by C. C. Ekeke
Khal glanced up, shirtless and covered in an icky film of grime beneath his uniform. A gift from the micro geysers. The stench was nauseating. “What wedding?”
“Taorr and Uarya,” the Kintarian stated.
“Right. Totally.” Khal almost forgot Taorr was engaged to the daughter of one of Faroor’s most powerful Ttaunz merchant families. “Can’t see that charade continuing.” Khal knew that wedding was doomed before Taorr’s relationship with Mhir’ujiid surfaced. Especially since I comet-banged Uarya. He remembered his brief but delicious encounter with the merchant princess, smiling while pulling off his pants. And since Taorr was done with Uarya, Khal might enjoy that sweet ride once more. But no one on CT-1 needed to know that.
Khal was surprised V’Korram brought up such a trivial matter. The Kintarian was humorless at best, not one for small talk. But since he had made an effort, Khal felt obligated to engage.
V’Korram was facing away from Khal, who was about to make a snarky comment about the Taorr, Uarya, and Mhir’ujiid love triangle.
Then he saw V’Korram’s broad back.
Several ugly scars covered the length of the Kintarian’s upper and lower back, thin yet dark and jagged, some intersecting. Most beings would never notice them beneath his thick, tawny body fur, but dampness had wilted the fur and revealed the gruesome tapestry beneath.
Khal realized his mouth was hanging open. His mind filled with vivid, grisly memories of when those scars had been fresh wounds, raw and angry red from the Kintarian’s tortured years of imprisonment. That was over a year and a half ago, when V’Korram was even more savage and untethered from civility.
The Kintarian seemed to feel Khal’s eyes and glanced over his shoulder curiously. Realizing what Khal was gaping at, his catlike features hardened.
“Why haven’t you gotten those removed?” The question tumbled out of Khal’s mouth before he could stop it. Regardless, Khal was one of a few who could ask.
V’Korram turned so that the worst scars were no longer visible. “They’re a reminder,” he grumbled, more to himself than his audience.
“A reminder of what?” Khal was genuinely curious why anyone would keep scars from such a horrific experience.
V’Korram tossed his wet ginger mane back and scowled. “Of why I don’t remove them.” He strode from the room without further explanation to one of the Phaeton’s three hydrobathe chambers.
Khal stood alone and unclothed in the changing room, serenaded by the soft background hum of Phaeton’s stellar engines.
“That response wasn’t shocking,” he murmured, a new wave of exhaustion filling him. He headed for a vacant hydrobathe chamber with welcome relish.
Chapter 4
The winds had turned ferocious, the temperature on a ruthless plummet. “How c-c-could it possibly g-g-get c-c-colder?” Liliana Cortes shouted, hugging herself tightly. But her words were lost in the brutal, howling gusts of the planet Titanoa’s everlasting winter. Snowflakes danced around her eyes before colliding into her face.
The internal heating in the Star Brigade medic’s field uniform made little difference. It staved off the onset of frostbite and kept her muscles warm enough to move, but little else.
The sub-arctic cold on this Kedri Imperium Dependency was that penetrating, that insufferable. Without her field uniform, Lily would have frozen to death in mere macroms of time.
I’m somehow on an Imperium Dependency world—Tyris’s homeworld. The absurdity of that reality still hadn’t sunk into Lily’s frost-addled brain.
She didn’t blame her teammate for leaving this godforsaken planet.
Now Tyris and the others were fighting that monster Ghuj’aega without her.
Lily’s sonic powers had been weakening the Farooqua terrorist, pushing CT-1 toward victory. Without her powers, the nightmare scenario that Particulate creature had shown her could come true.
CT-1 dead and dying. Ghuj’aega, victorious.
Never. She had to return to Union Space. To Faroor.
The doctor shivered and took a step forward.
Then another. Sluggish and awkward steps.
Despite that bravado, a dizzying fear had taken root. She’d never felt such fear since her first mission with Star Brigade, when space phobia still dominated her life.
