On Mission

by Aileen Erin

  He grunted—Ginu for you’re welcome. And everything else.

  An alarm went off just as we lifted from the roof, and I couldn’t help but think what now? What else could possibly happen tonight? And why wasn’t it day yet?

  I looked at my wrist unit.

  Two more hours of night left on this planet, and apparently on the longest night ever in the history of nights, that was plenty of time for one more complication.

  The alarm sounded again.

  “What would you like me to do, your majesty?” Ashino said from the front. I guessed it was him and Ginu up there with whoever was flying.

  I looked at Lorne. “What’s the alarm mean?”

  “We’re being followed.” He glanced up at the front of the vehicle. “By…”

  “A contingent of Yhona, your majesty,” a guard whose voice I didn’t recognize said from the front.

  “Put me through to their coms.” Lorne’s voice was filled with fury. I didn’t envy whoever was on the other end of this call.

  There was a beep and then a soft Aunare voice. A moment later, Beta Omo popped on the vidscreen in the side window.

  Oh shit. Lorne was in no mood to deal with that man.

  “You have broken the peace accord by attacking a member of the alliance. I—”

  Did the moron have a death wish?

  Lorne’s skin wasn’t flashing anymore, but it was still bright. Still way too bright to be safe. “I’m sending you proof that we waited until we were fired on first.” His voice was calm, but the tone was a lie. The skin was the truth, and it was getting even brighter. “We have broken nothing. If you continue to follow us, we will consider you in league with SpaceTech and will proceed as if you are part of the attack.”

  Beta Omo sputtered, but it was too practiced. “That’s not what I was told.” He knew what he was told was a lie. He wasn’t covering up his glee at having something to hold over Lorne well enough.

  This man was awful.

  “Then you should question who did the informing. We will be resting in orbit on our warship. If Melina wishes to speak with us, she may come aboard, but she—and anyone she brings—will be treated as a possible threat, searched, and any weapons confiscated.”

  Beta Omo started to talk, but Lorne cut him off. “I’ve been attacked twice now on your planet where we came peacefully to meet with you and the rest of the alliance. My patience with this group has officially ended. I will stay until the morning for the meetings, mostly to inform them of what happened today. I will not let this stand. Tell Melina that either I see her at the meeting in the morning or I will forever call the Yhona my enemy.”

  Lorne said a quick, Aunare command. One that I understood.

  End call.

  “Fire on them if they don’t go away in the next five seconds,” Lorne said, and I wondered if he wanted them to keep following us.

  “They’re already gone, your majesty.”

  “Pity.” He slid back in his seat, slouching a little more, and then pulled me against his side. “I’m exhausted.”

  “Same,” I said, but I was studying his skin. It wasn’t dimming. Not even a little bit.

  “Same times twenty,” Roan said. “And I’m hungry. Any chance there’s one of those magic food boxes hidden in here? I could really go for a burger.”

  “A burger? What’s that?” Ginu asked, and I almost sat up in shock.

  But then I knew what they were doing. They saw Lorne. They knew that if the tension in the ship didn’t ease soon, Lorne might lose control.

  “Oh man. Only the best thing you’d ever have the pleasure of eating. I’m not a man for violence, but I’d kill someone for a real burger right now. With actual cow meat,” Tyler said. “That synthetic stuff just ain’t right.”

  Audrey groaned. “And fries. Fresh, real potatoes. Crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. I could eat a bucket of them.”

  Wait. “There are no fries? Do the Aunare have fries?”

  Lorne pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll have someone figure it out for you.”

  I rolled onto my back so I could look up at him. I was pretty sure I could’ve asked for anything in that moment and he would give it to me. He ran his fingers down my face, and there was too much worry in his eyes.

  “While they figure out how to make us some fries, I’m going to have a double cup of wyso, a snack, and then get started on updating the lab team,” Audrey said.

  “How long until you form an antidote?” Lorne asked her.

  I would’ve told him to lay off and give her more than a few minutes to think about it, but I kind of wanted the answer, too.

