The Sons of Sora

by Paul Tassi

  “Something’s up. I think someone just arrived.”

  “Stoller’s here already? There’s no way,” Noah said. “Not unless he was hiding under the station.”

  “No, it’s …” Sakai slowly shifted her gaze upward. A load of small specks were visible through the cloudy viewscreen. They grew larger as they came into view from the dark side of Apollica. There were dozens.

  Fear seized Noah. The Xalans had found them. It was only a matter of time.

  But the ships grew closer. The cubic hulls and golden engines were clear now. Sorans.

  “More remnants of the defense fleet?” Kyra asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Noah said as he tried to block out the dull sun with his hand to get a better look.

  After another few minutes, the lead ship slowed down and turned to dock near the top of the station. Painted letters on the side of the dreadnought were crudely drawn, not the usual precision stencils on every other ship. It read “MOL’TAAVI.”

  Another ship docked next to it. This time, it was more easily recognizable. The SDI Genesis had the silver wings of the Guardians stamped on its nose.

  “It’s the Makari fleet,” said Noah breathlessly, and the four of them darted toward the stairwell.

  Noah thought she was the most imposing woman he’d ever seen, and he’d grown up with the realm’s greatest warrior for a mother. Commander Kiati, First Watchmen of the Guardians, was as tall as he was, one of the finest tank-bred Guardians in existence. With genius level intelligence and unmatched physical prowess, she was the only survivor from the mission to Xala outside of his parents and Alpha and Zeta. Rumor had it she’d saved both his father and mother’s lives at one point or another, which explained the warm greeting from Asha. A smile and a salute was more than most got from her. Key and Celton were pleased to see their old squadmate again as well.

  Kiati’s hair was the color of dark flame and stood out starkly against porcelain skin. Her eyes were leaf green and filled with anger. Who knew how many of her SDI compatriots had died that day.

  “We burned through our entire null core collection to get here as fast as we could,” she said, voice sharp like glass. “Almost ruptured a few hulls in the process.”

  “Well, we’re all glad you’re here,” Asha said. Zaela eyed Kiati curiously. Noah guessed their time in the Guardians hadn’t overlapped.

  A bald man stood next to her; he was tall and lean. His power armor looked new, but he had white tattoos on his face, and a bone necklace hanging over his plating. There was an enormous black-tipped spear on his back that looked like it was from another millennium. Suddenly, Noah knew who he was.

  “They gave you your own ship, Toruk?” Asha said with a raised eyebrow, confirming Noah’s suspicions.

  “The skyship was easy enough to learn in time,” Toruk said. “I have mastered all the machines of your world by now.”

  “And the Soran language too, I see,” Asha said. “You get more eloquent each time I see you.”

  “A necessary requirement of command,” Toruk said. “I have armies to lead now, not only a tribe.” His accent was unlike any Noah had ever heard, but he spoke Soran well.

  “How bad is it?” Kiati asked. “The reports coming in are all over the place.”

  “It’s worse than whatever you’ve heard,” Asha said. “We’ve scavenged what ships from the fleet survived the initial assault, along with a few pirate craft from the station itself, for all the good that will do.”

  Kiati nodded.

  “We’ve directed our fleets to take up defensive formation around the station. The Xalans have to know you’re here by now, but they can’t surprise us again with the same trick. With our ships this should be fortified enough while we figure out the next course of action. Where is the High Chancellor?”

  Asha shook her head.

  “He’s coming,” Noah chimed in. “Though I’m told he may not be fit for command.”

  Kiati turned to him. “He never was,” she said with obvious disgust. The SDI officers present exchanged wary glances, but stopped when she glared at them.

  “Are you really the boys? Gods, it’s been years,” she said, eyeing him and Erik. “Bigger than you look on the Stream. Heard you can fight too.”

  “We can,” Erik said plainly.

  “I don’t doubt it,” she said. “Where is Lucas? I should probably tell him I’m somewhat relieved he isn’t dead.”

  “Captured,” Noah said. “But not for long,” he added, echoing his brother’s earlier confidence.

