The Loctorian Chronicles Intercept

by Andi Feron

  I put my bag in the compartment next to hers. “How’s it going, Lila?”

  “Alright, I guess.”

  “I heard about you and Gabriel. How are you holding up?” I gave her a side hug.

  “Every time I think I’m fine with it, I see him and I realize I’m not. I miss him, but if he can’t trust me, what kind of relationship is that?”

  “I think maybe he made a mistake in his reaction. As much as you need trust in a relationship, you need forgiveness as well. I think it’s a tough balance sometimes. All I know is if you love him and want to be with him, maybe you two should talk about it.”

  Gabriel walked by us into the ship and didn’t say anything.

  “He’s mighty fine, isn’t he?” She smiled, and I smiled back at her.

  “I think you should talk to him. I think it will give you closure one way or the other.”

  We left for the mission, and I hoped Lila and Gabriel could work things out. I knew they were happy together, but they needed to figure that out for themselves.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Seraphine-December 7, 2014

  “Shakespeare!” I called his name and practically tore our quarters apart. The bowl of food I left him earlier that morning sat untouched. Where could he be?

  “Seraphine?” I heard Talon call me cautiously.

  I went out to find him in the living room, and he was looking over the disarray I created looking for our cat.

  “Were we robbed?” he greeted me.

  “Seriously, that’s what you think occurred?”

  “Umm, yes. Or maybe an earthquake.” He smiled at me slightly.

  “We’re in space.” I laughed.

  “I don’t know what occurred, all I know is my wife has to have everything perfect, and this would never meet her approval. Something must have happened beyond her control.”

  “Shakespeare is missing. I’ve looked everywhere.”

  “I believe it.”

  I shook my head at him. “Where could he have gone? He must have followed one of us out.”

  “Anyone dying around the base?”

  “What?” I squinted my eyes at him.

  “That cat knows things.”

  “You’re a goof. Anyway, I’m worried about him. I tried your com device twice. Track him, please.”

  Talon concentrated. “That’s weird. I can’t seem to find him. He must be in the duct system; it interferes with abilities sometimes. Because of the gas they use for capsulization, it’s almost impossible to track through. They use it for training purposes sometimes when they are training new trackers how to get around tracking obstacles.”

  “Oh, no! Talon!”

  “Someone is bound to see him. I mean, cats don’t normally walk around the base. And I’ll keep trying to track him.”

  “This place is like a skyscraper. There are lots of places for him to hide.”

  “Let’s put the word out he’s missing, and I’m sure he’ll turn up.”

  I started by calling our team members first, and they all said they would be on the lookout for him. Halfway through dinner, our doorbell rang. I got up to answer it and found Allie and John standing there.

  “You guys want some dinner?” I asked.

  “No, I made posters.” Allie showed me a picture of Shakespeare sitting nicely, looking at the camera.

  “How did you get that good of a picture of him? He never sits still for me to take one.” I couldn’t hide my surprise. Shakespeare was usually a jerk when it came to snapping his photo.

  “Allie has always had a way with animals. It’s an annoying kind of thing.” Talon continued eating his dinner.

  “He’s probably out exploring and will return on his own. Had a cat growing up that would do that,” John said.

  “But he’s never been out before except when we take him to the vet, and then he’s always transported in a kennel. What if he falls out an airlock or something?” I was worried that would be exactly what would happen to him.

  “We’ll find him, Seraphine. Don’t worry.” Allie pulled me into a hug.

  “Exactly, don’t worry. Now that my sister is on this, there will be no sleeping until he’s found.” Talon was joking about his sister’s enthusiasm for downtrodden animals.

  Allie divided everyone up into groups of two. She recruited the rest of our team to help, and we covered the station with fliers and reported him missing in the base news. We went back to wait, and soon phone calls started pouring in of sightings. Since it was unlikely that some other cat was being spotted, we took them seriously.

  A lady from ops said he came and said hello to her earlier in the day, brightening her day. We followed the leads all over the station, then one arrived that had me worried. A guy who worked in the armory said he saw Shakespeare climb into one of the piping ducts that they send capsulization gas through, which confirmed Talon’s theory as to why he was having trouble tracking him.

  “I mean, it’s not like he has a gene to be activated and it’s going to make him a super cat,” Talon said.

  I bit my lip. “I think we’re going to have to climb in and get him.”

  “I’ll do it,” Allie declared.

  “What?” John shook his head. “Bad idea. You have no idea what you’re doing.”

  “I’m with John. You’re not climbing into the piping system after the cat. If he got himself in, he can get himself out,” Talon said.

  Next thing we all knew we were at the base of the piping system waiting for Allie and me to climb inside. John, being an admiral, pulled some strings and got the system shut off until we were done. We decided we would go together in case we ran into some kind of trouble. With the fog system off, it was easier for Talon to track him. Talon used our com devices to guided us through various pipes. We saw Shakespeare a couple times dodging us through another pipe.

