by C. C. Ekeke
“You say you’re no longer part of the Technoarchy,” the Thulican grumbled. “I never trusted that claim. Nor you.”
“Now you waste words,” the Cybernarr cut in, her voice as cold and sharp as a blade, “Is this meeting approaching a point?”
Khrome clenched his fists so tight his palms began to warp. “You’re needed. On Star Brigade. You should…” The word he intended to say stuck in his throat, but it had to be said. “You should… stay.”
Marguliese conveyed her surprise with an arched eyebrow. “And why would I stay?” she queried.
To protect my teammates and this Union, Khrome almost said, but knew that wouldn’t go over well. “One, you trained the combat team well. That’ll come in handy as we continue prepping more combat teams. Two, you were…” he tried saying the word ‘invaluable’ and almost choked, “you were very helpful in dealing with Maelstrom. And three, because I’m allowing you to stay.”
Marguliese strode forward until they were face to face, completely inexpressive. She stood half a foot taller than him. “And why are you now allowing it?”
Khrome’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “I just told you.”
“You expressed objective truths, not subjective reasons.” Even underneath Zeid emerald radiance, the Cybernarr’s left eye flashed like a bright blue starburst.
>>Option: Blunt physical assault. Chance of threat eradication. 37%.
Khrome wanted to crush her skull like a watermelon. “My subjective reasons aren’t for your consumption,” Khrome stated severely. “Either stay or go. The choice is yours now.” Khrome stated his case and backed away. His innards felt soiled doing what he just did, as if betraying every Thulican that had suffered and died at Cybernarr hands before and during the Ferronos Sector War. But it’s all part of a bigger plan, Khrome rationalized. Now he just needed to connect all the pieces.
>>Threat assessment disengaged.
He could feel Marguliese’s cold eyes on him even after he turned and went through the Veranda’s sliding exit.
Khrome almost ran right into Captain Nwosu striding toward the Veranda egress. As tall as Marguliese was, Nwosu stood almost half a head taller than her. The Cercidalean, wearing the black and grey UComm uniform, had a decided limp in his step. He was still recovering from his injuries at the hand of deceased Korvenite terrorist Maelstrom.
Nwosu stopped dead in his tracks. Surprise colored his swarthy face at the sight of the Thulican, followed then by clear alarm. Khrome understood why. Clearly seeing him alone with Marguliese looked rather concerning.
“Lieutenant,” Nwosu said carefully with that thick Cerc drawl. Khrome detected acceleration in his captain’s heart rate, not that he could blame him.
“Morning oh Captain, my Captain,” the Thulican shot back in a breezy attempt to calm the Cerc.
“She’s out there…in one piece?” Nwosu asked quite skeptically.
Khrome chortled at the Cerc’s dry wisecrack and nodded. “Thank you for honoring your word. But, you don’t have to anymore.”
Nwosu’s gaping disbelief almost made Khrome laugh harder. But that would’ve been disrespectful. “Huh,” The Cerc scratched the back of his bald head. “You sure?” His hazel-gold eyes shimmered with concern under the halolights.
Khrome met his superior’s gaze directly. “Wish I wasn’t.” The Thulican pivoted around and stalked off. He felt Captain Nwosu’s eyes on his back long after he stepped into the translifter at the end of the winding corridor.
Khrome told the translifter his desired destination and felt it begin shooting downward, then sideways toward that location. He had no doubt that thanks to his endorsement the Cybernarr would be present at the all-hands meeting in a few orvs. With Honaa regrettably departed, Nwosu would want higher-ups on Star Brigade he could trust. I should tell him my plan, get his sign off, he pondered for a moment. Captain Nwosu was an honorable and solid leader, never ordering any member of CT-1 to a task he himself wouldn’t do. And Nwosu did authorize Khrome to create a biotech tracker to keep tabs on Marguliese, so clearly his trust for the Cybernarr wasn’t absolute.
Just as quickly, Khrome decided against it. The Cerc’s bond with Marguliese went beyond professional, given that she’d saved his life many years ago. As much as it made Khrome feel like his mechanics were malfunctioning, he got how that type of bond might color one’s perception.
That left one Brigadier who had the resources to help Khrome. And that surprisingly wasn’t Tyris. Despite hailing from a Kedri Imperial Dependency, his best friend had been annoyingly tolerant of Marguliese’s presence.
