by Lucy Snow
Unfortunately, the plan we had was not working, and I had to think of one quickly to replace it.
I looked down at Melissa, and I made up my mind. Despite all the teachings Admiral Kaalax had tried to hard to make me understand, I was going to have to attack the ghost wolves, because otherwise, there was no way we were going to get through this and get the crystals we needed to get out of there.
I was just about to vault over the rock and charge toward them when the dancing stopped.
The chanting stopped too, and as if all were one, the ghost wolves, their king included, went down on all four legs, back to their normal position, and started looking around, as if someone had turned off the music all at the same time.
I looked back at Makora, and he smiled at me, waving just barely over his rock. So his beacons had worked after all!
Then, pandemonium broke loose, right as I turned to look back at the stage. The ghost wolves broke left, right, in all directions, as if someone had tossed a bomb right into the center and they all needed to escape as quickly as possible.
They ran without looking where they were going, and more than one crashed into another as they almost blindly tried to get away from where they were.
The king was not immune to the powerful pull of the beacons, though he resisted more than most. It looked like he was trying to figure out which one to chase, before he finally picked one and bounded off out of sight at a pace that outstripped all the rest of them.
Almost as quickly as the amphitheater had filled up, it was empty. It was just the four of us.
I looked back at Makora and waved before taking Melissa’s hand and trying as stealthily as possible to make our way down to the stage, past where the rings of ghost wolves had been dancing not more than a minute earlier.
The stage was eerily quiet, and it smelled like ozone. I kept looking over met shoulders to make sure the ghost wolves were not yet coming back - I had no idea how long Makora’s beacons would work, and I had little confidence that they would keep them away for too long.
We had to get in and get out as quickly as possible.
The energy chalice loomed in front of us, getting bigger as we approached. I had misjudged its size - it was almost as large a small Kreossian land vehicle.
The rays of light it gave off danced around, avoiding us, and while I did not think they were harmful, I did not want to stick around and confirm that hypothesis. The field around the bowl of the chalice looked permeable, and first I slowly pressed the flat of my blade against it, and it resisted, but not enough to stop me from pressing inside.
I hesitated before my hand went in, but after taking a deep breath and looking at Melissa, who gripped my other arm, I pushed in. The feeling on the other side was strange, like the air in there was charged with energy, but I could move around without problem, so I tested out picking up one of the crystals. It lifted relatively easily, but I could tell from its weight that it was very densely packed together.
I nodded to Melissa and drew the first crystal out, looking around to make sure the coast was still clear. Makora waved at me from behind his rock, and I could see Sally peeking over the edge too. I took the crystal and set it inside my pack on the ground, and reached in for the second, and then the third.
We had enough to escape with, but I knew that while we had the advantage I needed to take one further step, and before Melissa could stop me, I reached in and picked out a fourth crystal, adding it to my pack.
“What’re you doing, Ark?” she hissed. “We only needed 3!”
“I know,” I replied, closing my pack and slipping it back around my shoulders. “This extra one is for research purposes. I have never seen anything like this anywhere in the Kreossian Empire. Our scientists will be interested in what is happening here.”
“This wasn’t part of the plan!” Melissa said as we quickly ran back to the rock Makora and Sally hid behind.
“I know, but it seemed like a good idea.”
CHAPTER 11 - MELISSA
I didn’t even have time to get over the exhilaration and the rush of fear from all I had seen at the theater, with the ghost wolves and their leader, and the chanting and the dancing, because as soon as we were clear, Ark and I were off back toward the shuttle and the crash site, with Makora and Sally hot on our heels.
We didn’t have any idea how long the beacons would keep working, and what the ghost wolves would do once they stopped and they found out that their precious energy crystals were missing.
The path back to the shuttle was much faster, mainly because we had done most of the cutting work on the trip over, leaving the path mainly clear. Even then, the trees had already started to grow back, and occasionally it was still necessary to pull out a blade and hack away at some blue or yellow leaves.
Sally pulled up next to me. “It took me a while to get used to the leaves being blue and yellow,” she said, echoing my thoughts like she was in my head, “but now I barely remember what green leaves even look like.”
Makora and Ark walked ahead of us, and they kept glancing back toward us. “We must pick up the pace, Melissa,” Ark called back to me. “We must go faster.”
