The Aphaian ruffled his feathers anxiously. “What are you planning on doing?”
Cherish pulled their craft almost vertical relative to the surface of the planet below. “I can’t guide people through this mess if I don’t know what’s going on. I need a better vantage point. If you can make us invisible, now would be the time.”
Arden closed his eyes for a second and focused on his gift. Their ship was soon cloaked. Being up above the battle was like being above the clouds in a storm. Cherish could see the two opposing forces colliding with one another, like the legendary ancient armies equipped only with swords and axes. Flashes of light cast gruesome shadows along the battling ships.
They flew in silence for a moment. The amount of enemy ships was almost overwhelming. Cherish felt her palms turn clammy. “There’s too many of them. By the time the rest of the Yasta fleet gets up here, they’ll have swallowed up most of our ships.”
Arden’s feathers fluttered upwards along his neck. “What do you want to do? We can’t turn around now. If we withdraw our troops, the imperials will take it out on everyone in the galaxy. They won’t stop until any and everyone who has ever heard of the Yasta are dead.”
Cherish tightened her grip on the steering controls. “I have no intention of turning around. You just keep us cloaked.”
Cherish flew them above the battle, until she could position their fighter behind the imperial ranks. Diving behind the enemy lines, Cherish saw a large, domed ship at the center of the final wave of imperials. She positioned them directly behind the large ship, and aimed her blasters. As her fingers hovered above the trigger, Cherish spotted a small escape pod flying away from the ship like a speeding bullet. The small ship left behind the protection of the galactic fleet, heading for the charred surface of Relisse. Before Cherish even had a chance to formulate a question about what she was seeing, a vision blinded her.
In her mind’s eye, she saw Pollus staggering out of the escape pod on the surface of the planet below. He was armed. A blaster at his hip fired readily at anyone that tried to approach him. No, it wasn’t a blaster. Cherish tried to focus more intensely on the emperor. It almost looked like he was controlling some sort of deadly energy that was covering his hands. An intense sense of foreboding flooded her body.
The vision faded, and all she could see was the battle in front of her. Cherish had never seen anything like the energy she had witnessed Pollus wield in her vision. Cherish cursed under her breath. She wanted to stay and help the Yasta fleet, but there was something more pressing now, something that needed her immediate attention. No matter what she wanted to do, Batumah had given her the gift of prophecy, for better or worse. She had no choice but to act on the information. Pollus couldn’t be allowed to escape, to wreak more havoc on the galaxy. Slamming one fist into the ship’s console, Cherish abandoned the battle and dove after the escape pod.
Seven
Jiyeon slowly slipped out of a secret opening behind a dresser in the harem. There was an air of worry buzzing through the rooms. Jiyeon stepped tentatively out of the passage. After making sure there wasn’t any immediate danger, she motioned for the others to follow her. Lima led them from the room they had emerged in, out to the main common area of the sector.
A large group of women were kneeling in a circle muttering words of prayer. Some women clung to one another, while others watched, terrified, through the window. They had a clear view of the dome overhead. The flashing lights were spellbinding, and yet spelled their doom.
One of the women in the prayer circle rocked back and forth. Her arms were draped over her very pregnant belly. “Why hasn’t he come for us? Where’s the emperor?”
One of the others by the window turned on her, sharply. “He isn’t coming for us, Jeanette! He’ll just get new girls. We mean nothing to him!”
Jeanette blinked back tears. “That’s not true! I’m carrying his child. He wouldn’t leave me here. He wouldn’t!”
Esme moved forward to comfort Jeanette. She threw a reproachful glare at the woman by the window. “Trina, leave her alone! You’re not helping.”
Jiyeon stepped out of the shadows. “She’s right though.”
A startled gasp rang through the common area. Esme looked at the Josti, a little afraid. “Lima? What’s going on here? Who’s that?”
Lima moved forward so the other women could see her. Korrine still clung to her dress. Lima made signals with her hands that Jiyeon had never seen before. Esme seemed to understand what the motions meant, but judging by the look on her face, she still didn’t like what was being said. Lima motioned to all the women. Everyone looked to Esme, waiting for her to translate.
