by Laynie Bynum
“All in due time.”
We landed on Nisiea. We were well versed with the lay of the land and were ready to retrieve Uriah. I looked at Jaliyah. She now stood in her full platinum battle gear like the rest of us.
It wasn’t that I thought she’d compromise the mission, but there was no way I would allow her to go. No matter how hard she tried to conceal it, I knew she was in love with Uriah. He was the only idiot who didn’t know it. It pained me to hurt her, but she was too volatile for this mission. Her emotions toward him were too strong, and seeing him with another woman, a human woman, might test her infallible patience.
I looked at her. “I need you to stay here and guard the warcraft.”
Her face plate retracted and I saw the hurt in her golden-brown eyes. “You would deny me this mission? Why? Haven’t I proven my loyalty for twenty years?”
“You have, and I trust you completely. I don’t know what we might encounter here, and you might have to fly to the planet of Korovine for reinforcements. If you go and things go sideways, there’s no one left to fly the warcraft from here.”
Her eyes widened. “You are expecting the kind of trouble that would need backup?”
“We might.”
It was a partial truth. She and I were the only ones skilled enough to fly this warcraft through the vast expanse of space. I wasn’t expecting trouble like that, but I was prepared for it just the same. I have allies here on this planet, but I’m not telling her that.
We all had neurocommunicators implanted in our brain that allowed us to communicate with one another over large distances. When out of signal reach, we could temporarily reach each other through our telepathic synapses. My telepathic synapses were stronger than the others’ because they rarely used theirs except in a life or death situation. The empire made us into warriors, but the Kubris forged us into immortal killing machines. Our bodies were freaks of nature, and everyone knew that we weren’t ordinary Drokninians.
Zvika went to the back of the warcraft and got the extra sword that he kept tucked to his side. He sheathed it on his person under his armor.
“If you run into trouble, reach us through the neurocom.”
We exited the warcraft. We walked down the street and ducked behind the first building we saw. I watched as Malachi broke away from the group and headed down the other way. When he was out of sight, Zvika went in the opposite direction.
Nisiea was a planet that housed species of all kind. The humans lived here because the atmosphere was close to Earth’s atmosphere, and aliens came because it was a mecca planet to do business with the underworld. Criminal humans, mages, and other aliens came to trade, swindle, kill, and survive. This place was dangerous, and crime was conducted right under the humans’ nose. Either the humans were too stupid to see what was going on or they knew about it but, because they were the weaker species, had adapted. Either way, Nisiea was not a place for the faint of heart.
Nodding to my team, I headed for the capital to bargain with Declan Sokolow. By bargain, I meant that he would either give me what I wanted or I would kill him and go to Plan B. I was trying to exercise diplomacy, but I wouldn’t compromise to get what I wanted. The stakes were too high. Humans, aliens, and witches moved out of our way as we rushed down the street. The air on this planet caused me to breathe as if I were breathing through a straw. My chest was tight and my eyes burned. There wasn’t much that could hurt a Drokninian, but polluted air made my lungs work harder to breathe.
Entering the capital, I took the steps two at a time. I stopped on the fifth step and turned around to assess our surroundings.
“Azrael and Yechiel, you two guard the doors. I’m going to have a chat with Declan Sokolow.”
Running up the rest of the steps, I took out my laser gun. As I walked down the hall, a human man jumped out of nowhere and fired his proton gun. My armor absorbed the shot. I grabbed my knife and threw it at him. The knife lodged in his leg, and the man went down screaming like a baby. I stepped over him and walked to the largest door on that floor. Kicking the door open, I walked inside.
Declan sat at his desk. “You don’t have clearance to be here, Drokninian. We are prepared to fight you to the death.”
“You have someone who belongs to me and I want him. If you return him unharmed, you might just live to see another day.”
Declan stood and jumped up to the ceiling, grabbing his sword. Rumors described Declan as a Halatkian, from the mystical lost tribe of Hawakumeia. According to rumors, he had the power of invisibility. Unsheathing his sword, he approached me slowly.
