by Vi Voxley
Trying to prevent hypothermia by any means, Audrey insisted every man and woman on Verien work out in the mornings, no exceptions. It built their strength and stamina, which everyone needed, and it loosened up the muscles, not to mention provided some initial body heat.
Audrey Price was the governor of a planet with a mere population of five hundred. She was intent to see that every last one of them saw the conclusion of their attempt to tame the ice world in one piece.
"What are your orders for today?" Pelar asked, rushing alongside her.
"I will go down to the mines," Audrey said. "There was a resupply issue down on Level 31. I want to see with my own eyes that it is resolved. If they lose power or light that deep…"
She said nothing more. The implication of being stuck thirty-one floors below the ground spoke for itself.
"Very good, Governor," Pelar said. "I will ask Commander Tieran to send you a guard."
Tieran.
The name alone was enough to spoil her mood for the morning. Audrey frowned and Pelar kept her mouth shut wisely as her pace quickened even more.
So Verien wasn't a glorious harvest world or a future technological center, but it was hers and she was proud of the work they were doing. Despite the cold, despite the rigorous regime that she'd enforced, even despite the possibility of it all being ultimately futile, Audrey was happy with the way things were going.
Except for that damn elusive Palian.
"He still won't see me?" she asked Pelar tersely, instantly regretting letting her face show the bitterness she harbored towards the commander of the Palian paladins.
"No, Miss Price," Pelar said patiently, not meeting her eyes, before she switched to a less formal mannerism. "I'm sorry, Audrey. You know I can't let you meet him. You know he can't see you, even if he'd want to. Paladins don't appear in public. No stranger has seen them in a long time."
"And that's not suspicious at all?" Audrey asked, knowing it was a pointless argument to get into.
It was a conversation they'd had several times before, with her none the wiser at the end of each time.
"There is someone in my station, on my planet, who I've never met. I might not even recognize him if I ever accidentally ran into the man! Or any of the other paladins!"
"You would," Pelar said, always the avatar of patience. "Trust me. He has no ill will towards you. In fact, the commander thinks you're doing a great job."
"Comforting," Audrey snorted. "I don't need his approval. I'm the governor of this world."
"I know," Pelar said as they rounded the corner and arrived in a small dojo.
The doors opened to let them inside, a lovely warm breeze greeting them as they stepped into the part of the station that was always kept cozy.
"The commander knows it too, I promise. It's not like he's trying to fight you. He is a galactic peacekeeper. He is simply above us."
Well, at least I'm ready to punch something now, Audrey thought darkly.
The settling of Verien was supposed to be a joint mission, but there was nothing joint about the Palian commander so far. Everything Audrey knew about him came from Pelar. For all she knew, the man might not have existed at all, or be one of the highly advanced Palian artificial intelligence units, the AIs.
It drove her insane, but there was nothing to be done. She wasn't the first governor to be outranked by a figure in the shadows and she wouldn't be the last one.
Actually, Audrey knew there were more of them than just Tieran.
The Palian commander had his squad of paladins with him and although she hadn't been granted a meeting with them either, it was Tieran that bothered her the most. While the others shuffled between Verien and the support ships, going off-world if needed, Tieran stayed.
Unlike the rest, he was a resident like Audrey, not just a passerby.
Audrey thought it was simply maddening, but she couldn't conjure any real anger towards the people who supplied the Union with the most advanced medicine and technology without asking for anything back.
It was amazing what a species could get away with when they never did anything wrong.
Commander Tieran's unseen presence hurt her pride, but Audrey was intent to rise above it.
Mostly.
When Franco, the station's trainer and fighting instructor, asked her what she'd like to do that morning, Audrey chose boxing without thinking twice about it.
After working up a sweat while Pelar chose jogging on a machine a little further away, Audrey went head-to-head with Franco. The instructor was taller than her and larger by far, but he was a good trainer. Audrey focused on her righteous fury as they sparred and eventually managed to topple Franco on the ground, twisting the man's arm behind him.
"Good," he praised her, getting up and rubbing his shoulder, which she'd nearly dislocated. "Gun training later, after lunch."
"I'm doing down to the mines. I will see you when I get back, but you know I can't make any promises about the time."
"How deep?" Franco asked, concern plain to hear in his voice.
All the personnel who'd never set foot in the mines sounded like that, but Audrey had gone her share of times. Every week she even took a day to work along with the others, although never in the deepest pits. That required strength she simply didn't possess and handling machines that were too complicated to master within the year she'd spent there.
"Thirty-one."
"Audrey…" Franco began, "surely there are others–"
"Sure," Audrey agreed, pulling her sweater and cloak back on. "But I am the governor."
"That's right. You're too precious to go down there so recklessly. You've done a great job here. Don't jeopardize your health now that we're nearing the deepest layer."
Audrey silenced him with a look, pushing down the surge of anger at his words. She didn't hold his concern against him, but she couldn't stop herself from thinking less of him for that.
"Do you know why I was put in charge of this place, Franco?" she asked, while Pelar hovered closer, a knowing smile on the girl's lips.
