“Is that it, then? You want your freedom?” Mara’s eyebrows twitched. “Well, forgive me, that just clears everything right up. I mean, if you said it, it must be true.”
“Kyll phy’es!” Khala cursed turning away before spinning back around and glaring down at Mara. “What is it that you want me to say?”
“The truth!” Mara yelled jumping to her feet. “There’s more to it, I can see it in your body language and your eyes!”
“I’m not human!” Khala yelled. “Whatever physical cues you think you’re picking up are purely in your imagination!”
“Vakrexid can think of a reason.” The doctor held his hands up.
“Oh?” Mara pursed her lips, her head jerking sideways to glance at the doctor.
“Yes, Vakrexid stumbled across something quite astounding and I suspect that the symbiote may have come to the same conclusion. You see humans are the originators, the first race, the race from which the Phyrr Lesch created the Dexagarmetrax and the Qharr.”
“WHAT?!” a voice howled in my head and I cast my eyes around looking for the originator only to realize that it must have belonged to Becca’s symbiote.
“Doctor,” Mara said bringing a hand up to massage her temple. “What exactly led you to this conclusion?”
“Vakrexid was able to procure a sample of Qharr DNA. I was most curious as to why humans could become joined to the K’teth so Vakrexid began to make comparisons to a human sample. I noticed many similarities, but it was only on impulse that Vakrexid took a sample from myself and made the comparison. It is irrefutable. Humans share far too many genes with both of our species. You are the originators.”
“Dear god,” Mara turned pale and collapsed back into her chair. “This… could change everything.”
The revelation was particularly disturbing, but there was still one thing that I couldn’t quite get out of my head. The doctor had said that he suspected Khala had known this all along, but I couldn’t quite grasp why he would come to that conclusion. Perhaps Khala sensed this or perhaps she had just decided to come clean because she spoke up without any prompt from me.
“There is a legend of sorts… something the first H’ra passed down to all her daughters. The Vyr, an unruly race of primitives that the Phyrr Lesch took from their world to serve as protectors and servants, but those they trained as warriors weren’t as fearsome against the might of their enemies as they had hoped. So in order to make their protectors more powerful they created the K’teth. Unfortunately, with their new found power, the Vyr rebelled and the Phyrr Lesch had no choice but to end them. Eventually, using the first ones as a basis they created the Teljir a race of hand-servants, presumably the ancient name for the Dexagarmetrax and Edant their loyal guardians, and the K’teth were remade to serve the race who would eventually come to call themselves the Qharr.”
Everyone was staring at me… at us, with wide eyes and Khala swallowed before continuing. “Since I’ve first become joined to Lexa, I’ve grown more and more certain that humanity was in fact this first race, but I never thought I’d ever be able to confirm it. You must understand, if I thought anyone would believe me I would have said something!”
Mara looked me… Khala up and down then turned away and stalked out of the bridge motioning for her minions to follow but paused at the door. “We will be in touch. I’ll be returning to my ship. For now I feel I must digest this newest information. I trust you’re not going anywhere.”
Khala relinquished control and I looked back at her and nodded. “Not, for the time being, at least.”
“Marvelous.”
They departed and I collapsed back into my seat. My god! It couldn’t be true, could it?
I tapped my fingers against my console, as one of the status lights started to blink red. A holo-image appeared in the empty air in front of me and I gripped my armrests feeling the material crumble under my hands. Mara’s face appeared, distorted by the aging holo-projector, leering back at me from her own communication station. I tried to keep my face as neutral as possible, but somehow I doubted I was completely successful. Either way, Mara got right down to business.
“You’ve yet to transmit the coordinates as promised.”
“Yes, yes.” I grimaced and waved my hand at her. “I was just getting to it.”
“There, that ought to do it.”
“British Columbia?” She pursed a lip. “These nesters, are you quite sure they can be trusted?”
“No, but I’m not exactly sure you can be trusted either. Unless you plan on bringing in more troops, or you can pull an army out of your ass we need the nesters. I just hope there’s still someone there with a friendly ear otherwise we’re shit out of luck.”
“Lovely, such… colorful language. It will be some time before we’ll be able to get under way. I’ll contact you when we’re ready. Defiance out.”
The image fizzled and faded away and I glanced over my shoulder at Janet as she entered the bridge. “You really think this is such a good idea?”
“I’m not sure you’re really left with much choice, but assuming Rayland was successful in fending off Dahl and his cronies I think you’ll stand a reasonable chance of convincing my people to join you.”
“Well, I’m just a little more concerned about having another one of those coil guns pointed in my face.”
“Oh, please.” She rolled her eyes. “We won’t even have to land. Rayland and I have a system in place for just such an occurrence.”
“Excuse me if that doesn’t fill me with confidence,” I mumbled leaning back in my seat.
I wasn’t sure what was keeping the E-R-F ship from taking off, but I kind of doubted Mara would be very forthcoming if I confronted her about it. I didn’t mind quite so much, I wasn’t about to let the opportunity to get some alone time with Lily fall through my fingers. “Janet, would you be so kind as to keep an eye on things here?”