“You Drokninian think you can dominate everyone. Well, it won’t work. You lust after Nisiea, but your kind will never rule here.”
Sliding my gun in its holster, I gripped my sword in my hand and circled him.
He lunged for me, his sword aimed at severing my head, but I ducked just in time to land an elbow jab in his gut. He grunted and changed his stance, waving me to him with his right hand.
Declan smiled then disappeared. Closing my eyes, I saw with my senses and ducked my head and rolled forward just as a gush of wind sliced by my head. I took my knife out and threw it straight ahead.
He swore at me as blood dripped on the floor. A few minutes later, he dropped the cloak of invisibility and pulled the knife from his shoulder.
“I grow tired of your kind. You have until nightfall to leave my planet. If you’re still here after that, the man you came for will be delivered to you in pieces.”
He breathed deeply and waved his hand over his right shoulder and the wound started reshaping itself. The blood on the ground formed tiny beads and floated to his arm, rolling upward until all his blood was back inside his body, and the wound started to heal itself.
So that is why nobody can kill Declan. He has special abilities that make him a hard target. He might be immortal as well.
He smiled. “I will not be easy to kill. Leave my planet while you still have a chance.”
Heavy boots came running down the hall. In the distance, I could hear my men shooting their laser guns and the clash of Drokninian weapons snaking through metal, flesh, and bones. Our weapons were the strongest in the galaxy. Drokninian metal could cut through anything.
Suddenly, I slid another knife out of its sheath. As soon as the footsteps reached the door, I threw the knife toward the door behind me, knowing my aim was true. Without looking, I saw his face drain of color. Silent tears slid down his eyes as he watched the body hit the floor.
Something was wrong. I turned and my body went still. It was a little human girl who looked no older than seventeen years. I have done many things in my life, but I’ve never hurt a woman or child. Women and children were a line I had never crossed. Declan didn’t know that, and my harsh reputation of being a mindless killer for the empire traveled far and wide. As much as I hated it, I had found his weakness. Everyone has one, and the key was locating that weakness and exploiting the heck out of it.
Glancing at my watch, I turned to him.
“You have two minutes to decide if you wish for her to live. If so, you will tell me where Katy Wilson is.”
A harsh laugh escaped him. “I would have told you that for free. She dove off the building to her death when one of your men told her that she was his mate. She knew that she loved another.”
His aura was green, which meant that he spoke the truth. I turned around and channeled my spirit, reversing time back to before I threw the knife.
I started walking from the office.
“How the hell did you reverse time? No one has the power to reverse time itself,” said Declan. He ran past me and intercepted her.
“Elsa, go to your room, and don’t come out until I tell you.” He grabbed her arm and pushed her toward the stairs.
“I heard a commotion. I was scared that something had happened to you,” said Elsa.
“It did. I’ll be up in a minute. Don’t leave your room.” He turned to me.
“We need to talk. I
have information that you want, and you possess a talent that I need,” said Declan.
“Not interested.” I didn’t turn around. I just kept on walking down the steps until I reached my men. Uriah must be in his own Kubris hell right now, and things weren’t going according to plan.
I hope Katy Wilson wasn’t his true mate. What’s worse, if she were his one true Kravonesh, then Uriah will never be the same. We can only hope that he was impulsive and not stricken with the mating fever.
When I reached the lower level, there were human bodies everywhere. My men had decided to paint the lower level with the blood of the humans.
“Do you find honor in killing a lesser species? I didn’t tell you to kill the humans. They were only following orders.”
Azrael lowered his head. “I took my restlessness out on them.”
“We are not here to start a war. We’re here for a simple extraction. Stop acting like mindless killers and stick to the mission.”
The empire wanted us to be mindless killing machines that never questioned their orders, but we were better than that. What they had done to us made us almost impossible to kill. We were no longer mindless, brainwashed warriors. We were the empire’s elite warriors who had woken up.
