Alien Prince Defender (Space Knights MC #4)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

TARAX

" Y ou better watch out… I'm gaining on you, big brother." The voice of my twin, Norin, drifted through the communicator speaker imbedded into my oxygen helmet.

Norin was only younger than me by five minutes, but I sure as hell never let him forget it and reminded him of it on a routine basis.

"In that case I'd better pick up my pace," I said with a devious laugh.

"You wish." Norin floored his space bike and approached me from the right.

As soon as we were riding parallel to each other, I glanced in his direction. He was grinning from ear to ear with a wild gleam in his dark teal eyes.

Everyone said that we looked exactly alike, even though we weren't identical twins—but fraternal instead. Unlike me, Norin wore his dark teal hair longer and always pulled back in a single wrist-thick braid. I preferred to keep my own teal hair on the short side. It didn't get in my face that way.

"Just take it easy on these bikes until you get used to them," Merrix, our second in command for the Space Knight's crew, explained cautiously. He was riding a few yards behind us.

I glanced over my shoulder as Merrix encroached on our area of the space lanes. We were riding through the solar system, close to our 'home base' of Mars—the fourth planet from the sun and our 'home away from home,' so to speak—at least for now.

We'd been living in an underground base of sorts for the past several months in a place we referred to as 'the Knights Hall.'

The Knights Hall was filled with ancient Martian vegetation and wildlife. How any of it got there in the first place was still a mystery to all of us.

However, the presence of it made life inside the Hall pleasant and safe, especially when it came to climate and breathable air.

There were still several sections of this pyramid area that had yet to be explored—but we were working on the discovery daily.

Either way, the Knights Hall became a shelter for the entire crew of the Space Knights. It worked as both a protection from the harshness of the Martian storms at night, and also as a great hiding spot. Our location sensors didn't work when we were in it, underground. That meant we could mask our communication operations from any outside enemies trying to scope us out.

Merrix had a cautious look in his steely gray eyes as he rode closer to us. His short, jet black hair was hidden underneath his helmet.

" You are the one who built the space bikes," I said with a light laugh, tossing a glance at Merrix over my shoulder. "Why are you so nervous about them?"

"I'm not nervous ," Merrix countered, "but we still need to be careful and respect the machine for what it's power can do."

"Whatever you say, Grandpa," Norin joked. "I'm going to test that power."

"Just don't take it to the limit," Merrix advised.

Norin laughed and whipped around Merrix in a taunting circle.

"Laugh all you want, but these space bikes are more powerful than you know. If you aren't used to the equipment, it could make you spin out of control if you do the wrong move," Merrix advised warily.

Merrix was about six years older than us, already well into his thirties. Sometimes, he acted like the apprehensive older brother, even to his own peers around him. I could understand why he had to have such a stable, cautious type of personality though. The guy had a tremendous number of responsibilities riding on his shoulders every day.

Not only was he in charge of the maintenance and construction of most of our space riding equipment, armor, weapons, and engineering—but the guy was also in charge of going on supply runs for the team.

First off, he was the only one of us who looked the most similar to a humans, seeing as he had dark skin and dark black hair with gray eyes instead of the usual bronze skin and teal eyes and hair that was most common among us Telanians.

He also had the fastest bike of anyone—even Garlin, which meant the obligation often fell into his lap for the supply runs to Earth. Traveling on his space bike at close to the speed of light, it only took him about two Earth hours to make the trip there and back and that included picking up the supplies, which was the longest part of the trip.

He didn't do it very often, but when he did, he always chose the dark side of the planet. Nighttime made the supply fetching process substantially easier. Lately, he had been taking Shan, another of our Space Knights, and Shan's human partner Elise Kent, with him.

Elise was only twenty years old, but she was raised in a motorcycle club environment when she was growing up. She was a street kid at heart, and she could fight and steal her way out of any situation.

Elise was a valuable asset to our Knights crew. Without her, I wasn't sure we would be able to pull off those supply runs as seamlessly as we did, but she was feisty and fast. It really made all the difference.

At any rate, I felt like I had a lot to learn from Merrix and all of the Knights in general. I paid attention — and I took advantage of any opportunity I got to make a difference for our overall wellbeing.

The space bikes Merrix had built for everyone were remarkable in a lot of different ways, had all sorts of gadgets and weapons, and flew as fast as I'd ever ridden on anything through space.

I was the Communications Officer for the Space Knights. I took my role in this group seriously, and I wanted to leave a lasting impact.

"Don't worry about me. I can handle whatever this bike wants to offer," I reassured Merrix, then cranked the heat on the throttle to speed up past him.

Merrix had created new hovercycles as well, bikes that had the capabilities of flying within the Martian atmosphere.

