Escape from andromeda, p.1
Escape From Andromeda, page 1
part #1 of The Galactic Wars Series
ESCAPE FROM ANDROMEDA
THE GALACTIC WARS
JULIA C. OLIVER
Copyright © 2026 by Julia C. Oliver
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Editing by Jennifer Bray-Weber of The Killion Group, Inc.
Cover Design & Interior Format The Killion Group, Inc.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Other Books By…
About the Author
I am dedicating this book to all the dreamers and doers out there. As a child I often dreamed about going into space and seeing other worlds. As I grew up, I dreamed and wished I could write down all the stories that entertained me during the nights, and days. Dyslexia kept me from doing so until I was in my forties. Now I can share those dreams through my writings.
I also want to dedicate this book to my friends and fellow writers with the Houston Gulf Coast Romance Writers Pearls (The Pearls). You have all helped me achieve my lifelong dreams of becoming a writer. And I also want to thank Marlene. Your help with my books has been invaluable to me.
CHAPTER 1
Time had run out. They were going to kill her. Or worse, sell her to a race of beings that used humanoids like her as food, or as slaves. After a year of force servitude as a lab rat and slave, Sergeant Jackie Renée Morgan wasn’t sure which she feared more now.
She would have gleefully murdered all of the snow-white-skin and white-haired aliens a year ago, when the Egreans, the name of the world they came from, first abducted her from Earth. Nine months ago, she would still have happily murdered most of them. However, a few had treated her with a modicum of kindness. Those she would have willingly hurt, but would now make an effort to not kill.
A year into her captivity, she was still as resentful and angry that these people, these creatures from another world, believed they had a right to abduct beings from worlds less advanced than theirs. Surprisingly, a year of testing, experiments, and forced interactions with her jailers had dulled her rage enough that she would make an effort to not kill them as she made her escape. Which didn’t mean she wouldn’t kill, if she had to.
Jac had gathered weapons and other items over the last month to aid in her escape from her oppressors. Something they had stupidly afforded her when they began training her as a dommy; their name for a servant or slave in training.
Hypodermic near to hand, loaded with a drug that would immediately render someone unconscious; if used correctly, or dead if not. She again promised to not kill whoever brought her evening meal, if possible. But one way or the other, she was leaving this alien world, in a body-bag or one of their spaceships. Jac didn’t care which because she would no longer be one of their guinea pigs or slaves.
She sat on the edge of her bed, gun tucked under the edge of her pillow, her hand resting over it. Every so often, she would wipe her clammy hand on the cushion. Jac could not afford to fail because they had already begun transferring other abductees to another location on the Egrean Science Institute’s complex. In fact, she was the only one left in the research area.
Distant footsteps drew her attention to the locked door on the other side of her small cell. The room was more like her dorm room at Cal Tech, bed on the far side, a built-in desk to the right of the room, a small table in the center, and a loveseat and low coffee table to the left. An open archway was situated between the sofa and bed, which led to a small bathroom.
Jac had considered making her attack from there, but some of the Egreans became nervous when they didn’t immediately see her. And considering the number of times she had attacked her captors the first weeks of her imprisonment it might be understandable. Might, if not for the fact that despite the majority of Egreans being much smaller than her, they were surprisingly very strong.
The lock on her door clicked as someone unlocked it. Then it was ripped open and the face of one of her jailers stood framed in the open door.
“Ditermor,” she muttered under her breath. “Good.”
He hated her. And she despised him. If she had miscalculated the amount of drug and inadvertently killed him, then so be it. She glared as she surreptitiously wiped the moisture from her hand while inching it toward the hypodermic gun.
“Your food, dommy,” he said in Egrean. “Yet I do not know why I bother as you will be dead in one week’s time, by order of General Tratnox.”
Jac made no reaction to his announcement. None of them knew she now spoke and read their language fluently. And although the Egreans possessed translator technology that would allow them to easily speak to one another, Ditermor refused to use it as he deemed conversation with inferior beings beneath him.
He strutted across the room. All four-foot-nine of him, as if he was an Egrean Warrior. She wanted to laugh but didn’t. During her first month here, the two of them had tangled numerous times, and she knew just how strong the little man was.
He dropped a covered tray onto the table in the middle of the room. “A waste of good food. They should feed you what we give our kesians.”
Kesians were the Egrean’s equivalent of a monkey. A four-legged creature with no hair and two short arms. They also had two, foot-long fangs and yellow eyes. In her mind they were more like a cross between a Saber tooth tiger and a hairless wolfhound, with arms. However, they were incredibly intelligent and quite trainable. Much like the police dogs she had worked with back on earth. Making the slur ridiculous on two counts. The Egreans used them similarly to Earth police and military dogs. And secondly, most of them took better care of their kesians than they did themselves.
