Onyx (A YA SciFi Retelling of Othello)

by Alicia Michaels

  A lavish banquet had been thrown together to celebrate the major’s return, as well as a fortunate occurrence due to the storm—the Matsai ships that had been spotted near Avaron had been caught up in the tempest as well. Almost the entire approaching fleet had been destroyed.

  Reid turned his watery eyes on Isaias and scowled. “Since when do you tell me what to do?”

  “Since I decided to help you get Dia away from that alien bastard,” Isaias muttered. “Besides, I outrank you. So shut up, and drink your beer. Remember the plan.”

  He’d be surprised if Reid remembered his last name after the amount he’d had to drink, but there was no going back now. His need to destroy the major had only increased by the day—and was further exacerbated by the sight of the alien seated at his place of honor, wearing his dress uniform and smiling with the beautiful Dia at his side.

  All around them the banquet commenced, with toasts being shouted out across the long table, and a lavish meal. After the dessert course had been served, the music began and the dance floor started to fill. Declining to join the fun, he crossed the room to where Cronius stood, sipping a glass of water. He gazed across the room at Onyx and Dia, swaying against each other to the music.

  “They look happy,” Isaias murmured.

  Cronius nodded. “He’s a lucky man. Seeing them together reminds me of what I had with Della. I miss that.”

  Isaias reached up and slapped the lieutenant on the shoulder. “Chin up, Lieutenant! This is a night for celebration. How about a drink?”

  Cronius shook his head, a look of determination crossing his face. Everyone knew he’d struggled with alcohol addiction in the past. Now that Isaias knew the man’s wife had died, he understood the reason. It could be exploited quite easily.

  “I don’t drink,” he said. “But thank you.”

  “Oh, come on!” Isaias urged. “One drink won’t hurt. Just a little something to lift your spirits. Seeing them together so happy must hurt for a man who has lost his wife. I cannot imagine that sort of pain.”

  Cronius sighed. “I think I’ll just go back to my quarters.”

  Isaias wrapped an arm around his shoulders, propelling him toward the crowded bar where drinks were being served. “The party’s just getting started! Don’t go to your room. You’ll only get depressed and mope alone.” He raised his hand to catch the bartender’s attention. “Two scotches on the rocks.”

  Cronius leaned against the bar, lowering his head. When the drinks were delivered, he reached out and accepted his without argument.

  Two hours later, Cronius was red-faced and swaggering, lifting his glass along with the other men at the bar, singing at the top of his lungs. Isaias stood back, nursing his second drink, watching the lieutenant come unraveled before his eyes.

  From his left Reid approached, flushed and glassy-eyed, clearly drunk. He made a beeline for Cronius, who had his backed turned and didn’t notice the other soldier’s approach.

  Isaias merely stood back and watched as Reid slammed into Cronius from behind, cursing and swaying on his feet. His face dark as a thundercloud, Cronius turned, his mood suddenly changed as he confronted Reid. The two began arguing, and while Isaias couldn’t hear a word, he knew Reid threw insults at the lieutenant—he knew because he’d urged him to do so. It was common knowledge that one of the reasons Cronius avoided alcohol was because he couldn’t control himself when he drank. He got angrier by the second, and before Isaias knew it, the two had moved from trading words to trading blows.

  Reid swung first, wildly, missing by a mile and careening into his target. Cronius gripped the front of Reid’s uniform and shook him like a rag doll before delivering a perfect left hook. From there, everything exploded into chaos as Reid countered by shoving Cronius against the bar and attempting to crack a bottle upside his head. Cronius blocked the blow, sending the bottle flying and causing it to shatter against another soldier’s temple. The man went down like a lead weight and his companions converged on the fighting pair, turning a simple fistfight into a riot.

  Bottles flew, stools overturned, and curses rang out to mingle with the music as the men fell into a frenzy of bloodlust.

  Isaias found one of the enlisted men from his brigade and took him by the collar. Fixing his face into an appropriate mask of concern, he steered him away from the fight.

