by Eden Ember
“We need to work out the details. Then we will talk.”
Chapter 15
Kezon
Kezon left Blaire in the laboratory on the ship, telling her to prepare for departure. He and Uza trekked outside the ship to the outer limits of the ship’s camouflage shield to see which roads might lead to the cyborg factory. As they walked away from the landing site, they stepped outside of the shield’s range and had a better look at the surrounding landscape. Arthexei didn’t have as much foliage as Jatra. The two Hjott’s looked in the factory's direction and at the small communities dotted along the way.
"We’re not that far away. We could hop on the Trekker for a closer look," Kezon told Uza.
Uza picked up a map of the surface of Arthexei before they hopped into the Trekker and made their way toward the factory. "We'll stop far enough away so as not to alert their watch. But let's get as close as we can so that we can see with our own eyes what's going on there," Kezon said.
They stayed back in the shadows of some tall scrub bushes as they neared the area of the cyborg factory.
"Though we can’t communicate with the ship from here, I have a program in the drone to map this area. We can send it out now and then take the information back for analysis," Uza told the commander.
The sky filled with ships coming and going from the airfield not too far from where they were sitting in the shade. The risk of being seen worried Kezon. He knew they would not be able to make it back to the ship before being caught if they were found out. Everything was at stake, and they needed to do what was necessary to stop the enemy.
“Do you think that you and I could get into the facility and upload the virus?” Kezon asked.
“Kezon, H-j, I’m not sure we could. Urflon might be able to do such a thing. Didn’t we bring Blaire with us to do this?” Uza asked.
“You’re on her side too?” Kezon shook his head. It seemed everything worked against him in his efforts to keep Blaire safe.
“We might pull it off by going in with her, somehow,” Uza replied.
“I would hope so. I’m not about to send Blaire in there alone like a small creature into a deadly trap,” Kezon told him.
“I have it working,” Uza said as he pulled the drone to the top of the Trekker.
Kezon stood back as Uza set the drone’s stealth shields on high and released it into Arthexei’s wind. The drone hummed along, blending into the orange glow of the sky as it flew toward the cyborg factory.
“The maps will help us with our plans,” Kezon said as he looked through the bispecticals at the factory. The drone flew in perfect lines, creating a grid of the area around the enemy’s facility. The information was immediately downloaded to the Trekker’s systems.
“Call it back,” Kezon commanded.
Uza input the order into his cuff, and soon the drone flew back to the Trekker silently.
As Uza brought the drone in, Kezon couldn't help but place his hand upon his chest. His uxormea burned underneath his tunic, and no one but Blaire knew that it was glowing. She'd given him some hope, and yet he was afraid to hope. What if she decided once they finished the mission that she wanted to go back to earth? He would have no choice but to take her back. If he did that it would prove to her that he was not the brute savage that she accused him of being when they first met. Terrans didn’t understand the traditions of the Hjott’s, and so they could not fathom why they behaved as they did when finding a mate. Additionally, Kezon would never attempt to take a mate against her will.
"I have the area mapped and the heat signatures of the enemy stationed nearby," Uza reported.
Kezon nodded as they got into the Trekker to go back to the Gamma Revolution. His mind was so much so on his uxormea and Blaire that he paid little attention to the surroundings as they bounced along the way. Uza secured the drone behind them in the seat as they moved away from the facility. There was too much at stake with the mission. If only he could somehow figure out how to draw out the mission and keep Blaire with him longer. Perhaps he’d eventually have the opportunity to claim her and she wouldn't leave.
Kezon steered the Trekker toward an off-road trail that would lead back to the shielded ship. Uza’s head jerked around. "Druck! They have spotted us," he told him.
Kezon shook his head quickly as he pushed the thoughts of Blaire from his mind and focused on what was going on around them. He had been daydreaming so much that he hadn't even noticed the vehicle behind them.
“We can't lead them back to the ship and allow them to discover Blaire or her research. We need to lose them,” Kezon said as he steered the Trekker in a wide arc away from the ship. He looked down into the panel and realized that he had lifted the stealth shield and an enemy drone was closing in behind them quickly. They had no choice but to track towards the small forest and dense undergrowth with gnarled limbs and trunks of old trees. It was a small place in a large landscape, but there was no other way to lose the drone.
The Trekker bounced along as they entered the small forest. "There!" Uza pointed at a small opening as they pulled the Trekker into it. Kezon quickly engaged the stealth shield to cloak the it. He then retracted the wheels and the vehicle became airborne. It lifted off the forest floor, with barely enough room to miss the gnarled limbs above. They floated along silently as they could hear the drone above them flying around trying to find them. They floated deep into the woods and paused for a moment, lowering the Trekker back to the ground. They stepped outside and carefully listened. The stealth shield was enough to shadow their heat signatures from the enemy drone that searched for them. It passed close to them a few more times before it left in the direction from where it had come.
"Quickly," Kezon said as they entered the Trekker again. They took off and hovered through the woods, darting over and under the gnarled branches to make certain they were not being followed. They two Hjott’s finally found an opening far from where they had started and left the forest. They sped along over the rough landscape towards their ship. The onboard scanner showed nothing on its screen, indicating that they had in fact lost their pursuers. The rebels had almost caught them, and if they had it would have been all over. Uza kept turning around and looking behind them, pulling up his bispectacles and searching the horizon.
