by Maia Starr
“Dorian, that is my home. We must do something,” Aiken said.
Dorian was quiet. He was staring me down.
“Dorian?” Aiken said.
“I will speak with Lieutenant Dyzon Draxel in private. Lieutenant Delias,” Dorian said to his lieutenant. The lieutenant moved his arm, for me to follow in that direction.
Gina nodded at me. Then I followed Dorian and the lieutenant into the private room. They closed the door.
“I should kill you, Lieutenant,” Dorian said to me.
“I would do the same if I were in your position, but you mistake me,” I replied.
“I know who you are, Soldier. Why you are here, I assume this is a trick that you do not want to speak of in front of the humans. I could torture you to get it out of you,” he said.
“You have every right to think that. But I have no allegiance to the Order of the Ition Domain. I have no allegiance to you the Galactica Empire, but I do have allegiance to the human female, Gina. I will fight for her. I would die for her. I betrayed the Commander Reiq Jos in order to rescue her life. It is because of her that I am here. I could have just rescued her and taken her to a distant galaxy, left all of this behind. But she is a strong human, and she wanted more than anything to come here and warn you. To come here and to try to save her home. I could not deny that request from her. Therefore I am here, but I am not your enemy,” I said.
Dorian looked at Lieutenant Delias. I did not understand the look exchanged between them, but both of them seem to be under the spell of the human females; it must pertain to that I thought.
“I understand your fondness for your human female and doing anything to protect her. But I cannot trust you. We are gracious for your warning that the Commander Reiq Jos means to attack us after getting resources from the Earth system, but it could be part of a trick. I should lock you up where you cannot do any harm,” Dorian said.
“Then perhaps a negotiation,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“As you can see, I have no intention of leaving the human female Gina, now or ever. She will want to remain with her human female friends, so I might have no choice but to stay here for her. As much as I detest you, Dorian. It is because of this that we might as well find a way to work together. We do not have to like each other. But since we now are on the same side fighting against the Order of the Ition Domain in order to protect our human females and their interest in their home, we are allies.”
“And what do you propose?”
“Make me a commander. I want to work at your side, not under you. I am close with Leader Evex Ein of the Alva Clan. I will be a good asset here. If you do this, then I will share something more powerful than anything the Commander Reiq Jos has. I do not understand it yet, but it is a power that responds to Ition strength; you and I are both strong in Ition strength. Together we can harness its power and defeat the Order of the Ition Domain.”
“And what is this that you speak of?”
“I have the copper sphere.”
Dorian stopped pacing the room. He looked at me in surprise. “The Commander Reiq Jos has been looking for that for years.”
“I am aware. But he did not find it; I did. Either I can stay here with you and work at your side with the power of the copper sphere or I could take my human female and leave this place never to return. It is up to you,” I said.
“My female would not be happy if her friend left and was exiled because of my orders. She would never speak to me again. If this is true, if you would share the secrets of the copper sphere, then I could work alongside you. You would be a commander, and we can fight the Order of the Ition Domain. We do not have much time.”
“No, we do not. Every minute is important. How can I trust you that you will keep to your word?”
“You cannot. But I cannot trust you either; this is the way of things. It is how we must work, but it is no different than how things were on the inside of the Order of the Ition Domain, is it not?”
“No, you are right there.”
I looked at him trying to gauge him, but I could not. He was Dorian, a dark master of Ition strength. I was the dark soldier; neither of us had reputations for trust and loyalty. Yet here we were trying to convince each other that we would be loyal to each other. But there was one thing driving us, one common thread that would keep us from going back on our word. It was the human females. We both wanted to protect them and make them happy by fighting for their home. Because of that, I decided that I would put my trust in that, but not in him. Under the immediate circumstances, there were no other choices.
“We have an agreement,” I said pushing my hand out to shake his.
Chapter Fifteen
Dr. Gina Gonzales
I could not believe it. I thought that I would never see the girls again. But there they were, standing in front of me next to Ition aliens. It was unbelievable; they were safe. They were more than safe; they even looked happy. I wanted to catch up, I wanted to know everything that they had been through, but we were also short on time. The most important thing was that I had found them and now I knew information: that the Order of the Ition Domain was going to attack our home. It was important that I deliver this information and hoped that my friends had some influence over the Ition alien armies of the Galactica Empire in order to help save our home.
After we went inside, Dorian took Dyzon into a side room. I was worried. I hoped that they did not hurt him. But it did give me time to speak to the women alone.
“Is it true, Aiken? Are the rumors true? You are the wife of Dorian?” I asked.