Esme pursed her lips together. “What reassurances do we have that they won’t kill us? They might only want us to use us against the emperor. Did you even think about that?”
Jeanette was almost hysterical. She looked frantically from Lima to Esme. “What is it? What’s she saying?”
Esme shook her head, frustrated. “She says the Josti wants to get us out of here. The battle outside’s much bigger than what we can see through the dome. She says if we stay here we’ll most likely die.”
Trina moved away from the window. “Why are we still waiting here then? Let’s go!”
Esme reached out to try and stop Trina from moving to Jiyeon’s side. “How can you go with her? You don’t know anything about her! What if it’s a trap?”
Raising her head higher, Trina addressed all of the other women in the harem. “I’d much rather take my chances on it being a trap than sit here, and wait to die when the other side finally blows the ship up. You may think that because he gives us food, and pools to bathe in, that the emperor cares about us. But, this place is just as much of a prison cell as the dungeon. You can all make up your own minds, but I’m choosing to try and get out of here while I still can.”
There was a low murmur through the room. Some of the women moved towards Jiyeon and Lima. Others refused to budge. They were trading one unknown fate for another. It was likely that most of the women had been in the harem for so long that they couldn’t even remember life outside of their gilded cage.
One of the girls moved frantically around the room. “I don’t even have any of my stuff packed!”
Jiyeon called out over the bustling women. “We don’t have time to pack. The only thing you need is yourself.”
It was clear from their mutterings that the women were not happy about leaving everything behind. Still, those who were prepared to make a break for it, accepted it as part of the costs for their freedom. Just as Jiyeon was about to lead the women back to the passage their small group had just come from, the harem door burst open.
Esme’s worry lines relaxed a little. “Dr. Brax! I’m so glad you’re here.”
Dr. Brax quickly knelt beside Jeanette. “Jeanette, you need to try to relax. The stress isn’t good for the baby.”
Korrine ran to her mother, and threw her arms around her neck. “Mom!”
“Korrine?” Dr. Brax looked around the room. “How did you get here?”
Jiyeon glanced outside. The flashes and undulations in the force field grew ever brighter. Time was ticking. “Cierra was watching out for her. I ran into them in the tunnels. We brought her here, but we’re trying to get as many of these women out of this place as possible before it’s too late.”
The doctor’s face saddened, as she recognized the name. “Cierra saved you?”
Korrine nodded. “Mommy, we have to go.”
Even after Dr. Brax had helped the emperor forcibly impregnate his newest concubine, Cierra had still tried to save her daughter. Her eyes hardened. She looked unflinchingly at Jiyeon. “I’m coming with you. Let’s go.”
Jeanette struggled to get to her swollen feet. “You can’t leave me here! What if something happens?”
Dr. Brax pressed the palms of her hands on each side of the pregnant girl’s face. “I’m only going to tell you this once. I’m leaving here, with my daughter.
Now, if you want to come with me, you can. I am not sacrificing my child or myself to stay here and coo over you. If you want to be a mother, then you need to start acting like it, now. That child in your belly will have no real life as long as you’re here. And that’s assuming this place survives. You need to make a choice. Either you do what’s best for your child and get away from this evil place, or you stay here and let your baby continue the cycle of abuse. You have to decide. Now.”
Jeanette cried out of fear, and uncertainty. Her voice was barely more than a whisper. “I’ll go with you.”
Jiyeon looked at the doctor with respect. She motioned for all of the women willing to try to escape to follow her. “We don’t have much time. Move as quickly as you can.” The group of women followed the Josti to the hidden passageway in one of the concubine’s rooms. One by one, they filed into the tunnel.
The palace rattled and shook as a particularly heavy blow collided with the ship. For the first time, Jiyeon considered the fact that, even though she was trying to do the right thing, having good intentions was never a guarantee that things would work out for them. Dust rained down on them from the tunnel overhead. How much could the passageway—or even the entire ship for that matter—take before it crumbled under the stress of war?
