"What about Benjamin?" Visht asked. "He's the queen."
Krisharn cracked his knuckles. "And he will remain the queen. My queen."
Had he heard him correctly? "You want Ben for yourself?"
"He already has the trust and the following of so many people across the galaxies, even with the debacle involving his father's murder. I don't need to produce more heirs. I have you already."
"Ben will never agree to marry you."
"Who said anything about him agreeing?" Krisharn chuckled darkly. "I'll take what I want. The new warlord always gets the chance to claim the previous warlord's mate for himself. I will claim Ben for myself and raise those Nemo clones as warriors or spies for the empire."
Visht's eyes grew wide as he ripped out the earpiece from his ear and covered it in his hands. He angrily whispered at his father. "You can't rape and enslave Ben! He's our leader!"
"For now. Not for long. Benjamin knew what he was getting into when he married Aveni. He agreed to conform to our society and the rules of our culture."
It all started to make sense. "You've been playing everyone this entire time. You didn't care about the Red Sand Rebels. You didn't care about ending this war."
"Oh, I care about ending the war. I care, I do."
"But for your own selfish reasons."
Krisharn shrugged his shoulders. "I'm trying to be a better father. I'm trying to do all I can to lead our people into a new age of prosperity and peace without war or conflicts. How is that selfish?"
"Then leave Ben out of it. Find someone else to be your consort."
"No. I want Benjamin. He's a good leader with a stable head on his shoulders. He's talented with medical care. He's gentle, caring, and trusting. There are a million reasons why Aveni chose him. I need Benjamin by my side. That's final. He can come willingly and accept his new position in the empire, or he can be forced to kneel in chains. It will be Benjamin's choice when the time comes. I'm not afraid to use force to get what I want. I will say this. It will be a shame to cover Ben's perfect skin with bruises."
* * *
"Uncle, can I talk to you alone in my room?" Ben stood in the doorway leading into the cockpit with tears speckling the lenses of his pink-rimmed glasses. He tensed his arm muscles in an attempt to hide his trembling. "It's important."
The man in the purple turban looked up from where he had been studying a screen filled with information about Elysian aircraft. His face softened when he saw the obvious pain that Ben was in. "Of course. What's the matter? Are you injured?"
"No, I just need to talk to you."
Tamir stood and stretched his arms above his head. "Sure, lead on. Have you made any more coffee? I think I need an IV of the stuff. These hours are killing me. But enough of my problems. Let's go talk."
Ben led him across the hall into his bedroom and made sure the door was locked securely behind him so no one could interrupt them. He removed his white turban and tossed it onto the bed before holding his face in his hands. "I don't know what to do."
"About what?"
"I've been betrayed."
"Who is it?" Tamir asked. "Do we have a spy?"
"Not exactly. Listen." Ben took out his communicator and brought up a recording of a transmission he had received earlier from Visht. He pressed the play button and crossed his arms as he heard the entire translated conversation between the two Azimandians about what was to happen after the end of the war. More importantly, he heard Krisharn's plan to enslave him.
Tamir's face hardened. He slowly nodded his head until the recording ended, leaving the room in a state of tense silence. "Well, that certainly is something of concern. When did you receive this?"
"An hour ago."
"And this translation is accurate?"
"It always has been."
"Well, you have nothing to worry about. No one is going to let anything happen to you. We all care dearly about you, Benjamin. Every single one of us. You need to remember that, no matter what happens to you. If Krisharn tries anything, we will stop him. Come here. It's okay to be afraid. Fear is good. It lets us know when things aren't quite right."
"I thought he was my friend. I thought that we were finally getting somewhere. I thought that even enemies could unite under the same flag for peace across the galaxies. I thought I could lead this rebellion and make a difference." Ben looked at his reflection in the mirror on the dresser. "But I was wrong. I'm just a worthless man from AX-97 who has nothing left to live for."
