Guarded: Alien Chaos, #2

By Sophie Stern

Anna lost everything when she came to Hawk: her mother, her father, and her little sister. Everything she ever loved was ripped from her because of one man. She spent her life trying to find out what really happened to everyone she loved, but she's never been as close as she is now.

There's just one problem: she had it all wrong.

Anna is running on borrowed time as she tries to find out exactly what happened all of those years ago and why the man known as the Terror decided to kill her family.

With help she didn't expect and a determination she didn't know she had, Anna rushes to stop the Terror before it's too late.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sophie Stern
• Release date: Aug 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393622574

Book preview

Guarded

Alien Chaos Book Two

Sophie Stern

Copyright © 2019 by Sophie Stern

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

I lost everything when I came to Hawk.

My mother.

My father.

My little sister.

Everything was ripped from me, stolen from me, because of one man.

I spent my entire life running from him, running from this place, but everything has changed now. 

Now I'm back, and he's going to pay.

Feel your heart, it breaks within your chest now. –Something Corporate, Down

Prologue

Anna

[15 Years Ago]

[Chaotic Vessel 101505]

Darkness envelops me and I hold my breath. I need to be as quiet as possible. No one can find me. No one can discover my hiding place. If they do, it’s all over, so I press my lips together and hope against all hope that I stay safe and hidden. This is what I need right now. More than anything else, I need to become invisible.

I’ve been waiting in this corner for as long as I can remember. It feels like hours. It feels like days. As long as I’m very quiet and very, very still, they won’t find me here. No one knows about this place. I’ve chosen my hiding spot well and no matter what happens, I will stay here. I promise myself that. There will be no sneaking around, no looking for someplace better. There will be no walking away and trying to find a different place to hide. Nope. This is it. This is where I’ll remain.

Each time I hear footsteps or breathing, I have to fight to keep from jumping or moving. I’m holding as still as I possibly can because I can’t risk getting caught. Not now. I’ve come much too far. I’ve fought too hard. It took me forever to find this place and this hiding spot? It’s perfect.

Voices whisper near my hiding place. Feet scurry. People move. There’s a lot going on today on Chaotic Vessel 101505. We’re going to leave the ship today to deliver supplies to a local community. There are Chaotic residents living here. They’re conducting research on local plants.

I have no intention of being found before it’s absolutely necessary.

No one is going to find me.

Not here.

Not today.

A hand clamps over my mouth and I jump, ready to scream, but the faint scent of aquamelon perfume gives it away. Instantly, my racing heart calms as I realize that it’s only my sister.

Scarlett.

Who else could it be but her?

What are you doing? I hiss, pulling my sister’s hand off my mouth. She’s just a year younger than me, but already, she moves like a mirekitty. She’s lean and beautiful. She’s definitely the prettier out of the two of us. I’m not even jealous about that. It’s just a fact. She’s lovely. Already, people seek out Scarlett. Pretty people have that effect. Everyone wants to know what she thinks about the planet and how she feels about intergalactic space travel with her family.

People don’t ask me those questions, but then again, I’m pretty content to lurk in the shadows. I don’t need to be seen. Not by anyone. Especially not by the people who look at Scarlett like she’s their saving grace.

Scarlett chuckles and joins me in my hiding place. Looking for you, of course, she says. It’s almost time to go. Aren’t you tired of playing hide-and-seek? She raises an eyebrow and waits for my response.

Never, I laugh, looking at her. It’s one of our favorite games. No matter what kind of hiding place I dream up, she always manages to find me. Today my spot was unusually good, though, and it took her a long time to find me: nearly twenty minutes of searching. That might be a new record for us. We’ve grown up on this ship. We know it inside and out, so despite the fact that it’s a sizable vessel with enough space for the entire crew, we’ve basically run out of hiding places.

Good, she says. Because I know a better place. The way she says that makes me a little bit nervous. My sister is lovely and fun, but she’s also a little bit mischievous. She’s more of a risk-taker than I am. Me? I’m cautious. Careful. Every step I take is calculated. I like to consider the pros and the cons and then I make a choice based on what the best possible outcome is going to be and what my specific goals are for that situation.

Scarlett is not like that.

Not in any way.

She flies free and does what makes her heart feel happy. She makes choices that give her freedom and flexibility and that make her feel like she’s truly alive. She doesn’t care if her choices end up being bad because to Scarlett, everything in the entire universe is one big, wonderful adventure. Sometimes I hate that I’m not more like her.

Scarlett takes my hand and leads me out of the shadows. Reluctantly, I allow her to pull me away from my safe hiding spot. It’s a good one, and I’m hesitant to leave. If I stay where I am, I’ll be safe and isolated. I won’t have to talk to people. I won’t have to wander around. I can just stay where I am and be me.

