Starblazer

by Spencer Maxwell

  Seventeen

  Jade sat with her back against the console. It was still running. Wylow, with her mechanical wizardry, had routed the power from her blaster’s energy pack. The pack would give the console enough juice to receive any incoming transmissions, but if they wanted to send another one out, they would have to drain it.

  So far, no replies.

  Jade had expected nothing else. The Dominion’s rule hung over the entire galaxy, like the Battler hung over Xovia’s capital city. Every being from here to the sparsely inhabited planets near the Brink knew better than to go against the God-King. He never hesitated in killing those who opposed them.

  The machine hummed, and the metal casing grew slightly warm. Jade found it oddly comforting. It was her turn to stay awake, but she was dozing, and probably would have had the console not chimed.

  What was that? she wondered. Her head pounded slightly, her body ached, her mouth felt dry and tasted like blood, and her stomach burned with hunger.

  She looked to her left, where Wylow lay. The queensguard snored deeply, her fingers twitching. Her face was covered with cuts, her dark skin split open and already scabbing over. Jade felt a pang of guilt. Wylow didn’t deserve any of this.

  She would be dead if she stayed behind at the castle, like the rest of the guards and the Sisters…and the people who worshipped my father and I, she thought, trying to make herself feel better.

  It didn’t work.

  The console made another noise, this time not a chime but a scrabbling sound, as if something was being written on paper.

  “A message,” Jade said, breathless, and shot up from her sitting position. Even though her body ached and her joints cracked loudly, it didn’t slow her down. She rounded the console, her hand trailing along the warm casing. Sure enough, a piece of paper slowly rolled out of a slot next to the dimmed lights on the dashboard. Etched in faint ink were the makings of a message.

  Jade watched as these words appeared: I’ve touched down on Xovia. Heading toward the comm center now for extraction - Ryze Starlo

  Jade couldn’t believe her eyes. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, the pain immediate and wonderful.

  Ryze Starlo, the Ryze Starlo, had responded to her message in less than eight Xovian hours. How could he get past the blockade?

  Because he’s Ryze Starlo, that’s how.

  Tears filled Jade’s eyes. There was still a chance she could make it out of this alive, complete her quest, and come back to save her people and her planet.

  For the moment, she couldn’t move. Relief and hope filled her completely.

  “Wylow?” she whispered. The queensguard remained asleep. “Wylow!” This time slightly harsher.

  Wylow jumped up in half a second, her hand on the butt of her blaster. All her training and experience certainly wasn’t wasted. She was ready for a fight, prepared to kill at a moment’s notice. This only made Jade feel better. Despite all they’d gone through in the past day—the crash, the injuries, the running, the fear—Wylow would never stop protecting her queen.

  “What is it?” Wylow breathed.

  “We’re not in danger,” Jade answered. She grabbed the paper and ripped it free from the slot. “Someone replied.”

  “Who?”

  “Ryze Starlo. He said he’s here and he’s coming to the comm center now.”

  Wylow’s eyes widened, and a flash of a smile crossed her face. “You are not lying, Queen Jade?”

  Jade wrinkled her brow. “Why would I lie?” She held the paper out. “Here, look for yourself.”

  Wylow crossed to the console and stepped up on the raised floor, her feet crunching on dead leaves and twigs, and grabbed the message. Back and forth her eyes went over the faded words. The date was at the top, the timestamp below it.

  “How could I even fake such a thing?” Jade said. The tears that had hung in her eyes now rolled down her cheeks, cutting tracks in the dirt smeared on her skin.

  Wylow’s flash of a smile blossomed to a full-on grin.

  “Things just may turn out all right, my queen,” Wylow said. She put her arm around Jade, and this realization struck her for the first time: Wylow was the motherly figure she never had.

  The sun was beaming down through the canopy of trees. A fine day for a Xovian spring.

  Akyra’s bluish skin burned, and sweat dotted her forehead.

  Waiting.

  Waiting.

  Waiting.

  Her line of work had taught her patience, but this was getting ridiculous. Maybe the ship that broke through the blockade isn’t coming for the queen after all. Better yet, maybe the Battler shots took the SG-Rogue down.