"We will rush to the ship, and then we need to leave," Kezon told him.
Kezon accelerated the Trekker as it bounced along the ground. They didn’t have enough fuel to simply hover the entire way, so they were now traveling on the wheels. Kezon steered the Trekker into the ship when they arrived and the ramp closed quickly behind them.
Kezon pulled his comm cuff up. "We need to leave now!" he alerted his crew.
The commander entered the bridge quickly and thrust his hand over the control to alert all onboard that the ship would soon leave Arthexei. Several of the crew members came to Kezon, wondering what had happened.
“They spotted us, so they know that we are here. We need to leave now,” Kezon told them.
He inquired with the ship’s AI if all members were on the ship and after receiving the verification that they were he gave the order to take off. The ship lifted into the air and quickly left the surface before heading to a course just outside the atmosphere. After putting the ship into orbit, Kezon made certain that they had not been detected and gave the command to keep the ship’s stealth shield in place.
"We’ll prepare the virus here and then take the Gamma Tracker back to the surface so that we can deliver the virus. We have to be very careful now since we have alerted them to our presence," Kezon told those on the bridge.
Uza nodded as he adjusted the ship's signature so that no one would find them. "Ready the Gamma Tracker for the trip back to Arthexei," Uza ordered another Hjott nearby.
Kezon felt the urge to go see Blaire to make certain that she was alright after takeoff. He would have to figure out who would be going to the cyborg facility on the planet. Once they compiled a map of the factory from the drone’s downloaded info
rmation, they could make their plans. The commander hoped that they would be able to still infiltrate the compound after being found out. He felt highly doubtful of the prospects, but he was a warrior. One way or another they would defeat the enemy below.
Chapter 16
Blaire
Blaire lurched forward too late, the computer which held the new virus toppling from its stand and crashing to the floor.
“No!” she yelled as she tried to stop it. “Oh, no!”
Blaire had pulled the computer from a secure containment on the work table because they had landed on Arthexei and she wanted the two computers side-by-side to see if the virus worked on the Hjott unit. The adjustment took two hours, and she was about to duplicate her work, thinking very stupidly how it was safe on the hard drive. But now, the scientist cradled the broken unit in her arms as she knelt on the floor. Some of the numbers and data that she had recently input proved to be too numerous to completely commit to her photographic memory.
“No, no, no,” Blaire cried. Of all the times for the ship to launch. She heard the alert but didn’t pay much attention to it as the ship had landed and the crew was working on some maintenance. No one came to her to tell her to secure the laboratory. No one alerted her to the fact that the ship would launch from the small planet so quickly after landing. The plans had been to stay put until they delivered the virus to the cyborg facility.
The shell of the computer looked as if nothing had happened. The inside, however, was in several pieces. “Come on, Blaire, you’ve put together computers before. So what if this is alien tech? How hard can it be?”
The pieces had fit together very tightly inside the shell before, but now a few broken components were poking out. Reaching to the table nearby, Blaire picked up a spool of wire and carefully cut a length. She noted that the wire didn’t match the diameter of the one in the broken computer. “Dammit.”
Surely she could find a wire to fit. Maybe Elvo in the power room would have the same size of wire. Or Urflon. He’d know what to do. But first Blaire wanted to try to repair it herself. Even so, she should have paid more attention to the alert. Kezon had come on over the comm system, but he spoke Jatra and she didn’t have her implant tuned in to interpret. She had decided to give herself a break from it. The wires simply didn’t match. Blaire poked around on one of the Terran models she brought with her to find a wire that would fit. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either. How could she have been so careless? All that hard work and she hadn’t backed it up yet. All of it on the Hjott computer, which now sat in pieces on the worktable. The changes she had made were quick and involved some guesswork. Photographic memory or not, the young scientist’s mind wasn’t completely focused on the task at hand as she kept thinking about Kezon and his uxormea.
Blaire jumped when Kezon stepped into the laboratory and walked up to her. “What happened?” he asked after seeing the tears flowing from her eyes. Blaire quickly swiped her hand over her face in an effort to hide them, but it was too late. His keen eyes saw everything.
“Oh, Kezon, I was so stupid! I didn’t have the computer secured when the ship took off. Why did we take off?”
“I sounded the alert and told everyone,” he replied.
“I heard the alert, but I just thought it was part of the maintenance drills. I didn’t have my implant turned on. I’m so sorry. I modified the virus and made it work on your computer and I was about to back it up when the ship took off. That’s when it fell and the entire unit broke.”
“I’ll be right back,” Kezon said as he nodded his head and left.
Blaire continued to try to piece it together, but her lack of understanding of the alien tech worked against her. Kezon soon returned with Urflon. After a lengthy explanation about what had happened, he picked up the broken device.
“I believe I can piece it back together,” he said confidently.
“Oh, if you could, I can back up the virus code on it and we can go forward with the mission. Wait, why did we have to leave Arthexei?” She turned from Urflon to Kezon.