Didn’t matter anyway. Khrome quickly decided it was better not to involve Tyris. The translifter slowed to a halt and sliding open on the floor of the senior officers living quarters. Khrome walked off and marched through the warm taupe corridors toward one individual lodging.
>>Chance of alliance procurement. 92.586%.
After his entry request was granted, He stepped inside Samantha D’Urso’s quarters and found her in the common room watching some massive floating holoscreen.
On screen Khrome saw two humanoids shouting at each other; a stupidly attractive human female in a lab coat and a very avian/reptilian mixed male with a hulking physique and stone-like skin.
The Thulican smiled at the familiar sight of popular “will-they-won’t-they” couple, priggish exiled princess Rysaia Arwon and unscrupulous mercenary Kour zo Kreen in yet another ambiguous argument over how much they loved each other while debating a completely unrelated topic. Far Side of the Galaxy, the addicting space opera that Khrome and Sam had bonded over nearly a year ago.
That appeared to be last night’s episode, which ended with a cliffhanger that left Khrome howling at his holoscreen. Sam D’Urso stood with eyes glued on the holoscreen. The Star Brigade commander had a mane of golden-blonde piled atop her head in a twist, the blue henley and dark grey denims she wore flattered a figure shaped like one of those hourglasses from her former homeworld of Old Earth. Khrome had visited her quarters once or twice, all her trinkets and souvenirs from other Union and non-Union worlds still in their previous places.
When Sam turned and caught sight of him, she instantly brightened. “Khrome Daddy, Hullo!” Sam bounded up and draped her arms around his neck in greeting. He had only an inch on her in height but over four times her width in muscle bulk.
Khrome gingerly disengaged from their embrace. “Hey Sam, I…,” The Thulican saw something behind Sam and abruptly ate his words. “Oh. Hi.”
Sam had company, a petite teenaged Korvenite girl with a flowing violet jumble of lazy curls spilling down to her waist. She stood further back near the kitchen entrance.
For a moment both of them stared awkwardly at each other until Khrome’s memories ID’d her.
>>Recollection archive: Tharydane Eirrouma
The Korvenite who helped thwart the KIF from wiping out Terra Sollus’s human population.
“Ah,” Sam took the Korvenite by the hand and led her to the Thulican. “Khrome. Meet my ward Tharydane. Tharydane. Meet Khrome, one of my superb teammates.”
Khrome felt his round yellow eyes widen. He knew from the debriefs of her involvement that the girl was an orphan, but the Thulican definitely not see this coming. Were Captain Nwosu and Lethe okay with this? “Hello Tharydane,” Khrome held out his massive hand in greeting.
Tharydane took it. “Hi.” Her black-and-gold eyes studied him with youthful curiosity.
This young girl represented the best of her race, choosing the lives of billions over her own race. Meanwhile, Timbore, the traitorous Thulican who helped Maelstrom’s attempted xenocide represented the very worst of Khrome’s species. The shame he felt was fleeting but thoroughly overwhelming. Now was no time for that, so the Thulican buried it down and put on his most welcoming smile. “I might have heard a thing or three about your heroics on Terra Sollus.”
The girl’s alabaster skin flushed green with embarrassment. “Thank you.” Khrome analyzed her ac
cent, definitely from outside Union Space, maybe somewhere in Lawless Space. “Is your name really Khrome Daddy?”
Khrome chuckled. “Naw, just a nickname.”
“One of several,” Sam teased him with a smile and gestured at the holoscreen. “I’m introducing Tharydane to FSG.”
“Luminal!” Khrome grinned, always pleased to encounter new FSG converts. “Be careful. You will get addicted.”
“Why Khrome darling, that’s the point.” Sam batted her eyelashes, a flirty human gesture of hers that usually amused him. Today wasn’t one of those times, which Sam detected promptly.
“You have a moment?” Khrome asked quietly.
“For you, I always have several.” She acknowledged the Korvenite teenager with a leisurely nod. “We’ll be in my office for a little while. You good here, kid?”
Tharydane waved Sam off. “I’ve got FSG to catch up on. Nice meeting you Mr. Khrome.”
