by Keri Kruspe
“Ah.” D’zia gave a slight smile. “So good to see you’re here to escort me to wherever I’m being summoned to.” He sat down and put boots on over the snug pants. Nice…the clothes fit, though they were a little tighter than he usually wore. At least the boots were a near-perfect fit, even though the tops came above his knees and the heels were higher than he liked.
The male in front of him frowned. The brackets around his mouth deepened on his dark face. “Get up. Time to go, Zerin.”
“Of course,” D’zia hooked his warrior braid behind his right ear. “Where else would I want to go?” He stomped as he stood to settle his feet farther into the boots. He flapped his hand back and forth to indicate he was ready to go. “Lead on. I’m not getting any younger, you know.”
Aylzrunth’s face scrunched. “What does age have to do with anything?”
Oh, holy maggoty hell, he might as well be dealing with Qay all over again. “Don’t worry about it, mega-mind. Let’s go…that’s a good male.”
Said male gave a loud snort as he backed up to let D’zia walk out of the room ahead of him.
“Which way?” D’zia asked, glancing back and forth down the dim corridor. The underground metal bunker had a musty, abandoned feel. As they traveled farther, the emptiness gave way to a structured organization. If JR10 hadn’t told him how many species were around, he’d have had no idea there were at least twenty AoA members roaming about.
Aylzrunth pointed his blaster to the left. “That way.”
The rusty corridor echoing their footsteps was unnerving. D’zia’s back twitched as he envisioned the blaster at his back going off. When he got nervous, he talked. “Aylzrunth, right? I’m afraid I wasn’t sure if that was your name or not, friend.”
“I’m not your friend.” It sounded like the male had a mouthful of rocks.
“Now, now, there’s no need to be testy, is there?” One could only hope. He put a lot into the fact JR10 got a happy, friendly greeting when they met the Merkaba. “I’m D’zia.”
The silence unnerved him. The only sounds ahead and behind them were the hard clomps of their boots on the inflexible floor. With a long-ingrained habit, D’zia kept track of their journey as they made their way down a straight corridor, nary a door in sight. The dusty floor had only two pairs of footprints coming and going…his and the Runihura’s next to him. Those extra-large prints couldn’t belong to anyone but the pitch-black male.
D’zia stopped. He stared at the alien and folded his arms across his chest. Since his head only reached the middle of the large male’s waist, he had to lean back to catch the irritated expression crossing his dark features. “Dude, don’t they teach you manners where you come from?”
“No. Aylzrunth treats each word out of his mouth as valued seeds of wisdom from the gods.” A light, tittering feminine laugh accompanied the words and came from ahead of them.
The Merkaba’s presence would have surprised him if he hadn’t detected her natural floral scent long before she spoke. He glanced in her direction, hoping to see JR10. His spybot wasn’t anywhere near her purple tresses.
“Shysutá, is it?” D’zia gave her a respectful bow, turning his back on the male, trusting the threat of a shot in the back was over. “It is an honor to meet you.”
Her large, expressive amethyst eyes pulsated in mirth. “Don’t bother with the overdone flattery, Duke D’zia Yaq E’etu. JR10 has told me all about you.”
D’zia winced at the family title she spouted. “Ouch, please don’t call me that. I haven’t been home for over fifty years, so I doubt it applies anymore.”
Shysutá’s lower arms clasped behind her back while her upper limbs were in a mirrored pose in front, giving her a mild demeanor. She didn’t fool D’zia. The only other Merkaba he’d met had been Hayami by vid conference, but he was well versed in the ferocious history of her people.
“Family is all-encompassing, don’t you agree? I believe your title follows you even now.” She gave a negligent shrug as if the topic wasn’t worth discussing.
D’zia eyed the small disintegrating pistols strapped on both of her slim hips along with the dual katana swords at her back. She gave a definite “don’t fruk with me” warning. Yep, he’d be extra nice to the scary female. He intended to keep his manly parts right where they were.
“Follow me.” She walked into an open doorway to their left.
