Mutual Trust

by Lea Linnett

“I will find them,” Marek promised, his fists clenching.

  To his surprise, it was the bearded one who spoke up next. “I will go with him,” he said to Luis. “Three fighters are better than two if this alien turns savage.”

  “I need your help with the others.”

  “Please, Luis.” The human’s eyes were fierce, his pale knuckles turning white where they now gripped his leader’s arm. “Bree and Noe are like family to me.”

  Luis considered that, his jaw tightening, and then he nodded. “Go.”

  Torrin brushed past him first, and Marek realized just how big he was, for a human. He was almost as tall as Marek, and broad like Silas, but rather than feeling threatened, Marek was glad. If he didn’t make it out of this, there would be someone to protect her.

  He stood by Silas’ side as the humans streamed out of the cell, many of them quaking at the sight of the large solayan. “Make sure they are not followed.”

  Silas was somber again, like he had been in the transport. “This time, I will.”

  The words made Marek frown, but the solayan was already moving, striding ahead of the humans as they headed towards their cache of weapons.

  So Marek moved on, Torrin hot on his heels. They moved quickly despite the snow, Marek’s determination fueling him, but halfway across the camp, the sound of yelling brought them skidding to a stop.

  The two males looked at each other.

  “That sounded like Urek,” Marek murmured, and Torrin’s light-colored brows furrowed.

  “We must hurry.”

  Marek agreed, and they raced in the direction of the noise. The yelling rose in volume as they approached, but the pounding of Marek’s heart was louder, and it only worsened as the interrogation room finally came into view and the noise reached its peak.

  A pained roar split the night air, echoing across the Barracks, and Marek’s blood ran cold.

  Something had happened. And that meant Bree was in danger.

  What had the humans done?

  32

  Urek’s grin widened as Peris entered, the door hissing shut behind her. The translation device attached to her flat, featureless ear glinted in the light, and Bree hoped it had hurt.

  “Now, I think we suffered from a bad introduction,” Urek was saying, his voice still buzzing with that strange overlay. It wasn’t two distinct voices anymore, but more a frequency, as if he’d swallowed flies. It made Bree shiver. “I hope that, since we now understand each other, we can approach this with a little more civility.”

  “You call this civil?” Noe said, tensing in her chair. “Locking up our people and interrogating us?”

  “You are not chained.”

  “We’re not free, either.”

  Urek moved closer to her, brandishing his claws near her neck. “I can give you freedom, if you tell me where I can find your village.”

  “You think we’re stupid?” Noe asked. “You really think any of us would trust you after what you’ve done? After you lizards destroyed our entire civilization?”

  “You ask if you are stupid. With the way you talk,” Urek growled, his claw digging up under Noe’s chin, “I think you are.”

  “What do you want with our people, anyway?” Bree asked, desperate to divert his attention. She was meant to be keeping him busy, and she’d prefer to keep him from turning violent, too. “It can’t be just that you want us as slaves. You have millions of those already.”

  For a moment, she thought he wouldn’t answer. But then he released Noe and turned narrowed eyes on Bree. “There are some who would take affront at the idea that you even exist. Many would not want to believe that your people managed to escape the claws of the Constellation. But truthfully, I couldn’t care less. Your people have something that I want. Something that levekk with more power than you can fathom will supply significant rewards for.”

  Her brows rose. “The firestones.”

  “Mesilisi,” he agreed. “It has properties that could increase the Constellation’s rate of expansion tenfold. In greater amounts, it may advance our technology by generations. It is what makes this conversation possible.”

  “I know. Marek told me about it.”

  Urek’s eyes flashed. “Did he?”

  “Yes,” she said, casting wide for a way to keep him talking. “He told me a lot. About how powerful it is, and how versatile. How even a small rock could change his work forever.”

  “So, imagine how useful a vein of the stuff beneath the planet’s surface would be,” Urek said. “Imagine what you could achieve once you controlled a supply large enough to fill rivers and lakes, or the space between two mountains.”

