The shuttle sliced through the atmosphere like a knife through flesh. Nothing so much as shuddered while it ascended; not the handful of passengers, not the elaborate aquarium along the wall, not even the champagne flutes stacked behind the bar. It was by far the smoothest launch Yui had ever experienced.
And also the most unwelcome.
Two Lusitani trailed her like twin shadows as she approached the window. She felt their eyes beneath their skull-shaped masks intent on her every move. Like I have anywhere else to go. The familiar sea of red sand dunes shrunk in the window, and soon the whole planet shrunk from view too, replaced by the endless sea of cosmos. Never in a million cycles did she think she’d miss that awful desert. Yet here she was, wishing for a do-over.
One of the Lusitani flexed its wrist. She eyed the device wrapped around that wrist and prickles ran up her arms. To the uninitiated, it was just a thick metal bracelet, easily mistaken for a large communicator. But Yui had seen what those devices could do to her people, and she knew this one had been programmed specifically to combat her should she somehow break loose.
Not likely. Lights twinkled on the dampener which cocooned her hands, so innocent-looking for something so cruel. No larger than a bowling ball, yet it held all the power in the galaxy. At least, all of her power. She felt weak, weaker than when she’d been stranded and starved in the desert. It was a different kind of weakness, though. An emptiness. A reminder of what she’d given up to the Lusitani in exchange for nourishment and a ride off Mogaddu.
I’ll get it back. I’ll get the freedom that was promised to me, no matter the price.
The Morabani sauntered over and stared into the void of space beside her. They made quite the pair: her a petite Nurrano with argyle skin, him a lanky Morabani whose coal black scales were cracked with blue scars. By the shape of them, it looked like he’d been struck repeatedly with a crowbar. And knowing Kazan, that was a likely explanation. But in all their time together in the desert, she’d never asked him about it. Conversation was something she avoided whenever possible.
“We’re close,” he said, his crooked smile flaunting a line of sharp, yellow teeth.
Close to what? They’d just left the atmosphere. The only thing out here was the blackness of—
She took a step back. It wasn’t space she’d been staring at, but an object. A ship. As black as night, it became a blot across the stars; one that grew as it approached. She could just make out the spikes which jutted from its hull, ready to savage any ship that drew too close. She knew only one species who built ships like that.
For the first time since launch, their shuttle trembled. The superior vessel had snared them in its tractor beam. The force of the catch sent Yui stumbling forward, and Kazan had to block her with his own dampener before she struck glass.
“I didn’t know he was working with Poterians,” she said, adjusting herself as if nothing had happened.
Kazan said nothing.
The cosmos disappeared as the Poterian ship swallowed theirs, leaving Yui with only darkness to match her own thoughts. What does he still want with us? And how did he get his hands on a ship like this?
A blast shield opened within the Poterian ship. Light burst out, enough to momentarily blind Yui as their shuttle glided inside. She blinked away the spots, and in their place she found hundreds upon hundreds of ships stretching out across a wide hangar floor. Small fighters, troop transports, gunships, frigates, all varying sizes and equally varying stages of completion. Workers scurried between the wiry frames of future ships, each looking like ants from up here. As the shuttle lowered, those ants began to take shape, and Yui realized something.
There are no Poterians here.
Kazan noticed her widening eyes and smiled. “Danadas has been busy,” he said.
“Or he’s about to be.” It was no secret the old Orlov had a prejudice against non-Humans. She drew herself up to her full height, which wasn’t much even by Nurrano standards, but everyone knew what a Nurrano lacked in size they more than made up for in strength, powers or not. In her reflection, she practiced her cold, piercing stare; the one she’d used to shatter many an opponent in the fight rings. It was still on point.
A third Lusitani joined them at the viewport. This one had a red bandana, a style choice which puzzled Yui. Why would a warrior trained to fight in the shadows wear the loudest possible garment? It seemed like this Lusitani was inviting a head-on fight. The scimitar sheathed at its side reinforced her theory.
The three Lusitani ushered them to the exit. Not aggressively, that was not their nature. They were a quiet and subtle bunch, which made each of their movements more important, more threatening, so that even the slightest tilt of the head carried the weight of life and death within it. It was once a power she thought only Taranis could wield.
Taranis. She still wondered what his fate had been aboard the Dormarch. When they were separated, the masked man had been locked in battle with Carmichael’s team upon a runaway train. At that point, the writing was on the wall: their side had lost, and to stay on board would have meant to become a prisoner of the IDF. Or worse. She remembered watching from the viewport of her escape pod as the Dormarch crumbled from the inside, collapsing into nothing while thousands of lives perished in the oblivion. It was the power they’d come after which had caused it, the Project Vortex. She knew it to be true. And she knew she wanted nothing to do with it anymore.
But Danadas did.
She almost jumped out of her skin as the ship touched down. Kazan shot her a quick look but said nothing; he just smiled in his twisted sort of way.