“You adopted a teenage Korvenite?” Khrome marveled after they were in Sam’s home office and she had initiated privacy mode. The room was small in size and spare in adornments, but equipped with wallscreens scrolling with realtime military data and vids. “When did that happen?”
“Recently,” Sam replied vaguely, hands in her pockets. Given the personal nature of the topic, Khrome wasn’t surprised how she briskly changed the subject in typical Sam fashion. “What’s up hun?”
She seemed so truly content, for the first time since Honaa’s death. Khrome regretted what he was about to divulge. So he blurted it out. “Marguliese’s staying with Star Brigade.”
Sam’s smile vanished, giving way to shock and then bubbled into fury. The Thulican detected a spike in his teammate’s temperature that had nothing to do with her pyrokinetic gifts. “Because I asked her to,” he quickly added. “I already told Captain Nwosu.”
Sam stared at Khrome, confused. “Why?”
“Hate to admit this,” Khrome confessed through gritted teeth, “but she played a huge part in defeating Maelstrom.”
“I don’t disagree, Khrome,” Sam replied carefully, her tone sharpening. “But her presence is a threat to all of us. She needs to get gone pronto….”
“I know. My stand on what she embodies hasn’t changed. But if we let a rogue Cybernarr loose into Union Space,” Khrome laid out the risks, “with no clear allegiance other than to our fearless leader…”
“…she could become a graver threat should she suddenly feel like reconnecting to the Technoarchy,” Sam pieced the rest together with a look of pure nausea on her face.
“With tons of data on UComm defenses, weaponry,” Khrome chimed in. “Plus access to more than one military installation.”
“Dēvatā Gāisǐ de, Habraum!” Sam cursed. The use of earthborn profanity meant that her rage was nuclear. She paced back and forth restlessly, like one of those massive big cats Khrome had seen on Terra Sollus.
“So Marguliese stays for now,” Sam finally said, whirling on him. Her anger was palpable still, but suppressed beneath a layer of paper-thin calm. “When it comes to time eliminate her, do you have any solutions as to how?”
“Have you met me?” Khrome scoffed dramatically, crossing his massive arms. “Former Free Scions member? Born ready? I got several solutions.”
“Of course you do.” Sam rolled her eyes and chuckled, lessening the tension a bit. “What was I thinking?”
“I was thinking you had a solution or five of your own.” Sam didn’t have to admit a thing. The impish lopsided grin tugging at her lips said plenty.
“Makes more sense to pool our resources on such a sensitive matter, right?” Khrome offered.
Sam folded both arms behind her back and watched the Thulican silently. Her brow furrowed in deep thought. “This stays between us,” she decided. “Secrets tend to stay secrets when fewer folks are involved.”
>>Alliance procurement successful.
Perfect. A triumphant smile graced Khrome’s flat noseless face. “Agreed.”
“Good. We got some time before the all-hands,” Sam plopped down onto an L-shaped couch in the corner of her office, slapping a hand down on the seat next to her. “Sit and let’s discuss.”
Sneak Preview - Star Brigade: The Supremacy
The viewscreen footage played out deep in the bowels beneath Terra Sollus’s surface, an overhead outlook of three gaunt figures tearing frantically through a dank realm of endless conduits and tunnels. Their footfalls splish-splashing through puddles marked the desperation in the trio’s flight. Despite running for days, these three Korvenites, a teenage boy, a bald older male, and a young female, would not stop. Their entire existence reduced to the singular drive of survival, each Korvenite’s alabaster face told equally harrowing tales of exhaustion, terror, and pain.
Months ago these Korvenites were imprisoned in separate internment camps. Until the radical leader Maelstrom freed them, this trio had never known hope. The boy had never even used his telepathic Mindspeak abilities before! Soon after, the newly liberated Korvenites found themselves on a massive spacestation commandeered from the Union and Kedri governments by Maelstrom and his bold followers, poised to reclaim their homeworld.
But hope had abandoned the Korvenites yet again, leaving Maelstrom dead and his Korvenites scattered. These Korvenites had been part of the lucky assemblage not aboard the terrorist leader’s spacestation upon its destruction. In the ensuing chaos, this rudderless group had somehow made their way beneath Terra Sollus’s megapolises, scavenging for scraps of food, staying low-profile for months.
