Awakening

By Elexis Bell

Tortured by memories implanted by his captors, Krona knows only one thing. He must find Tenna, his partner, his Queen. She can't be dead. But when Ricardo, one of his human guards, tells him she's alive on another space station, the truth might be just as painful as their lies.

With her memories missing and her planet supposedl

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elexis Bell
• Release date: Feb 20, 2024
• ISBN: 9781951335236

Elexis Bell

Elexis Bell writes gritty and emotional novels. Born and raised in the midwestern United States, she dreams of a cabin in the woods rather than a house surrounded by cornfields.She loves writing well-developed characters facing real problems in vibrant, magical worlds. Armed with a degree in psychology and a rollercoaster past, she sprinkles gut-wrenching emotions over high fantasy romance, science fiction, and the occasional thriller.To learn more about Elexis, go to www.elexisbell.com or follow her on Instagram: @elexis_bell or Twitter: @bell_elexis

Book preview

AWAKENING

The Regonia Chronicles: Book One

By Elexis Bell

This is a work of fiction. Resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright 2019

ISBN:  978-1-951335-23-6

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any way without express permission from the author.

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This series has a playlist to accompany it. Songs are mentioned by name when the characters listen to them. If you’d like to listen along, you can do so here:

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To my family:

I'm sorry for the role I played in our destruction. And I forgive you for yours.

We are but humans, after all. Self-righteous and short-sighted, doing what we think best without ever truly knowing.

Prologue

Termana

3006 C.E.

Reginald

An errant creak in the night pricks at my ears. Eva and I look up from the documents and graphs displayed across the screen of our dining room table, and my eyes struggle to adjust to the darkness of the room, lit only by the eerie glow of our work.

Olivia? I whisper, but if she stirs in her room, she doesn’t answer.

Eva shrugs and stretches to pull her bedroom door shut without rising from her chair.

I hastily type equations into the net, fingers never slowing. We settle back into our research, working on a new, improved defense program, testing its viability, desperate for anything to keep the Drennar out.

I pause to stretch my hands and glance out the window at my back. I look past darkened homes, letting all those little metal boxes fade into the background. The ceiling of our metal orb looms far above, hidden in the pitch black of simulated night on our terraformed asteroid.

Turning forward, I reach for a lemon cookie, sending a shadow of my arm to caress the ceiling. The package crinkles, almost masking the pop as the metal of the living room floor flexes.

My breathing quickens. I meet Eva’s beautiful brown eyes, normally clear and sweet, now edged with concern. Swallowing, I turn to gaze into the dark living room, because even our relatively safe neighborhood isn’t safe with aliens sneaking onto our space stations, sneaking onto Termana, to steal people away.

I set my cookie down, uneaten, and rise to my full height, hoping they haven’t come for us this time. My mind whirls, trying desperately to think of something, anything, I could do to keep Eva and Olivia safe if they have.

But what chance do I have against a Drennar?

My limitations flash through my mind, and I swallow back the fear writhing within me, trying to claw its way out.

I have to try.

My Link shines a soft shade of amber, glowing from where it’s implanted in my wrist, an indicator of increased stress levels, elevated heartbeat, and rate of breathing. Sweat beads on my forehead.

Go to Olivia, I whisper, hoping the low volume keeps my nerves from my voice.

She nods and opens our daughter’s bedroom door. Darkness welcomes her into its concealing embrace as she slips beyond the reach of our glowing table screen.

The floor in the living room flexes once more as our visitor takes another step. Panicking, I calculate the weight of the Drennar in the living room. I figure up the characteristics of the metal, using my Link to access the net and find the schematics of my own home.

Roughly 200 kilograms.

I gulp down a rough breath, uncertain as to what to do next. With a thought, I command my Link to turn on the living room lights. Relief washes over me.

Everything looks… normal.

Empty.

The little burgundy couch, the wooden table, quite a commodity so far from Earth, and the two chairs all sit just as they were when we tucked Olivia in. The windows are as black as the world beyond.

Though the front door is open just a crack, no Drennar looms over me waiting to steal me or Eva or Olivia away.

