by Alex Guerra
“Vessel, your signal is verified. Proceed to the following coordinates. Keep all hardpoint weapons disengaged on approach,” came a voice over the radio.
Seya punched in the coordinates while the A.I. entered the proper trajectory. Once we flew through the remaining stratum, the intensity of the jungle that awaited below was amazing, putting the Amazon to shame. Deep blue rivers carved their way through the green wilderness below like the very veins of the planet itself. Trees along their edges reached up to nearly one-hundred feet, and I could only speculate what the jungle floor itself looked like. While Seya did not say anything, she too was taking in the view with equal satisfaction.
The jungle was very mountainous with the tallest points surrounding the plateauing shelves. The highest river around, fell off the topmost plateau into the greenery below. Our coordinates, however, led us directly into the waterfall itself. I tensed as the ship showed zero evidence of deceleration although my partner remained calm the entire time.
As we approached the waterfall, I squeezed my eyes instinctively and waited for whatever was on the other side. We speared through the waterfall and into a cave. Dagger’s lights came to life and disengaged its cloak as we navigated through the rocky entrance, still traversing at a quick speed. Ahead there was a very clear and distinct dead end.
“So much for the base hidden behind the waterfall, the coordinates must be wrong,” I said.
Dagger proceeded at its sickening pace as we edged closer to the rock wall.
“Dotty,” Seya called out, “Dotty, stop the ship!”
“Oh shit!” I yelled, gripping my seat’s armrests as we were about to ram the wall. We flew through the wall without as much as a scratch. The rocky entrance gave way to a metal one, as we continued our flight path into what I hoped was the base and not another hidden entrance.
Seya slammed a fist down on her chair in anger and kicked the bottom of the forward console.
“Yeah...It got me too, no worries,” I chuckled worriedly to her, feeling slightly guilty that I took solace in her reaction. So, she does have fear, I thought.
She crossed her arms and scoffed, sinking further into her seat for a moment.
The ship flew through the corridor for some time until it opened up into a huge bay area that looked like an airport. There were many other ships docked with plenty of workers moving around, servicing them. Smaller vehicles transported cargo to and from the ships while some individuals were departing. A control tower embedded into one of the rock walls, signaled to us where to land as Dotty placed the ship down in its assigned spot.
Dagger’s engines powered down and the rear loading bay lowered. My partner replaced her previously pissed look with a practiced one of a stoic liaison for meeting officials. Better to start on a good note, I agreed. I recovered my blaster, placing it in its holster. My partner made a few adjustments to her suit and armed herself as well before we proceeded into the hold.
Once we exited down the ramp, we immediately noticed a few vehicles heading our way at a maddening speed, cutting off other vehicles and nearly hitting workers.
“Whoa, looks like someone’s new to driving,” I said, with slight amusement.
As the vehicles came to a screeching halt around us, the troopers jumped out with their weapons raised, barking orders for us to put our hands in the air.
“Take it easy, we’re on your side!” I shouted.
A few of the short soldiers walked slowly up to each of us, their rifles still at the ready. One stood two feet away, while another pulled my cape to the side, checking my waist and my boots. They unlatched the blaster from my hip and fished out the collapsible blade from my shoulder strap. They took Seya’s weapons before cuffing us both as two more of the soldiers slipped passed us and onto the ship.
“Hey, don’t touch anything in there!” I called out, earning a rifle butt to the gut. That hurt a bit more than I expected, I cringed.
Another soldier stepped out from behind the firing squad, carrying themselves with a bit more gusto than the rest, despite their whole five feet in height. They might as well be seven feet tall the way they walked through the crowd, with the other soldiers instinctively giving them space without as much as a nudge or an order.
“Identify yourselves,” said the trooper in a hardened, yet feminine voice. Their helmets obscured their faces, but their body language was aggressive still, ready to fight anything that looked at them the wrong way. This one, I guessed, was the officer in charge of this team, as its uniform had small details not apparent on the rest of them.
I was unable to pull off my helmet as I was cuffed. Dotty, open my helmet, I beamed. The helmet’s faceplate popped out slightly and slid up and over the top of my head, while the sides split apart and retracted to fully reveal my face. “I’m Arthur Holland, Captain of Dagger. I was sent by Commander Nura of planet Tudok in the Versha system, on a mission with my partner here, who needs no introduction,” I pointed my chin in the direction of Seya.
“And why do you feel that way? I don’t know who this person is,” said the officer. “You, what’s your name?”
Seya opened her helmet in a similar manner, and I knew that her purple-pink skin and white hair should be enough to tell them who she was.
“Is that? It can’t be,” murmured the troopers. “Princess Aranis. It’s her. It’s Seya,” they continued.
“Princess…Aranis? Is that really you?” said the officer.
“Yes, I am Seya Aranis. Commander Nura sent us here to aid your forces in this region. Now, please stop pointing your weapons at us,” she said.
The soldiers looked back at the officer, who gave them a quick nod. We were uncuffed and our weapons returned to us. Mine were more shoved back at me while Seya had hers placed gently in her hands. The ones closest to Seya had bowed several times as they backed away from her.