  “You need to go find Major Onyx!” he bellowed to be heard over the commotion. “Tell him to come now. Most of the men here are ours, and he is the only one who can get them to fall in line. Hurry up!”

  As the specialist ran off to carry out the request, Isaias found a seat at the banquet table and crossed one leg over the other. Finding a half-empty glass of wine, he lifted it to his lips and took a swallow. It tasted sweet—as sweet as watching the beginning of his plot fall perfectly into place.

  Chapter Five

  Onyx was startled out of sleep by pounding on his door. He jolted upright, temporarily disoriented as he fought to reconcile reality from dream. In his sleep, he’d been back home, in Ethelene. He hadn’t seen its beautiful, desert-like landscape since he was six years old. Yet, he still remembered it vividly—the golden sand dunes and clear, cloudless sky, the caverns filled with Ethelene’s precious gems and minerals; its gleaming, glass buildings reaching up toward the sky like searching fingers; its people, tall, slender and dark like the onyx he’d been named for.

  For a moment, he realized his eyes had filled with tears and homesickness had become a pain deep in his chest. Glancing left, he found Dia beside him and sighed. She looked like the purest, most innocent of creatures in her sleep, eyes closed, lips slightly parted. She stirred as the pounding came again and his name was shouted from the other side.

  “What is it?” she mumbled, eyes still closed.

  He stroked her hair and made to leave the bed. “I don’t know. I’ll find out. You go back to sleep.”

  He knew the last couple of days had to have exhausted her. She’d been worried about him, and had confessed to hardly sleeping at all while he’d been out in deep space, unheard from. He’d tried to transmit several messages to Avaron letting them know he and most of the fleet had survived, but signals were weak because of the storm. He felt guilty for causing her to worry, and made up his mind to do something to make it up to her soon.

  He opened the door, ignoring the shocked expression of the specialist standing on the other side. Undoubtedly, he’d heard of the infamous Major Onyx and was stunned at having his first look at the Ethelene up close. He’d been sleeping without a shirt, and knew the markings and Ethelene tattoos etched into his skin were foreign and strange. Still, he refused to cover himself up to put someone else at ease. His markings were a part of him.

  “Yes?” he said, breaking the man out of his stunned trance.

  “Major,” he replied, blinking and meeting his gaze. “There’s a riot taking place in the banquet hall, started by two of your soldiers.”

  Onyx cursed and turned away from the door, searching the dark room for his uniform.

  “Close the door,” he commanded. “Wait for me. I’ll only be a moment.”

  He dressed quickly. Next to his uniform, Dia’s evening gown lay on the floor, shimmering in the meager light of the moon filtering through their window. He sighed. The night had been spectacular. He’d enjoyed it, mainly because Dia had been with him, looking like an angel in her silver gown, charming generals and influential men and their wives, a perfect complement to his more reserved demeanor. For once he hadn’t felt like an outcast at a social gathering. He’d been less focused on others, and spent his evening enjoying her company. It made the entire thing more bearable.

  Now, some idiot from his platoon had gone and ruined the night, dragging him from his warm bed with his wife.

  He met the captain in the hall and followed him silently to the banquet hall.

  He heard the riot before he saw it—the sound of breaking glass and splintering wood, curses and the thud of fists against flesh. Clenching hi
s teeth, Onyx approached the horde of drunken, brawling shoulders.

  Filling his lungs with air, he allowed his voice to carry in a way he never had.

  “Enough!”

  It bellowed across the room, louder than even the music, bringing all activity to an almost instant halt. It was a skill he’d never needed before—a necessity for the Ethelenians, who often had to speak loudly to be heard over the whipping winds whistling over the sand dunes of their planet. It was yet another one of those things that made him ‘unnatural’ to them. It had come in handy, though.

  The crowd of guilty-looking men all turned toward him. Most of them were his men, as the specialist had reported, and seemed to realize how much trouble they were in the moment they laid eyes on him.

  In their midst was his newly-promoted first lieutenant, Cronius March. The sight of him, so drunk he could barely stand, his face and knuckles bruised, filled Onyx with fury.

