Queen Isabella (Alien Hive #1)

1. Malfunction

Chapter 1

Malfunction

Isabella

“ E vacuate! Evacuate!” the automated ship message blared.

Groggily Isa blinked, frowning as she tried to remember where she was. She wasn’t napping in her cell bunk, that was for sure. Shell-shocked, she panned the sterile white surface less than a foot from her face and instantly remembered. She was aboard the UFV Manifest, a colonizing vessel on its way to Tellus twenty-nine b.

“Evacuate?!” she rasped, her mouth feeling like it was filled with cotton after being in stasis.

The ship is malfunctioning , the answer instantly occurred to her. Isa’s eyes widened in panic. What happened?! How long had she been asleep?

Her gaze was riveted to the window in the stasis pod, but all she could see was the row of pods above hers and the reflection of the flashing alarm. Her first instinct was to get out, and she frantically pressed on the lid. Except, her arms were still weak from the extended sleep and did little more than slow-motion shadowbox with the slick lid. Her hands dropped the instant she remembered the damn space coffins were also life pods.

I knew this was going to happen!

The human race was on a collision course with total destruction. The population on Earth was out of control, and the environment was rebelling because of it. Soon, very soon, mother nature would snuff them out entirely. When her grandma was a little girl in the late twenty-first century, the various governments dissolved, forming the Unified Federation. Sadly, even the new government couldn’t rein in the rampant decline. Now Earth was pressed to establish an off-world colony, in fact, it was overdue.

The mission to Tellus was a shit show from the start, and that was the public consensus, not just her own opinion. The technology to reach the habitable planet was still new, and this hundred-year trip was the Manifest’s maiden voyage. They hadn’t even kicked the proverbial tires on the ship with a tour around the solar system first. Then again, why bother testing the ship when you plan to fill it with convicts?

When the government announced they’d be sending felons on this maiden mission, she assumed they meant lifers. She recalled having that exact conversation with her family. She was making breakfast with her mom, while her father and brother watched the update on the news. Going to Tellus versus spending the rest of their life in a jail cell seemed preferable. That’s the only way someone would make such a horrific choice, since everyone knew it was a one-way mission. Her brother even agreed, and Saul never agreed with her on anything. She never imagined the UF was targeting people like her.

“Ha!” Isa barked out a hysterical laugh that was drowned out by the alarms. “I’m not a convict. I’m an archaeologist!”

Though in the eyes of her government, she was a criminal. Her thoughts flashed back to that horrible day. They were leaving the dig site of an old tavern on the edge of Flagstaff.

“Jen!” Harvey barked as he brought a load of digging equipment to the hover van.

Isa’s wide-eyed gaze met Jen’s and she cringed at her friend and fellow coworker. Jen was also Harvey’s wife—pregnant wife.

Harvey was not one of those men or bosses who usually yelled. In fact, Harvey was one of the few men who was tolerable. Isa liked men, their bodies that is. It just seemed that when most men opened their mouths, they ruined it. It was easier not to bother with them, besides, her career was far more fulfilling. From what she’d observed, though, Harvey was a catch. He was still paternalistic, but at least he didn’t think women were simply meant to stay home making babies. That was good for her, since he’d hired her for his archaeological crew. The clincher was that he hired her as a companion for his wife, and with Jen pregnant her job might be coming to an end.

“If you are going to be disobedient, I’ll call your mother and have her stay at home with you.” Harvey pointed to the chair in the shade of a nearby tree.

“I was only helping load the artifacts. The bags are hardly heavy.” Jen eyed her perturbed husband.

“I was only bending over while nine months pregnant with my center of gravity all askew,” Harvey countered, his tone teetering on condescending.

Isa warily watched Harvey, unsure if he was sincerely angry. He wasn’t usually this irritable, but he’d been acting strange all day. Perhaps he was nervous about the baby coming.

“Fine, but I’m gonna sit in the conditioned van,” Jen huffed and waddled toward the other vehicle.

Isa smirked at Harvey, trying to gauge where he was mood wise, now that Jen was going to sit down.

“Last night she tried reorganizing the nursery for a third time.” Harvey incredulously shook his head.

“I heard women do that when it gets closer,” Isa chuckled, relieved he seemed better.

“Ooh, ooh,” Jen declared.

Her gaze swiveled and discovered Jen standing in a puddle of water that hadn’t been there a minute ago.

“My water broke.” Jen grimaced over her shoulder.