  Hadn’t she heard a crash? Hadn’t there been smoke in the sky? She thought so, but she hadn’t really examined it too much; her vantage point was obscured by the many trees.

  Gods, I’m just going to go for it. May you give me the strength, mental capacity, and tenacity to pull this off.

  She sent a message from the hololens to the two cybersoldiers surrounding her. “Let’s move out. Kill the queensguard, but keep the queen alive. If she gets a little roughed up, I don’t care, just keep her breathing and able to talk. Or I’ll have your ARC reactors on my ship’s dashboard, got it?”

  “Negative. Orders are KILL ON SIGHT.”

  “Wrong. Your new orders are to leave her alive for me.”

  The soldiers sent back, “Affirmative.”

  Working with cybertronics was much easier than sentient beings. Akyra didn’t have to worry about them trying to steal her bounty or turning on her. Arguments were minimal. Perhaps with the frags she received from this job, she’d buy a few soldiers of her own. Then, of course, she’d need a bigger ship. Shouldn’t be a problem, she thought with a smile on her face. With that much money, I could practically buy my own fleet.

  Her mind trailed off there, and greed took over. The queen had something, something important, something that was undoubtedly worth more than the amount the Dominion had agreed to pay Akyra.

  She mustn’t forget that.

  In order to—

  Her ears picked something up about a quarter mile away—the snapping of branches, heavy footsteps.

  Someone in armor, she thought. Maybe another cybersoldier.

  Akyra turned her head in that direction and snapped her hololens over her eye. She zoomed as close as the tech allowed. The lens caught a heat sig and a pulse. Not a cybertronic or an automaton, but a living thing.

  Her sharp teeth bared in a semblance of a smile. She didn’t smile often, and when she did, those unfamiliar with the Thrathans often misconstrued their grins for something more…carnivorous. Which wasn’t a far cry from the truth. Most Thrathans, especially those trained in the art of mercenary work, consumed flesh. The meat sustained them for long periods of time and was said to pass certain properties on to those that ate the meat raw. Feats of strength, mental stability, and a slowed sense of time.

  Maybe I’ll eat the ones I kill today, she thought. The new idea brought a rumble to her stomach. Not only did the act pass on certain abilities, but it tasted delicious.

  “Steady,” she told the soldiers. “Activate camouflage. I don’t need your bulkiness giving me away.”

  “Affirmative.”

  The soldiers shimmered as they disappeared into the forest’s backdrop. It would take an amazingly trained eye to spot them.

  Akyra thumbed the safety of her blaster and prepared for bloodshed.

  Ryze navigated through the bushes and trees like a man who’d trekked through the forest many times before, which wasn’t far from the truth.

  “You’re closing in, sir,” Spex said.

  “I can see it. It’s certainly had better days, that’s for sure. Think they got my message, Spex?”

  “I sent it, sir. However, if I am being honest, sir, I doubt very much it went through. This place doesn’t exactly look like it’s running at full power, nor has it seen much upkeep through the years.”


  “Old tech. Every day, some mad scientist on a distant planet improves on what we already have.”

  Spex’s voice wavered. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “Eh, I wouldn’t worry if I were you, Spex. You’ve been old tech for a while.”

  “Hilarious, sir.”

  Ryze smirked. He went up the cracked stone steps toward the comm center’s door. It hung crookedly on its hinges, and in the caked dirt were two streaks from someone’s fingerprints.

  “Should I just walk in?” he asked. “Should I knock? Is it rude if I don’t?”

  “I would knock if I were you. Walking in might surprise them and might get you shot, thinking you’re an echo-creature or a Dominion soldier…wait, never mind, sir. Go on and just walk right in. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  “Remind me to upgrade my AI next time we’re in Coliseum.”

  “Of course, sir. I’ll certainly do that.”

  Ryze raised a gloved hand and rapped softly on the door three times. “Ryze Starlo here,” he said in a subdued voice, though his helmet speakers broadcasted the words louder than he intended.

  “Tell them you have food, sir,” Spex said in the background. “Humans always answer the door when food is involved.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Ryze laughed.