The liftgate opened and the Lusitani led them into the fray of bustling workers. Despite the organized chaos, no one dared step remotely in their path. Yui did catch a few uneasy glances come their way, though whether those had been directed at her, Kazan, or at their silent escort was up for debate.
A small crowd of workers waited for the next elevator at the back of the hangar, but when Yui’s little posse arrived, the crowd dispersed, leaving them alone with the Lusitani. A familiar uneasiness came over Yui, the same feeling she’d gotten when Taranis had first recruited her, when she’d first been swept into this dangerous world of secrets.
The Lusitani with the red bandana stepped up to a panel in front of the elevator, removed its glove, and placed its bare hand on the scanner. At least I know it’s a Human, she thought. How much humanity remained beneath the skull mask, however, remained to be seen.
The five unlikely companions rode the elevator in silence. When the doors parted, the bridge of the great Poterian ship opened before them, its high ceilings wrapped over a massive viewport where stars twinkled by the thousands. Dozens of control monitors flashed across the wide room, yet no one was there to operate them. None save for the man in the command chair.
“Thank goodness you’re both safe,” said Danadas, rising with the aid of his cane. An ornate thing of expert woodwork, but Yui’s eyes darted to the jewel which crowned it. Larger than its owner’s wrinkled fist…large enough to make her for life. And then I’ll never have to suck up to this bag of bones again.
“All thanks to your timely rescue,” she replied, bowing her head.
“Timely indeed…” trailed Danadas as he hobbled toward them, the tap of his cane echoing through the wide chamber. The effort seemed to absorb his concentration, but Yui knew not to be fooled. The old man was far stronger than he let on. And far more dangerous.
“You got an offer for us or what?” asked Kazan. Yui froze. The Morabani was used to rich people giving into his demands because, well, he made them lots of money in the fight ring. But Danadas was a different breed. Money was merely a tool for him to build greater things. A tool which could be easily replaced.
Just like they were.
But the old man only flashed his enchanting smile. “Revenge,” was all he said. It was enough to get a smile out of Kazan, though his was far less enchanting. Yui, on the other hand, paled. There was only one group that they could possibly want revenge on. So Carmichael’s team survived the Dormarch after all. And if they survived, that meant the woman who destroyed that ship survived too. Yui got a chill.
Danadas cast his sharp gaze upon her, his crows’ feet riddled with a sinister wisdom. “Your concerns regarding Project Vortex are warranted,” he said. “But I ask you: how long before that power falls into the wrong hands? How long before its destructive force finds whichever planet you take refuge on next?”
Who’s to say your hands are the right ones? thought Yui, though instead she said, “We failed to bring it to you once. Why ask us to do it again?”
“Because rumor has it there is someone else trapped with Carmichael’s team.” He shifted his gaze toward Kazan. “Someone you’d be eager to find.”
Kazan’s slow mind got to the answer well after Yui did, but he was the one to blurt it out. “Taranis?!”
Danadas nodded, and Kazan beamed. Somehow, the Morabani looked even more terrifying when he was happy.
“A change is upon us,” Danadas continued, pacing the floor in front of them while his cane tapped along. “Plans are in motion which require him once more.”
“What plans?” asked Yui.
Danadas turned toward the viewport, toward the vast sea of stars at his fingertips. “Suffice it to say this galaxy will look much different when this is over. And you’ll want to be on the right side when that happens.”
Kazan stepped forward. “I know where to place my bets.”
Yui shook her head. She was not so easily swayed. “Carmichael has a sizable team, and there are only two of us to do this for you.”
“Three,” came a familiar voice. Yui tensed. This just keeps getting better. Mila appeared out of thin air beside them, looking arrogant as ever with her black nails drumming along her folded arms. “Did you miss me?”
Yui ignored Danadas’s precious granddaughter. “That still leaves us heavily outnumbered.”
“I would not be so sure,” replied Danadas. “They are up against the entire known galaxy. The IDF, the Taipa Kanani gang, the members of my family still loyal…everyone is hunting Carmichael and his band of Zoboros, and my media channels have ensured there’s not a rock they can crawl under where they won’t be recognized.” He stopped beside her, his breath upon her neck. “You’ll find you have more allies than you think.”
Yui moved away from him, shuddering. “It’s not my fight. It never was.”
“Really? Then was it fear which kept you alive in the desert?” Yui stepped back as those all-seeing eyes fell upon her. “Why go months in the scorching desert with nothing but your ice powers to keep you hanging on by a thread? What kept you going through starvation? Through isolation? Was it merely a desire to live? Or was it a desire for something more?”
Yui knew the answer. It was revenge, but not against Carmichael’s team. It was against everyone who’d ever used her. Who’d ever used people like her for their profit and entertainment. Her eyes fell once again on the jewel atop the old man’s cane. A jewel she knew had been bought with blood. Zoboros blood.
“What happens once we find them?” she asked.
“The beginning of something great, my dear. The dawning of a new era.” Danadas smiled, and it chilled Yui to the bone.
Michael Ciccarelli Walsh 