  Bree frowned. “But it’s rare. Marek said there were only a few—”

  “For years you’ve watched those rocks come out of the ground, and you still do not see?” Urek shook his head. “How do you think your people have evaded capture for so long? Your village sits directly over a vein, possibly over its deepest point, and it is protected by the mesilisi’s ability to repel our navigational technologies. We cannot search for mesilisi—we can only search for the black holes in our data that it leaves behind.”

  “That’s why no one ever found us?”

  Urek threw up his clawed hands. “Finally, you understand. This is why I could not simply equip you with a tracker and send you home to your people. This is why I had to endure my brother’s whining for so long. I needed a spy. Someone willing to follow you and send up a physical signal that would alert us to your location.”

  “The green flare…” Bree’s stomach dropped, her heart feeling as if it had been encased in ice. He couldn’t mean…

  “So it was Marek!” Noe said, sitting up straighter in her chair with a wild look on her face. “The entire escape was a trick. He betrayed us!”

  Urek barked out a laugh. “Again, you fall back on your human stupidity,” he said. “My brother is not capable of such deception. His emotions get away from him too easily. He throws his sympathies around too freely.”

  “Then who?” Noe asked.

  Urek’s gaze cut to Bree’s, a mean glint in his eye. “It was your other friend. The solayan. He was very cooperative.”

  Bree blinked, speechless. Silas? The one who had helped her find news of her mother? Who had tried to help them escape not once, but twice? Marek’s best friend?

  It didn’t make sense. And not just because Silas had always seemed so genuine. He was a solayan. How had he freed himself? How had he followed them?

  How had they not noticed him—in the mines or in the forest?

  Bree felt sick, the betrayal almost as bad as if it had been Marek all along.

  While she wrestled with her thoughts, Noe spat, “None of that matters, because we’re never gonna fucking tell you where our village is. So why don’t you just crawl back into your mine and keep digging?”

  “And leave such a powerful resource to the likes of you?” Urek asked, rounding on the blond, who only sneered.

  “Maybe you’ll see it again someday. I’d just love to turn that shit into a weapon and gut you with it.”

  “Is that what this is about? You think the mesilisi will help you fight us?”

  “Well, from the way you were talking, it sounds like we can do more than just fight you with it.”

  “Your world is nothing,” Urek said, growling the words directly into Noe’s face. “You achieve nothing, you know nothing, and you are fools if you think you can resist the Constellation. It will be better for you if you accept your fate quietly, and put your efforts into supporting something far greater than your tiny village in the frozen tundra.”

  “Maybe we don’t want that, asshole. Maybe we think lizards should remain in their little hideyholes where they belong.”

  “I grow sick of you speaking out of turn, human,” Urek snarled, grabbing her by the neck.

  Noe didn’t show any fear as she gasped for air. Instead, she wrapped her hand around Urek’s wrist, digging her nails into the fabric of his heatsui
t. “And I grow sick of you being a toothless fucking asshole!”

  His hand tightened, and Bree shot out of her chair as she finally came back to herself. But before she could intervene, a rifle barred her way, and Peris glared down at her.

  “You want me to hurt you? To make you talk through blood?” Urek growled, shoving Noe back by the neck and making her grunt.

  Bree’s chest tightened in panic. “Don’t hurt her!”

  But Noe sneered. “Bite me,” she choked out over his fist, the skin of her neck turning off-color.

  The chair scraped loudly against the metal floor as Urek abruptly dropped her. Noe rubbed at her neck, sucking in air, and as the levekk turned away, his words rang clear against the featureless walls. “I can see that you do not care for your own safety, but I think our mutual friend here does.”

  When he turned back, he had a small knife held loosely in his hand, and the eyes that met Bree’s were cutting.

  “One wound for every question unanswered.”

  Bree started forward, but Peris caught her around the shoulders, hauling her back. “You’re a fucking monster!” she screamed. “No wonder your mother picked Marek’s father over yours! All you know how to do is hate.”