As they passed through the large arch, D’zia stopped at the threshold to take in his surroundings. The room was cavernous enough that a hundred people could fit. Seated at an oval conference table was an eclectic group of individual misfits who stopped talking when he walked in. He had no problem with their attention…it gave him a chance to check them out as much as they returned the favor.
The species represented were not only those from the nine systems of the Federation Consortium, but several that weren’t. Including a human female. Most were borderline hostile to the established galactic government. Good thing there weren’t any Friebbigh in the bunch. He couldn’t stomach the vile puntneji.
Guarding just inside the doorway were two large Orisha males, one with orange and the other with green feathers. The breeds were giant brutes, with small pointy-heads in contrast to their rotund, pyramid figures. The overly large eye in the middle of their forehead was their most distinguishing feature. The color of their pupils matched the feathers adorning their bulk. D’zia wasn’t surprised to see the knives strapped to their waist, plus disintegrating blasters pinched between their thumbs and two-fingers. From previous experience, he expected them to have various hidden weapons under the pleated wraparound kilts that covered trunk-like feather-clad thighs. The blank, ignorant expression on their brutish faces was a façade since the species was intelligent and ruthless.
He followed Shysutá around to the end of the massive table as she pointed to an empty chair.
“You may sit here, Duke.” She waved a negligent hand while instructing him with her singsong voice.
Great, a nickname he was stuck with. Settling into the hard chair, he leaned back, legs apart, elbows, and forearms resting over his flat belly. One of his favorite Earth sayings was, “Never let them see you sweat.” It was a good motto to live by.
“As you know,” the Merkaba female never broke her gaze from his as she sat and crossed an elegant leg. Her lower pair of hands clasped on her lap as the upper pair wove and bobbed as she spoke, “This is Duke D’zia Yaq E’etu from the planet Zerin. He is the first cousin of Crown Prince Qayyum E’etu and nephew to King Abzu.”
“So?” A dark, deep voice from across the sizeable table said in a bored tone. “Kill ‘im or ransom ‘im so we can get on wid more important t’ings.”
D’zia wasn’t sure, but he’d bet good credits the voice belonged to the Felsblock sitting cross corner from him. His horizontal eyes with their all brown color gave him a sneer. His wide chest was bare, showing off the alien’s skin in large, rock-like boulders the color of dark storm clouds. As a species, their bodies were impenetrable to conventional weapons. As far as D’zia knew, their only weakness was lots of water. They weren’t buoyant by any stretch of the imagination.
“Yes, Garstig, we all know your thoughts on the matter,” piped up a Sismall, a rodent-like species sitting next to D’zia. He’d never want to be in this male’s crosshairs. They were crack shots, known throughout the galaxy for their deadly aim. He suppressed a shudder. He’d heard they never missed.
“And you were soundly outvoted.” The Sismall, no bigger than D’zia’s thigh, leaned down to flick a couple of laps with his tongue in the bowl in front of him. He sat with a flop and wiped his snout with the sleeve of his nut-brown, hairy arm.
Hmm, they voted? This group was a democracy. How odd.
“Can we get on with this?” The female human sitting across from him asked with an impatient huff. “We’re running out of time, people!” She smacked her palm on the thick table. She was a lively one with her rich, umber skin, her corkscrew onyx hair fram
ing a pixie face that highlighted the flare in her dark eyes. While she didn’t physically resemble his TrueBond, she somehow reminded him of her.
“Yes, Chloe, we are getting to that.” Shysutá reassured the agitated human. “And the Duke here is just the person to help us.” She stared as if she dared him to contradict her.
“I don’ see how,” grumbled the Felsblock again. “We don’ need ‘is help.”
“Yes, we do.” The Runihura, Aylzrunth, stated it with a grimace. He sat with a heavy plop in the empty chair to D’zia’s right. “Unfortunately.”
He hated to ask, but he needed to discover where JR10 was. “So where is my little spybot?” He wanted to talk to Lora and the only way he could was through JR11.
