HeVan & Earth

by Lucy Kelly

  “Why do you think Hend attempted to assassinate Grace?” Justyn asked. “He very nearly succeeded, didn’t he? She was only one or two days out of medical when we left.”

  The memory of Grace and Jalen’s bloody and burned bodies caused him to lose his concentration momentarily. Margan took full advantage. Tripping Justyn, Margan split his staff and held a sharpened blade at Justyn’s throat in seconds.

  “I should let you bleed a little, if only to give you a reminder you must keep your concentration,” he said angrily, before stepping back.

  Justyn sprang to his feet. “I see your point,” he said, before attacking once again.

  If he hoped to catch Margan unprepared, he was disappointed, since Margan expected his pride to be a little bruised for being beaten so easily. Margan kept his staff in two pieces, giving Justyn a different tact to defend against. Justyn, analyzing Margan’s attack, quickly developed a counter-move. Very soon, Margan was on the defense.

  Back and forth it went for the next hour. Then, they were switching to other weapons for another two hours of intense fighting. When they began to tire, they stopped. While they needed to push all out during these training sessions, neither Justyn nor Margan wanted to actually kill the other. Tired men made mistakes.

  After a visit to the cleansing room, a medical officer took the time to heal up the cuts and bruises accumulated. Both men had spilled blood more than once. A few of the wounds were serious and painful, enough that after the adrenaline had worn off, they required more than a stitch wand.

  Justyn didn’t care. Each wound was a lesson. He was not shocked at pain; he expected it, he had learned to push it aside and keep fighting. He would not lose the Mok-Tar; he would defeat his family’s enemy.

  The training continued for two three-hour sessions each day for the weeks it took to reach Earth.

  *****

  Lord Hend was now five days ahead of Justyn. There were seven gates between HeVan and Earth. The technology belonged to the Nephilim, one of the first species in the known galaxies. Over the millennia, they had set up gates between major star clusters to shorten the travel time. When their population began to dwindle, they slowly turned over the gate operation to others. Since the energy used to power the gates came from a rare crystal only mined from a dead planet on the edge of HeVan’s solar system, the Nephilim were always given free passage for providing the crystals. Others would have to arrange for passage, sometimes through negotiation, and sometimes through payment. While many of the stations were in desolate sections of space, many others were near inhabited solar systems like the KowLer. Hend knew HeVan couldn’t broadcast a holding code on his ship. His people were vulnerable to conquest with the population so depleted, and kept any trouble internal. So he would be able to travel freely through all gates except those still controlled by the Nephilim.

  He changed his mind several times during the five day trek to the first gate, which sat in HeVan’s solar system. In the end, his anger over the loss of all his plans overcame his good sense, and he proceeded to Earth. The KowLer Gate would be a problem if he decided to return. Malpha was queen there, and the two worlds had a treaty. His biggest concern was the Earth Gate. He would only be able to get through once. There were no others nearby. He would be stuck on that planet. While his body would easily last for a trip of nearly two hundred years, his small ship didn’t have enough fuel for the journey.

  He should have taken one of the larger cruisers. Only he wasn’t able to come up with an excuse for not having a crew. His execution of Narva only brought about a short term of goodwill. He was forgiven for the crimes of embezzlement when people believed he was under her rule. When it became known the plots were his ideas, and he was the one who launched the rocket at the arbiter’s transport, he would die. So he would go to primitive Earth, destroy the gate behind him, and build himself a kingdom. By the time the Nephilim came, he would be well entrenched with personal armies of his own.

  Having monitored the HeVan Gate for the ten days it took him to arrive at the second gate; he knew he was seven days ahead of any pursuers. He would use the time well. Justyn would not be able to access the Earth Gate after he destroyed it. Armus laughed when he thought of defeating the large warrior with his cunning.

  *****

  It took Hend two weeks and six days to reach the Earth Gate. He opened a comm channel and requested immediate access.

  Suzanna Aram, formerly Miller, mated to Jeze and Tyr, had returned from another piloting lesson with her Ankida when she was called to the command center. She was the appointed gatekeeper and the only one who could authorize energizing the gate.

  “Lady Suzanna, Councilman Hend is requesting gate access,” explained her communications officer, when she stepped into the room and took her command chair.

  “Put him on screen,” she said. She turned when Jeze entered the command center to greet him. He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss.

  As a result, Suzanna wasn’t looking at the screen when the councilman came on. Both of them missed the quick sneer on Hend’s face before he blanked out his expression.

  “This is Councilman Hend. I’ve come to inspect the gate station and our defenses here in the Earth solar system. I’ve been kept waiting for some time. What is the delay? Don’t you know who I am?” he asked pompously.

  “Your visit isn’t on my authorized list. I don’t open the gate unless I feel it’s authorized and necessary,” Suzanna answered him.

  She knew he was a council member and, normally, would have automatically opened the gate. They called it a gate, but it was actually a hyperspace generator. Once you had exact coordinates for two locations that were within 25 parsecs, or 475 trillion miles, a gate generated the opening to hyperspace, which allowed a vessel to travel the distance between the two points in minutes. It was kind of like folding a paper in half vertically to get from one edge to the other, instead of going all the way across. In standby mode, like now, the gate was only opened wide enough for a laser-generated comm signal to pass through. Energizing the gate allowed the aperture to open wide enough for ships to pass through. The more energy expended, the larger the opening. Suzanna didn’t understand how it all worked precisely; she just thought it was very cool.

