by Lisa Lace
If all had gone to plan, he was on his ship with Lucina and the divide between the space station and the docking bay was already up, keeping the Surtu men out.
"Why do we have to go through the tunnels?" a woman complained as she passed by me. "Can't we just go straight to the docking bay?"
"We don't know how long the soldiers will be out. And there are still many left to fight. We were able to convince a majority to come to the dining hall, but we knew we would not convince them all. There are more Surtu than women. As long as those of us still fighting can keep the soldiers away from the kitchen and temple, the tunnels are our best hope."
"My sword is my best hope," she grumbled. "They're lucky they managed to take it off me during the siege."
I felt underneath my dress for my mini-crossbow. It was still there, strapped to my leg, as well as a dagger. I took the knife out and handed it to her. "It's no sword, but it'll have to do."
She was delighted. Instead of heading towards the tunnels, she returned to the dining hall to fight.
Knowing the battle around the kitchen was won, I headed towards the gardens to help Bellona, stopping by my quarters first to make sure Lucina was gone.
No one bothered me. My sisters were doing well. With great contentment, I realized no one would have to stay behind. As long as everyone went to the tunnels, we would all make it out.
My quarters were empty. That was good. Jidden had done his part. Saying my goodbyes, I looked around at the home that was once mine – the Persian-inspired pillows on my bed, the warm plum-colored wallpaper, and the plush carpet. Here, I had been Terra Lynch, a pacifist trained as a warrior. Once I left the station, I would be known as something else completely. I would be Nightshade, a deadly poison.
JIDDEN
Soldiers filled my ship, but they were not men. They were women, an army of Roman goddesses dependent on me to set them free. I did not know if I was their hero or their fool.
I didn't care, not as long as Terra was among them.
I waited for Terra at the loading door of my ship, holding Lucina in my arms. I had made a promise to Terra that I wouldn't let her friend go and that I would see her safely from the station. As my ship continued to fill, I was tempted to drop the little blonde and search for my mate, but I couldn't.
I wanted to earn Terra's trust.
I wanted to earn all of their trust, including the fiery priestess who was going to pilot the ship out of the hatch and away from the station. I had warned Bellona that piloting a Surtu vessel was not like piloting the lowly cargo ships gathering dust in the corner of the docking bay, but Bellona had insisted she knew what she was doing.
I hoped so, for all of our sakes.
Convincing the soldiers to leave the docking bay, including my fellow Lead Officers, had not been as difficult as I had anticipated. That was the beauty of the Surtu hierarchy. Captain Fore had put me in charge of the Fortuna until he arrived to transform it into the new Surtu command center.
At the moment, he was busy starting a war. Since I was in charge, the men had followed my orders. They had no choice. The punishment for disobeying the orders of a superior during wartime was death.
Death was what I faced if the men found their way through the divide that I'd raised. They gathered behind it now, watching the exodus of women boarding my ship. I had stolen their claimed ones. All of the women they had hoped to light bond with were now under my protection.
You can lower the divide, a part of me told myself. Tell your men you knew of the plan, that this was a trap to break the spirits of the women warriors for good so they knew who was in charge.
The double betrayal tempted me. If it were me on the other side of the divide, I would want me dead. But I had to be true to my integrity, to my father, and to Terra. I was not turning my back on my people. I was going to look for another way. I was an honorable Surtu man.
I would make sure that when historians wrote about this time and when whispers of we saved the Surtu from extinction was passed around, the children of our children would speak with pride.
Terra finally came into view, rounding the last of the women into the ship like a dark shepherdess. In the distance behind her, the doorway to the tunnel was sealed.
"How did you manage to keep the divide up?" she asked when she found me.
"I seared the wiring," I answered. "It was a simple solution, but they'll be looking for something much more complex."
"Good," she said and made a call over the communicator I'd given her. She instructed Bellona to close the loading door to the ship and open the hatch of the space station.
"I can't!" Bellona shouted through the communicator. "We're on a Surtu ship, remember? They don't have the remotes on board to close the hatch!"
"It's okay," Terra told her. "We'll figure it out." Quickly, she glanced at me, and then added, "Whatever happens, you leave. Understand?"
"Yes, Queen Sister," Bellona confirmed. "Make sure you're on the ship when I do."
Terra turned to me, her mind working. "Can you activate the hatch with your mind?"
"I can, but it'll take time. I'm unfamiliar with your technology. Melting a wire is easy. I did that with my hands. Using my mind to shift through the electronics of the hatch will be much more complicated."
"We don't have time," she proclaimed. "I'll have to do it by hand."
I did not see any problems with her plan. The command desk within the docking bay was not far from us, so I let her go.
It was a mistake.
As Terra ran down the loading door of my ship with her black dress and auburn hair flowing behind her, a brilliant light appeared, blinding us.
I instantly knew whose light it was. The soldiers under my command did not possess the training to travel as light through the unbreakable material of the divide. Though we were beings of light, we were much denser than the light of the stars around us because we had to bring our physical forms within us.
The material of Surtu ships was easy to pass through by design, but it took a special kind of training to go through the toughest of Earth's elements. The type of training a Fleet Captain had.
