by Luna Hunter
Yet now, for all my power, my muscles, my prowess, there is nothing I want to do more than make this human female smile — and I can’t.
I strap my armor back on, stretch my arms over my head and make my way down the halls of the Lance, searching for her. I find the two females in the cargo hold, having a heated debate.
“We’re what?!”
Evelyn’s shrill voice echoes down the empty hall.
“Only a few more hours, I promise. We have to meet with their king, and then we’ll be on our way home.”
“The freaking KING?”
“Yes, the king, and no, it wasn’t my idea.”
“And you promise me we’ll go straight home afterwards?”
“I… hope so,” Hannah says hesitantly. “It’s not in my hands.”
“Whatever happened to ‘we have to go see Brock right away’?”
“Hey!” Hannah says. “I want to go back to Earth every bit as much as you do. Don’t bring my brother into this, that’s not fair.”
“Do you now?” Evelyn asks. “Do you really? May I remind you that I nearly died back there. One of those space monsters was an inch away from biting my head off before your lover jumped in and saved the day!”
“He’s not my lover,” Hannah hisses.
“He’s not? So why do you look at him like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like a lovesick puppy.”
“I do not.”
“You so do,” Evelyn says. “So why did you undress and wash him, then?”
Hannah’s cheeks turn a fiery red. “I was helping!”
“Helping yourself get off, yeah.”
“Shut up,” Hannah snaps.
I clear my throat and both sets of eyes fly towards me, each one filled with a seething rage. I’ve faced the wrath of my king, of my peers, and of countless monsters before, but never have I recoiled. Until now.
I straighten my shoulders and take a step forward.
“I take full responsibility,” I say. “Hannah and this ship are both detained under my orders. No one else’s. This is not her call to make.”
“How long have you been standing there?” Hannah asks.
“Long enough to hear that my orders are a source of disagreement.”
“You can say that,” Evelyn mutters.
“You will be free to go as soon as I deem it acceptable… but not a moment sooner.”
“That’s just great!” Evelyn says. “So we just have to wait for the next attack, is that it?”
“That depends. Do you want me to save you next time or not?”
Evelyn glances at the floor, avoiding my eyes. “Oh yeah, thank you,” she murmurs before falling silent.
Hannah sighs deeply. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we’ve got another problem on our hands. That guy,” she says, pointing her thumb at the tank behind her. “I think he needs another dose of chocolate. I can feel another headache coming on.”
“I’m not going in there,” Evelyn says. “Hey Zoran, you want to keep him, so why don’t you go feed the beast?”
“You will address me as General Drakan, human,” I growl.
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll throw you in there with him.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
“Stop it, you two,” Hannah says, placing her open palm on my chest. “We have enough to worry about as it is.”
“Your captain is right.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Evelyn says. “I didn’t sign up for this.”
“You wanted space battles,” Hannah says. “Now you got your Zorans, you got your space battles… looks to me like you’re getting everything you asked for.”
“I guess it’s true what they say,” the black-haired woman sighs. “Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.”
“I’ll do it,” I say. “Do you have any more chocolate?”
Hannah turns towards her mechanic.
“Please tell me you skimmed a bit.”
“What do you take me for?!”
“I’ve known you longer than today. Fess up.”
Evelyn rolls her eyes in an exaggerated fashion before storming off. She returns a moment later with a jar sloshing with liquid chocolate.
“Here,” she says as she pushes the jar into my chest.
I remove the lid, and the sweet smell makes me instantly nauseous. How this is considered a delicacy I’ll never know.
“Let’s do this,” I growl.
12
Hannah
I take one last look at Drakan before turning the metal wheel. He’s holding the jar of chocolate as if it were a football, hunched over like a running back.
If Zorans were allowed to play football, they’d be a sensation. With their size and strength, they’d obliterate any human team. Not even the Federation’s Fighters, winners of the CCXXXVIII championship, would stand a chance!
If all the players looked as good as Drakan, I might tune in every once a while.
“Ready?”
“Ready,” he growls.
I turn the metal wheel and the tank opens. Instantly I feel my temples throb with pain, the Tyk’ix’s slithering voice filling my mind once again. The alien tries to leap out, his red eyes filled with zealous hatred. The general charges forward and throws the chocolate right in the Tyk’ix’s purple face, dousing him with the sweet stuff.
The pain recedes as quickly as it came. I look into the tank and see the alien has now fallen backwards and is gobbling up as much of the chocolate as he can, his pupils as big as planets.
“That did the trick,” I say. “If only we had more. It could be our secret weapon!”
“Enough chocolate to drug every Tyk’ix? That would be tall order,” Evelyn chimes in.
“I wouldn’t mind if we focussed all of our production on chocolate, instead of weapons,” I say. “That’s the kind of world I want to live in.”
“I hope we have a world left to live in,” Drakan growls as he watches the alien gobble the chocolate up. He walks into the tank and squats down next him.
“Tell me about the Ygg,” he says. “What were they doing here?”
“The Ygg,” the alien says, his voice slithering like a snake. “One of our finessst creationsss!”
“Your creations?”
