by Justin Sloan
Lien continued, “You’ve been invited to join this family and receive all the rights of any Lavkin. We ask but one thing: as a show of unity with your new family, we ask that you tell us something true.”
“Uh, what?” Jilla asked. “Something true? Like water is wet?”
“If you wish,” Lien answered with a thin smile. “It’s customary to make it something personal. Perhaps even something you wouldn’t want shared beyond the family, but the choice is yours as long as it’s true.”
“It’s a sacred rite in our culture,” Commander Larence explained. “Weddings, coming-of-age celebrations, important birthdays...telling something true is a way to show your respect for and trust in those gathered.”
Kalan looked to the left and saw Jilla looking at him expectantly. He looked to the right and saw Bob giving him the same expression. “All right. Guess I’m first, then.”
He thought for a long moment, his mind searching for something true he could reveal that might be worthy of this honor. Everything he thought of seemed inadequate. He could tell them about his father’s mission, but that wasn’t exactly a secret. He could tell a story from his childhood, but he couldn’t think of anything that felt important enough.
Then he thought of it. The one thing he was truly ashamed of in his life. The moment it entered his mind, he knew that was the story he needed to tell. He swallowed hard and took a step forward.
“I grew up in this prison ship called SEDE. Not sure if you’ve heard of it, but it doesn’t matter. Kids born there stay until they turn eighteen. The day before my eighteenth birthday, my mother took me aside. She told me she didn’t care what I did when I got out, as long as it made me happy. She told me to follow my dreams and all that, but there was one thing she made me promise. She asked me to swear to her that I would never break the law.”
He looked around. They were all watching him, listening intently to his story.
“See, when a kid leaves SEDE, he doesn’t have a lot of choices,” he continued. “A lot of kids like me fall back on their network of connections, the people they were in prison with. They may not be able to get a straight job, but their SEDE connections can help them start a few rungs up the ladder in the criminal underworld. My mom wanted to make sure I didn’t go down that path, and I promised her I wouldn’t.
“For the first month after I got out, I got by on the little bit of money my mother had socked away for me in prison. It had seemed like a fortune in SEDE, but in the outside world it didn’t go far. I quickly learned that legitimate employers weren’t too interested in hiring a kid fresh out of prison, and I started getting hungry. Then I bumped into a guy I’d known inside. He was setting up a crew to steal a shipment of this valuable metal alloy, and he needed some muscle. I took the job.”
Kalan looked around, wondering if they would see him differently, but their faces were unreadable.
“The job went off without a hitch, but I felt sick to my stomach the entire time. He offered me another job, and I turned it down. I told him that was the one and only time, and it was. I never stole anything again.”
“Except for that Nim fighter from SEDE,” Wearl said.
“And the Tralen-14 you took from the Pallicon who tried to highjack that transport you were on,” Bob added.
“Fine, I never stole anything that wasn’t part of a mission for Valerie, but it didn’t really matter. I’d already broken my word to my mother.” He stepped back into the ring. “That’s it. That’s my story.”
Lien nodded. “Thank you for sharing that. Welcome to the family.”
“Ooh, me next,” Wearl said. “Will you repeat my story for them, Kalan?”
“Sure.” He listened, then turned to the Lavkins. “Wearl says she once punched a guy so hard one of his teeth got stuck in her knuckle.”
Lien’s mouth twisted in disgust, but he nodded politely. “It’s okay, Wearl. We’ve all done things we regret.
Wearl said to Kalan, “Oh, I misunderstood. I thought we were telling stories we’re proud of.”
“Welcome to the family, Wearl,” Lien said.
Bob took a step forward. “Okay, my turn. It all started when I was nine.” He went on to tell a long, winding story of his first job, his sexual awakening, and his love of a food called ‘burritos.’ It was a story that seemed to have no point, and no ending. Kalan had to resist the urge to tell him to shut up multiple times. Finally he wrapped up with, “And that’s the last time I ever paid for beer and diapers at the same establishment. Phew, it feels good to get that off my chest.”