  “I got some extremely helpful readings from Amihanna on the roof. That’s a real breakthrough. I want to pull some more of her blood, and then run a few tests on it. You also obtained a few more lucole-based weapons, which is fantastic. We need to take them apart, and see if any of them are loaded with the exact same poison as what’s in Amihanna’s system.”

  That had me scared again. “You think there could be more than one type of lucole poison?”

  Audrey shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. It could be that they’ve only had time to develop one kind of lucole poison and that all the poison bullets in all the SpaceTech guns are the same. But in the spirit of SpaceTech—why develop one poison when you could have three?”

  Man. It was so obvious, and yet, I hadn’t even considered it. One seemed awful enough to me.

  “If I give you the antidote to the wrong kind, it could be like giving you a second poison. I don’t think your body can handle anything else at this point.” She sighed, and Tyler pushed her forward so that he could rub her shoulders.

  “I’m just hoping that if the poisons in those weapons are different, it’s only a different concentration. If it’s just a matter of titration, then I can compare what you have against what we have a sample of, and find the right level of antidote. I just can’t put something in you that I haven’t tested. I could end up hurting you, or worse.”

  I didn’t understand a lot of that, but I really understood the hurting me, or worse, part.

  “You’ve got a full lab of Aunare scientists with you. You’ll work together and find the solution. I have no doubt,” Lorne said.

  “I appreciate the confidence.” Audrey leaned back against Tyler. “I just wished I was feeling it, too.”

  “Hey.” I nudged her with my foot. “You saved me a bunch of times before, and you did again tonight. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

  Her bottom lip trembled for a second but she sucked her emotions down. “I’m going to do my best not to let you down. I promise.”

  “I know you will.” And that was the truth.

  Because I’d already died, and come back, and I knew that this world—this life—was the hard part. This life was so impossibly hard sometimes. But the afterlife? Heaven? That was good. That was the reward for a good job done.

  But my job wasn’t done.

  I hadn’t realized how much I wanted to live until the lucole activated and I saw that I wouldn’t get to the good part here. I wouldn’t get to see the end of the war, and I wouldn’t get to have years with Lorne being married, having kids, getting old.

  And I wanted that. I wanted all of it. I wanted it so bad.

  My eyes started to burn with tears, and I closed them.

  “Shhhh,” Lorne said as he rubbed his hand down my shoulder to my elbow and back up again. “It’s going to be okay.”

  I let out a shaky breath. “I hope so,” I whispered to him. I knew everyone could probably hear me, but I wanted to pretend for a second that it was just him.

  “It will be,” he whispered back.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because this isn’t the end. I know that there’s more to our life than this fight. We will survive this, and we will have more than earned that nice, quiet life you’ve dreamed of.”

  The pressure on my body pushing me into my seat as we jolted upward
to exit the atmosphere, but something about that pressure soothed me.

  And then I realized how tired I was, and I surrendered.

  Because when you have nothing left to give, that’s when you surrender.

  I offered all my troubles and worries and pain up to God because nothing in this life was in my control. I could only deal with whatever came up the best that I could.

  Giving up control was hard, but once I did, a weight lifted.

  And I let myself fall to sleep.

  And as I did, I prayed that when I woke up, things would be better.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  AMIHANNA

  I woke up to voices arguing and squeezed my eyes shut. The voices were in the next room somewhere, which meant I could ignore them for a little bit. I was too cozy, lying in a bed surrounded by soft pillows, silky sheets, and a thick blanket keeping me warm, to deal with drama already. The pillow smelled a little like Lorne, and I knew I was safe. I didn’t want to leave this place, wherever it was.

  The voices got a little louder, and I knew I needed to wake up soon. I remembered I’d fallen asleep in the on-planet vehicle just as we were leaving Telnon’s atmosphere. Which meant we must’ve made it to Lorne’s warship while I slept. My last thoughts before I fell asleep had been that I hoped things would be better when I woke up. I snuggled deeper into the pillows and tugged the blanket tight around my neck. And smiled because if Lorne was arguing with someone, then maybe it wasn’t better now. But my head wasn’t hurting and I didn’t feel like death.

