A Shifting Alliance (Galaxy Ascendant Book 3)

by Yakov Merkin

  “Alright, you three ready?” Asharra asked.

  “Ready, Captain,” one of the commandos replied, as Jahl nodded.

  “Good. We’ll need to move quickly; I don’t want this to take any longer than it absolutely has to.”

  That said, Asharra led the way, through the dense vegetation, toward the machinery, her eyes alternating between what was in front of her and the holomap.

  The journey wasn’t long, and apart from some irritating insects, they were unchallenged.

  “Weapons ready,” she whispered as they prepared to enter the open area where the work was being done.

  Once she readied her own rifle, Asharra sprung out, weapon leveled, but there was nothing there. No people, at least.

  “What a dangerous mission we’ve found for ourselves,” Jahl remarked.

  “Could be a trap,” said one of the commandos.

  “Doubtful,” Jahl said. “Shouldn’t we get started here?”

  “Yes, we should,” Asharra replied after a few moments. Unless her eyes were deceiving her, there was some kind of ancient structure embedded in the rock face not far from them, near the excavation machinery, which suspiciously did not seem to be near any piles of excavated materials that could be used for construction, just general dirt and stone.

  As the men started to place the bombs, Asharra ventured closer to the structure, then froze. She recognized this place, kind of. She had never been to this specific moon, but the design of the structure, which was built into the rock face itself, was painfully familiar. This was a Noalii monastery, and an ancient one at that.

  Unable to stop herself, Asharra walked inside, and immediately glared at the emptiness. The signs were clear that this place had been recently ransacked; places where it was obvious a statue or pedestal had long stood stuck out to her, and pieces of modern equipment and trash littered the smooth, stone floor.

  “Captain?” She heard Jahl call from outside.

  She ignored him for the moment, and before she could stop herself, Asharra opened herself to the Shift.

  She inhaled sharply as the familiar, welcome feeling rushed through her body. How could she keep denying herself something this amazing?

  A few moments later, after the initial rush, her mind calmed down slightly and she reached out, feeling the recent but rapid changes that had taken place here. Asharra felt her anger at the monastery’s desecration grow with every moment that she, in a sense, saw it happen. It wasn’t enough that the Guardians had been all but wiped out? Now their last traces were being treated like this?”

  Distantly, Asharra heard Jahl, now closer, calling for her, but all her mind could focus on was the monastery. It felt like happening upon an old, beloved haunt, only to see it had been torn up.

  “Well, well, well,” said an unfamiliar female voice, and Asharra’s eyes snapped open.

  She immediately found the speaker, a Revittan woman emerging from the shadows. The woman had a very smug smirk on her face, and she was clearly enjoying the moment.

  “When Lord Tavas ordered me to wait here, I honestly thought I’d end up wasting my time. But he insisted that one of you would be drawn to this dump. And now, I get to catch the first Noalii refugee in more than a year!”

  “Captain Saral—” Asharra heard Jahl call as he ran inside, only to stop short. “Uh, who is this? Friend of yours?”

  “Saral? That’s the name you’re going by?” Asked the woman as she slinked forward, and reached for an object on the belt of her extremely form-fitting black jumpsuit. “Not the most inventive alias, Asharra Sirrad.”

  Asharra stepped back. “How—”

  The woman laughed. “There are those who know your face, Noalii. He was almost certain it was you back on the prison ship, but you were out of his grasp before he could confirm his hunch. Now,” she went on as she stepped closer, and Asharra saw that her eyes were glowing red, “it’s time for you to come with me, quietly or noisily. Personally, I prefer the latter; I’m supposed to take you alive, but I can… damage you as needed. And I would very much enjoy—”

  She shrieked and dove to the side as several plasma blasts shot across the room. Asharra turned toward Jahl, the source of the shots.

  “Well, come on!” He shouted. “I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but I want no part of it.”

