Ethereal Lives: A Romantic Sci-Fi Novel

Chapter 12

Ax's footsteps echoed along the corridor as he chased Ariane, but she was determined to reach the control room before he caught her. For some reason, he didn't want her to see what a Vestor was. It just made her even more curious. He didn't act like she might fear them. His demeanour had seemed more like embarrassment.

Racing through the door, she ran into the centre of the room and bent over, panting. She rested her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

The room fell silent except for the constant background beeping of machines. She raised her head then stood straighter in astonishment. The laugh that escaped her came out loud and not at all ladylike.

Moving slowly, she did a full circle around the room, taking in all their appearances while laughing and giggling at each of them.

"Ax," Sek said menacingly.

Ariane turned to face him and pointed while wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "Oh, you're the best. I mean the others are a laugh, but you-"

Sek took a few steps towards her. She knew she should be scared, he was obviously furious. But, the sight of him was just too funny. An amazon's body with his head on top, the sight was comical. What made it worse was the state of his head. It had his face but the nose now tilted at an odd angle with missing teeth and a receding hairline. He was the ugliest beauty she had ever seen.

"Oh wow," she managed to say between gasps.

She suddenly found herself staring at Ax's back as he placed himself between her and Sek.

"Now calm down Sek," He held his hands up in a placating gesture. The effect got ruined when she peeked around him and burst into laughter once more.

Sek growled. "I'm warning you Ax, get your woman under control before I do it for you."

"Oh, calm down," Ariane chuckled. "I'm going back to my quarters. See you later, ladies."

With another laugh she strolled from the room, taking one final look around as she went. This had to be the most enjoyable experience so far. Someone was having a great laugh when they invented that species.

Entering her quarters, she got comfortable on the bed and grabbed her PD. It was hard to believe how many wonderful things were in the universe that she never knew about before. The human race had been greatly behind the times. It was easy to see why the G.O.D.S thought they were expendable. She had one question burning in her mind, though. What was Ax?

So far she'd seen him take the shape of three separate beings, but she had no idea what his natural form looked like. Luckily the PD she'd been using had a great search engine. "Galactic search engine," she said to turn the machine on.

A few seconds later she stared at the screen, wondering what to search for. The search for shapeshifters that she'd do on an Earth computer produced the same results she would have expected. Myths about creatures like werewolves seemed to exist no matter what planet you lived on. She scrolled through the answers, looking for anything that could explain what he was. After reading through roughly twenty pages of results, she dropped the PD in exasperation. "Stupid advanced database." Just as she reached to turn the machine off something at the bottom of the current page caught her eye. Selecting the link, she began reading.

The site described a species named Ethereals they came from a planet called Ethra. It explained how they had no standard form, taking the image of any being they wished. She frowned when she got to the bottom of the page. Ethra had been destroyed over a decade ago. The Galaxy Order Defence Society had decided the beings had too much power from their abilities to blend in. Their planet had been destroyed as a safety precaution for the rest of the universe. All Ethereals off planet had been hunted and destroyed within the following year. Ariane gave a sigh as she finished reading. It appeared Earth wasn't the only expendable planet.