GALAXY AT WAR: Three Space Opera Adventures for the Price of One!

by Drew Avera

  The hood covering my head was torn away and revealed the room dimly lit by candlelight. The walls of the space made me think we were in some kind of cave and not a building at all. But the décor was better than any I had seen in any of the other places I had visited on Naxela. My eyes darted from side to side as T'tireva’s hood was removed. We made eye contact briefly before I noticed movement in the shadows, but nothing that I could easily identify. When I looked back to my sister, I could see that she was afraid, and who could blame her? I was frightened as well, not knowing where we were or what these people wanted with us.

  “Are you all right?” I asked, hoping that my words would not bring the punishment my captor threatened us with, but I had to say something. I had to do something to let T'tireva know I was here with her and that everything would be all right. Not that I knew it would be all right, but I had to hope for something better than what we were currently experiencing.

  A quick death came to mind, but I shook the thought from my head before it had a chance to take root and cause me to become too emotional. I needed a level head for whatever we were about to experience. Perhaps not being dead yet is a good sign, I thought.

  She merely nodded her head before a voice pierced the silence of the dark room, startling me. "I hope the two of you are not harmed in any way," a woman's voice spoke from the far side of the room. "My men have a way of being too heavy-handed at times I'm afraid." Her voice was slithery like Gordus's, but I could not tell if it was as friendly as his.

  A match was struck and the air in that part of the room sizzled as the flames danced towards the ceiling. The glow illuminated her face and her appearance was different from what I expected.

  Instead of the look of someone who impersonated evil, her complexion was a soft blue with delicate features. Her eyes glowed with the flames as she lit a candle in her hand, revealing long, sharp talons. "I felt it urgent to speak to you, but I could not risk being seen in the Attic. You see, one such as I tends to make a lot of enemies," she said in her soothing, sultry voice. The only threatening think I could see about her were the deadly talons clenching the burning candle. They look like she could rip someone's heart out with them, I thought.

  "What do you want?" I asked, trying desperately not to sound like a scared child. It was futile, as my voice wavered, betraying my false face of bravado. I suspected she saw straight through me.

  She smiled wickedly, showing her teeth. "I think the better question, Auden, is what do you want?"

  When she said my name my heart skipped a beat. "How did you—"

  "Know your name?" She asked, "I know many things, child; such as the fact you and T'tireva have been on this planet all this time, thinking your parents abandoned you."

  "How do you know this?" I asked, cutting my eyes to T'tireva looked at me with confusion on her face.

  The woman laughed. "The question is not how do I know, but how does my knowing help you? Better yet," she said, "how does it help your parents?"

  Chapter 6

  The woman approached with a coy smile. The flames leapt from the candle and sizzled as they charred through ozone. The scent of the wax was sweet, but still I eyed the hand holding the candle warily as the talons glistened in the flickering flame. She turned her head and spoke to the men in the room. "Leave us now."

  The sound of footsteps departing in unison filled my ears followed by the sound of the door being pulled shut behind us. We were alone with her. My sister remained silent beside me as the woman passed in front of us, her dress for flowing around her ankles. "What; are you going to say anything?" I asked. My indignation colored my voice with harsher tones than I intended. I blamed the fear. I also blamed the worry I had for my parents and what she may or may not know about them.

  She smiled and bowed before us slightly. "My name is Armilus and I have news you will find very interesting. I have sworn to deliver it and that is why you are here." Her words sounded like a song when she spoke. It was a haunting serenade in slithery speech. It was how I imagine the gods would speak.

  "What's the news?" T'tireva asked. I saw her hands tremble at her sides, but she spoke confidently. She reminded me of how dad was when he sported a brave face and a defiant stare. She was better at this sort of thing than I was.

  "How long have you children been here?" She answered with another question. "Perhaps half a cycle, maybe more?"

  "We are in our seventh month," I answered, using the time frame from our home world as a gauge.

  "Indeed, and you have no sign or reason as to why you were left to your own devices?" The question was rhetorical. Her talents tapped against the candleholder as she stared at us.

  "Your point?" I hissed.

  She began pacing again, her feet barely shuffling on the floor of the dark room as she disappeared behind us. "You were not left behind, my child. You were simply missed," she said, as if her words answer all of life's questions.

  "What do you mean by that?" T'tireva asked, her voice shaky.

  Armilus stepped up behind us and her taloned fingers draped over our shoulders. "The men who captured your parents did not know you existed, child. That is what I mean by that."

  I turned to face her. Tears welling in my eyes as I asked, "How do you know this?" The question sounded like an accusation to my own ears. I was judging her for having contact with my parents and not doing anything to help them, but I could not help myself. I could not hold it in.

  She bent down to our level, forced a grin and whispered, "Because I just escaped the prison where your parents are, my child. And if you want to save them, you're running out of time."

  Chapter 7

  "What do you mean I’m running out of time?" I blurted out. Every hope and dream of reconnecting with my parents that I tamped down all this time bloomed again in my heart. But her mentioning a time limit dashed those hopes again. She had seen them locked away, but I could not help feeling like she was lying to me or at least holding something back. I did not know which would be worse, being lied to or having their situation sugarcoated.

