“He doesn’t need to know,” Fahia said and removed a small square-shaped device from her pocket. “This is a Radiance holo emitter; it will overlay a fake image over the surface of a cryo tube. We just need to get our friend inside one of your cryo tubes; I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Trin will put me out of the airlock if this goes wrong,” said Avearan.
The two began to move closer to the Crimson Arrow. “Your crew is the only salvager ship that is made up of an entirely psionic crew,” Fahia said. “Killing you is only going to hurt that fearsome reputation your ship has.”
“You don’t know the captain very well. He executed our engineer and his assistant two months ago because he wasn’t pleased with their performance,” Avearan’s fingers adjusted the oversize hairpin keeping her long dark purple hair back. “But…credits are credits.”
“And these will be credits you don’t need to share with the rest of your crew.”
“Let’s get this over with, then,” Avearan said as the two stopped in front of the main entrance to the Crimson Arrow.
Fahia then added, “The Celestial Order will not forget about your assistance.”
The doors to the Crimson Arrow opened, and a blue hand off to the side waved them in. The two entered as the doors quickly shut behind. Out from the corner stepped the owner of the blue hand that waved them in, a lovely psionic woman with soft blue skin and raven-black hair. She wore standard psionic attire that matched the color of the ship.
“We meet at last, Archmage Noylarlie,” Fahia said to the woman.
“Ah this is just a beautiful scene,” a voice from behind said.
The voice caused Avearan and Fahia to spin. Fahia grinned with delight when she saw who it was; Avearan’s gut filled with confusion. Brown skin, blond hair, scales visible on the sides of his neck and arms—and those lizard-like eyes—he was an Aryile. What is an Aryile doing with an Archmage?
“Three Hashmedai women, standing side by side, two of them psionics, one shocked to see me, one happy to see me go, while the other is happy to see that I’m still alive,” the Aryile man said, gloating. “I wish I had a holo camera.”
Fahia walked toward the Aryile and embraced him with her arms. Disgusting, Avearan thought. The mere thought of touching his scales made her sick.
“Parcisei,” Fahia said to the Aryile. “You’re a wanted man in the union now.”
“Your eyes are orange now,” Parcisei said after looking at her for a few seconds. “Are you older than me now?”
“Looks like it,” said Fahia. “And I’ll be much older when you return from Earth, unless.” Fahia produced a red gem from her coat pocket…it had a shimmering orb in the middle of it.
Parcisei eyes opened wide at the sight and mumbled, “Oh wait, I can’t.”
“It’s a greater gem, too,” said Fahia shoving it into his reluctant hands.
“Oh my gods.” he said.
“You still have a copy of the data you got from the station in Morutrin? The one you gave Xyniea?” Fahia asked. Parcisei nodded.
“Good, share it with your friend here when the time comes,” Fahia said and then turned to face Avearan. “Let’s quickly escort our package out of here.”
Avearan wanted to back out of this, while she was still not floating in the vacuum of space. Captain Trin would not forgive her for doing this behind his back. Then there’s the fact that they were transferring an Aryile from one ship to another within imperial-controlled space. If someone from the military were to walk in right now, Trin would be the least of her worries. And even if she did get away with this, there’s still chance of this coming back to hit her, hidden witness in the shadows? Mercs in Morutrin tracking her down to ask “questions” regarding Parcisei’s location after he left.
The doors to the cryostasis room aboard the Dark Star slid open. The room was outfitted with fifteen cryo tubes along the walls, not that the crew of the Dark Star ever hit numbers that high. Parcisei slid into one of the tubes farthest away from the rest, as the crew was most likely going to use the closer ones. As the hatch shut, sealing him away from the hands of time, Fahia attached the holo device to the bottom section of his tube. A soft hum echoed throughout the room, and then Parcisei’s imagine from the outside of the tube was replaced with a convincing hologram, displaying an empty tube.
“You’ll be paid in full once he makes it safely off this ship,” Fahia said and proceeded to exit the ship, something Avearan wished she had the power to do right now.
