Abandoned Far From Earth: Far from Earth, #1

By Reginald Aster

Walter Masen had a mission—settle a new planet. Simple, right? However, it was not going so well. He was going to land on a planet for some much-needed R&R and hang out with his crush, the pretty and enigmatic Lily, when hostile aliens appear in the system. Fortunately, the fleet escapes and one human is captured – unfortunately, it is him.

Walter wants to get free and find the Earth fleet, but how can he? He has no idea what is going on. Will he ever see Lily again? At the moment he is abandoned far from earth. As he waits in his cell for torture or death, he hears firing in the distance. Will he be rescued or have the aliens caught more humans? He wants to see Lily again but not in a prison cell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reginald Aster
• Release date: Jan 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201088651

Book preview

Chapter 1 A Brush with Death.

I am so dead, I thought; in front of me were two enormous men, the nearest waving a broken bottle in my face; behind me was the third cutting off my escape. This was a real David and Goliath battle – a bit ironic as my middle name is David. However, I didn’t have a sling in this case, and there were three Goliaths. I always wanted to be famous, but not as the first person to die on this mission, particularly not at the hands of some drunken idiots.

Five minutes ago, everything was going well; I had just got off a two-week stint doing fighter protection on the destroyer Repulse and had met up with my friend Rob Li for a meal to celebrate a week of freedom on the world ship, Exodus II. We were having a drink by the artificial sea when Rob Li said, I’m hungry. How about a burger and chips?

Sure, and another pint of cider, I said.

I’ll go and order; you keep our places, Rob said, as he walked off. While I was waiting, I noticed that two beautiful girls were having a drink at the only occupied table near us, a tall blonde one and a short dark-haired one. The shorter girl said to her friend, Do you want the usual?

Yes please.

Ok, I’ll go and order some food – stay here. A couple of minutes after the more petite girl walked off, the trouble started.

Three fellow Defiant-class fighter/transport pilots – also celebrating their leave, came over to the girl. Unlike all other ships, we captured these ships from our former giant alien overlords, so only tall men could pilot them. I am tall, about 1.95 m, but these were enormous men, all three about 2.10 m. I knew them by sight, but I didn’t like them; I thought they were scum - untrustworthy and violent. One pilot, Fred McDonald, said to the blonde, Give me a kiss. I’ve spent two weeks trapped in a small tin box, waiting for something to happen. The tall, beautiful blonde woman said, No, leave me alone! Fred grabbed at her and went to kiss her, and despite my brain saying STOP, I stood up and said, Leave her alone. Fred took his beer bottle and smashed it; he waved it towards me, saying, Shut your face; who are you to tell me what to do? One of his friends shouted, Stop that, and grabbed the blonde’s hands and wrist communicator before she could call security. The third circled behind me, cutting off my escape.

The blonde stood up with a suggestive look and said, Please although I don’t want to kiss you, I don’t want any trouble either. My friend is coming back soon, she is much friendlier than I am, and she winked. At that surprising remark, all the tension went out of the air, the yobs and I both stared at her

I thought, What an idiot, how does that help? Her friend could get raped; when she comes, I’ll back away slowly and call security.

Suddenly the dark Latino woman appeared, as if from nowhere, to stand in front of the blonde.

Fred walked towards her and said, Well hello there, your friend said you were willing to provide comfort for the troops. I was in such a state of shock that, like an idiot, I didn't think of calling security. However, I did think that was something strange about this girl; she moved with a peculiar grace. Despite the drunken idiot waving a broken bottle about, she seemed as scared as if a little kitten was threatening her. She was so pretty. I thought, Great, at least the last two women I see in my life, are attractive.

The short, pretty Latina asked, Jane, what’s going on? The blond said, These men tried to kiss me, against my will - and pointing at me added, when this kind gentleman tried to help, they threatened him, I told them to calm down and that you, Lily would provide a solution for their needs.

Yes, said Fred leering - will you give us a good time tonight, Lily? as he moved with longing towards her, he went to grab her backside, but she moved out of reach with ease.

Lily's hands went to her red blouse and started to pull it up. As she did so the drunken idiots stared at her with hope and lust. Their expressions soon changed, as instead of taking it off, she showed a belly chain around her toned stomach. On it were four large alien teeth, she showed them to Fred and said. "You’re idiots, I am a Scorpion; I killed four aliens in the rebellion with my bare hands; look at their right incisors. Only the head of the army has more. I could kill you in seconds. Do you want your teeth on my chain? Relax, sit down and go quietly with the security, the alternative is not very nice.

Suddenly it made sense, Scorpions are enhanced humans. They look like the rest of us but are much stronger and faster; their enhancements and training meant that they were killing machines. After the aliens, the Uglies, had conquered the earth, a large number of people had been secretly enhanced and then disguised as slaves. They had entered the Uglies ships and conquered them.

Fred would have been safer attacking a silverback gorilla than Lily. Despite the Scorpions saving us just a few years earlier, a lot of people feared and distrusted them. Partly because they had been a secret for so many years and partly because of their physical attributes. Their name had nothing to do with Scorpions, but the funding used to enhance them had officially been going to a project to use Scorpion venom to treat cancer. The same reasoning was responsible for tanks being called tanks - as officially they were water tanks for the middle east and not a weapon to break the stalemate on the western front in World War I.

Lily slowly and deliberately turned her back on them, showing no fear of them. Fred went to sit down, but he suddenly swung the broken bottle at Lily. I shouted, LOOK OUT, but she was already moving before the words left my mouth. She ducked with ease, turned, and grabbed him. She pulled his arm with one hand and chopped his throat with the other. Fred collapsed, his friends went for Lily, but she kicked one in the knee, and he collapsed with a scream of pain. The other flung a wild hook at her, she easily sidestepped it and jabbed at his face. He went down as if poleaxed. The second man, cursing, got up slowly on his good leg; he was trying to extract something that looked like his pilot’s sidearm from his pocket; of course, it was completely forbidden for him to carry it off duty. Lily moved towards him with speed and grabbed his wrist, Do you want to die? she asked with a cold smile on her face. I could have killed you, but I decided to be kind and just injure you, you idiot. Fighting us, for unenhanced men, is suicide. He let go of the gun and put his hands on his head. Wise decision, now you keep your arm, said Lily.

Suddenly Fred started to make choking sounds; Lily shouted, He’s stopped breathing. Quick as a flash, Jane jumped down and gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation. After a few minutes, he started breathing again. Well, she said, You did get a kiss from me after all, but I doubt it was worth it, and you won't get another kiss for some time.

Suddenly two on duty Scorpions arrived, followed by a small ambulance for Intra ship emergencies. There were two paramedics, one of the paramedics was a Grey, one of only two alien species I had seen. He was small like all Greys, about