by Cheree Alsop
“Are you sure?” she finally asked into the silence.
Senior Day smiled. “Without a doubt, Liora.”
Brandis nodded.
Liora hesitated. It was a lot to promise. She had told herself long ago that if she got free of her cage aboard Malivian’s ship, she would never settle down. Yet to have somewhere to call home, to have people who wanted her there, was something far beyond what she had ever hoped for.
She finally said, “I’ll come back.”
Her father rose from the couch. He held out a hand, then dropped it.
“It feels wrong to give my daughter a handshake. Can I give you a hug instead?” he asked.
Liora rose as well and eyed him uncertainly. “I’m not much of a hug person.”
Her father chuckled and hugged her. “I don’t suppose life as a Damaclan gives one many hug opportunities.”
She returned the hug awkwardly. “Not many.”
He stepped back and looked at the knives she wore. “Can I interest you in a gun? It sounds like you have a lot to deal with out there.”
She smiled. “I prefer the knives. It’s easier that way.”
“Understood,” her father said. “Brandis will go with you and do what he can to ensure that your journey goes as smoothly as possible. Whatever you need will be available to you. Don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you,” she told him.
Brandis opened the office door and waited for her to walk through. When it shut behind them, a small laugh escaped his lips.
“What’s that for?” she asked.
Brandis glanced at her as they walked. “Dad’s pretty easy to read once you get to know him. He didn’t want to let you go. I’m surprised he isn’t sending you with an armed escort.”
They exited the hallway and found two dozen guards waiting for them.
“What’s this?” Brandis asked in surprise.
“An armed escort, Commandant,” a guard in red replied. “By orders of the Senior Commandant.”
It was Liora’s turn to laugh.
Chapter 11
“I hoped we would never come back here,” O’Tule said. She peered at the red planet that loomed nearer through the window.
“It doesn’t sound very hospitable,” Zran replied. He stood next to her station with a hand on her shoulder.
She covered his hand with her own. “I’m just glad the captain isn’t making us go there.” She gave Devren a pleading look. “Right, Captain.”
Devren nodded. “That’s right. With the presence of the Damaclan ships, I need a crew here ready for anything.”
“Anything besides giant flesh-eating worms,” O’Tule replied.
“Giant flesh-eating worms?” Brandis repeated.
Liora found his troubled expression humorous. “Don’t worry. It’s the beaked colossal monsters that feed on them that you should worry about.”
“Why do you have to say that?” Brandis asked. “We already have to go down there. Do you have to make it worse?”
Tariq chuckled. “Because your sister enjoys looking death in the face. She’s messed up like that.”
“Damaclans are savages, remember?” she reminded him.
Brandis shook his head. “There’s another word for someone who takes joy in meeting death head-on. Irrational?”
“Psychotic,” Tariq supplied helpfully.
“Maniacal,” O’Tule said.
“Demented,” Devren echoed.
“How about flat-out nuts?” Hyrin suggested.
Zran gave Liora a searching look. “The first time I met Liora, I thought she was going to tear me apart. I’m going with berserk.”
“I’m glad we can all agree that I’m not in my right mind,” Liora said with a half-smile. “Now you can follow me onto planet F One Zero Four and be glad I have your backs.”
“Irrational,” Brandis repeated under his breath. “Definitely irrational.”
“Barmy.”
Everyone looked at Shathryn. The purple-haired humanoid hadn’t said a word since they departed on the Kratos intent for the Cetus Dwarf Galaxy. Stone’s death at the hand of the Coalition had shaken her deeply. Now, the small smile on her face when she looked at Liora appeared uncertain. O’Tule put a hand on her best friend’s arm and blinked quickly as if she could barely hold back her emotions.
Liora gave Shathryn a warm smile. “I’m good with barmy. I think that describes it perfectly.”
Shathryn nodded.
“We’re in orbit,” Hyrin reported. “Ready to release the Gull. By the looks of things, the Damaclans are already sending ships to the surface.”
“We’d better get going,” Devren said. “Tariq, Liora, Brandis, and Hyrin, stop by the armory on your way to the Gull. Branson has guns ready for you.” He speared Liora with a look. “And I said guns. I don’t want to see you attack those worms with only knives ever again.”
“Only knives?” Brandis repeated. He shook his head. “What am I getting myself into?”
“Just remember that you already asked me to return to Corian,” Liora told him.
Brandis held up his hands. “From what I’m hearing, telling you otherwise could be a death sentence.”
“Get used to that,” Tariq replied.
They filed onto the Gull and silence filled the small craft. The thought of landing on the red planet again wasn’t a comforting one. Memories of raging tornadoes, lightning storms, and a cave of slain worm bodies haunted Liora’s thoughts. She watched the planet draw near out the small side windows.
“I’m putting her down next to the ship,” Hyrin reported over his shoulder. “Hold on.”
After a few bumps, the Gull stopped moving.
Everyone pulled on atmosphere suits.
“Remember the planets that don’t have acid rain?” Hyrin asked. “I would rather visit those.”
“Acid rain,” Brandis said. “This place just keeps sounding better and better.”
