Maisie was definitely not smiling back.
“Nova, we have a problem. Do you have any idea where Chief Daxar might be?”
“Um…” Nova didn’t want to lie, but she didn’t want to tell the truth, either. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“We’ve repaired the communications console on the Starburst completely. As you know, Evie likes to scan across all channels, searching for hidden communications.”
“Uh-huh.” Evie, the tech nerd of the crew, had come in handy on more than one occasion with her ability to find even messages that had been super encrypted.
“She accidentally found something quite concerning. It sounds like someone wants to attack Zocrone.”
“Attack Zocrone? But why? And how? The city is well guarded.”
“Yeah…well. The basestos is not.”
Nova felt a cold chill run through her. She wasn’t exactly sure where Maisie was going with this, but she had a feeling that it was nowhere good. “The only people who should know that there’s a huge supply of basestos here are the guys that bought it and the guys that sold it.”
“Well it looks like either those guys leaked word of it to someone else, or perhaps those guys are the ones who want to bring Zocrone down. Either way, Evie has some recordings of encrypted messages you should hear. And Chief Daxar should definitely hear them. But no one can find him.”
“Uh, I might know where he is.” Nova could feel her cheeks heating up, and she was sure her face must be turning bright red. But Maisie didn’t seem to notice.
“If you find him, tell him that Jarmuk is already at Zocrone city headquarters. We’re looking for Toryx, too, since he’s another one of Daxar’s trusted advisors. Seriously, this is urgent. Get your ass down to city headquarters and bring Daxar if you can find him.”
“I can find him. I’m sure of it. I’ll meet you there in about fifteen minutes.”
“Good. I’m going to get Kromin and then I’ll head there too.”
Maisie was already turning to run down the moonstone hallway for the elevator pod. Nova shut the door behind her, the feeling of dread she’d felt earlier growing by the second.
“Who was that?” came a sleepy voice from behind her.
Nova turned around to see Daxar walking out of the bedroom, naked as the day he was born. She would have loved to take a moment to admire his naked body and stare at his giant dick, but she couldn’t squander time when his city was possibly in danger.
“Maisie stopped by. Everyone’s looking for you. I don’t have a lot of details but it seems that there’s some sort of attack threat against Zocrone.”
Daxar was instantly alert. “An attack threat? By whom? How did Maisie learn about this?”
“I don’t know many details. All I know is that Evie found and decoded some sort of encrypted message. She’s good at that sort of thing.”
Daxar was already pulling his clothes on. “I must hear this message immediately. Where is Evie?”
“She’s heading to city headquarters. So are Jarmuk, Toryx, and Kromin.”
“Good. Let’s get going.”
Nova nodded and followed Daxar as he ran out into the hallway. She knew there were problems much bigger than her own right now, but she still couldn’t help feeling a bit let down that she wasn’t going to get to have a morning romp with Daxar. Who knew whether she’d have another night with him? The realization that last night might have been her one and only chance to feel him inside of her was almost too much to bear. She found her eyes unexpectedly tearing up, but she forced herself to push away the emotions that were flooding her.
She had known from the beginning that this couldn’t last. And right now, if she truly cared about Daxar, the best way for her to show it was to help him protect his city. Holding her chin high, she followed him into the elevator pod. Time to see what dark secrets Evie had uncovered this time.
About twenty minutes later, everyone had finally gathered in city headquarters. Nova knew it was probably unusual for Daxar to allow outsiders in on discussions of his city’s safety, but since outsiders were the ones who had discovered the threat in this case, he didn’t have much of a choice.
“Alright, someone explain to me what’s going on,” Daxar growled as he strode toward the head of a long, sleek conference table. He pushed a button on the end of the table and a large black chair rose out of the ground. Jarmuk, Toryx, and Kromin were sitting in similar black chairs on one side of the table, while Maisie, Evie, and Anya sat across from them. Nova didn’t see anywhere for her to sit, but when she pushed a button near Evie similar to the one Daxar had pushed, another chair came whizzing up from the floor. Nervously, she sat down and waited for one of her crew members to explain what the hell was going on. She was just as lost as Daxar.
“I uncovered an encrypted message, as I think you all already know,” Evie said, her voice trembling a bit with nervousness. “It, ah, sounds like it’s pretty serious, so I thought you might want to take a listen. I have the recording right here.”
“Play it,” Daxar demanded.
Evie nodded, and hit another button on the table. This button made a computer screen come to life right in front of her on the surface of the table. She swiped through a few screens, then found a file she had sent as an e-memo to the console. It asked for fingerprint verification, and as soon as she placed her thumb over the sensor, the screen lit up a bright green color and began to play an audio file.
“I’m afraid we’ve confirmed that the Starship crew are not dead, sir.”
“How is this possible? We had a foolproof plan!”
“Not quite so foolproof, as it turns out. The cosmic glass on the captain’s e-assistant took a lot more force to break than we thought, so the captain wasn’t fatally cut with a sharp glass edge as we’d hoped. The e-assistant didn’t shatter until the spaceship actually hit the ground. Looks like it nicked the captain’s oxygen tank, but not badly enough to kill her. We have confirmation that she’s still alive.”