  We chased him through several pipes and then he jumped out of the vent. The vent was too small for us to climb out of, and we had to crawl backwards through the piping. When we climbed back out where the guys were waiting, they looked at us and snickered. Allie had smudges on her face, and static electricity made her hair stand up. I guessed that I looked about the same. Talon opened his mouth, and I shot him a look. Both he and John burst into laughter.

  “By the way, he’s headed for the pub.” Talon could clearly track him now, and we bolted for the elevator.

  There he was, happily munching on a fish stick next to Sal.

  “Shakespeare!” I ran up and grabbed him.

  “Oh, he’s your cat? I enjoy when he stops by for a fish stick,” Sal said.

  “You mean he’s done this before?”

  “Yeah, a couple times a week.”

  My mouth hung wide in disbelief. We took Shakespeare home, baffled. We still had no idea how he got out of our quarters. A week later, we were assigned a mission that meant we would be gone for a few days, and our usual cat sitter stopped by our quarters. I asked him to come while I was there so I could let him know about Shakespeare escaping somehow.

  “Yeah, I know. He goes out your closet vent.” The cat sitter bent down to pet Shakespeare.

  “What vent?” I looked at Talon, and he shrugged.

  The sitter led us to our bedroom and moved a box on an upper shelf in our walk-in closet. Sure enough, in the corner behind a box was an open vent.

  The sitter looked at both our stunned faces. “I thought you both knew and left it open so he could get exercise. He’s kind of a big deal on base.”

  How had we not even known he did this, yet everyone on base seemed to know? We decided to leave the vent open for now. Shakespeare seemed to bring happiness that I only discovered as people saw the fliers and called us. Besides, Jerap would be happy to know that Shakespeare had the freedom he always wanted him to have.

  *

  For our latest mission, we were being sent to the edge of Khalbytian space. Some human colonies were being raided by Khalbytians. At the time, the humans were placed on the colo
nies, Khalbytian space was much farther away, and these seemed like ideal planets given their Earth-like compositions. As the Khalbytians moved closer and closer, it became clear that the colonies were in danger. It was unclear if the colonies were created with the choice of the residing humans, but the Loctorians often did what they thought was best.

  In the colony we were being sent to, the men were being killed but the women were being taken. We were to try and put a stop to the raids as well as help the colonists relocate to a safer planet. Our new ship was big enough that the cargo hold could transfer about a hundred people at a time. There was one village in particular that was thought to be the next target. We decided to start with them.

  We held a town meeting to explain what was taking place. The relocation was voluntary but highly recommended. The colony was established there for decades, and some families held deep roots there. During the meeting, it was discovered that some of the men from an already raided village had shown up to the meeting. They wanted to plead with us to save their wives and daughters.

  “We can’t say no to that,” Allie said when the meeting was over.

  “It’s not part of the mission.” John was strict about protocol.

  “John is right. If we devote time to another endeavor, we might mess the rest of the mission up,” Talon agreed.

  I could see both sides and thought we should compromise. “What if we left it up to the governor? He was the one who requested our assistance. If he doesn’t mind us taking time out for a side mission then maybe we should.”

  John thought that was fair and the governor agreed that if we thought we could save them, then we should, but he asked that some of us stay behind. John decided Allie, Lila, and I should go and act as bait for the Khalbytians. John and Talon would be there to provide back up. Colin, Morgan, Deron, and Gabriel would stay and guard the village.

  Lila, Allie, and I put on clothes from the village. Talon tracked the Khalbytians. The three of us women acted like we were out for a stroll, and they took the bait. Large, clawed hands grabbed us and took us back to their camp. They threw us in a cage with about fifteen other women. Most of them stared blankly, and many looked beaten. A large Khalbytian—with white scales instead of the usual greenish-brown—walked up to take a look at us. Our built-in translators helped us make out their gruff conversation.

  “These three were foolish walking alone,” one of the other Khalbytians said.

  The white one stared at us, and Allie caught his attention. “Her eyes, they look like the light mineral. I want her. She’s mine.” He kept his eyes fixated on Allie.

  “Should we take her out now?” one of the guards asked.

  “Yes, bring her to my chambers.” He walked toward the tents.

  I knew very well that if he took Allie he would be in for a big surprise when she melted him. They pulled her out, and before they could shut the door again, I projected a bunch of humans running at them with weapons. Talon and John took the sudden rapid-fire as their cue to join the fight. The white Khalbytian came running out, and he marched straight for Allie, grabbing her arm. His eyes widened, and he released her, backing up.

  He gave what appeared to be a Khalbytian smile before he pushed a button and disappeared. I assumed that he’d been beamed up to a waiting ship. We helped the women back to their village. Many bore brands. Branding was used as a symbol of Khalbytian ownership.

  Allie healed the injuries she could, but many of their faces remained vacant. We helped transport them to a new planet, and all but a couple of families went with us. The others said they would take their chances. We dropped off the final load of colonists. I thought about those women, and I hoped they would be okay. We returned to our ship and had a couple more assignments before we could return to base.

  The new ship we were given was becoming our second home, and I was glad Talon and I had our own quarters aboard it. They were a lot smaller than the quarters back on base, but they held everything we needed.