Panic transformed Harvey’s face and he raced to his wife. As he helped Jen in the van he cast a worried glance at the dig site.

“Go to the hospital. I can get the rest of this packed and to the museum,” Isa urged.

Since Jen was nearing her delivery date, they had taken the local job, so the hospital wasn’t far, and neither was the museum that housed their lab.

Isa wished them well, waving as the pair drove off. She had to load the rest of the equipment by herself, since the rest of their crew was on the Yucatan job. That’s where she would be if Jen wasn’t pregnant. Isa was jealous of the men and wished she could be there when they opened the crypt. Sadly, there was no way she would’ve received a travel permit to work with the all-male crew, even if her father signed off on it. The government had its rules and asinine or not she had to adhere to them.

Maybe next season, she sighed as she loaded the last of the unearthed artifacts into the van.

Her mind spun as she flew the van back to the museum. It was only an assumption that there’d be a next season. It was quite possible there wouldn’t be, at least not for her. Jen might retire to take care of the baby. That’s what was expected of mothers. Then Harvey would no longer have a use for her. It didn’t really matter how good of an archaeologist she was, she was still a woman, and somehow that automatically made her a second-class citizen. It pissed her off that that’s the kind of world she lived in.

Isa’s eyes widened when the flashing lights in the rear viewscreen captured her attention.

“Dammit. What did I do?” Isa frowned as she found a stretch of road that wasn’t filled with pedestrians and set the van down.

She quickly located her documents, lowered the window, shut the hover van off, and put her hands on the dash as required.

“Do you know you failed to signal as you went around that high rise?” the officer said as he approached.

He saw her and his eyes narrowed.

“No. Sorry, sir. I thought I had it on autopilot.” Isa glanced at the console, but the vehicle was already off so there was no way to tell at the moment.

The officer peered into the van. He then looked at the museum logo on the side of the vehicle.

“My sponsor’s wife went into labor, otherwise they’d be right in front of me,” she quickly provided as the officer eyed her critically. She had a permit, so it wasn’t illegal for her to drive without her sponsor, but it was still frowned upon. “Here are my documents.” She started to reach for them in her lap.

“Don’t move!” the officer barked.

She slapped her hands back on the dash. The officer yanked the door open, and roughly snatched her documents off her lap. The surly man briefly glanced at her government ID and work permit, then tossed them on the dash.

“Another uppity working woman!” he murmured as he went to the side door. “What are you hauling?” He tugged the van open.

Her stomach knotted at his comment. She’d heard snide remarks about working women, but not from an officer, probably because she’d never been pulled over before.

“Uh, digging tools and artifacts.” Isa frowned as she looked back at him. “I’m coming from a dig site and heading straight to the Metropolis Museum.”

To her surprise the officer opened one of the totes and dumped the cataloged bags onto the van floor.

“Whoa, wait a minute! Those are organized by location and some of those artifacts are very fragile. They’re hundreds of years old!” she objected.

“Don’t you dare speak to me that way! One more word and I’ll teach you the manners your father obviously didn’t,” the officer snapped.

Isa quickly faced forward, fear coursing up her spine. She had no doubt the officer would make good on the threat. She’d heard horror stories. Isa bit her tongue as the officer destroyed priceless history with his rough search. He was carelessly rummaging through the third crate when he abruptly stopped.

“I need back up! We have a projectile weapon!” the officer barked into his comm as he spun and pointed his stun gun at her. “Don’t move!”

“But-but the gun is hundreds of years old. It’s rusted. It can’t possibly fire.” Isa started to panic, tears springing in her eyes.

Before she knew what was happening, she was arrested and hauled into the station.

“Sit!” The guard shoved her into the three-foot square room and pointed at the chair in front of the viewscreen.

She was still shaking from the arrest and had been waiting anxiously inside the women’s cell for the last few hours. As she sat, the screen flickered on. It was her father. He was so livid the vein in his forehead was throbbing. Behind him was her brother, Saul, looking equally enraged.

“That you would dare to shame this family this way is the final straw,” her father hissed.

She’d been praying for an ounce of sympathy or the benefit of a doubt, but that hope instantly fled along with the air in her lungs.

“Your message arrived while Mary’s parents were at our house. If you ruined my engagement…” Saul seethed. It was the third woman he’d tried to marry. His personality was the problem.

Her father held his hand up, silencing him, then focused on her again. “You are on your own from here on. I cast you out.”

His words were like a slap in the face. Her father was seriously disowning her. There were only two places for outcasts, workhouses and institutions for the mentally unstable.