  Asharra hesitated, then, acting on the subconscious instinct only the Shift could confer, spun away from several razor-sharp shards of stone that erupted from the wall to her side. Before she could say a word, however, the black-clad woman was lunging toward her, a long, narrow, violet blade extending from the focuser she wore on her right hand.

  Acting purely on instincts honed long ago, Asharra drew on the Shift, and caused a small section of floor beneath her attacker to suddenly become slick.

  The woman slipped, and dismissed her blade as she used her hands to catch herself.

  Asharra reached into one of the compartments on her belt, pulled out her own focuser, pulled it onto her hand, and activated her own blade. It had been far too long since she’d held the blue-green energy blade in her hand, but in that instance, it felt as though it had never left; the very faint vibration she felt in her hand, the smell the searing hot energy produced was as much a natural part of her as her own hand.

  With a shout, Asharra lunged at her attacker, altering her blade from its natural straight shape to one curved almost like an archaic cutlass, and brought it down toward the woman’s head.

  An instant before the blade struck, the woman raised her hand and reformed her blade into a short, two-pronged shape which caught Asharra’s own blade.

  The woman twisted her arm, pulling Asharra forward, and suddenly the floor beneath her jerked up, sending Asharra flying over the Revittan woman, who immediately followed up by reshaping her blade into a long, narrow shape and thrust forward.

  Asharra barely avoided it, the impossibly hot energy blade grazing and singeing the side of her body armor, then rolled clear and sprung to her feet.

  The Revittan looked her in the eye, grinned wildly, and charged once more.

  Asharra quickly lost herself in the dance of the fight, simultaneously drawing on the Shift herself and letting it guide her movements as she and the mystery woman weaved around each other, blades clashing, and subtle manipulations of the Shift trying to trip, trap, or wound the other.

  Where had this woman learned to manipulate the Shift so adeptly? Could she have been a Noalii that let herself become corrupted and serve the Empire, or was she someone with the talent that Tavas had trained himself? Whoever she was, she was good, and as out of practice as she was, Asharra found herself on the defensive, getting knocked around by the woman’s manipulations as her focus shifted entirely to avoiding getting hit. It that could only go on for so long.

  Then, suddenly, Asharra stepped back and felt her foot sink into a hole that had to have been caused by her enemy’s manipulations, and found herself falling to the floor, her ankle twisting at an improper angle.

  She raised her blade to parry that of the Revittan’s, but she was too slow, and it sliced along her side, cutting through armor and flesh with ease.

  Asharra screamed, her blade vanishing along with her focus, and did the only thing she could, summon a blast of pure Shift energy, and sent the Revittan flying back.

  She rose to her feet and immediately was forced down to one knee as pain shot through her side. Gritting her teeth, and clutching her side, Asharra forced herself to stand up, and began to move toward her fallen foe. She had to end this.

  “Captain,” said Jahl. “Arvah, Asharra, whatever your name really is,” he went on as Asharra ignored him, “we need to go. You’re hurt, and the main team just told me that Imperial forces are converging on my ship, and that a distress call was sent out. We don’t have time.”

  “I need answers,” Asharra said as she re-ignited her blade and advanced toward the Revittan, who was starting to rise, speaking both to her and Jahl. “How does Tavas know w
ho I am?” Asharra reached out and hardened the air around the Revittan, trapping her in a crouch. “Tell me what you know!”

  “I don’t speak with dead women,” the Revittan snapped back, then, after somehow breaking free, extended her arms toward Asharra.

  Asharra reacted too slowly. What felt like thousands of stinging needle points shot into her, and Asharra dropped to the ground with a cry of pain, arms covering her face. Then she heard a tremendous cracking sound, and looked up to see a massive pillar start to collapse toward her.

  Then, suddenly, she felt herself being pulled, and as the stone crashed to the floor, sending shards and dust everywhere, someone dove on top of her.

  “We’re leaving,” Jahl said loudly and firmly as he got off of her.

  Asharra looked back toward where the Revittan woman had been. She wanted to argue, but the smuggler was right. She accepted his offered hand and stood up, but again, the wound in her side forced her down.

