by Jack Archer
Lupe pursed their lips but grabbed the cup anyway, moving to rinse it in the sink. As Kyran approached the elevator, it opened to reveal Na’gya standing there, wings terribly cramped in the small space. Kyran smiled at him as he passed him. “Doing alright there, Prince?”
“Fine,” Na’gya muttered, nodding his head as he exited the elevator and made a beeline towards Rystar.
“Good to see you, too,” Kyran called as the elevator doors closed.
“Rystar, I need to speak with you,” Na’gya whispered as he approached her. Again, her mouth was full to the brim with noodles, and she wished people would stop catching her in this unflattering state.
“What’s going on?” she asked after swallowing her mouthful of food.
“It’s about my old strike team,” he muttered, and Rystar gazed into his pleading eyes for a moment before nodding and setting her nearly empty bowl down on the counter.
“I got this, don’t worry,” Lupe said, taking her bowl and heading towards the sink.
Rystar held up her hand and downed the rest of her drink before standing up from the counter. “Thank you, Lupe, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Lupe waved at her, and she said her goodbyes to Enzo and received a grunt from Cobalt before heading to the elevator with Na’gya. When the doors had closed, she clasped her hands behind her back and bounced on the balls of her feet.
“So what’s going on?” she asked.
Na’gya didn’t say anything for a moment. He merely stood there, wings brushing against her back and making her shudder before the door opened again, and they exited, walking down the hallway towards Na’gya’s room.
Na’gya paced around his room, wings folded up and chewing on a knuckle as Rystar sat on his bed with crossed legs and her hands on her knees.
“You going to burn a hole in the floor or tell me what’s going on?” she finally said with a coy grin. Na’gya stopped and looked at her, gripping his hands behind his back before speaking.
“I heard you’ll be going to the surface to purchase a part for the LASSO tomorrow,” Na’gya said, his voice cracking a little as the blue of his eyes pierced into her like icicles.
“Yes, we will be,” Rystar said with a tilt of her head, prompting him to continue when he had been silent for several moments.
“I’d like to go with you,” he said, beginning to pace again.
“Don’t see why not,” Rystar said, shrugging and standing up. She swung her arms and eyed Na’gya with caution. “Everything alright? This doesn’t seem like the kind of request you’d need to make in the privacy of your room.”
Na’gya halted where he was and turned to face Rystar, eyes pleading and face etched with worry. “Ju’sif’s down there.”
“Who?” Rystar asked, cocking her head.
“He was a friend, part of a team that led some of the rebellion to the Terran front lines,” Na’gya explained, turning away to look out of the window. “I thought he was executed on Bufefu, but I had Enzo track any registration of my old team’s names and aliases, and he found Ju’sif’s alias registered to a cafe down in Diondya Beach.”
“And you want to go talk to him?” Rystar confirmed. Na’gya nodded.
“He might be able to get us more information on the Hoop or even the person we’re going to talk to at the Prison,” Na’gya said, still gazing out of the window at the stars outside.
“Alright,” Rystar said, “you can come with us, but we’re getting the pump valve first, then we can go see your friend.”
“Thank you, Rystar,” Na’gya said, turning around and giving her a small smile.
Instead of turning to leave, Rystar stood there for a moment, bouncing on the balls of her feet and biting her lip.
“Everything alright?” Na’gya asked, his brow furrowing as he stepped towards her.
“Everything’s fine,” she replied, looking down at her feet. “We haven’t really talked since we broke you out of that prison. Feels like I barely know you, and I broke off my entire career to get you to this Hoop thing.”
“You what?” Na’gya sputtered.
“I didn’t feel like playing by bureaucracy’s rules anymore,” she said with a one-armed shrug. “There’s a lot more good I could be doing for the galaxy that isn’t chasing down idiots who forgot to pay a maintenance fee.”
“You left your job?” he asked.
“More or less,” Rystar replied. “I’m sure it’ll come back to haunt me one day, but for now—” she spread her hands “—now it seems like you all are stuck with me.”