Captain Fore appeared within the docking bay. Terra saw him, but she didn't turn around. She couldn't when the lives of her women depended on the hatch being opened. I set Lucina down so that I could help, but before I could move, the loading door closed, and I felt my ship start to hover.
The door was no barrier. I began to transform into light, but a hand grabbed my ankle. "Don't leave," Lucina pleaded. "We need you."
What the little blonde said was true. The women could make it out of the station without me, but what lay beyond – that was another story.
"I can't leave her," I whispered, agony building within me. "I love her."
"Then honor her," Lucina said. "Let her be the Commander. Terra would not want you to abandon us."
She was right. If I left, it would mean sealing the fate of the women as slaves to the Depraved. If I allowed it to happen, Terra would resent me all the days of her life. I had to see her women to safety, and then I would come back for her. My soldiers could take her captive a thousand times, and I would always come back for her.
I knew heartbreak. I'd felt it when my parents died. And now I felt it again. A tear rolled down my cheek, the first in many years. Lucina stood, swaying slightly, and she wiped it away with the sleeve of her Surtu uniform.
TERRA
I ran to the command desk of the docking bay, playing the codes I needed to enter in my head so that my fingers would not stall. I didn't have much time. If Captain Fore lowered the divide before the ship left, we would all be ruined.
Luckily, Captain Fore had as much trouble with the seared wiring as the other soldiers. I reached the command desk, and I opened the hatch. Moments later, the ground shook as Jidden's ship lifted out of the space station and disappeared into the relentless night.
My heart broke watching them leave. I would never see them again. Not Jidden. Not Lucina.
They were lost to me forever. But I was glad they had left.
Jidden had remained true to his word. He had not sacrificed us for his gain, even if that gain was me.
I loved him more for it.
I did not have time to grieve my losses. Captain Fore grabbed my arm and pushed me against the divide. Without turning to face the soldiers I had insulted, I could feel their anger.
"Women are sacred to the Surtu," the Captain raged. "But for some women, there is only death."
Part 5: Rebirth
TERRA
Four months had passed since the women of the Fortuna had escaped the leering clutches of the Surtu soldiers. They had been led away by Jidden, my alien mate with whom I was eternally light bonded. I missed my sister warriors, especially Lucina Whitmore, my best friend since childhood. And I missed Jidden.
It had been hard to believe that I would never see him again, but I had finally accepted it for my sanity, especially now that I was a slave onboard the place I once called home.
The Fortuna looked nothing like it had before. The Surtu had taken over completely, making it their command center as they fought a war against Earth. The gardens were overgrown, and the temple abandoned. The inner station had been gutted out, distorting the sleeping quarters into dormitory-style housing for the Surtu soldiers. Masked as a spiritual sanctuary, the Fortuna had been built spacious and harmonious, but now it was crowded and loud, the marble floors marked with the heavy traffic moving in and out.
There were many soldiers on the Fortuna. Although the Surtu were larger, stronger, and they had an ability to heal themselves, they weren't invincible. Plenty had died at the hand of my sister warriors. The key was to strike a fatal blow before they had a chance to recover. It was a lesson Earth had likely learned the hard way.
I should be dead, as the soldiers my sisters killed were. I had led the escape of the women from the space station. That was three hundred fewer women the Surtu men could use for baby factories. With the Surtu facing extinction and their females dying off from an unknown disease, my crime was punishable by death.
I had been sentenced to die, but Jidden had saved me. I wonder if he knew that his love had saved my life.
We were light bonded. We had shared the act of altering our state of being into light, becoming one beacon and one soul. It had been brief, but it had united us forever. It was because of the light bond that I knew Jidden lived. At times, I could sense him, feeling his anguish and hopelessness, usually when I was close to sleep.
After being imprisoned on his ship and sentenced to die, Captain Fore had come to visit me. He put his hand along the back of my neck. The neck was the only part left exposed by the Surtu uniform I had been forced to wear. I thought he was going to take away my integrity and force himself on me, but that was not his intention.
"So the rumors are true," he had said. "You are light bonded to the traitor."
The traitor was Jidden. "Yes," I'd admitted, feeling no shame, but I was confused. The only person I had told was Bellona. She'd had no contact with the soldiers – except to assassinate them before they knew she was even there.
"When the murderer Kalij petitioned for his light bonding ceremony, he was outraged that another man had been allowed to light bond with the human Commander before his ceremony took place. He wanted to be the first. I told him no such service had been approved, and a woman tricked him."
"I did lie to him," I said, refusing to allow the scum Kalij any merit. "I wanted access to the docking bay. The light bond Jidden and I share – that came later."
"I see," the Captain said. "You are light bonded to a traitor, but that does not change the fact that you are one of us. Our light shines in you. It is against the law to kill a human woman unless she has committed an unforgivable act of treason. You have done that, by the way, but you are no longer merely human. You are part Surtu. No Surtu woman is put to death, no matter what her crimes were. Your light bond saves you from death, but you will likely beg for it soon enough. I plan to make your life a living hell."