“Yesss,” he hisses. “We made them, uplifted them, improved them. One of the finest weapons we’ve ever made!”
“Why?” Drakan growls. “Why did you create such foul beasts?!”
“To sssoften you up,” the Tyk’ix answers, as his tentacles dip into the chocolate. “To dissstract you!”
The Zoran warrior rises, his lips pulled into a tight line. “By Zora,” he growls. “All this time the squids have been behind it all. There was never a ‘ground zero’, a planet where they all came from, a Queen Mother that would end their incursions! For every colony we destroyed, they would simply create another.”
His eyes are filled with cold fury.
“If they have this kind of power, the ability to play gods… then Zora help us all.”
“Perhaps,” I try, “this is another opportunity? The Yggs all have a Queen, right?”
“Correct,” Drakan growls. “Every colony has a Queen that leads them. Take her out, and the colony’s resistance crumbles instantly.”
“What if the Tyk’ix modeled the Ygg after themselves? If we take out the Mother Brain, we might take out the Tyk’ix threat. Forever.”
“Maybe. Possibly. It’s a gamble.”
“One that might win the war.”
“It’ll be up to King Vinz to decide,” he says. “Let us set a course for the palace.”
The surface of Exon Prime rises up to greet us.
Again.
When we landed earlier to drop off our cargo, my mind was focused on renting a place for my little brother. Now, I’m concerned with matters of interstellar warfare.
What a difference an afternoon can make.
I run my hands down my beige jumpsuit. There’s chocolate stains all over the thing, and a few drops of Drakan’s blood as well. I don’t even dare look in the mirror to see what my hair looks like. It’s bound to be a hot mess.
I don’t look fit enough to open the door for a delivery man, let alone meet alien royalty! Yet the CS Lance is touching down in front of the Zoran Royal Palace, where King Vinz awaits.
The last time I was this nervous was prom. I survived that by downing a few drinks and dancing my ass off. Unfortunately, I can’t apply that same strategy tonight. With my luck and dancing skills it would surely be considered an offense to the throne.
The ship rumbles as it touches down on the planet’s surface. Showtime.
“Come,” Drakan says as he grabs my hand.
The general leads me down the walkway, where a line of royal guards await us. They all have their rifles resting on their shoulders, standing at attention. What strikes me most is their multicolored armor. Drakan and his men dress in all black, the splashes of color coming from their skin itself. These royal guards look like they’ve been dipped in a rainbow.
Drakan catches me staring and leans over. “The many colors stand for the united Zoran people,” he whispers.
Behind them, the palace towers over us. It’s a magnificent, enormous building, intricately adorned and as gold as the sun itself. The general leads me down a plush purple carpet, through an archway and into the palace itself. Evelyn is following close behind us.
My heart is beating inside my throat, and my palms are sweaty. I barely notice the tapestries on the walls depicting the Zoran’s history — all I can think about is not making a fool out of myself. I never, in a million years, would ever have imagined myself in this situation. I don’t know a thing about royal etiquette.
Two large, wooden doors swing open, and Drakan leads us into a circular room. There, upon a throne, sits a silver-colored man. His frame matches Drakan’s beat for beat, though this man looks slightly older, as if the pressure of his position have aged him.
He’s surrounded on all sides by different colored Zorans. I see red, blue, purple, gold.
In the middle of the room hovers a giant holographic image of Exon Prime itself, surrounded by countless ships.
“We can’t afford to wait! We must strike now, venture forth!”
“Where to, Koryn? All the way to Xia V? Leave Exon Prime defenseless?”
“I can’t sit by and wait like sitting ducks. That is what they want us to do.”
“We don’t know what they want!”
“Gentlemen,” Drakan says. His low voice cuts through everyone else’s, and all of their colored eyes shift to him. And me.
“Ah, General Drakan,” the silver man says.
Drakan takes a knee, and raises his eyebrows at me. After a second of confusion I follow his lead.
Couldn’t he have warned me about this? We had minutes to spare when we were strolling down the hallway. Off to a bad start…
“Rise,” the silver alien warrior says. “Gentleman, this is General Drakan, the warrior entrusted with the defense of our planet, while we deliberate ourselves into oblivion. So I assume the general has a good reason for abandoning his post at such a critical time.”
“My king,” Drakan says. “I have come with important news. News that will change everything. I introduce you to Hannah Kingsley.”
He places his hand on my lower back, and every single person in the room looks straight at me.
I feel so warm that I’m afraid I’m about to explode.
“H-hello,” I stammer.
“Step forward,” the silver king demands. The holographic image of Exon Prime flickers and disappears. “In the middle, so we can all hear you.”
Drakan nods encouragingly.
“Tell them what you told me.”
I take a step forward, tentatively, every muscle in my body wanting nothing more than to dash out the door.
My eyes move across the room, from one pair of eyes to the next. They’re all radiant, all stern looking, though none make my heart flutter like Drakan’s.
“My name is Hannah Kingsley,” I start. “I delivered a freight of cargo to Exon Prime earlier today, and when I was on my back to Earth, I encountered what looked like some type of escape shuttle. In accordance with interstellar law, I provided assistance, and took the shuttle on board.”
