Galactic Destiny

by Alex Guerra

  “How long would it take you to make?” asked Seya.

  “Oh… about one…” she said.

  “One week?” asked Seya.

  “No, sorry. One day. I have most of the parts needed right here.” She copied the plans over to her own dataslate and threw it on a projector. The schematics hung in the air on display.

  The shuffling of metal parts turned our attention back to Vira, who was already rummaging through the various tables, picking parts and pieces out.

  “I guess we will leave you to it then,” I said. “You can reach us on this channel here.” I gave her our team’s contact info, and she gave us a nonchalant wave without looking, opening the hidden door to her shop once more. Kayton leveled her eyes at me before exiting. The rest of us followed her out into the alleyway as the door closed behind us.

  “That was…interesting,” I said.

  “You mean strange,” said Kayton.

  The trip took us about an hour to complete, and we decided to regroup with the team. Raising Ellar on the comms, he told us where our quarters were located and that some of the team had gone out exploring. It wasn’t time for sleep yet, but it was still 1700 hours according to The Pillar’s ship time. I could already see that “jet lag” was going to be an issue as we traveled to new systems. The thought of rest was more appealing after today’s events. My eyes were dry, and an unstoppable urge to yawn plagued me the whole way back to our quarters, only the speed of the pod keeping me awake momentarily. I hadn’t bothered taking in more of the surroundings, as I trudged to my room completely exhausted from the day’s events. Tossing my top over a nearby chair, and throwing myself into the bed’s embrace, I fell asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

  FIVE

  The sound of chatter over comms woke me. The room was so quiet that I could hear my earpiece buzzing across the room. Dotty pinged my mind in tandem with the earpiece, raising my awareness. I wiped my face and shielded my eyes against the burning afternoon sun creeping through the window. The few hours of rest were revitalizing but left me a bit sore. This bed was much too soft to support my bulkier frame. I had long grown accustomed to my body, but my sleep was all over the place.

  Peeling myself out of bed, I groggily checked my dataslate and put on my earpiece.

  “This is Art checking in. Are there any updates?” I asked over comms.

  “Art, it’s Seya. Yes. The Outer Circle received our message. Meet us at the lounge so we can talk,” she said.

  My stomach grumbled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten anything since this morning. Checking my dataslate once more, blips of each team member converged together in one location. I grabbed my top and left the room, thinking about food and our next step.

  The brisk walk took about ten minutes, and I was utterly awake by the time I regrouped with the team. Waving to them as I entered the lounge, I grabbed a couple of small biscuits and a purple-green star fruit shaped item before taking a seat at their table.

  “Good sleep?” asked Kayton.

  “Yeah, I needed it. What’s going on?” I said, getting to the point and tasting the strange fruit while thinking it wasn’t as tart as I initially thought it would be. Instead, it was sweeter like a peach.

  “The Outer Circle has approved fleet movements for better coverage of the inner systems. Although, the possibility of the Darkkon Empire having wormhole capabilities is putting everyone on edge,” said Seya.

  “Any word from Vira on her progress?” I asked.

  “She sent a quick update that she may have overestimated her original timetable. The skip drone should be ready in another hour or two,” said Seya.

  “Overestimated? She made this thing in half a day?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Lena did say she was one of the best engineers on Fengar…” said Kayton with a shrug.

  “Well, it’s progress. It doesn’t feel right waiting around like this with everything going on,” I said. I saw the troopers shift in their chairs with the reminder of their homeworld.

  “As strange as it sounds, we should be thankful that the scout ship intercepted us. Without the wormhole’s use, we would still be traveling on starlanes for another two weeks,” said Kayton.

  “I’m thankful, Commander,” said Bon, drumming his fingers on the table and bouncing his knee.

