Allies (Warriors of Karal Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

excited than any time in her life.
    But she wasn’t ready to let go of the past and admit that. Not yet. The episode on the space station, where she had been forced to strip, had brought home to her everything that would be expected of her on Karal. Not, least of all, that she had to be obedient to Niko, in all ways. She was the alien here, the outsider, and she wasn’t sure she could expect to be treated any better than an animal. Not when she was here to be a breeding machine.
    Yes, she knew she was going into deep space with him, but her mother had told her the only reasons that humans travelled into deep space with the Karal was so that they would not miss this thing called their prime . A short period in their lives when they could breed. It was why they were being so accommodating to humans, because they needed the females of Earth to produce their next-generation. In reality, the two species needed each other, humans and Karalians, each needing something from the other to survive.
    However, looking at Niko, Petra was fairly certain that the Karal didn’t see things quite that way.
    For them it was a question of who needed whom more, and to him that answer was obvious. Humans were the weaker species, and he was probably right: all the Karal had to do was go down to Earth and take what they wanted, and she was certain humans would not be able to defend themselves. This left Petra with a new outlook on this journey. Maybe her mom had let her go so that there would be someone on this mission who understood what was at stake.
    They had travelled through the atmosphere now, the cruiser getting lower and lower as Niko guided them into land. He aimed for what looked like a small compound, but which turned out to be some kind of airport with a landing strip. Once the cruiser touched down they didn’t get out; instead, he drove it like a car, heading towards a barrier, where he slowed down and stopped. There was a Karalian guard waiting and Niko spoke to him briefly, indicating Petra sat by the side of him.
    Then the barrier was lifted and Niko drove forward, and Petra got her first glimpse of Karal and the life that filled it. Not just animals, but plants too. Green grass stretched for miles, dotted with shrubs and trees. She took it all in, as they drove along the empty road.
    She wondered where everybody was, for they did not pass anybody; the only signs people lived here were the small houses dotted about randomly on the grasslands. There were no villages that she could see, only single dwellings. Maybe the Karal were not very sociable.
    It took a while for her to get used to seeing so much vast emptiness, when she was used to the towns and cities on Earth that were always teeming with people. Even if you left the perimeter of the cities there were always people walking here and there and everywhere. The Earth was so crowded, which was where most of the problem lay.
    Petra could not imagine the Earth had ever been this empty, even though she knew it would have been in the days before man began to dominate it.
    “Where are we heading to?” Petra asked after they’d been travelling for around ten minutes. Not that she wanted to get to their destination any time soon, she was more than happy for them to simply travel across Karal and never stop. The deep space mission now seemed to be an inconvenience. Despite the fate of the human race resting on it, she would much rather spend some time here on Karal, looking at the plants and animals, learning about them. It made her feel sad beyond measure that there was nothing like this on Earth, that the human race had wiped such wonderful things out of existence.
    “We’re heading over there, to what used to be the breeding house.” Niko pointed into the distance, and she followed his gaze to a big building with a high wall around it.
    “A breeding house? I don’t suppose you use it to breed cattle or sheep?” Petra asked.
    He turned to look at her and shook his head.