Night came, and it was time to get Uriah. The prison was built deep in the Mountain of Makukai. Makukai was one of the tallest mountains in the galaxy, and no human could scale it. The walls, windows, and doors were bound and logged with Declan’s biological signature. My weapon that pierced his flesh had his blood on it. Jaliyah, being the best scientific combat medic in the galaxy, had synthesized his biological signature before we arrived back at the warcraft.
I looked at her in amazement. Any human, mage, or alien would be lucky to have her. Her heart was too pure to be settled with a demon spawn from Hubris’s fire.
“You are amazing, Jaliyah.”
She snorted. “Are you just realizing that, General?”
My lips curved. She had balls, and I wouldn’t have her any other way. She was the only female on the warcraft, but she held her own.
“You’ve outdone yourself this time.” I turned and walked off. She had always been a bit uncomfortable about receiving a lot of praise. She was smart, resourceful, kind, and quick as a whip. She could kill just as quickly, and she didn’t scare easily.
Putting on our Garpian gliding suits, my soldiers and I prepared to jump from the craft.
“Let’s get in and out, boys.” Thrusting the doors open, I jumped out of the warcraft with my hands pressed to my thighs and my head bent toward the ground.
My body flew at maximum speed, and when I saw the south side of the mountain, I opened my arms, gliding toward the blind spot where the cameras wouldn’t record our landing. When my feet touched the mountain, I took out my proton laser.
When my men landed beside me, I turned and felt the cold mountain surface for the keypad. I located the black rectangular box and quickly loaded Declan’s biological signature inside. After a few minutes, the side of the mountain separated, revealing a secret entrance, and we rushed inside.
Activating the trackers for Zvika and Malachi, I rushed down the long corridor. Reaching the circular steps, I silently rushed down them and halted when I came to the first cell. The cell was heavily guarded more than the others. Two men sat sleeping outside the gates.
Creeping up on them, I grazed past them into the cell. There was a man in the cell towering over a female prisoner.
“If you tell me what kind of power she has, I will make sure to end your suffering quickly. Deny me the answers I seek and you will long for death,” he said.
“You’re in here for stealing. What do you think will happen to you for the rest of your life?”
She opened her mouth and spat on him. Her hair covered her face, and all I saw was the hair and the top of her head. She looked so fragile and small as he towered over her.
He backhanded her across the face.
“Hey, you, what are you doing in here?” The security guard lifted his hand and sent a purple orb of energy hurling toward me. The blast hit my armor square in the chest, and most of the blast was absorbed, but my skin felt like I had been covered in acid. Taking my proton laser gun out, I fired several shots. One hit the guard in the shoulder and the other hit him in the head.
Turning around, I rushed to the female’s cell door and stopped.
The man had his hands around her neck. She grabbed his gun and shot him in the face. He slumped to the floor, and she fell to her knees, gasping and wiping the man’s blood off her face. Stepping back, I shot the lock.
I swung the door open. “Hurry. You don’t have much time.”
She got to her feet and walked out the cell. Instead of heading for the stairs and freedom, she ran down the hall, deeper into the prison.
I grabbed her arm, halting her steps. “Freedom is that way.” Pointing toward the steps behind us, I let her go.
“I know,” she said. Then she took off at full speed, running down the hall.
Running after her, I spoke briskly into my neurocom. “Do you have Uriah?”
“We do, and we’ll meet you outside soon,” said Azrael.
“I won’t be coming out empty handed.”
Chapter Three
Koyama
T
wenty-four hours was all it took for my world and everyone that I loved in it to come crashing down. The loss of my father was too much to bear. True to his word, upon his death, his powers had invaded my body and mind. I had blacked out.
Zariah and the special council hadn’t waited until I left before they had snuffed out my father’s life. I’m not certain why I hadn’t gone crazy except that my heart burned for revenge. When I have done my duty and saved Teletera from the men set on destroying it, the special council will die.