  The troopers came off as restless. Downtime didn’t go unappreciated, but they were out of their element. Everything here was new and foreign. I imagined they felt better in the underground city they called home or out on a mission. More importantly, I’d bet they’d give anything to help defend Vallus right now. It wouldn’t feel right leaving home while it was under attack. I put them in that position, but I didn’t sense any animosity from them in doing so.

  Being patient was our only option at this point.

  “Let’s see if we can send the skip drone out this evening then. I’m sure we all want to know what’s happening on Vallus,” I said “Who knows? We didn’t technically see the Empire invading before we left, maybe it was a bluff or posturing.” Around the table, weary smiles and pursed lips greeted me in response. It was wishful thinking, but it was my job as their captain to give them hope until we had concrete answers.

  “How is everyone holding up? Bon you seem a little nervous, are you doing okay?” I asked the marksman.

  “Just not used to sitting around,” he said with a shrug.

  “Well, we can remedy that. Kayton, how about some training on the beach?” I asked, thinking about my time in the Marines. Stationed out of California, the morning jaunts on the beach and calisthenics were a hell of a way to wake up. I needed to keep the team active—let Seya and I do the politics and planning.

  “That sounds like a plan. We can go now before dinner and then have a night out for some drinks,” said Kayton. She looked over her team who, to my surprise, didn’t even groan. I think they were almost happy to receive the order.

  “Garvo and I found a good-looking spot to go today,” said Bon.

  “Great, because if memory serves me correctly, you owe everyone the first round from your little competition with Art,” teased Kayton, giving the marksman a wink.

  The man’s yellow skin turned orange with embarrassment and regret, and right then, their good-natured ribbing brought back memories of some of the friends I had back home.

  My friends, Sam, Ryan, and a few others, were a tight-knit bunch, often taking advantage of whatever Colorado had to offer. We went camping towards the beginning of fall—when the beers didn’t need a cooler to stay cold—setting up campfires and grilling for a few days just to get away from our daily routines. It was our ritual, which included skiing Aspen or the Denver mountains, deer hunting and fishing. Sam should have been a comedian instead of taking his job at the bank, since the man was always joking, never taking anything seriously and consistently bringing me to tears with laughter. Ryan was a bit quieter but still fun to be around. He was a personal trainer and helped maintain a workout routine since leaving the Marines. He always had some crazy conspiracy, half of which involved aliens. It was strange to think how close he was to the truth considering my current predicament. I rarely missed a game night and would stay in contact with both daily. It was one of the highlights of my week, besides working on my latest project—a 67’ Firebird restoration.

  Countless times over the last day, I considered taking The Pillar to Earth with the wormhole manipulator. It would be so easy now, but I was too invested in our current situation. Our ship was the only conglomerate asset that had the capability of using wormholes at the moment. I thought about transferring Dotty over to Seya or Kayton, but it would also leave the ship with less power. The Pillar needed to hold onto all the energy it had until we found more power cores. We were on the cusp of a grand war, and Marines didn’t just pack up and leave, especially when their team was counting on them. Nothing had changed back home. I had been missing for several months now, a few more wouldn’t hurt. I convinced myself that if my family we
re in the same situation as I was, they would have done the same.

  We finished our meals and left the lounge.

  *****

  After we returned from training, we received word from Vira that she was making her way to our location with the skip drone. Moments later, an aircraft flew in over the nearby wall. It settled down near our transport, and Vira stepped out as we all quickly gathered around her. With a flick of her wrist, she pointed out the skip drone tied down on the back of the aircraft, roughly the size of a compact sedan and circular in shape.

  “It’s done,” said Vira, without so much as a hello, while reaching back inside the vehicle and grabbing a pack.

  “Will it work?” I asked.

  Vira took out a controller and connected it to her dataslate. “It should,” she said, making her way around the aircraft and undoing the ties. She threw them in the sand and started the skip drone up. Several blue lights turned on from within the cracks of its multicolored, junk of a hull, as Vira had taken parts from various other drones or scrapped projects and thrown it all together. The plating only served as a protective cover. However, the engine and components inside the machine were supposedly in complete working order.