“What about Shea?” Na’gya pressed. Rystar’s face fell, and her shoulders slumped as she thought about the bright-eyed kid who had lost his job because he had the idiotic sense to tag along with her. She sighed.
“He was let go, too,” she said, moving towards the door. “One of the perks of hanging out around me, I suppose.”
“I’m sorry I caused you so much trouble,” Na’gya said, hanging his head and scratching the back of his neck.
“Don’t be sorry, Na’gya,” Rystar soothed. She stepped towards him and she hesitated before putting a hand on his shoulder. “I view this as a blessing in disguise.”
“You do?” Na’gya asked, flicking his eyes up to meet hers.
“Of course,” she said, rubbing his shoulder before taking her hand away and heading towards the door. “How often do you get to be a part of an intergalactic war?”
She spread her hands and pulled a face, more of a sad smile than anything as she thought about how long she would go without seeing Earth, and opened Na’gya’s door, slipping out and heading across the hall to her own room.
“I thought you were going to bed?” Rystar said into the receiver as she rolled over, pulling the comms tablet away from her face for a moment to check the time.
“Couldn’t sleep,” Kyran mumbled.
“Well, why drag me down into your not-sleeping-hell?” Rystar grumbled and laid on her back, closing her eyes, sleep threatening to take her again.
“We should do something together on Yarev. It’s a nice beach, lots of places to go,” Kyran said quickly, trying hard to keep his normal bad boy facade up.
“Sorry, already promised Lupe a candlelit dinner by the sea,” Rystar said, hoping to throw him off, but Kyran wasn’t phased.
“Don’t seem like the kind of woman to be held down by just one person, Umara,” Kyran purred into the line, and Rystar’s heart nearly stopped.
She pursed her lips, wondering about the logistics of such a relationship, how the dynamics would work, how everyone in the relationship would feel. It was too hard, and she imagined herself pinned between Kyran and Lupe instead, liking the thought far more. She shook her head, remembering she had one of those two on the line with her.
“Never thought I was,” she said with a frown. Sure, she had never entertained the thought of being held down by one person, much less more than that. Never wanting to settle down with one person, Rystar had been alone most of her adult life, only having small flings here and there and leaving them first thing in the morning.
“You okay, sugar?” Kyran asked in a low voice, and Rystar jumped, almost forgetting he was there. His voice was laced with concern, something she hadn’t heard much of since she met him.
“You kidnapped us,” Rystar said, furrowing her brow and wondering if she was experiencing real emotion or Stockholm Syndrome.
“And I can let you go anytime you want,” Kyran responded. “But we needed Na’gya. You understand the stakes now.”
Rystar nodded, gnawing at a knuckle and thinking to herself. She did understand the stakes. Sort of. Intergalactic war between multiple races and all that. She had lost her job because of this crew and this damn revolution. Why wouldn’t she stay with them to fight? Kyran and his crew weren’t the bad guys here.
“I don’t think I want to go just yet,” Rystar mumbled and rolled over, pulling the covers tighter to her and feeling like a child again. The warmth from Kyran’s vo
ice drowned out everything else, the fluff of the blanket drawing her deeper into sleep.
“Let me take you out to dinner tomorrow,” Kyran said from far away as Rystar drifted back into the shadows. “I know a great place on the beach.”
“‘M’kay,” Rystar whispered and yawned deeply before sleep consumed her.
Chapter Seven
Rystar Umara: Diondya Beach, New Vesta, Yarev, Nanyeslule Sytem
Words couldn’t do it justice.
The beaches of Yarev spanned for miles in each direction, glistening black and gold sands with bright blue waves lapping up to greet them. Far up in the cloudless sky, Yarev’s moon twinkled at them, far closer than Earth’s moon ever was. It took Rystar a moment to realign herself with the planet’s gravity and more than a few moments to adjust to the great moon in the sky. The air was so clear, she didn’t even need to use her Cortijet as often.