"That's not true and you know it. You're just overwhelmed, that's all. You have fifteen boys a couple of doors down who need you more than you will ever know. You have all the skills to be a great leader, even if you can't see them in yourself. We trust you. We believe in you. Doesn't that mean anything to you? You can't keep dwelling on the past and everything your family did to you. Those events don't define you. Don't let it bring you down when everyone is looking up to you to be strong. The time for self-pity is far over. Now, come here and let me hold you."
Ben stepped into his uncle's warm arms and buried his face in his shoulder as Tamir took his hands. "Thank you. I don't know what I'd do without you. You-" He heard the click and felt the cold steel tighten around his wrists. When he pulled away, he found his wrists bound in a pair of sturdy handcuffs. "What are you doing? Let me out of these."
"Sorry, Benjamin. This is for your own good."
He opened his mouth to cry for help, but a sock was shoved into his mouth and he was bent over the bed. From behind him, he could hear the sound of duct tape being peeled from a roll. Grunting and trying to spit out the sock gag, Ben writhed under his uncle's knees that held him in place, to no avail. He screamed behind the gag as the duct tape was wound around his face multiple times, ensuring the sock could not fall out and that it would stay no matter how much Ben struggled. When the hands moved down the backs of his thighs to his calves and he felt the next set of cuffs being tightened around his ankles, he started sobbing.
"Shh, shh, shh." Tamir petted Ben's short brown hair as he leaned over him, pressing him farther into the mattress. He placed his lips right against Ben's ear to whisper to him. "Don't fight against me. Don't try to run. You'll only trip and fall. I'm going to get off of you now if you promise to stop struggling against me."
Ben nodded his head as his nostrils flared in a desperate attempt to draw a full breath. As soon as Tamir stood up, Ben took off running towards the door, only to trip on the ankle cuffs and he fell flat on his face. He tried to start squirming across the floor, but he was not fast enough to avoid his uncle. The hands grabbed his arms and dragged him back to the wall. He was shoved into the tight area between the bed and the wall.
All he could do was watch in horror as more duct tape was wrapped around his knees and around his torso, binding his arms against him. He was helpless and immobilized except for his head which he thrashed about, even when the duct tape was fashioned into a noose and pulled tight, wrapped around the bedpost. Nearly being choked to death by the duct tape noose around his neck, Ben stared up into the eyes of his uncle, silently begging him to let him go.
"Stay. Stop crying or you will drown on your own tears. I can't have that. Calm down, Benjamin. You will stay here until I return with the supplies I need. You will obey me and you will remain silent. If you don't, things are going to become much more difficult and unpleasant for you."
Ben whimpered when his uncle left the room and locked the door from the outside. He was left there to take tiny breaths through his nose as the duct tape twisted and pressed harder against his windpipe. He could feel his heartbeat throbbing painfully in his neck as it rang in his ears, as if alerting him to the danger he was in.
As the minutes dragged on, his breathing grew more rapid but shallower as his air supply was being cut off. Straining against his bonds, Ben began to panic. The more he panicked, the less he could breathe. His vision began to go blurry and he could no longer feel his hands or feet as the blackness began to take over.
"This is Neon to Quasar Luminous. Me and a group of twelve other pilots are entering your vicinity within Star-World Zero Alpha's atmosphere. Coming up on your six. Hold your fire."
"Copy that. Welcome to the party, Neon. Things are about to get bumpy if we don't take out those antiaircraft guns. They've brought out battle spheres now as well."
"Lead the way and we'll provide backup for you."
"Targeting the first one. Releasing payload in three . . . two . . . one!" Rav pulled the red lever to his left as the Galaxy Glider sped over the area. He immediately tilted the yoke, sending the ship on its side to avoid a field of black flak that spread out in front of him. Metal pelted the hull and scraped along its sides, but Rav kept flying steady, darting through the field of black smoke and debris. He leveled out and pumped his fist in the air when the console flashed green, indicating a direct hit to the enemy forces. "Hit, Vance! We got one!"
Vance juggled the gunner controls as he shot at another Valmoron ship that dropped down into the atmosphere. "Keep your hands on the controls. More flak incoming. They're firing all-out at us now."
"I have two white fighters approaching from my two o'clock. I think they're Azimandian. I'm gonna try to bank to the left and put them behind your screens. Fire when they're in range."