  Inside, he heard shuffling footsteps and whispers. Ryze took a step back and raised both hands.

  “What if it’s not them, sir?” Spex asked. “You shouldn’t be unarmed.”

  “I’ve got the fastest draw in the galaxy, Spex. You know that.”

  “Sure, sure.”

  Slowly, the door creaked open. Ryze’s eyes ballooned behind his HUD. Instead of a woman’s face, he was looking at the barrel of a blaster. Standard issue for royal guards of Xovia.

  “Take your helmet off,” a sharp voice said from inside. “Slowly.”

  “Oh, c’mon. Don’t you recognize the armor? This suit is famous all over the galaxy,” Ryze argued.

  It wasn’t.

  “Now’s not the time to be cocky, sir,” Spex said.

  “Shut up,” Ryze whispered in reply.

  “Take the helmet off,” the person behind the blaster said. “Or I’ll shoot.”

  “Friend, if you want off this rock, you won’t shoot. I’m your only way out of here.”

  The voice spoke again, sounding cocky as only royalty could. “Yeah, what’s stopping me from shooting you and taking your ship myself?”

  “Assuming you could fly it, you’d have to bypass the self-destruct mechanism employed in the event my suit here picks up a flatlined pulse. And if you somehow could get around that obstacle, you’d have to figure out how to access the controls without knowing my flight code, and even if you could do that, too, you’d then have to answer to my ship’s AI, who would most likely detonate the self-destruct anyway out of sheer loyalty.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, sir,” Spex said.

  Ryze was, of course, completely bluffing. Having his face hidden by his helmet certainly helped in selling these lies. “And say you somehow talk my AI out of blowing you and my ship to hell. Then you’d have to fly past a blockade of warships three times the size of this planet’s capital city, each with enough firepower to knock Xovia off its axis. And good luck with that, sweetheart.”

  “Quite the tale, sir. You should consider a career in playwriting once you retire,” Spex quipped.

  Ryze then reached through the crack in the door and grabbed the barrel of the gun pointed at him. He took it away easily.

  “Hey!” the voice shouted.

  Quickly moving his fingers, Ryze stripped the energy pack from the blaster and disassembled the weapon. The power indicator on the pack showed two percent. Not nearly enough to penetrate his armor. He then stepped through the comm center’s threshold. The woman in front of him stumbled back, almost tripping over her feet, her face a mask of surprise and anger. Not even a woman, Ryze thought. Just a girl, barely over twenty.

  Behind the comm center’s main console, which was a broken, rusty mess with wires and circuitry hanging out of it like entrails, stood a dark-skinned woman closer to Ryze’s age. She had defined features—sharp eyes, sharp nose, and an even sharper jawline. In short, she looked like the type of woman you didn’t want to mess with despite her current state. In fact, both women looked pretty worse for wear. They had fallen a long way from castles and kingdoms. Not exactly something Ryze could completely sympathize with, but the reason this happened was because the Dominion went back on their treaty, and there weren't many things in this galaxy Ryze hated more than the Dominion and the man calling himself the God-King.

  “Next time, don’t pull a blaster on your ride out of here,” Ryze growled. “Not many who’ve done that to me have lived to tell the tale.”

  “Good, sir, scare the hell out of them. That’ll help,” Spex said softly.

  “You’re Ryze Starlo?” the younger of the women said. “I’m not impressed.”

  “And you must be Queen Jade. I don’t see a crown, but your clichéd brattiness certainly gives you away.”

  The queen frowned.

  “And you are?” Ryze asked the dark-skinned woman.

  She parted from Jade and approached Ryze. “I am Wylow of Ypso. House Denax.” She stuck a hand out. Ryze took it, and the two of them shook.

  “Ypso,” he said. “I was just there. Lovely place.”

  “Not really,” Wylow replied. “I’ve heard many things about you, Mr. Starlo. You are quite a legend to those in the Xovian military.”

  “I hope the things you’ve heard are good.”

  “Mostly.” Wylow winked.

  Ryze reached up and unclasped his helmet. It hissed as air escaped from within. The queen recoiled at the sight of his scars.

