Silver

by Siren Allen

  “How would owning an ice giant make the commander the ruler of the universe?” Silver asked, staring at the frozen cryo-chamber.

  “Hey, I’m just putting it out there. I don’t know if it’s right or not.”

  “Maybe, it’s something else.” Beta rubbed his chin. “There could be a legendary warrior inside.”

  “Yeah,” Gamma grinned. “We were told the stone warriors of Alcatran were wiped out centuries ago. Perhaps one lived. They say those males could pulverize your spine with one blow.”

  “I bet I could take one on and win,” Beta bragged.

  “I doubt it. Hey, maybe there’s a gargoyle inside. You can try taking on one of those bastards.”

  “Let’s stop speculating and find a way to open this.” Silver scanned the room searching for a device to open the cryo-chamber.

  “This should do it.” Epsilon stood up, holding a rod of some sort. “We can try prying it open.”

  It was better than nothing. It took them almost an hour to open the chamber. Things grew chaotic once they did. The moment the door to the chamber was open, a rush of cold air blew out and Silver was sure something brushed past him.

  “What the hell was that?” Gamma yelled.

  “Shit, something touched me,” Beta roared.

  Above them the emergency alert lights flashed.

  “Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Initiating lock down and contain protocol.”

  “What got out of the chamber?” Beta asked. “There’s still someone inside, frozen. This shit is getting crazy.”

  “Intruder contained in clinic. Initiating sleeper fog. Intruder alert clear. Intruder will remain unconscious for approximately five minutes.”

  “We need to get to the clinic,” Silver turned for the door.

  “Who’s going to stay and make sure this one doesn’t thaw out and began roaming the ship?” Beta asked, staring down into the chamber at the body that was too frozen to tell whether it was a male or female.

  “I’ll stay,” Ep volunteered.

  “Good.” Silver didn’t miss the intense look on Ep’s face. Was the male pissed at their finding or was he simply itching for a chance to do battle if the frozen being attacked? Silver wasn’t sure and now wasn’t the time to speculate.

  “Beta, Gamma, with me.” The two males followed Silver out the room and back across the bridge. When they made it to the clinic they were shocked by what they found lying in the middle of the floor.

  “It’s small.” Beta stood with his arms folded over his chest. “I didn’t think it would be this small. I can’t fight something this little.”

  “Forget its size,” Gamma walked over to the intruder. “It’s blue. It’s really freaking blue. It even has blue hair.”

  “It’s small. It’s blue and commander Rhodes called it a weapon. So let’s be cautious.” Silver walked over to the intruder and squatted next to him. “Pull that table over here.” Silver picked the child up and placed him on the table.

  “What the hell would the commander want with a little boy?” Beta placed a towel under the boy’s head. “Shit, don’t tell me the commander is one of those kind of perverts.”

  “He said the cargo contained a weapon. This doesn’t make sense.” Silver paced in front of the table. “Striker, run a scan on the boy. I want to know everything I can about him.”

  “Scanning.”

  “This is crazy.” Gamma leaned over the table, staring closely at the child. “It’s a kid. A really blue kid, but still a kid.”

  A kid that the commander referred to as a weapon. How the hell was a child a weapon? And why was he in a cryo-chamber covered in ice? Silver didn’t like the feeling of unease in his chest. He definitely didn’t like the thought of bringing his mate into this situation.

  “Scan complete. Age approximately six years old. Home world, Precept 33. Cellular structure unique. Bone density unique. Life span twelve years.”

  “Stars,” Gamma gasped. “Poor kid is going to die in six years. How long is six years on Precept 33?”

  “Six years on Precept 33 is twelve of our years.”

  “Oh,” Gamma shrugged. “Twelve is better than six.”

  “Still scanning. This being does not require food to live.”

  “Neither do we,” Beta stated.

  “This being requires akanlene spores.”

  The three males stared at each other.

  “Are you saying he’s a Time Dweller?” Silver stared around the room, looking at nothing in particular as he waited on Striker to answer.

  “He is not a Time Dweller. He is a Precept.”

  “Precept is the planet he came from,” Silver reminded Striker.

  “Precept is a race of beings created in a laboratory. Their genetics are similar to Time Dwellers because they were born as Time Dwellers. Natural born Precepts are rare. Like you, they can see the future and the past. But they are not limited to seeing the future and past of their people only. They see everything. But they are a peaceful people. The majority of them were destroyed many years ago in the ‘war for the future’.”

  “That was a Time Dweller war that took place before any of us were born.” Silver said aloud, to no one in particular. “So our people are the ones who destroyed most of the Precepts and now they’re creating their own race. But why are they only giving them so little time to live?”

  “That is one answer I do not have.”

  “So he’s a blue Time Dweller?” Gamma poked the boy’s shoulder. The child didn’t move.

  “He was born a Time Dweller. He is no longer a Time Dweller due to extreme genetic engineering.”

  “Once a Dweller, always a Dweller,” Gamma mumbled.

  Silver nodded. “He’s a Dweller and is now under our protection.”

  “His requirement of spores to live is the only thing he has in common with you.”