  And they call me a barbarian.

  “Have you all gone insane?” he said, more quietly this time. “We are guests in Avaron, and this is how you behave? I am ashamed to claim you as part of my squadron.”

  Heads hung in embarrassment; not one of them responded. Turning, he found his ensign coming toward him from across the room. Unlike the others, he was untouched, and didn’t appear drunk.

  “Captain,” he said as the man reached his side. “Tell me what happened here.”

  Isaias cleared his throat, hands clenched behind his back. “I wouldn’t want to speak against my fellow soldiers, sir. Please don’t ask me to do that.”

  Onyx understood the camaraderie that existed behind his soldiers. To ask his ensign to snitch on them would only make him a pariah. They’d never let him live it down.

  He sighed. “Very well. I want you to oversee the men as they clean up this mess they made.” He turned to glance at the bedraggled bunch. “No one leaves until every piece of glass and broken furniture has been picked up. My ensign will be responsible for ensuring the job is done.” He turned back to Isaias. “Take the day off tomorrow, you’ve earned it. Thank you.”

  “For what, sir?”

  “For not following the crowd,” he replied. “I appreciate that.”

  Glaring at his first lieutenant, who looked as if he wished the floor would open up and swallow him, Onyx scowled. Having his sleep interrupted had him in a foul mood.

  “Lieutenant March!”

  Cronius stepped forward and saluted. “Sir?”

  “I want to see you first thing in the morning. Come in uniform.”

  Several pairs of eyes fixed on Cronius, many in pity. His conduct had put him in a world of trouble, and almost everyone there knew what would come next.

  The lieutenant would be decommissioned.

  Isaias watched the last of the men trickle from the banquet hall just before sunrise. They made a pitiful sight, but he couldn’t feel sorry for them. Things had happened just the way he’d planned, and now he had an opening to influence events further.

  He stood and stretched, crossing the room toward Lieutenant March, the last man in the room besides him.

  “Are you all right, sir?” he asked, putting on his ‘concerned’ mask again.

  Cronius sighed, running a hand through his disheveled hair. “I’m ruined,” he murmured, not meeting Isaias’ gaze. “My career is over.”

  He clapped the officer on the shoulder. “Don’t think that way. Maybe the major has gotten some sleep and will be in a better mood this morning. It’s not too late to fix this.”

  Cronius shook his head. “Everyone knows that once he makes his mind up about something, there is no changing it. Besides, I have no right to make demands of him after what I did. I shouldn’t have let that guy get me all riled up. I don’t even know him! The whole thing was my fault. Drinking… it does things to me, and I knew better.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Isaias encouraged. “You’re a man, and men make mistakes. That might be hard for an Ethelene to understand, but… hmmm…”

  “What?” Cronius asked when he trailed off.

  He tapped his chin with his index finger and pretended to think it over. “Well, I was just thinking… the major is stubborn, but there is one person he listens to. His wife.”

  “Dia? I don’t think involving her is a good idea.”

  “Why not? I heard her telling my wife how grateful she was that you comforted her when the major was missing. I’m sure she’d be happy to speak to him on your behalf. If you can make an ally of her, it will go better for you.”

  Cronius frowned, seeming to think it over. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Just think about it, okay? In the meantime, you’d better to get cleaned up before your meeting with the major.”

  Cronius grasped his shoulder before he could walk off, and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you. I appreciate your kindness. The major is lucky to have you as his ensign.”

  Isaias forced a smile and fought the urge to drive his fist through the face of the man occupying a job that should have been his.

  “Anytime.”

  He and the lieutenant exited the hall together, parting ways at the door. He ran into Reid on his way to his own chamber.

  “There you are,” Reid mumbled, obviously still drunk. “What the hell is the point of your little plan if I’m going to get in trouble and possibly lose my rank?”