“I know, I know, I’m trying,” and I picked up the pace a little more. I stared at Ark’s powerful back, and realized that the sooner we got off this rock, the sooner Ark and I could get naked again. It had been a wonderful trek here, walking during the day and making love all night just before we slept, and even though it had been less than a day since that ended, it felt like a lot longer, given all that we had seen since.
I heard Ark ask Makora, “Are you sure you do not wish to return to civilization with us?” He looked back at Sally. “We have room on the shuttle and enough of the crystals to take on the additional weight.”
As Makora turned to look back and make eye contact with his mate walking briskly next to me, I could see that he was considering it. I turned to Sally, and I knew that she was thinking about it too. There was a longing on her face that I knew well. She was wistful for home, for Earth, for being around other humans.
I had felt the same thing over the last few days, despite how much my life had changed after meeting Ark. I wanted to be with him no matter what, but at the same time, I wanted the chance to be around other humans too, people who thought like me. It was nice to have more people to speak to than just your gigantic statue of a man.
So I had a hunch Sally was thinking the same thing. I saw her shake her head, almost imperceptibly at Makora, and he nodded. “I appreciate the offer, Ark, and under ordinary circumstances I would take you up on it. But we cannot, we must remain here on Garamond.”
Ark stopped and the entire group stopped with him after taking one more step. “What are the circumstances that require you to stay here, Makora? Tell me the entire story.”
Makora and Sally shared a look again, before Makora spoke again. “There is something going on here on Garamond, Ark, and it is of vital importance to the Kreossian Empire.”
“Do not be cryptic with me. If it concerns the Empire, I must know if it.”
“I wish I had more information to give you, but I do not. The ghost wolves have become restless lately. They have begun guarding the energy chalices more-“
I broke in. “Wait, there are more than of those things? You didn’t tell us that!”
Makora looked at me. “We did not get a chance. Yes, there are more energy chalices. We have already discovered 4 more, but we have only explored but a small portion of the planet’s surface.”
“What are they for?”
“We do not know yet, but we are working on finding out. The experiment with the beacons was a big success, we learned that even in the middle of one of their rituals, we can pull them away from an energy chalice if we need to.”
“How is this relevant to the empire? We have sources of energy, plenty of them. We do not need more.”
“That is just the beginning, Ark. In our travels around the planet we have discovered evidence that a
vast and ancient civilization was based on Garamond, one that predates even the humble beginnings of the Kreossian Empire.”
“Still, that is a matter for archeologists, researchers, not the military.”
“There records we have seen suggest this race had conquered the entire galaxy, Ark, and administered it from this planet. They did so by controlling space-based weaponry that was so powerful it could destroy planets whole.”
I saw Ark draw in a sharp breath. “Where is this evidence?” he asked.
“Far away from here, in the ruins of a city so vast it is visible from space.”
“Our survey teams found nothing on this world, otherwise we would have explored it and discovered all this.”
Makora waved his hand. “The atmosphere, as you know, makes that nearly impossible. To any outsider who just looks with machinery and technology, this world looks completely uninteresting. I assure you, Ark, that is by design.”
“And the question is,” Ark replied, “who were the designers?”
“Who, indeed, my friend, who indeed.”
“What can we do about it?”
“You and Melissa here must go back into space and alert the Empire. Tell them what is going on here, and that we must have more research into this planet. We cannot, however, just land here with invasion and assimilation teams and take it by force.”
“Why not? That would seem the easiest way.”
“Because all that I have seen suggests that the ancient Garamondians planned for that happening, and decided to make it nearly impossible for it to work.”
“But they are long gone, long dead, you said it yourself.”
“I did, and they are. But that does not mean their ancient machinery is broken. You have seen how the energy chalices still function.”
All of a sudden my mind reeled. “The ghost wolves!”
Sally looked at me, wordlessly, and both she and Makora nodded at me.
“You said,” I started, then ran out of words. “You said the energy chalices…created the ghost wolves.” I clasped my hands together, and Ark’s eyes went wide as he understood what I was about to say. “You’re saying…the ghost wolves are the ancient Garamondians’ defense system?”
Makora paused for a moment before answering. “Just one part of it,” he said. “One small part of it.” He looked back at Ark. “Now you see why we can’t just land an invasion fleet here and take over the entire thing?”