… … …
►► Port Shala, Morutrin Prime
► Morutrin System
Three weeks and a stressful security search later, the Dark Star was given the go-ahead to leave Helspan and travel through the space bridge back to the Morutrin system. The haggard freighter came to rest at a space port on the outskirts of Port Shala on Morutrin Prime. For the crew, it was time to resupply and to look out for new jobs to undertake, leaving the ship empty. Perfect for Avearan to complete the last leg of her job and release Parcisei—along with three weeks of paranoia and anxiety.
Parcisei slowly began to awake from his slumber, and then a devious idea manifested within Avearan’s head. As her red eyes stared down at him, she noticed the shimmering red gem slipping out of his gray jumpsuit’s pocket. Must be worth a lot, she thought while realizing Parcisei still wasn’t fully conscious. Avearan’s sleight of hand placed the gem in her possession; the feeling was probably the most satisfying one she’d had in a while. The credits she’d earn from finishing this job and the credits she’d make by selling the gem could quite possibly be enough for her to walk away from the Dark Star forever and vanish into one of the outer planets of the Morutrin system.
Garif will be left behind unfortunately, but he was a Taxah man; one woman wasn’t truly enough to make him happy anyway, especially a woman like Avearan who didn’t approve of sharing her mate with others. And if this went according to plan, she could buy any man she wanted, and everyone would be happy—except Captain Trin, but fuck him.
Parcisei got to his feet and proceeded to the exit. He didn’t suspect a thing. Excellent. Freedom awaits.
“Ah well, thanks for the lift,” Parcisei said. “The credits for your help will be transferred into your account shortly.”
“Happy to give a hand when needed,” Avearan said.
Parcisei exited, while Avearan ran toward her quarters with a small travel bag in hand. Personal belongs, stolen food rations, and clothing had been dumped inside the bag in the most disorganized way possible. Time was of the essence; there was nothing to stop someone from the crew returning. This should be enough, she thought and went to make her first steps toward escape and paradise. And then…
A figure dressed in a black outfit made it quite clear that this was going to be dangerous.
An assassin—she didn’t need to think about who it was—black outfit, and daggers giving off a greenish hue that appeared on her dark, cream-colored skin as they changed up. Her bag fell to the floor, and her psionic shield encircled her body, protecting her from the sudden strikes that came next. A wave of blue light consumed her body and sent her back toward the entrance to her quarters. The assassin mimicked with a psionic jump port of his own, but that was OK, for it was the last action he would perform.
As Avearan appeared, her mind entered a quick trance, freezing the air around her. Her shields protected her from the blast of absolute-zero chilled air; the assassin’s body, on the other hand, ceased to move, and crystallized along with the floor, walls, and ceiling around him. As the mist faded away, Avearan stretched her arms outward from side to side, her cybernetic implants began to glow white, and the frozen-solid assassin lifted off the ground with the power of her mind. His icy corpse shattered into thousands of fragments that rained down above her like a raging hail storm.
She was called Avearan Slayer for a reason after graduating from the brutal psionic training facilities.
Chapter 5
►► Vancouv
er, Earth
► Sol System
Loud, grooving music was beating through the air as Tetsuya, Justin, Vuyin, and Alex left the cold Vancouver rainfall and entered one of the raunchiest strip clubs in the city. Nobody suspected the four of them were members of the HLF, nor would they care. The HLF, after all, made it possible for Hashmedai to freely walk the streets of Vancouver without fear of being harassed by Radiance, thus allowing the smoking-hot Hashmedai ladies to dance their erotic moves on the stage alongside their human counterparts. It was one of the few strip clubs in the world where you can catch Hashmedai women and human women.