Lien looked a little confused, but he once again nodded. “Very nice, Bob. Welcome to the family.”
All eyes turned to Jilla. She took a step forward and drew a deep breath before speaking. “Okay, here goes. Sometimes—not often, mind you, and certainly not right now—I find myself sort of attracted to Bob.”
An awkward silence fell over the circle. Bob’s jaw had fallen open so wide the Wandarby cultists probably could have flown one of their fighters in there. Kalan fought an almost irresistible urge to laugh.
“Thank you, Jilla,” Lien said. “I’m sure that was difficult to admit.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Jilla replied.
“Welcome to the family.”
They spent the next hour mingling and chatting with their new family. Everyone was so warm and welcoming. Kalan was starting to get that this “you’ll be part of the family” thing wasn’t just words. They took it seriously. Everyone gathered here regarded Kalan, Bob, Jilla, and Wearl as their brothers and sisters.
Kalan wished there was something he could do to repay their kindness. Then he suddenly realized there was something he could do.
He tapped Commander Larence on the shoulder. “Excuse me, Commander, do you think you could show me to the comm equipment? I need to get a message to someone as quickly as possible.”
Larence looked a little surprised, but he immediately agreed, and the two of them slipped away to send the message.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Valerie woke to find Swarne and Osh staring at her with puzzled looks on their faces.
“Why do you roar when you sleep?” Osh asked.
“Are you angry?”
“What?” Valerie sat up and stretched, then adjusted her shirt because she realized it was revealing her chest.
“Ah, gross,” Osh said, glancing away. “Sorry, I mean…”
Valerie frowned and stood. Robin was sitting cross-legged, grinning at her. “What? What are you all talking about?”
“Snoring,” Robin explained, then turned to their guests. “Some humans do that. It’s weird, huh?”
They both nodded in agreement.
“Wait, hold on!” Valerie rotated her neck, ignoring the cracking. “There’s no way I snore.”
Robin shrugged, and the other two insisted she had been snoring.
“Agh, whatever.” She glanced around, remembering where she was, and realized there was no separate bathing room. “I don’t suppose you have showers? Baths?”
“Didn’t you go by the bathing pool last night?” Swarne asked. “Come. I can show you, but I think you know the way.”
Valerie glared. “You mean...the red pool in the middle of town?”
“Yes, you do know it!”
“I’m...not going to bathe in front of a bunch of you, where everyone’s eyes can wander.”
Robin laughed. “No? You’re super-shy all of a sudden?”
“I just don’t want to be nude in a place where every man looks at me with disgust,” Valerie countered. “That’s ass-backwards, first of all, because,” she turned to Osh and glared, “I’m hot as hell.”
“Hot as hell?” Osh laughed, and couldn’t stop.
Valerie didn’t want to ask if it was about the statement, which maybe he had never heard before, or if it was at her insistence that she was hot.
“Brother, that’s rude,” Swarne said, grabbing his nose. He instantly stopped. “Surely they
know they’re hideous, and don’t need to be reminded of it.”
“Wait, don’t bring me into this,” Robin protested.
Everyone stood in awkward silence for a moment while Valerie pulled her hair back and put on her armor. She said, “Shall we get on with it?”
“Yes!” Swarne smiled, glad someone had broken the silence. “Wokana looks forward to meeting you. We’ve told her so many great things.”
“You hardly know us.”
“We know enough,” Osh said, then leaned toward her and said in a very friendly way, “And don’t worry, we didn’t say anything about your looks.”
“For the love of…” Valerie walked past him, then stopped and looked back, glaring. Her lip starting to pull up at the corner. “You!”
She wanted to run back and hit him, because he had started cracking up, slapping his sister on the shoulder and pointing.
“Sorry,” Swarne said with a shrug. “He likes to mess with strangers.”
“So you don’t think we’re hideous?” Robin asked as she joined Valerie.