“Aw, ya miss me, bro?” The little bot exclaimed for everyone to hear. He climbed out of Shysutá’s hair to sit on her shoulder. His baritone voice was always a surprise when they didn’t talk internally.
“Yes, you annoying little danka shit.” His neck heated in embarrassment and his warrior braid came loose from behind his ear. He grasped the end to rub.
“Yay!” The little AI jumped in excitement as he scrambled down the Merkaba’s arm to scuttle across the table to join D’zia. “Missed you too, big guy! Now let’s go and get our females!” He scurried up D’zia’s arm to settle on his shoulder. For once D’zia braided his tawny hair in a long tail instead of his usual bun.
“We’ve been discussing your predicament, and we believe we can help each other.” Shysutá folded her upper glove-clad fingers together and narrowed her expressive purple eyes at him.
“I gather JR10 let you in on what we’re trying to do?” It would save him time if the bot had.
The little bot gave a loud snort. “No worries, dude. Of course I did.”
He had to trust the little AI knew what he was doing when he shared sensitive information with the AoA. He could only hope the bot didn’t share sensitive information D’zia needed to use against the Chancellor. “All right, my turn. Who are you people and what are you doing here?”
“We don’t have time for this!” The human female, Chloe, wailed as she bobbed in her chair. Her breasts bounced and caught every male’s attention around the table.
“Calm down, Chloe.” Shysutá frowned. “We’re going to help the Duke get his human TrueBond back, and in turn he’ll help us.”
“Your TrueBond is a human?” Chloe’s dark eyes widened. Her curls swiveled around her head when she scrutinized him, her gaze going up and down. “I thought you guys weren’t allowed to mix with Earth girls.”
“As a matter of fact, we normally aren’t.” D’zia leaned forward and rested his clasped hands on the table. “However, with Prince Qay claiming his human TrueBond, I’m not worried about claiming mine.” Actually, he couldn’t care less if the Zerin government let him claim Lora or not. The galaxy was a big place to get lost in.
“Really, your Prince has a human TrueBond? Who is she and what is your TrueBond’s name?” The human demanded as she narrowed her eyes at him. “But most of all, where did ya’ll meet?”
“We met our TrueBonds on board the StarChance going to the Exchange.” It didn’t bother him to answer her questions.
“What?” her voice rose to a shrill octave that pierced his sensitive ears. “You were on the StarChance?” She rose from her seat to place both hands on the table and lean in as she confronted him in an angry tone. “I was aboard the StarChance, where I was abducted at the Exchange. I just knew it was too good to be true.” She slapped her palm again on the table and plopped down with a disgruntled flop. Crossing her arms over her generous breasts, she exhaled with a huff.
“Okay, Chloe,” Shysutá’s stern voice brought the attention back to her. She waved her top left hand for the human to stay seated. “We’ll address your issues later. For now, we need to help the Duke finish his initial mission.”
His heart pounded in excited surprise. “Really? You’ll help me get evidence against the Chancellor and rescue my TrueBond?”
“Yes, and you’d better be worth it, Zerin.” Aylzrunth stated in a low, grumbling voice. Yeah, the Runihura wasn’t up to becoming his new best friend any time soon, which suited D’zia just fine.
“Anyway, let’s go back to my initial question.” D’zia glanced around the table as he took in the diverse species when their attention swung to him. “Again, who are you people and what are you doing here?”
“Fair enough,” the Merkaba female replied. She waved open the holographic computer screen in the middle of the table with her bottom right hand. “We are the main branch of the Alliance of Assassins and I am the commanding officer.”
D’zia frowned. Even though she confirmed his suspicions, he still had a hard time wrapping his mind around the information. “Okay, so what possible interest does the AoA have here?”
“We’re looking into a group called the ‘Warriors of Light’.” Shysutá waved her upper right hand to encompass the base around them. “Of course, once we were here, we couldn’t destroy such a bountiful harvest of fighter ships without first liberating some of them.”