  Who was Lorne yelling at? Was that Fynea? Sometimes it was hard for me to tell when they were speaking in Aunare, but no one else would argue with Lorne like that except me, my father, or Fynea. And since it was a female and not me, that left exactly one person it could’ve been—Fynea.

  Which meant something was happening and I should get up, but I didn’t want to. The bed was too nice and comfortable and I felt like I could’ve easily slept for a few more hours.

  The yelling got even louder and I knew all good things came to an end at some point.

  I opened my eyes, and I was right. Just like I’d thought, I was in Lorne’s quarters on his warship. Before I’d fallen asleep, Audrey said she wanted to run tests and take blood and do all kinds of things, but either she had done them while I was sleeping or she was waiting for me to wake up.

  I hoped she’d done everything she needed to while I was sleeping. I’d been poked and prodded enough over the last week. I didn’t want to do any more tests. But if it was a few more tests that could save my life, then I couldn’t refuse.

  But first, wyso. Because doing anything else first thing in the morning—or whatever time of day when I woke up—was just plain mean.

  I sat up and realized that someone—hopefully Lorne—had taken off my clothes, leaving me in my underwear, before tucking me into bed. I rubbed my eyes, and a vague memory surfaced—he was whispering for me to keep sleeping as he pulled off the torn dark green vest I’d worn to the welcome dinner.

  Okay. Good. Lorne had taken care of me, and I was thankful for that. I wished he had woken me up for a shower, but I’m not sure he could’ve even if he tried. Sleep had been more important.

  I rolled out of bed, grabbed a bottle of cold wyso from the room’s fridge and took a swig. There. Everything would be okay. I took a few more sips and then set it down to enter the shower. I wanted to linger under the light warm spray, but I knew we were on the ship, which meant water shouldn’t be wasted. So, I moved quickly in and out, and then dressed. It had been ten minutes from waking up to fully dressed, but in that time, the yelling hadn’t died down.

  I grabbed my wyso and pressed my hand on the panel beside the door. It opened with a whoosh.

  Fynea and Lorne were yelling in the hallway of the warship. A few guards were at the end of the corridor, but they relaxed their stance a little when they saw me. I saluted them with my bottle and took another sip.

  The heated argument quieted down as Lorne and Fynea turned to look at me.

  “We woke you up.” Lorne sounded a little defeated and sad that I was awake.

  I thought about lying and saying no. That I’d just woken up, but I still had that groggy feeling in my head even with the wyso’s help. Which meant that yes, they’d absolutely woken me up. “Yeah, but it’s fine. What’s going on?”

  Lorne pressed his hand to my cheek. “How are you feeling?”

  “Okay, unless you say I have to do a bunch of tests and get in a pod, and then I’m doing terrible and please leave me alone.”

  Lorne gave me a small smile. “Thankfully, you slept through all of that.”

  Oh, thank God.

  He laughed softly at my silent reaction. “How’s your head?”

  “It doesn’t hurt. I’m super groggy, but no real pain. How’s the lucole? Did Audrey get it out yet?” I knew it was a long shot, but I had a little bit of hope.

  “No.”

  I knew I shouldn’t have been disappointed, but I was. Not because she wasn’t doing enough, but because I didn’t want to be poisoned anymore.

  “I’m not sure how much you remember from the rooftop, but Audrey was able to neutralize the poison in you, but she’s unsure if it’s back to its natural state or whether the next tone could be your third.” Lorne sounded equal parts exhausted and worried. “There’s a lot we don’t know.”

  I gripped the bottle in my hand a little tighter. “So, she learned nothing?” Because she’d said that before I fell asleep. Now I was wondering how long I’d been asleep.

