As soon as Pollus touched her, Theo tried to stand up. His hands were still cuffed behind his back. The guards moved forward to protect their ruler, but they were never given the chance. With one sweep of his massive hand, the emperor backslapped Theo hard enough to knock him flat on the ground. Cierra watched him writhe on the stage. When he managed to get back on his knees, she saw Theo brace for another attack. She shot him a look, begging him to stop. His chest heaved with anger. Blood dripped from his freshly busted lip.
The emperor seemed to pay him no mind. His focus was entirely on Cierra. “I wonder if they have any information that needs to be extracted. Take the whelp to the experimental laboratory. A woman needs a special kind of handling in order to get her to talk. I think I’ll enjoy taking care of her personally. Take her to my harem, and get her prepared.”
Theo roared at the emperor. His rage radiated from him with such intensity that those closest to him thought they felt their skin burning. As soon as Theo started to move, a guard slammed the hilt of a sword into the back of his head, knocking him unconscious. Cierra was hauled to her feet. She tried to turn her head to see where Theo was being taken. All she could see through the ranks of soldiers were the soles of Theo’s boots, as he was dragged limply in the opposite direction. The guards forcibly marched her to a side entrance.
Scrawled above the door was a word in an ancient language that Cierra barely recognized. Roughly translated, it either meant ‘fertile valleys’ or ‘broken waters.’ Either way, she knew what it meant. They were taking her through the concubine entrance. Tired, starved, and utterly alone, Cierra felt what was left of her spirit begin to crumble.
Two
Cherish stood with her hands behind her back. From one of the portholes in the battleship’s side, Cherish could see the imperial fleet hovering above the barren husk of what had once been Relisse. The ships were cruising purposelessly. The emperor thought that he had all the time in the universe. His complacency would be his downfall.
Makka cleared her throat softly, behind Cherish. “They’ve almost got the live feed up.”
Cherish turned, and smiled at her. “Let’s go see what we are up against, shall we?”
The two women walked to the briefing room. The Yasta leaders were gathered around a table. Jiyeon and Nial were with them, along with Fabois. Alegro had opted to stay behind with Hubard. With a child on the way, Cherish couldn’t fault him for not wanting to join their mission. The hologram projected above the table was riddled with scrolling lines of static interference.
Hubard’s voice came over the communication system. “Seneca, turn the dial three degrees to the right. No, not your right. My right.”
Seneca’s aggravated tones came through as background noise over the speakers. “Do you want to do this yourself?”
“I might as well if you can’t follow simple—”
“Guys.” Cherish interrupted them before they could break out into an all out bickering war in front of their newest allies.
Hubard stopped talking for a second. “Right, well here is the live feed we were able to intercept of the planet’s surface.”
Cherish’s mouth dropped open, as the hologram cleared up. “They have a whole battalion stationed there now. Looks like Karl beefed up the number of boots on the ground after our little run in with his men last time. They sure didn’t waste any time rebuilding the mine and barracks.”
Jiyeon looked at the feed seriously. “Are you sure that whatever is inside there is worth us taking on so many imperials at once?”
Cherish faced the Josti female, who had her arms crossed over the chest. “What is being mined from that dead planet has the capability to change the tide of a war. Trust me. It’s worth it.”
The pilot’s voice chimed into the conversation. “We are almost in range to be detected.”
Cherish nodded to one of the Yasta who had come along with them. “Agora, start using your cloaking gift. We need to get closer to the planet without being seen. Makka and Fabois need to save their strength, to cloak the infiltration team when we move in.”
Agora cracked her neck and ruffled her feathers. “I’m on it.” In the next few seconds, the Aphaian had stretched her gift of invisibility to cloak the ship.
They had camouflaged the ship in enemy colors just in case their cloaking failed.
With the mine back up and running, Cherish hoped that they would be able to confiscate enough Relissarium to stand a chance against the emperor and his troops. Without that mineral, the rebellion was doomed to becoming carved meat on the battlefield.
The ship approached the planet at an odd angle, to avoid the path of the slowly patrolling imperial fleet. Cherish had already witnessed the horror of the destroyed planet in person. For the rest of the crew, the charred surface warranted a moment of silence. The pilot guided the cloaked ship around to the back of the mining complex, and managed to land between two container ships.
Once they touched down, Cherish nodded to Makka and Fabois. Each of them tied a rope around their waists. Cherish, Nial, and a light yellow Josti named Gird, each held on to Makka’s rope. Jiyeon, and two twin Aphaians named Arden and Axim grasped the rope connected to Fabois. All of the team members had a small breathing apparatus that would hold up for a maximum of ten minutes on the toxic surface of Relisse. They hadn’t been able to find any environmental suits for the expedition. With the Grand Council of the Carbonari still in radio silence, and the Yasta monks recovering from the brutal massacre at the monasteries, their resources were severely limited. Hubard had been able to scrounge together enough breathing filters for eight of them. It was an older, cruder technology, but it was the best they could get.
