by Luna Hunter
I want to keep denying it, but what does it even matter?
“We’re through, anyways, so if you want to tell me how wrong it was, spare me,” I say as I turn my back to him. “Now leave me be.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he says.
“Why? Because I’m a species traitor, is that it? I’m not in the mood for one of your xenophobic rants, Willow. Save it for the Council meetings.”
“There will be no more Council meetings,” he says coldly.
I whirl back around. “What do you mean? Did Haas finally grow some balls and kick you out?”
A thin smile forms on his thin lips. “Not quite. He saw the light and stepped down.”
My throat feels like it’s closing up. “And you…”
“You are looking at the new Captain.”
“Great,” I say, throwing my hands up in frustration. “Perfect. Come to gloat, then? Is that it? Is that what gets you off?”
“Not quite. You see, you were right about one thing. We are dangerously low on fuel. We’re practically sitting ducks.”
“So you’ve come to your senses and decided to trade with the Aegir?”
Willow approaches me. I take a step back, until my shins bump into the stone railing of the fountain. He’s practically standing face-to-face with me now. His sunken eyes and gaunt face take up most of my vision.
From the corner of my eyes I see several armed guards step forward. Somehow I doubt they’ve come to save me from the new captain.
“I’ve decided to come to my senses and use the capital that we have in order to safeguard humanities future.”
“Back off, Willow.”
I try to shove him, but he grabs my wrist and twists it. Pain shoots through my arm.
“Ow, let me go, asshole!”
“Have you figured out what that capital is yet, Sasha? Have you gotten it through that skull of yours?” His breath is horrid, his eyes filled with hatred. “It’s you, my darling. It’s women.”
“What?” A dark pit, no, a black hole forms in my stomach, sucking all of the hope I didn’t even know I had left into that vacuum.
“Yes, that’s right. Now the wheels are turning. I’m going to sell your ass for fuel. When you meet your end at the hand of some alien lowlife, take comfort in the fact that your life will have finally had a purpose. Besides, you love aliens, don’t you? So you won’t mind.”
“What the fuck, you creepy asshole!” I swear as I yank my arm free. I raise it and quickly slap him across the face as hard as I can. “It’s you! You’ve been kidnapping people and selling them, haven’t you?!”
Willow staggers backwards, his lip bleeding. “Bitch! Don’t just watch, seize her!”
The armed guards run at me. I turn and jump into the fountain, my feet searching for support on the slippery marble as adrenaline surges through my veins. It all makes sense.
Willow has been behind all of it.
Here I thought my nightmare was over when we left Xi’Jek, but the Banks is not safe from wicked greed either.
The hands come from behind, grasping my clothes, my arms, my hair, yanking me back. There’s too many to fight off. I slip and fall into the fountain with a big splash.
For a moment the hands hold me down, despite my best efforts, and my lungs seem to burn and burst with excruciating pain. Just as the light starts to fade I’m pulled back onto the Presidium. Two guards hold my arms tightly behind my back while Willow sneers at me, seething with hatred. His fists are balled up.
“Are you going to beat me now?” I gasp.
“You’re worth more unharmed,” he says coldly. “Take her to my shuttle.”
Chapter 13
Kozus
I didn’t think I could be this alone.
This lost.
All my life I’ve been surrounded by people. My staff, my friends and family, my subjects. I’ve always had someone to turn to. More people giving me advice than I either needed or wanted.
Without Sasha, this cell is just that. A prison. She brought life and laughter to this room. Now the walls are coming at me from every direction.
I did find true friendship with Malak — as a fellow prince, he understands perfectly the pressures of royal life, the good and the bad. There is good in life. But right now I don’t see it. It is hidden, like the moon behind the clouds. No, like an island taken by the sea, for I strongly doubt my happiness could ever return.
An asteroid called Sasha Rashford has smashed my moon apart. She has sunk my island. It’s a cataclysmic extinction event.