New Vesta sat next to Diondya Beach, a bustling town with Qartzls and Sustri alike, with the occasional Atrex vendor thrown in. She, Lupe, Na’gya, and Kyran strolled down a wide street, the wind whipping through and sending their hair in all directions, except for Lupe’s, whose hair was held tight in a bun on the top of their head.
“I thought Qartzl’s only lived in the water,” Rystar mused as they walked along, watching Lupe duck into a stall here and there to search for their pump valve.
“Human propaganda designed to make you think the Qartzls want to take over Aurum for its lush oceans,” Kyran explained while Lupe nodded in agreement.
“Man, we’re just the worst bastards in the galaxy, aren’t we?” Rystar huffed, shoving her hands in her pockets and stewing.
“No, that’s got to be the Sustri government back on our homeworld,” Lupe snorted.
“Well, from how you all talk about us—” Rystar started.
Kyran held up a finger. “I think I gained the right to bitch about human beings, seeing as I fought in almost all of their major wars.”
“It’s still weird you’ve been on Earth longer than me,” Rystar said, glancing up at him. He wore his usual face-sized glasses, v-neck t-shirt, and leather jacket/pants combo today, but his hair seemed brighter and his smile a little more genuine.
“See something you like?” he schmoozed at her when she had been staring for too long.
“So where are we going to find this pump valve?” Rystar said with a cough, turning to Lupe and hating herself.
Rystar had always prided herself on being alone, sure of herself, the proudest bounty hunter in the Bubble. The way Kyran made her knees weak, her face flush, she loved every minute of it but hated how it forced her to feel lesser than. Not as strong as she could be.
Then again, her night with Shea had changed something within her, opened her up to new possibilities. She could actually lean on someone for once instead of being so headstrong all the time.
Her biggest problem was she didn’t know how to choose, or if she even had to. Shea worked on her with his heart of gold, those deep brown eyes, while Kyran tugged at her soul by being almost half-human. Na’gya, as she glanced sideways at him, those towering wings and strange accent drawing her in. The rest of the damn crew of the Firehawk. How strange that her first real relationship would be with not one person but with possibly several men.
“Rystar?” Lupe asked, and Rystar whipped her head up to look at them.
“What’s up?” she said, sucking her lips together.
“I just asked if you and Na’gya needed to go,” they said with a warm smile, and she returned it.
“Yes, we have some business to attend to on the other side of town,” she said, moving to Na’gya’s side, who was already beginning to creep away.
“I think this place has the pump valve we need,” Lupe said, nodding. “Kyran and I will haggle with these folks and meet you back at the ship, sound good?”
“Sounds good to me,” Rystar said and turned to leave, but Kyran grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her close.
“Any trouble at all, call me,” he whispered close to her ear and she shuddered, nodding her head as he let her go.
She fell in stride next to Na’gya as he strode down the street, pulling his wings in as close as he could.
“Do you know where your friend is?” Rystar asked as they turned a corner.
“I heard he was working at a cafe in New Vesta, somewhere on the south side,” Na’gya muttered as he twisted his head around in search of it.
“This is a pretty big place. There’s got to be a ton of cafes,” Rystar said, rubbing the back of her head. It was hard to keep up with his long strides, and she found herself near running to catch up with him as he turned another corner down a busy street. She even saw some humans mingling around in the crowd and nodded to them as she passed.
It was strange how in the span of 100 years, Earth had become one of the bigger spacefaring races in the galaxy. It definitely had something to do with the Mach I LASOs, the original blueprints for the subsequent spaceships, and the discovery of the border gates at the edge of the system.
No one was sure where the original LASOs came from, but Rystar assumed the founders of Aurum and their infinite resources had come up with it the second the Earth began to die from climate change and plague.
She snapped out of it when Na’gya exclaimed and pointed to a shop on the other side of the street, where a winged man was wiping down tables. She looked up at Na’gya, whose face had fallen as he watched his former companion occasionally glance over his shoulder or jump when someone talked to him.
They crossed the street while it was clear, and Na’gya approached his old friend cautiously. He looked up and gasped, eyes going wide and dropping the rag from his hand.