The door of the ship opened. Makka and Fabois cloaked the infiltration team as they disembarked. The two groups walked up to the back of the facility. They all held the breathing filters to their mouths, but the harsh environment still stung their eyes. Cherish pulled out her lasana blade, ready to cut through the outer walls of the dome in front of them.
Nial quickly stopped her from making a slice. “Wait. It’s alive.” He ran his finger along the outside of the structure.
Cherish squinted at him. Even with her augmented eyes, the air still burned. “What?”
He placed his palm flat against the structure. “It’s a self-healing, plant-based material. We have it back on Verbash. It keeps us from having to constantly rebuild during storms.” Nial whispered in a language that sounded like the wind rustling through some leaves. The outer wall rippled, and created an opening to allow them to pass through. “Hurry. It’ll close behind us.”
The eight of them walked through the makeshift entrance. Once they had cleared the gap, the wall sealed itself again, as though a zipper had been drawn vertically from the bottom of the hole to the top. Ahead of them, Cherish could hear footsteps. Still cloaked, the ground team flattened themselves against the wall, and held their breath. The steps came closer. Cherish rested her hand on the hilt of her sword.
A haughty general was complaining to his advisors. “If they are calling me down here to settle another idiotic dispute over something trivial, I swear I’m going to have them all thrown out of the airlock. We’ll just tell the emperor that we need replacement scientist developers. I don’t have time to micromanage them and hold their hands every second of every day.”
One of the advisors had to take twice as many steps to keep up with the general. “I think they’ve made progress this time. They seemed excited.”
The general’s disdain was clear. “They’re scientists. They get excited over rocks and swabs of spit.”
Cherish gave the general and his men a few seconds head start before she led her group after them. If the imperials had some scientists working on a new application of Relissarium, they needed to find out what it was.
The group managed to slip into the main dome, behind the general, before the doors slid shut again. The cavern opening of the mine was almost twice the size it had been when Cher
ish and the others had infiltrated the mine the first time. Karl had wasted no time getting things back up and running. The mine’s opening wasn’t what caught her attention, though. In the center of the room, three galactic fighter ships were coated in Relissarium.
The general crossed his arms over his chest. “This better be good.”
One of the scientists excitedly handed him three different schematics. “These are the different configurations we’ve been trying out.”
The general handed the pieces of paper to one of his advisors without even glancing at it. “I don’t want to see it on paper. I want to see some real-world application. You can draw a water buffalo balancing on the tip of a needle, but that doesn’t mean it will work in real life.”
“Right.” The scientist seemed a little taken aback by the general’s response. “Well, then, let’s skip to the demonstration.” He started to reach for the General’s plasma gun. “If I can just borrow—”
“Boy, reaching for my gun is a good way to lose a hand. I suggest you rethink whatever you’re about to do.” The general snapped at the scientist in front of him. He jerked his head towards the advisor to his left. “Griffin, give him your gun.”
The advisor slowly handed the scientist his blaster. Smiling weakly, the scientist turned back to the three ships in the dome. “The first one is a fish scale configuration that seems to work well enough. However, if even one panel comes lose, the integrity of the armor is compromised.” He blasted the ship with the gun. The plasma burst rippled along the outside of the ship. Cherish used the sound of the blaster to her advantage and moved her team into position behind the general and his men.
“The second one is a woven technique,” the scientist continued, “that uses small cables of Relissarium to form a net-like mesh across the body of the ship. It’s sleeker, and contouring it to the body of the ship was much easier. The downside is that it takes an exhorbitant amount of time to weave it all together.” He fired the blaster again. This time, the plasma flowed smoothly over the ship’s surface. “The third one is the easiest to apply. We mixed some Relissarium shavings into some paint, and brushed it over the entire ship. The problem with this is that the Relissarium is not always distributed evenly in the paint. Any portion of the ship that is not correctly or thickly coated enough will not be fully protected.” The third time he fired the gun, the scientist seemed to pause for a second, as if he were unsure if it would work. Closing his eyes, he pulled the trigger. To his relief, the ship was undamaged.
The general nodded his head, pleasantly surprised by the demonstrations he had just seen. “Very well. I’ll discuss the options with my superiors.”
Before the general or his men could say another word, Cherish’s team leapt into action.
To the scientists, it appeared as if the general and his aides’ heads just spontaneously detached from their bodies, and fell to the ground with a sickening thud. Their bodies crumpled on the spot, quickly spewing a pool of red. The techies were transfixed with fear and disbelief.
Cherish quickly detached herself from the rope that Makka was using as a conductor for her gift. Following her lead, the others also emerged from hiding.
Cherish frantically called out to her group before anyone had a chance to barge in after them. “Seal all the doors!” She turned her attention to the scientists in front of her. “We aren’t here to kill you. If you do as you’re told, we’ll let you live.”
Jiyeon slipped up behind them. She took the blaster away from the man who had demonstrated the resilience of the ships. Her eyes landed on a nametag pinned to his shirt. “Pence, is it? Well, Pence, I’m going to take this away, before you go getting any stupid ideas.”
