Rise

by May Sage

  Where were they?

  Falcon speaking, he heard in his mind. Great, just what he needed right about now.

  Calden was short tempered at the best of times. Today? He was likely to bathe in the blood of his enemies for fun. No, no. Quite literally.

  I have a location on sparrow. He's two floors down, in the ventilation system. Alive. Keep it that way, cousin.

  The communication stopped abruptly. Right, no pressure. He was supposed to find a kid somewhere inside a tiny ventilation system no grown male could hope to wiggle into, and if he didn't, his favorite relative was likely to bathe in his blood.

  Another explosion resounded, too close for comfort. Shit.

  The humans were too well informed and well equipped to work on their own; there was about a ninety percent chance that they had a traitor in their rank. How, otherwise, might the Dissenters have heard of a random, unplanned visit?

  As Earth had no ambassador, it was still under the direct supervision of the Emperor, which gave Calden an excuse to turn up at least once a year. This time, no one had been told until the very last minute, yet here they were. Under attack.

  As the assault had started in the west wing, the target had been evident.

  They wanted to hurt the child, hence Jaycn’s conclusion: the humans were freaking suicidal.

  Thankfully for everyone involved, the child had made it so far.

  The next explosion propelled Jaycn ten feet backwards and if he wasn't mistaken, that smell meant he probably didn’t look all that good right about now.

  Goddess, he hated getting burnt, but it wouldn't be the first or the last time.

  Jaycn, retreat to base. There’s a transport on the roof.

  The curt order surprised him; sure, he wasn't in best shape, but he hadn't thought that Calden would have cared.

  Well, rather – he hadn't thought that Calden would have cared about his welfare as much as he cared about getting his son back.

  That wasn't a suggestion, General.

  Yeah, well then, he was going to have to be insubordinate, wasn't he?

  Because Jaycn couldn't leave the boy.

  Contrarily to the human Dissenters, he wasn't suicidal and there was someone much, much more frightening than Calden who would cut off his balls if Alek didn't make it out in one piece.

  Without being scared.

  Or scratched.

  Or crying.

  Shit, he should have brought a lollipop.

  I'm not leaving him. Where is he now?

  There was a long pause, followed by a sigh.

  One floor down. I can't see him, but his chip is still in the ventilation.

  Got it.

  Well, he thought he had got it, until the building started collapsing; he could feel the upper floors sliding, slowly. Or pretty damn quickly, but adrenaline was a wondrous thing.

  Shit.

  Jaycn concentrated as hard as he possibly could, and by some sort of miracle, managed to summon a grappling hook and a thin rope.

  His microchip, like most of the latest ones, was fitted with a designing program, but getting anything done took a lot of willpower; in a normal mind frame, he wouldn't have had a chance – but as he mentioned before, adrenaline rocked.

  He threw the hook at a part of the building that seemed intact, and jumped.

  He’d just managed to lift himself up on the floor when the headlight of a speeder blinded him.

  Jaycn rose to a crouch, alerted, until he recognized the pilot.

  Calden.

  He'd never been quite so happy to see his cousin’s too perfect, too serious face in his lifetime.

  A side door lifted, and the speeder approached, close enough for him to hop in.

  Jaycn grunted, as every bone in his body begged for mercy.

  “Let’s not do that again.”

  “Take the commands,” Calden ordered, removing his long formal jacket, and taking various tools from a supply cabinet.

  Oh, no.

  “Cal, you can't go out there, you're the…”

  “One word and I rip your tongue out. My son is out there. Alive.”

  Which was a miracle in itself.

  How the fuck had the kid managed to make it so far? He was smart, no doubt about it, but he was also seven years old – and let's not forget that the humans had obviously been after him.

  “Then let me go.”

  “You aren't in optimal condition. If I don't make it, do me a favor. Tell Lena…”

  The Klints turned, weapons in hand, as they felt someone jump inside the open door.

  Then, both of them breathed out freely for the first time within the last hour.

  “Tell me what?”

  Lena, damn her, was dangling from her own rope – a stylish silver and blue chain.

  She wore the Elite dress she'd been wrapped in during the meeting, but she'd cut a slit along her long legs; they could see her trademark black running pants underneath. As per usual, she’d been prepared for all eventualities. Her red hair was still elegantly knotted around her face; there wasn’t a strand out of place.

  That woman was going to kill them some day, and she'd do it without breaking a sweat.

  More remarkably – although Jaycn couldn't pretend to be astonished – she was holding Alek on one of her hips. The kid was laughing; actually laughing. Like he hadn't been in danger from a horde of angry humans with guns.

  Let's face it: he probably hadn't.

  “Tell me what?” she repeated, almost menacingly, her eyes narrowing.

  To say that she and Calden had a tense relationship was inaccurate.

  Tense was what happened when swimming amongst sharks with an open wound, or perhaps what Jaycn had experienced a few minutes ago, when a skyscraper had been cut in two underneath his feet.

  Calden and Lena weren’t tense. They were two vicious snakes dancing around the same prey.