Those bikes were a blast to ride on as well, but they couldn't handle the space lanes in the solar system, nor did they go as fast. We could only take them about twenty feet in the air, but it was still fun to race each other. Besides, on the hovercycles, we could cover a lot more ground on our exploring adventures than we could on foot.

Merrix had a real knack for constructing the riding equipment for the crew, and he made sure not to leave out the humans who had stuck around with us, too. He was working diligently to make sure everyone had a bike of their own.

It wasn't an easy accomplishment, either. He had to use tools and spare parts that had been salvaged from some of the destroyed robots in the last battle, along with various pieces from abandoned or destroyed saucers. Either way, we were in better shape because of him and his abilities.

I respected the guy — yes — but that didn't mean I wouldn't test him out here in the open. If I wanted to go fast, not even he was capable of convincing me to slow down.

"Just stay away from Earth's gravity," Merrix said. "It can get a little dicey when you're closing in on it at that speed."

"I know what I'm doing," I retorted with a wild grin.

Merrix laughed. "Famous last words."

The red alert sensors on my bike began to blink and flash, and a second later — an alarm warning chimed through my oxygen helmet.

I glanced over at my twin brother Norin. His sensors were going off too but judging by the befuddled expression on his face he was equally as perplexed about what was going on as me.

I tossed an apprehensive glance over my shoulder to Merrix. I hated for him to give me some bullshit like 'I told you so.' When I looked at Merrix, I quickly discovered that his features were etched in worry — which was no consolation for me.

"We aren't anywhere remotely close to Earth's orbit yet," I advised.

"That's not what this is," Merrix said cautiously.

"What is going on?" Norin shouted through the alarm chimes that were growing louder by the second in escalating warning. He looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack.

Before any of us could figure out what was going on, a robotic voice crackled through our helmet comm set.

"It sounds like one of the robo Knights," Merrix advised. "The androids that we programmed back at Knights Hall."

We listened intently, but my heart had already jumped into my throat. I had an unsettled feeling about the whole thing. My eardrums felt assaulted by the hammering wails of the sirens that pounded through my oxygen helmet.

"This is a proximity warning," one of the robo Knights declared with a superficial, unemotional tone.

"Proximity warning?" I shouted. "Again — we aren't close enough to Earth?—"

"Just listen to what they are going to say next," Merrix interjected. "It's not about that."

There was no time for a bruised ego or to argue with Merrix because the robo Knight began talking again only a moment later.

"A Telanian warship has entered Earth's solar system," the robo Knight advised.

The voice was haunting and hollow, echoing through my space helmet. A bone-chilling sensation rippled through my body.

"Warning, Telanian warship has entered Earth's solar system," the robo Knight declared again. "This is not a test. This is not a drill. Proximity warning impending."

"Shit," Norin exclaimed, glancing between me and Merrix as if he expected us to solve the problem within the next thirty seconds.

Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be that easy. If we had an enemy threat on our horizon, we sure as hell weren't prepared out here as just the three of us to take down a warship. Those things were massive.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, turning toward Merrix. He was the second in command, after all, and maybe he did have a solution to offer.

Merrix's jaw tightened, and he narrowed his eyes as he stared off into the vastness of the open solar system. "We're going to try and stop the warship."

"Right now ?" I asked.

"Yes." Merrix didn't hesitate.

"Just… the three of us?" Norin cried, looking appalled by the idea.

He was normally the one who was never rattled in a crisis situation no matter what — so, naturally, his unnerved reaction made me feel even more uneasy than I already did. I always looked to him when I needed to calm down, but not now.

Merrix pressed a yellow button on his space bike. An intercom noise clicked through my headset and then I heard Merrix voice as he called out to the Knight Hall.

"This is Merrix, accompanied by Tarax and Norin. We need immediate, emergency assistance in the space lanes near Earth's orbit. A breech of an enemy warship is on the horizon, threatening entrance into Earth's atmosphere."

"This is Garlin coming through," a male voice said.

Garlin was the leader and founding member of the Space Knights. Garlin's father, Garnon, was the king of our homeland the planet Telanis. King Garnon's dynasty was stained with corruption and poisoned with war, poverty, and complete suffering for all those currently living on Telanis.

Garlin wanted nothing to do with his father's legacy of despair and had left the reign of terror and any chance he had of being next in line for the throne years ago to guide the Knights instead.

"Can you send immediate assistance?" Merrix asked.

"I can send a fleet of robo Knights to surround the ship," Garlin explained. "It might not be able to stop them completely but at least it will slow them down until we can figure out what to do."

I glanced between Merrix and Norin who both wore cautious expressions and behaved as if they didn't know what they should do next while we waited on assistance from the robo Knights.

"Yes, send them. I have no idea why this warship is headed toward Earth—" Merrix began.

"But it can't be for a good reason," I said, feeling that twisting knot of dread, along with fear of the unknown that tightened like a fist in my stomach.