The Kota

by Sunshine Somerville

  With a smile of peace, Bullseye gave her orders. “Take us in easy, Whitey.”

  At first, Rave’s instinct was to argue. Bullseye wanted to blindly enter a swirl that’d never existed before? Chase after Cruelthor when, for all they knew, he’d never be heard from again?

  But, as the shock wore off, Rave knew his sister was right.

  Cruelthor must be captured, he thought. We can’t leave some innocent world to be destroyed. Our only option, as heroes, is to vanish into a portal. Sand…

  Rave twisted around in his seat. “Bulls, do you think Trok knew about this?”

  Lost in her own thoughts, she only nodded in reply and faced the porthole beside her seat.

  Rave’s thoughts were distracted when he noticed a steadily rising rumble from the back of the ship. The sound grew louder, and he looked at Whitewolf. The big man glanced at him, but he pushed the WARBIRD to its maximum speed. Rave hunkered down in his seat in anticipation.

  Out his side porthole, Rave saw his suspicion confirmed – Solarus 5 had exploded, and a sea of debris was gaining on the WARBIRD.

  “Hold-”

  The blast wave overtook them before he could warn the others. A violent shaking rattled the spacecraft as it washed over them, and the ship propelled forward toward the portal.

  Then, they entered.

  Tigris had never entered a portal before that she remembered, and now she understood what Rave and Trok had tried to explain. The lights were amazing, shifting and pulsing with bursts of red and yellow. It was as if the WARBIRD was inside a gargantuan flame or a universal heartbeat.

  These lights, she thought, give power and life to everything the dimension touches.

  Despite the beauty, Tigris realized something was wrong. A tearing shake grabbed the ship, and Tigris guessed they were being pushed through the portal by Solarus 5’s shock wave. It wasn’t only the shaking apart of the WARBIRD – it was as if time and space were ripping to let them pass at their dangerous pace.

  Through her blurred vision, Tigris watched as their ship exited the fiery lights and fell out of the sky through a scorching atmosphere. The tearing sensation subsided, but something new was wrong as the WARBIRD was hurled into a spin. An alarm sounded. Tigris felt the rattle of the ship in every bone of her body. She could barely see through tears that pulled out of her eyes. She sensed the others’ pain along with her own, and it was beyond what she could stand.

  “Ahhh!” Tigris screamed. She reached out for anything secure, and she felt Bullseye grab onto her hand.

  Rave turned and yelled at Bullseye to, “Get out of your seat!”

  Tigris looked over at their Leader in time to see a piece of the bulkhead behind them peel loose and slam into Bullseye’s seat. Their holding hands wrenched apart, and Bullseye’s entire seat broke free and slammed into the side of the ship.

  Screaming again, Tigris looked past her rag-doll-like friend and saw that Whitewolf had failed to regain control of the ship. They were falling at an incredible speed toward the surface of a planet.

  The ground rushed up, and the WARBIRD crashed into it with a horrific jolt. The front windshield shattered from impact, and shards of glass flew through the cockpit. The ship continued to skip over the ground, and the sounds of bending and breaking metal echoed all around. Tigris’s seatbelt snapped, and she was thrown from her seat, between Whitewolf and Rave, and against the control panel before she bounced off to the floor. Finally, the WARBIRD slid to a halt.

  Tigris tried to rise from the glass-covered floor, but something had her pinned. She turned her head to see Whitewolf passed out on top of her. She coughed. Dirt covered the floor from where the ship had dug into the ground. Sparks flew from the control panel. Rave lay over these controls, cut from shards of glass and metal. He, like her brother, was unconscious.

  It’s so quiet, she thought.

  Tigris strained to grab the back of Whitewolf’s mangled seat. She pulled herself free just enough to see Bullseye looking at her from where she lay under the peeled side of the ship.

  “Bulls,” Tigris croaked.

  The Kota Leader didn’t respond, and Tigris saw why as she shifted under her brother. Bullseye was staring in Tigris’s direction, but her green eyes didn’t blink. Blood pooled under Bullseye’s head, and it slowly ran toward a crack in the floor. Worst of all, Tigris couldn’t find their mind link.

  “Bulls? Bullseye! Loree!” Tigris again tried to pull herself free from Whitewolf, but she was too weak.

  She lay helpless for a while, fear growing.

