Claimed By The Orc King: A Science Fiction Romance

Chapter 1

Penny

“Get to the escape pods!” shouts a crew member, his voice firm and commanding as panic onboard the ship ensues. He’s not my superior, rather his tone is more to do with the requirements of the situation—wormholes rarely end well and this one has appeared right in the middle of a space jump.

“Main power is collapsing,” I hear a voice through the ship’s speakers. “All hands, brace for impact!”

We had just departed from the Earth shipyards on the USS Meriwether and begun our first space jump when a wormhole opened up right as we were about to jump. I had been looking forward to the trip and getting to know some of my fellow colonists heading to unexplored territory.

The ship is home to some of the best technologies belonging to the Alliance.

It uses every advancement that had been developed in the two hundred years since the great Centuries War had ended. In the ashes from that fire that had burned much of the galaxy came a new, united galaxy that banded together as the United Star Alliance. 

I had been born on an Earth that was in the middle of a cultural, economic, and technological renaissance. 

The cradle of human civilization had always played a large role in galactic affairs for hundreds of years, but after the end of the Centuries War, humanity occupied one of the central places in the galaxy. Earth, with its billions of short lived humans who strove for so much during their lives became an innovator and found itself as a leader for other less advanced races. 

It was this fervor that brought me to sign up to join the colony ship financed by Interstellar Exploration Corp. 

We were going to bring the promise of peace and the greatness that humans had inspired in other races to the ends of the galaxy. I was going to do my part. 

All that…gone in a heartbeat as a wormhole opened up on our very first space jump.

Space jumps are a relatively new concept that will hopefully one day replace going to superluminal speed and we’re yet to gain the experience needed to be able to know for sure what will happen, and how to handle a situation like this. 

“Maybe we didn’t have to outfit the ship with every new piece of experimental tech,” I grumble as I head to the escape pod. 

I just want to get to the escape pod and hope we stay safe till an Alliance rescue vessel responds to our distress signal. As a scientist one thing I do know is that this will have knocked us off course. From the look of it, it has done more than that, I’ve never known the crew to be so anxious.

“Our course has been reset,” I hear from someone behind me as if he’d read my mind and I’m ushered into the capsule. It is the only chance I have of not being affected by the impact, this much I know, but I’m not comfortable with being pushed inside this thing before everyone else—I’m not the only one on board and we all need to be evacuated.

Oh did I mention?

I’m the Admiral’s daughter.

Not just any admiral. But the daughter of Fleet Admiral Ark - responsible for movement of men and materiel all through the Terran Sector of the United Star Alliance.

This is always going to be the way of things as much as I hate being treated differently. It still gets to me. It was my father’s decision to take the top job and not mine.

Ever since I have been resentful of how my life has to change because of it. I don’t like to be different, or special or important. I like to do my job; be the scientist I always wanted to become and make new discoveries.

I wanted to explore and learn and see new things. That’s why I boarded this exploratory craft and I want to be treated just the same as everyone else when I’m on it. I’m Penny Ark and not just an Admiral’s daughter.

“I’ll go when everyone else does,” I protest, but it doesn’t make a difference. I’m shoved as respectfully as possible inside the escape pod. He does this before even thinking of saving himself or the others and I can’t help but feel the sting of both guilt and fear as I enter the vessel.

“We will be right behind you. Please, don’t worry.” His voice is softer now and almost reassuring. “Trust me, it is best this way and I am just doing what I am trained to do. Place the oxygen over your face and brace.”

They’re only following orders I know, but it doesn’t make it any easier. I’m twenty-nine years old and not a child. I should be able to make my own decisions about these matters. In all honestly, I am terrified. Being cast out into space alone is not what I was hoping for on this mission.

“We’ll meet up on the other side. The tracking devices will ensure we can find each other once we have landed.”

“Yes,” I say, trying to take all of this in.

Inside it is a soundless vacuum as the door is slammed behind me and sealed. I hear creaking and groaning, and a dim light illuminates my new home for the immediate future. I can almost hear my heart thumping and blood pumping in my ears and try not to give in to terror.

I’m used to small spaces though I’ve never traveled in anything like this before.  In fact, I am rarely out of the lab—science is my life. Boarding this ship was the adventure I had been waiting for for a long time. The lab in Colorado was like my home, but there is no substitute sometimes for being out there and getting boots on the ground.

The escape pod begins to tremble and fear pricks at every part of me. My heart is in my mouth and then my eyes are assaulted by an explosion of light. The scream that leaves me tears at my throat, before shadows appear before my eyes and the blackness takes me.

