Page 1 of Caldar
CHAPTER1
SONIA
HOW IT STARTED
“About time.”Sonia leaned forward to the screen, impatiently awaiting a response. She’d been calling and calling her best friend, Wyn, daily since she voluntarily left Earth to marry an alien.
Fine, so it was a little obsessive. Sonia worried. Aliens were… well, alien.
“Sorry. We were out of comm range,” Wyn said. Her image flickered on the screen, a testament to how very far from Earth Sonia’s bestie currently was.
“Your mom told me she talked to you two days ago.” She tried to keep from sounding hurt, but she couldn’t deny that it stung. She understood why Wyn called her mother first, but she couldn’t even text Sonia back with a thumbs up emoji or something equally lame?
“And we’re at a hospital—”
Sonia leaped to her feet. “What? Are you hurt? Did that alien hurt you? I’ll crush his bones and turn him into paint pigment. I’ll paint his filthy carcass in the worst places. Gas station toilets! That weird donut shop with the clown mascot.”
“I’m fine,” Wyn said, ignoring Sonia’s list of terrible places. “Comms were out for weeks because apparently the Suhlik are getting gun happy again, and no one knew I was coming, so they shoved me on this shuttle and I just went with it becausetrust the system.” Her fingers moved in air quotes.
“Never trust the system,” Sonia said, because it was obvious. The system was rigged against people like her and Wyn. Well, against people without money, and in particular, women.
“Lorran’s a total sweetheart, though. No regrets. What about you?”
Sonia ran her hand through her short twists. “I gave the call center notice. I’m doing your idea.”
Wyn practically bounced with excitement on the screen. “I knew it! Which idea? I have so many good ones.”
So humble.
“The yearlong star cruise.” As an incentive to volunteer, Wyn received a generous cash settlement, which she gave to Sonia. “I mean, it’s not my money. I might as well spend it on something outrageous, yeah? The call center is eternal. It will be there when I get back.”
“Waiting to devour your soul.”
Truth.
“Listen, maybe we can meet up? I’ve got a list of ports the cruise docks at. We can do day trips,” Sonia said.
Wyn agreed, and she sent over the schedule. Hopefully there was some place in the universe where their paths would cross again, even for a day. The conversation moved onto alien art, because while Sonia had certainfeelingsabout the aliens who came to Earth for babymakers, she was interested in art from other cultures. However, there was something that couldn’t be ignored.
A man—an alien—entered the room. The horns and purple complexion gave the alien part away. Wyn didn’t notice, going on about a soap opera that had sucked her in.
“So, are we going to discuss the man behind you with a gun?” Sonia asked.
Wyn threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. “I cannot believe this. You have no chill.”
“Female, you will come quietly—”
“Who is this guy? What’s going on?” Sonia shouted at the screen, like that could help. She should do something. Call someone. Space 911? Was that a thing?
The man turned to the screen. Despite the gray hair and gray horns, he had a young face. Not youthful. Seasoned. It would have been a handsome face if he wasn’t currently abducting her best friend.
“Sonia, I’ll call you back after I take care of this asshole,” Wyn said.
“Wait, don’t—” Too late. Wyn disconnected the call.
Well, fuck.
Sonia sat in front of the blank screen for a moment. She needed the number for Space 911, and she had no idea how to do that.