  Isaias scowled at him, a reminder to lower his voice. “Don’t be an idiot. You may have a few weeks of extra duty, but nothing worse. You’re enlisted, not an officer, so no one expects much from you anyway. The point was to get Lieutenant March decommissioned, and from the looks of things he will be. Look, I haven’t steered you wrong yet, have I? Just trust me.”

  Reid blinked at him, eyes unfocused. “Yeah… yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “Now go take a shower and sleep it off,” Isaias grumbled. “You smell like a brewery and you look like crap.”

  Reid stumbled off to do his bidding, just another puppet on the strings Isaias manipulated masterfully. Honestly, they all made it so easy.

  Dia pushed her rationed breakfast around on her plate, staring down at the cold food listlessly. After waking up that morning to find her husband in a foul mood, she didn’t have much of an appetite.

  After telling her about the incident that had taken him away from bed last night, Onyx had informed her that he intended to strip Lieutenant March of his commission—a revelation that had horrified her. Cronius March had been a longtime friend of her family, and he wasn’t much older than her brother had been. Aside from that, she’d lost said brother in the same Virus X outbreak he’d lost his wife to. All the families of the dead had gone through dark times, but none darker than Cronius. His wife had been pregnant when the virus took her, and Dia had always admired him for carrying on so bravely after losing his entire family.

  She’d tried to talk Onyx out of his rash decision, but he hadn’t been in the mood to argue with her. He’d dressed quickly in his uniform and left to meet with Cronius. Even though the decision had been made, she still hoped there was something she could do to help.

  “Are you all right?” Ellena appeared at her side, a look of concern on her face.

  Dia shrugged, pushing her plate aside. “Didn’t sleep well last night, and Onyx is in a nasty mood today.”

  Ellena took the chair next to her, her eyes glittering with excitement at the prospect of gossip. “Did it have anything to do with what happened last night after we left the party? I heard there was a riot.”

  Dia sighed. “I heard the same thing. Onyx says the whole thing was started by Lieutenant March, of all people.”

  Ellena shrugged. “Well, that explains it.”

  “Explains what?”

  “The lieutenant came to me just half an hour ago asking me to bring you to him. He wanted to talk to you. Maybe he thinks you can help him get in good with the major.”

  Dia ran a hand through her hair and rested her elbow against the table, then
her head on her hand. “I don’t know if I can do much.”

  “Well, maybe you should see him anyway. He seems really messed up over it.”

  Dia stood and carried her tray to the closest trashcan. She felt a certain responsibility to Cronius for some reason—maybe because the plague of Virus X had intertwined their lives in a way. She understood his loss, and realized it must have something to do with his bizarre behavior the night before. Starting a fight just seemed so unlike him.

  “Where is he?”

  “Hanging out in my chambers,” Ellena answered. “Isaias is gone for the day, so he’s there alone. Now’s the perfect time to talk to him.”

  “Let’s go, then,” Dia replied.

  The two navigated the winding halls of Avaron’s main hub until they reached the officers’ quarters. Ellena and Isaias’ chamber was just across the hall from the quarters she shared with Onyx. They entered the room to find the glass door leading out to the small balcony open. Cronius stood leaning against the rail, his head lowered and his shoulders slumped.

  “I’ll stay in here and give you two a moment,” Ellena offered.

  Dia left her in the small common area of the little apartment and stepped out onto the balcony behind Cronius.

  “Lieutenant,” she said.

  He turned to face her, his face haggard and pinched. He looked as if he hadn’t slept a wink since the night before.

  “Dia,” he answered, forcing a smile. “I’m glad you could come. I hope I’m not getting in the way of any plans you might have had today.”

  Shutting the balcony door behind her, she joined him against the rail. “Of course not. I had hoped I’d run into you anyway. How are you holding up?”

  Cronius exhaled on a heavy sigh and shook his head. “Major Onyx is still very angry with me, as well he should be. I made a real mess of things last night.”

  “Nonsense,” she countered. “My husband might have a temper and a no-nonsense approach to leading, but he’s smart enough to know that people make mistakes. I think that in time, he’ll come to his senses and forgive you.”