  “I’ll put the skip drone into orbit and then send it on its way,” informed Vira, tapping away at the controls. The engine wound up and slowly lifted off the back of Vira’s vehicle. The sand blasted away from the beach as it gently rose into the air. Vira sent the drone down the shore until it took off into the sunset-soaked clouds. “Now we wait until we get a confirmation that it’s in position and created the wormhole. I set a surveillance time of a few hours before it comes back from Vallus. It will be back by morning.”

  “So, that’s it then?” asked Kayton.

  “Pretty much, yeah,” said Vira with a shrug. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just not what I was expecting,” said Kayton, furrowing her brow.

  “What were ya’ expectin’?” asked Vira.

  “More… I guess.” Kayton shook her head.

  “It doesn’t need to be pretty, so long as it works and does what we want, that’s fine by me,” I said.

  We watched the sunset while we waited.

  “Hard ta’ think there’s a war goin’ on right now,” Vira said to me.

  “It’s not confirmed yet, but I don’t think it’s looking too good. We can only hope that everything is okay,” I said out of earshot of the others. “This is their home we’re talking about.”

  Vira nodded. “There’s the signal,” she said, pointing at the dataslate before her.

  “Everyone, gather around,” I called out to the others.

  The team huddled around the Tychon and her dataslate. She showed everyone what she was doing as she tapped a few keys and initiated the wormhole sequence. The dataslate showed everything as being normal before it disappeared seconds later. The display read “NO CONNECTION”.

  “That’s good, right?” asked Seya, pointing at the words.

  “Yes, if the drone blew up, there would have been more warnin’s goin’ off. It’s safe to say that we’ve succeeded,” said Vira, tossing the dataslate into her aircraft. “Now we wait until mornin’.” She climbed into her vehicle.

  “Where are you off to now?” I asked.

  “Gonna’ start on the larger version for the fleet. That will take me a bit longer—can only make so much in my shop. I’ll need the auto-factories ta’ mass produce them afterward as well. I’ll be sure to contact ya’ in the mornin’ once the skip drone returns,” she said, closing the door. She waved us away from the vehicle as she took off and returned over the wall.

  “She’s very smart…even if a bit annoying,” said Kayton, and it looked as if most of the team agreed.

  “She got the job done in record time, there’s nothing else we could have asked for,” I said. I’ve worked with types like her before. Vira reminded me of a computer guy I knew back home. He spoke a mile a minute like her, and most of the stuff he said went over my head. The conglomerate was fortunate to have people like Vira.

  We took our transport back into the fortress. I washed the sand and sweat off me and regrouped with the team for dinner. When we finished, Bon and Garvo led us to the bar they scouted earlier to unwind. The team behaved themselves and didn’t get too rowdy, only achieving a few glares from other patrons when they got a bit loud. I kept thinking about the skip drone. What news would it bring back in the morning? Between the alcohol, the too soft bed, and thinking about what news we would receive from Vallus—I didn’t get much sleep.

  *****

  It was the middle of the night, and I stepped out onto my quarter’s balcony only wearing shorts. The ocean gleamed in the distance, lit up in a pale blue by the two strange moons hanging in the sky. The waves rolled in and crashed against the rocky outcrops of the northern castle wall. The surf’s silver foam popped in and out of existence along the coast. It clung to the sand before submitting itself back into the body of water. It continued to press onto the sand in another futile attempt to stay a bit longer than before. The air was humid, but not oppressive or sticky. It rolled over my skin in gentle strokes. My room seemed stuffy in comparison, although I knew it wasn’t true. I sat there for a while, leaning over the railing and thinking about everything—and nothing—at the same time.

  To my right, the next balcony door over opened up, and Seya walked out. I craned my neck to watch her, not moving from my position. Her gold and white eyes glowed like two headlights in the distance. She nodded when she saw me, saying nothing for a time. She leaned onto the railing as I did and watched.