She had been walking around for three orvs according to her chronometer, blown off course by frequent gale-force blasts, her stiff legs barely trudging through this knee-high snow.
The sky was a wall of pale grey, no true sunlight penetrating though. Aside from the faint silhouettes of far-off mountains, oppressive blankets of snowy white stretched on in every direction.
Lily hugged herself tighter to try curbing the shivers, and took another step.
No matter which direction Liliana trekked in, no oasis appeared. She blinked away sticky snowflakes, noticing her long lashes clumping together now.
Besides the two Tanoeen from earlier, members of Tyris’s race, Lily had seen no living soul since.
And the cold…
The cold kept buffeting her face, her slender body, seeping into every muscle and bone. The cold kept sapping her strength, her warmth, her willpower.
So many times she wanted to stop and close her eyes for a moment. One moment was all she needed.
“N-N-N-o.” She shook her head despite the rigid neck muscles. “C-C-Can’t.”
Stopping in this weather meant death.
Teeth clenched, Lily took another step.
Liliana had been flung halfway across the galaxy by some tribal terrorist to an arctic world in Imperium Space. Ghuj’aega. Her combat team, light-years away, had no idea where she could be. And her wristcom was too out of range to make contact.
But freezing to death alone on Titanoa wasn’t how Liliana would die. She had to find a way home on her own.
Teeth chattering uncontrollably, Lily lowered her head against the wind and took another step.
The freezing climate made it hard to develop any plans. First thing was locating some kind of waystation or Imperium military base. Then what?
She was an earthborn human from the Galactic Union, a hyperpower not on good terms with the Kedri Imperium. Ever since the Battle of Terra Sollus. If she did encounter Imperium officers, how would Lily avoid getting shot on sight?
While pondering this, Lily stepped onto an unexpectedly slick surface. She lurched and stumbled, only to slide forward out of snow drifts now reaching past her knees.
Lily frantically flailed her arms to regain some balance, which caused her to slide even further and faster out onto what appeared to be a vast ice-covered surface.
She dropped onto her knees to break her fall, and was rewarded by muted pain shooting up both thighs. The doctor gritted her teeth. If not for her suit’s shock absorbers, that fall might have hurt more and cracked something.
Still, Lily slid a few more feet out before coming to a halt.
For several moments she didn’t move, assessing this new dilemma. The winds had died down to more tolerable levels, but not the cold assailing Lily’s muscles. She turned her head around, thanks to her suit’s tireless heating systems. The icy surface was as opaque as the skies above, pure white with a tint of bright blue, stretching on for a good mile ahead and across. Beyond that, nothing but churning wintry clouds.
A frozen lake, Lily realized through chattering teeth. She could trek across by increasing the gravity in her boots to keep from slipping. That could also crack the ice, as she didn’t know how fragile it was. Or she could just circle around the icy lake, which could add orvs onto her journey. The latter was the safest option.
Lily exhaled a cloud of frosted air and attempted to stand…
…and couldn’t. She was physically spent. And the cold was leeching away whatever strength she had left. She tried pushing up again, managing to almost raise a knee. The effort left her totally winded and puffing more frosted gasps. Her head lolled forward, flakes of snow spilling off her pixie-cut hair.
&nbs
p; Just a moment to catch my breath. Exhaustion lulled her fluttering eyes closed. Just a moment. Or three.
Several moments later, a far-off skidding noise jolted Lily from near slumber. She jerked her head up and looked around. The winds picked back up, swallowing all other sounds.
The skidding noise sliced through the winds like razors, growing closer and sharper.
W-who? Lily clenched chattering teeth and fought to get to her feet, her clumsy and stiff legs nearly failing. But Lily dug deep for a last reserve of strength, rising up on shaky legs as two Tanoeens rocketed through the thick, wintry churn of clouds. Long, lean, and angular-shaped like Tyris, beings made of ice crystalline. They glided across the frozen lake at top speed like expert skaters. In their hands were identical six-feet-long spears for hunting, fashioned from gold metal and dotted with blinking green lights. The Tanoeens’ beady dark eyes, the only features on their blocky faces, nearly popped when spotting Lily. But only for a moment before their attention flitted downward.