Without her by my side, without her laugh, her smile, her energy, what is even the point of it all?
While I told myself I was being careful, I was actually falling head over heels for the human female. She is my yali.
And an Aegir without his yali is like the sea without its tides. Dead.
I thought I might feel relieved. The choice has been made, after all, by Sasha. I must choose tradition. I must choose duty. I must return to Kar, I must take Zunda Egos as my mate, and live out the rest of my life.
Who knows, Zunda might even turn out to be a decent person. It’s within the realm of possibilities.
Will she be my yali though? Fat fucking chance. No, she’ll be another royal. Conceited. Status-minded. I’ve met hundreds of princesses, and none ever caught my eye.
No one’s ever caught my eye — until Sasha.
And she’s fucking gone.
The mission? It’s forfeit. The humans are too stubborn… and right now, I couldn’t give a single fuck about it, to be honest. If they want to cruise through the galaxy like a bird without a home, I’ll let them.
With Sasha gone, my ties are severed.
The humans have chosen their leaders. If those leaders want to run themselves into the ground, I say let them. I’m not going to stick around and wait for it.
There is nothing for me here. It is time for me to head on home.
Sasha
The hood over my head makes it hard to breathe. My hands and ankles are tied, and several hands carry me.
All I can do is listen as well as I can to try and figure out where they are taking me. All I hear are boots on the ground, and the men talking amongst themselves.
I’m lowered to the floor. The men fall silent. And then, the unmistakable hum of a spaceship engine.
They’re taking me off ship.
Fuck.
There goes all hope of Kozus finding me.
Tears now flow freely as I think of him, my mate. Why did I push him away? Why did it all end on such a bad note? It seems so silly now, compared to the shit that I’m in.
I didn’t even give him a chance to explain himself. I was so convinced I was right that I didn’t even let him finish.
And now the last thing I will have ever said to the man who means the world to me is ‘don’t touch me’. I don’t want to die with Kozus thinking I don’t love him.
Why didn’t I tell him when I had the chance…
Kozus
The humans are happy to see me go. A whole squad is here to see me off, rifles slung over their shoulders, nervous glances exchanged between the young males.
I watch them through my windshield as I run my final pre-flight checks. Engine. Fuel. Whatever. Who cares. Might as well pilot this thing into the fucking sun.
I grab the controls and close my eyes. No. Those aren’t thoughts befitting a Prince of Kar. I have plenty to live for, even if it doesn’t feel that way. This pain… will pass. It must pass, or I will not be able to function. I do not know when, and I do not truly believe it, but what is the alternative? A life of regret?
All I have to do is click ignition and I’ll be off. I can leave this awful ship behind, filled with all the spiteful, hateful humans, and head back to the place where I belong. My thumb hovers across that little button.
One little click. That’s all it will take.
…
I can’t do it.
I cannot let it end like
this. It’s not right. Even if Sasha doesn’t want to be with me, even if she hates my guts for all eternity… I still have to see her. I have to calm her down, explain myself, repent, beg, do whatever it fucking takes.
And if she still rejects me then… so be it.
But it cannot end like this.
I unbuckle myself, cut off the engine and head back down the ramp towards the dock. The human guards look at me suspiciously, their eyes narrowed.
I do not even need my Aegir instincts to tell me something is deeply wrong. The men are too jumpy, their fingers too close to the triggers, their foreheads too sweaty.
I move towards the group. They instantly raise their rifles at me.
“Go away, alien!” One of them yells. “You can’t return.”
I cock my head to the side. Now I’m definitely not leaving.
I take another step.
A single laser blast hits me in the chest.
The dun armor absorbs the energy.
It boosts my strength and speed to ludicrous proportions.
It is what makes dun so valuable: its defensive properties. Nyrr’s deep, extensive mines are flush with the material.
It only absorbs a very specific type of laser though, technology that humans should not have access to, judging by the rest of their tech. Strange. I thought those rifles looked oddly advanced, but I paid that thought no mind.