Eight
Cierra’s back was pressed firmly into a passenger seat in the emperor’s escape cruiser. Bulky guards were seated on either side of her. The whine of the engines increased as they dove towards what was left of Relisse. Pollus was glaring at the monitors. A vein in his neck was starting to throb. His sharp eyes scanned the space around them, looking for any of the rebels that might have spotted them leaving the palace compound. It didn’t look like anyone had followed them, but he wouldn’t relax until the entire rebel force had been wiped out.
Suddenly, a hit from behind rocked the cruiser violently from side to side. Pollus tightened his grip on the arms of his seat. Seeing him squirm made Cierra smile. Even if they crashed, as long as he went down with her, she wouldn’t even care. It would be worth it to make sure that scum was wiped off the face of the galaxy.
Pollus’s face was red with anger. “Where did that come from? Why aren’t the monitors showing any enemy crafts around us?”
The pilot stuttered, trying to calm him down. “I-I don’t know, your majesty. There aren’t any signals. We don’t have visuals on anyone.”
The emperor bellowed with rage. “They’re out there! They have to be! Do your damn job, or I’ll make sure this is the last time you ever fly!” Cierra let out a snicker. He spun on her. One massive hand reached back and coiled around her throat. “What’s so funny? What do you know?”
Cierra simply continued to smile. As her lips faded from rosy pink to slightly blue, Pollus released her. The skin on her neck was already tinged bluish purple. Cierra felt her heart beat faster for a second. Whoever was pursuing the cruiser had the ability to cloak their ship with a Yasta gift. Her initial thought was that Theo was coming to rescue her, but how could he even know she was in the little escape pod? It would be foolish to assume that anyone was coming to save her. The most she could hope for was that, whoever was following them, would be able to put an end to the emperor’s reign of terror, once and for all.
The small ship careened to the side, lurching dangerously, trying to avoid another plasma bolt from behind. Cierra didn’t hear the strap on her harness snap. She only felt herself get thrown out of her seat. The craft had gone from an evasive spiral, to an out of control, tumultuous dive. The pilot tried desperately to regain control. Pollus barked orders that made no difference under the circumstances. Cierra’s back slammed into the roof of the craft. It knocked the wind out of her.
She could no longer tell which direction was up, and which was down. Loud warning sirens, and error beeps screamed through the craft. Cierra was pinned in place by the spinning of the craft. Fear rushed through her veins like ice water. Time seemed to slow down. Her mind was at a loss. Small glimpses through the windshield showed that they were coming into the planet’s atmosphere, hot. Flashes of orange plasma went by. There was nothing she could do to secure herself before the crash. One thought played on repeat in her mind. I’m going to die.
Bits of broken debris ricocheted off of her body, and the walls of the ship. Cierra felt her body tense. Pollus was still strapped in his seat. His arms were flung over his face, as if that would be enough to protect him when they hit the planet’s surface. The pilot was screaming, crying, and begging for anything that might help. The guards that had been seated beside Cierra were unconscious. One of them had a nasty gash on the side of his head where something had bashed into him.
The fall seemed endless. But, through the cracked windshield, Cierra saw the blackened earth of Relisse rushing up to meet them, like an old friend. The next moment, everything stopped. Her body was numb. Her ears echoed with the blaring sirens that were no longer operational. Her eyes were dazed, trying to make sense of the mangled bodies around her. She tried to take a deep breath, but even that was too much for her to manage. Her mind rejected the chaos of mangled metal and bloodied piles of flesh around her as reality. Arms didn’t bend that way. Necks shouldn’t turn like that. Sparks from snapped wires fizzled. Precious oxygen was escaping through the holes in the ship. Cierra wasn’t sure if the lightheadedness she was feeling was from the loss of oxygen, or something worse.