"Yes, Miss Price," the man said reluctantly. "You lead by example. They were very impressed with you on Ulor. No one thought a woman could run a mining world."
Yeah. And I did. So why do I still have to have this conversation?
"Exactly," Audrey said coldly. "That's the reason. So it would be a pretty poor time to stop what I'm doing now, wouldn't it?"
Before Franco could offer another excuse or reason she didn't want to hear, Audrey marched out of the door with Pelar rushing after her.
As she headed for the dining area to take a good, hearty meal, Audrey felt her resolve growing. It was a well-kept truth that she actually liked the doubters, in a way. Men like Franco kept her going even when it was tough.
It didn't matter to Audrey whether they doubted her abilities as a woman or, even worse, thought that high-ranking people were simply more precious than those working beneath them… they pushed her on.
The memory of the cold floors faded away, leaving only plans and details of the thirty-first level down below.
As Pelar brought her a bowl of steaming soup and a big, juicy plate of the closest thing they had to bacon, Audrey saw the Palian guard that Commander Tieran had assigned to her. The Palian, a long rifle strapped upon his back, was entirely impressive. Audrey couldn’t believe that there were more men like him sneaking around her station without detection.
So I guess some of them come out in public if need be, she thought with a roll of her eyes. Just not the great Commander himself.
“What is your name?” she asked, quirking a brow at the mountain of a man.
The only reason she trusted that he was a Palian was… well, because Pelar told her he was. And because he didn’t seem to run on anything but logic. Okay, logic and some really hearty meals.
“Aznim, Miss Price.”
“Pleased to meet you, Aznim.”
The man just nodded. He waited patiently by their side as Audrey and Pelar
finished their breakfast, evidently not wishing for any more wasted words.
She snuck a few more glances at him, with Aznim standing impassively. He wore a slate gray kind of armor that seemed to breathe around him. A closer look told her that it was made of nanobot technology, the little robots so tiny that they were impossible to see with the naked eye. They formed the exact shell around him that was needed at the time.
For now, the armor looked like a simple gray jumpsuit, a stark contrast to the gleaming glaive he carried as a weapon, and the well-kept pistol on his hip. Audrey had no doubt that if danger suddenly appeared out of thin air, this man would be the first to meet it.
It made her wonder what his Commander would be like, if the guard alone was already this awe-inspiring.
"Alright," Audrey said after finishing her meal, getting up. "Let's see if we get to stay on this lovely planet for one more year."
The miners around her, preparing for the midday shift, laughed appreciatively. Audrey liked them, as coarse as they sometimes were. Instead of "don't go", they relayed the latest news from the depths, telling her which passages to take to stay safe and travel faster.
Audrey left Pelar in charge of the station and headed to the elevator that would take them down the first ten floors. After that, she and her guard would descend on foot and by smaller transport where possible.
The Palian guard and Audrey got in and the elevator took them down. The first third of their trip went smoothly and quickly.
Audrey wrapped her fur cloak more tightly around her shoulders when the doors slid open and admitted them into the mines. Beside her, the Palian barely even shivered. There was no sign that the cold affected him at all.
She hadn't even taken one step when one of the miners rushed towards her. Audrey couldn't tell whether his expression was one of joy or fear or both.
"Governor," he panted, pointing far below them where she could see a glow that had definitely not been there before. "You need to see something!"
2
Tieran
They had told him Verien was cold.
As with most things in his life, Tieran accepted it as a fact and went back to focusing on more important things.
He felt the punishing temperature, of course, but wasn't bothered by it. Palians were naturally resilient to all forms of weakness, they'd taken great pains in the past to assure that.
Regular Palians fared better than the Terrans, but the extremity of the planet was enough to even make them go out of their way to be warm.
Tieran and his paladins… they took it for the nuisance it was and nothing more. The fact that the planet was freezing was inconvenient, but ultimately irrelevant to the Palian elite warriors.
To them, Verien was important.
He was walking through the corridors of the station, sparing a pondering thought on why it remained unnamed. The governor of the planet, Audrey Price, was a Terran. As such, she approached many things differently, adding to the beauty of galactic versatility.
The woman had decreed that until Verien was properly introduced into the Galactic Union and received its place there, the station would simply be a building and nothing more. She didn't want them getting too attached to the place in case they were reassigned and naming things made people connect emotionally.
Tieran thought it was wise of her, but it did make communication difficult sometimes. Off-worlders didn't seem to grasp how few of them there were on the planet. They assumed there were more stations, but there was only one, situated on the south side of the mountain range – also unnamed – that shielded them from the worst of the weather.
He heard Pelar's footsteps a few seconds before the girl rounded the corner and nearly jumped, seeing him standing so still he barely breathed.
"Commander," she whispered. "Please don't do that."
"I'll make sure to announce my presence next time," he promised, motioning for her to come with him. "Report."
The matter of his whereabouts was the source of much controversy. All of the station's inhabitants knew of him, which was a rarity. Most of them – namely the Terrans, sworn to secrecy about the existence of the paladins – thought Tieran and his men had special quarters that they never left.