  Councilman Hend was out in the middle of the galaxy without the exact coordinates of Earth. Even if he had them, without the gate, it would take nearly two hundred years and more fuel than he had to get there. So even though the impertinence of the female made his blood boil, he put on his politician’s face and answered her. He had been unable to find and hire mercenaries on his way to Earth. He was happy about it now. He’d never have gotten gate access with non-Nephilim at his side.

  “I am responsible for all off-world bases. I don’t generally give advance notice when I make a surprise inspection,” he said in a dry voice. “Now I demand you cease wasting my time and let me pass.”

  “Hold your horses, Mr. Fussy-pants. I’m not opening the gate until I’ve checked you out,” Suzanna answered, not liking his attitude.

  She signaled for the connection to be cut off. She’d dealt with enough weird bureaucrats during her days investigating UFOs for the government. She didn’t like him. Since he’d already had to wait for a few hours, didn’t mean he couldn’t wait for a few more.

  “It’s time for my nap,” she said, getting back out of her chair.

  That was a lie; she didn’t have any scheduled nap times. No one was going to question her about the lie, though, they all knew how sneaky she could be.

  “Do I open the gate?” she was asked by her relief officer, as she and Jeze walked to the door.

  “No, we’re going to let him sit for awhile. If I let him in, it will be after he’s learned some manners,” she said and left.

  It was petty—she knew it was petty—she just didn’t care. Addie was the Nam-Nin of HeVan, fine. This was Earth, and she was the gatekeeper to her home world. No one was going to get through her gate if she didn’t want them to.
>
  She decided to think over the conversation. Something he said bothered her. If she thought about it for a bit, it would come to her. She would most likely open the gate. Then, when he came to inspect her gate station, she’d make it clear the Earth station was not under the control of the council. It was run by a joint group of Nephilim and Earthlings, and she was in charge.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked Jeze, as she came out of her reverie.

  She could snack, she was always hungry these days. Maybe she’d ask a medical for a pregnancy test. All the babies around her had finally gotten to her. For the past six weeks or so, they had stopped using condoms.

  “You said you wanted to take a nap. So, of course, I’m taking you at your word,” he said, pulling her into some crew quarters currently unassigned, since most of the women from Earth had left to go to HeVan.

  She giggled, happy both her Ankida still tried to get her alone for sex as much as they possibly could. She would snack later.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Earth - Deep Space

  Armus Hend waited in his ship for the upstart alien to grant him entry through the last gate to his destination. For now, he would hold his tongue. After he got through, he would have his revenge. After the first few hours, his anger had turned to rage and then became cold calculation. He made and discarded several plans. He knew he had to get to the planet’s surface without warriors from the gate station stopping him. He needed to destroy the gate and, if at all possible, the gate station too. It’s possible that blowing up the gate’s controls on the station would make the gate inoperable. He wasn’t sure, though, and the Nephilim had invented the gate technology almost fifty thousand years previously. In the meantime, they had also perfected it. His task would be difficult. It would be necessary to earn the ugly short female’s trust.

  Another problem was that he wasn’t sure what the Earth’s solar system looked like. How many planets there were and which one or two were populated by this alien species. Also, since he had stupidly told them he was here to make an inspection, they would follow protocol and have all weapons aimed at his ship when he came through the gate. His plan to launch a surprise attack to disable the gate station immediately wouldn’t work. He knew better than to veer off plan when he was angry. He sat down and started thinking. The alien female was actually giving him a gift. He had a seven day lead on any pursuers. He began plotting.

  Finally, he came up with a workable plan to achieve all his desires. She had kept him waiting for a full day! When the woman finally hailed him, he was able to speak in a pleasant voice by envisioning her death. He acted as if he accepted her putting him in his place. At long last, the gate opened, and he took the last step toward his new destiny.

  Exiting the gate, he immediately turned on all scanners, both short and long-range, to gather the largest amount of data he could about this new solar system, in the brief time he had before docking with the station.

  At the station, Suzanna directed her operations officer to open the gate.

  “We’re going to open the gate because, at this time, I don’t feel I have a choice. I don’t trust this guy. He said something about us letting him pass. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue and maybe it wasn’t. Protocol states we train all weapons on any ship coming through the gate. I want to go one step further. Put all doors on lock down status and close all the blast doors and bulkheads. It’ll be a drag for everyone to be scanned each time they want to enter or leave a chamber on the ship. We’ll all have to suck it up. I want to know where this visitor,” she said in a sarcastic voice, “is at all times. After the act he just gave us, I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him. In lockdown mode, he’ll need an escort to get around.”

  “Why do you believe he was acting?” Tyr wanted to know. He had learned never to question her judgment. She seemed to have a knack for knowing when trouble was coming. She’d saved their life on a water run when a meteorite had come out of nowhere. It would have slammed into their shuttle, but she had made a maneuver out of its path seconds before it came into visual range.

