by Regine Abel
As an aspiring Operator, I needed to prove myself able to receive and then relay mental messages, be they words—like in the first stage of the test—or imagery. The latter was the most important as, in the midst of battle, the warriors couldn’t launch into long explanations to convey their messages. A rank four Operator—the position I coveted—also needed to be able to interpret a scene with 99.5% accuracy over a distance of ten million kilometers.
The images started coming faster, making it hard to keep up. In the end, the images cycled through scenes of battle fields on different planets before settling on the Great Hall of Koto Tsi, decimated a few months back by a sudden Kryptid attack. The entire testing chamber had turned into the Great Hall, its gleaming glass and metal walls enclosing the room. Political figures and the elite of the planet mingled all around me, but seemed unaware of my presence.
We’re right before the attack…
I turned towards the main entrance guarded by a couple of Kotan warriors who were clueless about the impending raid. As if summoned by my thoughts the door exploded, revealing a swarm of Kryptids. They rushed into the room, easily overwhelming the handful of guards within, the two by the door having died instantly from the explosion.
People ran for exits, pushing, shoving, and trampling each other. They didn’t realize yet that all escape routes had already been cut off. The Kryptids shot indiscriminately through the crowd. Bodies flopped to the ground. I couldn’t tell if they were dead or stunned. Some of the Kotan started fighting back. The screams of the fleeing guests soon drowned beneath the clash of swords and the detonations of shots fired.
“What are they looking for?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin hearing the voice in my head again. Even though I knew all of this to be an illusion, I was freaking out and fighting the urge to run. I inhaled deeply then breathed out slowly, willing my pounding heart to settle down. What could he possibly mean by that question, anyway? The Kryptids only ever cared about two things; killing and conquering. Those they didn’t kill here would be used as breeders. Still, he wouldn’t have asked without a valid reason.
My eyes flicked this way and that, looking for signs of concerted efforts over a goal other than subduing the attendees. A group of bodyguards surrounded the Primarch and his mate—the equivalent of king and queen of Koto Tsi. I would have expected the Kryptids to converge on them but they seemed more focused on getting to the back left side of the room where a few retired military dignitaries and the general of the Kotan army were battling with impressive fierceness.
The General!
“They want to capture General Jenin to get as much intelligence from him as possible.”
“Behind you!”
On reflex, I turned around just in time to see one of the Kryptids raise his sword and bring it down on me. I instinctively dodged. To my shock, I felt a biting pain where the sword grazed my arm.
What the hell?!
This was an illusion! I shouldn’t feel real pain. Unlike the other people, my attacker could clearly see me and seemed determined to relieve me of a few limbs. Running out of reach, I looked around for a weapon I could use. Once more, as if summoned by my thoughts, a gleaming sword sat on the bar a few meters in front of me. I dashed for it, barely avoiding another vicious swipe of the Kryptid’s blade.
I lunged for the weapon then turned around, raising it in a defensive stance just in time to block another attack. My arms shook from the force of the impact. At five foot ten, I wasn’t small or scrawny, but the Kryptid towered over me by a full head. Although I couldn’t see his muscles beneath his chitin armor, the great width of his shoulders hinted at the extent of his strength. Going head to head with him would be a death warrant. Dodging what I could, and deflecting the rest quickly weakened me. I couldn’t even seek to join forces with the Kotans as they couldn’t see me.
In a desperate move, I pretended to fall while evading another attack. Rolling onto my back with the momentum, I thrust my sword upwards as he came looming over me. For a brief second, I feared having poorly aimed, but my blade slipped under one of the dark brown chitin plates covering his chest and found its mark in his vital organs.
With a screeching sound, the Kryptid jerked backwards, the three segments of his two legs folding as he fell to one knee. Midnight-blue blood poured out of his wound, staining his plated-chitin armor and dropping in big splotches on the floor. A look of pure hatred burned in his large, black, oily eyes that could have belonged to a spider. The plating on his throat shifted like he was trying to swallow—but more likely, regurgitate—something. I scrambled to my feet as his mandibles opened. His lips parted slightly, enough to reveal a giant dart dripping with a substance that I just knew would not be good for me.
A spitting sound preceded the dart flying towards me. I jumped out of its path, but it came at me too fast. Just as it would have found its way into my flesh, a golden hand swiped it out of the way, sending it crashing into a toppled over table nearby.
Eyes wide with shock I turned to look at my rescuer, and my brain ceased to function.
“Legion…” I whispered, my terror from seconds ago almost completely forgotten.
Koto Tsi’s Great Hall faded, and I found myself standing in the far right corner of the test chamber. Legion smiled, looking both pleased and surprised that I’d recognized him. How could he even wonder about that? He was the face of the Vanguard. Even though the Xian Warriors didn’t have hierarchy like traditional military organizations, the other Warriors all deferred to him as their leader.
“Thanks for saving me,” I said, rubbing the now absent cut where the Kryptid’s sword had grazed it. “I don’t want to think how badly that dart would have hurt.”
Legion raised an eyebrow at me. “You felt pain during the simulation?”