  "I'm speaking as plainly as I can, child. I was locked away with your parents and they are being held for crimes against the Consulate," she said. "They have been awaiting execution for when Admiral Bora-Donna arrives from the capital to witness their deaths. I'm not trying to scare you, but the truth is, I am afraid all of this was staged, an act of political leveraging, and has nothing to do with any alleged criminal activity on their part. Though your father is rather adamant that this is a jealous act of revenge on Bora-Donna’s part."

  Her words flooded into my ears and stabbed my heart with a fury greater than anything I experienced before. Our parents did not abandon us after all: they were imprisoned. That explained so much that T'tireva and I had experienced over the last seven months. All the worry and all the regret came down to this simple truth. They were taken from us. "How can we save them?" I asked. I turned to look at T'tireva and could see streams of tears falling silently down her reddened cheeks. I wiped my own away and looked back at Armilus, waiting for an answer.

  Armilus clasped her hands together as if she were praying and closed her eyes. "The warden is willing to stage a coup for the right price," she whispered. "It does come with certain risks, though."

  Money, I thought, why am I not surprised? Who would create such an elaborate scheme to take what little money we had, I wondered. Still, what if she was telling the truth? Should I trust her? My heart pounded in my chest and was as deafening as the roar of a spacecraft propulsion system. I swallowed hard, and my eyes narrowed into the slits as I stared her down. "What price?" I asked, waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me.

  She answered my question with a wry smile, her talons still tapping on the candleholder. "That's the bad news I'm afraid," she said. "Everything on this world comes with a price, and I doubt you are in a position where you can pay this one."

  “If it’s money you want,” I said, “then you came to the wrong place. T'tireva and
I are in no position to help ourselves, much less anyone else.” My words burned as I said them, and I felt as if I was shoving away a gift by being ungrateful, when it was the only thing I had dreamed of having. Why do things always have to be so difficult? Why can’t we have what we need and not have to fight for every ounce of it?

  “No, money is of no use to me. What I desire is worth far more than you could imagine,” she replied, her words sounding like a song as she spoke.

  There was an awkward silence between us, her eyes boring into mine, the flame flickering between us from the candle in her hands. "Just try me," I replied. “What do you have to lose?”

  Chapter 8

  The walk back to our carve-out was nowhere near as harrowing without the hoods over our heads and our wrists bound. The stench of our couriers was enough to stiffen my spine, though. Thanks to the hoods, the smell was one thing I had not noticed when we were being led to Armilus. I could see the nauseated look on T'tireva's face, as inescapable as it was for her to hide. I could also tell she was fighting hard to not reveal how much it bothered her, not wanting to draw their attention, and I almost laughed, but choked it back for fear of getting a bigger whiff of the smell. I almost wish they would put the hoods back over our heads, I thought with a smile.

  "Armilus said she wants you to consider her offer overnight,” the man I knew only as my captor said as he handed me a folded piece of paper with Armilus’s demands in exchange for information about our parents. “We will return in the morning to hear your reply," he said with a raspy voice. His wretched breath smelled of decaying teeth, and the scales along his face were peeling as if he were shedding his skin. Long past adolescence and the period that his species typically shed their skin, it was obvious, even as an outsider with limited knowledge of the Naxelan, that he did not take care of himself properly. Not only was it frightening to see him, it was disgusting as well.

  I instinctively placed my hand on the grip of my blade as he came near. His eyes followed the gesture before I spoke. "You will have my response tomorrow and not a moment before that," I said sardonically. I did not know if he was willing to go against Armilus and kill us, but I did not trust them in the least.

  He grunted and flared his nostrils as he turned and ordered his men to leave. He stayed behind, though, and whispered, "You may be worth something to Armilus, but to me you are nothing more than a nuisance. If you prove not to be worthwhile, then you may want to watch your back. Children don't keep long in the Attic," he threatened as he revealed his own blade sheathed to his leg, the length of it almost as long as my forearm. "I hope you remember that." He turned to leave, grunting angrily away.

  With my heart pounding in my chest, I looked at T'tireva. She eyed me warily and shook her head. I knew what she was thinking. If we proved not to be "worthwhile" in the eyes of Armilus or her men, then we would have no choice but to flee the only place we knew and escape out into the badlands. It seemed that no matter what decision we made, our time on this world was coming to an end whether we liked it or not. I could only hope it worked out in our favor and we could save Mom and Dad.

  Our backs were pressed against the wall with either decision we made, to help Armilus in exchange for information to save Mom and Dad, or to ignore her request and run for our lives before she sent her men after us. It seemed like an easy decision, but I did not know if T'tireva would be on board with what I was thinking. It was something I would have to ask her once we calmed down.

