our right, the trees swaying as whatever it was rushed through the forest.

Did the abominable have friends?

A creature resembling a crystal triceratops burst from the trees and stomped toward us, its scales glistening deep blue in the moonlight.

It shook its head, the thin, clear blue flaps like enormous ears on either side of its head flopping.

Lowering its head, it bellowed and charged toward us, the long glassy spears jutting from the sides of its jaw thrashing through the air.

Fuck, it was going to kill us.