Unaware that she understood every word he was saying, he advanced on her, taking out a hand-held medical scanner from its pouch. Part of the nightly routine was that whoever delivered her last meal of the day, also checked her vitals. And that was what Jac was waiting for.
He reached her and raised the scanner, waving it in front of her face then lowering it to her chest. It registered all her information and transmitted it to the main computer.
“A waste of my… What are you…”
She jammed the hypodermic against his neck and pulled the trigger. His grey eyes flared with rage and then rolled back in their sockets as the drug incapacitated him almost instantaneously. He dropped like a rock to the floor at her feet and she sat there, staring unemotionally, wondering if she had killed him or not.
She continued to stare until his chest rose and fell, breaking the trance. “Too bad.”
Jumping up, she reached under the mattress until she found the clothes she had hidden there. Dommy uniforms were a skin-tight, bright orange, one-piece jumpsuit. Not to emphasize the wearer’s physique. It was to prevent dommies from hiding things on their person. Jac wasn’t the first dommy to attempt an escape from the Science Institute. But she did plan on being the first to succeed.
General Class and Elite Class Egreans were as a rule between five-foot to five-foot-eight. Jac was two inches taller than the tallest ones. Luckily, they tended to favor clothes that were loose fitting, especially those that worked at the Institute. Black pants or skirt and a wrap-around top that closed with something similar to Velcro on the side. Scientist and their assistants wore a brown, knee length lab coat over their clothes.
Jac slipped into the clothes and then rushed into her bathroom. There she had hidden another part of her disguise, a white flour compound used for cooking. She moistened her face and head then patted the substance on to hide her pink skin and brown hair. There was nothing she could do about her hands or green eyes. Which was another reason she had chosen nighttime to make her escape.
After checking her appearance in the mirror, she returned to the main room with the shackles and gag she had also stolen. Jac used them on Ditermor before picking him up and placing him on her bed. She covered him from head to toe and stepped back to inspect her work. From across the room, it looked like she was sleeping. And if the drug worked as it should, the man would sleep until tomorrow afternoon.
“Time to go,” she whispered.
The majority of the people who worked at the institute were gone for the day, leaving just the cleaning staff, maintenance workers, and a few guards. She had observed that General Class Egrean, who made up those groups, rarely interacted with the Elite Class Egreans, who made up the Scientist, assistants, and management of the institute. So, all she had to do, was keep her head down, and ignore anyone she came across as she made her way off the complex. It was a good plan. As far as it went. What would happen once she got off the institute’s campus, Jac didn’t kn ow.
By hacking into their computer system, she knew the Egrean Science Institute was on the south side of the city of Juvernex; one of the planet’s largest cities. The space port she needed to get to was just north of the central district of the city. Which meant she had to walk fifteen miles, or a little over twenty-four kilometers, the equivalent of twenty-four Egrean zortices. And according to her research, one of the most populated and party cities on the planet.
The downtown district had more bars, clubs, eateries, and entertainment venues than Houston, Los Angeles, and New York City combined. In short, it was the Egrean’s much larger version of Las Vegas. Additionally, the space port she was going to was the third largest one on this world, with the second largest military port connected to it.
“Head down, and act like you know what you are doing and where you are going,” she reminded herself.
The Egrean Science Institute was a closed campus. It didn’t used to be. Unfortunately, about a year ago, the military began taking over more and more of the operation at the institute and by order of a General Tratnox, walls and fences had been erected and all entrances were now manned by guards. Civilian guards. Until next week, when the military was scheduled to assume those roles as well. Another reason she needed to make her escape now.
Getting out of the Frantrmal Research building wasn’t very hard as there were only a couple of lab and science assistants still on duty at this time of the day. The three civilian guards were all congregated at the front of the building, near the front desk. So, Jac simply turned the other direction and exited out the rear.
Once there, she took a second to gather her thoughts and settle her nerves. According to the map she had memorized, Building FR-337 was located near the center of the massive campus. The main gate was nineteen blocks to the north. Luckily, there was another gate about five blocks to the south. It would add to her walk to the space port as she would have to first walk around the massive perimeter of the campus.
Turning right, she hurried to the corner of the building and checked for anyone in the area.
She exhaled and repeated, “Head down, act like you belong here.”
Jac had barely taken the first step when something in the shadows moved. “Going somewhere?”
Jac jerked out the hypodermic gun and aimed it at her attacker. But the person swung a long baton used to control unruly dommies and knocked the syringe out of her hand.
“No thank you, I saw what you did to Ditermor.”