“Hubard?” Cherish addressed him through the micro headset she had been wearing.
His voice piped up in her ear. “Yes, I heard it all.”
She took a few steps closer to the ships. Using her eye as a camera, she sent snapshots of the intricate work on each hull to Hubard. “How long do you think it would take for us to prepare a viable fleet?”
The older man clicked his tongue thoughtfully. “I’ve done my own experiments with the paint-based shielding, but they’re right. It’s the application most likely to fail. We don’t really have time for those sorts of defensive precautions. We might be able to have everything ready in a month, providing you can bring back enough Relissarium. But even that is going to be pushing it.”
A small smile spread across Cherish’s lips, as her eyes looked over the ships in front of her. “Hey, Hubard? How much easier would it make it if I just brought you three ships that were already shielded?”
Three
Theo blinked, trying to clear his head from the throbbing ache at the base of his skull. A chill ran down his body. He tried to move his arms to massage his head, but they wouldn’t move. In fact, most of his body was unable to move. He had been stripped down, and strapped to a cold metal pole in the center of a sterile, white room. He fought against his restraints, but there was no use. Reinforced leather straps were clinched against his wrists, arms, neck, waist, thighs, and ankles.
He tried to turn his head, but even that movement was limited. “What the hell?”
A voice behind him caught him off guard. “You’re awake.”
“Who’s there?”
“Oh, sorry. Here. I’ll walk around. I forgot you couldn’t move.” A young woman dressed in some plain, pressed pants and matching shirt moved into sight. She was mixing a bowl full of something. Theo started to move to try and cover himself, but she waved her hand flippantly. “You needn’t worry about modesty. I’m a doctor—or, well I will be once I pass my exams. You don’t have anything I haven’t seen before.”
Appraising the young woman in front of him, Theo decided to appeal to her softer nature. He wrinkled his brow, and made himself appear more frightened than he really was. “You’re a doctor?”
She stopped stirring for a moment, and gave him a knowing look. “What? Women can be doctors, too, you know.”
“Oh, no, no, no. That’s not what I meant. I was just thanking Batumah for at least letting me have a doctor here.”
“Oh.” She stirred a few more times, and then looked up at him. Glancing towards the door, she took a few cautious steps towards him. “Here, you should eat something. Your vitals showed you were malnourished when you came in.” She took the spoon from the bowl in her hands, and lifted it towards his lips.
Theo looked at her appreciatively. “Thank you.” He look a bite, and almost gagged.
She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, I know. It doesn’t look or taste very good.” She scooped up another grey lump of sticky gruel out of the bowl. “But it is packed with extra nutrients to help you keep your strength up.”
Theo winced, but opened his mouth for the second bite. After he managed to swallow it, he looked at her with as much sincerity as he could muster. “What’s your name?”
“People call me Tort.”
Theo raised his eyebrows curiously. “Tort?”
“Yeah. It’s a nickname.” She smiled a little, and fed him another bite.
“Well, Tort, can I…can I ask you something?”
“Technically,” she stirred the remaining gruel in the bowl round a little more, “you just did. Go ahead, though. You can ask something else.”
Theo made his lips quiver. “W-what’s going to happen to me?”
Tort bit her bottom lip. “I don’t know yet. I don’t think anything has been decided.”
“I’m guessing it won’t do me much good to ask if you could release me, would it?”
She shook her head sadly. “No, it won’t. They would know it was me.”
Theo looked up hopefully. “What if you came with me? You could get out of here, too.”
Tort took a moment to think over his proposal. “I can’t. I have a life here, a family. I’ve almost got my certificate for completing my training.”
He thought he sensed a small part of her considering it anyway,
despite what she said. “Are you happy here? You can still have all of those things away from the empire and the emperor. There’s a whole universe out there where you can practice your skills.”
She tried to change the subject, but Theo could tell he was getting to her. “Here, there’s just one more bite left.”
Theo tried to swallow it without letting it touch his tongue. It was the worst thing he had ever eaten, but he didn’t want to make her feel bad. Plus, even the most disgusting thing might give him enough strength to heal himself. If the emperor was going to slice him up for information, his gift of healing would come in handy. “When is the emperor coming to torture me?” Theo blinked, and shook his head. His tongue was starting to feel fatter inside his mouth, and his lips were going numb. He looked up at Tort with confusion. His body was getting weaker, and his mind was fogging over.
Smiling, the young woman took a step closer to him. “Oh, he’s not coming by for days. By the way, Tort is short for torture expert.” Theo collapsed into his restraints as the paralyzing agent she had mixed into the gruel took hold of him. Tort leaned in, and whispered before he lost consciousness. “You’re going to be my masterpiece.”
Four
Light, delicate music floated down the hallway towards Cierra. The guards beside her knocked on a heavy, wooden door. They were elbowing each other playfully. The door opened, and an older, but still beautiful, woman opened the door. The music was louder. Giggles drifted out to them along with sweet, floral smells.
The Relissarium Wars Omnibus Page 54