Now someone had been hunting these Korvenites, whittling their numbers down to just three. So the Korvenites found themselves on the run again, fear and fatigue taking an obvious toll. Their observers wanted desperately to rescue the trio—but only after learning the identity and location of their pursuers.
The older male Thaull’s whitish skin was dripping with sweat, his pace barely faster than a jog. Before long, Thaull finally stumbled to all fours with a splash on a shallow puddle. He couldn’t even hold his head upright while gasping for air.
Both younger Korvenites heard him fall and stopped. “[Thaull,]” the female hissed in the Korvenite dialect, Korcei, “[get up! They’re coming!]”
“[C-Can’t…Jomè,]” Thaull wheezed in reply, flailing an arm to wave them off. “[You and Kyraeus…go. I’ll…slow you.]”
The one named Kyraeus turned and dashed to Thaull’s side.
Gawking in disbelief, Jomè ran her hands through matted purple hair and shrieked, “[I sense them closing in on us!]”
Kyraeus remained near Thaull. “[I know, Jomè. I’m not mentally blind,]” he said.
“[Ky—]” she cried again.
“[I am NOT leaving Thaull!]” Kyraeus barked back at Jomè. She scowled at Kyraeus right before turning on her heel and dashing with renewed vigor into the pitch-black tunnels ahead.
Thaull caught his breath and looked at Kyraeus. “[She’s right… I’ve lived long enough…and the paradise of Yvyria…is waiting.]”
“[No.]” The youngster shook his shaggy mane of violet breathlessly. “[We’ve already lost too many. I won’t lose you—AAAAGGHH!!]”
A bolt of sizzling red energy seared past Thaull’s head, briefly chasing away the dark and nailing Kyraeus square in the chest. As the young Korvenite flopped to the ground, his pain clearly vibrated through Thaull, meaning the two were telepathically linked.
One spectator watching on the viewscreen cringed. Another made a distressed noise that was quickly stifled.
A second red bolt sliced past Thaull again, and hurtled back into the shadows. “[Jomè, DUCK!!]” he screeched.
Thaull’s words came too late. Jomè’s scream rang out, as did the fizzle of the energy bolt striking true. Puddle splatters bounced throughout the tunnels when she fell.
Her agony shuddered through Thaull just as Kyraeus’s had. Grief-stricken, Thaull spun about, looking for cover—and found a shiny pulse pistol pointed between his eyes. The Korvenit
e froze, gaping past the pistol into the face of its owner. A human male of mixed earthborn ethnicity stood over him, wearing light armor and a victorious sneer.
“Give me a reason, limeblood,” he snarled in Standard, pressing the gun into Thaull’s brow. This human pursuing the Korvenites bore armor markings resembling those of the pestilential Children of Earth group. A tension gripped the observers, not knowing what Thaull would do.
Thankfully he sighed and knew well enough to surrender.
Disappointed that the Korvenite didn’t retaliate, the earthborn glanced over his shoulder glumly and nodded. At once, six more figures emerged from the shadows behind them, all in sleek, cobalt-blue body armor and carrying long pulse rifles. Despite the helmets masking their faces, their builds looked undeniably human.
The limp bodies of Kyraeus and Jomè were gathered up and purposely dragged through filthy sewer puddles. Their leader stepped back, lowering his weapon as an armored soldier roughly shackled Thaull’s arms together. The older Korvenite didn’t resist, his wizened features going blank.
“We all clear?” the leader asked.
“Yep,” replied one of the soldiers in a chipper female voice. “No sign of any other limeblood or nonhuman for miles, Kingston.”
“Then let’s move. Good work, people,” the man named Kingston commended his team as they carried away their bounty into the unlit tunnels with militia-like efficiency. Before long, the only trace of their presence was the echoes of footsteps.
As soon as the group had moved a safe distance away, the viewscreen shifted perspective to the ceiling several feet above. The screen focused then on the massive body of Star Brigade 1st Lieutenant V’Korram Pryderi-Ravlek—codename “Jakadda,” splayed up against a rusted mesh of piping and oily power cables running across the ceiling. Drops of condensation dribbled onto his light-armorweave uniform. The Kintarian used his hands and feet to cling to the knots of wiring pressed against his broad-shouldered back. Every lithe muscle stayed taut and still, primed to spring at any instant.
He waited a few more macroms, green-flecked eyes roving right to left.