by Petra Landon
“That is our destination. It’s a small moon revolving around a medium-sized planetoid. The moon is prone to frequent electrical storms that tend to affect our systems, so I will need to land manually without relying on the sensors. Once we land, we’ll need spacesuits to walk the short distance to our destination.”
Saakshi moved away from the controls to watch in awe as Zoran first positioned the shuttle using the navigational sensors, before shutting down most of the shuttle systems to land nimbly on a large flattish space surrounded by sheer rock faces. The surface of the moon appeared stormy and dark, with sharp cracks of thunder reverberating through the rock walls. She strapped on the spacesuit that Zoran handed her – one she was happy to note was in a smaller size than the massive one for him. Zoran guided her through the suit’s safety checks, including testing the built-in communicator. He slung a small case across his shoulders, and helped her through the open hatch of the shuttle.
They walked hand in hand, their built-in spacesuit torches the only light guiding them through the rocky terrain besides the small flashes of what looked like lightening far away in the sky. She gazed around her in awe at the other worldly landscape, so different from the terrain on Budheyasta. The gray rocky cliffs and the black sky lit up by occasional colorful flashes of lightening was a stark contrast to the dry desert and red volcanic rocks on her home world.
They walked for about ten minutes until they came to a small opening identified by a marker planted next to it. Zoran gestured to her to follow him in. She watched him squeeze himself through the small opening that was a tight fit for him. The opening widened out to a small cavern with three narrow tunnels. Zoran punched in something on the tiny navigator attached to his spacesuit, before clasping her palm to lead her through one of the tunnels. They walked silently through a maze of interconnecting tunnels guided by Zoran’s navigator until it opened wider into a vast dark space. Saakshi could hear the gentle hum of flowing water. Zoran checked another device on his suit carefully, and then spoke through the built-in communicator.
“You can take off the suit now, Saakshi. The air in here is breathable.”
Saakshi followed his example swiftly, glad to be finally rid of the bulky suit.
“The air outside on the moon is not breathable, because the storms sometimes cause pollens to be strewn into the air in quantities poisonous to us, but the pollen doesn’t seem to get in this far into the rocks except in very minute traces” he explained.
Saakshi gazed around the clearing.
“Close your eyes, please. I have a surprise for you” Zoran said.
Saakshi closed her eyes obediently, excited by the prospect of a surprise. Just setting foot on such an alien world had been quite an adventure. She couldn’t wait to see what else Zoran had planned for her. She heard the quick staccato bursts of what sounded like plasma fire before Zoran asked her to open her eyes.
A beautiful gleaming lake met her eyes, its water glinting darkly through the illumination provided by three strategically placed plasma torches. Only a tiny part of the lake was visible, its pebbled bottom discernible through the clear tranquil waters. The rest was hidden in the vast, dark space.
“It’s beautiful” she breathed with awe. “Thank you … for bringing me here.”
“You’re welcome, tseriya” he said softly. “I knew you’d love it.”
Saakshi directed a radiant smile at her gentle giant. “Can we touch the water?”
“Absolutely. It’s pretty shallow at this end, if you’d like to soak in it.”
“I would love to, but I don’t have another set of clothes on me” she said shyly.
“I have something for you” he pulled out a simple black bathing suit from the case slung over his shoulder.
“It should fit you well. I’m an old hand at buying you attire by now” he flashed her a grin.
Saakshi flushed at the gentle teasing. The bathing suit, though simple, was beautifully cut in a soft, stretchy material. It reminded Saakshi of the intricately woven underclothes he’d bought for her on Keeyor 9 after their first night together. She glanced around for a place to change.
“I’ll turn my back” Zoran offered.
Saakshi waited for him to walk to the water’s edge and turn his back to her.
“I plan on going into the water in all my natural glory” he warned her with his back to her. “You might want to turn away. Although I wouldn’t complain if you enjoyed the show” he added wickedly.