  What the decision ultimately relied on was trust. We could either take what Armilus said as truth, and potentially rescue Mom and Dad, or find out she was nothing more than a liar and escape whatever unsettling thing she and her men had in mind for us. I knew the choice I wanted to make, but life had a tendency of kicking me in the teeth when I acted off emotion. As amazing as it would be to reunite with Mom and Dad, I had to be smart, logical. I had to take what she said into account because this decision would impact both of our lives, good or bad. Nothing was ever as it seemed on this world, and I was afraid T'tireva and I were about to see just how dark it could get.

  Chapter 9

  The next day, Armilus was pleased with the decision T'tireva and I had made, and why would she not be? In exchange for a ride off this planet, she would give us the information we needed to try and negotiate the release for our parents. The details she gave us were generic when I was expecting something subversive to take place in a dark alley after curfew. I did not mean to make light of the information she gave us, but it hardly felt like she was handing over the keys to Mom and Dad’s cell in exchange for a ride. Of course, the alternative was to not negotiate with her and be left to the will of her henchmen, neither of whom would be along for the ride if we were to succeed, thankfully. Unfortunately, we still had the problem of figuring out how to free Mom and Dad, as well as find our ship if we were to leave Naxela.

  T'tireva and I walked toward the Consulate Office in the center of the city. The streets were crowded and loud as we made our way through the maze of sandstone colored walls, small windowed buildings, and beggars sprawled along the sidewalks. We were unaccompanied, which made our end of the bargain more than one-sided considering Armilus made this sound like it was going to be a team effort. I supposed she felt she had paid us handsomely with information—which had not yet been verified—and her part was done. To say I was skeptical that her information was accurate was an understatement. But when she handed me my mother's ring, I had no choice but to assume she was telling me the truth. At least, I hoped she was and that it was not a trap of some sort.

  The office of the Consulate Representatives was adorned with plaques scaling up its walls. Various seals and flags from different capitals in the outer reaches of the System laid claim to the sanctuary. In layman terms, this is where the corrupt dealings of politics found their stamp of approval on Naxela, and this was where we were about to pay the warden in exchange for our parents’ release.

  Together we walked inside. The large room revealed little more than a series of cluttered desks and dusty furniture. There was a lonely secretary seated behind stacks of parchment who did not seem to hear us enter. It was understandable, given the commotion going on outside. "Excuse me," I said, seeming to break her concentration. Her initial silence made the room feel like a claustrophobic tomb. Or it could be the anxiety I feel being here, I thought.

  She looked up, eyes heavy, shoulders slumped. "How can I help you?" she asked in a nasally voice. She had a look on her face that suggested she did not have time for me to waste with whatever issue I was bringing to her.

  I stepped forward. "I have some questions regarding two prisoners being held captive."

  The secretary forced a smile and grabbed a stack of files from the floor. "Names, please?"

  I looked at T'tireva nervously. This was the moment of truth. Was Armilus lying to us? I could think of no reason why she would, but if our parents were indeed prisoners, then would we be able to get them out? Or was this all a lie to bring T'tireva and me to the Consulate?

  It was a thought I had not considered before, but the ramifications for this kind of setup sent shivers down my spine. I touched the ring that belonged to my mother as a reminder that I was doing this for her and Dad.

  "Names?" The secretary repeated.

  I stood in awkward silence, not wanting to dare answer her as fear paralyze me. Something is wrong, I shouldn’t be here, I thought.

  "Names?" She asked again, with a slight irritation in her voice.

  Should I answer, or should I run?

  T'tireva took my hand and looked up at me. In that moment, with her wide eyes staring up at me, I knew what I had to do. I took a deep breath and answered, “Catera and Hawn Mor,” I answered.

  The secretary smiled.

  Chapter 10

  The secretary scoured the files with my Mom and Dad's names on them. It looked like the files had been hastily thrown together, mostly blank pages or scribbled sections without many details regarding the
supposed charges, I noticed, but I did not mention it, thinking that if I did, she might stop helping. I did think it odd, though, considering Armilus did not seem to know exactly what charges they were being held on, either, which made her whole story sound suspect. But based on what I could see, Mom and Dad were in fact being held prisoner with hardly any charges at all. Of course, this was based on what little I could see with my view of the upside down files.

  "It appears your parents were arrested for smuggling on the orders of Admiral Bora-Donna. Naxela has a hotbed of activity in the smuggling ring and the Consulate renders harsh judgments on those convicted," she said dryly. "All the paperwork or your parents’ charges were filed at Capital and not here, but it could be a clerical error. That happens sometimes with high profile prosecutions."

  I stepped forward, "They were convicted?" I asked, my heart sinking as I thought about what punishments awaited them.

  She fumbled through more pages. "No, if they were convicted, then they would already be deceased. But I can see that the trial is set for this week."

  I could feel my jaw drop to the floor and my heart flutter madly. "Is there a bail set?" I asked, stammering, my voice high. I had suspected that if Armilus was telling the truth, then their situation would be dire; I just did not know it would be this bad. I hardly believed her story, but had to know for myself. That was why I was here, but nothing prepared me for what I was finding out now.