That was false.
Tieran lived in the station much like everyone else, while his paladins took shifts on the surface and the ship both. Their rooms were kept apart from the rest, but they didn't hide anywhere. The paladins simply stayed out of the way, moving into another room when someone came closer, and keeping elusive.
The only contact he had with the rest of the station was through Pelar, who had the ungrateful task of being assistant to both him and the governor.
She seemed worried.
"Bad news?" he asked.
Her expression confirmed that.
"Say it as it is," he said calmly, his deep voice forceful, but reassuring. "Nothing good comes from being unprepared. If we know what we're dealing with, the worst we can do is prepare. If we know nothing, we don't even have that."
Pelar nodded. It was a common truth among Palians. They had kept the peace in the galaxy for centuries, following that simple principle. Everything was less scary when you looked it straight in the eye.
"We are nearing the end of the excavation," Pelar said. "Miss Price has gone down to the mines to observe the work herself and make sure the supply lines run smoothly."
The Terran governor amused Tieran. She was a Union official, but still insisted on doing everything herself. It appealed to him, in a way.
Tieran knew she wasn't that fond of him, however, on the account that he avoided her as he did with all of Terrans, keeping the paladins the mystery they'd always been. He couldn’t blame Audrey Price for holding that against him. He would have felt much the same way had he been in her position.
"That is the opposite of bad news," Tieran pointed out, leading her into a large hall that no one but the young Palian female and the paladins had ever visited.
It was a fighting pit, for the most part at least. Wholly mechanical, the simulations of the many horrors dwelling the galaxy were genuine enough to cut very real blood. Tieran liked to keep up to date with anything and anyone he might have to fight one day.
Palians believed in peace, that was true. But they weren't naïve about it. More often than not, the people seeking to disturb the Union and everything they'd built didn't listen to reason, and so Palians could not rely only on that.
"Yes," Pelar was saying as he prepared to brush up on his brawling, choosing Torons for the exercise.
The big, hairy, beastlike species was one of those Tieran genuinely liked. They looked terrifying, but Torons were similar to his kind in many ways. If Verien proved to be worth the Union's time, there would be many coming to work in the mines.
Tieran liked them, but much as everything else, he took it with pragmatism. Torons weren't dangerous by default, but they had not been social for very long. Sometimes the feral core flared up and they rampaged. With their huge bodies and immense strength, they could do great damage. Tieran was going to make sure he was ready to face one, if the situation demanded it.
"Commander, the mines aren't the problem, I think."
"The mines are why we are here," Tieran replied, removing his gray, silver-etched armor. "If the calculations are correct, we have a good chance of finding the mineral here. Image what it would do the galaxy, to have almost unlimited energy in our hands."
As he removed the intricate breastplate, being careful not to damage the wires that connected it to his nervous system, he noticed Pelar staring. The young female didn't even seem aware that she was doing that.
Tieran didn't mind. He was a born warrior and her reaction was natural. After a long moment of staring at his sculpted physique, Pelar shook herself out of her daze.
"Say the mineral is there," she said, returning to the matter at hand. "What if it were to end up in the wrong hands? Used as a weapon against the Union."
"That is why I'm
here. I will not let it happen."
"Sir—"
"Do you doubt me?" he asked, turning to face her.
Pelar's expression was stubborn, just like it had been the moment before Tieran had asked her to be assigned to Verien. She had a fighting spirit he liked, an absolute refusal to back down, even before him.
"No," she said firmly. "I wouldn't dare, Commander, if not for—"
Tieran had been walking towards a towering robotic Toron, but he stopped and so did the creature. It froze in its furious charge, knifelike claws raised in the air, its program paused.
Pride was an emotion the Palians mostly left for other species. Tieran didn't like boasting, but he knew his worth.
The fact that the peace-loving Palians even had a warrior position had come as a big surprise to the Galactic Union, but they'd accepted it easily enough. Most of them had armies too, so why not? They assumed the position was ceremonial and Palians encouraged that false rumor.
Truth was, Tieran knew he was one of the best fighters in the galaxy.
For Pelar to have doubts about his capabilities, something really bad had to have happened.
"Speak," he ordered. "This better not be urgent, little one."
"I came to you as soon as I heard," she said quietly, sighing then. "A new Fearless has arisen. It has been sighted. It comes and goes, but keeps returning to systems close to this one, within a week’s travel. It's obvious it is waiting for something. It might be the same thing we're looking for."
A Fearless.
The emotion that took ahold of Tieran wasn't fear, although it would have been appropriate. It was cold, piercing, deadly calm with a purposeful edge.
He walked back to where Pelar was waiting by the console that controlled the AIs, mechs and robots that the paladins trained with. Tieran dismissed the Toron and called up another opponent. Several of them, in fact.
He set the controls to spawn up another one as soon as the previous one fell. Then he donned his armor again. Fighting Fearless was hard enough, equipped with the best gear in the galaxy. Without it, he would have been simply dead.