  “I don’t doubt that either,” she said, her face expressionless.

  She turned back to Asha, and Toruk strode toward them, examining them like zoo animals.

  “The god-children, sons of Saato and Valli,” he said, motioning to Asha with a flick of his head.

  Noah had studied the religion of the Oni, but only knew a trivial amount about it. He was aware of the strange parallels between their gods, the First Man and Woman, Saato and Valli, and their own, Kyneth and Zurana. Both were fond of forests too, it seemed. Asha once told him that Toruk believed she and Lucas were reincarnations of the gods.

  “God-children, huh?” Erik said with a tone that made Noah elbow him.

  Toruk smiled more widely than a man as formidable as him normally would.

  “I have learned much these last years. I know about skyships and electrics and planets full of other Oni. I am no savage. But still, my gods are out there, keeping me strong. If they are not embodied in the flesh as your mother and father, then they at least fill their souls with great courage. And yours as well.”

  “We’re just glad you’re here,” Kyra said with a wide smile of her own. “It’s a pleasure to meet someone from Makari at last. I’ve studied so much about your culture.”

  “Ah, a scholar!” Toruk said. “I too forever seek knowledge. War satisfies the body, but rarely the mind. We shall, how do you say, compare notes when the day is won.”

  “I’d love that.” Kyra beamed. Sakai rolled her eyes so fast Noah almost didn’t catch it.

  “Toruk,” Asha called out from the holotable where she was gathered with everyone else. “There will be time for tea parties later.”

  Toruk gave all of them a quick wink and headed over to join the group.

  “I hope he’s not that nice on the battlefield,” Erik said.

  The dozens of Xalan claws threaded through the necklace clattering on his armor seemed to indicate he was not.

  It wasn’t until about six hours later that Stoller’s ship did arrive. They were all summoned to come onboard his craft; Noah caught something in his transmission about him not wanting to “step foot in that disease-ridden shit satellite.”

  In the hours since the Guardians and Toruk had arrived, more incoming fleets had made it to the station, including Stoller’s own daughter. Maeren’s command was a respectable thirty or so warships. She resembled her father uncomfortably, and had forever shrugged off the gene therapy or cosmetic surgery that was the norm on Sora in an endless pursuit of beauty. She was military through and through, and cared little about such things. Her jaw was iron and her hair was a darker shade of brown than her little brother’s. The two barely looked related at all, and their personalities couldn’t be more dissimilar. Finn was twitchy and irritating, while she was stoic and largely silent. She was Noah’s favorite Stoller already, even if she hadn’t spoken a word to him.

  One final figure had joined their group, one more imposing than anyone else present, even Kiati or Toruk. He called himself General Tau, and he was a full-fledged Xalan Shadow. He commanded nearly the entire Xalan resistance fleet, and had brought much of it to the station with him. Tau was one of the few Shadows who had defected from the Xalan homeworld after Alpha’s father’s revelation about the true origins of his kind. There had been other Shadows who had turned, but according to Tau, the Archon had made a point of hunting them all down over the years. Tau was one of only a handful of surviving Shadows that fought on th
e side of the resistance, while the vast majority remained loyal to the Archon out of idealism or fear. Tau was old, one of the original Shadows, not one of the new Chosen, and had fought alongside Commander Omicron centuries ago. But he remarked that the Council’s lies had eaten away at Omicron and, had he lived, he likely would have joined Tau in his defection. Tau remained firm in his belief that he still fought for Xala, but his Xala. Not what it had been twisted into by the Archon’s lies and deceit. As such, he and Alpha had gotten along swimmingly over the last few years, as both had the same goals in mind for their homeworld.

  Even if Tau’s motives were pure, his presence was menacing. Noah and the others had gotten used to Alpha’s tall gray frame hanging around, but Tau was a Shadow. His midnight-black armored skin and his blue-flamed eyes were enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine. He towered over everyone as they marched toward the docking bay where the Chancellor’s ship was parked. The citizens of Solarion regarded him with gaping jaws and more than a few ill-advised insults, but he paid them no mind.