  Silver resumed his pacing. “But the akanlene plant is indigenous only to our home world.”

  “True,” Striker responded. “Our world is the only place the plant thrives. Our people are the only beings that have gained immortality from its spores.”

  “How the hell has this child survived so long without the spores?”

  “Maybe the researchers do like we do. House the plant in their research facility,” Gamma suggested.

  That was a possibility. Every raiding party he knew kept an akanlene plant on board their ship. It was okay to go months, even up to a year without breathing in the spores. But after that, the body would begin to deteriorate.

  With the spores, they lived for centuries. They aged like mortals until they reached their strongest peak and then the progression became so slow it was as if they remained the same age for years.

  Without the spores they would age the way mortals did, reaching their strongest peak then beginning the descent to death. Their bodies would still be harder to kill than your average mortal, but killing them would be easier than it was now.

  The only difference between them and mortals was that their life-span without the spores still stretched to over two hundred years. The spores were what made them immortal. The spores were what made them damn near impossible to kill.

  According to the ancient legends a warrior once saved a princess on an unknown planet. The warrior had the ability to travel through time with his mind. In his dreams he’d seen the princess, heard her cries for help.

  He’d saved her from a band of rebels who’d tortured and raped her daily for over three months. He killed the rebels and returned the princess to her home world. As to show his appreciation, her father, a king, gifted the warrior with a plant that would grant him eternal life.

  The king told the warrior that as long as the plant thrived near him, the warrior would live. Wanting immortality for his family and friends also, the warrior planted the gift in the ground behind his home.

  In a few months that one plant had turned into a jungle, gifting the entire village with eternal life. For centuries the Dwellers had only trave
lled through time when it was a necessity. They feared being trapped in a strange place and killed by the locals.

  But now, with their new found immortality, they could roam through space and time without fearing death. But that was just a story parents told their children. Silver wasn’t sure any of it was true.

  And no Dweller he knew had enough power to go that far back in time to see if the stories were true. And there were no elders old enough to ask questions about their origins. Unfortunately, their world was always at war with someone, the older generations were long gone.

  Silver moved closer to the boy. “If he is a Time Dweller, why does he only have twelve years to live?”

  “From what I’ve learned from the scan, he has only been exposed to a synthetic version of the akanlene spores. It keeps him from needing sustenance such as food, but it will not keep him alive. This child has a virus encoded into his DNA. It is because of that virus that he only has a twelve-year life span.”

  Gamma rubbed his head. “I don’t understand. Can you dumb it down for us Striker?”

  “I just did.”

  “Can you dumb it down some more?”

  “He has never breathed in the real spores, only fake spores. At birth he was injected with a virus that decreased his life span significantly. The fake spores are his sustenance, but they do not provide him with immortality. Unlike you, he cannot live forever. He will die on his twelfth birthday.”

  “Is there anything we can do to help him?” Silver posed the question.

  Before Striker could respond, the emergency lights overhead began to flash.

  “Alert, Alert. A homing beacon has been triggered. A homing beacon has been triggered. The exact coordinates of the craft have been released in the transmission.”

  “What homing beacon?”

  “The being in the cryo container has been moved, triggering an alarm.”

  “Damn it. Beta stay with the boy. Gamma with me.” Silver raced from the room. Why the hell had Ep moved the being in the cryo chamber.

  “Striker, who was the recipient of the signal?”

  “The beacon was sent to the Iron Bender.”

  “Shit.” Silver and Gamma entered the cargo hold to find the cryo chamber empty. “Striker where is Epsilon”?

  “Scanning. Alexander is at our stasis chambers.”

  Silver and Gamma made a left. Crossing the bridge, they came to the stasis chambers lining the wall of the stasis bridge. In front of the chambers stood Epsilon with his hands against his chamber.

  Moving cautiously, Silver approached his friend. When he reached Ep’s side he stared into the male’s chamber. It should’ve been empty. It wasn’t.

  “She started to thaw after you guys left,” Ep told them. “Then she started gasping for air. She’s an oxygen breather.”

  “The cryo chamber has oxygen.”

  “We damaged it with the blaster.”

  “Shit.”

  “I don’t think her body is capable of adjusting to different conditions like ours is. She couldn’t breathe. I brought her here. She still has not awakened.” Ep turned to Silver “Why hasn’t she awakened?” The male’s voice was full of anguish.

  Gamma moved to the other side of Silver. “Who the hell is she? And why did Rhodes steal a female and a child and call them weapons?”

  “This makes no sense.” Silver leaned closer to the stasis chamber. A loud rumble filled the air. Wait, was that Epsilon?

  “Uh Ep,” Gamma said. “Are you growling?”

  Silver turned to the right to find Ep’s eyes black and zeroed in on him. Shit. Silver stepped away from the stasis chamber. He grabbed Gamma’s shoulder and pulled the male back also. Ep turned away from them and resumed staring into the chamber.

  “I just want her to open her eyes,” Ep told them.

  “I think our nerdy hermit has found himself a mate,” Gamma whispered to Silver.

  “I heard that,” Ep responded without turning away from the dark skinned female in the chamber. “She is not my mate. It’s our fault she’s in this situation. She’s my responsibility.”