  “Do not speak of my family,” Urek growled low. “Now tell me: where are your people located?”

  “I won’t tell you!”

  “Good. I would be disappointed if this were at all easy after the past few weeks,” he said, grabbing Noe’s arm. But as he brought the knife down towards her, it was Noe’s face that Bree focused on. Her lips were moving, mouthing words that the levekk’s translators would never pick up.

  5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

  At the same moment, the two women lashed out. On one side of the room, Noe’s knee met Urek’s groin, and on the other, Bree swung back, catching Peris across the face with her elbow.

  Bree had learned her lesson back in the mine, and she didn’t give the female any time now to recover. She lost track of Noe and Urek as she twisted Peris around, throwing her off-balance, and then punched her in the stomach. Grunting with pain, the levekk staggered, giving Bree ample room to kick her legs out from under her, but as she moved to do so, Peris ducked low.

  She caught Bree by the boot, upending her in a flail of limbs, and then the larger female was on her. Her claws dug into Bree’s shoulder where she’d pinned her, and her green eyes were as wide and cat-like as a sehela’s as she glared. “You think you can fight your way out, human?” Peris snarled. “You, who is as weak as the rest of your kind?”

  “You have weaknesses, too,” she shot back, and then she reached up and yanked on the female’s spiny crest.

  Peris howled, rolling away from her on instinct, and Bree was the first to her feet. Without allowing herself to pause and think about it, she clenched her fist, bringing it down on the levekk’s ear, half-dislodging the translator adhered to her scaly skin.

  Peris slumped, out cold rather than dead, Bree hoped, and she whirled around to see Noe scooping up the knife that had fallen to the floor during their scuffle.

  There was no time to protest, no chance to intervene. Noe flew at Urek with the knife at the same time as he barreled toward her, and Bree could do nothing but watch on in horror as the knife sank deep into Urek’s eye.

  Bright, red blood flew from the wound, running down Noe’s arm as she staggered back. Urek had also stopped, his hands coming to his face, and then he roared with pain so loudly that Bree’s ears rang worse than when the translator had been installed.

  “Run, now!” she screamed, grabbing Noe and dragging her towards the door.

  She slammed up against it, intensely aware of Urek staggering around behind them. But when she threw her hand against the door panel, nothing happened. This wasn’t like the door to the humans’ cell, which rattled on runners. This was designed to seal tight and keep the heat in, and it hadn’t been coded to her palmprint.

  “Fuck!” she cried, searching the airtight seal for any gaps. Urek had gone quiet behind them, but she didn’t dare think he’d passed out. When heavy footsteps lumbered closer, her worst suspicions were confirmed, and she slammed her fists against the metal desperately. “Please, someone help!”

  In that moment, the door snapped open, and she fell into a broad chest covered in warm, black fabric. Scales covered the collarbone in front of her nose, and fingers—fingers, not claws—touched the back of her head, holding her close. A sense of relief more intense than any she’d ever experienced flooded through Bree, her heart clenching.

  And then, a warm and familiar voice washed over her, and she dared to think that they would be okay.

  “Bree, are you all right?”

  ---

  “Lock the door!”

  Marek activated the locking mechanism without hesitation, but as the door slid shut, he got a look at Urek charging towards them, and a chill ran down his back. His brother, enraged and bleeding down half his face, and his eye…

  Urek slammed into the door, making the whole structure shake, and Marek pulled Bree back, a million questions fighting to reach his lips. “Are you all right? What happened? Did he hurt you?”

  “I’m fine,” Bree breathed. “He attacked us, and—” She fell silent, finally noticing Torrin, who was holding Noe in his arms. The human female was uncharacteristically silent, her eyes wide. “Torrin’s here? Does that mean…?”

  “The humans are escaping,” Marek explained. “We can catch up with them if we hurry.”

  Bree nodded. “Let’s go.”