I lick my chapped lips. I can hear my own voice echo off the walls of the circular room and it’s making me self-conscious.
“However, it turned out to be a rabid Tyk’ix, who promptly attacked me and my crew. We survived due to a stroke of luck. The Tyk’ix are vulnerable to chocolate, and that is what we were transporting.”
The room erupts in excited murmurs.
“Nonsense!”
“Unbelievable!”
“Amazing!”
“Silence!” Vinz bellows, and the room is instantly still. “Continue.”
“I managed to lock the Tyk’ix in one of the storage tanks we used to deliver the chocolate in. Before doing so, I received a strange… vision. One that compelled me to return to Exon Prime to warn you of what I saw.”
I can see their collective eyebrows rise, and my confidence level plummets. The generals whisper among themselves, no doubt talking about what a lunatic I am. Luckily, Drakan steps forward and addresses the room.
“Hannah risked her life to bring this information to us. She could have easily returned to Earth, with no one being any the wiser. Yet, she chose to come here, and help us. As far as I’m concerned she is a damn hero, and I vouch for her every word.”
I can hardly believe the words leaving the general’s lips. Is this the same man that was such a hardass to me? That wouldn’t listen to a word I said?
“Tell them of your vision, Hannah.”
I take a deep breath and tell them everything. The giant brain, the tubes, the sun itself disappearing in a ball of hellfire. I recount every single detail as I remember it.
The Zorans generals are silent as they listen to me. At first their eyes are filled with disbelief, then astonishment, and at the end of my tale, with horror.
When I am done a silence falls over the room, and I see the warlords exchange meaningful glances. King Vinz rises from his seat and bows.
“Thank you for sharing your visions with us, Hannah Kingsley. We are in your debt.”
I return the bow.
“What do you say, Vinz?” Drakan says. “We must begin the evocation immediately!”
“And abandon our ancestral home?!” one of the generals speaks up.
“Yes!” Drakan says decisively. “To save our species!”
“Blasphemy,” another warrior growls.
“I will take it all into consideration,” Vinz says. “Thank you for the message, Drakan.”
“What?” he says. “Will you debate some more?”
“Correct, General.”
The red warrior balls his fists. “It is time for action!”
“This is an important decision, Drakan. The most important one of my life, as a matter of fact. We must choose carefully. Abandoning our home is not something to be done lightly. Remember that if we’re all on the move, we’re a very, very easy target.”
“Debate long enough, and you won’t have to make that decision. The Tyk’ix will come and make it for you, by wiping us all from the face of the galaxy.”
Vinz’s blue eyes turn ice cold.
“That is a risk I have to take.”
Drakan throws his hands up in the air in frustration. “This is nonsense!”
“Do not disrespect the council,” a purple Zoran growls as he rises from his seat. “Or you can await your prophesied end of the world from down in the dungeons.”
“Enough!” Vinz bellows, striking his armrest with his balled fist. “Drakan, show our guests to their chambers. We have a lot to consider.”
Drakan leads me outside with a scowl on his face. The giant wooden doors slam shut behind us, the
sound echoing down the empty hall.
“I’m sorry,” I say softly.
“No, I am the one that is sorry,” he growls. “I’ve taken you here against your will, yet the the council of so-called generals prefer to debate themselves into non-existence than make the difficult but necessary decisions.”
“So we can go now?” Evelyn chimes in. “Hannah had her say, you’ve got the cargo with the Tyk’ix in it right outside… we lived up to our end of the bargain. Just because those guys want to stay, doesn’t mean we have to. Right?”
Drakan’s lips are pulled into a tight line.
“No,” he says. “They need to hear your testimony again. We need to convince them. You cannot go.”
Evelyn’s face turns red with anger, and I can feel the dark pit in my stomach tighten.
This is far from over.
13
Drakan
I guide the two human females to their rooms. The hallways of the palace are deserted. Normally they are a hub of activity, with diplomats, guards and servants everywhere, but now every able-bodied man is manning a cruiser or serving on board a destroyer.
Evelyn slams the door of her room shut in front of us with steam blowing out her ears. I have a special room in mind for Hannah, further down the hall.
“Here it is,” I say as I open the door. “Your room.”
Her mouth falls open.
“This is a room fit for a princess,” she stammers.
“It was, once upon a time,” I tell her. “You can find everything you need here. If you need anything, I’ll be right next door.”
“Oh god,” she gasps, clasping her hands in front of her face.
“What?”
“I’m hideous!”
I frown. “What are you talking about?”
She points at the giant mirror at the other end of the room, her eyes cast downward.
“I look like a mess. I can’t believe you let me speak in front of the council looking like this.”
I take a step closer and tilt her chin up with my fingers.
“You look beautiful to me,” I growl.
She looks up at me with those big blue eyes of hers. Her cheek is smudged, her hair is unruly, but I’ve never seen a more alluring sight.
Hannah’s lips part slightly, as if she is ready to argue with me, but her breath falters. Her thick, red, kissable, irresistible lips.