“Ju’sif?” Na’gya whispered, holding a hand out.
“I thought you were dead,” Ju’sif said, moving around the table to stand in front of Na’gya, grabbing Na’gya’s hand in both of his own.
“I could say the same for you,” Na’gya chuckled and rested his hand on Ju’sif’s. “I thought they captured or killed everyone.”
“What happened to Ritora?” Ju’sif asked, motioning for them to sit at a table.
“They executed her,” Na’gya said with a straight face, though his eyes filled with tears. Ju’sif held a hand over his mouth and looked down at the table for a moment before looking back up.
“I’m sorry she is gone,” he finally said, wiping at an eye and turning to Rystar. “My apologies for not formally introducing myself. Ju’sif, a former member of Na’gya’s inside strike team on Bufefu.”
“Rystar Umara,” she said, holding out her hand to shake Ju’sif’s. “Broke this guy out of jail a few days ago. We’re having a grand old time.”
“So they did capture you?” Ju’sif said, turning back to Na’gya. “Under what pretense did they hold you?”
“Crimes against humanity,” Na’gya said with a wry smile, “treason, you name it, they had it against me. Rystar and her partner got me out of there, and then we, in turn, were kidnapped by a crew of Sustri.”
“Sustri?” Ju’sif asked, his brow furrowing. “What would they want with you? Unless…”
“They’re involved in the Hoop, too,” Na’gya murmured, leaning in closer to them.
“Keep your voice down,” Ju’sif hissed, even though the noise around them made it impossible to be overheard. “No one knows anything about the Hoop. Not even Ritora knew where it was.”
Na’gya bumped the table with the heel of his hand and rubbed his eyes. “Someone must know where it is, or even what it is.”
“Ritora seemed to think it was a deep space station in the Outer Bands,” Ju’sif whispered, his eyes darting around for any potential eavesdroppers. “Or it could be an entire planet. We just don’t know. How do you expect to get out there?”
“We have a Mach IV ship, more than capable enough of making it through the outer bands,” Na’gya said.
Ju’sif nodded and rubbed at his stubbled chin with a hand, gold wi
ngs fluttering behind him. “I suppose you could always—”
It happened in a flash, as most executions do. Blood spattered the pair as a crack rang out through the street and Ju’sif slumped forward on the table, his head a bloody mess.
“Christ!” Rystar threw herself out of the chair and yanked a screaming Na’gya away, heading down the street as pedestrians flocked in a panic around them.
“We have to go back!” Na’gya cried, following Rystar anyway.
Rystar looked back at him, and her heart twisted. “To what? He’s dead. We have to go.”
Rystar’s comms tablet buzzed, and she let go of Na’gya’s hand as they ducked into an alley. She pulled her earpiece out and shoved it in her ear before touching a button to answer the call. “Kind of busy, Kyran.”
“What the hell is going on over there?” he snapped into her ear.
“Tell you in a bit, we have to get out of here and back to the ship, now,” Rystar shot back, pulling Na’gya by the sleeve to drag him down the alley towards the space port.
“Are you okay?” Kyran asked in a warmer tone, and Rystar sucked in a breath, looking to her right and left as they exited the alley and hurried down the street.
“I’m fine,” she muttered, “so is Na’gya.”
“We’re almost back at port now. We’ll see you soon,” Kyran said before hanging up. Rystar felt a sting in her eyes as she looked back to Na’gya. He was still hurrying behind her, but his face was pale, and his eyes were haunted. Dark blood speckled his face, and Rystar winced as she realized she must look similar. She didn’t know the feeling of being covered with the blood of a friend and hoped she never would.
The spaceport loomed in sight and the crowds began to thicken again. Rystar pushed through and headed to the dock where the Firehawk was parked, opening the airlock with a hand print and stumbling inside. Kyran and Shea were there waiting for them.
Both Kyran and Shea rushed forward, bumping into each other as they approached Rystar. They gave each other an awkward side glance, standing in front of both her and Na’gya, concern etched into their faces.