“Yes,” I said with a nod. “Isn’t that normal?”
Legion smiled and stared quietly at me. For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t answer.
“Few experience pain,” he said at last, his dark eyes stripping me bare.
I had fantasized about this man from the first time I’d seen the commercials for enrolling in one of the psychic programs. To have him standing here before me, even as part of an illusion, overwhelmed my senses. Like Hares, he towered over me by more than a head. His skin-tight, sleeveless, black Vanguard shirt showed every line of his eight pack. My fingers itched to run over the golden scales covering his neck and shoulders, and then to trace the thick veins along his muscular arms.
Swallowing hard, I forced my eyes back up to his, refusing to look at his sensual lips.
“Despite seeing what they’ve done and continue to do, you still stand against eradicating them?”
“Yes,” I said with unwavering conviction.
I didn’t know what reaction I’d expected from him, but not this amused smile.
“Tell me, Ayana, if you were my Soulcatcher, and I needed you to follow me onto a warring planet, would you?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation, even though that would never happen.
“Would you follow me onto the battlefield?”
I frowned. “Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose?”
“Yes or no?”
Uncertain how to answer, I chewed my bottom lip. It felt like a trap. He frowned at my silence.
Oh, fuck it! I’ll just say what I think is right.
“No, I wouldn’t.”
The small scales shaping his eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“You would disobey my orders?”
I tried to swallow despite my throat suddenly drying up. “I would disobey to protect you. If anything happened to you and I got myself killed on the field, you would be lost forever.”
“So you would risk facing a court-martial to protect me?”
“Yes.”
His smile broadened, and I wondered if it meant I had answered correctly. He took a couple of steps closer, invading my personal space. His proximity acted like a magnet, pulling me towards h
im. I struggled to stand straight instead of falling into him.
“Would you die for me, Ayana?”
A shiver ran through me at the way he all but whispered my name. My instinctive reaction was to answer in the affirmative, but I thankfully managed to hold my tongue. The things this man could make me do just by talking in that husky, gravelly tone. However, I was here to pass a test I’d spent years preparing for. No infatuation, however powerful, would ruin this for me. Reining in my emotions, I focused on the question.
“For you, Legion? No, I would not.”
He recoiled at my answer, a troubled expression descending upon his exotic features.
“I don’t know you and have no strong bond of affection for you to consider doing such a thing. However, for you, the Xian Warrior, and even more so the Vanguard leader, yes, I would die willingly.”
“Why for the Warrior and not the man?”
“For the same reason the Warrior goes regularly on suicide missions; to protect the Coalition and our way of life.”
“Ah, altruism then.”
I shrugged. “It’s one way to put it.”
“How would you put it?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
I inhaled deeply while gathering my thoughts. The first time I had shared my philosophy on altruism with my mother, she had called me a cynic.
“I don’t believe in true altruism and selflessness. To me, they are both driven by a form of selfishness.”
Legion snorted and gave me a dubious look. “Do go on. I can’t wait to hear your logic.”
Although used to that reaction, coming from him, it annoyed me more than usual.
“If the Kryptids had never come to Earth, the Coalition would have continued to ignore humans as too primitive a species.”
He shrugged. “Standard directive for any species that hasn’t achieved warp travel.”
“True,” I conceded with a nod, “yet, you came once they did and shared the technology you otherwise never would have. It wasn’t out of any kindness or to spare humanity from extinction. You defended us and repelled the invasion because, had Earth fallen, the Kryptids would have had billions of new breeders to expand their army. The Coalition didn’t save us out of compassion, but out of self-preservation. And I’m here to make sure another planet doesn’t fall because I never want to see those Kryptids threaten my homeworld again.”
Legion pursed his lips while he pondered my answer before smiling. “Fair assessment, but not every act of kindness is laced with personal gain. What of those who give to charity?”
I shrugged again. “Tax deductions, or building up karma for their own potential time of need. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It always comes back to self.”
Legion burst out laughing, and I couldn’t help grinning. It was powerful and beautiful, like everything about him. I didn’t want him to stop.
“Such cynicism at such a young age,” Legion said, sobering.
“I’m not that young. I’m twenty-five,” I said, feeling irrationally offended.
“I am well aware of that,” he said, mockingly.
My face heated at my little tantrum. Of course, he would know. He probably had a file on me a mile long.
Legion suddenly leaned towards me. I froze and my breath caught in my throat as his lips brushed against my left ear.
“You will want to die for me, the man.”
My stomach did the most delicious backflip. I turned to challenge his bold statement, but he had vanished. Stunned, I looked around the room but couldn’t see anything in the total darkness that surrounded me. It suddenly dawned on me that I shouldn’t have been able to even see him as clearly as I had considering the complete absence of light in the room aside from the three nodes on me.
The chamber’s door opened and blinding light from the hall stabbed my eyes, making them water. I blinked through it and, to my utter shock, realized I wasn’t standing in the back corner where I had been talking with Legion moments ago, but sitting on the stool where Hares had left me at the start of the test.
Holy mind-fuck!