  Someday, some brave soul might advise them to fuck and get it over with, but as he'd previously mentioned, Jaycn was quite attached to his existence, so that wouldn’t be him.

  “Never mind. Drop me off on your way if you don't mind.”

  Oh fuck. Retreat, retreat.

  “Here's my favorite youngling. Want to try healing me, little boy?”

  He managed to get the child out of the way before it all started.

  Calden wasn't what one would call talkative, but he knew him well enough to understand what was coming next.

  When the Emperor closed, locked and sealed the door, Jaycn wasn't surprised.

  Terrified of the upcoming explosion, but not surprised.

  Without so much as a word addressed to Lena, Calden returned behind the commands and headed up. Towards their ship.

  He'd officially kidnapped Lena Smith.

  Jaycn managed to hide his smile.

  Fucking finally.

  It was logical; she wasn't safe – not if the Dissenters were bold enough to attack Alek in broad daylight. They wouldn't hesitate to harm her, too.

  And let's face it: she was always going to end up on Magneo.

  Close to eight earthen years ago, when they'd discovered that she was a hundred percent compatible to the emperor, Calden had asked her to bear a child.

  Or rather, he'd made Jaycn ask her, because Calden didn't speak to Lena.

  As one might imagine, she hadn't been sold on the idea – she'd been a clever student preparing for a lucrative career, and while breeders were respected amongst most Klint circles, they weren't anything more than whores, as far as the humans were concerned. Actually, worse than whores: humans also saw them as traitors.

  A few chats including a crash course in “if Calden dies without an heir, the galaxy will be at war, and every female of earth might end up enslaved” had her change her tune.

  She'd had a few conditions, though. Number one being: no human could know.

  As far as they were concerned, she'd been away for medical reasons – a half-truth.

  Number two had been that sh
e wanted to have her life back. Her scholarship, her cold house, her privacy.

  Calden had just officially broken their contract.

  Jaycn wasn't sure Lena would really mind, deep down; he knew for a fact that there wasn't much waiting for her down there, but of one thing, he was certain.

  She was going to rip Calden a new one.

  “Is there any popcorn in your backpack?” he asked the kid.

  The show was going to be fun to watch.

  Five

  Strategies

  Lena

  She eventually stopped yelling, when she realized that nothing she said had any impact on the major dickwit who’d fathered her son.

  Lena couldn’t even kick his sorry ass, as he was attached to the board directing the metal box they were trapped in, a few hundred miles up from the nearest flat surface.

  In other circumstances, she might have risked it, and gotten Jaycn to take over – or even tried piloting it herself, for that matter – but Alek was in the speeder; end of story. She was not taking any kind of risk in her child’s presence.

  Soon, her rage faded. Her throat was starting to hurt and now the adrenaline had subdued, she felt run down and exhausted.

  After a while, she sighed and went to sit next to Jaycn. She'd just tied her belt when Alek climbed on her lap and nested his head under her chin.

  Then, she couldn't recall why she was pissed off.

  Until it came back to her.

  Shit.

  Lena was not the kind of woman who cried, she seriously wasn't, but one tear fell down.

  Her boy’s hand reached towards the left of her head, and touched her microchip, embedded on a little black stone some mistook as a piercing. She didn't even try to stop him.

  He then touched his own microcomputer and the two adult Klints in the speeder glanced towards her.

  Great. Thanks to her adorable little betrayer, they knew she was torn up over her cat.

  She wasn't too bothered about Jaycn; he'd met Mr. Pepper, he knew just how special that bundle of fur was, to her anyway.

  But she could imagine the almighty Calden’s contempt.

  “I'll be fine,” she told her son.

  And she would, too. It was her cat who wouldn't be, if that stupid emperor didn't let her go take care of him. Sure, he’d manage to scavenger some food, somewhere – but he needed cuddles. What would he think if she never returned? That he wasn’t wanted?

  Lena tried her best and managed a faint smile. Half of the display was for Alek, but she also did it because if Calden and Jaycn believed she was over it, they wouldn’t put too much security on her ass.

  Which meant that she would soon be able to make a run for it.

  She glanced up towards the ship when it came into view.

  The Anterra wasn't the biggest of spaceships – it wasn't meant for a large crew; however in terms of speed and firepower, it had no equal.

  Or at least, according to the information filed on her microchip.

  Lena was so used to reaching out to get whatever data she needed, she wasn't even sure where her mind ended and that computer started. She'd had it for seven years; it was part of her now.

  Those who recognized it for what it was had been surprised to see her with such an advanced piece of Klint technology, because they weren't exactly cheap – and it had only been the beginning.

  Then, there had been the car, and the special allowance. She hadn’t noticed until she fell asleep early one day, uncharacteristically leaving the lights on. When she woke up, after midnight, her room was still illuminated – the only light in the entire Zone C. She received a lot of money on a monthly basis, too.

  She’d yelled about it; getting a salary from a Klint account did give the wrong idea to the staff of her bank – she didn’t want them to think she was a breeder. Never mind that technically, she had been.

  Jaycn refused to play ball.