“Go now and bring Nakatomi to us. It should not take her long to neutralize the threat to Teletera,” said Zariah.
I was fantasizing about ripping her brains out and stomping on them when my legs gave out. I did nothing but nod my assent.
Walking from the room, I felt her cold fingers lock around my wrist.
“I have eyes everywhere. If you think you can betray the council, it won’t work. I’ll know what you did and your father will be dead.”
“For all I know, you have killed him already.” I watched the coldness in her eyes turn glacial. Her face had lost its constant smirk and her lips thinned. It gave me great pleasure to know that she seethed. When the threat to our planet was neutralized, I would kill her slowly.
“You will just have to trust us, won’t you? What other choice do you have?” She smirked and turned on her heels.
It didn’t take me long to leave my planet and set the coordinates to Nisiea. The planet had a beautiful sun, and the energy there was strong. There were aliens, humans, and mages on the planet. I had never been around many aliens, but I really didn’t want to run into any Droknin. They conquered every planet they set eyes on. They were the fiercest warriors in the galaxy, and I hoped that they were anywhere but here.
From what Father told me, Drokninian were blue aliens, extremely tall, with horns on their heads, claws on their hands and feet, and they had tails. They sounded as if they were hell spawn. Shaking my head to clear my eyes, I focused on the task at hand.
After all, I wasn’t here to make friends or to sight see. The man who plotted and planned to destroy Teletera was in the prison. I needed to get arrested and imprisoned. There, I would kill Elon Laghari and free my best friend, Nakatomi. My father’s last parting gift to me was the knowledge that Miyoshi Muneyaki was also rumored to be somewhere on this planet. Having both of my best friends by my side would be amazing. I wasn’t leaving this planet without both of them.
The quickest way to be imprisoned was to steal. Passing a merchant stand, I saw a purple alien female with long orange hair and a wheelbarrow full of delicious looking blue fruit. I snatched a few pieces of fruit and ran.
A shrill
whistle rang out. Looking behind me, I saw the alien female jumping up and down and pointing to her fruit. Rolling my eyes, I continued to eat the fruit. Something told me that when I was incarcerated, I wouldn’t be eating this well. I took another bite before I turned the corner and ran right into a wall of muscle.
Strong hands wrapped around my waist. “You are under arrest for breaking code one-eleven-fifty-five,” he said.
The guard looked like a Valrick. Valricks were scaly yellow aliens that were agile and swift. He hauled me down the street over his shoulder like a sack of wheat. Ignoring the stares from the humans and other aliens alike. I did not struggle.
Instead of the alien taking me to the courthouse, I was tossed in the back of a hovercar and spirited away. As the car took off at a fast speed, my stomach lurched. The Valrick pulled out a neuro destabilizer and put it on my neck. In an instant, my nervous system was disrupted, and I slumped down in the seat, losing the ability to move my limbs.
Panic rose inside me. Lightening streaked across the sky. Closing my eyes, I tried to steady my racing heart. I forced myself to think calming thoughts, drawing upon memories to control the energy that rose within me. I can’t let them know that I have power. The humans in the prison here have relaxed security, and I need them to relax the security on me as well.
“Cleon will have fun with a pretty little thing like you,” said the Valrick. He pulled out something from his right pocket, and a jolt of electricity shot through me again. My skin felt like I had been burned alive. Pain surged through my body again. He leaned around the car seat and showed me the little back box that he held in his hand.
It’s only pain. Breathe through it. Closing my eyes briefly, I picture Father’s face as he turned himself over to the special council.
My energy dulled a bit and I bit my lip to keep my focus on my pain rather than the instinct to lash out and protect myself. I hadn’t expected pain or torture. My eyes narrowed at the alien in front of me. Nisiea was a planet that had its own rules, and money and power could buy you more than goods and services.