Aliens and Vampires

My legs burned after hours of running, my lungs wanted to explode, and I was both mentally and physically exhausted. The palace guards matched me stride for stride and it was only my knowledge of the building that had kept me alive so far. I turned down another long hallway and started pushing past the people that dared stand in my way, not caring if they cried out in pain or anger, it was their fault for declaring me a traitor.

This hallway seemed to go on forever, the clear walls overlooking the mountains of Anthias only seemed to mock me, showing the peace and serenity that had been taken from me. Finally, I came to the end and dashed through the open door that led to the flight hanger.

Not for the first time in my relatively short life, I thanked my father for teaching me to fly practically before I could walk. It would come in handy now that he was trying to kill me; I thought as I leapt into the first flyer that I came across. The buttons and levers were imprinted into my mind and it took little thought to pull and push the ones needed to start the fusion powered energy source.

The soft hum of the machine barely covered the sound of the shouts of, “Stop,” and, “Princess” as I pulled out of the designated parking spot and pushed the button on the left side of the control panel that opened the hanger doors. With one last glance at the meters and gauges, I sped out of the opening and within seconds, I was in the air and flying higher with every passing moment.

If I had been in any other state of mind, I would have been upset about leaving the one place I had called home, but as it was I merely thought about getting away and living to see another day. Breaking through the atmosphere of the planet made the ship shake forcefully, causing my head to snap to the side and for me to spot the several crafts following close behind.

“Damn,” I said aloud and increased my speed the moment I had broken free of the planet’s gravity field. I didn’t know where to go, the planets in this galaxy were uninhabited and to go any farther that these borders would put me at risk of being captured by the Intergalactic Law Enforcement who had surely been informed of my sentence by now.

My choice was made for me when two ships appeared on either side of my own, keeping me from going anywhere other than right for the invisible border. The moment I found myself in an unknown section of space, the first energy blast hit the side of my ship and it lurched to the left without my consent.

“My Life sucks,” I hissed and pushed the rocket button on the steering wheel, diving under a large meteorite and swerving around three others managing to put at least a little distance between my attackers and myself.

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I opened my eyes and immediately hissed in pain, I had spent far too much time in space where the brightest thing I had to look at was my fuel meter and apparently staring at the bright sun wasn’t a good idea. Just as quickly as the pain appeared, so did a thought. If I was in pain, then obviously I was still alive, the crash didn’t kill me, the three energy blasts that hit my ship didn’t kill me, I survived!

“Where am I?” I asked aloud and sat up in order to view the wreckage I was lying in. My original assessment of the scrap metal I called a ship was, “fuck,” but after a closer look I saw that while the external parts had been crushed on impact, the more important internal devices seemed to be fixable, if I had several Xanienian years to work on it. Due to the fact everyone in the universe wanted me dead, I doubted I had that kind of time.

“First things first,” I told myself as I stood up and looked around the area I was now stranded in. “What goddess forsaken planet have I landed on?” Tall trees surrounded me on all sides and there was a salty smell in the air which immediately told me I was near the ocean. The only problem was, I could name five hundred and thirty-seven planets that resembled the one I was currently on, five hundred and twenty of those had inhabitants that would surely kill me on sight. No questions asked, no five second head start, and definitely no return fire.

“Well, Hell,” I mumbled and headed off in a direction that I had picked at random. The forest went on for nearly a half a mile until it suddenly merged into a sandy beach with sea-green waves crashing along one edge and two cliffs on the left and right, the sight literally took my breath away. “Earth,” I said in amazement, the one planet I had wanted to visit for as long as I could remember and the only one I knew of that wasn’t connected to the galactic capital. This place was safe, I was safe.

I just stood there, staring at the extremely unique sight before me, when a rustling in the bushes to my left drew my attention. I watched intently as a young feline tumbled out of the foliage, landing on its rear with it’s triangular ears standing straight up atop its head.

“Hey you,” I gushed as I crouched down to inspect the creature, not daring to touch it in fear of it’s mother –who I knew was close- deciding I was a threat. “Where did a little thing like you, wander off from?” The cub seemed to understand me and in response to my question it looked over to a large clump of trees and undergrowth a few feet behind the creature. “Well, you are far too young to be out alone, where are your parents?” The sentence was just barely out of my mouth before I found myself lying on my back in the dirt with a large wolf growling down at me.