Chapter Three
The moment the door closed behind my back, Lily spun around and locked her lips around mine, sharing a kiss that was so passionate that I would have thought it had been months, instead of days, since we’d last made love. We collapsed into bed and I felt her hand slip into my shirt undoing my bra with much more ease than she would have been able to manage just a few short weeks ago. There was a soft click as she undid my belt buckle and slipped my pants free.
She sat up just long enough to pull her shirt over her head and I started work on her bra before she even had it completely free. Her hands clasped around my breasts and she leaned down to kiss my neck as I started to work her pants free. She squeezed free from her slacks and the next thing I knew she plunged her fingers into my vagina and I was howling with pleasure.
We both had a lot of stamina due to our symbiotes and we could probably have gone on for hours, but after a twenty minutes of lovemaking we’d both had enough and Lily collapsed at my side her naked breasts pressing against my side as she put an arm across my chest. Neither one of spoke for the longest time, perfectly content with each other’s company.
I twirled a lock of her hair with my index finger and l found myself thinking of the future. What would a free Earth be like? What would be our place in such a world? All I knew was cooking and fighting, neither of those skills seemed like they’d be in very high demand once the dust had settled.
“Lexa,” Lily said suddenly and I turned to look into those brilliant magenta eyes and smiled.
“I know that we haven’t really been together very long, but I just wanted you to know that–” She was trembling as she reached up to touch my face. “–I love you.”
My heart leapt into my throat and I thought I might choke. I was so taken aback that I could only stare at her with wide eyes with my jaw hanging open like an idiot. My stomach knotted up and it was all I could do to fight down the rising sense of panic that rose up inside my mind.
In a moment of crystalline clarity, I realized I felt the same way, but my mind was screaming a
t me that we were moving too quickly. It had taken months for Kaya and me to finally admit that our feelings had moved beyond simple physical attraction and a mutual fondness. The same thing had happened in less than half that amount of time, and it scared me.
“Oh, god,” she whispered and started to pull away. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said anything. Now I’ve gone and screwed everything all up.”
“Lily I-I.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her close, but the words that I so desperately wanted to say wouldn’t come and her face became more panic stricken by the moment. She leapt out of bed and started to dress.
I knew that I had to say something quick, but all I could do was watch was stare at Lily and watch her slip slowly from my fingers. Why was I being so stupid? ‘SAY IT!’ Khala’s voice howled through my mind so loudly that I gripped the side of my head willing her to be silent.
Lily was dressed and had started for the door when the entire room shook and she was sent tumbling down to her knees.
“Shit!” I cursed and scrambled out of bed realizing what must be happening. As much as I wanted to say something more, I knew that it wouldn’t matter one bit if we were both dead. You’d be surprised how quickly you can get dressed when you knew We both went tearing toward the bridge and Lily, being the first inside, leapt through the doorway and found a seat.
“What the hell is going on here?!” I yelled jumping into the pilot’s seat.
Lily dropped down in from of the sensors consoled and yelled back over her shoulders. “There’s a human ship overhead, must be the Defiant and a hostile ship. Looks like a Qharr cruiser. Our new friends are taking a lot of heat.”
“Dammit,” I cursed and fired the engines. Knowing that we probably didn’t have time for it, I bypassed preflight and sent the ship rocketing up into the sky.
“The Defiant’s shield’s are down!” Lily called out.
“Already?”
I hesitated a moment as a plan formulated in my head. It was risky, and had a pretty good chance of killing us all, but if successful it might buy them some time.
“Lily, get the shields up, if the damn things even work and prepare intercept the destroyer’s fire.”
“You gotta be fucking kidding me” Lily called over her shoulder. “We’ll be lucky if we last ten minutes!”
“It will be ten minutes longer than if we did nothing. Besides, I’ll gladly sacrifice everyone on this ship if it means giving the Defiant a fighting chance!”
“Shield’s up!”
I sent our ship darting forward. The cruiser fired on us, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. Our ship swooped in taking up position between the two ships.
“I should tell you,” Lily said a slight tremor in her voice. “I’m not for sure on this, but it’s possible that more fire we take the more unstable the reactor will become.”
“Neada, open a communication line to the Defiant.”
“It’s open!”
“Defiant, this is Lexa Briggs. We’ve taken some of the heat off of you is there any chance you’ll be able to get your shields up?”
“We’ve got our engineers workings on it, but it’s not looking good,” Mara’s voice responded through the comm line. “We’re currently working on another solution. Hold tight.”
Neada closed the comm-line and opened an audio-only line to the destroyer when I told her to. I wasn’t sure what the Defiant had planned, but if I could keep the gray skins in the destroyer distracted maybe they might be better able to get the drop on them.
“Hello,” I said injecting as much cheerfulness into my voice as I could muster. “This is Lexa Briggs on the pleasure ship, Sugar Pie. How are you today?”
“This is the Inquisitor ship Tyrs Phydar. Human ships, stand down at once and prepare to be boarded.” The hard-edged and guttural voice of a gray skin replied through the intercom.
I simpered and moaned feeling a smile stretched across my face as I thought of what to say. “Ohhh, both at once? Someone’s feeling adventurous today. Tell you what I’ll set my ship down and you and I can have a one on one meeting, just the two of us. I know I’d certainly like that. You sound like big strong strapping Qharr man. I love me some gray meat, but I must warn you I take my dicks up the ass.”
