Captured by the Alien: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance by Tammy Walsh

Author:Tammy Walsh [Walsh, Tammy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-06T18:30:00+00:00

I munched on the danish and caught up with Ashem as he entered a thick thatch of exotic plants.

The gardens were a gorgeous blend of plants and flowers that didn’t look at home merged together that way.

I knew little about horticulture but even to me, it was obvious that the plant life had been sourced from all over the galaxy.

Each section was clearly divided, with the native species of each planet left to form their own ecosystem.

There, the tall and powerful foliage from some deep jungle, the colors dim and green and gray.

And there, tiny flowers that grew in greater numbers than weeds but thick and vibrant in color.

Over there, another mesh of plant life that I had never set eye on before, each featuring the same polka-dot design but in so many variations that it blew my mind.

Ashem led me through the gardens but didn’t describe them in much detail, other than the solar system they’d come from.

He was distracted, his thoughts still playing through the comments made at breakfast.

His shoulders were heavy and he walked slower than I had ever seen him move before.

He’d always strode with purpose, never wanting to waste a single moment.

Now, he was morose and slow, his thoughts like wading through concrete.

My sense that there was something between the two brothers and Erves had turned out to be correct.

But Ashem had shared precious few details about the incident and I was at a loss as to what it could be.

I knew I shouldn’t ask about it.

It wasn’t my business.

But I was just too curious.

How did I broach the subject without doing so directly?

“Your brother…” I began, feeling out Ashem’s expression as I forayed into the unknown. “Has he… always been in a hoverchair?”

“No,” Ashem said, not looking up. “It’s a fairly recent development.”

“How long has he been that way?”

“For about a year.”

Ashem’s eyes grew tight—not through me asking the question but something he was recalling.

A painful and difficult memory.

A year ago…

From about the same time he stopped visiting his family…

It couldn’t just be a coincidence… could it?

“How did it happen?” I ventured.

“It was a shuttlecraft accident. He was flying too fast, lost control, and it fell down a ravine.”

“A ravine?” I said, shocked at the revelation. “How did it fall down a ravine? I thought shuttlecraft had special security systems to prevent accidents like that?”

“They do. But it turns out the shuttlecraft was due for a service and Crell, as usual, hadn’t kept up with them. The security features failed and it crashed.”

I pressed a hand to Ashem’s muscular arm.

I’d never have thought he was capable of being so fragile.

He’d always come across as indestructible.

But his weakness, it seemed, was his family.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

He shrugged my hand off.

“You shouldn’t feel sorry for me,” he said. “I don’t deserve it. Feel sorry for Crell. He was the one who suffered the injury.”

It hurt that he rebuffed my attempt to console him but I pressed on anyway.

“He’s not the only one who suffered from the ordeal,” I said.

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