Teeth & Claws: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 10)

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “Ahhh,” I said as I closed my eyes again and searched within my emotions. For half a moment, I wondered why I was indulging the man, but we had about an hour left before the landing, and I preferred to speak with him than sit in silence.

  I tried to ignore the monster inside of me, but he was everywhere I tried to search. His presence was strange though. He was normally angry and paced back and forth in my thoughts like a caged animal, but now he just seemed to fill my subconscious with his presence in much the same way paint covers the walls of a room.

  “I feel confident,” I said.

  “Yes!” Dragon hissed. “That is the answer I expected.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because Tiger doesn’t lose. The only battle you might have lost was against me, but that is now resolved. You are the champion of light, and the darkness shall flee from your vengeance.”

  “You are making it sound easy,” I said as I gave him a half smile.

  “No, Tiger. The way will not be easy, but you will still win. Darkness cannot.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Imagine if it did,” he said with a sigh. “There would be no life. There would be no chaos, or order. There would be nothing. You call these beings the SAVO or Draugr, but they are just one of many of the forces that seek the end the universe. They once ruled this galaxy, but then the life won, and they were forced to retreat.”

  “The good guys won?” I asked with surprise. “That isn’t what happened though. They devoured all the life in the universe and then went into hibernation for billions of years. They seeded the galaxy with life again and now wish to devour everything.”

  “That is one story,” he said as he shrugged, “but think about it. We have our freedoms now, and they have been gone. If they really won, why did they sleep? These are beings who are unbelievably powerful, yet they ran out of food? You would believe that they were foolish enough to over-indulge?”

  “So, that isn’t what happened?” I asked.

  “I was not alive then,” he laughed, “but the story seems suspect. How did you learn of it?”

  “Eve read the mind of the one on Uraniel,” I said.

  “Ahh yes, but she shares a connection with them.”

  “Are you telling me that she would betray me?” I felt the beast in my soul growl, and I tried to keep my words calm.

  “No, Tiger, your women would not betray you. At least, not of their own choice. Especially that one. Perhaps she loves you the most out of all of your wives since she would have nothing without you. Still, what if they could tell her what they wanted her to know? How different a narrative is it when you think they were unstoppable god-like beings versus creatures that were once vanquished and then had to flee?”

  “It’s way different,” I said. “I have a lot more hope that we would win if they had been beaten once before.”

  “So you can see why they do not want you to think that.”

  “Hmmm,” I said.

  “Still,” he sighed. “The truth is not real. Even this conversation between us is not the truth. It is not real. I will remember it one way, and you will remember it another. Perhaps these beings really did consume all life in a gluttonous act of foolishness. Perhaps they were beaten by a warrior such as yourself billions of years ago. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between.”

  “It does not matter,” I said. “I’m going to fucking destroy them.”

  “Yes, that is the Tiger.” He smiled at me and then closed his eyes and leaned back into his seat. I knew enough about him to know that our conversation was now over, and I closed my eyes once again so that I could consider his words.

  If the Draugr had once been beaten, the nightmare attacks they continued to send me made a lot of sense. When I had first told Madalena about my dreams, she said that the reason they attacked me there was because they were afraid of fighting me on equal terms. I chewed on the idea a bit, but it didn’t make a lot of sense because from everything I knew, they were incredibly powerful.

  But if the Draugr had once lost a war and fled the far reaches of the galaxy to lick their wounds, their efforts to attack me in my dreams made a lot more sense.

  And it gave me a lot more confidence.

  I spun the new information over in my head for a few minutes, but then an announcement came over the speakers. The voice was in the Nordar language, but I was starting to recognize some words, and I understood that it meant that we had only a few minutes left until we were out of warpdrive.

  The doorway on the far side of the hold opened, and Madalena, Sivaha, and Aasne walked into the room. Aasne’s midnight black robe covered her white dress, but I could see hints of it at the bottom when she stepped. Sivaha and Madalena’s robes were snow white, but I couldn’t see any trace of the clothes they wore under their robes. The three women were absolutely stunning, and I gave them each a smile as I stood.