“I want your troops out of my ship now,” I demanded to the officer as I replaced my weapons. It called into a communicator and the two soldiers exited the dropship.
“My apologies, Captain—Princess. We received the encrypted signal during your approach, but once we saw what sort of ship you were flying in, we could not identify it as friend or foe. I am platoon leader, Commander Kayton Kol,” said the officer. “Where is that ship from, may I ask?”
“It’s Yau technology, ancient stuff,” I said. “I’m not surprised you’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“Yau? That is ancient. How did you get by the empire’s customs with such a ship?” asked the commander.
“Customs?” I asked, looking at Seya. “We, uh, skipped that entirely. Cloaking technology and all…”
“Cloaking? That’s impossible,” said the short officer.
“Dotty, turn on the cloak,” I said, and Dagger suddenly vanished.
Gasps of oohs and ahhs came from the group. “What incredible technology. Nothing was ever implemented so seamlessly before,” mused the officer.
“Well, it’s one of a few things at our disposal once we begin, but we want to speak with the council first,” I said, although no one was actually looking at me. Instead, all eyes turned to Seya, awaiting approval. Okay, kinda rude; I’m standing right here and all. I did say I was a Captain, right? I thought.
Yes, you did mention your rank, Arthur.
Thank you, Dotty. At least someone was listening to me.
Seya acknowledged the group. “Yes, that is the first thing we need to do,” she answered, then turned towards me with an apologetic look.
“Of course, I will send word that you have arrived,” said Commander Kol, turning to a few of the soldiers. “Help them offload anything they need and take it with us.”
I went with the soldiers back onto the dropship and marked what we wanted to take, promptly loading it onto the vehicles.
We were off at a more tamed pace this time in a vehicle with Kayton Kol, Seya, myself, and a driver, along with an additional three soldiers riding in the bed in the back.
; Taking off her helmet and twisting around from the passenger seat, it became obvious that Kayton was indeed female. She had bright yellow skin and a head that was completely bald, despite a pattern of darker spots where her eyebrows would have been, along with large pointed ears.
“Do you need to wear those helmets to breathe?” she asked, with a wide toothy grin, her angular face having a hint of amusement to it.
“Not so much in the hangar, and it doesn’t appear to be necessary the further inside the base we go at least,” I said, checking the readings Dotty gave me on my gauntlet. “This is mostly a precaution, as we’ve never been here before. We may also need them on the surface.”
“That’s to be expected. Not many species can breathe on the surface without equipment. We Codari are rather resilient, so the equipment is not necessary for us. I mention this because I wanted to assure you that there are airlocks for the guest rooms we have. We can put whatever mixture is best for you, so you may have a place to rest easy during your stay,” she replied, looking directly at me with her completely black eyes, which was a little unsettling at first glance, despite having read about it in the archives.
“That’s actually quite thoughtful, thank you. Tell me, how long has this base been up and running. Something like this would take a while to build in secret,” asked Seya.
“It’s been around since before I was born. It began shortly after the imperial occupation one-hundred-eighty years ago. The implementation of the camouflaged entrances allowed the first engineers to work in relative peace. This is a remote part of the continent, so the empire didn’t notice a few workers or pieces of equipment missing. The base has been running at full capacity now, for the last fifty years or so,” said Kayton, with the driver nodding slightly in agreement.
“One-hundred-thirty years of building in secret,” I mused.
“We’re still expanding where we can,” Kayton added.
“How do you get shipments in and out of the base without anyone noticing? It’s only a matter of time until they find this operation and put a stop to everything, right?” I asked, looking out the window at the cavernous surroundings.
“The thing with the empire being here so long is that this is considered a top choice for deployment. A soldier can live here and climb the ranks in relative safety and even retire, without having to do anything more than guard duty or training—just basic stuff. The officers meet higher-ranking officials from time to time as they stop by Vallus space, which breeds complacency,” she said with a shrug. “Doesn’t make life for the civilians any easier though.”
“Complacency seems to be a common imperial trait, don't you think, Seya?” I asked.
“It would appear so. Not that I am complaining,” she agreed.
“It’s easy for imperial officers to look the other way for many things, so long as they do nothing to mess up their luxurious positions. They can care less as to some little secret base. Not to mention, they have the Codari people to use as slaves, essentially making them all feel like royalty. No offense, Your Highness,” she said.
“None taken, but please, call me Seya,” she said.
“My apologies, Seya. Your reputation is great throughout the Galactic Conglomerate,” said Kayton. “What about you, how’d you manage to get a job as part of Seya’s retinue?” she turned to me.
“Just luck,” I shrugged.
“Luck you say?” she chuckled slightly to herself. “More like destiny at work, but I should stick around you a bit and hope some of that luck, as you put it, rubs off.” She slapped my arm lightly. “You Darkkon also? Look a bit sick to me, you alright?” she asked.
I looked at Seya and rolled my eyes at the comment. “I get that a lot too, but no, I’m not Darkkon. I’m human. It’s okay for us to look this way, I promise,” I explained.
I was amazed at how bold the Codari leader was for touching a stranger so casually. Lucky for her, I didn’t care. I am not sure how an uptight person would react, but I speculate it would be awkward at a minimum. I’d need to look into the archives once more when we had downtime, to see if there was anything else I was missing on social norms of the Codari people. I doubted I would be slapping the council members on the back anytime soon.