A sigh rushes from my lips. I chuckle.

Maybe the metal just flexed naturally.

But a little voice in the back of my head reminds me just how unlikely that is. And the door wasn’t open when we sat down to work.

The floor flexes again, extinguishing every ember of hope.

I turn, seeking out the cause of the sound. Off to my left, a mere meter and a half from me, the air seems to shimmer and bend.

Furrowing my brows, I take a step forward, reaching out. My heart gallops in my throat.

Soft fabric meets my fingers, and I gasp. There shouldn’t be anything there, but the strange, invisible fabric clings to a solid form, a waist, the size of a tree trunk.

A Drennar.

They’ve come for us.

The blood drains from my face, and dread pools in the pit of my stomach. My fingers move of their own accord, clutching a metal belt, pressing a button I’ve been told rests at its center. A mechanism whirs within it, and the air before me shimmers.

In an instant, the belt retracts within the center buckle, and my nightmare stands in my living room.

He looms over me, a full meter taller than I am. Electric blue lines mar his dark, grey skin, move within green irises, connecting his modifications to the brain concealed behind the plate that covers most of his skull.

I freeze, mind as blank as his expressionless eyes.

He’s here to take us away.

That one thought fills me, reverberating through my mind. There’s no other explanation. He’s tailored for this one job. An extra set of arms to carry a prisoner. Dark wings, some strange combination of metal and skin, to haul his victim up from the surface of Termana.

My jaw drops as I wonder what other modifications he possesses, hidden within him, altering his senses, shaping his very makeup. My blood runs cold at the thought.

The belt buckle falls from my hand, landing with a solid thud. The button at its heart glows a soft blue.

All the academic curiosity I once held, all the times I wondered what it would be like to see one, sours in my gut. Regret floods me, and I wish I could go back to the days of not knowing, not understanding. Panic surges through my veins, and I try to come up with a plan.

But the Drennar reaches out one arm and sweeps me aside faster than I can blink. I slam head-first into the metal wall with a loud thud. Pain explodes through me, and I crumple to the floor.

In the next room, Olivia shrieks groggily. I can just hear Eva shushing her.

But it doesn’t matter.

What was that? Mom? Olivia cries. Where’s Dad? Is it them?

Dazed, I stare at Olivia’s doorway. The world tips, and dark spots flicker over my vision. Everything slowly swims into focus as the Drennar moves gracefully through my home, toward Eva and Olivia.

No, I mumble, trying to push myself up, trying to stand, but the world tilts and sways beneath me.

A thud from the next room. Eva screams, and Olivia cries out.

Rage builds within me, and my head clears, just a bit, just enough. I push myself to my feet. The floor tries to dodge my foot with every step, but I drag myself across the room. I bump the table, still lit up with our work, work it’s seen now, work that’s been rendered useless.

The Drennar ducks out of Olivia’s door, and my hands curl into fists. Two of his arms pin her to his chest. Her tiny arms flail, and she kicks him as hard as she can, screaming all the while. She opens wide, clamping teeth on his arm and biting down.

But it’s no use.

He holds fast to her small frame, undaunted by the measly assault one Human girl can offer. This beast steps toward me, pushes me aside, and I nearly fall over again.

My dazed mind races, spurred on by panic. I need an idea, any idea, to stop this thing, because I know damn well force won’t work.

Behind it, Eva attacks, screaming, pummeling it with useless fists. No! she yells. Give me back my baby! Her voice rises in pitch, and she screams, You monster! Her voice breaks entirely, venturing into the realm of rage-induced gibberish.

But it’s useless.

I can’t beat this thing. I can’t kill it, can’t even wound it.

I need something else.

A desperate plea pops into my mind, and I speak it while I have the chance. Take me, instead, I say. Quiet desperation fills my words.

The Drennar stops in the doorway to the living room, head bent low to slip through. Turning slowly, it straightens and stares down at me.

Eva and Olivia scream and kick and punch, though it must hurt them to do so. But it was my words that stopped him, insignificant as I may be.

