Earth

Evernight Publishing ®

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright©
2015 Berengaria Brown

 
ISBN: 978-1-77233-536-1

Cover Artist: Jay
Aheer

Editor: Katelyn
Uplinger

ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized
reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction.
All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual
events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

DEDICATION

This series of books is
dedicated to the original Anny. A wise woman society would do well to pay
attention to.

EARTH

Born to Rule, 1

Berengaria Brown

Copyright © 2015

Chapter One

Old Anny clapped her hands together loudly. “
Terah
,
Raine
, Flame, Skye. Come here to me.”

Terah
groaned inwardly. The ancient woman was going to make them sit and
listen to more of her stories. Old Anny was the only one who remembered the
history of their people and she was always attempting to make
Terah
and her friends learn it, too.

“When my grandmother’s grandmother was just a little girl…”

Ugh. Sure enough, the same old story again. When they were small Old
Anny used to say, “Just a little girl like you,” but the rest would be the
same. The story itself never changed.

“There was a place called North Korea. The leader there hated South
Korea and America. He knew if he attacked America he wouldn’t be able to defeat
them, but South Korea wasn’t as big and strong, so he had his soldiers fire
nuclear rockets and weapons filled with diseases at South Korea.”

Terah
was scarcely even listening. She could tell this story herself. To her
surprise Old Anny stopped talking and said, “
Raine
.
What happened next?”

Fortunately
Raine
must have been paying
attention. She shook her long, wavy light brown hair back over her shoulders
and focused her bright blue eyes on Old Anny.

“Other countries who disagreed with their neighbors took the
opportunity to start fights as well. The Islamic State in particular sent
suicide fighters
to
many countries to cause unrest
while their soldiers expanded their borders.”

“Very good,
Raine
. Flame, continue the
history please.”

Flame nodded, her red bangs falling over her amber eyes. She didn’t
seem to notice as she said, almost in a chant, “Within a few years many
countries were fighting, some in major wars, others just annoying their
neighbors, trying to get back at them over long-held grievances. But the
bacteria and diseases began to spread rapidly in the unrest. Nations were too
busy fighting to deliver good healthcare fast enough to stop pandemics from
developing, so many people died. Entire villages became empty.”

“Correct.
Terah
?”

“Warriors came from a distant planet and stole some of our women away
to be their slaves. Some went willingly as conditions were so bad in their
countries. Our people were smart enough to hide and remain safe.”

Skye didn’t need to be asked. She finished the story quickly, her white
blonde hair in a neat braid down her back and her gray eyes closed as she
spoke. “Once in every generation the aliens return for more slaves. They will
come in our generation, too, but we will be prepared and hide where we can’t be
found because we have always survived.”

“The time has come. You four must leave us now and go to the hiding
place to save yourselves.”

“Why us? Why now?”
Terah
argued.

“You have been taught to count. You have fingers and toes to use to
chart the passing years. How many winters have you seen,
Terah
?”

“All my fingers and toes.”

“And when did the aliens last come to earth to take our women to be
their slaves?”

“Before our births. When our mothers still carried us.”

“That is so. We were very happy to learn your mothers were pregnant
after the fear and stresses of hiding for three long months. You four came as a
blessing on our community. Now you must go. Pay close attention to my
directions for your travel.”

Terah
watched carefully as did her friends, while Old Anny took a stick and
sketched in the dirt floor of the cavern in which they currently lived. She
showed them mountain ranges and desert-like land, and the way to go following
the line of a river.

“You must always be careful. Other people will look to the river as
well. At times you might need to leave her side for your safety. The most
important thing to remember is always to head south. A little east, a little
west of your journey’s line, you can make up for later as long as you move
steadily south. When you reach the ocean you will know you’ve arrived. That’s
when you need to remember whether to turn east or west depending on what
diversions you made on the way.”

Terah
stared at the dirt map trying hard to imprint every facet of it on her
mind. She knew the others would be doing so as well, but somehow she felt it
was most important for her to memorize it. That it was somehow her job, her
responsibility.

She wanted to argue that surely she and her friends could remain with
the group, but she knew four young women would put the entire community in
danger. Four of them young, strong, healthy, would be an attraction to the
invaders. By staying they risked the entire community’s safety. By going, only
the four of them were in danger. In a way, it’d be an adventure. They’d never
taken a long journey alone before. Always the community traveled as a group,
often only four or five miles to a new home where food was plentiful.

Terah
sat back, closed her eyes, and mentally redrew the map against the
backs of her eyelids. When she was certain she’d recalled everything, she
opened her eyes and looked at Old Anny’s map again. Yes. She’d understood it.
Good.