Even through the pressurized cockpit, the roar of the Vitalanum engines, and the reinforced hull, Rav heard the shrill shriek that roared out over the Star-World. Through the glass, Rav spotted the six black serpent-like creatures with the shiny scales and fluttering crimson wings. Each one dove towards the tops of the buildings, snatching up entire squads of warbringers in their claws and spitting out showers of blue acid that melted the battle spheres and antiaircraft guns within seconds. One of the creatures spread its wings and leapt up into the lower levels of the atmosphere. It opened its mouth and sent its rows of massive fangs chomping down on the two Azimandian fighters. Fuel and fire spewed out from between the creature's teeth and littered the streets of the Star-World, sending citizens and warbringers scattering for cover.
"What is that?" Vance asked, looking around to see through the front of the ship. "What just happened?"
Rav leaned forward with his mouth open, in shock."What the hell are those?"
"Olonictu. Those are Olonictic Valkyries. They're the direct protectors of the Hive Queen."
"So they're fighting against Azimandia?"
"They're on our side. I made a deal, remember? Call in and let everyone at command know. This is great. Switch the bomb controls back here so I can keep dropping them as we pass over the antiaircraft guns. Call now."
Rav redirected the controls to his gunner then placed a call on his radio. "Quasar Luminous to Ben. Come in, Ben."
The voice of his wife-to-be sounded worried. "Rav, it's Leah. We have an emergency situation here. Ben is MIA."
"Repeat that. It sounded like you said Ben was missing in action."
"That's right. We can't find him. He's gone. He wasn't given a tracker because he wasn't supposed to ever leave the ship."
"What do you mean he's gone?" Rav asked, sending the Galaxy Glider lower as the Valkyries joined in formation behind him. "He's on the ship, right? He has to be. You haven't landed anywhere, have you?"
"No, but we've scoured the place. He vanished. Even Tamir doesn't know where he is. I don't know what to do. Ben had something like a digital dead man's switch that activated after he didn't check in after a certain period of time. Now no one can do anything. Ben had all the plans encrypted in a code that only he knew the key for. I can't even call Camille or unlock the navigation system for this ship. Sandra is throwing a fit. The engines aren't working either. We're running on backup power to keep the radios, electricity, and the oxygen generators running. We're just sitting here in the middle of space until we can get someone to hack into the computers. Even then, I don't think it will work. We got a notice that all data pertaining to Vance's plans had been erased."
Vance made a pained whimpering sound. "Ben . . . no."
"Vance, do you have any idea where he could be?" Leah asked. "I fear something is incredibly wrong if he hasn't checked in and now the dead man's switch is activated. Anything at all would be helpful."
"No idea. Have you called his communicator?"
"We found it here on the ship in his chair in the cockpit. All of his belongings are still here. I'm telling you, it's freaky the way he disappeared."
Vance fired the lasers again, hitting one of the enemy planes head-on. "And you're sure the entire ship has been looked through? What about the escape pods and the cargo hold?"
"We already looked."
"His room?"
"That was the first place we looked. He's gone, Vance."
"Do the children know?" Vance asked.
"No, we haven't told them. Poor little Isaac is crying for Slayven nonstop. We couldn't tell him that Ben is gone too. I'm so sorry, Vance."
"Don't be apologizing yet. He's not dead until we find a body. He could still be out there."
Leah sighed, her voice heavy with concern.
"Anyway, I called to say that we have Olonictic Valkyries with us over Star-World Zero Alpha. We're working with Neon and the other pilots to take out the enemy vehicles and guns. We're making good progress and we haven't lost anyone yet."
"Good. That's good. Come back safe, Rav. I can't stomach losing anyone else."
"I'm working on it, Leah." The beeping of an incoming call interrupted the signal. "I'm getting another call. I'm gonna have to take this. Bye, Leah." He swapped over to the other call. "This is Quasar Luminous."
"It's Neon. Rav, where are you going? You've strayed far beyond our formation. We can't even get you on the radar anymore. You're headed towards the capital where they have a laser net in place over the government buildings. Your engines are going to die if you pass through it."