  They ran across the open center square of the Barracks just as more shouting sounded from the main cabin behind them, the guards only just realizing that they had been locked in. Marek had shorted the power, but there were manual ways to disable the locks, and he didn’t dare assume that it would hold them for long.

  The cold was setting in, his feet like blocks of ice as they hurtled through the snow, so Marek focused on Bree’s warm hand in his, and the steady rhythm of her breaths.

  She yelped when a group of sleek, black-clad figures hurtled out from behind one of the human buildings, bringing the four of them to an abrupt halt. Marek cursed. From the flash of their weapons and their sharp builds, there was no mistaking that they were levekk. Urek must have posted some outside the main cabin, which was smart, but now they had effectively cut off their escape.

  “This way!” he ordered, yanking Bree back the way they’d come. He heard Torrin grunt in confusion, but the humans’ footsteps thankfully stayed close behind them. There was only one way they could get away without Urek’s people following them. Marek only regretted that Luis would punish him for it, later.

  He saw Urek finally burst through the locked door out of the corner of his eye as they reached the transport, and by the time he’d opened the doors, the rest of them were spilling from the main cabin. A bolt of energy bounced off the transport above their heads, but Marek didn’t pause this time, ushering the humans into the cockpit ahead of him.

  Just before he pulled himself in after them, he looked back, meeting Urek’s gaze. Red blood now covered his face and neck, soaking into his collar, and he showed no sign of feeling the cold despite having left his mask behind. There was a look in his eye like none Marek had ever seen, and his voice cracked when he screamed, “Fire!”

  Marek leaped into the cockpit just as a bolt burned a hole in the airtight seal surrounding the door. More bounced off the metal as it closed behind them, but he didn’t dare pause, instead throwing himself into the driver’s seat and praying that Luis would forgive him. There was no time to instruct the humans on how to drive, or to punch in a course.

  Besides, Marek couldn’t go back now.

  The cockpit held two bench seats, and Noe and Torrin slid into the back while Bree took the seat at Marek’s side. “You came back for us,” she said, her voice small.

  Despite their urgency, Marek paused, holding her gaze as weapon fire sizzled outside. “And you trusted that I would.”

 
; Something hissed, and Marek looked up to see a bright scorch mark in the corner of the windscreen.

  “We must go,” he said. “We have no navigation. I’ll need you to guide me.” He took Bree’s hand, the warmth strengthening his resolve. “Will you trust me once more? Luis didn’t…”

  “Luis doesn’t know you,” she said, and then her gaze hardened into one of practiced calm. “Head west first, to throw them off the trail.”

  “Smart.”

  “Will they not follow us?” came Torrin’s gruff voice from behind them. “In their ships?”

  “I put mesilisi—your firestones—in their engines. They will explode if they try to run them.”

  Bree’s eyebrows shot up, her body jerking as they lifted into the air. “You were willing to waste them?”

  “It is no waste,” Marek said, wincing as one of the lasers hit their underside. “Not if it keeps you safe.”

  Their ascent was clumsy, as he was unused to driving such a large transport. Its weight was uneven, and they wobbled in the air, buffeted by bolts of energy from below.

  And as they wheeled around to the west, Marek’s heart stopped.

  Below them, blood still streaming down his face, Urek aimed a scoped rifle at their underside. There was a moment of quiet in Marek’s mind, and even at this distance, it was as if he could see his brother’s claw tightening on the trigger.

  The bolt cracked against the guts of the transport, whatever it hit making a sharp bang, and Marek pulled on the controls, trying to go higher. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he suspected that one more hit like that could blast them out of the sky.

  “Is that Silas?” Bree’s panicked words drew his attention back to the ground, where a huge shape charged through the snow, knocking many of the levekk off their feet. But the solayan didn’t stop. Instead, he made a beeline for Urek, colliding with him, and his brother’s next shot went wide, missing them.

  “They’re fighting,” she reported, leaning against the glass.

  “We cannot go back for him.” The words clawed at his insides, but he knew it was true.