  Stoller wouldn’t even dock his ship at the station itself, so the group had to cram in a short-range shuttle and fly to where he was parked, in the middle of his daughter’s fleet, which formed a protective shell around his vessel.

  Noah shook his head as he saw his luxury supercraft was called The Stoller, because what else would he have named it? It was sprawling and gaudy, all pearl and gold. A floating castle surrounded by menacing warships for bodyguards.

  Once they arrived, they surrendered their weapons and walked down hallways full of portraits of past Stollers, all different shapes and sizes through a few dozen generations. They shared few features, but there was a general haughtiness to them all that seemed to be passed down as a forever dominant gene. The end of the hall revealed a massive three-dimensional model of Madric Stoller himself, clad in military finery, holding a ceremonial sword pointed at some unseen (and certainly imaginary) enemy.

  The large doors opened and Finn Stoller snuck out before closing them behind him. He regarded the group nervously, particularly Kyra, and Noah and Erik inched toward her protectively.

  “I got him here,” Finn said. “But I’m telling you, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  “We need to speak with him,” Asha said sternly. “The public needs to hear from him. He’s still the goddamn High Chancellor, even if he is a criminal and an asshole.”

  “Just let us in, Finn,” his sister Maeren commanded. “I saw him at his worst dozens of times before you were even born.”

  “Nice to see you too, sis,” Finn said, before stepping aside. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  The group moved past him and the doors opened inward. Finn pinned himself to the wall as Erik glared hard at him when he passed by. Kyra ignored him completely.

  The inside of the main hall of the ship was as opulent as the outside, if not more so. A sprawling, elaborately carved table sat in the center and marble pillars lined the circular room. In between the pillars were ornate, two-dimensional paintings that created vast murals that wrapped around the space. The ceiling was as if it didn’t exist at all; it was a skylight open to the stars. All of it was a stark contrast to the squalor of Solarion, and all of them, dressed largely in shabby, unwashed clothing, looked extremely out of place.

  Stoller stood at the end of the table, surrounded by masked, heavily armored guards. His personal security detail. No one knew who they were or how they were recruited, but they served him blindly. Some said they were actually prototype AIs, highly illegal machines he used to ensure complete loyalty. They never spoke, never showed their faces, so it was impossible to tell.

  Holding a long-stemmed crystal glass, Stoller focused on drinking its ruby-colored contents before glancing in their direction. He swayed as he stood and his eyes were unfocused. His royal finery was dotted with red stains from the wine, and there were a few shattered glasses on the table in front of him, along with a large collection of other bottled drinks.

  “Why did no one tell me the fleets were gathering near Apollica?” he barked immediately as soon as the doors shut behind them.

  “During the attack, there was no way to get in contact with you, Chancellor,” Kiati said diplomatically.

  “I called them here,” Asha said. “It seemed like the safest place to regroup within the system.”

  “You have no authority to do that,” Stoller snarled. “And safe? We are dangerously close to an annihilating force of wretched Xalans,” he shot at glance at General Tau and Alpha. “We should be six systems away by now, which is the exact protocol I was following before your incompetence dragged me back here!”

  “Run?” Asha scoffed. “You have to be joking. You want us to flee as Sora burns? As billions die?”

  “And you want to smash our remaining fleet against the rocks by attacking? Utter insanity. We have millions safe here, we can leave. We can go to …” he trailed off.

  “Might I ask where you are planning to settle once you depart?” Alpha said. “I can think of no worlds that would be both habitable and unreachable by the Xalans. They would find you at any of the colonies, or even Earth. We would be forced to rely on the discovery of livable planets we are not certain even exist at this point.”

  “We have findings,” Stoller said. “Classified findings of other worlds. There’s one beyond the outer rim I was just briefed about. Where is the Viceroy? He would know the details.”

  “The Viceroy is dead,” Asha said, and she saw Stoller’s eyes widen. “I saw him torn apart by the Black Corsair as far away from me as you’re standing now. A Corsair who is likely hunting down and murdering thousands on the surface as we speak. Every moment we delay is another when countless Sorans die!”