  A new sound reached her ears, and Tigris froze. She heard it again and looked around, trying to pinpoint its location. Tigris twisted to see out the torn side of the ship, and she saw red figures running toward the demolished WARBIRD. Twisted thus, a pain shot through her back, and Tigris realized for the first time she was hurt. Her vision blurred, and she let her head fall to the floor.

  Fading, the telepath called for their Bearer. She didn’t know if it would work. “Trok! Trok, help us!”

  As she called over and over, people wearing red armor entered the crippled WARBIRD. But Tigris’s eyes closed, and she sunk into unconsciousness.

  Outside time

  All I’d worked for over the past five hundred and twenty-some years had been brought to fruition. Earth was finally saved.

  But why this bittersweet end? I thought in dismay.

  I was crushed, but not surprised. The last portal window into future time had shown me the WARBIRD’s crash, so I’d had ample time to prepare myself. Still, knowing this fate had weighed on me greatly. It was why I’d stayed away.

  I’ll never tell them I saw this coming, I thought, even if they already suspect part of my foreknowledge. I gave them guidance before I left, but they had to choose this path for themselves. And I had to let it happen.

  I’d also never tell them I’d had even greater warning.

  I pulled out a tattered Kota book. Flipping through the pages, I found a particular newer prophecy.

  ‘The Great War

  Earth’s battle’s end

  shall awaken a new churning light.

  Indeed, evil will flee from Earth,

  but alone it will not be.

  The Warriors, pursuing the enemy,

  Will be swallowed in this light’s seal.

  Mankind’s hope will have finished their task

  But will journey to new worlds

  In darkness’s pursuit.

  Battle ended, war shall continue.’

  I closed my eyes and felt the pulsing lights around me. A burst of warmth directly before my face told me the old future window had passed and a new one had opened. This would reveal a new future. I couldn’t force my eyes open.

  “Why was this cost necessary? Bullseye…” I scrunched my eyes tighter. “No, I have to trust. Earth’s been saved, but some plan is still at work. If this Great War is to continue, so must we. Undoubtedly everything will change, but just do your job and follow your motto, Trok.”

  And so, I opened my eyes and looked into the swirl of red and yellow before me.

  Thank You for Reading

  Thank you for reading The Kota! If you have a moment, please post a review. As an author, I appreciate hearing feedback and connecting with readers. Because I’m an indie author, your review helps spread the word about my book!

  http://bit.ly/ReviewTheKota

  Excerpt from

  The Ebonite & Her Earthling (The Kota Series Book 2)

  “Sir, you aren’t going to believe this.”

  General Ehcapa, leader of the Ebonite army, heard this voice in his helmet’s coms and turned in his seat to see Commander Remidit. The big man in Red Unit armor was reading the transport tank’s Network screen. The tank jostled as they drove over a swell on the Pampas, but Remidit braced himself with a boot against the driver’s seat in front of him. This was the eleventh time he’d done this, and the kid driving didn’t look pleased.

  Ehcapa grinned but shifted to talk to hi
s friend. “What is it?”

  Below his helmet’s visor, Remidit’s scarred mouth twisted in a frown. “The Council’s ordered us to change course.”

  “What? Why?”

  “A Network satellite picked up an unregistered spacecraft entering Ebon’s atmosphere. Guess the ship crashed somewhere out here, and the Council wants us to check it out.”

  The soldier behind Ehcapa’s seat joined the conversation over their coms. “But we just left the base! The Council knows we’re headed back to camp. Can’t they send some other squad?”

  Remidit looked back at the screen and shook his head. “They say we’re close. The message is pretty insistent.”

  Ehcapa sat back in his command seat and glared out the windshield at the unending grassland. He rubbed the dark stubble on his face and tried not to growl.

  We have more important things to do, he thought. The Council ordered us to give a report at their base. We’ve lost all this time. Now the Council wants us to waste more time? Do they want us to kill the Kynajabis or not? We have to get back to the army!

  He spoke into his helmet. “Change course. Better go check out this crashed ship.”

  The driver obeyed, and the whole transport tanker swung in a new direction. Ehcapa continued to glare out the windshield at the empty grassland. It stretched to the distant horizon, broken only by an occasional roll in the landscape. The planet’s ever-present cloud cover hung low in the sky.