When my eyes flick open I am only aware of the pain that racks my body. I’m not sure how long I was out for after the explosion, but I have definitely landed now. Pain sears me as I pull myself up and attempt to open the escape pod.

The hatch is tight and for a sickening moment I worry it might be damaged and that I’ll never get out of this damn thing. I take a deep breath, knowing that it will do me no good to panic in this situation. I need to be calm to be smart.

Whatever I do the damn thing won’t open. Tears prick my eyes as the frustration builds and I sit for a few more moments to gather myself. I can’t risk losing it here or I’ll never get out.

Once I am a bit more grounded I take in a deep breath, noticing the pain in my ribs as I do. I don’t think they’re broken, or at least I hope not.

I breathe through the pain and try to open the hatch release one more time and somehow, I manage to budge it, the deep hiss signaling that I’m finally free. A relief so huge rushes over me I find myself laughing as the tension inside me starts to dissipate.

I’m shocked to find I have landed on a planet, and there is no way it is Earth though it is lush and green.

Perhaps the wormhole took us to the orbit of another planet?

Maybe it took us to the Frontier?

Who knows.  I take off the mask and feel the deep lungful of air that rushes in that makes my already aching head dizzy.

I try my best to take it all in.

The air is cooling to my skin, like a Fall morning, and I’m so grateful for it after being in the capsule. It smells different to Earth, something that I can’t put my finger on, just that it is alien to me.

Huge plants dominate the landscape, bigger than anything I’ve seen before and as I step out, I see that the soil is a deep red color that I can’t resist bending down to inspect. Crumbling some between my fingers I am surprised by how soft it is and instinctively I want to take a sample to learn of its composition.

Looking around I can’t see any members of the crew, but I can’t fall into panic. He told me he’d be right behind me, and I have to believe he was telling the truth. I remember the tracking device that he told me about and go back to retrieve it.

I snap it out of its holder and turn it on. It springs to life but I’m disappointed to find that the signal is not good. It searches and searches, but nothing.

I don’t want to wander too far from the escape pod, having no idea where I am and what might be out there, but I desperately hope that I’m not the only one from the ship that has made it here alive.

Stepping away from the pod to get a better look around I see the results of hitting that wormhole and it makes me gasp, though just seeing the familiar sight of the ship, however broken it is, is enough to bring me a little hope.

Some other escape pods lie around the ship - maybe a hundred or so. It looks like everything crashed in this vicinity.

Debris from the ship is scattered everywhere and my stomach sinks to the ground. It’s not as if I didn’t expect this—I’m a scientist and know what it means to enter a wormhole—but I guess there will always be that part of me that holds onto hope. It’s what humans do.

I scrub my hands over my face, trying to bring myself around more fully as I look around. No, still no other crew members. The thought of being the only human being on this planet hits me somewhere so primal I wasn’t even aware it existed.

It’s just me…

Despite my better judgment I move away from the capsule to search. This is a wild and rich place, full of huge trees and unfamiliar plants. In the distance I see some of them are missing leaves and branches and seem to have been damaged.

It must be…

Looking down at the tracking device I can still see that it’s scanning and know that this is definitely a signaling issue. We entered a wormhole after all, and there are no guarantees that all of our technologies will work.

I rush towards the area and can see that there has definitely been an impact here and that it’s a crash site. There are still no crew members, but there are other capsules, and I can only hope that everyone inside them is okay. Each remains fully intact and it’s more than a relief.

Yet something's not right. Each of them is open, but it seems it’s been done externally and with force. Hatch doors are hanging off and there is damage to the pod bodies that is consistent with some kind of slicing and hacking.

What the hell?

Now I start to panic again, because there is only one way that they have been opened in this way. Someone else has done it. What’s happened? Have they been attacked or taken by whoever or whatever lives here? Are they still alive?

I’m interrupted from my thoughts by the sound of undergrowth being displaced. I stop, dead, and listen. They are footsteps and they are large and heavy.

Something is coming.

I hide behind a tree and try to catch sight of what it is, though a part of me doesn’t want to know. An environment such as this would be capable of sustaining many forms of life and from the size of the trees and plants, if there are creatures that live here then they may also be huge.

I have no choice though; I am here now whether I like it or not and I have to do something to find my crew. Wherever I am I need to keep my wits about me and try to get through this.

My heart thumps—I have no idea if they are hostile or not and I’ve had little training in what to do in these situations. That’s something that I now regret.

What the hell is going to happen to me?