  At Jeze’s signal, he joined them for their ‘nap.’ After the snack Suzanna had requested and a pleasant evening, he returned to the command deck with them the next morning.

  “No one kept waiting this long is going to be that nice. He really, really, wanted to get through the gate. Now we need to find out why. Even though I know we can’t get an answer back for almost six weeks, send a message to HeVan, letting them know what’s going on,” Suzanna said.

  The communications officer let her know a query had been sent to their home world as soon as Councilman Hend had hailed them. She asked him to send another one, just in case the first message had been intercepted. It was possible for the councilman to intercept or disrupt any messages that had been sent while he was sitting on the other side of the gate. Suzanna was taking no chances.

  Jeze turned to the tech officer. “Karlo, I want you to turn on all scanners. I want you to see what you can pick up from his ship.” Suzanna’s nervousness had transmitted to him, and he was on full alert.

  “Yes, commander,” he answered, and turned to his console to make adjustments.

  Minutes later, a small three-man ship came through the gate.

  “The councilman has all his scanners running at full power. Both short-range and long-range,” Karlo said.

  Suzanna leaned over in her chair and spoke to Jeze and Tyr in a soft voice. “Why would he need long-range scans?” she asked them.

  “He must be curious about the home world of the Nam-Nin,” Jeze said, trying to puzzle it out. It was not normal behavior.

  “Karlo, can you jam his long-range sensors? All he’s authorized to know about is this station and nothing pertaining to Earth or this solar system,” she said.

  “I will try. I believe it’s possible,” he answered. He started mumbling under his breath as he ran his hands over his console. “Gotcha!” he said, and Suzanna laughed.

  “He still got just under two minutes of long-range data. That will give him information on all the planets within a line of sight from the shuttle. The Earth and two other planets are still on the other side of the sun,” he said.

  “So by process of elimination, he’ll have one of three planets to choose from,” Suzanna said.

  “Only if he’s here for very long and manages to get to the other side of the sun. He doesn’t know the total number of planets in this solar system. As far as he is aware, the number of total planets is unknown,” said Tyr, trying to figure out why Suzanna was so worried.

  What she couldn’t explain was she had a feeling something was going to happen. Just like when she found Addie on that island and the many times during her career investigating strange phenomena. Her particular gift always helped her to be in the right place at the right time. Right now, all her old hunting instincts were acting up.

  It didn’t take long for the small vessel to dock with the station. Suzanna and her Ankida left the command deck and made their way to the docking station and air lock. Suzanna felt the delays at each hatchway, but since she was the one to give the order, she wasn’t about to complain about it. She let out a little silent sigh, maybe she was overreacting, but she didn’t think so.

  Tyr didn’t hear the sigh, but he always paid close attention to everything about his mate. “Have I mentioned today how beautiful you are?” he asked her, as they went along. “I don’t understand how it’s possible, you grow more beautiful the longer we’re together,” he said.

  “I like hearing you think I’m beautiful, it’s nice to hear. We’ll see how things are this time next year, when the honeymoon is officially over. I’ll probably be really pregnant and waddling around like a duck. Maybe I’ll have newborns to take care of and sex will be off the table,” she said, trying to get a rise out of them.

  She wasn’t going to stop loving them—ever. She looked forward to many happy years together.

  “It sounds as if someone is already forget
ting the reminder of our love we gave her just a few short hours ago,” said Jeze in a teasing voice.

  Suzanna was in no mood to accept they found her beautiful all the time. They loved her for who she was inside, as well as who she was outside. They loved her because she loved them, and made them complete. Looking at his brother, he picked up her hand and kissed her fingers. Later, when they were alone, they would convince her that every inch of her body was beautiful to them.

  She finally gave up trying to get them to see her as the pushy bitch she was. She pulled herself together, and then wrapped the mantle of command around herself. She didn’t plan to show any weakness to this dude. Just once, though, she wished one of these guys was short, pudgy, and balding. Balding with a beer gut would make her feel much better.

  She didn’t get balding—or a beer gut. He was short, for a Nephilim, at just under six feet. At five-eight, she didn’t feel like a total shrimp. He was older, but since he was a male, he had the elegant graying at the temples and a face, which had character lines instead of wrinkles. Thank God, he had a weak chin!

  “Councilman Hend, welcome aboard Station Earth. I am Suzanna Aram, gatekeeper and station commander. These are my Ankida and co-commanders, Jeze and Tyr Aram,” she said formally.

  “Thank you for your welcome. I am Councilman Armus Hend. I will be performing an inspection of your operations here. It may be necessary to make changes in the personnel and armaments. Much of your technology is two hundred years behind the times,” he said with an unctuous smile.

  Suzanna wondered why she had a sudden flash of the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz cackling, ‘I’m going to get you, my pretty’. He said something else, but she hadn’t paid any attention. She decided to cut to the chase.

  “Look, I’m going to be straight with you. I don’t care if you’re the Grand Poo-bah of Wonderland. Here, you are a visitor. You can inspect, up to a point. You, personally, will not have access to anything. Others will escort you around and show you the things you need to see.”