  “Sure,” Gamma replied before elbowing Silver and grinning. “Then you wouldn’t mind me guarding her for you. Since, I guess she’s kind of my responsibility also.” Gamma winked at Silver.

  “Come near her and die.”

  “Is that any way to talk to a friend?”

  “I would mourn you forever. But I would still kill you.”

  The anti-mating Epsilon had definitely found his other half. Silver patted the male on the back and ignored the growl that rose from his friend.

  “Welcome to the mating game,” Silver told him. “We’ll go back and check on the boy.”

  “Boy?” Ep glanced over his shoulder. “Does my mate, I mean does this female have a child?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Striker,” Ep called out. “Does my female… does this female have a child?”

  “Scanning. Your female has never given birth.”

  Epsilon nodded. “Then there is no husband I would have to kill to claim her.”

  “I thought she wasn’t your mate?” Gamma teased.

  “She is not.”

  Gamma and Silver exchanged knowing glances. To Striker, Silver asked, “Is she a Time Dweller also?”

  “No. The female in the stasis chamber is a natural born Precept. Like the boy, she is not immortal. And there are bruises on her wrists and ankles that signal she may have been a prisoner. Unlike the boy, she does require food to survive. The cryo chamber kept her alive. But before entering the chamber, she was extremely dehydrated and starving.”

  That explained why she was so thin and frail looking.

  “When you moved her you triggered an alarm that was sent to the Iron Bender.”

  Epsilon moved away from the chamber. “What? Shit, we have to leave.”

  “I agree. We cannot remain stationary for much longer. We are in a different time than the Iron Bender. But there is still a twenty-one percent chance they can locate us.”

  Ep turned to him. “You have to take your mate. We can remain here no longer.”

  Shit. “Tomorrow.”

  “Tonight,” Ep urged.

  “Tonight is not a good time.”

  “Tomorrow is an even worse time.”

  “Epsilon, I cannot leave the ship tonight. We have to make sure he’s ready to go by morning,”

  “I can take care of that.”

  “Really? How? When you can barely take your eyes off the female in the stasis chamber.”

  “I…”

  “Tonight we will work on the ship and see to it that the boy and this female is properly scanned for any ailments. In the morning I will take my mate and we will leave. There is no food on the ship to feed either female. We will have to obtain sustenance for them. They will also need water.”

  “And clothes,” Gamma chimed in. “Oh, and those shiny baubles that females enjoy. And music. Females like music. And medicine in case they get sick. And small weapons that are easy for them to use in case we encounter problems and…”

  “I get it,” Epsilon turned his attention back to his mate. “We will leave in the morning. I will make sure we have the fuel needed to take us far away from here. Striker,” Ep called out. “Will this female be okay while I go search for fuel to siphon?”

  “Yes, Alexander. She will be fine.”

  Even the ship sounded amused at how protective Epsilon was being.

  “Good.” Ep sighed. “The Iron Bender is in a different time and galaxy. It would take them a while to locate us, even with our exact coordinates sent to them. If they come to Venus, it will be Venus of their time and we wouldn’t be there. But it would not take them long to figure out we are in a different time. Eventually they will find us.”

  “I will have my mate by morning,” Silver promised. “And then we will leave here.”

  “I will take my comm-device. When I find fuel I will let you all know. There should be enough fu
el left in the Striker to make it to my destination.”

  Silver nodded. “We’ll keep Striker cloaked and come looking for you.”

  Nodding, Ep glanced at his mate one last time before turning and leaving the bridge.

  When he was gone, Gamma whispered, “His mate was here the whole time, why didn’t he sense her?”

  “The cargo hold was cloaked. Perhaps that’s why?”

  Gamma nodded. “I can’t wait until I find my other half.”

  “You will. Soon.”

  “I’ll have to change my ways before I meet her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t be living the way I am, on the run, with a mate.”

  “True.” Silver swiped his hand over his face.

  “Plus, I want to keep my past a secret from her. I’ve done things. Things I’m not proud of.”

  “We all have. We can’t change it. Well, we could go back in time, but, that would affect our current time-line. I happen to be happy I’ve found my mate. I don’t want to risk not finding her.”

  “You still have to kidnap yours.”

  Kidnap. He’d been hoping it wouldn’t come to that. “Yes. First, we need to make sure Striker is ready to go. We don’t need any added complications once we leave Venus.”

  “Captain, the boy is awake. He is being volatile. Beta is holding him down. Should I use the sleeper fog again?”

  “No, I need him awake. I have questions for him.” Silver and Gamma took off running in the direction of the clinic.

  Soon he would be running with his mate, taking her from her home and her diner, against her will. It was sad to say, but Epsilon had a better chance at winning over his mate than Silver did.

  That wouldn’t stop him from taking her though.

  Nothing would stop him from taking her.

  Chapter Seven

  Malia’s diner was jammed packed.

  Today was half off on hot cakes day. That always brought in a lot of customers. Her secret to successful hot cakes: cinnamon. It was what drew the people in. Today that wasn’t the only thing that drew them in.