by Zara Zenia
“You are!”
The captain tore a strip of the bottom of his shirt and made a makeshift rope. Then he tied it around my chest as tight as he could. He pulled so tight that his face became purple with the effort, his hands raw and burned from the force of the fabric.
“This will stop the bleeding,” he said. “I promise… It’ll work.”
“Are you sure?”
I was still dizzy as I tried to sit up straight. Somehow I didn’t believe him. Then he ripped open his shirt and pointed to the small hole in the center of his chest, the scar that was now a dark blue against his natural skin tone.
“See this? I patched it up myself during the last battle between us and the X’Sorians. Believe me, I know what I’m doing.”
I pulled myself up to standing on my feet as he continued talking.
“I never would have done it if it weren’t for you though.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked as I placed my gun against my shoulder.
“When I saw you up there with the head of the commander in your hand, you made me believe I could do anything. I know we don’t have much time so let me be quick. At that very moment, I was lying at the foot of that hill with the blood pumping out of me and when I saw you there, victorious… You spurred me on and gave me a reason to survive.”
He slapped me on the back.
“Please… Extend me the same courtesy.”
I was hit with a second wind. Knowing that the captain had so much belief in me meant more than I could describe. On board the ship, with the gore loving beasts coming for us, I knew I had my strongest man by my side.
“Kill them all,” I muttered softly between clenched teeth. “Take them all down, then move onto the control deck. That’s where the officers will be hiding.”
“Ok sir. Let’s go.”
I fired hard and fast into the body of the monsters ahead of us. They were skilled fighters and strong, but they were nothing compared to two men with a death wish. I fired everything I had, tore up the ship walls and painted the interior red with blood.
Then the walls began to shake.
“What is that?” the captain gasped.
“Psionic attacks.”
The X’Sorian slaves in front of us smirked as they waited for us to be sent reeling back against the walls like the last time. But it never happened. Little did they know that the club I always carried was now splintered into a thousand pieces; a thousand pieces that were now set into the helmets of every Shocktrooper. The psionic attacks failed as we were left standing as strong as ever with the dumbfounded X’Sorians enraged at us.
One slave panicked, lost his nerve and rushed at me with a knife in his hand. It grazed my cheek, cut right through to the bone and lodged itself into a wall behind me. I punched him in the gut and kicked him square in the jaw. He lost his balance and stumbled back as though he was punch drunk, his eyes glazing over as he fell on the ground. But I didn’t have long to celebrate my meager victory because another lunged at me, his beastly teeth chomping at my face. I fired my rifle. It was out of bullets.
“Shit!”
As he pinned me to the wall, I slid my arm down my leg to reach for my handgun. He pulled out a knife and held it to my throat.
“Tell me,” I said in my most pathetic voice. “Do you have any children?”
He looked confused and distracted and he squinted at me.
“What did you say?”
“I asked if you had any children. You see, that’s all I’m here for, to save my son. I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to kill anyone I just want my son back.”
He didn’t look convinced but after a moment a softness came over his eyes and he slumped, shook his head and let me go.
“I don’t have any children,” he said. “But we are all somebody’s child.”
“Thank you,” I bowed my head. “You have done me a great service.”
He gave me a faint smile and I slapped the side of his arm, a little act of affectionate gratitude. Then I gripped my pistol in my hands and fired two shots into the side of his face.
“Idiot!” I spat.
Then I ran as fast as I could to catch up with the captain. I found him on the control deck. There were too many bodies lying at his feet for me to count.
“What happened here?” I gasped.
“There weren’t expecting me,” he explained. “I guess they thought the psionic attacks got us.”
A big grin spread across his face.
“And look what I found!”
He held up a tablet in front of me. There were numbers and letters on the screen. They made no sense to me.
“What is that?”
“Coordinates,” he said.
“What do they mean to us?”
“Well, this officer here was sending a message out there when I entered. I think it might be where the traitor is, and where your wife and child are being kept.
We were hurtling headlong into the night in a truck we had stolen from the city. There were times when I didn’t think it would get us there but all I could do was hope it would make it.
“This thing’s a piece of shit,” the captain slammed his hand on the wheel.
Meanwhile, I was standing up beside him, with his gun in my arms. Mine had been worn out and discarded miles ago after firing the last of its bullets into X’Sorian soldiers at a road block.
“This is fucking crazy,” he was shouting as he pressed his foot down on the accelerator.
I looked at him as if he was a mad man. He actually appeared to be enjoying this and I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t afraid anymore. I was hyped up with enough adrenaline in my veins to last me a lifetime.
“Hey… What’s that in the distance?”
A building emerged in the sand. From where we were, it looked like nothing more than a hut but as we got closer I could see it was a small building, like a prison, semi-camouflaged by the desert. I looked down at the tablet in front of me, checked the coordinates and our location.