Most of the Hashmedai girls were young, no older than nineteen, as they were part of the first generation of Hashmedai children born on Earth after the destruction of the command ship. Some older girls existed, but they weren’t very common. After all, the Hashmedai on Earth at first were all adults, and that generation had reached their forties at this point. The temperature inside was a balmy eighteen degrees Celsius, the happy medium for temperature that both human and Hashmedai could operate in with minimal complaints. Some Hashmedai dancers were known to keep buckets of ice water close by and splash their alluring bodies with it. Not only did it keep them cool, but it added an extra layer of entertainment, dripping wet bodies that reflected the flashing lights while they danced wasn’t exactly a bad thing.
Tetsuya sat at the bar and ordered a round for his comrades, though both Alex and Justin were much more interested in the ladies than booze. Justin’s brown eyes were magnetized to the augmented chest of a blue-skinned beauty donning nothing but leather high boots and a lace thong. He held his palm-size credit chit in his hand and waved it toward her, fifty credits were withdrawn from his chit and transferred to a hidden credit-receiving device attached to one of her bracelets.
A soft sound chimed as this happened; he was making it rain digitally. She was on her knees up top of the stage, and her body was perfectly in sync with the electronic music that played as she arched her tits upward for the flashing lights to shine on. Justin’s credit chit once again waved up toward her.
“I like this place already,” Vuyin, their Hashmedai partner, said to Tetsuya.
“It’s been around since the old world,” Tetsuya replied after downing a gulp of his drink. “Lap dances are costly, but they let you touch them and encourage it at times.”
“Do they do anything else?”
Tetsuya saw a dancer approach Justin, a human woman with long brown hair. She wore a short Catholic-school-girl kilt while her perky chest was covered up by thin leather straps. He didn’t know much about reading lips, but he knew damn well what was being talked about, a lap dance. Sure enough, she led him away to the back rooms.
“Well.” Tetsuya said, “been a while since I was last here. Let’s ask Justin when he’s done.”
… … …
Justin sat down in his private booth for his anticipated night of entertainment; the sexy dancer joined him. Hawke, she referred to her self as. He waved his credit chit above her necklace, which was equipped with the credit receiver. Ninety credits were transferred. “That’s for now,” he said, then waved the chit again, transferring an additional five hundred credits. “And that’s for later.”
She smiled at him and then turned back to the door, placing a Hawaiian lei on the handle of it leading back out toward the hallway. A sign a special encounter was in progress to the rest of the staff. Hawke returned to him as some sexy lounge music played. What little apparel she had on dropped to the floor. His hands reached toward the back of his head while she did her thing, a twerk here and there, followed by her chest planted in his face. His hands held on to her hips as the dance continued and slowly moved upward cupping her breast, his thumbs playing with her nipples.
Her hands held on to the back of his head as she moaned in pleasure at his handiwork on her chest. She rocked her head back and forth, causing her long brown hair to splash about like beach waves hitting the shore. He felt a sudden sharp sting hit him where her hands hand landed. He didn’t think much of it, kind of hard to when the head in his pants was doing much of the thinking at this point. And the only thinking that was being done was diving into the fold between her fit legs.
The music ended, and his pants came off afterward; it was now “later.”
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Earth Orbit
► Sol System
“I could get used to this,” Sarah said while her head examined the layout of the rec room aboard the ESV Winston Churchill.
It was a small room located within the habitat ring; as such, it had gravity. Off duty personnel sat on the leather lounge chairs located throughout the room, in front of each chair was a matching lounge table. Two crewmen laughed at one another as they engaged in a decisive game of pool, while another group of marines were huddled in front of a holo TV, playing some kind of video game. Light from the sun slipped through the window as the horizon of Earth came into view.
“This place is also the only place to grab drinks,” said Cpl. Tom Richards, UNE marine. “Just make sure you’re not on duty or about to be on duty.” He sat next to Sarah, with a drink in hand.
“Well that goes without saying,” Sarah said and then emptied her glass of whisky into her mouth. “Our team will be off duty until command finalizes training plans.”
“All our ships were designed to take on deep space assignments; it only makes sense to put places like this on each of them,” he said. “I highly doubt you’ll find whisky on a planet god knows how many light-years away.”
“I wish Radiance thought the same when they built their ships,” she said.