“You should build a vacation home here,” Tariq suggested. “Nobody would bother you.”
Brandis paused. “That’s tempting.”
Liora pushed the hatch release. The door rose to reveal the dusty red planet and the strange, half-entrenched starship where they had found the Omne Occasus. The huge ship was as big as a Coalition carrier. The red planet’s dust swirled around its hull. She stepped down and glanced back to see the others do the same.
Brandis jumped from foot to foot as soon as his boots touched the red sand.
“What are you doing?” she asked him.
“Keeping away from the worms,” Brandis replied.
Liora exchanged a humored glance with Tariq.
“Don’t worry,” she told Brandis. “When the worms come, you’ll know.” She walked toward the ship. “And trust me when I say that jumping from foot to foot isn’t going to help.”
“They’re bigger than you are,” Hyrin put in.
Brandis swore over his helmet communicator.
The Damaclans met them at the foreign craft. The three chiefs, along with two members from each clan, waited in battered atmosphere suits. Since their communicators weren’t linked, the chiefs settled for nodding at Liora and ignoring the rest of her team. Liora returned their nod with a feeling of trepidation. If they didn’t find what they were looking for, the Damaclans would return home to the deaths of their people. They had to act quickly.
Liora and Tariq ducked into the small door that was open on the side of the foreign craft. Lights on their helmets illuminated the dark hallway.
“It’s creepier than I remember,” Devren said as their footsteps echoed down the metal hull.
Strange markings lined the walls. The construction of the ship was jagged and sharp. Branching hallways trailed off to unknown depths.
At the edge of the first junction, Liora found the crude backwards Galian marking for ‘Control.’
“This way,” she said quietly.
Her crew followed her through the darkness. The steady footsteps of the
Damaclans brought up the rear.
A few passages later, Brandis broke the silence.
“Are you reading Galian backwards?” he asked as he studied one of the markers.
Liora threw him an appraising look. “Yes. I’m not sure what the other languages are, but Galian is the one I recognize.”
Brandis gave an approving sound. “I think this one is Talagan, but the edges are sharp instead of rounded.”
“You speak Talagan?” Liora asked in amazement.
Brandis nodded. “Once a year we fly out past the Holmberg Two Galaxy for trade.” He paused, then said, “You meet some strange people out there.”
“Did you hear that?”
Everyone looked at Hyrin. The Talastan stared with wide eyes down a hallway they passed. Liora’s ears strained, but she couldn’t make out what had alarmed him. Hyrin’s eyes blinked sideways quickly.
“I don’t like it here,” he said.
“Then let’s get moving,” Tariq replied. “The sooner we find what we’re looking for, the faster we can leave.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Liora saw several Damaclans glance down the hallway as well. The alert expressions on their faces said they had heard whatever spooked Hyrin.
“I’m not entirely positive we’re alone here,” she said quietly.
“Couldn’t we just pretend we’re alone and get this over with?” Hyrin replied. “I get really tired of things trying to kill us.”
“Better to be prepared,” Liora told him.
She knew it wasn’t her imagination that made the five of them group closer together. They scanned each hallway they passed, but the depths were too far for even the lights of their helmets to penetrate.
After several more turns along jagged walkways, they reached Control.
Liora pulled her helmet off and the others did the same.
“Open,” Liora said in the common tongue.
The door slid up, revealing the single chair in the center of the bridge. Screens showed on every wall without any panels to access them. The team from the Kratos entered the room while the Damaclan chiefs watched from the doorway.
“Control on,” Liora said, repeating the command from the last time she had been there.
The monitors blinked to life, revealing cameras along the inside and outside of the ship.
“Well, that’s handy,” Brandis noted.
Liora pointed to a screen. “That’s where we found the Omne Occasus.”
Devren took charge. “Hyrin, you stay here with Tariq and hack into the system. Maybe you can find recordings of whoever left the Omne Occasus in the first place. We’ll head to the room where we found it and see if there’s anything we missed.”
“I’ll stay with a guard detail here,” Chief Decerpo told the other Damaclans. “Go with our queen. Protect her and bring back what you find.”
The other two chiefs nodded.
Liora led the way while Tariq gave directions over her communicator. A strange scraping sound made her pause.
“Did you hear that last time?” Brandis asked.
“We were busy running from the Revolutionaries and the Coalition,” Devren replied. “But I don’t recall anything like that.”
“Stay alert,” Chief Annihilo told his men.
“Shadows keep crossing the screens, but I can’t make out any solid forms,” Tariq said. “Be careful out there.”
Guns were double-checked and knives loosened in their sheaths. While the weight of the gun Liora carried was reassuring, she was tempted to sling it onto her back and grab her knives instead. Somehow, gunfire in the small metal hallways didn’t seem like the best idea.
“You’re there,” Tariq said.
“Open,” Devren commanded.
The door slid up to reveal the empty room. They quickly checked where the Omne Occasus had sat, but the metal crate where galaxy imploder had been contained nothing else.
“I found something in the ship’s records,” Hyrin said. He paused, then said, “Uh, Captain, you’re going to want to see this.”
Tariq swore softly over the communicator.
“Get back here,” he told them.