  “Are you ready?” I asked Aasne.

  “Yes,” she said with a careful nod, and I turned to Madalena and Sivaha.

  “We are ready as well,” the Prime Valkyrie said as she raised a medium sized leather bag in her hand. It was filled with flowers, and they were an integral part of our plan.

  The door behind them opened, and a unit of Idonan warriors entered with a man who looked almost exactly like the late king Toriton. He had a few extra lines on his face, and a bit less muscle than the king I had killed, but I doubted anyone from Waymund would know the difference. The man was apparently one of the most famous of the Idonan Blood Overlord Clan’s performers, and he was wearing a great deal of makeup to fit the visage of Toriton.

  “My king and queens, I am honored to serve you,” the actor kneeled before the four of us, and the rest of the warriors followed his example. His voice sounded identical to Toriton, and I couldn’t help but smile. The man was one hell of a method actor, and he had asked that none of us learn of his real name, and just call him by the role that he would be playing for the next half of the day.

  This was going to work.

  “Thank you for helping us,” I said. “Do you have any more questions about the script?”

  “No, my lord,” he answered as he stood. “I will honor the four of you with my performance, just as you have honored me with the task of performing by your side.”

  A Nordar voice came over the speakers and began to countdown for our warpdrive exit. The ship shuddered just as the countdown reached zero, and then the destroyer hit normalized space.

  We waited for a few moments, and I briefly regretted my decision not to be on the bridge and get immediate news. I knew the captain was a professional, but during my time in the Jupiter Marines, bigwig officers had often made an appearance on the ships where I was assigned. The commanding officers of the vessel always freaked the fuck out and were miserable to be around since they did their best to impress. I wasn’t just some admiral coming to visit one of my destroyers and talk with the captain, I was the king of their nation, and I didn’t want to distract the bridge crew too much from their tasks. They would be walking on enough eggshells with us in the hold.

  “My lord,” the captain said through my transponder. “We have been given approval to land on Dai-Prism 5. They reiterated that they will allow four of our destroyer class vessels down and made sure I knew that we should have no more than fifty people in Toriton’s entourage.”

  “Good work, Captain,” I said. “How does their fleet look?”

  “One hundred vessels exactly,” he responded. “We are about to enter atmosphere. Please take your seats.”

  “Got it,” I said, and my crew buckled themselves in beside the Toriton actor and the group of Idonan guards.

  The destroyer lurched slightly as it entered atmosphere, but there was no display screen for us to see our landing progress. The vessel bumped a bit, and a faint roaring sounded from outside the hull, but the noise went away after fifteen seconds, and then the ship began to level out.

  Then I felt the vessel hover in the air
, descend, and vibrate briefly as it touched the ground.

  “We are down, my lord,” the captain verified through my transponder.

  “Be prepared to leave quickly if things don’t go as planned,” I said.

  “Yes, my lord,” he answered as we all unbuckled ourselves. “May Odin guide your bullets.”

  “Alright, team,” I said, and my crew, wives, the Idonan guards, and the Toriton actor turned to me. “We have discussed this at length and practiced the maneuvers. Watch each other’s backs and try to keep your positions. I have faith in all of you, so let’s conquer another clan.”

  “Yes, my lord!” my crew shouted as they saluted, and the Idonans quickly followed the example.

  Then I nodded to the actor, and he cleared his throat.

  “Get in line then,” he said with Toriton’s voice, and we all fell into place in a blocked rectangle formation. My three robed wives walked in front of the actor playing Toriton, with my crew and I in front of them while the rest of the armored Idonan guards were on the outer lines.

  Then the hatch lowered, and we all marched down the ramp.

  There twenty armored Waymund warriors waited for us on the landing pad about thirty meters away. A man with a long gray mustache and thick chest stood at the head of the formation, and he gestured for us to move toward him once we descended the ramp.