“But it was an antique weapon that we dug up today,” she stammered, hoping he’d see reason.

“You’re a jezebel!” Saul shouted at the viewscreen.

This wasn’t the first time he’d called her that. He’d cursed her ever since she was fourteen and got caught kissing a boy at a secret after-school party. It was the same party he was at, but the rules were different for men and women. Like when Saul’s friend drunkenly stumbled into her bedroom after one of their raucous outings. At first, she thought Caleb wanted her bed, but then he took his clothes off. She should have fought off the smarmy bastard, except that would’ve awoken everyone in the house. Caleb would’ve accused her of luring him in, and her family would’ve believed him, after all, she was the jezebel who kissed a boy years earlier. There were really only two outcomes; her father would’ve forced them to get married, or had her institutionalized. Those prospects were actually far more traumatizing than Caleb’s pathetic performance. The whole incident cemented her resolve to swear off men, and her career proved to be far more satisfying.

“Enough,” her father snapped at Saul, then refocused on her. “Not only do you refuse to live a humble life, you are worldly, and sinful. You winding up in this mess was bound to happen. No more!” Her father bitterly shook his head and flicked off the viewscreen.

Isa started to hyperventilate as her world fell completely apart.

Isa didn’t have to worry about living in a workhouse or an institution, though. Her trial was a sham. The public defender didn’t bother to call her museum or Harvey to testify, and she was swiftly convicted of possessing a deadly weapon. Three short weeks later, she was conscripted for the voyage to Tellus and found herself standing on the tarmac outside of the Manifest. She was one of those convicts she’d heard about on the news.

“I’m Audre. What do you do?” the dark-skinned woman in front of her asked.

Isa turned her gaze away from the long, winding line of women heading into the spaceship. She swallowed the lump of fear that had been permanently lodged in her throat and focused on Audre.

“Isa, Isabella actually. Archaeologist,” she replied, keeping it short and sweet, certain that she’d be sick at any moment.

This was it, her last moments on Earth. Bile rose in her throat yet again.

“Hmpf, a specialist in early civilizations, interesting.” Audre carefully surveyed the crowd of fellow voyagers—fellow convicts.

The comment and the way Audre’s intelligent eyes sparked had Isa forgetting some of her panic. Up until now she’d been too freaked out about this crazy turn of events, telling anyone and everyone that this had to be a mistake. But Audre seemed to know something.

“What about you?” Isa inquired, now that her curiosity was piqued.

“I’m a surgeon, surgical nurse,” Audre clarified, even though it wasn’t necessary since everyone listening was female and understood.

Women couldn’t be surgeons, or doctors, or hundreds of other job titles. They could do all the work, just not possess the title. Officially Isa was a dig assistant.

“That’s Elizabeth, a farmer,” Audre added, gesturing to the blonde in front of her.

Elizabeth, looking as scared as a bunny caught by a pack of dogs, nodded to her. Isa smiled back, feeling a swell of sympathy for the tiny woman. Elizabeth was even more afraid than she was.

“What about you?” Audre asked the woman behind Isa.

“What about me?!” The tan-skinned woman scowled.

“What’s your name and what do you do?” Isa quickly provided.

“Reina. Software engineer,” the woman curtly replied, clearly trying to hold it together, though it was hard to tell if the woman was going to cuss or cry.

“Why am I not surprised,” Audre snorted.

Isa was waiting for Audre to elaborate when they were interrupted.

“Shut your holes, breeders. Get moving!” the guard monitoring the line barked, aggressively gesturing with his weapon.

The disgusting slur used for women always made her cringe.

“Asshole,” Audre muttered as she turned and shuffled forward in the line.

Isa couldn’t agree more. Her gaze narrowed on the bastard but she also complied. It’s not like she was going to run for it. Even if she broke out of line, the landing strip was surrounded by even more armed guards. Security was so strict there weren’t even media drones flying overhead to commemorate the momentous voyage.

‘Cause it’s suspicious as hell. Her eyes narrowed as she took another look around.

Isa waited until they were farther ahead before opening her mouth again.

“So, I was arrested for transporting a rusted three-hundred-year-old projectile weapon from my dig. What about you?” she whispered to Audre.

“Murder. A patient died on my table. They were suffering severe trauma from a hover vessel malfunction,” Audre spat.

Isa’s mouth dropped open. Even with all the safety measures in hovercraft, there were still thousands of casualties every year. To blame the emergency surgeon was absurd.