“You’ve seen her?”
“Yes, we have photographic evidence of all four crew members alive and well.”
“Why didn’t the crash kill them? That junky heap of metal they called a starship should have crumpled and killed them all. And if it didn’t, Zocrone’s harsh atmosphere should have done the job.”
“Well, sir, turns out the Starburst had a reinforced hull that absorbed much of the impact of the crash. And the crew had state-of-the-art survival suits on board, which were enough to keep them alive until some Zocronians rescued them—another development we did not expect.”
“You told me the Zocronians never help outsiders or allow them in their city!”
“Well, yes sir. That was the information we had. But it appears they made an exception for some reason. Their Chief—”
“You told me this plan was foolproof!”
“I…I’m sorry sir. It should have been.”
“So where is the basestos now?”
“It’s all still accounted for, but it’s been moved away from the city, unfortunately. The Zocrone Chief discovered what was in the crates and wanted it far away from the city dome.”
“So we’ll have to figure out a way to move it back.”
“Yes, sir. And we need to do it quickly. The humans are repairing their ship and planning to leave soon. They’ll be taking the basestos with them to attempt delivery. It seems they took our message quite seriously when we said they needed to deliver in two days. Even though that timeframe was impossible to meet, they’re acting like they still have a chance at it. If they take away all the basestos, our plan is doomed.”
“Please tell me you have a foolproof plan for fixing this. An actual foolproof plan.”
“Yes, sir. We estimate it will take at least another two days for the Starburst to be fixed, so we should be safe if we make our move tonight. We will fly in a ship after dark, load the basestos on it, and then fly that ship right next to the Starburst. That’s close enough to destroy the city dom
e. A second ship will fly in to evacuate the pilot of the first ship before we set off the charge and—”
The recording cut out in a sudden haze of static.
“That’s all I was able to get,” Evie said.
No one else said anything. Everyone stared around the table in a state of shock. Daxar was the first one to finally speak, his voice low, slow, and furious. “Does someone want to explain to me what the sludge that was about?”
Nova swallowed hard. “It sounds like the basestos shipment was a setup being used to get to Zocrone.”
Daxar rolled his eyes. “You think, huh? Mind explaining to me how the sludge you didn’t realize this before? God, I should have known better than to trust outsiders.”
“Hey! I’m just as much of a victim here as you are! Didn’t you hear the recording? They were trying to kill off me and my entire crew!”
“Well they never would have been in a position to try that if you hadn’t been stupid enough to take on a load of basestos in the first place. Didn’t that seem just the slightest bit suspicious to you?”
“I’m a smuggler, Dax! Everything I do seems just the slightest bit suspicious.”
Daxar’s eyes had gone cold, darkening into black. “That’s Chief Daxar to you. Not Dax. Only my friends call me Dax, and anyone who would risk the entire population of Zocrone to make a quick buck smuggling basestos is no friend of mine.”
Nova bit back the tears that were dangerously close to spilling over. But how could she keep from crying, when her heart felt like it had just been torn in two? In a desperate attempt to act like she was angry rather than devastated, she stood and stormed over to the huge, full-length windows that lined the conference room. She stared out at the city below. This room was on the fifth floor, and the city center in front of it was one of the few areas in Zocrone’s city dome that wasn’t heavily populated with tropical trees. That meant that Nova actually had a bit of a view. Below her, blue-skinned Zocronians walked merrily back and forth along moonstone paths, oblivious to the fact that a group of sinister aliens was determined to destroy them all.
I do care about these people. I can’t explain it, but this place has quickly become like a home to me. And it’s been so long since I’ve felt like I had a home. It’s like I somehow just belong. Everyone here has been so nice to me.
Everyone except Daxar. Everyone except the man Nova had fallen for, and slept with. The man who had made love to her last night, and then heartlessly told her moments ago that she was not even his friend.
Behind Nova, the silence was stretching on forever. No one dared say anything, and Daxar apparently was not interested in talking anymore. Finally, though, Jarmuk cleared his throat and spoke. He seemed to always be the first one to dare to speak up when Daxar was in a mood.
“Look, we don’t have a lot of time. We need to make a plan.”
Daxar glared at Jarmuk. “What we need is the basestos off this planet. It never should have come here in the first place.”
Nova took a deep breath and turned around. “Give me a ship. I’ll fly it off. I would use the Starburst, but it’s still not ready. But if you give me a small ship, I’ll take the basestos off the planet. I’ll even pay you for the ship. It doesn’t have to be big. Just something.”
“I’m not giving you a ship. You’re the one who’s caused all this trouble in the first place. I’m certainly not going to trust you to fix it.”
What was it Merkin called Daxar? “Grumpy Blue?” Grumpy doesn’t even begin to cover it right now.
Nova scowled at Daxar. The man was insufferable. Hot as hell, but absolutely insufferable. And there was no reason she had to stand here and take this. He might be in charge, but he wasn’t in charge of her. She was captain of her own ship. She wasn’t going to sit in here and be treated like she had caused all of this mess. How the hell was she supposed to know that a normal smuggling job was actually a cover-up to destroy an entire planet?