Lily looked down too, and her heart crawled up her throat.
A massive silhouette deep in the lake slithered underneath her feet and kept going…
…and going…
A colossal water creature from what Lily could see, too long and huge to measure.
The pair of Tanoeen were skating in circles around where it swam, watching and waiting.
Under different circumstances, the xenobiologist in Lily would have been fascinated to observe new, unknown species in their natural habitat. Now wasn’t one of those circumstances.
Terror shocked life back into her cold-ravaged body.
Lily clumsily whirled about, shuffling as fast as her rigid legs allowed back to solid land.
Until she heard the sharp, high, ringing jolts. Then a rumble shuddered beneath the lake’s surface.
Lily slowed and turned her head. “Wh-What—”
The pair of Tanoeen drove their spears into the iced-over lake, causing the shrill noises. And by the resulting rumbles, that began agitating whatever swam beneath. The Tanoeen struck the ice with their spears again. Another shrill shriek of sound. The whole lake shook more violently.
They were hunting the creature clearly, trying to lure it into one place? Or out of the water? Lily didn’t know or care.
“Stop, please,” Lily pleaded. But her voice was strangled by the howling winds.
The two ice-crystalline beings ignored her, thrusting their spears into the ice again. The shrill noises spiked. The ice layer shivered so ferociously that Lily nearly fell. She looked down. The shadow of the creature blotted out all other colors beneath the surface, a splintering crack forking its way beneath her feet.
Lily looked back at the Tanoeen. “STOP!” she yelled over the rumbling and the winds.
The Tanoeens ignored her, raising their golden spears yet again.
Lily raised both hands up to chest level, pointing her clasped fingers like a gun. Blazing rings of pure sound smacked one Tanoeen off his feet and sent him skidding across the ice. He stayed down.
Its partner froze in place like a sculpture, taking a long look at Lily. His beady blue eyes narrowed with cold malevolence.
He moved with startling speed, aiming his spear to throw at her.
Lily moved faster, blasting him dead-on in the chest. The sonic barrage blew the Tanoeen apart, ice fragments and gooey blue fluids spraying in every direction. His golden spear clattered onto the layer’s frozen surface, rolling around back and forth, until losing momentum and remaining still.
The lake calmed, as did the cracking of ice. Only wailing winds filled the air.
Lily exhaled a frosted cloud of relief. She shook her limbs, still stiff but enlivened by adrenaline.
Dulce madre, that was close. The doctor turned and resumed her trembling shuffle toward solid land. Her mind went back to how she could tell CT-1 where she was.
A thought stopped Lily in her tracks. She glanced back at the two Tanoeen she’d taken out, one motionless and the other a gooey splatter of ice fragments. Maybe those two have communication devices I could—
The behemoth exploded from the lake, smashing the thick, frozen sheet into jagged pieces. Chunks of ice flew like shrapnel. Jets of sub-zero water spewed everywhere.
Lily was thrown off her feet, fragmented plates of ice beneath her violently upended.
Terror and cold strangled her surprised cries as she landed hard on her bottom. Then the doctor dared a look at what had emerged from the lake. Her cries went silent.
The dark crimson creature from beneath was towering and serpent-like, swaying back and forth in the mist like some viciously windblown tree, easily reaching over thirty feet. Several thick and writhing tentacles spread out from the beast’s snaking torso, the tips no longer covering up a triangular head dotted by countless swollen blue eyes.
The creature made its displeasure known. A high-pitched shriek vibrated through Lily’s very bones, bouncing across the flat, frozen backdrop until the howling winds finally consumed the lesser echoes.
“Adios,” said Lily. No longer caring about the cold, she scrambled to her feet and ran. Or at least ran as fast as the fractured ice allowed. To stay was to die. She had no plans to do that.
A lash of sound sliced through the air behind Lily, right before something snaked around her legs.
Lily glanced down, confused. What? A fat, rubbery maroon tentacle with oily black suckers pinned her legs together.
