Alien Captive

Chapter one

Phoenix's POV

My story began with a story. A story about two young people who fell madly in love while working in close proximity as ambassadors for Earth. They worked together for five long years as NASA's alien-human communicators before they finally got married here on Earth in a little chapel in Vegas.

They went back to work a week after honeymooning in Canada. Their jobs were too important for them to stay away for too long. But they didn't mind, for they both loved what they did, traveling the universe together, meeting with many different species and seeing many different worlds. It was a dream come true and they were all the happier that they were doing it together.

And like most couples, they did other things together as well, other things which resulted in a squealing healthy baby girl.

But that baby was not always healthy. Oh no. She'd come into this universe very sick... On the brink of death, really.

You see, the couple was traveling home to Earth from meeting with a very prominent species who wanted to invest in our planet when their shuttle went off course in a storm. They managed to land on a small, practically forgotten planet, light-years away from Earth. They were out of fuel and the woman was going into premature labor. There were no buildings or signs of civilization for miles. This was a frightening time in their lives, they felt as if all hope was lost...

But then an angel showed up. Or a devil- depending on how you looked at it. He was tall with horns and sharp teeth. He wore flowing garments sewn with gold threads and a headpiece made of special gems that many would die for on Earth. He stood before at least twenty of his kind, tall and proud. He'd come to help.

The angel saw that the woman was about to give birth and brought her to his doctor. But when the woman finally gave birth the baby was too weak to survive.

Seeing an opportunity that might benefit him and his people, the angel asked the couple something that would change the life of that baby forever. "If I save this youngling, will you grant me whatever I want?"

Frantic with worry the man, clutching his wife's hand, replied. "If you can save my baby girl I'll give you anything you want. As long as it's in my power."

"Then it is done." The angel said. He did something funny with his hands then he placed two fingers on his chest. They began to glow a bright white.

The couple sat stunned at this. They'd never seen anything like it.

The angel then pressed the glowing fingers to the same spot on the child's tiny chest as he had done to his. The glow began to absorb into her skin.

It would seem that what the angel had done hadn't worked, however, because the baby was still very sick. It was after a few minutes that things started to turn around. The baby lost its ashy color and did the most joyous thing- she squealed.

"On this planet her name is Ashmra. Queen of the Warks." He declared.

"Queen?" The woman asked.

"Yes. For I have decided that your payment for this debt is this youngling. I will come for her when she has endured eighteen deaths of the moon. I will bring her here to sustain the line of my people..."

**

"Wait. You're saying that your parents agreed to that?" My best friend George asked, staring across the table at me with mild bewilderment. "I find that hard to believe."

"They didn't want to," I defended my late parents' decision of seventeen years ago. "It was not as if they had a choice. It was either let me die or agree. They chose me." Maybe the temper in my voice wasn't warranted, but somehow I felt I needed to defend their memory.