“Fine,” Nova said, sticking her chin out defiantly. “If you don’t trust me, and you don’t want my help, then I don’t think I can be of any further use here.” She turned to look at her crew members. “You are all welcome to stay here and talk to him, if he even wants to talk to you. But I’m not going to put up with this kind of abuse. I have better things to do with my time than be belittled by a man isn’t even willing to take my help when I offer it.”
Nova turned on her heel and walked out of the conference room, trying her best to ignore her crew members, whose jaws had all dropped in shock when she announced she was leaving. Nova managed to make it all the way out of the building before hot tears started streaming down her cheeks. A few Zocronians who were milling around noticed, and started to ask her if she was okay. She waved them away, muttering that she was fine, and then took off at a run.
She hated to be rude to them. After all, they had all been so kind to her. But she also hated to cry in front of people. It looked so weak, and everyone here already thought she was such a weak human. As soon as she got back to the part of the city that was filled with thick vegetation, she ducked off the path and hid behind a row of bushy ferns. She sat on the ground and let the tears come unhindered. They ran down her cheeks in hot streams, and no matter how much she wiped them away they just kept coming.
She indulged her little sobbing fit for several minutes, until she finally felt like she could calm down and think somewhat rationally again. She took in a deep breath and looked up at the sky, taking in the beauty around her. The plants here were so green and vibrant, just like the community they supported. One thing Nova knew for sure was that whether or not she was at fault in the basestos crisis, she had to do something to help. She could not stand by and let the Zocronians think that she and her crew did not care about them. Contrary to what Daxar said and thought, outsiders could be helpful. They could make a positive difference for Zocrone. And Nova was going to prove it.
In a sudden burst of inspiration and clarity, she knew exactly what she had to do. She ran back out onto the city streets then ran back toward the business district she had visited just the day before. It felt like a lifetime ago now, but she quickly found the shop she was looking for. When she stepped into the electronics repair shop, Merkin was once again behind the counter, just as she’d hoped. He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.
“Well, hello there. I didn’t expect to see you again this soon. I hope this doesn’t mean that your new e-assistant screen isn’t working.”
“The screen works perfectly. I’m here because I need help with something else, and I’m hoping you’ll be able to point me in the right direction.”
“I’ll do my best. What do you need?”
“I need to buy a working spaceship. And fast.”
Merkin raised an eyebrow. “An interesting request. Care to explain any further?”
Nova bit her lip. “If I tell you what I’m doing, you have to promise not to snitch on me to Grumpy Blue.”
Merkin laughed. “I should have known this was all behind Grumpy Blue’s back. Don’t worry, child. I don’t think the Chief is all that interested in talking to me right now, anyway.”
Nova nodded, took a deep breath, and started telling Merkin her plan.
Chapter Eleven
“Dax, you have to calm down and let the humans speak. If you rip into them every time they get two words out, we’re never going to get to the bottom of this.” Kromin had his arms crossed, and a familiar scowl on his face. It was the same scowl he always had when he was fed up with Dax’s temper. Dax’s temper was so out of control right now that he wanted to punch Kromin in the face, like he always did when Kromin had that scowl.
But deep down, he knew Kromin was right. He needed to calm down and listen to the Starship crew. What was left of them, anyway. Nova had stormed off to Jupiter knew where, and as much as he’d tried to act like he didn’t care, he was not happy that she was gone. Of course, the fact that he missed her only made him angrier at himself. He should be hating her right
now, not wishing she would come back. She had proven what he’d known all along, hadn’t she? Outsiders were trouble. He’d let his guard down one time, and now this had happened. Now Zocrone was under threat of complete destruction, and he was reduced to consulting with a group of humans in order to find a solution. He took a deep breath, and tried to look at Evie with an expression that didn’t look completely homicidal.
“Okay. Fine. Please, then, explain to me what you think is going on here.”
Evie looked uncertainly over at Maisie and Anya, as if to ask them if they really thought it was okay to talk to the big blue crazy guy. Maisie gave Evie a slight nod, and so Evie looked back at Daxar and started to try to explain again. Daxar clenched and unclenched his fists, telling himself not to lose it and yell at the poor girl again.
“Well, it’s obvious that the basestos shipment was a setup. The buyer and seller were working together to try and get the basestos here to Zocrone to blow up your city dome, although I’m not sure what their motive for that was.”
“Zekkardite,” Jarmuk interrupted. “I’ll bet you anything they want to take over the Zekkardite mines.”
Daxar nodded. “Take over the old ones and probably break open some new mines. Zekkardite is valuable enough that a whole planet of it would be worth quite a fortune. As we’ve seen in the past, it’s apparently popular to try to kill off our people so that the Zekkardite mines can be taken over.”
Evie frowned. “For a planet that is supposedly under so much threat, you guys don’t seem to have much of a military.”
“Oh, don’t worry. We have a military. And warships. You just don’t see the ships because they’re all in the industrial area. And the military is a bunch of civilians who blend in with everyone else. But they train regularly, and know how to fight. Not to mention, our city dome is nearly indestructible.”
The Alphas of the Seven Galaxies Page 11