“Not my type at all,” Osh said, trying to calm his laughter. “But come on, I’m not an idiot, and I’m not blind.”
Valerie shook her head. “Maybe I’m looking forward to leaving this planet after all,” she said to Robin.
Robin nodded, not making eye contact. Great, she was still annoyed about the previous night. Valerie made a mental note to come back to that when they weren’t on their way to meet an alien leader.
“Only asking to be certain,” Osh asked from behind. “The bath...did you want to?”
“No, I’ll pass,” Valerie replied, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice.
The Lavkin siblings led them to their destination, though Valerie was pretty certain Osh was let down about her not taking a bath. She had a feeling he was playing down his attraction to her, or was at least curious.
They stopped at a home not so different from the rest, except for being taller and having a pointed top. Swarne gestured for them to wait outside with Osh, then stepped inside. A moment later she reappeared and said, “You may enter.”
The inside was—surprisingly—not so different from the hut they had slept in, though it had more rooms and carvings in the walls. Some of the carvings related to great battles, and at one spot there were the guardian statues and the image of a sand snake.
“Did you see her?” Osh asked, as they waited for their host.
Valerie nodded, but noticed Robin frowning. Trying to clue her in, she added, “Your god is a sight to behold indeed.”
“She can be full of wrath, but she is our god.”
Robin glanced between Valerie and the image of the snake, then tried to do her best to hide the disgust on her face. A giant sand snake wasn’t Valerie’s idea of the best deity either, but she wasn’t going to insult others’ religions.
Wanting to say something before the conversation went there, she turned and admired the images on the far wall. They showed two groups of people standing and facing each other, and between them was a holder for a glowing stone. It had a cracked stone in it, which was not glowing.
“And the meaning of that?” Valerie asked.
Swarne approached it and touched the stone. For a moment it glowed, but then the glow faded.
“You see,” she explained, “the cracked stone can’t hold a charge, just like a family separated can’t continue on forever.”
“There’s way too much about what you just did and said that didn’t make sense,” Valerie said. “First of all…” She walked over and touched the stone. Nothing. “How’d you do that? I saw Osh do the same yesterday.”
“It’s what we do,” Swarne replied.
Robin shrugged. “Maybe Lavkins are more conductive than humans?”
“I…” Valerie shook her head, realizing she wasn’t going to understand it. “Okay, and the family? You mean the others on the moving city?”
Swarne nodded, but looked hesitant to talk. Her eyes flitted to the side room, where a female Lavkin stood. They had a similar look, but this one appeared older and wore flowing red robes.
“May I present our leader Wokana, High Priestess of Eran.” Osh bowed his head and stepped aside.
The high priestess entered and Valerie and Robin both bowed as Osh had, but just with their heads.
“To answer your question,” Wokana said, “they turned their backs on Eran. The other half of our family, there.” She gestured to the carving on the wall. “We have been at each other’s throats over the stones ever since.”
“I’m sorry to hear it,” Valerie replied.
“But we haven’t met here to talk about our problems, have we?” Wokana asked. “To what do we owe this visit?”
“There was a certain traveler who came through here at one point. Lolack was his name. Admiral Lolack.”
Wokana’s eyes lit up at that, but she took a moment to answer. “Perhaps our story and yours have more interconnection than I realized.” She motioned for Osh and Swarne to come close, then lowered her voice as she added, “This doesn’t leave the room.”
They nodded, looking very intrigued.
“You see,” Wokana said, turning back to her guests, “we’re by law and religion not permitted to ask outsiders for help in this matter, but your mission to find Admiral Lolack directly affects us. You can find him while achieving what we would ask of you.”
“Which is?”
“We have one source of food, and it is cultivated with the use of the stones.”
Valerie clenched her jaw, not liking where this was going. “So you want us to get them back?”
Wokana considered her, then shook her head. “Not exactly. Admiral Lolack was here, but he went to speak with our other half, to work out a better system or find out if there was any word on other locations to mine the stones. It has been some time, and he hasn’t returned.”