“We’re here!”
As we stood outside I felt as though my heart was in my throat. We had come this far, killed so many people and now, finally it looked as though I would see my wife and child again. As long as they were still alive.
“Please, please, please… Anything just to see my boy.”
I was trying my best to whisper to myself but the captain looked over at me.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get them outta here alive.”
I smiled at him. It seemed so incredulous that before that day I hardly knew the man but in the moment we were close like brothers. At that very second it seemed as though all the major points in my life converged to being beside him, the man that was helping me retrieve my family.
“Let’s go,” he said. “This door’s pretty flimsy.”
I fired at the padlock and it fell to the ground in pieces. It was too easy. I couldn’t help but think it was a trap. Then we pushed open the door and stepped inside.
“What is this place?”
“Looks like an old jail,” the captain thought out loud. “Look, there are even cells.”
“What would a jail be doing out here?” I wondered. “Unless it was for the most insane and dangerous criminals on the planet.”
“Yep,” the captain nodded. “That sounds about right.”
The place was immersed in darkness but for that, I felt grateful. There were scurrying noises in the shadows, the feeling that things I wouldn’t want to see were staring out at me from the blackness. Who knew what lurked on the floor at our feet.
A single light bulb swayed above our heads. It made me think about where the breeze was coming from. I raised my hand to feel the wind. It seemed to be blowing from behind us, a signal that somewhere back there was an open door.
“So… you made it,” a voice startled me.
I flinched. The captain and I stared at one another in shock.
“I’ll be honest,” the voice continued. “I never t
hought you’d make it.”
It was familiar. I knew who that voice was.
“Caston Diova! You traitor! Is that you?”
A loud cackle came from the darkness. I spun around and saw him in the corner, the light from the bulb above framing only half his face. I’d known him my whole life.
“Rodin?”
He laughed again and clapped his hands together.
“Yep!” he gave us a twirl. “It’s me, loyal member of your war council.”
Enraged, I leaped forward and punched him in the eye. His head bounced off the wall behind him and when he regained his bearings, he glowered at me, his eyes dark and stormy.
“I trusted you!” I shouted. “You were like family to me!”
He sighed and looked to the ground as he held his face.
“Almost… There were times, when you were younger, that I thought of you as my boy, in a way. I had loved your father dearly when he was alive. I have fond memories of serving on the council with him, of being his humble servant.”
“And what would he think of you now, eh? You kidnapped my wife and child! You brought about this war and you betrayed your planet. You’re a traitor!” I screamed as I hit him again. “You’re dead to me!”
He collapsed on the floor in a heap and looked up to me with watery, swollen eyes.
“And what would he think of you? You betrayed your race by marrying a human. You betrayed your planet by having a weak, half-breed son. Your father would have been appalled by you.”
I felt as though I was on the brink of losing control. I could feel my arms shake, my chest rising and falling with a multitude of short breaths.
“Don’t ever try to tell me what my father would have thought of me.”
I knelt down beside him and leaned in close to his face.
“He was a noble man, a man who lived by a code of compassion and honor. He would have loved me no matter who I married and he would have loved Samantha. And no matter what, he would have loved my son. But he would have been disgusted with you.”
I stood up and shot a round into Rodin's thigh. He squealed like a wild animal as he clutched at his open wound. I wanted to take my time with him.
“Tell me where they are.”
He shook his head.
“I’m telling you nothing!”
I fired another round. This one hit him in the shoulder.
“Aaargh!”
“Tell me where they are!”
“I won’t. I won’t tell you a thing.”
I jumped on his chest and straddled him with my thick thighs pinning him to the ground. I pressed the barrel of my pistol into the hole in his shoulder. He screamed, tried to struggle free as tears streamed from his face.
“I’m not giving you another chance,” I whispered, close to his ear.
Below me, I felt him struggle. Looking down I saw fingers slide into his side pocket.
“Here,” he pulled out a set of keys. “The last door on the left. That’s where the baby is.”
“And Samantha?”
“The room next door.”
He was struggling to breathe, his voice wheezing out of him in heavy labored gasps.
“You have to be quick,” he struggled to say. “The last time I checked on her she was in real bad shape.”
I snatched the keys from his sweaty fingers and stood up.
“Thank you,” I said.
And I fired three rounds into his head
“My little boy!”
I ripped his blanket from around my neck and wrapped it around his crying body. The moment he was in my arms he went silent and stared up at me with his big eyes.
“Yeah… Daddy’s here. I’m going to take you home.”
He babbled in my arms and smiled. I kissed him on the forehead and immediately began to sob tears of relief.
“I’m never leaving your side again,” I promised. “I love you more than anything.”
As the captain nervously fumbled with the keys I could hear the jangling of chains from the inside and Samantha’s desperate voice.
“Help!”