A thin band of blue light emanates from the Drennar’s eyes, and I freeze. It sweeps over me, scanning me. A chill dances down my spine, and my heart pounds behind my ears like a battle drum.

Olivia stills, but Eva continues her assault on the creature’s back, missing the eerie alien technology completely.

The blue lines in its eyes move and shift, and I can almost see the calculations whirring through its mind.

I won’t fight you, I say, desperate to entice the creature before me. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll give you no trouble, just… Take me instead.

Another scan, this time two separate fans of blue light sweep over me. They move up and down my body, and I shudder, unused to such vulnerability. My heart lurches, and my palms sweat. I swallow back excess saliva.

Finally, Eva stills, exhausted. She falls to the floor, sobbing into her hands. Leaning against the Drennar’s leg, she begs him to release Olivia.

And though I know she couldn’t have heard me over her screaming, a small twinge of pain surges through me that she might sacrifice me without hesitation.

But for Olivia…

Would I sacrifice Eva for her? Would I give up Olivia for Eva?

My heart twists, and I know I couldn’t make that choice.

Here’s to hoping I’ll never have to find out.

Here’s to hoping I can save them both right now.

The Drennar speaks, and my cochlear implant translates what it can, given the limited samples we have of their language.

…do anything?

Anything, I answer.

I don’t need to know what else he said. It doesn’t matter, as long as this works.

I’ll do anything you want. If you want us for experiments, if you want to study humans, if you want me to fight in some sick games, I don’t care, I say, the words tumbling from my lips in a flurry of sound. I’ll do whatever you want. Just take me instead. Please. Leave them alone, and I won’t fight you.

Eva and Olivia stare at me, open-mouthed.

Eva whispers in disbelief, What?

Another fan of blue light sweeps over me, and this time, I feel it, tingling just beneath my skin.

The Drennar speaks, and my implant translates, Acceptable.

The Drennar turns and drops Olivia, practically on top of Eva. My heart leaps into my throat when it comes for me, but I nod. I don’t fight as he reaches for me. I don’t make a sound as he hauls me up, presses me against his chest with ease despite my 100 kilograms.

My head bounces against his shoulder as he walks to the front door. I find Olivia, Eva. They weep on the floor, watching me go. Olivia struggles in her mother’s arms, trying to get to me, but Eva holds her back.

Voice thick with emotion, I say, I love you.

I’ll get you back! Eva whispers furiously. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll get you back.

My heart breaks, and pain lances my chest.

Tears fill Olivia’s beautiful hazel eyes, and she cries out, Don’t leave me! Please, Daddy, don’t leave me!

I suck in a breath, heart lurching and twisting. Tears prick at the corners of my eyes.

Don’t take my dad! Olivia screams at the Drennar.

But he only ducks out our front door.

I grit my teeth, scrunching my eyes closed now that Olivia and Eva have been stolen from my view. Tears streak down my cheeks, dripping onto the Drennar’s shoulder, but he pays me no mind.

His wings unfurl, and he rockets upward. My head slams against the monster’s shoulder, hard enough to make my world spin, and darkness creeps in at the edges of my vision. Everything fades away, and Eva and Olivia’s cries drift out of earshot. Unconsciousness overtakes me before I can even see how the Drennar got past our security.

Chapter 1

Ulysses Space Research Station

12 years later, 3018 C. E.

Krona

For two days, I scream. My voice crashes over my Human guards in waves, undulating between rage and unbearable suffering. Fury burns its way out of my body, riding on my words, and they flinch as if punched.

But when I stop screaming, when I sing, they truly wish to flee. They gird themselves against my rage, but the sorrow in my songs pierces their armor.

I hope it burrows into their hearts and fills their dreams. I hope it haunts them, follows them, nips at their heels. I hope it sticks to their clothes like burrs.

Just as it does to me.

My heart twists, and my voice rises. The guards flinch as I sing, my voice soft and tragic, breaking over the words I commit to her, to Tenna.

To my lost love.

The guards shrink against the walls, huddling against cold stone as though it could protect them. Their armor, so rigid compared to mine, clanks discordantly on the rocks.