"What? I wasn't told about that."
"Turn around now! You're-"
The radio died. The lights inside the cockpit went dark. The roar of the engines stopped. For a split second, the Galaxy Glider stayed suspended in midair. Rav felt the pressure leave the air around him and he froze in the sudden near-deafening silence. His skin prickled, the hair on his arms and neck standing on end as the electricity snapped and popped along the outside of the ship's hull. One by one, hairline cracks spread out across the glass until the entire front of the Galaxy Glider looked like one massive spiderweb.
In a moment of sheer panic, Rav slammed his fist against the red ejection button behind his pilot's chair. He was blinded by the explosion, the heat, and the darkness that overtook him and the air was sucked from his lungs. In his last second of consciousness, he heard the pained cry of his son behind him.
* * *
Leah rolled her chair away from the computers before standing and smoothing her black pencil skirt. She removed her headset then fixed her red hair up in a bun. With one last glare to the back of Tamir's head, she left the cockpit. Her pumps clicked against the metal floor as she made her way down the hallway to the room with the cartoon music coming through the closed door. Once the metal door slid open, she stepped inside where Remy was cross-legged on the floor playing a board game with six of the Nemo clones. The other boys were watching television or making paper airplanes that soared across the room.
Remy looked up, revealing the rainbow paint on her face. "Hey, Leah!"
"Do you have a minute? It's about Ben."
"Oh, yeah, sure." She stood and patted the nearest boy's mop of blond hair. "I'll be back, boys. You can take my turn for me."
Leah led her out into the hallway then leaned close after the door shut once gain. She glanced back up the hall towards the cockpit to make sure no one was there. "Remy, I think Tamir had something to do with Ben's disappearance. I found a roll of duct tape under Ben's bed. I used some of my skills from when I worked on Dualictum to dust it for fingerprints. They're an exact match to Tamir."
"Why would his o
wn uncle do something like that to him? There's nowhere Ben could have gone. If Tamir did do something to him, there's only one explanation to why Ben vanished. He's dead, Leah. Ben is dead and his body has been stuffed somewhere on the ship or it was pushed out of the airlock while we weren't paying attention."
"Do you think that's true?"
"All I know is that someone disabled the airlock alarm earlier this morning during the time that Ben was not in the cockpit. It was only disabled for a thirty second interval, but that would be plenty of time for Tamir to leave a body there and for it to be sucked into space. The spacesuits are all here. No one left in one. I didn't want to tell Vance about all this information and worry him, but he knows something is going on with Ben and we can't find him."
"Hey, it's okay." Remy rubbed Leah's arm. "You can't lose control of your emotions. If Tamir is a murderer and a traitor, you can't let him know we're suspecting him. If he finds out, he could turn on us next. Keep an eye on him, but don't tell him anything."
Both women turned towards the cockpit as three alarms rang out in the silence.
Remy pushed her black-rimmed glasses back up her nose. "What is that? Leah, what are those alarms?"
"The trackers for our rebels. Three of them are picking up emergency changes in vital signs."
"Three of them at the same time?"
Leah took Remy's hand and pulled her along behind her as she ran towards the cockpit. "Get in. We have to see what we can do."
Remy slid to a stop in front of the screen where rows of names were lit up. Three of them were flashing red. "Look. Right here. Vance, Rav, and Nemo. They're dying! Bring up their pulses on the screen."
Beside each of their names, the green line for their pulses scrolled across the section of the monitor.
"They're still alive, but . . . no."
The high-pitched long alarm went off as two of the heartbeats stopped. Leah's eyes filled with tears when the names went dark.
* * *
The sweet metallic tartness of burning Vitalanum hit Rav's nose as he woke up, staring face-down at a mud-covered sidewalk. His ribs ached and his legs tingled from the impact and falling asleep, twisted underneath him at an awkward angle. Pushing against the ground with all his strength, Rav rolled over onto his back to look up at the stars glimmering above the haze of black smoke that continued to grow near the tops of the buildings surrounding him.
The Genesis Sequence Books 6-10 Page 57