  “Go,” she said. “I’ll hold her off.”

  “I don’t think so, Captain.” Without another word, Jahl grabbed her by the waist and threw her over his shoulder, then began to run toward the exit.

  Asharra’s objection was cut off as, from her new, undignified position, she saw the Revittan, stumbling and coughing, start to emerge from the dust cloud.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” the woman said as she extended a hand, but she was immediately cut off by several plasma bolts to the chest, and, with a shocked look on her faced, collapsed without a word.

  “We’re getting out of here!” Jahl shouted, and Asharra saw them pass the two commandos that had just killed the Revittan woman, and they immediately began to jog behind them.

  A few minutes later, she heard explosions behind them, likely the charges placed on the equipment, and as they neared the ship, weapons fire became audible as well.

  “Get on board!” Jahl yelled as he ran past the commandos arrayed defensively around the ship.

  He carried Asharra through the still disarmingly sweet-smelling ship to the cockpit, then set her down in the copilot’s seat. “You can still shoot, right?”

  Asharra nodded silently as she tried to focus herself on the here and now, then reached over and grabbed the weapons controls in a vice grip.

  Before long, the ship lifted off, and shot up toward space. No sooner had they broken orbit than a pair of Imperial warships dropped out of hyperspace.

  Jahl cursed. “Hang on,” he called to everyone, then maneuvered the ship to fly below the warships.

  “You’re putting us in range of most of the weapons,” Asharra said.

  “And out of range of their tractor beams. They’ll try and catch us first. Let me worry about the warships, you worry about the fighters.”

  There were, indeed, more than two dozen of them streaking toward the ship. “We can’t take on that many,” Asharra said.

  “Of course not. Just hold them off until I can get us to hyperspace.”

  Asharra channeled her anger toward the fighters, and immediately sighted and destroyed the first one to come in range as Jahl tried to maneuver and plot a hyperspace jump at the same time.

  Asharra took out two more as the squadrons closed to firing range, but they were too fast and numerous. The ship began to shake as it began to take hits. “Just a little longer!” Jahl shouted as Asharra saw him throw the hyperspace levers.

  Nothing happened, however.

  “Something’s wrong with your ship,” she said.

  “No, no, she’s fine, we’re fine,” Jahl muttered, then hit the console one, two, three times, after which the ship lurched forward and jumped to hyperspace.

  “Some ship you’ve got here,” Asharra said as she leaned back and gingerly touched her side.

  “Hey, she got us out of there as planned. What I want to know is what got into your head back in that ruin.”

  Asharra shook her head, sighed, and closed off her connection to the Shift again, as good as it felt to have opened herself to it again. “I don’t want to talk about it.” She paused. “Thank you, for getting me out of there. Even if you did get handsy.”

  Jahl smirked. “What woman doesn’t like getting picked up and carried by a good-looking guy like me?”

  “You’re lucky I don’t have much strength at the moment, smuggler,” Asharra said sharply, though she couldn’t prevent herself from flushing a bit, and Jahl clearly noticed.

  “I’ve always considered myself lucky,” he replied. “I’ve got a medkit here, by the way; that burn looks nasty.”

  Asharra looked down at her side, and immediately wished she hadn’t. “Yes, that would be appreciated.”

  As Jahl retrieved the kit, Asharra gingerly removed her ruined armor and let it drop to the floor.

  “You mind taking off that focuser?” He asked while opening the kit.

  “You… you know what this is?” Asharra asked, raising her right hand.

  “What do you think I am, an idiot? The Empire isn’t nearly as good at hiding information as it thinks it is,” he replied. “What I do want to know is how a Noalii has survived this long after the purge.”

  Asharra sighed. “I guess I owe you, seeing as you did save me back there. But it can’t leave this cockpit. No one, not even rebel command, knows.”

  “Why not?” Jahl removed some cleaning solution, disinfectant, and a medpack. “I’d think having a Noalii they could use would be a great help, especially seeing as what you did back there.”