  “Can’t sleep?” I finally asked in a quiet voice.

  “No,” she answered in a low voice. “I sat in bed meditating for a time, but I can’t relax.”

  “I know how you feel.”

  “There’s something wrong. I can feel it somehow,” she said, crossing her arms as if to steel herself against the rolling breeze.

  She wore one of the lighter, smaller outfits used for sleeping; its thin, white cloth had an open back revealing her smooth, lilac skin. The lighting accentuated her toned torso, and her white hair glowed around her in silver wisps. Studying her profile for a while, she was in peak physical condition but subdued with soft, feminine curves. She had to have been the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

  I averted my gaze when she turned to face me, not wanting her to know I was eyeing her. “Yeah, I’ve been getting a strange feeling today as well,” I said. “If you don’t mind me asking, how do you feel about your brother’s actions? Is it like him to do something like this?”

  “I’m not sure. Like I said, the last time I saw Ibram, we were children. He was naïve and playful, even if a bit absent-minded at times. I don’t think it would be fair to predict who someone will become based on their childhood. Not with complete certainty anyway. A lot can happen in a few years” She shrugged.

  “That’s understandable,” I said, thinking of my own childhood. I was always a follower, letting my sister or older friends take the lead. I hadn’t learned any real leadership skills until I joined the Marines and afterward when I started working for myself. Now, here I am leading a team of aliens in a war on the other side of the galaxy.

  “You said you were a warrior back on Earth. What was it like?” she asked.

  “Fun I guess…there was a lot of boredom and monotony too. And training,” I said, giving her a smirk. “I was in the Marines for six years as a rifleman in an infantry division, where I met a lot of good people. With two big wars going on in the desert, I knew what I was getting myself into. While there were good people everywhere I went, there was also a lot of bad moments. When the friends you made are taken away from you in an instant. When you’re out in the field…fighting…well, it’s not so different from when we fight. At that moment, you feel terrified, almost ill…and yet in a sick way, it’s almost like you are the most alive you’ve ever been,” I explained. My mind raced through my tours in Afghanistan. The
images blurred in an instant as I recounted the events.

  “I see…” she said. “Is that why you trained for the fighting?”

  Uh-oh, now she thinks I’m some sort of masochist freak or adrenaline junkie, I thought. “No, I mean...it was part of the job, but I joined because I had no direction ten years ago. I was young and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but I always wanted to serve my country, to answer a higher calling, I suppose.” I explained. “I’m thankful for it—especially now. It gave me direction and purpose.”

  “You volunteered?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

  “That’s right, my country has an all-volunteer military, but some other countries have a short mandatory service period,” I added.

  “Then we aren’t so different after all it seems,” she loosened a brief, tiny smirk. “You know...I get that feeling at times when fighting. I tend to separate myself. It makes it easier to cope with, knowing that someone else did those horrible things, and not me. Trying to justify it after, telling myself it needed to be done…it doesn’t make it any better,” she said with a sigh.

  “No, it doesn’t,” I agreed. “But no one will blame you for doing what you thought was right. However, it is unfortunate that the galactic powers must resort to violence at a time like this instead of talking things out.”

  She considered my words for a moment. “The time for talk is over. I am afraid that the empire only responds to violence and resistance these days.”

  “I understand the conflicted feelings that come with fighting and killing others while trying to keep some form of humanity off the battlefield. It’s not easy,” I added, hoping to console her.

  What’s the Darkkon equivalent of humanity—darkkonity? I thought.

  I have conveyed the concept to her, naturally.

  How do I keep forgetting you are there? I thought to the A.I. Was I already so used to having Dotty in my head that I didn’t notice its presence? It reminded me that I was never truly alone. I thought about what the A.I. was doing when I wasn’t talking to it. It was attentive to all our conversations as it chimed in when necessary, like when speaking to Lena and the others when we arrived.