But I’ll mourn her. I’ll mourn the only way I know, the way my people mourn.

I find my own song, piecing it together bit by bit because this type of loss has never been mourned in Daen Tribe before.

How could she go to him? How could she betray me, betray our people?

My heart twists, and I shudder.

How could I…

I can’t finish the thought, can’t face what they say I’ve done.

She’s alive. She has to be.

Her heart yet beats. It must.

So, I sing:

Hoo kai voo mai. You are my sound.

Coomli hoo vay tarn voo minay, Without your name on my lips,

Voo mai kai tur. My voice is empty.

Ulla minay ark voo sar voo reinlar, Whose lips will find me when I’m gone,

Ahn rahn hoo? If not yours?

The star-sickness, the thing they put in my head, translates the words into the Human language, destroying the melody. With a thought, I turn it off, denying their influence over my agony. A wave of bitterness rushes through me.

They’ve robbed me of my love. Why should they also rob me of the beauty of music?

But… Was it them who stole her from me?

My head drops, and unwashed black hair slumps into my face. I fall to my knees in my cell.

Staring down at my hands, I doubt myself. Pale, grey skin stretches over strong, nimble fingers, more than capable of all they say I’ve done.

There’s a reason no one raised a challenge when Tenna chose me as her partner, as King. Swift and deadly, I’d already climbed through the ranks of Daen Tribe Warriors, earning an honorable position.

Now, these pitiful Humans claim she’s dead, murdered by my hand.

My heart twists.

It’s there, buried in the back of my mind. I can see it. But it doesn’t feel real.

No!

It’s not real! It’s false. It feels false.

I grit my teeth as fresh agony washes through me.

I couldn’t. I wouldn’t kill her.

But I close my eyes, and there she is, face an ashen blue rather than her normal dusky gray. My hands squeeze tighter, wrapping around her throat, and horror shines in her beautiful, moss-green eyes.

I can feel her thrashing, feel her fighting, growing weak beneath me.

Her eyes lose focus, and all the life fades from her.

I open my eyes before the other lies the Humans told spring up again. My Tribe left broken without a leader. Tenna beneath another man, betraying me in body just as they say she betrayed our Tribe in spirit, leaving me for the enemy, the Chief of Roon Tribe.

My mind fills with images of Human ambassadors, rushing in to drag me away from a slew of bodies, from the killing rage they say I devolved into.

But it doesn’t make sense.

I dig my hands into my hair.

It couldn’t happen as they say, it wouldn’t. She wouldn’t betray me like that.

I couldn’t kill her, couldn’t kill our people, even if she…

My throat tightens at the thought. But it can’t be. I feel it in every cell of my body, know I couldn’t do it.

But then why do I remember it?

And yet, the memories aren’t quite… right. My mind whirls, trying to analyze them. Something about the memories is strange, incomplete. The feelings they should hold are diluted, disconnected. Details about the Humans and their arrival on Regonia are missing entirely.

And how could they subdue me when so many of my kind failed?

All these details are just… missing.

I focus on this strange mystery, desperate for the distraction it holds.

They could never subdue me. Humans are… squishy.

Already, I’ve injured a few of them just taking my food tray with a bit too much fervor.

I stare out at them, peering between the bars of my cell. These strange creatures barely reach my chest, and even the soldiers are weaker than I. My brows furrow, because I know that no amount of training could have made them a match for me.

Their bodies just aren’t made of strong enough materials. They couldn’t stand up to someone from Regonia, let alone a renowned Warrior King supposedly dead set on destruction.

It doesn’t make sense.

For a moment, I consider the glaring gap in my memory, the dark space between that false memory of Tenna and my waking in this prison with star-sickness in my arm and in my head.

The translator helps the doctors tell me what they’ll do to me, but I shudder at the thought of it, of this thing buried so deep in my flesh I could never hope to get it out.

I stare at the thing in my arm, at the blood crusting the edges where I tried to tear it out. The little thing they call a Link stares up at me, determined to remain a part of me, and I grimace.

One of the guards sets his Link to play music, and the name of the song flashes on the little thing in my arm. The Flame Deluge by Thrice. 2007.