  “Greetings, King Idonan, I am head skald of the Waymund clan,” the man said, but his words were in the Nordar language, and I only knew them because of the words I had picked up so far.

  “Please speak English,” the actor playing Toriton said.

  “English, my lord?” the mustached man asked with a puzzled look on his face.

  “Yes,” the man pretending to be Toriton said. “It is my latest hobby. I am revisiting our ancient languages. I’m sure you can understand, since you are a man of languages and history.”

  “Of course, and I must say that your accent is very nice, my lord,” the skald said with a quick nod.

  “Thank you, skald. They call you Yanirk?”

  “You have heard of me, my lord?” the mustached man seemed amazed, and I realized that the actor probably knew of all his contemporaries, but King Toriton probably didn’t give two shits about some singer for the Waymund.

  This was bad.

  “Yes, of course. Your skill is known throughout all the clans, skald Yanirk. Will you be officiating my daughter’s wedding? If so, King Goki has done me an incredible honor.”

  Yanirk’s mouth hung open for half a moment, and then the man blinked and closed his jaw with a snapping sound. His cheeks actually turned a bit red, and he bowed his head before us.

  “And you honor me with your kind words, King Toriton. I did not know that the Idonan’s praised my work. Your people are known to be excellent skalds and artisans.”

  “Yes, yes, yes, yes, of course we are, but you have an exceptional talent, skald Yanirk,” the actor said, and I turned my head to the side so I could see him waving his hand through the air. “I would like you to pay me a visit in the near future and give us a performance. As long as your king is fine with you making the journey. Is he here yet?”

  “I do not believe that King Goki or his wife will mind if I visit Idonan lands, especially after the wedding, and yes, the King is resting in his suite. I was instructed to greet you and confirm your presence before escorting you to your own rooms.”

  “Confirm our presence? What does that mean?” Toriton huffed.

  “Oh, nothing much, my lord,” the skald quickly looked at each of us in the formation, and then his eyes set on the three robed women. “May I be honored and look upon the bride and her handmaidens? I’m sure you can understand that I have a job to do. I am sorry, but it is my task.”

  I let out a slow breath and tried to calm my heart. I had thought that my actor may have made a blunder by admitting that he knew Yanirk, but he had turned the situation around so that the skald was now apologizing for having to do his duty.

  “Of course, skald Yanirk, but step inside of our formation so that you can look under their hood, I do not wish for the sun to ruin my daughter’s makeup or hair, so she will not be removing her hood.”

  “Ahh, thank you, my lord.”

  The singer threaded through my crew carefully but didn’t really glance at anyone’s face except the women’s. Even though he stood right next to us, he ignored Dragon and me. I found it odd because we were not ethnically Nordar, and we kind of stood out among the royal honor guard.

  “Ahh, Princess Aasne, you look as beautiful as the morning sunrise over the ocean,” he said as he ducked his head so that he could look under Aasne’s hood.

  “Thank you, Skald,” my wife said.

  “Your handmaidens’ carry luggage?” he asked as he gestured to the two leather bags that Madalena and Sivaha held in their gloved hands.

  “Yes, Skald,” Aasne answered. “They are gifts for the audience. Simple flowers from my homeworld. Would you like to look?”

  “I must, Princess,” he said, and then both of the white hooded women opened up the cases to show that they were filled with white petaled flowers.

  “Would you like one?” Aasne asked as the skald carefully began to dig his hands through the cases. “My handmaidens and I intended to pass them out before the ceremony.”

  “They are beautiful,” the mustached man said as he held one to his nose. “They also smell divine. I will take one during the ceremony.”

  “Very well,” Aasne said as she smiled at the man.

  “I apologize, but may I also check the faces of your handmaidens? I am tasked with looking upon everyone’s face that comes into the fortress. Security measures that I do not quite agree with, but I am merely following my king’s orders.”

