Sci Fi Story Exerpt -- Altered: displaced.exe

Hey Readers, so I'm tackling something big. This has been in the works for years now (literal years) and what was once just a really odd dream about an alien abduction has become a full-fledged Sci Fi novel concept. So I want to share a small piece of it here, sans context, for your unique enjoyment. Cheers! 

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It could have been three years or three days. In the haze of fear that had latched onto her conscious mind, Clover wouldn’t have been able to tell. The cargo hold that they’d tossed her into was nearly empty, only a few crates stacked in the middle and some long, metal poles suspended in the mesh netting over the ceiling.

After her first hour of choked sobbing in the corner behind the crates, she’d rallied enough to explore the space for any kind of weakness or escape. Finding none, she’d hauled herself up into the netting to find some semblance of comfort to sleep.

The loud, clanging noise is what roused her from the tenuous grasp she had on slumber. Clanging and...the pinging of holes being made into metal walls. Either a fight had broken out among the Brakanorn or someone was attacking the ship, and they’d already boarded.

Clover rubbed the sleep from her eyes and carefully rolled across the mesh net until she was concealed in the darkest corner of the hold. She settled on her stomach, feet and fingers braced beneath her, and peered down as the double doors slid open.

The being that entered could only be described as...red. A long, crimson coat adorned a tall and lithe figure. The lapel of the trench-style jacket was rimmed in a soft looking cream fur. But their hair….the flaming bright color that brushed against their shoulders could not have been natural. Certainly not on Earth, Clover mused.

Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as the decidedly male figure moved fully into the cargo hold, slowly aiming a small, black handgun into each dark corner. His face was concealed by dark goggles and a black bandana. When he was nearly below her, she realized with some shock that the gun was his hand….

And now it was aiming at her. “Found you.”

The voice that broke through the palpitating of her heart was playful, a lilting song-like quality that immediately set her even more on edge. She edge backwards, catching her foot in the netting. A harsh gasp escaped from her chest.

The man pulled his bandana down to reveal a wide mouth set into a lazy smirk. The goggles followed and wicked red eyes flashed back up to hers. Clover stilled as he aimed his gun hand more steadily in her direction.

“Climb down from there,” he commanded. “Slowly now. Or I’m gonna shoot ya.”

“Maybe I want you to shoot me.” The moment the words left her mouth, her heart stopped. What in the world had possessed her to utter something like that to a crazy person with a gun? She used to be rational, smart, self-preserving.

If anything, the man’s grin widened. “And maybe I want you to come down. Then I’ll consider what you want.”

That was what did it, she was certain. His devil-may-care attitude, the relaxed set of his shoulders, the cheshire cat grin. She just couldn’t resist tossing him some snark back.

“I’d love to accommodate you, but I appear to be stuck.” She wiggled her foot for emphasis, which was indeed quite tangled up in the netting. The smirk fell off his face and he watched her carefully for a moment.

Then he shrugged, the fur of his coat rustling against his long hair. Clover watched in rapt fascination as his left arm clicked and shifted to situate humanoid black fingers where the gun had been. With a huff, he reached down into his boot and pulled out a blade. “You kick me in the head, I cut off your foot. Deal?”

Clover nodded vigorously and the blade snicked cleanly through the netting, releasing her foot - which she carefully pulled close to her body. But he wasn’t finished, another few swipes at the net and she came tumbling down. He caught her around the middle with his other arm and set her unsteadily on her feet.

He snorted. “You’re just a girl.”

A wave of nausea and dizziness washed over her, and she steadied herself against a tall crate. “What did you think I was? One of them!?”

He loomed over her. “No, you’re definitely not one of them.” He pulled a comm off his belt and pressed down on the button, “I found her Captain. The prince is gonna be real pleased to find his pet’s in one piece.”

“I’m no one’s pet,” she grumbled. “Who are you? What is all this?”

 

Sly grin firmly back in place, he gazed down at her with those unnerving red eyes. “It’s a rescue, girly.”