“What the fuck, it didn’t even slow him?!” The guard yells. “Did you see that?”
In a blue flash I am next to him and yank the black, metal rifle out of his hands. I flip it over and study it. Yes, this is Qu’uk weaponry.
I can taste bile at the back of my throat.
The Qu’uk are merchants of death. They do not possess any morals. Everything has a price for them, anything can be bought or sold.
The fact that the human soldiers possess these weapons is… deeply, deeply troubling.
I need to find Sasha, and fast.
“Get him!” A human bellows.
The humans open fire, their rifles sounding like whips being cracked. I open my arms wide and let all the laser fire infuse my armor with as much energy it can take, until it is crackling with pure power, until it is searing with heat.
Only then, with the limit reached, do I unleash its full, destructive potential.
To human eyes only a microsecond passes, but to me time is practically frozen. I grab the rifles and smash them in two across my knees, and then grab the human soldiers and hurl them across the room.
I could just as easily end their sorry lives right here and now, but I choose not to. Now, if it turn out that they’ve hurt my Sasha?
Then it is their bodies I will be breaking in two.
I could comb this massive ship from top to bottom, but I do not want to fight these pathetic soldiers every step of the way. I’ve got a better idea.
I head back to my ship and pull up the transponder data on her translator device. To my dismay, it’s three clicks to the south — and moving quickly.
There’s nothing south but space. They’ve already got her on a ship. Fuck.
Chapter 14
Sasha
The bag is yanked from my head.
I gasp for breath, and blink a few times to get adjusted to the sudden glaring lights.
I’m on some type of ship — an alien ship, judging by the strange colors and the otherworldly architecture.
And the massive, green, blob-like alien staring at me with three hungry eyes.
He opens his belly and a wretched, sloshing sound belts out. It takes a few moments for my translator to turn it into words I can understand.
I wish it hadn’t.
“Human food. Best food,” the creature belches.
The stench is overwhelming — like old socks stuffed with rotten eggs.
My hands and ankles are both tied, the rope digging into my skin. All I can do is writhe in horror, my eyes darting across the room, from the horrid beast to Willow, and back again.
“Let’s get this over with,” Willow says. “Come on, we don’t have all day. I’ve got the girl, you got the good stuff?”
I only now notice Willow isn’t talking to the behemoth slime — there’s a little bespectacled, horned man who looks just like a goat walking on its hind legs. He seems to be the one facilitating this deal.
“Yes, yes,” the goat bleats as he removes his gold-rimmed glasses and polishes them. “We still need to run the diagnostics, to make sure you’ve sent me a healthy specimen.”
I’m surprised to hear the goat bleat English — even more than I’m surprised by his calm, even bored demeanor. Selling a human female to a space slug is nothing more than business as usual for him.
“Come on, have I ever given you a bad deal?” Willow says, agitated.
“Not yet,” the goat bleats. “Not yet. And because I keep you honest, you won’t.”
“I need my fix, Qu’uk. Give me a hit of jet already,” Willow says.
“Soon.” The goat grabs what looks like a digital thermometer and approaches me. “Hold still, human, while I check your vitals.”
“Kiss my ass, goat boy,” I roar in anger. “And you too, Willow, may you rot in hell for all eternity!”
“Spicy,” the green slime belches. “I like.”
The goat sighs as if I’m an unruly stack of paperwork. “Hold still, or I’ll have to get the stun gun. You do not want the stun gun, human.”
“Bite me, goat.”
The goat shakes his head in frustration as he hops back to his tiny desk and rummages through his drawers. The slime suddenly lurches towards me, but the goat raises its tiny hand and the monster stops.
“Not yet, Kror’fe’lak, not yet. I should charge double for these pesky humans,” he sighs to himself. “Barely worth the credits. Ah, there it is.”
He grabs a taser and approaches me, his brow furrowed. “Hold still!”
Fuck that.