  “I’m glad we saved those women. Your sister seems to tether us to doing what’s right. If she hadn’t spoken up, would we have even given a second thought about rescuing them?” I sat on the couch, drinking hot cocoa.

  “I’m not sure. That was a big reason I fought so long to keep her out of the war. I felt she was too compassionate to survive war, but it turns out she keeps pushing compassion to meet the war.”

  “We weren’t unlike her once,” I said

  “How so?”

  “All those years ago, before we fought battles, we let Dramto go without a second thought, even after he hurt you.”

  “Yeah, I guess the war has jaded our consciences. Allie hasn’t gotten there yet.”

  “I know you didn’t want her in, and I understand why, but she has been good for everyone.”

  “I agree. I just don’t know if it’s been good for her. But what’s done is done. I’m glad they have her on my team so I can keep an eye on her at least.”

  “I’m glad she’s close. It’s been nice having a sister,” I said.

  “I have to say, I am happy you two get along so well.”

  I put my hot cocoa down and snuggled up to Talon. We turned on a comedy and spent the rest of the night laughing. I was glad we could have breaks like this, but I worried about what Talon said about us being jaded. What moral compass did we follow during war?

  War definitely complicated morality, but we needed to be careful not to use it as an excuse to do absolutely anything. We couldn’t let ourselves become consumed with evil in the name of winning. Allie seemed to gravitate toward the ideal of her ethics, remaining constant no matter what outside circumstances entailed. It appeared she knew what she could live with and what she couldn’t. I needed to figure that out for myself.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Seraphine-December 15, 2014

  My com device going off woke me early. John called the team to discuss our next assignment. We were still aboard our ship the morning after the colony mission was completed. He asked us to be in the tactical room within an hour. Talon and I shared a shower and ate breakfast together. We made it to the tactical room ten minutes early and waited as the rest of the crew trickled in.

  John briefed us, “This assignment is similar to the last one, as we are to protect more human colonies. We are not relocating them off their planet this time, but we are helping them travel to a mountain base with more security. Khalbytians attack regularly so we should expect to have to battle. There are three colonies. We will be dividing up to escort each of the colonies there to help with the time constraint. We will be docking on Pulsar base in about twenty minutes to pick up three extra soldiers to help us out.”

  We resumed our regular stations and picked up two more men and a woman I didn’t recognize. We went to the next colony planet, which appeared on our view screen as a pink and white swirling globe. We touched down on the surface and the clouds above swirled in swift spiral patterns continually. The landscape was desert-like but a lovely shade of soft pink. A slight wind blew the pink dirt around gently.

  There were blue, plant-like cylinders that grew in sets of five and had small spikes throughout. The cylinders varied in height and circumference, but most stood far above all of us. They caught Lila’s attention immediately, and she scanned them and typed something into her tablet. She finished off her assessment with a couple pictures. She had been documenting all the plant life we came across as she was writing a book on alien botany.

  “Everyone, avoid the cacti. They seem to have hallucinogenic properties,” Lila said.

  “That might make for a good time.” Colin smiled at her.

  Lila laughed slightly and shook her head. A man walked up to greet us. He walked straight for John and shook his hand. His hair was brown and balding, and he appeared to be in his forties.

  “I’m Matthew Rogers, colony leader. Glad to have all of you here. We are anxious to get to our mountain fortress. We have a group of colonists already there reinforcing everythi
ng. As you know, we are not soldiers. When we colonized here, the Khalbytians were not a threat. We are only simple farmers.”

  John spoke, “We’re here to get all of you there safely. Our intel has told us a wave of Khalbytians is on its way and we need to get all of you there as soon as possible. To save time we are splitting our team up to lead the other two villages at the same time.”

  “Are there more of you in the ship?” Matthew looked anxiously at the eleven of us.

  “No, the council thought this would be enough. I assure you, we will get everyone there safely. This is Althea, Seraphine, and Deron. They will be leading your village to the mountain.”

  “Women? You are leaving us with two women and one soldier.” Matthew’s voice was growing increasingly angry.

  “I’m leaving you with three of my best soldiers.”

  “Women aren’t soldiers. Especially these tiny ones. That one there, she’s what? Maybe a hundred pounds?” Matthew pointed at Allie, and I saw her smile a little.

  I, on the other hand, lacked amusement at his words, and my attitude was closely linked to disgust. Allie was definitely a surprise for almost anyone. She lacked muscles of any kind and looked like she could easily be knocked over with a simple shove. She made up for it with her spirit, and anyone who underestimated her would find that regrettable.

  “I promise you will not be disappointed with their skills. They have extensive training and experience, and will be able to protect your people adequately. Also, I was told you denied having us transport everyone on our ship. This would be more efficient and safer,” John said.

  “No, I don’t trust your ship. One hit from the enemy, and we all explode.”

  “Are you ready to accept the help that’s needed, or does my team need to pick up and leave?”

  “We will accept your help even if it’s lacking in capability. Now that I know we will have to do more fighting than anticipated, I will need fifteen minutes to prep my men.”