Saakshi scampered to turn her back on him before scrambling into the bathing suit. Only when she heard a small splash from behind her did she turn around tentatively to face the water. Zoran glided through the water gracefully until he was just a silhouette at the edge of the lake, lit up by the combined light from the plasma torches.
“Come on in” he invited her. “The water is superbly warm.”
She walked into the clear water until it came to her upper thighs, before seating herself on the sandy bottom to enjoy the warm water lapping against her body. She leant back on her hands, allowing the water to slide over like a caress while she watched Zoran swim like a fish, his big body cutting through the water lithely.
Deep in Alliance space, Alliance Commander Kerovac mulled over the strange communication he had just received, his augmented brain calculating probabilities and assessing risks with machine-like efficiency, and remarkable accuracy. Only for a knock at the door to interrupt his musings. The Commander glanced at the door, the light in his eerie blue eyes softening subtly. He knew this particular cursory knock. Since his transformation to Un Kieto Maal, only two people in his world had ever been able to reach Rayeou Kerovac – his sister, Alina, and his childhood friend, Yaneou Tirovac. With every passing day, the Commander seemed to feel more like a machine and less male. It made him determined to hold on to the few emotional ties he still retained from his former life. There is one more person with the ability to affect you, who makes you yearn for things you believe you gave up a long time ago, reminded his inner voice insidiously. The Commander shoved away the inconvenient reminder, ignoring his inner voice to focus his attention on Yan instead.
Yaneou Tirovac, Aide-de-Champ to the Alliance Commander, looked grave.
“TF124 is under attack, Ray” he announced.
The Commander’s expression remained unchanged but Yan, who knew the Commander better than most, understood immediately that the assault on TF124 had defied the Commander’s careful considerations.
“The Station Commander is on COM Two” Yan explained. “I had the call diverted to me since I knew you were occupied with other matters.” Thus, delicately did Yan refer to the extraordinary communication the Alliance Commander had been engaged in – a direct overture from the Ketaari Emperor himself, who had bypassed the Ketaari Imperial Forces to reach out to the highest military officer in the Alliance, the Commander of the powerful Alliance Armada.
The Alliance Commander was not given to recriminations, regrets or second-guessing of decisions; the same implants that reduced the emotional quotient in him, making him ill-equipped to cope with emotional ties, helped to cut through such distractions to always focus him on the matter at hand. Despite doing everything in his power to minimize it, he had always known that TF124 ran the risk of being discovered one day. One could not hide such a substantial presence so close to Alliance space for very long. So, the Commander had focused on making contingency plans for just such an eventuality. For him, it was now simply a matter of making an informed choice from the many contingencies he had carefully worked through before.
“Activate Protocol Salvation on Sethia Two, Yan” the Commander directed, reaching for his communication device. “Their mission is evacuation of all TF124 personnel.”
Sethia Two was the nearest Alliance protected station from TF124. The Station Commander and his deputy on Sethia Two had been made aware of the exact location of TF124 with orders to be ready to evacuate and defend TF124 at short notice, should the occasion ever arise. In his
methodical way, the Alliance Commander had covered all his bases.
“Including the Budheya?” Yan inquired.
Yan, intimately acquainted with Protocol Salvation, was also aware of the different options the Commander had planned for, when the day came to trigger it.
“Yes.”
Protocol Salvation decreed that three warships be sent to TF124 to evacuate personnel or defend the station from hostile forces. It had been agreed that if the Budheya rebels on the station were evacuated in an emergency, then the ships would transport the rebels to a pre-arranged location within Alliance protected territory to await further orders. This would restrict the secret of the Budheya’s presence aboard a clandestine Alliance facility to the crew aboard the Alliance ships.
“This is Kerovac” the Commander greeted the Minduran male on the communication screen calmly, his manner steady as usual. No one had ever seen the legendary Un Kieto Maal even mildly excited, another reason the moniker had stuck so firmly to the Alliance Commander. In the background, he could hear Yan typing furiously into his tablet to activate Protocol Salvation and initiate evacuation of the facility under siege.