I winced, and gritted my teeth. I hadn’t intended to go quite so far.Lily’s jaw dropped and it was all I could do to keep myself from bursting out laughing. The Qharr had some pretty strong taboos against inter-species relationships. One of the guards back at compound Het’ma had had a fetish for human women and Duvak had executed him on the spot when he learned of it. It was one of the few ways I knew of to get the gray skins good and angry with very little provocation.
“Listen to me closely foul hu-man yhulda. I will only say it once more. Land your ships or be destroyed.”
“You’re no fun,” I said letting out an exaggerated sigh and pouted before realizing that it was an audio-only line. “Tell you what if I let you frisk me will you promised to plunge that big gray dick of yours into my–”
I stopped short as the comm line ended and destroyer opened fire again. “Something’s happening,” Lily called out. “The shield reactor’s energy levels are spiking! We need to shut that thing down or we’ll be vapor dust.”
“Not yet!” I gritted my teeth bracing myself as we were jostled around by another barrage of fire.
I had Neada open up the comm line again. “Defiant, whatever you’re going to do, you better do it now. I don’t know how much longer we will last. The shield reactor could go critical at any minute.”
“Defiant!” I screamed when I received no reply.
“Copy, resistance ship. Hold tight, we’ll be executing our plan in just a few more seconds.”
After the comm line closed back down I craned my neck so that I could get a good look at Lily. “Head back to the engine room, and take Becca with you. Try to see if you can do something with the reactor. If you have to try to drain some of the energy with your symbiotes. Maybe that will cool the damn thing down if nothing else works.”
Lily nodded, and with my sister in tow went tearing out of the room.
There was a bright flash of light from the view screen and the Defiant disappeared from sensors only to reappear on the opposite side of the destroyer. It opened fire and before the gray skins targeting sensors could pick up on the ship again. It disappeared with another flash of light and reappeared about a quarter way around the destroyer and blasted it with all guns blazing.
Again and again, the Defiant would jump at some random interval and disappear before the destroyer could get it scopes on the other ship. Its’ shield started to buckle and finally fizzled under a final volley of phase cannon blasts struck the Qharr ship and sparked a series of explosions. It started to lose altitude and I watched it fall from the sky for a moment before returning my attention back to the shields, leapfrogging into the next seat over.
The reactor’s energy readings were approaching dangerous levels, but there was some good news, at least. It wasn’t building up quite as quickly as it had been before. Whatever Lily and my sister were doing seemed to be having some effect or that’s what I hoped. Satisfied that we were out of danger, I initiated the shield shut down procedures, but hit a bit of a snag when the console displayed an error message.
“Shit!” I screamed and leapt back over to the pilot’s station making sure to turn on auto pilot before lurching out of the seat again and went tearing down the hallway toward the engine room. I found Lily and Becca both huddled around the reactor, a tall clear metal tube which was glowing so brightly it came close to blinding me. I joined them touching both hands against the transparisteel and felt the storms gates come flooding open as Khala began to feed. It came crashing into me with the full force of a dre’k and it was only by sheer force of will that I was able to maintain my grip.
I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, and screamed out at Lily. “If there’s some sort of manual shut-off for this thing. Now would be the time t
o use it!”
‘Better hurry,’ Khala said. ‘I can only repair so much radiation damage. The levels aren’t too high yet, but if you let them build too much longer we’ll all die.’
“Lily, you hear that?” I panted, but she didn’t respond.
Instead she knelt down, one hand still touching the reactor cylinder, and reached for something near Becca’s feet. She placed her hand inside a small indent in the floor, big enough to accommodate a large pair of human hands, and pulled. A small section of floor plating popped free and she stared at it transfixed before glancing up at me. I nodded and she pulled the switch.
Nothing seemed to happen, then all at once the room started to quake and tremor, the reactor blazed even brighter and started to hum. I backed away, and prepared for what I believed was our imminent death, but with one last shudder, the light flashed and began to fade away. Relieved, I sighed, and held my hand out to Lily who looked up at me and shook her head. She climbed up to her feet without my help and left the room without sparing me another glance.
I swallowed and watched her leave. I wanted to call out to her, to tell her anything, but I hesitated again. Something was holding me back and prevented me from telling her how I felt. It wasn’t quite time for me to get bogged down in my relationship woes no matter how much it hurt. We needed to get the hell away from the wreck of the destroyer before any other Qharr vessels happened on us.
Forcing thoughts of Lily out mind, I shook my head, bit my lip and fled the room with my sister in tow.
“Lexa, please sit,” Mara held her hand open to me as I poked my head in the door. A bit of a smile touched the corner of her lips and for the first time it actually seemed to lighten up her eyes.
I stepped inside and took a seat across from her at the small desk at the end of the room. Our two chairs, the desk and a bed were the room’s only furnishings lending the room a distinctly Spartan appearance. She leaned down, producing a brown bottle of liquid and two glasses from one of the desk’s drawers. “I believe I owe you an apology.”
Battle For Earth Page 51