“I see. Never heard of a human before. Your species new to this part of the galaxy or something?” she asked.
“Are new species that often of an occurrence?” I asked, surprised.
“Yes, and no. You’d be hard pressed to find many new species this far into the center of the galactic arm. Out on the fringes though, they’re popping up at an incredible rate,” Kayton said.
On top of all the known species of the galaxy here, they are still discovering more? I thought. The Milky Way was actually a hotbed for life. I started to feel sorry for the suckers back home who thought we were alone. Luckily, I always knew in my heart there was more to life than just us. The shock of all these aliens running around would give a non-believer a heart attack.
“We’re approaching our destination,” said Kayton, turning back around in her seat.
The Codari built the bay almost completely gray metal and concrete-like material. The most colorful thing present was the assortment of painted lines on the “roads” and other special areas. We pulled up to the large entrance of a building carved right into the side of the rock wall, much like the tower we saw on the way in. A row of columns and support beams lined the front of the building, giving way to a large entry. Down the main corridor and well into the lobby, hung a huge conglomerate flag that was easily the gaudiest item in the entire area so far—which wasn’t saying much.
Kayton led Seya and me further into the building, which transformed into a large courtyard that extremely contrasted the rest of the base with its vibrant designs and landscaping. There were fountains and gardens placed in symmetrical patterns throughout the area that they were actively tending on a regular basis. A group of Codari officials greeted us upon entry, cutting my admiration short.
“Welcome, Seya Aranis, I am Onna Tul, one of the members of the Vallus Council. Commander Nura told us great things about the successful operation in Gwei-yon,” said the older Codari man who was dressed in purple and red robes with a high collar, reminding me of a character out of a fantasy novel. He extended both hands before him to Seya, who accepted and took them with her own.
“Thank you for receiving us, Councilor Tul. This is my partner, Arthur Holland,” she said, nodding to me.
“Hello, Councilor,” I said to the Codari man, who returned a bright white smile.
“Please, follow me. We were about to start a meeting,” Onna beckoned.
Seya nodded, proceeding after the councilor and his entourage.
“Councilor, would you like me to have the team send their belongings to the usual guest quarters?” asked Commander Kol.
“Yes please, Commander. Won’t you join us as well?” he asked.
“I’d love to, but I have additional duties that need attending,” said the commander, snapping a crisp salute to the official. She gave me a smile before turning on her heel and heading in the direction we first entered. I would more than likely see her again during our stay here, I thought.
We followed the councilor as he ushered us into a dining hall with a single long table taking up most of the space. The dinner arrangements weren’t luxurious by any means. While the table and chairs may have been nice, the food was only a little better than the typical conglomerate rations I had before. The other councilors were already gathering with their respective aides and waited for us to enter.
We took the seats nearest to the entrance and acknowledged the council. Onna sat next to us, signaling for the rest to begin. The councilor at the head of the table cleared her throat and spoke first.
“Welcome, both of you. I apologize that we haven’t given you time to settle in yet, but we have little time to spare if we are to follow the upcoming operation’s timeline,” said the eldest Codari, whose skin was a paler yellow than Kayton�
�s and also had a slightly weathered complexion in comparison. Still, I had to admit, the Codari aged fairly well.
“I am Jan Kol. You may have met my granddaughter already, Commander Kayton Kol. I’m guessing she has some lousy excuse to prevent seeing her grandmother again, but I won’t bother you with an old woman’s troubles,” she digressed. “We are expecting the shipment of weapons and equipment from Gwei-yon sometime tomorrow. We are in a rush to prepare everything in the meantime for the attack on the empire here in Vallus.”
“You’re going to initiate the attack right here?” asked Seya in disbelief.
“We will be sending a small force to attack an outpost just outside the system as a diversion. Once the empire focuses their attention on the outpost, it will allow us the opportunity to begin the operation here in the city of Nadune. Reports from our spy network tell of a V.I.P. that will be visiting from the heart of the empire,” informed the old woman.
“Who is this person?” I asked curiously, as an uncomfortable pause followed.
“A Darkkon princess,” said one of the councilors, breaking the silence.
All eyes turned to Seya. “That would mean…” she said.
“Yes, your brother’s wife is coming to Vallus to inspect the imperial operation and report back to the Darkkon Empire. Considering they send a significant amount of support from their systems to this planet, it’s common practice for the Darkkon Empire to send someone to occasionally observe their operation. Sending a member of the royal family, however...” Jan trailed off.
“Ibram,” muttered Seya. “I haven’t seen him since he was still a child. Is he—”
“There was nothing in the reports or transport manifests suggesting that he will be accompanying the princess, but we cannot be certain,” said Councilor Kol.
Seya mulled over the new information. It made sense as to why the conglomerate wanted to send Seya here, but not to tell her about it ahead of time didn’t sit well with me.
“We need more than troopers and weapons to win this fight. We are outnumbered should the empire mobilize. We need to capture the princess and use her as leverage,” said the Codari woman, with a grim look upon her face.