Ragda laughed.
“Yes, it is true, Gina. I am his wife. I love him, and he loves me, and I am not the only one that has an Ition partner,” she said turning to Ragda.
“What? You too, Ragda?”
“Yes, with Lieutenant Delias. It is a long story.”
“I understand. I want to know everything there is to know later, but right now we are on a very short time clock. What are we going to do? Is there any reason to think that Dorian would send an army to defend our home? Does he care? What are they going to do to Dyzon in there? Do you think they are hurting him?” I asked.
“I believe that they will help us. I have seen the way Aiken is with Dorian; he will do anything for her. If she wants his army to protect her home, he will order it,” Ragda said.
“Yes, it is possible. But both of you need to know, Dorian is still a dark Ition alien. He has changed a lot; he betrayed the Order of the Ition Domain in order to save me. But that does not mean that he does not have remnants of who he was.”
“Then that will be enough for now. I don't care what the reason is for him to defend our home, as long as they do it,” I said.
“And you, Gina? Who is this Dyzon that brought you here?” Ragda asked.
I felt myself blush a bright pink. The two women looked at me and laughed together. I didn't know how to hide my smile, to restrain my embarrassment. I felt like they knew immediately that I had taken the alien to my bed.
“It seems that it is just as we thought, Ragda; she has fallen for an Ition alien, just like you and just like me. It seems impossible not to; there is something about them,” Aiken said.
“That is true. I could not help myself,” I said.
Suddenly, the door to the private room opened. I held my breath. A part of me thought that Dyzon would be bloody, bruised, and in chains. Dorian walked out followed by his lieutenant, then Dyzon walked out. I exhaled in relief.
“We have come to an agreement. I have made Dyzon a commander; he will work at my side along with Delias. We need to form a battle plan. We will be launching our army, to meet the Order of the Ition Domain when they arrived outside the Earth system. We can get there in ten hours, but that leaves us less than forty hours to prepare.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Thank you!” Aiken said walking up to Dorian and throwing her arms around him. I too was very pleased and excited. I looked
at Dyzon; there was pride in his stance. He was glad to be a commander; this was what he wanted. I was glad that he was getting it.
“We must get started. I am taking the commander to see our base; we will put a plan into action together. Have you been able to warn you're home?” Dorian asked.
Finally, it was time to depart the base in to go meet the Order of the Ition Domain in battle. We all stood on the landing port, ready to leave.
“Gina, you and Ragda are coming with me. We are going to the main control ship with Dorian, and Commander Draxel and Delias. I think that is the best place for us,” Aiken said coming up to Ragda and me.
“I agree,” I said.
“Let’s do this,” Ragda said.
Chapter Sixteen
Commander Dyzon Draxel
I showed it to him. I showed the copper sphere to Dorian. Together we took it to a room at the Galactica base. For an entire day, while the armies were preparing for battle, Dorian and I worked with the copper sphere. The room was secure, with metal walls. It was the room he used to practice using Ition strength on. Presenting the copper sphere to him seemed to earn some trust with him. But it wasn't until I showed him, showed him how to light the copper sphere in my hand, that he was interested.
For an entire day, we played with the energy of the copper sphere. Then, we figured out its mystery. It was bigger than we could ever imagined. We knew now that we had what we needed in order to defeat the Order of the Ition Domain. We just hoped that we could get it to work the way we wanted it to. It was going to take precise action and exact timing in order to get it right. We could all die in the process, but if we got it right, we would be victorious.
But we had to keep this plan to ourselves, between the two of us and Delias. We were the only ones that could know. We knew that the human females would be against it. They would never let us do it, so we decided to spring it on them before we were going to go into action. It was the only way we knew how.
So now as I stood on the bridge of the control ship, I was ready for what was coming. I turned to look at Gina. She was strapped in with the other human female. She looked more attractive than ever as she was ready to march into battle to save her people. I had been wrong about the humans. They were not weak. They were not pathetic. I had just never met brave humans, like these three females. I had never met a human as strong and passionate as Gina. She changed the way I thought of humans. She changed the way I thought of myself. I wouldn't say I was completely changed, but I was different. I could feel the dark soldier leaving me, but it was still there in my heart. And it was needed. In order to do what Dorian and I were going to do, we needed to have some darkness. It was going to cause complete destruction. I was glad to be the dark soldier; no one else would be able to do it if they had too much sympathy.
The Earth system was coming into sight.
“Leader Dorian, the Order of the Ition Domain is in sight. The fleet has been detected. How should we position?” the pilot said.