  We should be safe from Kynajabis this far north, he thought. We cleared them from this area moon cycles ago. But we’ve only got one squad with us. If Kynajabis snuck through…

  The transport tank sped over the grass, and as they approached the crash site Ehcapa got a good look at the destruction. A thick cloud of smoke billowed into the air ahead. The spacecraft had apparently skipped along the planet’s surface, tearing up hundreds of meters of grass. Loose dirt and rocks surrounded the deep gashes. Chunks of metallic debris littered the accidental landing field. A few dislodged ship parts were on fire.

  Then, as the transport tank slowed, they saw what remained of the ship.

  “Holy eitchos fodder,” muttered the driver over the coms.

  When the tank lurched to a stop, Remidit came forward to look with them out the windshield. “Think anyone’s alive in that wreck?”

  Ehcapa rose from his seat. “Get the men. Set up a perimeter. I don’t want any surprises. Let’s check for survivors and get the hell out of here.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Remidit stepped into the back compartment of the transport tank where their men rode. The other soldier followed him. The driver looked up at Ehcapa.

  “Be ready to roll out in case there’s trouble.” Ehcapa placed a gloved hand on the kid’s shoulder and opened the hatch to exit the tank.

  Outside, he made a quick scan of the area before stepping to the broken dirt of the crash site. The strong winds of Season 1 were already sweeping away the loose dirt. The smoke from the crashed ship was dying in the wind. Ehcapa adjusted his gun-glove and held it ready as he approached the ship, but he saw no movement.

  “Sir,” Remidit called over the coms.

  Ehcapa turned to see the big man leading his squad of Red Unit soldiers from the back of the transport tank. All had guns at the ready, and they obeyed a signal from Remidit and formed lines around the spacecraft. A group of ten broke apart to widen the perimeter. These faced outward, guns at the ready, scanning the ground.

  Good, thought Ehcapa.

  He turned back to the crippled ship. He saw the letters ‘ARBIR’ stenciled on its metal side, but either end of this writing had twisted off into shards of metal. Ehcapa guessed a good third of the ship had broken off in the air and crashed somewhere else. The front compartment was crushed but mostly intact. A gaping hole in the ship’s side would lead into this area.

  “On me,” he said over the coms.

  With his gun-glove raised, Ehcapa approached the opening. Remidit and two soldiers were right behind him. They entered the shadowed side of the ship where sparks flew from mechanical equipment. Inside now, Ehcapa scanned the compartment and saw a large pile of weapons that had fallen from storage.

  Quite the arsenal, he thought. Who are these people?

  “Watch yourselves,” he warned his men.

  They inched into the cockpit. Ehcapa pulled up when he almost stepped on a woman’s extended hand. Then he saw the large man passed out on top of her. Ahead, still in a seat, a third passenger lay unconscious over the controls, glass shards from the windshield all over him.

  They’re wearing the same black suits, thought Ehcapa. Not like any military uniforms I’ve ever seen.

  He motioned for Remidit to check the man in the seat, and he knelt to inspect those he’d discovered. The big man had a shaved head, and cuts suggested he’d been hit by flying glass like his comrade. Ehcapa slipped off his gun-glove and stretched to feel for a pulse. Strong thumps beat under his fingers. He checked the woman next and swept aside long hair to check her pulse. Her face was beautiful, though cut and battered.

  Yellow hair, thought Ehcapa. She’s not an Ebonite. Aldebarean maybe?

  Remidit said over the coms, “This one’s alive.”

  “So are these two.” Ehcapa turned to the men standing guard. “Let’s get these people out of here. They need medical attention.”

  The two soldiers put their weapons away and hurried to the survivors. Ehcapa took a step back and watched. It took both soldiers to lift the big man, whose torn uniform was covered in dirt and specks of blood. Ehcapa himself scooped up the woman, careful with her head. He saw Remidit hauling the third passenger out of his seat, and together they turned to exit the ruin of a ship.

  Shop for your copy HERE!

  About the Author

  Sunshine Somerville is from the beachy side of Michigan. She has a degree in English Literature and self-published her first book in 2004. The Kota Series began when she was nine, basing the story on childhood fantasies derived from watching too much X-Men and Star Wars and reading too much Chronicles of Narnia and A Wrinkle in Time.

  A Fairly Fairy Tale is Sunshine’s first MG Fantasy book. She got the idea from her family’s crest, which portrays a dragon shooting flames from both ends, and from a little girl whose second favorite word is farts.

  The Alt-World Chronicles is an Urban Fantasy trilogy scheduled to release in 2018.

  www.SunshineSomerville.com

  Twitter

  Facebook