After seeing the other bodies around her, she couldn’t look at her own. She didn’t want to know how bad it was. All she knew was that she could no longer feel her legs or toes. It was as if half of her body was simply no longer there. She felt tears that she didn’t even know she was crying slide down her cheeks. Panic was starting to set in after the shock. Her breathing was punctuated with wet sounds coming from her lungs. Cierra closed her eyes. This wasn’t the way she had thought that she was going to die. Being alone made it even worse. Even with the imperials around her, Cierra was without anyone to show her compassion, to reassure her that she would be okay. Even if it was a lie, she still wanted someone to try and comfort her in her last moments. With her ears still ringing, Cierra never heard part of the hull being ripped away. It was a light piercing the dark interior of the ship that made her open her eyes again. Cierra’s lips trembled. Above her, in one final gifted moment from the universe, Cierra saw a familiar, friendly face looking down at her.
Nine
Cherish flew behind the escape pod, firing freely at the ship. The imperial cruiser raced towards Relisse. The frantic swerving of the ship made it hard for Cherish to land too many good hits. She used her augmented reflexes to recognize the patterns of the pilot’s evasive maneuvers. Overcorrecting as they entered the atmosphere, Cherish lined up a collision.
Arden clicked his beak nervously. “You’re going to hit them!”
“That’s the point!” Cherish flew them closer until the front of her ship rammed into the end of the escape pod. “Got it!”
The emperor’s ship fell into a chaotic roll, smoking on its way to the surface of the planet. The smoke traced a spiral through the oxygen-starved atmosphere. She smiled, watching Pollus plummet to the smooth, hard-as-nails landscape below them, which he had created. The royal craft smashed into the surface and bounced, shedding parts as it continued to spin. The landing was one of the worst she had ever seen. Hopefully, there would be nothing left of Pollus but a badly bruised sack of pulp in a royal uniform.
Cherish followed the ship down to its crash site. She landed close by. Dark smoke was billowing up from the warped craft. “I don’t think you need to worry about the cloaking now. They aren’t going anywhere.”
Arden dropped the invisibility as Cherish climbed out of the craft. “Be careful!”
“I will. Don’t climb out of the ship. You’ll pass out again from lack of oxygen.”
He nodded fervently. “I have no desire to go through that again.”
Cherish shut the hatch on the fighter. Her boots crunched across the dry, dead surface of Reliss
e. Approaching cautiously, she shifted one of her arms into a blaster. There was a hole in the craft. One foot at a time, she inched her way closer. She could hear movement from inside the ship. Cherish held her blaster at the ready position, moving quickly to look inside.
Horror flooded her. Cherish’s eyes widened. “Cierra?”
Cierra’s eyes watered with pain. She was gasping, trying to breathe, but there wasn’t enough oxygen to fill her lungs. The arm of the empty copilot’s seat had snapped and impaled her during the crash. Her dainty fingers stretched up towards Cherish. Blood was gushing with each pulse of her heart. A gurgling noise was coming from her throat. Cherish couldn’t tell if she was trying to speak or scream.
Cherish wasn’t sure what she could do to ease Cierra’s pain, much less what she could do to save her. She took another step towards her, reaching out a comforting hand. “Cierra, I’m so—”
Before she could manage another word, Cherish was knocked backwards by a plasma blast aimed at her face. Her body was flung through the air, away from the wreckage. Cierra struggled to breathe. Panic filled her eyes. There was nothing she could do to help.
A cloud of rancid breath washed over her cheek. Pollus squatted down over Cierra. “Oh, I’m sorry. Were you trying to say goodbye? Well, don’t worry. Looking at that chunk of metal sticking out of your chest, you won’t be around to be upset about it much longer anyway.” The emperor stood up. He stepped out of the hole in the ship, glancing back at her one more time. “I always did like it better when a woman was on her back.”
Pollus stepped out of the hole in the hull of the ship. The lower oxygen levels didn’t seem to faze him in the least. He looked out over the charred surface. He scuffed his boot along the dust until it ground along something harder. The Relissarium under the surface of the planet was one of the biggest discoveries in the past several centuries. There was no way he was going to let the Yasta extremists have the technology, the base, or any other corner of his empire.
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