  Asharra shook her head vigorously and pulled off the focuser. “No, they cannot know. If the Empire learned what I am, they would divert even more effort to crushing us. It’d make anything we’ve dealt with before seem like a joke. Lord Tavas himself would lead that operation, and I’m no match for him.”

  “Alright, alright, I get it. So I suppose that’s why you don’t go by Asharra any more?”

  Asharra nodded. “Too many people would recognize that name. Please, do not call me that, ever. It’s too dangerous.”

  He grinned. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’ll keep it between us. Now, lift your shirt up.”

  “What?”

  “I’d assume you don’t want me to put the bandage over it, and potentially get burned pieces of fabric stuck in the wound, right? It’s not like I asked you to take it off, just raise it above the cut. Unless you want to, of course. I won’t mind. Interesting that that’s where your mind went—”

  “Just fix this,” Asharra hissed as she lifted the shirt above the wound. It was way too hot in this cockpit, and she needed to get some real rest.

  “So is there anything else you’d like to share, seeing as I already know your name and that you’re a Noalii Guardian?” Jahl asked as he used a cloth and disinfectant to clean the burn area. It stung, but he was far more gentle than Asharra would have expected.

  “Was,” she corrected. “I left the order before they were annihilated, for reasons I do not feel like sharing now.”

  “Suit yourself. We’ve got plenty of time till we get back to base if you change your mind.”

  Asharra felt something cold press against her side, and inhaled sharply as she looked down to see Jahl placing the medpack. That was quick. Almost immediately the pack’s painkillers began to kick in, and Asharra relaxed further.

  “There, good as new,” Jahl said as he patted her on the leg, then began to repack the medkit. “At worst, you’ll have a neat scar to tell people about. Can’t imagine there are many people around these days that were cut by a shiftblade and lived to talk about it.”

  “Just another for the collection,” she murmured as the side effects of the painkiller kicked in, and, combined with her general fatigue, she drifted off to sleep.

  CHAPTER 34

  “All attack groups, move to engage the enemy at point blank range,” Nayasar ordered.

  The tide might be turning again. Between their new broad plan to keep the enemy occupied fighting at multiple locations while the major offensive was organized, a
nd their new, small group operations tactic, they had finally managed to score victories against the Revittan fleet under the command of Grand Admiral Sai’var, though he was not believed to have been personally commanding the enemy fleets at any of those engagements.

  This attack, more of a raid, really, was just the latest installment of that. They were here to destroy Imperial supply depots on the surface of the planet, as well as to take out the handful of dry docks that had been set up in orbit in a bid to decentralize their maintenance infrastructure.

  “Take us in,” Nayasar ordered, and the Felinar shot toward the relatively small defense force, which they also hoped to completely destroy or disable. The enemy still had a significant numerical advantage, and every ship the Alliance could remove from the equation of that large battle they planned to force would help their chances.

  “Srei Felitzvah, we may have a problem,” the Felinar’s sensor officer, Lieutenant-Commander Aleh, said shortly after they began to engage the enemy.

  “I’m picking up numerous ship signatures down on the planet, behind the energy shield. It may well be that they are planning to attempt to shuttle out many of the supplies.”

  And they would be certain to send the ships out via the far side of the planet. And me without enough ships to blockade the place.

  “Open a channel to Admiral Ceraz.”

  “Channel open.”

  “Admiral, we have a new development,” Nayasar began. “We believe the enemy is going to attempt to shuttle out of many of the supplies we came here to destroy. I need you to take half of your force to the far side of the planet, where they will likely try and escape from.” The Felinar shook slightly as it took a few hits, and when Nayasar paused, the admiral jumped in.

  “We are jointly in command here, Grand Admiral, may I remind you. Surely, seeing as your ships are faster, they would be better suited for that task.”

  It took a lot of effort not to sigh and roll her eyes. “My ships are all currently engaging the enemy. We cannot simply pull back under fire and circle the planet.”