  “Geesh, they’re not that bad,” he said.

  “Pardon?” Jade said.

  “Don’t play dumb. I’m used to the staring, don’t worry about it. It’s whatever. So, are you ready to get the hell out of here?”

  The queen, sounding more humbled, said, “Yes, please.”

  “All right,” Ryze replied, “under one circumstance.”

  “What?”

  “You tell me what the hell that thing is dangling around your neck.” Ryze pointed to the crystal. His sensors had picked it up earlier. It was giving off an absurd amount of energy, almost as if the girl decided it was a good idea to wear a fusion bomb as jewelry.

  The queen turned away. “It’s…nothing.”

  “I may not look it, but I’m no idiot,” Ryze said.

  Distant, from the inside of his helmet, Spex said, “Well…don’t get ahead of yourself, sir.”

  Like usual, Ryze ignored the AI's quip.

  Wylow stepped in front of Jade, tensing her muscles and changing her posture into a protective stance.

  “Ah, so it’s obviously important,” Ryze continued. “I’m guessing it’s the reason you need to get off the planet.”

  Neither woman said anything, they just studied him warily.

  “Okay, it’s a secret, sure. You can’t trust me, I’m a mercenary bounty hunter who only cares about frags, yada-yada-yada. But I’m also a Xovian, and even though I’ve all but abandoned the planet—harsh but true—I still feel strongly for the place. Why else would I come? For the money? Partly, yeah, but I don’t want to see Xovia destroyed by the Dominion, either. In fact, I wouldn’t mind blowing that Battler hanging in the air to hell if I could. So, you see, I’m not against you, Queen Jade, I’m all for you.”

  “How do I know for sure?” she asked.

  “You don’t,” he answered. “All you can do is hope I’m telling the truth, because right now, your options are pretty limited. It’s only a matter of time before they find you. The forest is big, but the Dominion fleet is bigger.”

  “He’s right, Jade,” Wylow said. She then lowered her voice. “Ryze Starlo was once an honorable man. He served your father and the planet greatly during the First War. I belie
ve we can trust him. He is currently our only option.”

  “I have ears, you know,” Ryze said.

  The women both ignored this. Jade stepped around her protector, standing straight, her shoulders square, her eyes meeting—no, burning—into Ryze’s. “You served my father directly?”

  “I did. Met you a couple times, too.” He held his hand up a couple feet from the floor. “You were about this big. A lot nicer back then—”

  “Why did you leave? The planet needed as many able warriors as possible.”

  “Short answer: I’m a coward. Long answer: well, you’re not ready for that.”

  “I respect your honesty,” Jade said. “I shall be honest with you in return. You want to know what this is?” She held the crystal. It pulsed with an odd greenish light. Ryze was almost hypnotized by it, the way some become transfixed by a great work of art. “This was given to me by the Sisters. I’m to destroy it somewhere at the Brink. It is the key that will bring about the destruction of the universe, if the God-King gets it.”

  Ryze narrowed his eyes, trying to see if the young queen was pulling a fast one on him. Her features remained steady, and he decided it was no joke. The queen actually believed this.

  Before he could stop, he said, “I forgot about the Sisters and all that magic junk.”

  “It’s not junk,” Jade said, offended. “It’s real.”

  “Whatever, whatever. Let’s just get the hell outta here,” Ryze said.

  “To the Brink?”

  “Farthest I can go is Zed.”

  Jade’s mouth dropped open. “That’s lightyears away from the Brink!”

  “Take it or leave it, sister.”

  Wylow said, “Jade, now’s not the time to be stubborn. Our time is short enough as it is.”

  “Listen to your guard, queenie.”

  Her face set in a frown, Jade said, “Fine. Zed’ll do. We’ll find transport there.”

  “Good. We’ll discuss my payment on the ship.”

  “Payment?” Jade repeated.

  Ryze grinned.

  Outside, Akyra listened in. She picked up the voices as clear as day, and when she heard the name Ryze Starlo, she searched for him on a database. The man’s picture came up. An older one, obviously, taken around the time of the First War.