“I’ll fix this. Don’t worry, Blaire. I’ll grab the program from it. It may not work in this computer again, but I can save the information,” Urflon promised.
“Thank you,” Blaire replied as she smiled at him.
After Urflon left, she turned to Kezon, and fell into his arms, crying. “I’m so sorry I messed up,” she sobbed.
“Oh, no, I don’t blame you. Uza and I trekked to the cyborg factory and had a drone map the area. We were heading back when we noticed that we were being followed by one of the enemy drones. A small forest nearby saved us. We escaped and hid long enough to make a wide arc before coming back to the ship. We took off immediately because had they followed us, it would have been all over. I should have sent someone here to make sure that you were ready first, though. I’m sorry,” Kezon said as he peered into her eyes.
Looking up, Blaire shook her head. “I had my mind on other things besides the mission.”
“Things like what?” Kezon asked.
She smiled. “Like you and your uxormea...me, us,” she breathed. It brought a smile to his face.
“Aye, I am preoccupied by the same thoughts,” he admitted.
“We’re from two different worlds and I’m trying to wrap my mind around it,” she told him. Kezon nodded his understanding as he held her in his arms.
"My precious human. My sweet Terran female. I have been trying to put this from my head this entire time. It has distracted me as I have wondered what will become of all this," he replied.
Blaire lifted her eyes to his. "You mean the mission? You mean the fate of the Vada System?" she asked.
Kezon smiled as he slowly shook his head. "No, I am confident that this mission will be a success. I am not concerned about the fate of the Vada System as I believe that we will win. I wonder about what will become of you and me. I wonder about us.”
The Hjott commander unfastened the loops on his tunic and opened it for her to see. His uxormea glowed powerfully as the Terran scientist looked at it. Slowly, Blaire’s hand reached toward his chest and touched the spot. She could feel the warmth coming from his glowing chest. Blaire swallowed hard as her eyes came back to meet his.
“Blaire, this means that I love you. I can’t imagine a life here in the Vada System, or anywhere else in the universe, without you. So strongly are my feelings for you that I’d just as soon die than to be without you,” Kezon admitted to her.
Blaire’s eyes only on the warrior alien, Kezon’s hands moved slowly to her shoulders. He leaned toward her and she lifted her chin as his lips brushed against hers. The alien warrior’s arms encircled the female Terran, pulling her close to him as if to never let go. Blaire clung tightly to him, feeling his heart beat wildly and his uxormea burning against her. The fear of losing Kezon suddenly rose up inside her. Her thoughts twisted and turned quickly, leaving the trained scientist doubting everything she had ever believed to be real. True love between a human and an alien didn’t seem possible to exist. It couldn’t, could it? How could an alien love her so much that he’d rather die than be without her? How could Blaire even entertain the thought of a life with him? Her heart seemed to tell her that it was more than a possibility; it was reality. Could she have a happy life in a star system halfway across the galaxy from her own home? They parted after a moment and Blaire shyly looked into Kezon’s beautiful face. Her hand came up lovingly and caressed his chiseled jaw, moving upward until her fingers passed over his prominent brow.
Words could not come to Blaire. Her throat stayed silent as she lost herself in his eyes. Leaning in, her lips met with his and she eagerly opened her mouth, pressing her tongue against his. The commander groaned as desire heated between them. Blaire’s body abandoned her and she realized how badly she wanted him. She wanted to see what it was like to be with an alien. She wanted to know what it was like to be with him. What if she allowed Kezon to claim her? What would happen? What if she asked him if they could j
ust mess around without him actually claiming her, so if at the end of the mission she could just go back to the Terran system? Her mind was struggling to make sense of this matter of the heart. Blaire’s analytical mind wanted to go over the facts, set up a pros and cons list of such a relationship, and only then make an informed decision. Her heart, however, wanted her to throw all caution to the wind and submit to Kezon so that he could claim her.
“Sir, the Tracker is ready when you are,” Uza’s voice said through Kezon’s comm. He looked up sharply, the tender moment lost in the urgency of the mission. Whatever was happening between them would have to wait.
Chapter 17
Kezon
“It’s ready,” Blaire said to Kezon when he came back to the lab. Urflon had saved the information from the broken computer and she had it ready to go within minutes. It had been a harrowing hour as she reconstructed the virus with the information he was able to retrieve. Kezon left to ready the Gamma Tracker for the flight back to Arthexei. From their vantage point, they could fly in under the guise of a courier with no one on the planet would know the difference. The smaller transport ships made regular landings near the marketplace, no doubt bringing in supplies for the cyborg factory.
“Good call on grabbing a cyborg first,” Kezon said as they made their way to the hatch. “They are running free in the marketplace now, according to our source on the ground.”
“Then it should be easy to pick one up, if we blast it with a mini-EMP,” Blaire replied.
The plan was to test the virus on a captive one first to make certain that the calibrations were correct before uploading it to the cyborg control center.
The Gamma Tracker was large enough for a small crew of five, and Kezon accompanied Blaire to the surface of Arthexei. She held a small box on her person, and Kezon held another as a backup. Several additional copies stayed on board the Revolution.