She had half an instant to process before the tentacle gave a hard yank.
“Tattshi!” The doctor pitched forward while flying backward off her feet, and a wall of cracked ice flew up to smack Lily’s face.
The pain was brief and blinding. Before she could recover, the tentacle dragged her across the split ice sheet, nearer to a swaying, shrieking creature made of nightmares.
Horror-struck, Lily clawed for any purchase on the ice, finding none.
All crevices and gaps in the cracked frozen lake were too wet or spread apart. The tentacle was too powerful to resist. And the water lapping at her body was so cold…
Abruptly, the tentacle yanked upward, tossing Lily high into the air. The doctor screamed and flailed. Another fat and rubbery tentacle caught Lily by the waist, wrapping around twice to hold her steady.
From up high, she gaped down at the creature’s open wound of a mouth in the center of those bulging blue eyes. Its blast of breath from that gullet was overpowering. Lily nearly vomited. The uneven spiral of jagged teeth within that foul-smelling gullet resembled broken steel blades.
Blades that could shred Lily apart if she fell inside.
The tentacle lowered her toward that mouth, all while squeezing tighter around Lily’s waist and torso. She tried and failed to draw breath, hearing her own ribs creak painfully. Any tighter and she’d be crushed to death.
Fear clung to Lily like a second skin, but didn’t paralyze her. Fear was a motivator to fight back.
“I’m no one’s lunch,” Lily hissed out through trembling lips. Clasping her hands and pointing her fingers gun-like, Lily discharged a deafening torrent.
The concussive barrage of white sonic rings struck her captor’s face directly, sheering off an enormous, blubbery chunk. The creature’s wounded shriek stabbed Lily’s ears while shuddering through her body. The beast swayed and shrieked. A pillar of curling black smoke spilled from the crater in its ruined face.
For a moment the tentacle holding Lily squeezed so tight, the doctor thought her spine might snap.
She tensed, realizing the end was near.
A moment later, the tentacle released Lily as the beast dove back into the lake with a massive splash… Lily sucked in a grateful gasp of air before gasping again at the fact that she was over fifty feet high.
“No, no!” She plunged toward the rupture in the frozen lake caused by the water beast.
Lily frantically tapped her wristcom to activate her boot’s anti-gravity functions. No response. The frigid temperatures had disrupte
d its function.
The truth hit then.
She could land on solid ice and possibly break several bones.
Or use her powers to cushion her landing and also crack the ice, plunging her into the lake anyway.
A shit-or-diarrhea option. In short, Lily saw no way to avoid the fall.
The doctor took a big gulp of air and hit the lake with a big, sloppy splash.
The far below sub-zero shock nearly knocked Lily unconscious on first impact. She stiffened and gasped. All that air bubbling out of Lily’s mouth, only for cold water to flood in.
Any complaints over Titanoa’s cold vanished before this lake.
For a moment the water was so cold it burned, despite her field uniform tightening in response to protect her body. Immediately, every iota of her body was soaked. Below-subzero water oozed through her uniform’s low-level forcefield, penetrating skin, muscles, bones, and blood in nanoclics of time.
Good GOD! Above her, the lake’s surface was a jagged aperture of blue light cascading down.
Everything below the doctor was impenetrable darkness.
Lily, breathless and freezing, tried swimming for that brilliant aperture. She was an excellent swimmer.
But her limbs wouldn’t respond—couldn’t respond. The water had frozen them stiff.
I’m drowning… And on a world far from her CT…her homeworld. The thought chilled Lily more than the lake already had.
The vivid light of the surface grew further away as she began sinking.
And she was helpless to save herself.
One last entreaty filled Lily’s mind as consciousness slipped away. Please…let me stay…
The light from the surface dimmed until Lily’s world turned pitch-black.
Chapter 5
One moment, she stood on a UComm vessel with her lover Taorr among Star Brigade. Instants later, Tyris, the Star Brigadier made of pure ice, hissed an order. Everything vanished in a flash.