Warriors of Light? His heart thudded. Could the proof he needed against the Chancellor be right here? “Who hired you?” D’zia frowned at the eclectic group. Or did the AoA work for the Chancellor who was double-dealing with the terrorist fraction. Not that they’d tell him. He expected the condescending smile Shysutá sent his way.
“Now…Duke. You know better than to ask us that.” She raised her upper palms with an elegant shrug. “But I can assure you our employer will by no means become a problem for you.” She waved her computer controls to start a program. “Now, let’s focus on what we’ve got.”
The screen showed a vid of the immense compound with the 10-15’s. Erkeks and Friebbigh scurried around in a frantic, organized pace.
“Once here, we became aware of the transmissions between the Chancellor, the Erkeks, and the Friebbigh.” With deft fingers, she brought up a bank of split screens in rapid succession.
It would be nice to have two sets of ambidextrous arms, especially when working with computer software.
On several screens, images portrayed a busy base constructing the ships and gearing up for…
“Is this what I think it is?” he whispered in horror. The real question was…who were they going to invade?
“Yes, I’m afraid it is.” Shysutá nodded. “As far as we can tell, this is a covert plan for an assault of a remote planetary system which we suspect is Earth.”
D’zia chest tightened in anger. “Why haven’t you informed the Consortium authorities about this? Or at the very least the Zerin Imperial Forces?”
Gales of laughter resounded in the large room.
“Oh, you’re a cute one.” A female Nrgwenya guffawed at the end of the table. Her species were part Draconian, with her humanoid body encased in shiny green/yellow scales to match her impressive wingspan.
They were fierce warriors, and D’zia would gladly have one of her kind with him in any fight, male or female.
“Are you serious?” The female raised her bright green eyebrows over clear irises and black razor-thin pupils in disbelief. “The Zerin Council is so far up the Chancellor’s ass it’s hard to tell one from the other.” Her pretty face reflected her impatience when she leaned forward to glare at him. “Or how about talking to someone in the ruling nine systems government? They’re all so terrified of losing what little power they have, they wouldn’t do anything to put their rotten lives and power base at risk. So tell me, Duke…where have you been for the last fifty years?”
Okay, maybe he wouldn’t want this particular Nrgwenya anywhere near him.
Before he defended himself, Shysutá brought the conversation back. “Vovin may have a good point, but we need to move on.” She flicked with her lower left hand to bring up another vid and enlarged it. “We have a bigger problem than the armada here.”
D’zia cocked an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Great. What could t
hat possibly be?”
Shysutá’s face settled into granite hardness. “They have a new weapon that will change the course of the galaxy if it’s ever deployed.”
“Weapon?” His gut tightened as he straightened. “What kind of weapon?” The Merkaba female enlarged another screen. Displayed was a jumble of schematics and engineering he had a hard time analyzing at first glance. “What am I looking at?”
“This is the blueprint for a weapon the Chancellor lovingly calls the ‘MindWipe’. It is a memory eliminator…on a planetary scale.”
Mind wipe? What in the nine systems was she talking about? The only mind-wipe ability in the known galaxy was the one the Zerins used on human women when they didn’t want to go through with the Exchange. Its effect was minor, manipulating short-term memories with little-to-no adverse side effects. “I’m not sure what you mean,” he admitted. “What good does it do to change someone’s memory short term on a planetary scale?”
“The device is what it sounds like,” the Sismall male, Tukkuttok piped in. “It is an advanced version of the device you Zerins use on human women.” His small furry body shifted in the chair and his clawed paws waved in the air when he spoke. “They’ve taken that small ability and expanded on it.” He waved toward the computer screen. “Now, with this wonderful gadget, the Chancellor has the ability to wipe the minds of all humans on the planet Earth…permanently.”
Stunned, D’zia gawked at everyone around the table. “How can he do that? Earth is under the Preservation Act.”
“SiHo, Duke!” The Felsblock, Garstig, thundered and pounded his boulder-sized fist on the table. “There’s a bigger picture here! If he can do this to Earth, what’s to stop him from attacking any system in the Consortium?”