The volume rises, and I know they’re trying to drown me out. For a moment, I listen, feeling the song in my bones.

It isn’t bad…

A grudging admission.

The screen on my arm flashes: Song Downloaded.

Fury burns through me at my own weakness, but what’s one more moment of weakness after what I’ve done?

What they say I’ve done.

Tenna fills my mind, her betrayal and her death assaulting my frail sanity. Again, I see her lying beneath Chief Mourgam, sighing as he moved over her. I grit my teeth, trying to push the image away.

And still, I sing, letting it all fall from my lips, altering my words to fit the tune of the song.

Is hoo arklar Or have you found

Visne mai, Another sound,

Vay ris visne The name of another

Bin hoo minay? On your lips?

Mai ris hoo The notes of you

Traenboorlar Exhaled

Bin bisve cra? On rival breath?

Even just thinking those words, let alone singing them, feels like a betrayal. It feels wrong to doubt her, despite the strange memories.

My eyes trace my tattoos, three simple blue rings encircling my wrist, pierced by an open circle on the top and the underside of my forearm. The mark of Daen Tribe.

My people fill my mind, batter at my conscience. Worry seeps into my gut.

Are they safe?

My eyes drift upward, sliding along the line that connects the Daen Tribe mark to that of my position as their leader, their defender. Their killer. Three rings circle my forearm, piercing open circles. I trace the line to its end in a circle on top of my hand.

I wouldn’t betray this mark… Would I?

Tenna bears matching marks, bears the mark of our partnering ceremony. I finger the band at the base of my neck, etched into my skin. I trace the rays that emanate from it, branching onto my chest.

I couldn’t betray her.

I couldn’t kill her.

Crooning softly, gently, I raise my voice with the song, but no words come. Only sound. Only a sorrowful harmony.

A guard yells, but I don’t want to understand his words, don’t want to hear his pleas. Their suffering is insubstantial next to this.

Slowly, the fight leaves me, and all I can do is murmur her name, over and over. A lament.

A eulogy.

I slump in the middle of my cell, unmoving. My eyes drift closed, and I crumple into a ball, lying on my side. Exhaustion tugs at me, and I can’t resist.

For the first time in two days, I drift into unconsciousness, welcoming the darkness that wraps around me.

Chapter 2

Odyssey Space Research Station

3018 C. E.

Tenna

Blinding light assaults my eyes. I slam them shut once more, blocking out smooth white walls and glaring, unnatural lights. Confusion settles over me, and my heart races.

Where am I?

I open my eyes again, seeking answers, but unfamiliar faces stare down at me. One says my name. The voice comes out small and kind, but the words around my name make no sense. I’ve never heard the language.

A disconcerting voice pipes up within my mind, offering what I can only assume to be a translation.

Tenna, can you hear me? the voice that shouldn’t be there says.

The skin above my left ear tingles. Reaching up to touch the side of my head, I wince in pain. On my left arm, something sits, rooted into my dark, gray skin between bright blue tattoos.

A throat clears, drawing my attention back to the short beings around the bed. Their skin hovers around a mid-tone brown. Their ears are stubby, rounded things, rather than the elegant points of my own. One of the men smiles, showing fangs considerably smaller than mine.

What kind of people are these?

That eerie voice in my head supplies a word. Humans.

I’m Doctor Antar, the woman who spoke my name says.

I turn my head, raking my gaze over her short frame.

Is she even half my height?

Dark brown hair hangs around her face, unnatural and unsettling.

Where’s the blue? The black or white?

I find crisp blue in her eyes, where a shade of green should be. Draped all in white, she nearly blends in with the sterile room around her.

Again, the weird, alien language grates over my ears, followed by the even weirder voice in my head, putting it into my language. It’s a pleasure to meet you.

I scrunch my brows, turning, looking for some source outside of me.

That voice you hear, the Doctor says, and the voice in question translates it, is your cochlear implant. It translates anything you hear into the language you’re most comfortable with. We took the liberty of installing it while you were unconscious so that you might understand us when you woke.

Looking at my arm, I wonder at the function