Dorian look out the windshield, and then looked at the radar. The fleet was coming into view; they were headed toward the Earth system. They were getting into attack formation.
“Continue on this path, get us into the coordinates I gave you, keep the entire Army at these coordinates. I am leaving the control in the hands of Delias.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Commander,” Dorian said to me.
I nodded and followed him toward the back of the bridge of the ship.
“Where are you going?” Gina asked me.
“Below deck to the belly with Dorian, we have to command the battle fighters from there. It will only be a few minutes,” I said as I leaned over and kissed her on the head. She looked confused.
“Oh, alright,” she said as I walked away. I noticed that Dorian was doing the same with his human, telling her a lie.
We walked down the hallway and into the belly of the ship, to the cargo bay.
“Do you think they bought it?” I asked.
“No, and they will be on our heels to find out what we are doing. We have to do this fast; get in,” he said.
We jumped into a small fighter ship; our pilot was already inside with the ship ready to go.
“Go, Pilot. Let's do this,” Dorian ordered.
The pilot opened the cargo door. It slid open, the ship hovered in the air and took off into space. We headed straight toward the Order of the Ition Domain fleet. Dorian got on the radio.
“Delias, we are inbound. Halt our fleet,” he said.
“Copy that. All fleet ships, stop in position and wait for command,” Delias said.
Then we heard our humans over the radio in the background.
“What? What do you mean stop the fleet? Dorian, is that you? Where are you?”
“Look out the windshield,” he said.
“Windshield? No.”
“Dyzon… what are you doing? Come back; it’s dangerous,” I heard Gina say.
Dorian looked at me. He handed me the radio.
“Gina, do not do anything rash. Just trust me; continue watching. This is all part of the plan.”
I heard her sigh. I put the radio down. Dorian looked at me. “Focus, Commander.”
I nodded. I reached into my uniform and took out the copper sphere. We walked to the back of the ship. The pilot was getting us in range, just as we had demanded. He was flying us directly into the Order of the Ition Domain fleet. The Order of the Ition Domain did not see our small ship as a threat. If they even saw it at all; perhaps they thought it was one of their own. We did have the same type of ships considering Dorian had stolen half of the Order of the Ition Domain Army and ships.
“Leader, we are getting into position. We will be between the control ships of the fleet in thirty seconds. Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight…” the pilot said.
“Ready for this? You must have a completely clear mind. It has to be just as we did before.”
“Yes, I am ready. I am focused on Ition strength,” I responded.
“Three, two, one… In position. Shutting off engine,” the pilot said.
“Now,” Dorian said.
I held out the copper sphere, both of us focused on it, focusing on Ition strength making it float in the air between us. We closed our eyes, and both of us picked up our palms toward it. We concentrated hard; we concentrated all of our energy on the copper sphere. I could feel the intense energy of it. Then I focused on something; it was the same thing that I had focused on when we got it to work when we were practicing with it. I focused on the love that I felt for Gina. I allowed it to fill my body and pushed it toward the copper sphere. I thought about her face. I thought about her body. I thought about just how much I would sacrifice for her; I would do anything for her.
I felt the red glow of the copper sphere come alive. It was glowing intense, and I could feel its energy surrounding us. Then, it happened. It exploded into a field of energy that spread out like a wave and went directly through us and out into space. Everything went quiet; my ears were ringing. I could not open my eyes because the bright light of the copper sphere was too bright. I squinted my eyes, allowing it to do what it did. Create a field wave of energy that caused everything to fry.
Then the light died down to a soft glow and then went dark. I opened my eyes. The copper sphere was floating between us. Dorian opened his eyes, he smiled. It was completely dark in the ship now. All of the lights were off. The ship was dead.
“Leader, it worked. It fried everything on the ship; I cannot turn it back on. We are now just floating in space,” the pilot said.
I reached out for the copper sphere. “Ah! Fuck! It’s hot!”
“Use your uniform, genius,” Dorian said as he moved to the front of the ship.
I used my uniform to grab the hot sphere. I put it back in the compartment and into my pocket. I walked to the front windshield. “Did it work on the Order of the Ition Domain fleet?”
“I think so. I do not see any lights on any of these ships
. Look,” the pilot said pointing toward one of the massive fleet ships. It started to falter, as though falling through space toward another ship. It was going to crash into it.
“It worked!” Dorian shouted.
“What about our ships? Where they far enough out?” I asked.
“I don’t know. We can’t use the radio; it’s fried,” Dorian said.
“I can’t spin the ship to face them to see,” the pilot said.
“So we will just have to wait,” I said.