A shout sounded and the Damaclans in the hallway beside the cargo room fired their guns. An agonized yell followed.
Liora ducked out the door. Chief Incendo lay on the floor clutching his stomach. The other two Damaclans had bullets through their heads. Chief Annihilo and his men fired at something in the darkness.
“What’s going on?” Devren demanded.
“I can’t see what they are,” Liora replied. “They’ve killed two Damaclans already.”
“Let me see if I can get a visual,” Tariq said. A moment later, he shouted, “Liora, get back in the room!”
“Chief Annihilo, retreat!” Liora called out.
She grabbed Chief Incendo under the arms and pulled him with her. Devren reached out to help. Liora fell back to the doorway and waited with a pounding heart. The Damaclan chief ordered his men to retreat. One had almost reached the door when a bullet took him between the eyes. He slumped against the door frame. The second Damaclan leaped inside just as a bullet tore through his leg.
“What kind of aiming assistance are they using?” Brandis muttered. “It’s pitch black out there.”
“They’re Coalition drones,” Tariq replied from the control room. “They must’ve been waiting for us.”
“Can you shut them down?” Devren asked.
“I could back on the Gull,” Hyrin replied. “I don’t have the right equipment with me here.”
“Then get back to the Gull,” Devren told him.
“I can’t,” Hyrin answered. “There’re two drones outside our door. If we open it, we’re dead.”
The nearly silent hum of the drone in the hallway drew near.
“Protect the Queen!” Chief Incendo shouted. He pushed up to his feet and lunged out the door shooting.
The sound of bullets on metal rang out, followed by the thud of the Damaclan’s body hitting the ground. The other chief ran for the door.
“Wait,” Liora implored. “It’s a death sentence.”
Chief Annihilo paused, but it was obvious how badly he wanted to attack the drone.
The machine drew closer.
“Captain Devren.”
Colonel Lefkin’s voice resonated through the door. Liora’s blood ran cold.
“What are you going to do?” Tariq asked quietly in their headpieces.
“Let it in.”
Liora stared at Devren. “Are you insane?” she asked.
Devren backed against the wall, his gun aimed at the door.
“Let it in,” he repeated. “That’s an order.”
Liora stepped away from the door, careful to keep her back against the side wall.
The drone flew slowly into the room. It was a quarter the size of a human and shaped like a backwards arrowhead. An array of weapons bristled from every side. The drone spun back and forth, taking assessment of the area.
“I see you’ve come to your senses,” Colonel Lefkin’s voice declared from the drone. “You know better than to challenge the Coalition. You’ll lose.”
Devren glared at the drone. “Why are your drones here?”
“I needed to track you down,” the colonel replied. “You have something I want, and I was running out of places to look for you. I have a feeling you’re getting desperate to bargain. You don’t really need the Omne Occasus, just like you don’t need a price on your head. I think we can come to amiable terms on both matters.”
“Liora, you might have a chance to disable the drone,” Hyrin said quietly in her earpiece.
“There’s only one problem,” Devren told the colonel.
The colonel’s voice was tempered when he said, “And what is that?”
“Aim for the small silver box beneath the rear point,” Hyrin continued quietly. “You can take out its vertical stabilization sensor. If you can get it flipped, you can then jam a knife into the control
board. That will disconnect the signal from the Coalition and the drone will be useless.”
“I’m glad you didn’t give her the long instructions,” she heard Tariq say dryly.
“The Omne Occasus is destroyed,” Devren told Colonel Lefkin.
“I don’t believe you.” There was a hint of desperation in the colonel’s voice. “How did you destroy it?”
“We took out the two orbs. The Feren energy was destroyed in the depths of a water planet, and the Bilar energy found its end in the atmosphere of Verdan.”
Liora swore she could hear the colonel’s blood boil in his angrily spewed reply. There were words said even she hadn’t heard before.
“Go very slowly,” Hyrin directed. “If the drone senses you, it’ll fire its secondary defense weapons.”
“You’ll pay for this, Devren,” the colonel said.
“I helped.”
Brandis stepped closer to Devren as Liora crept behind the drone. She withdrew the knife from the sheath at her thigh.
“Who are you?” the colonel demanded.
“Someone beyond your petty war,” Brandis replied.
Liora had to give him credit for having guts. The colonel could shoot the human to pieces in a heartbeat, yet he goaded the man to give her time to act.
“Take care,” Hyrin breathed. “If you hit the wrong box, you’ll activate the self-destruct mechanism and blow the entire room.”
“Everyone is affected by the war,” Colonel Lefkin snapped. “We needed the Omne Occasus to harbor peace.”
“It seems to me that for someone who wants peace, a machine capable of destroying an entire galaxy is the last thing you need,” Brandis replied.
Liora raised her knife. The silver box was just visible if she crouched. She waited for the perfect moment.
“What were your plans for the imploder?” Devren asked.
“I don’t owe you an explanation, traitor,” the colonel snarled. “Thanks to your actions, you and every crew member aboard the Kratos is now considered public enemy number one. I won’t rest until I have you behind bars or dead, and I prefer dead. I think I’ll take care of that right now.”