“I’m coming!”
“Urie!”
We blustered through the door. I ran to her and cradled her tight, as the captain hurried to unlock her shackles.
“Where is Urie Junior? Where is our baby?” Samantha frantically asked, as I held her upright.
“I got him, he's safe!”
The captain handed me my son, and I placed our baby boy in her arms as she began to weep. Despite her being close to death she looked just as beautiful as ever. I brushed the hair from her eyes and kissed her gently. The bones in her face grazed my lips.
“We’re taking you home,” I said. “It’s all over.”
“Do you know what the worst part about being chained up was?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“Not being able to hold my baby.”
It was the tone of her voice. It broke my heart.
“There, there. Mommy’s here.”
She cradled him in her aching arms and cried.
“We’re all together again. Isn’t your daddy a hero?”
The captain slapped me on the back.
“I’ll give you a minute,” he said. “I’ll send for a ship.”
Once inside the safety of the ship, we clung to each other as it lifted us into the sky. I wanted to focus on going home, wanted to only look at my wife and child but what was happening below sucked up my attention.
Chaos and devastation now reigned. With the traitor dead and all the officers either shot or fleeing, the slaves in the city of Hedonton were escaping, running the desert ragged.
“It’s almost beautiful, in a way,” Samantha rested her head on my shoulder.
“I wouldn’t call it that but it’s definitely satisfying.”
“Yeah… it most certainly is.”
“But please,” I wrapped an arm around her. “Drink some more water and go to sleep. I’ll wake you up when we’re home.”
I kissed her on the cheek and took little Urie from her arms.
“Goodnight, my queen.”
And I looked back down to the ground with tears blurring my vision.
Epilogue
Urie
“Some of them want to kill you,” I said.
We’d been home three days and Samantha was lying in bed. Urie Junior was beside her, babbling happily in his new cot.
“I still don’t understand,” she huffed. “I have done everything to assimilate myself into Ura-Than society. I have acted appropriately, bore you an heir and tried to please everyone but still, there are people who want to see me dead.”
“I am sorry. You must think our race to be so primitive and savage,” I said as I squeezed her hand.
“I thought that’s what you thought of us. The things Rodin, that traitor, said to me. Ura-Than people don’t think so highly of humans but it’s not my fault where I was born.”
“People have some old fashioned ideas,” I tried to explain. “There are some people, not all I might add, that are used to seeing human females as being nothing more that luxurious sex slaves. It has shocked them to see you in court, in the palace, and by my side.”
“I understand that,” she sighed.
“But we don’t all think that way. There are many progressive people, young people like me who accept every one of every race and species. In time things will change. I promise.”
She stopped talking and slid herself farther under the covers. Her eyes were blank as she looked at the ceiling. She blinked exactly three times then said:
“Is it really so terribly unsafe for me here?”
I lay beside her and placed an arm over her stomach while I stroked the side of her face.
“I believe it will be, yes.”
A single tear crept out of the corner of her eye. I kissed it.
“I can help you return to Earth…”
She looked at me.
“What?”
“
If that’s what you want. If you are afraid then I can help you return home. I will miss you and seeing you leave will leave a hole in my heart forever but if you want to, I will understand. Nobody should have to put up with all the things you have endured.”
“You don’t mean it, do you?”
She grabbed onto my shoulder and shook me.
“Tell me you don’t mean it!”
“The choice is yours. All I ask is that you leave little Urie behind. He is the royal heir after all.”
She sat up and shook your head.
“You’re freakin’ crazy if you think I’m leaving. This palace is my home. This baby is my son and you are my husband. I’m not going anywhere.”
I flashed her a smile.
“I hoped that’s what you would say!”
I hugged her tight.
“Reli was right. You are feisty.”
I kissed her hard and pulled her close to me.
“I have an idea,” I said as I stroked her hair. “I think you will approve.”
As I stood in the auditorium, I had a feeling that what I was about to announce would cause a scandalous ripple through society and I was looking forward to it. Standing in parliament, with every politician, counselor and advisor in front of me, I stood proudly with Samantha beside me. There was a hubbub amongst the crowd. They were all muttering to each other and whispering behind their hands. It sounded like a cacophonous mumble. I looked over to the speaker of the house and gave him a thumbs up.
“Silence!” he slammed his gavel.
The talking ground to a standstill as silence took over. Soon, it was so quiet I was sure everyone would be able to hear my breath. I steadied my shaking hands and leaned on the pulpit.
“Thank you all for coming here today.”
A cameraman ran in front of me and held the lens up close to my face. It wasn’t often I gave televised speeches. In fact, I hated doing them but this was a big occasion and I had to set aside my anxieties and address the planet in its entirety.
“And I must thank the viewers at home. Your continued support means more to me than I could ever say and it is what has brought me to victory time and time again.”