Jac recognized the voice. It was one of the science assistants. A woman by the name of Leanna. One of the few Egreans who had treated her with kindness. Yet Jac was not in the mood for kindness and screamed as she charged into the five-foot-six woman.
Back on Earth, Jac’s five-foot-ten, more muscular body would have been enough to topple an adversary, regardless of their size. On Egrean, it felt like she had run headfirst into a brick wall.
She grunted as Leanna wrapped her arms around Jac’s shoulders and then threw her into the wall. But a year of living on Egrean, and scrapping with these people had taught her a few things.
Even before her body stopped, Jac kicked out and connected with the woman’s knee.
“Stop, I do not… Owww!” The woman cried as she went down hard.
Jac leaped up and began pummeling the woman in the face. Then one of Leanna’s fists slammed into Jac’s cheek and she saw stars and sparks flash before her eyes. The blow dislodged her but she quickly regained her balance and attacked again.
“Enough!” the woman roared. She curled into a ball, placed her feet against Jac’s stomach, and kicked out, sending her flying through the air.
Jac landed about eight feet away, the impact knocking the air from her lungs. Through watery eyes and no breath, she watched as the woman stood up and scowled down at Jac.
“I do not…”
Jac propelled herself off the ground toward the woman.
“Damnit, Jac, I said stop!” Leanna yelled. “I do not want to hurt you.”
The words startled her as they were in English and not Egrean. It shouldn’t have, as she knew the woman spoke English.
“I won’t go back! You will have to kill me,” Jac screamed.
“I am not taking you back inside. Nor do I want to hinder your escape.” She paused as she glared down at her. “I want to go with you.”
“What?” Jac scoffed.
Leanna uncoiled and took a step back, allowing Jac to get to her feet.
“I’ve been marked for death,” Leanna replied.
A coldness washed over Jac. She had learned about Egrean dissidents and radicals. On Earth, religious fanatics would have called them heretics. A thousand years ago, they would have been burned at the stake or hung.
Egrean, like Earth, had long since moved past such punishments. At least until the new, more authoritarian minded leaders, like General Tratnox began taking charge of parts of the government. Legally, they still did not kill or even arrest radicals. Nevertheless, recently more and more of them were disappearing without explanation. Everyone knew who was responsible. Yet no one openly spoke of it out of fear of becoming one of the vanished.
“You are a radical?” Jac asked.
“I prefer Conscientious Dissident. Or Scientifically Informed Dissident.” She shrugged. “But I’ll except the simplified, Radical, if you insist.”
Jac had suspected as much. Nonetheless, she hardened her heart as she envisioned Kitirik’s dead and lifeless body, decaying all alone in her home because of people, aliens like the woman in front of her. Her sweet kitty had been her baby. She had even taken her on a number of flights with her. But on the morning of her abduction, Jac had decided to leave Kit at home, as she was doing a post annual flight check on her small airplane.
She hoped, and prayed, that someone had found and saved her. Unfortunately, there was no knowing how long it would have taken for the authorities, or her friends, to go by her house to look for her. Jac figured Kit had about two weeks’ worth of food, and a week of water. After that, her baby would have starved to death or died of dehydration.
“No,” Jac grumbled.
“No, I am not a radical? Or no, to my going with you?” Leanna asked.
“No to going with me. I already knew – suspected that you were a radical.”
Leanna’s face sobered. Normally a flirtatious and cheerful being, Jac had rarely been subjected to the more serious and autocratic side of the woman. Nevertheless, she had never completely forgotten that this woman was part of the race of beings that had abducted her and thousands of others from Earth and other worlds for scientific research.
“Wrong answer, Sergeant Morgan,” Leanna said. “Because I am not giving you a…”
Jac took advantage of her momentary distraction and attacked. The few times she had managed to overpower one of her captors, she had used what she had learned as a female police officer, facing larger and stronger male suspects own her own; she took her legs out from under her.
Leanna hit the ground with a bang and a cry of pain. Jac followed up by wrapping her arms around the woman’s neck and applying a choke hold.
“Enough!” Leanna snarled as she grasped Jac’s wrist in a vice-like grip and squeezed.
Pain shot up her arm as bones and tendons crackled. “No!” Jac screamed as she lost her grip on the woman. Again, the lifeless body of her kitty flashed in her mind. “I won’t go back! You will have to kill me first!”
Freed of the strangle hold, Leanna flipped Jac onto her stomach and pinned her arms behind her. Every indignity and injustice she had endured at the hands of these people gave her strength, yet no matter how hard she struggled, she could not dislodge the woman.
On the verge of tears from the pain and rage coursing through her, she found she couldn’t make a sound or move as Leanna covered her mouth with her free hand.