  “I didn’t say that. She repaired the damage to your brain in the pod, and neutralized it a little more. She gave me a device to help counter the frequency should someone use a similar device on you again, and then she took her samples to the lab ship. She’s working on trying to find a way to pull the lucole out of your blood and has theories, but she wants to make sure they’re safe before she attempts anything.”

  I liked the idea of a device to counter the activation, but pulling the lucole out of my blood was the most important part. I wanted it gone. “How long did she say that would take?”

  “She doesn’t know,” Lorne said.

  Perfect. “So that’s why you were yelling?”

  Fynea and Lorne shared a look, but it was Lorne who finally answered me. “No. The Yhona are angry with us—”

  “With you.” Fynea finally spoke up. She gave Lorne a hard look, like she was silently yelling at him for softening the truth.

  Wait. That sounded like me, but she gave Lorne the mean look. “The Yhona are angry with me?” I pointed to myself. “Or Lorne?” I pointed to him.

  Fynea and Lorne had a little stare off, but after a moment, Fynea nodded. Somehow, she’d won this argument without saying a word. “In truth, probably both, but you. I meant you, Amihanna. Lorne just doesn’t want me to tell you.”

  I glanced between them. No. They didn’t get to not tell me. “Say it.”

  “SpaceTech is saying—”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Was I supposed to care what the hell they were saying about me? Because I didn’t.

  “You think this is funny?” Fynea sounded outraged.

  Fynea was in a mood this morning. “Yeah. I mean it’s a little funny. Why the hell am I supposed to care what SpaceTech says?” I said it aloud this time in hopes that she’d understand me. “They’re liars. They’re murderers. They’re pretty much the most evil society, but I’ll admit that my view is a little skewed against them. There might be worse people in the universe, but to me—they’re the absolute worst. So they’re mad at me and saying something awful because they’re scared that we’re coming after them. Fine. They can say whatever they want. But I should care why, exactly?”

  “Because the Yhona believe them.” With each word Fynea said, she got louder. “And they’re saying we broke the peace accords first and that by that rule, we have to turn you over to their justice system.”

  Okay. This was why they were screami
ng at each other.

  I took a moment to think through what she’d just said. Maybe another sip of wyso would help because that sounded like the Yhona were being idiots. But the wyso didn’t help make it any clearer to me. “You’re saying that the Yhona want to put me in jail?” I wasn’t angry, just shocked that the Yhona were this stupid.

  “Yes,” Lorne said.

  “I’d like to see them try.” Honestly, it could even be fun, and it could prove to be a deterrent to any other ally that decided to eat up whatever SpaceTech said. “I went to jail once before for something I didn’t do. I won’t go again. Not without a big blowout, a we’ll-see-how-many-pieces-of-you-are-left fight.” I knew Lorne wouldn’t allow that to happen either. That wasn’t why they were arguing.

  “No, you won’t.” Lorne said and at the same time, Fynea said, “Absolutely not.”

  “Okay. Then, we’re all agreed. Why the screamfest out here?”

  Lorne gave Fynea a look, and she rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll tell her.” She squared her shoulders as she looked at me. “Mr. Romance over here wants you to get married right now. He thinks—”

  “Okay.” I looked down at the leggings and Lorne’s sweater that I’d thrown over them. “I should probably change though. Right?” I motioned down at my outfit with the bottle of wyso. “Or does that not matter? I mean I’m okay either way, but I know you’ve got some feelings on this whole wedding topic, Fynea.”

  Lorne’s smile was instant. The grin spread and then he started a low laugh that had him bowing his head as he tried to keep it in check.

  Fynea stood there with her mouth open for a second too long. She made a soft, long, very high-pitched cry that seemed endless.

  I looked at Lorne. “Is she going to be okay? And should we even really care? I mean, it’s our wedding and you’re the High King. Right? You get to make the rules. Soooooo, can’t we just get married whenever we want? Or am I missing something?”

  Fynea started to make some more high-pitched noises. I wasn’t sure if they were laughs or screams or both, but Lorne started laughing harder either way.