“I certainly didn’t steal some sort of chemical weapon. I work with computer programs, not chemicals. Two separate kinds of engineering, two separate sectors at Intech. The morons!” Reina muttered through a clenched jaw, steam practically coming from her ears.

She didn’t need to hear what Elizabeth had done. One look at that girl’s face screamed she too was innocent of whatever charges that landed her here.

“I see.” Isa nodded, the picture becoming clearer. “This whole thing was a set-up.”

The government knew full well they weren’t going to get volunteers for this mission. The people they needed to start a sustainable colony were too smart to agree to go along with their hastily cobbled together plan. It was a guaranteed one-way trip and a definite death sentence.

“Mm hmm.” Audre scowled as she again surveyed the winding line steadily disappearing into the spaceship.

“So why do you think it’s all women?” Isa asked.

Audre raised a brow at her and smirked. Isa wasn’t a moron, she knew society and those in charge were biased against women.

“Just humor me. Tell me from your perspective,” Isa snorted. It was the first time she’d laughed in weeks.

“Well, I’d say that the UF wants there to actually be a settlement on Tellus when the special people arrive. They know we’re less prone to violence and dick measuring contests.”

“And we’re not aggressively rebelling, because we’re already used to accepting the garbage that’s been dished out by the patriarchy. God, I’m so sick of this shit,” Isa growled, not caring that she blasphemed in front of perfect strangers.

Making a run for it looked better by the moment. Even if she was killed in the process, it would be worth it to foil the bullshit government’s plan.

“Girl, I’m almost glad I’m leaving this dying rock,” Audre snorted, pointing at the desiccated trees trying to grow in the baked earth beyond the tarmac.

“Oh, we’re going to die out there, too. They may have perfected the stasis technology to put us to sleep for a hundred years, but this ship is guaranteed to have issues,” Reina interjected, like the ray of sunshine she was, though she was only voicing what they were all thinking.

And they weren’t wrong.

“Stasis pods ejecting. Stasis pods ejecting,” the automated ship message snapped Isa out of the memory.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Her eyes widened as the pods visible through the window shot out of the ship, and then she too was spinning through inky blackness. Isa scoured her mind, trying to remember what the emergency instructions had been. But in a situation like this, how was she supposed to remember the brief boring automated message given just before she was put to sleep? She was freaking out then, just like she was now. Her mind spun as her pod also continued its steady spiral through space.

“Oh god!” she gasped at the terrifying view.

Intermixed with the scores of stasis pods was mechanical debris.

Too much ship debris.

Her breath sped up, fogging the window, making it hard to see. Except, she didn’t really need to see the nightmare that was going on out there. She already knew she was fucked. They were all fucked. The Manifest suffered catastrophic damage—obviously. It didn’t matter if they were hundreds of lightyears from Earth or just a few days, no one would come fetch the lady convicts. Tears fell from Isa’s eyes. She knew this was a death sentence, but there’d been a slim chance they might actually reach Tellus. Even after all the horrible things she heard and knew to be true about the voyage, she clung to that small glimmer of hope. She’d prayed that God would look kindly on her, after her government and her own family totally screwed her over.

“Apparently, God really does hate me.” More tears slipped down her cheeks.

Isa pulled in a shocked gasp when there was a loud whoosh and her pod suddenly veered to the right.

That’s the thrusters, she recalled. The pods had the ability to navigate toward something like a ship or planet, if it wasn’t too far away.

That’s when she saw it—the pink sphere in a sea of darkness. Her mouth dropped open.

Tellus is pink, isn’t it? She frantically tried to remember the images of the planet shown on the news feeds. Her heart beat faster as hope again bloomed. Maybe they’d made it to the distant planet after all.

The pod continued its slow spiral and the planet drifted out of view.

“No, no, no!” It would be just like this crappy ship and rubbish voyage to get this close only to miss.

She attempted to crane her neck to keep the planet in sight through the small window, but the foam padding around her suddenly expanded, locking her head, arms, and legs into place. It was just in time, too. The pod rattled as the planet’s gravity took hold. The capsule spun faster, the alternating view of the pink planet and black space whipping past the window faster and faster, until her pod was moving at a dizzying speed and everything was a blur. The rattling grew intense. Isa clenched her jaw to keep from shattering all her teeth as the pod rocketed toward the planet.

God help me! she sent up the prayer, as her capsule violently shuddered. There was a sudden pain in her wrist and forehead just before she passed out.