“So what’s the plan for your team?” Richards said, looking out at a breathtaking view of the Atlantic Ocean as it came into view from the central observation window.
“We’re supposed to get trained on the new toys Radiance gave humanity, as well as train future members for all EDF outposts,” Sarah explained. “Us getting trained I get. On Alpha Centauri we had to take Radiance gear and modify it fit our needs. But us having to train new EDF recruits—pretty sure there are other people who could do the training.”
“Well you guys are the original members to the EDF and the heroes of Earth,” said Richards.
“That’s the problem; we’re not truly experts on fighting Hashmedai.”
“Some would disagree; think about it. Soldiers cut off from the rest of the world forged an alliance with Radiance soldiers who were in the same spot. Infiltrated the Hashmedai command ship, then blew it up and set up the first human military presence in another star system.”
“And that’s the problem. That’s all the combat experience we really had fighting the Hashmedai,” Sarah said. “After we arrived in Alpha Centauri, it was five years of simulated battles and adjusting to life on another planet. The battle above Earth was the last major combat situation we were in other than the ambush at Foicanta—oh, and that assassin who came after us, ironically as we were on our way back to Earth.” Her hands quickly scrunched a napkin into a ball shape. It entered the air and hit the side of Chris’s head as he sat at the bar. “Thanks to this guy here!”
Chris spun around in his lounge stool and looked at Sarah with a grin and then yelled, “Fuck off!” The two laughed.
“I see your point,” Richards said, returning to the conversation at hand.
“It took us eight years to get to Alpha Centauri,” said Sarah. “During that time people here on Earth still had to deal with the remaining Hashmedai. Those folks probably have more combat experience than us when it comes to the Hashmedai, and they had more time to get used to the new advancements in technology.”
Muffled laugher echoed out from the outer edge of the rec room. Gavin and four other fighter pilots sat at a card table, separated via a glass sliding door. Sarah’s and Richards’s heads rotated toward the five.
“Some things never change, eh?” Sarah said.
“Fighter pilots and their card game
s,” Richards chimed in.
Chloe entered the rec room shortly afterward, and her head moved about, scanning the area.
“Major!” Richards said in a panic, and proceeded to stand and salute Chloe.
“Sit your ass down. We’re all off duty,” Chloe said and smiled. “Anyone seen Chambers?” Sarah’s thumb guided her sister toward the card table she was just looking at. “Figures,” Chloe said and moved forward toward the card-holding pilots.
… … …
“Deal me in,” Gavin said.
A new game of poker started, as Gavin sat at the card table in the far corner of the rec room along with a few members of the ESV Winston Churchill fighter pilot crew.
“So, Chambers, what was your call sign during the old world?” asked Lt. Col. Jessica “Aura” Davis.
The two exchanged glances and smiled for a bit. Gavin couldn’t get over the splendor of her ebony skin, short black hair and angelic dark eyes, and that elegant English accent. And she was the commander, Air Group (CAG), in short, the perfect woman in his eyes. Sorry Ella, you’ll have to find a new boy toy soon. “They called me the Penetrator back then,” Gavin said and awaited their flabbergasted looks and uncontrollable laugher.
“Get the fuck out of here!” Lt. Mike “Orbital” Fisher yelled in his southern American accent.
Everyone at the card table reacted exactly as Gavin envisioned shortly afterward. Nothing could stop Gavin’s face from flushing at this point. “I was always first to jump to action for anything, so everyone figured if I went to war, I’d be the first to penetrate enemy defenses,” Gavin said. “And I might have been a fuck boy before getting married.”
“Ah damn, must be ages since you’ve seen your wife,” said Lt. Cassie “Hijinks” Piller.
“And it will continue to be so; the Hashmedai ensured we’d never see each other alive again,” Gavin said.
“Shit, I’m sorry, man,” Hijinks replied, quickly ending the silence. She was clearly embarrassed for bringing it up, indicated by her hand brushing through her short red hair.
Uprising of the Exiled (Splintered Galaxy Book 2) Page 7