  “This has nothing to do with breeders. You’re an Elite; there’s a planet which belongs to you. It is customary, as such, that you receive a fraction of its profits. I have set it up so you only get the very minimum – the rest is injected into the planet’s welfare. Your subjects thank you for it.”

  Her subjects. The ludicrous idea had made her nauseous.

  “I don’t do anything, though. I don’t rule them, or whatever. This should go to whoever is actually doing the work.”

  “The work,” Jaycn had replied, “is done by me. Trejon is close to Essa, it is no hardship. However, it is crutial that my involvement remains undisclosed, or there would be talk of a conflict of interests. Take the money, Lena.”

  She had, reluctantly. It wasn’t going amiss; she’d always had a list of causes she’d wanted to support. Now she could.

  But it hadn’t helped her status amongst her people.

  In short, while Calden had kept to his words and prevented himself from publically announcing that she'd been his chosen incubator, he did everything else. Soon, Lena had been ostracized from the society, like every Klint partisan out there. She’d kept some true friends, but for their own good, she’d limited their interactions.

  Yeah, it was a pretty lonely life.

  “You've never been to space, right?” Jaycn clarified, taking in her expression.

  He was probably expecting a bit more enthusiasm, or at least a dose of fear, but she showed neither.

  Lena wasn't surprised, or amazed, or impressed by a lot these days. It was their fault; what did they expect, given that her chip was explaining everything to her? She couldn't be in awe of things she perfectly comprehended, regardless of whether she'd seen them or not.

  Admittedly, the ship was badass; Star Wars had been way off the mark with their millennium falcon. Anterra was all clean, smooth lines and cold lights.

  The speeder slowed down, and collided with the side of the ship. Lena might have been startled, if Chip hadn't asked her to brace herself, in anticipation of the attachment.

  No wonder Klints were so damn boring.

  A wall collapsed, opening on a dark, long corridor. Like it or not, she was officially in for an imperial ride.

  The first thing she noticed was the temperature. She'd known space was cold, but she hadn't quite anticipated that it would be that frigid. In her silken robe, she was hardly equipped for the arctic temperature. Thankfully, she had her favorite sports attire underneath, but the eight-year-old running pants weren’t cutting it. She needed fluffy long pants and a ski jacket.

  Alek turned to her, frowning, and she tried to smile reassuringly, just as another wall collapsed suddenly.

  Ok, she was not liking their doors. Couldn't they, like, knock or something?

  A row of Klint soldiers appeared and the emperor started talking their ears off. While everyone here understood English perfectly fine, he chose to do so in his tongue, indubitably proving that he was an ass.

  Lena considered getting Chip to work on the translation but truth was, she didn't give a damn what he said.

  Or rather, she wasn't giving him the satisfaction of suspecting that she might care.

  Yes, their relationship – or lack of thereof – was tiring, complicated and stupid as fuck, but he’d started it. That did not make her sound like a third grader.

  Lena crossed her arms under her chest to punctuate that accusation, and glared at him, until three of the soldiers detached from the rest of the group, and bowed in front of her.

  “Your grace, this way, if you will.”

  Any other time, she would have protested, asked fuck loads of questions, but that was what Calden expected, so she straightened her spine, and followed without a word.

  She might not be very mature, as far as he was concerned, but at least, she could seem to be. Take that.

  Jaycn

  “You're kidding.”

  Jaycn fucking hoped Calden was kidding, in any case.

  The Emperor hadn't even said a word, but he knew that look.

  He'd had the same look before breaking into a
n enemy prison with three men to free his commanders a century ago. That had turned out alright, but even if it hadn't, it would have been recorded as an act of selflessness and bravery.

  What Calden was contemplating now could only go down as one of the most famous displays of stupidity in history. It might even make it in some silly romance book.

  “You don't have to come,” he said, while following the corridor towards a new, fully charged speeder.

  “Fuck cousin, the human Dissenters have just declared war on us. They know Lena is favored by an important Klint, her house will be targeted.”

  Calden raised an eyebrow, as if to say no, really?

  He was fully aware of that fact; it was the reason why Lena was in the Anterra, and not back on Earth.

  “You can’t do this. It’s not worth it.”

  Calden didn’t even stop to consider the pros and cons, he hopped into the new speeder and strapped himself to the command.

  Finally, the Emperor was so good as to look up towards his cousin.

  “She will run, steal a ship and come back to Earth as soon as we close our eyes if we don't do this.”

  Dammit. He had a point.

  Jaycn held his hands up, got in and put his seat belt on.

  Brilliant. The leader of the Galactic Empire and the third in line for the throne were going to risk their necks for a cat.

  Six

  Cold

  Lena

  She was going to kill Calden. Slowly. Painfully.

  That cheerful thought was the only thing keeping her warm in her room.

  It was a large and pretty room, quite obviously reserved to high ranking officials – from what Chip said, anyway.

  Lena might have been flattered if they’d actually remembered to switch the heating on.

  It’s unlikely that a ship such as this might have a heating system. Klints aren’t as susceptible to cold as humans.