  “Every moment we stay at this wretched station is another when the Xalans could mount an assault and wipe us out,” Stoller shot back. Glancing around the room, it was clear he was outnumbered. “Tell them, Maeren! Tell them I’m right.”

  Maeren looked around uncomfortably.

  “I … am not certain retreat is the best tactical maneuver, however appealing it may sound,” she said, surprising everyone in the room. “The Xalans have demonstrated they have long-range core and cloaking capabilities far beyond our own. We would fare better in open combat than being hunted down in deep space.”

  Stoller looked at her like she’d just shoved a dagger in his ribs.

  “How dare—”

  General Tau cut him off, his voice a muted earthquake.

  “We have more power than you imagine at our disposal. More Xalan resistance ships arrive by the hour. My command alone is a quarter of the total of the Xalan invading force. We have enough strength to mount an assault to reclaim your homeworld.”

  “So, what, so you can have it for yourself?” Stoller sneered, forever distrustful of Xalans, even those that had proved loyal for decades. Tau simmered with a rage that made Noah’s hair stand on end, but he said nothing. Toruk spoke instead.

  “The SDI forces are few, but you have allies. The Xalans, the Earthborn, the Solarion, and my Oni would be proud to fight at your side.”

  “Abominations, freeloaders, pirate scum, and savages will save us? That is your plan? These are my advisors now?” Stoller swayed so much a guard was forced to step in and catch him with lightning fast reflexes.

  “And what about you?” said Erik suddenly. “All we’ve heard from you for months is how the war has been won. What great advice were you given by your SDI lackeys that you never saw this coming? You were too busy orchestrating the assassination of teenage girls as the Archon was plotting to invade your homeworld! You’ve kidnapped or attempted to kill nearly everyone in this room!”

  Those who didn’t know Kyra’s tale or of Lucas’s imprisonment looked around confused. Hatred burned in Stoller’s eyes.

  “You allow these children in a high-level tactical meeting, and to spout lies nonetheless? This is utter madness, and I will have none of it. I am following protocol and w
ill be re-exiting the system immediately. It was a mistake to come here and try to talk sense into those beyond the grasp of reason!”

  “No,” Asha said coldly. “You can’t leave. You have to address Sora. They’re lost. Leaderless. They think they’ve been abandoned. They have been abandoned.”

  “Careful Earth girl,” Stoller said, his voice dropping. “What you’re saying is dangerously close to treason, and this is starting to feel a lot like a coup. Both are punishable by death without trial.”

  “Lotta things are punishable by death wit’out trial in Solarion airspace,” Zaela said menacingly. “And we don’t recognize your crown here.” The guards shifted in their armor plating, fingers dangerously close to the triggers of their weapons.

  “Sir,” Kiati interjected. “We can use a portion of our forces to draw them out, then use the opening to send a splinter fleet in behind them to re-establish a surface presence on Sora and trap a large section of their fleet between us. We’ve been drawing up combat scenarios for hours now and just need your approval to—”

  “You won’t have it!” Stoller shouted, knocking over a glass as he swung around. “I will not throw away the rest of our fleet on some foolish quest for glory. I will not have my authority questioned by those with no legal right to do so! Who among you dares to challenge my right to rule?”

  There was a long stretch of silence, but Noah had had enough.

  “It should be her!” he shouted, pointing at his mother, who looked stunned. The words spilled out of him. “Asha can lead Sora. The public has faith in her, far more than they have in you. They will follow her into battle even as you run from it. She will give them hope while you spew nothing but fear and lies!”

  Stoller had reached his limit. His voice dropped an octave.

  “I am assuming full command of the fleet effective immediately, and all of you are under arrest for collusion and treason. Guards!”

  “Father,” Maeren said, shocked as a guard clamped an arm around her. “You can’t …”

  He couldn’t.

  What happened next was blur, as was to be expected when a simple, silly man tried to arrest a room full of the most formidable warriors across four different planets.