“The cloak is holding, Alliance Commander” the Station Commander hurried into speech. “But I don’t know for how long.”
The same Ur’quay technology that allowed their starships to be invisible had been modified by the Star Captain’s engineers, to protect the large ship that was TF124. The cloak had been a gift from the Ur’quay Captain.
“Do you have confirmation of the attackers?” the Commander inquired.
“The Hadari’Kor have confirmed that the ships are Ketaari.”
So, not marauders intent on taking advantage of what they assumed to be an unprotected facility close to Alliance territory, the Commander mused silently. The strange communication he had just received from the Ketaari suddenly seemed to assume a new dimension, as well as urgency.
“Place the cloak in shield mode, Station Commander” the Alliance Commander directed. The cloak was of little use to the facility now that TF124’s disguise had been pierced by the Ketaari. The shield mode, on the other hand, would draw a lot more power but might just buy TF124 the time to evacuate all its personnel.
The Station Commander barked the order to someone behind him, his sense of urgency coming through clearly.
“How many ships are currently docked on TF124?” the Commander inquired next.
“Three Hadari’Kor ships, Alliance Commander.”
“Is Zoran Hadari-Begur-Kor’s ship one of them?”
“Yes, the starship Juntafeyore is currently docked here, Alliance Commander” the Minduran male confirmed. It was the Juntafeyore that had alerted the Station Commander to the attack on his station, before the station personnel could make sense of the strange readings from the alien cloaking software they had not yet come to grips with.
“Three warships from Sethia Two are on their way to you, Station Commander” the Alliance Commander gave the orders, in his clear and precise way. “They will reach you in twenty standard minutes. You will arrange to evacuate all personnel including Budheya on these ships and rig TF124 with enough explosives to destroy it completely. The Hadari’Kor ships will engage the Ketaari to hold them off until everyone is safely away and will be responsible for blowing TF124 before they disengage from the Ketaari.”
The Station Commander took a deep breath, processing the Alliance Commander’s succinctly stated commands. The rigging of the facility with explosives was standard contingency plan for all Alliance stations and something the Alliance Commander had insisted TF124 be prepared for, since the early days of the facility. That did not faze the Station Commander. Only one part of the Alliance Commander’s directive did.
“The Hadari’Kor …” the Station Commander paused.
“I will communicate with the Hadari’Kor, Station Commander” the Alliance Commander interrupted the Minduran Station Commander. The Station Commander had no authority over the Hadari’Kor and though the two parties had co-operated and worked well together these past few months, it was a delicate arrangement that needed to be handled carefully at all times. Besides their formidable reputation on the battlefield, the Hadari’Kor were known for their fierce independence. Any directive, even one coached as a request from a mere Station Commander, would not be taken well by the Hadari’Kor.
“Please signal the Juntafeyore when you’re clear of the station, so they can trigger the explosives, Station Commander” the Alliance Commander added, tying up the small details, as was his habit.
“I will take care of it, Alliance Commander” the Station Commander acknowledged promptly, his relief clear. The Minduran Commander had not been looking forward to a delicate dance of diplomacy with the Hadari’Kor while his facility was under assault, and he had an entire evacuation to oversee.
Someone murmured to the Station Commander in the background.
“At the current rate, the shield will hold for another thirty minutes, Alliance Commander” the Station Commander relayed the information. “We will need an hour to evacuate all personnel from the station.”
“You will have the time you need, Station Commander” Commander Kerovac assured him. “ADC Tirovac will keep the communication lines open, just in case.”
“Aderaan Theriyaah.” The Station Commander signed off with the traditional farewell of the Minduran Military, roughly translated to Lord willing and God speed.
“The Juntafeyore is on COM Three” Yan murmured from behind him, efficient as always.
One of his first acts as Alliance Commander had been to pick his childhood friend to serve as his Aide-de-Champ, a position of great ceremony as well as influence, power and responsibility. The Alliance Commander’s ADC guarded all access to him. Over the years, Yan had acquired a reputation as an upstanding official with the ability to cut through red tape, good judgement, and the ear of the Alliance Commander.