“Go. Pack only what you can carry as you walk. Eat well tonight and
then go to sleep early because tomorrow you must leave. Time is running out.
The alien invaders will be here soon to demand their tribute of slave women once
again.”

****

Andreas inspected every inch of the spaceship. He was the leader of
this group to the distant planet Earth. A planet that was filled with horrible
diseases and half wild, savage people following the collapse of their
civilization more than one hundred seventy of the Earth years previously.

He and the men with him on the ship lived on Mu
Arae
7, a calm and civilized planet. Every Mu
Araen
year a
group of men journeyed to Earth to search for the women who would be able to help
them restore the planet to its former beauty.

Andreas had never expected to be sent himself. He’d assumed the mission
would be accomplished years ago. This would be the eighth such mission and
still the land was a hell of a mess, although the areas where the previous
missions had settled were now healthy, peaceful, and civilized. But they were
mere small oases of calm in a dangerous, devastated world.

He was prepared to find his bride and do his part in cleaning up Earth.
With his friends, he was ready to civilize as much of the planet as he could
even though he would start to age much faster in the harsh climate.

Like the rest of his team, he was thirty years old. But once they were
living on Earth, they would age faster, more closely to an Earth cycle. Not
quite twenty times faster than at home, but possibly ten times. The thought of
such a short lifespan was frightening, but it made him even more determined to
work hard and fast to reclaim Earth so the people there could live in peace and
prosperity once again.

Unlike some of the other men coming with him, he wasn’t at all
concerned about what his bride looked like. Because of the harsh life on her
planet she might have scars and blemishes, and she would almost certainly be
far too thin from lack of proper nutrition. But none of that mattered. The only
important thing was that together they would begin healing her devastated
planet.

He planned to bend her to his superior will, teach her what to do, and
fuck her morning, noon, and night, flooding her body with his seed, until the
connection between them released her power and they could begin healing the
land.

Gabriel, the engineer, entered the pilot’s pod. “Everything has been
checked twice and it all looks good.”

“Excellent. I know this has been a challenge for you.”

“Not half as a big a challenge as getting the ship safely to Earth and
finding our brides. Even after we do that we’ll have to build everything we
need before we use up all the spaceship’s power.”

“That’s why we’re going in the warm season so there’ll be enough
sunlight to get the solar panels working to provide us with fuel.”

“Only problem is, Earth is now filled with illiterate starving savages
who can’t even read and write, let alone maintain delicate equipment.”

Andreas spoke sternly. “Most of the people there died in the wars. Only
a few survive now. You will know your bride because she will understand the
needs we have. Teach her to read and count. Teach her all she needs to know.
The learning will come fast to the correct woman, the one who really is your
true bride.”

Gabriel grunted. Andreas found it hard to believe as well, but they had
been promised it was the truth. They would know their bride by their body’s
connection to the woman. Only one woman on Earth would match them perfectly and
she would not be more than a long day’s fast march from where they were to
land.

The day’s march to bring the women back to the spaceship might be a
problem though. He and his men could easily do thirty kilometers, but the women
would likely only be able to achieve half that. And everything had to be
converted to miles in this cursed land. Although, since there was no longer education
and literacy, maybe they measured things in a different way now. It was
something else they might need to learn.

So, eighteen miles for the men, possibly as many as twenty if the
terrain wasn’t too difficult, but less than nine for the women. It gave them a
basis to plan from anyway.

“All the supplies are loaded, Andreas. And before you ask, Chad and I
checked everything twice.”

Andreas grinned at Duncan, who’d just entered the pod. “Good work.”

He walked through the ship to the dining room, which also functioned as
the men’s break room. As well as the galley area, which was Chad’s domain,
there were two huge
flatscreen
entertainment centers
for viewing movies or playing games, and a table where all eight of the men
could sit and use their personal reporting and communication devices. Not that
they’d work completely for long. Earth was much too far for messages to carry
back home. They’d send messages between the men and the ship though, just not
across space once they’d traveled for more than a day.

Once they were underway the eight would never be able to eat together
either as some of them would always be on duty and others asleep.

Andreas looked around his team members, his colleagues, and his
friends. Boris, Chad, Duncan, Erle, Fletcher, Gabriel, and Herman. On his
planet children were named alphabetically in birth order and no name was ever
repeated. Each child was unique with a distinctive name that showed exactly
where he or she fit in the planet’s genealogy. He was the leader here, and his
seven friends were here to support each other as four of them found their
brides and began to rescue Earth from her death spiral. He would search out his
bride first. Then the other men would seek for three more women until the power
was complete and the renewal process could begin. Later, after the first
settlement was established, the final four men would begin to search for their
own brides.

“It is time. Lock the hatch and let’s get underway,” he said soberly.

Their mission had begun.