“So we would find this moving city and ask them where he is?” Valerie shrugged. “That seems easy enough.”
“Unless they’ve hurt him, in which case they would then be your enemy and ours,” Swarne interjected. “If that has happened, we all have a problem.”
“Swarne!” Wokana scolded. “We shall not assume the worst. So, do we have a deal?”
Valerie couldn’t see why not, so she agreed. They would go after the moving city, hope that Eran the sand snake god wouldn’t eat them, and hope that he was still alive.
Although the storm was gone, the winds were still heavy and there was sand in the air. Luckily Valerie and Robin had brought their helmets in case there was trouble. Breathing air like this certainly qualified.
After slapping hers on Valerie glanced at Robin, who looked like a super space-warrior, a look that always made Valerie want to laugh. Not that it was funny. It was terrifying, actually, and it didn’t feel right for the young vampire she had rescued and taken under her wing.
Wind slashed at them, trying to push them back. Robin’s voice came through the helmet’s comm.
“Got that out of your system last night?”
“Sorry?” Valerie glanced over, almost wondering if she’d imagined it. “This is the time to talk about that?”
Robin stared forward, leaning into the wind. “We’re out here alone. No chance for us to lose control with all this going on.”
“True. Talk about sand in the butt,” Valerie replied, then bit her lip. What a stupid thing to say. But then the realization hit her that Robin had just completely opened up to her, in a roundabout way. “You... You’d be tempted elsewhere?”
Silence followed.
More wind. More howling. A moving shadow in the distance that Valerie did her best to ignore.
“I don’t want to lie to you, so I won’t answer that.” Robin turned her way, then forward again. “But what we talked about is still true. I want to concentrate; to not be distracted. To fight for the universe, and be a hundred percent focused on that and nothing else. Got it?”
“Yes.” Va
lerie processed this, then shook her head. “But isn’t ignoring it more distracting in a way?”
“Not for me,” Robin replied.
Valerie nodded, though she was certain the action couldn’t be seen. When they retraced their steps from the night before the large shadow was there again, albeit closer this time.
“Robin?”
Nothing.
The shadow moved toward them.
“Robin,” Valerie picked up her pace, then turned to face Robin and pointed. “All that. Yes, okay, I’m sorry. I’ll do my best, but right now we’ve got company.”
Robin took a step away, then shouted, “OH FUCK!” and took off, with Valerie not far behind.
“Try to keep our sense of direction. Head for the ship as much as possible,” Valerie told her. “We don’t want to get lost in this!”
“How about we not die first, then worry about being lost?”
The ground beneath them shook, and the shadow rose into the air and loomed over them. No more playing around here. Valerie shouted for them to run, using all the energy within her. Full-on vampire mode took over, and she and Robin darted away as the sand snake plowed into the ground immediately behind them. The ground began to sink in, converging on the spot where the snake had landed, and a puff of sand joined the already heavy air.
They were off course, but Robin had a point about survival being their primary objective at the moment. Valerie continued to run, but spun in time to see the sand moving in waves toward them.
“There’s more than one of them!” she shouted.
“Don’t you fucking tell me that!” Robin replied, somehow moving even faster now. Valerie often forgot that Robin had been further enhanced on the ship, thanks to Bad Company. She was capable of much more than she had been on Earth.
Everything in Valerie told her not to look back again, but she couldn’t help herself. She turned her head slightly and nearly stumbled at the sight of the sand erupting as a snake emerged, opening its three-way mouth to reveal rows upon rows of sharp teeth.
Well, shit. That idea of being stuck in an endless torture and healing process? It was a very real possibility.
Valerie pulled out her hip gun and shot like a motherfucker as she ran, not letting up on the trigger or bothering to see if she was making contact. At the sound of gunfire and the roaring of the sand Robin went for her guns too, but before she pulled them out she pointed.