“The ghost wolves are a formidable foe, I have seen it.”
“You have faced one?”
“He has, and he killed it.”
“Impressive,” Makora said, almost impassively, but I could tell he was looking at Ark in a new light. “That could not have been easy.”
“In truth, it was not. It took almost all of my strength.”
“I have no doubt, and you are a formidable warrior.” Ark looked at him with a raised eye. “Even I have heard of Ark, the warlord. His name is known throughout the Kreossian Empire.”
I watched my mate stand up a little straighter with pride. It tickled me pink for him to be so happy to be recognized. I knew that he was no slouch in the warrior department, but at the same time I didn’t know the extent of it. He had spoken of battles and conquests on planets I had never even heard of before, which all sounded impressive, but without context, didn’t mean all that much to me.
But this was another Kreossian describing how dangerous Ark was. That was something entirely different, and I knew Ark was happy about it.
“Still, I would not want to face more than one of the ghost wolves at a time. That would prove to be too much even for me.”
Makora nodded. “I would guess that if they gathered in numbers, the ghost wolves could overpower even a company of Kreossian warriors. They have resources beyond what you have seen, Ark, and they know this planet much better than any of us do.”
“That is true,” Ark agreed. “But we must figure out a way. If what you say is true about the ancient Garamondians, then the Kreossian Empire cannot let this resource go untapped. It would change the nature of our conflict with the Mazon if we could harness it.”
My blood turned cold. “The Mazon?”
“Who are they?” Sally asked, and both she and I stared at our mates.
Makora looked at the ground as if ashamed, but Ark stared me down with a fixed gaze. “The Mazon are the sworn enemy of the Kreossian Empire. Our truce with them has not gone well recently and looks to be breaking down.”
“This is the first I have heard of it.”
“Me too,” Sally added, her hands on her waist and staring at Makora, who still looked down.
“We have not had any news of the rest of the empire for quite some time, since we got here,” Makora said. “It did not seem important to tell you.”
“And as a human whose species is just joining the Commonwealth, we would have shielded your people from any conflicts with the Mazon until you were prepared to join the war properly.”
“Who says we’d be interested in joining any war? The Mazon haven’t done anything to us,” I said, defiantly.
Ark sighed. “Intergalactic diplomacy is tricky business, Melissa, and we do not have the time for any more of this chatter right now. As it is we have lost speed in returning to the crash site. We do have a schedule to keep.”
“I know that,” I said, a little coldly. “Let’s go.”
We started back toward the crash site at a brisk pace - I could see rays of light emanating from Ark’s backpack as the energy crystals we had stolen from the ghost wolves bounced around in there. I briefly wondered how stable they were - it wouldn’t do any good for us to sneak in, steal the treasure from the scary monsters, then have it blow up on the way back to the shuttle!
Luckily we weren’t getting any signs that that was happening, so I managed to calm my fears for a little while.
I started walking faster so I could catch up with Ark, and when I did, I reached out and grabbed his hand. He looked down at me without slowing down, nodded, and took my hand in his. I looked down at it, and found it so sexy that my small hand disappeared into the folds of his giant one. It was so manly, and such a turn on.
If Makora and Sally hadn’t been around, I’d have done everything in my power to stop Ark in his tracks and make him fuck me right then and there, but since we couldn’t take the time right now, nor were we alone, I settled for deciding to have sex with him again as soon as we got back into space.
As I moved closer to Ark, Makora dropped back to walk with Sally, and I could just barely hear them conversing, their conversation starting to get animated. I couldn’t quite make out what they were talking about, and I didn’t want to pry. As short a time as we had known them, I was beginning to grow fond of the couple, and I was relieved to see that they had been able to make a human and Kreossian interspecies relationship work, at least on the surface.
“Ark,” Makora said, breaking the conversation he had going with Sally to speak up. “We must speak, brother.”
Ark turned and stopped after he saw that Makora and Sally had stopped moving already. “What is it? We do not have time to stop for very long.”
“I know, we will not take too much longer. It is time for Sally and I to depart and go back to our home.”
“You really don’t want to come back into space with us?” I said, still surprised that they would rather remain here. “We have the fuel, we can take you with us, it’s no trouble.”
“We thank you for your generosity,” Makora said.