In the early days, his choice had caused a minor scandal back home on Iovaca Prime, where the expectation had been that the first Iovac Alliance Commander would nominate one of the imminently well-qualified heirs of the Noble Houses to the prestigious post of Aide-de-Champ. The Commander had ignored both the whispers as well as the blunt comments to stick to his decision. Once he had entered the Program, Rayeou Kerovac had gradually ceased to exist, only to emerge as Un Kieto Maal, the Supreme Commander of the Alliance Armada, on whose shoulders rode the hopes and ambitions of an entire quadrant. Though he had acquiesced to the sacrifices readily, the Commander was determined that the few choices he was still left with, would be on his terms.
“This is Commander Jolar” Jolar’s face flashed across the communication screen.
“Commander Jolar” Commander Kerovac greeted the mercenary, no hint of surprise betraying him.
But Jolar was quick to sense the Alliance Commander’s astonishment. Jolar had not failed to take note these past few months that something troubled Zoran greatly. His friend had rightly guessed that Zoran’s preoccupation had something to do with Saakshi. So, Jolar was determined to give his Captain the precious time with his tseriya to sort out the matter.
“The Captain is off ship on private business, Alliance Commander” Jolar said briefly, before plunging onto the matter at hand. “We have identified four Ketaari ships attacking TF124. The Hadari’Kor ships stand ready to engage the Ketaari, Alliance Commander. Unless you would like us to help evacuate the station?”
As the Alliance Commander had suspected, the Hadari’Kor were eager to play their part in defending the station. The Commander rather suspected that the Hadari’Kor were more invested in this mission than the Alliance, at this point. Had not one of their own orchestrated this entire three-way pact between Budheya, Alliance and Hadari’Kor mercenaries?
While confident that three Hadari’Kor ships would prove more than a match for four Ketaari ships, the Commander mulled over a contingency plan to counteract the Ketaari in case more ships were on their way to join the assault
on TF124. If outnumbered, the Ur’quay starship, with its advanced weaponry and contingent of skilled warriors, would prove a formidable ally in keeping the enemy at bay from TF124. On the flip side, it would reveal the presence of the Ur’quay ship to the Ketaari, as well the Hadari’Kor.
“Alliance ships are on their way to evacuate the station, Commander Jolar. The Station Commander estimates that he will need a standard hour and a half to evacuate all personnel from TF124. Can the Hadari’Kor keep the Ketaari at bay to allow for safe evacuation of everyone?”
“The Hadari’Kor will hold off the Ketaari until the evacuation is complete, Alliance Commander” Jolar assured the Alliance Commander confidently. “What about the rebels?”
“They will be evacuated by Alliance ships, along with other TF124 personnel. On my orders, the Station Commander is rigging the station with explosives. He will let the Juntafeyore know once everyone is off the station.”
“We will trigger the explosion and make sure TF124 does not fall to the Ketaari, Alliance Commander” Jolar acknowledged. It was standard Alliance procedure to prevent their strategically important stations from falling into enemy hands. Jolar had worked with the Alliance long enough to understand that Commander Kerovac’s calculated decision to abandon TF124 without a fight, was to hide the Budheya presence on the station from the Ketaari. This way, they could start afresh on another Alliance facility, without the Ketaari being any wiser. An Alliance facility was a small price to pay to preserve a mission with the potential to pay huge dividends down the line.
“Is the Ur’quay ship close by, Commander Jolar?” the Alliance Commander inquired.
Kerovac was aware that the Ur’quay and the Juntafeyore had developed a close working relationship, shadowing their respective Captains’ easy equation.
“A few minutes away, Alliance Commander.” As he had guessed, Jolar was up to date on the Ur’quay ship’s whereabouts.
“The Ur’quay ship with its ability to cloak would be an asset in the fight, Alliance Commander” Jolar hinted subtly.