Unfortunately, Scarlett has no plans to let me hide away today.

Where are we going?

Somewhere new, she says. Somewhere fun. Come.

Scarlett leads me out of my tiny spot and down the narrow hallway. Most ships have wider hallways, but our dad designed this vessel. He’s always looking for ways to reduce the amount of space he uses for ordinary and mundane tasks. The hallways aren’t narrow because he doesn’t use them. They’re narrow because he wants extra space for storing things. The hallways are small, so the rooms are big. This lets him keep supplies he can use to give to the citizens of whatever planet we land on. He’s kind of a do-gooder that way. He also keeps plenty of storage space that he can use when we collect plants from other planets. This is a planet he’s been wanting to visit for a long time and there’s no doubt in my mind that our ship is going to leave a lot heavier than it was when we arrived.

Scarlett and I practically fall over one another as we squeeze out of the ship. We hurry, moving sprightly and cautiously. If the crew members see us, they’re going to banish us back to the ship, but that’s not what we want right now. There’s a little part of me that doesn’t want to disobey. I hate letting my parents down. I hate letting anyone down. There’s another part of me that is itching to live just a little bit dangerously. For once, I don’t want to worry about the consequences of what I’m doing. I just want to have a little bit of fun with my sister.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Is it?

We scurry down the ramp and land in the colorful grass that fills the area beside the ship. We’re docked in a clearing that’s surrounded by woods. There are big trees and small trees and medium-sized trees in all shapes, sizes, and colors. It’s lovely. Usually, we stop at some sort of docking station that is filled with cement and streets and other ships. The scent of fuel is always high in the air but today, in this place, all I can smell is plant life.

We’re on a new planet: Hawk. It smells like adventure. Excitement. It’s such a beautiful planet that I wonder why more people don’t travel here. Neither Scarlett nor I have been here before, but we both love it. Hawk is beautiful and lush. The grass is bright and the trees are big and there are bushes and mirekitties all over the place. I’ve even seen a few birds. Yeah, this planet is a place where we’re going to want to stay.

Maybe for good.

There’s a little part of me that hopes my parents will find that this planet is one they can learn to love. Maybe this planet is one they’ll want to stay on. This planet could be the one they build their dream home on and settle down in. Then Scarlett and I can play hide-and-seek in the forest every day and just hurry home for supper.

Wouldn’t that be lovely?

It’s not that I don’t like traveling, but there’s something kind of idyllic about having a place to call our own. There’s something sweet about being able to say that a certain place is our home. There’s something wonderful and fantastic about being able to come home at the end of the day and just be home. No traveling. No transporting. No fueling up the ship and no making sure there are enough rations. None of that. Just home.

Mom and Dad are delivering supplies right now, Scarlett says. They’ll be back soon. Come. She takes my hand and leads me away from the ship. The crew members who are usually responsible for watching us are busy with other tasks. I can see Cameron collecting samples from a tree and Ezmira is standing with him. If I’m not mistaken, the rest of the crew is inside the ship or with my parents. There aren’t a lot of people on our little galaxy explorer, but there are enough to keep everything running smoothly.

Our parents don’t like us playing off of the ship because we’re in uncharted territory. You never really know what might go wrong on a new planet, which is why they like us to stay aboard the ship. It’s not really realistic to demand a couple of pre-teen girls stay on board a tiny, cramped ship all day, though. At least, that’s what I tell myself as I follow my sister into the bushes that surround the clearing. I don’t overthink this. That’s always been my problem: thinking too much. Not today, though. Today I’m just going to relax and have fun and enjoy myself.

We push through some brush and laugh as we wade through a field of flowers. There are so many different colors surrounding us. Even after traveling from planet to planet for years, I’ve never seen anything quite so bright or beautiful. I certainly haven’t seen it on Chaos: our home planet. Scarlett stops and picks one of the flowers. She smells it and sighs with contentment before offering the flower to me. I take it, smelling it, and smile at my sister.

Pretty, right?

Yeah, I tell her. Pretty. I don’t really have any other words to describe this. Pretty doesn’t seem to do the flower justice, but that’s the word I have, so I cling to it like a safety net.

Soon we reach an opening in the brush. We push the plants aside and I gasp when I see a large waterfall flowing into a small swimming hole. I’ve never seen a waterfall before. I’ve only read about them in books. Even without ever having seen one before, I know exactly what this is. I can tell absolutely that this is definitely, absolutely, definitively a waterfall.

How did you find this place? I ask. Scarlett only shrugs.

Pretty, isn’t it?

Yeah, I say. I can’t really find the words to say anything else. My sister has really outdone herself this time. The waterfall truly is beautiful. We sit down and cross our legs and just stare at the water. We talk and laugh and occasionally, we splash each other. Scarlett and I pick flowers and pull the petals off, tossing them into the water.