  “Of course,” Aasne said, “but I do not know why you are so concerned about their faces when you are allowing us to keep our weapons.”

  “My king wishes to know who is in attendance,” the skald apologized. “In particular, he wants to know of any visiting women.”

  “I am fine with Goki appraising my women,” the actor growled, “but we wish to relax before tonight’s wedding, so do his perverted duty, and let us be done.”

  “It will just take a moment,” the man said, and then he shuffled to the side so that he was standing at my eight o’clock where Sivaha was.

  There was a brief moment of silence, and the man cleared his throat nervously. “You seem familiar to me.”

  “Oh?” Sivaha whispered. “Who do I remind you of?”

  “I am unsure,” he said. “You possess a striking beauty. It is almost not of this galaxy.”

  “You are quite a charmer, Skald,” Sivaha said. “But we have not met before. However, if your performance at tonight’s wedding goes well, perhaps we can meet afterward.”

  “Ahem,” the man cleared his throat again. “I… will… look… forward…” his words started to slur together, and he accidently walked into me.

  “Careful,” I hissed to him, and the broad chested man blinked his eyes with confusion.

  “You may go now,” Sivaha said, and then the man started to nod.

  Then he looked at Madalena’s hooded figure.

  “I need to verify the other handmaiden, I am--”

  “No, she is fine, you don’t know her either,” Sivaha whispered. “You confirmed that Aasne and King Toriton is here, why would anyone else matter? We have a wedding to prepare for, Skald Yanirk. Your time is wasted here. Just think of your performance tonight, you have much fame to gain.”

  “Yes, of course,” the man quickly said, and he took a step away from the women so that he was standing between Dragon and me. “We do not have much time till dinner. Please, let me escort you all to your rooms. Follow me, my lord.”

  “Thank you, Skald,” the actor said, and our group fell into place behind the Waymund warriors.

  We walked away from the landing pad and onto a two hundred meter long brick pathway that cut through a field of nea
tly trimmed grass. The pathway seemed to lead toward the lip of a gorge, and I carefully turned my eyes around to try to scope out the surroundings without being too obvious. There were sporadic oak trees arranged in the field, but I didn’t see any sign of missile arrays, cannons, or antennas.

  As we traveled closer to the end of the pathway, I saw that the gorge was actually an impressive canyon that seemed to stretch on for hundreds of kilometers in every direction. The flora in the canyon below was more grass and oak trees, but I also saw an aggressive looking river and various cedar looking trees growing out of the sides of the cliff faces. I didn’t see any fortress or estate, but then I caught a flash of light to my right, and I turned my head a bit so that I could see down the edge of the canyon wall closest to us.

  There I saw the fortress, and I had to clench my teeth to keep from gasping.

  Just like the castle on my battle fortress Odin Geirr, the castle on Dia-Prism 5 seemed to be made of glass. It was a massive structure that looked as if it was organically inserted into the canyon face like a crystal beehive. I guessed that it was maybe two kilometers across and another three kilometers tall, and every surface looked to be a window with an incredible view of the sprawling canyon.

  “This is the Prism Palace,” Yanirk declared loudly. “It is one of the most important pieces of Waymund engineering. It was built by Queen Leara’s grandfather only sixty years ago, and the royal family vacations here during every late spring season.

  “It is beautiful,” the man playing Toriton said, and I knew he wasn’t acting. Even Lux seemed impressed by the Prism Palace, and she shot me a look which made me think that she might be a bit hesitant to shoot the place up.

  “The palace is over eighty thousand square meters, with four hundred rooms,” Yanirk stated as he led us to the right and down a cave passageway that pointed toward the distant fortress. “I am sure that you have similar accommodations on your homeworld, but we are very proud of the Prism Palace, and we are delighted to host the wedding here.”

  “It is very impressive,” Toriton said. “We do not have a structure like this on any of our pleasure worlds, but now I am inspired to build one.”