With all the strength I have I kick out at his tiny hooves. Bulls eye. The goat topples over, his glasses smashing into a thousand pieces on the metal floor. The taser thuds down a few inches away from me.
I reach out to grab it, hampered by my tied wrists, fumbling with the metal device in my hands as I try to aim it up at Willow.
A steel-toed boot stomps on my hands, snapping the bones in my fingers, and all I can do is scream in pain and horror as Willow grabs my hair and yanks me upright.
“Don’t try that again,” he says.
I curl into a little ball, feeling more broken and worthless than ever.
The goat climbs back to his feet and grabs his broken glasses.
“You bitch, do you know how expensive these were?! Dragon glass! That doesn’t grow on trees, you know? You know how many humans I’ll have to sell to make up for this?! Give me another dozen, Willow, on the double!”
“I can’t bring ‘em that fast, raises suspicion,” Willow answers.
“I don’t care! You want my fuel, my jet, my guns? You better bring me more merchandise. And I’m only paying you half for this one.”
“What?! That wasn’t the deal.”
“Then restrain them better.”
“Fucking aliens,” Willow mutters.
“I heard that. Another 10% off,” the goat says.
A sudden explosion rocks the entire room. Debris flies through the air, and I can barely see through the large cloud of smoke. When the dust settles, a massive shape stands in the hole in the wall, his horns illuminated from the back.
I could recognize those horns out of a million.
My heart flutters as Kozus steps into the room.
“The fuck?!” Willow mutters as he reaches for his gun. Kozus jumps towards him and plants his balled up claw right in his gaunt face. Willow is launched through the air and hits the wall with a crunching thud.
“An Aegir?!” the goat bleats.
“Qu’uk,” Kozus says, his angry scowl focused on the tiny goat. “You are far away from home.”
&nbs
p; “I go where the credits are,” the goat responds. “We are not in Aegir space! Plus I am helping these soft beings, they need fuel!”
“And you’re taking their lives as payment?”
“Bah, don’t judge me!” The goat says.
“I am your judge, Qu’uk. And your executioner.”
The goat lowers his ear in fear. “But.. you can’t do that, there should be a trial, right? Isn’t that the Aegir way?!”
“We are not in Aegir space, remember?”
The goat tries to run. Kozus reaches out, grabs him by the arm, and flings him through the air, right towards the green blob. With a bleating scream the goat is lodged in the blob’s slimy belly. Next, Kozus picks up Willow’s dropped gun from the floor, aims it at the trembling blob, and pulls the trigger.
The green blob rapidly changes color, from green to blue to purple, before swelling up like a balloon that’s about to pop.
Kozus rushes towards me, lifts me up, and turns the corner only a second before the slime bursts like a water balloon, covering the walls, the floor and the ceiling with green slime.
“Are you unharmed?” Kozus asks as he rips the rope apart with his bare claws. “Has the Ghuukan or the Qu’uk hurt you?”
I shake my head, still trembling with fear. “I’m okay.”
He hugs me tightly, squeezing me so hard it almost hurts. “Thank the ancestors I got here just in time. The Ghuukan are… the less said the better.”
“Yeah, agreed,” I say.
All I can do is look up at Kozus and cry happy tears. My heart flutters at the mere sight of him. His hands on my cheeks feel better than anything I’ve ever experienced — it sends tingles down my spine. I wrap my arms around him to hug him back, but I wince in pain because of my swollen, painful hand.
Kozus grabs my hand and kisses it, and the pain slips away, slowly but surely.
“Is there anything you can’t do?” I ask.
“Make it up to you,” he says seriously. “I am sorry, Sasha. I should have told you sooner about my family’s tradition, and I never should have let you walk away from me.”
“That? I think I’m ready to forgive you,” I say. “I was about to be a snack for that horrible creature. You saved my life. And, to be honest, I should have listened to you better. I was just… well, emotional. You were right about that one. Just don’t say I told you so.”