Hares walked into the room and my anxiety skyrocketed; it dawned on me that I was seconds away from finding out how well, or poorly, I’d performed. With his face in the shadows and the bright light behind him blinding me, I couldn’t see his expression well enough to get a hint.
He extended a hand towards me which I took on instinct. Pulling me to my feet, he led me outside without a word. The glaring lights made me squint, and I could barely make out the outline of the crowd of Aspirants, family, and friends piled up on the temporary bleachers.
The moment I set foot outside, the crowd erupted in a roar followed by a thunder of applause. Startled, I squealed and my hand flew to my chest. I blinked, while my vision adjusted before meeting the gaze of my mother. The outpouring of happy tears left her high cheekbones glistening. Grinning widely, she clapped even more fiercely than my brother did, both of them staring at me with pride.
“I got four lights!” I whispered, my heart soaring.
Spinning on my heels, I looked at the symbols in front of the chamber for confirmation. My jaw dropped and my knees nearly buckled.
“No, sweetheart,” Hares said, inches from my face. “You got five. Welcome to the Vanguard.”
CHAPTER 2
Ayana
Three days after the test, I still couldn’t believe I had scored a five. Until a few minutes ago, when our spaceship took off, I kept thinking someone would come yank me out and say there’d been a mistake.
As much as it broke my heart to part with my family, I couldn’t have stayed another day on Earth without going insane. In the twenty-nine years since the test had been initiated, no other non-Caucasian had qualified for the Vanguard program. At first, I felt incredibly proud, not only for my own achievement, but for what it could mean for others within my ethnic community who also dreamt of joining it. I was the proof that it could be done.
Soon, however, it became a burden I had not signed up for and doubted I could bear. Prominent black figures, from politicians, to artists, and social leaders descended upon my parents’ house to see me… and be seen with me. Each made it a point to remind me, in one form or another, that the hopes of our entire community, worldwide, now rested on my shoulders and not to disappoint them.
No stress, right?
But then, representatives of the Asian community also dropped by. I hadn’t seen that one coming, although it made sense. I embodied hope for their people as well. Proof that ethnicity didn’t constitute a barrier to accessing the most coveted and honored role within the Coalition.
That morning, the Vanguard’s recruiting agents, accompanied by law enforcement, had to escort me through the media circus that had set up camp outside my house. They promised me this wouldn’t happen on Khepri, the terraformed planet which served as both the Xian Warrior’s homeworld and the Vanguard’s headquarters.
I could only pray for it to be true. So much pressure would break me. While I had earned a place in the Vanguard, that didn’t make me a Soulcatcher, yet. My psychic abilities meant that, along with the eighteen other young women aboard the shuttle with me, I would have to go through the Vanguard training to determine where and how I would serve. No matter how many times I repeated it, everyone back home chose to believe I was already a Soulcatcher. If I didn’t make it, they would be devastated.
My stomach knotted with anxiety. I should be giddy like my peers, talking excitedly about our new life ahead, the sexy Xian Warriors, and speculating about which one they would pair us with. Naturally, more than one mentioned Legion. Each time, a twinge of jealousy made me grind my teeth. As an introvert, I enjoyed keeping to myself. In this instance, I convinced myself that the fear of them giving me the third degree about being ‘the first’ drove my reluctance to mingle.
I couldn’t tell if the girls had been given a warning to leave me alone, if they were being courteous, or simply didn’t give a shit, but none of them tri
ed to draw me into their conversations, and the furtive glances my way remained scarce. It was quite a feat on their part considering we were sitting face-to-face in the shuttle, buckled to our seats, ten girls on one side, nine on the other.
Well, they all left me alone, but one…
The rather pretty redhead kept peering at me. Although the red hue didn’t look natural, the freckles on her nose confirmed that the colorant hid a true ginger. Each time we made eye contact, she smiled, clearly hoping to engage in conversation. Swallowing down a sigh, I eventually smiled back, bracing for what would follow. I didn’t consider myself antisocial per se, but I sure cherished my quiet, private time.
“Hi,” I said.
She beamed at me. “Hi. My name is Shereen.”
“Hello, Shereen. I’m Ayana.”
She chuckled. “I think everyone on the planet knows your name by now,” she said, teasingly.
My stomach dropped, and my back stiffened.
“Relax!” she added quickly, sensing my unease. “I’m not going to fan girl on you, or pester you with the bullshit the media did.”
Some tension bled out of my shoulders, but I remained wary, not quite sure what to expect.
“Well okay, maybe I’m lying. I’m totally going to fan girl on your combat skills,” Shereen amended.
My eyes widened. She now had my full attention. A charming blush rose on her cheeks, making her freckles stand out even more. Her sudden shyness was endearing as her fingers fiddled with the hem of her beige Vanguard trainee uniform; the same model we all wore. I called it my Uhura outfit because it looked a heck of a lot like the sexy, thigh-length dress she wore on Star Trek, with similar knee length black boots.
“You’re into Xian martial arts?” I asked.
“You bet! I sat in the front row, cheering you on during the last championship. I’m nowhere near as good as you, but I’d love for us to spar from time to time, if you ever feel like it.”