I had imagined the worst. In my fears, the soldiers made me their concubine, but another Surtu law was that no man could touch a woman who was light bonded. It wasn't because of morals, but to ensure the health of her children. When it came to human-bred Surtu children, those birthed from bonded parents were healthier and survived longer.
To the Surtu, survival was everything. It overshadowed every decision.
Captain Fore couldn't kill me, and he couldn't make me a plaything for his soldiers. All he could do was condemn me to servitude, making me wait on him and his fellow elite officers whenever they beckoned. When I refused, which was as often as my strength allowed, I was beaten or starved.
The Fortuna had been my home.
It was now my prison.
But I lived. For now, it was enough. As long as I lived, there was still a chance for escape. Jidden and my sisters couldn't save me, but maybe I could save myself.
"...even more traitors," a High Commander said to Captain Fore as I served them coffee in the Grand Hall, the nucleus of the command center. The Captain was no longer the big dog. With the arrival of the other fleets, he now had to report to his superiors.
I poured the coffee slowly as my interest increased. I often listened in on their discussions. From them, I'd learned that the takeover of Earth cost them more time and resources than they'd planned and that President Bentford refused to surrender, no matter what guarantees they offered her.
After learning President Bentford and the other leaders of Earth had tried to blow up the Fortuna, I had been resentful, but I was beginning to understand that there were no easy decisions in war.
It was fortunate they forced themselves to learn human languages as part of their integration program. Humans weren't capable of producing the musical qualities of the Surtu languages. Captain Fore hated it, which gave me great pleasure. The order for integration had come from a High Commander, so he had to obey.
"They've been away from Surt for too long," another Fleet Captain said, speaking of the traitors. "And they're desperate to mate. That's why some of the soldiers are turning and siding with their human mates. It was always our plan to leave troops here, and the soldiers know it. Their allegiances are mixed."
"For now, it's only a rumor," the High Commander stated. "Let's try to keep it that way."
Captain Fore saw me smiling. "That's enough," he said to me, and he dismissed me out of the room.
Pleased with what I'd learned, I went to the gardens. The herbs and the vegetables had become overgrown, becoming as wild as the woods that surrounded the patches. Walking through the tall grass, I went and sat on a low stone wall near the wildflowers. It was here where I first knew Jidden loved me. He'd always had a depth to him, and he'd finally acknowledged it. It turned out I had found my way into his soul.
"Hologram," I ordered. "Earth."
A blue image of Earth appeared before me. I swiped my hand, zooming into my family's modest little home in the middle of the desert. The satellite images were old. With the war going on, it had been quite some time since they were last updated, but I preferred to look at the past. I was afraid to see what the images may show me of the present.
Had the desert been conquered? Was my father dead, my mother a captive, and my brothers fighting for revenge? It was a strong possibility, and it broke my heart.
I had to escape. I had to help them. But until escape was possible, I felt uplifted staring at the image of my home as I remembered it.
A soldier stumbled out into the wildflowers. With his dark hair and wide elfin eyes with flecks of light swirling around the pupil, I could almost imagine he was Jidden coming to save me, but he wasn't. His skin was much paler than Jidden's, and his eyes were green, not blue.
"I need a woman," the soldier said.
Oh boy.
He reeked of whiskey. The soldiers weren't supposed to drink, not even when they were off duty, but clearly they'd found a way to smuggle alcohol
onboard the command center from Earth.
My body tensed, ready to fight. They treated me like a slave, but I was still a warrior inside. "Why don't you sleep it off in the temple like the other soldiers?" I told him.
"Relax," the soldier coaxed as he stumbled closer, "I'm not going to touch you. You're not my type. I like big, meaty girls, and burying my head in their breasts. You've got curves but not enough fat."
"Then why are you here?" I demanded though I could hear the amusement in my voice.
"I told you," he said, leaning against the wall next to me for support. "I need a woman. I miss the company of a woman, and you're the only woman here. I was in love once with a full-blooded Surtu vixen. She was giant, but she could not borne children because she was infertile."
"From the disease?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Probably. I didn't care. I wanted to light bond with her, but officials wouldn't approve it. They said there were plenty of human women who needed a young, fertile man like me, so they drafted me into the military as part of the infantry that would stay on Earth for good. I'll never see her again."
It was rare, but this enemy warrior had earned my sympathy. "What's your name, Soldier?"
"Telki."
"You have any more of that whiskey, Telki?" I asked.
"Nope. You have to drink it fast before the rest of the dogs find it."
I laughed. It was short, but it was the first since being made a slave to the Depraved. "You sound like my light bonded, Jidden."
"Everyone here knows who your light bonded is, little Commander." He spoke with a surprising disdain.
"He's not a traitor," I said quickly, coming to Jidden's defense. "He didn't turn his back on his people. He's searching for a better way."
"That's not the way the men tell it. I don't like being here, I miss my love back at home, but I know what the consequences are for my people if we don't win this war. There will be no children. There will be no Surtu." He was starting to sober up.
"If someone had reversed the roles, what then?" I argued. "What if it was your love being ripped from your arms, forced to light bond and mate with a human man? Wouldn't you want to find a path where Surtu and humans could come together freely?"