by Rinelle Grey
Why did they even bother? They knew his armour made him immune.
Because they were desperate. They knew they couldn’t stop him.
That knowledge made him more confident. All he had to do was get away from them for long enough to fly. Then he could make it to Amelie, who still hovered nearby.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kugah could see two more ships converging on her position, but neither of them fired. They wouldn’t. Not while they had any hope of capturing her alive.
Not while they didn’t know about the wormhole.
Giving up on the stunner, the two Gokak began to smash Kugah in earnest. The first few blows glanced off his armour, but they were strong. The battering soon began to damage his armour.
If he wanted to get out of here, he was going to have to do more than resist.
He was going to have to fight.
Kugah lifted his arm, and the Gokak hanging off it was lifted into the air. Kugah swung his spur at the Gokak, knocking him off, and to the ground. The man grunted, and didn’t move.
The memory of the Gokak he had killed, so long ago, rose up in Kugah’s mind. He had hated himself for that, all this time. Suddenly, that hatred seemed ludicrous. The Gokak had enslaved his world, and his people. They didn’t deserve his respect or his kindness. If the Sofana had fought back, the Gokak would have killed them without remorse.
Kugah need feel no remorse for fighting for his freedom.
The other Gokak looked nervous, but waded into the fray despite his obvious misgivings. This one wasn’t stupid enough to grab Kugah’s arm, he went straight in, head-butting Kugah in the midriff and wrapping his arms tightly around Kugah’s waist.
He obviously hadn’t thought this plan through, since this left both of Kugah’s spurs free. He only needed one to drive into the Gokak’s belly.
The Gokak gave a guttural cry as he fell.
Kugah looked around, but none of the others had managed to escape the Ta-Sofana who were distracting them.
Leaving Kugah with a clear run to Amelie and the ship. All he had to do was take off, and hope she realised she needed to open the door mid-flight. If she landed, they had no chance.
But something held him back.
The Ta-Sofana.
They’d saved him, risking themselves in the process. Every single one of them would be reprogrammed after this. They wouldn’t even remember their rebellion.
Somehow, he felt a responsibility to his people. It would be easy to argue that they’d brought this on themselves by surrendering without a fight, but that wouldn’t make him feel any better.
Nor did he trick himself into believing he could do any good. He was just one person. One person who, if he remained, would be reprogrammed as readily as any of the others putting up a resistance here. Maybe even more so.
He couldn’t even do any good. But neither could he just turn his back on his people. Not when they were putting up the first resistance he’d ever seen from them.
“What are you waiting for? Get out of here!” the nearest Ta-Sofana grunted.
“What about you?” Kugah asked. “What about all of the Sofana?”
“We’ll do what we’ve always done,” the Sofana said, a trace of bitterness in his voice. “Sit and be patient while the Gokak change who we are piece by piece. What they don’t realise is that one day, we’re going to change enough to fight back. That day isn’t today. Not for us. But it is for you.”
Kugah hesitated, but the Sofana’s words just rammed home what he already knew. The Sofana weren’t ready to fight. He could gain nothing by staying.
Maybe one day he could return.
He filed that resolve away in the back of his mind. Right now, he had his own life to sort out. And that of Amelie’s people.
His people.
As he spread his wings to fly up to the ship where Amelie waited, his heart filled with the realisation that it was true. He felt as much responsibility towards the humans as he did towards his own people. Maybe more.
The humans, at least, were prepared to fight for what they believed in.
Before he had any chance of helping his own people, he needed to learn more. And he knew the perfect teachers.
As he neared the spaceship door, it slid open.
Kugah flapped carefully, angling his body forwards so that he could grip the handles just inside the door, before folding his wings and pulling himself inside. The door slid shut behind him with a snap, and he could feel the movement as the ship lifted into the air.
They’d made it.
Almost.
Chapter 33
Jubilation filled Amelie as Kugah slid into the seat beside her. Along with a smattering of nerves. Two Gokak ships hovered close by, and there wasn’t time to switch controls. It wasn’t that she couldn’t fly competently. As a Space Force officer, she’d had basic flight training. But she was rusty enough that she wasn’t confident she could dodge enemy fire.
Celebrating would have to wait until they were safely home.
She turned the ship around and headed up and out of the planet’s atmosphere, where they could open a wormhole.
The two other ships followed.
Amelie’s heart thumped. “Do we have any weapons?” she demanded. She had no idea. She certainly didn’t know how to operate them if it did.
Kugah shook his head. “No.”
Before she could ask what they could do, the radio buzzed, and the alien’s strange, clipped voices filled the room, sending a shiver up Amelie’s spine. Were they threatening to fire on them?
“What are they saying?” Amelie asked nervously. Not that it really mattered. They’d already been discovered.
Kugah held up the tablet. “Nothing important. Keep flying.”
Amelie nodded. That’s what she was going to do anyway.
The two ships broke through the atmosphere right behind them. Apparently, they just intended to follow them. Probably a sound strategy, since they knew the capabilities of the ship Kugah flew.
But they didn’t know about the AWP.
Not wasting any time, Amelie fired it up, and the wormhole appeared right in front of them. She sailed into it without stopping, breathing a sigh of relief.
They were safe.
Beside her, Kugah growled. And it wasn’t a growl of relief.
Amelie looked over at him, and he pointed out the window.
Flying right alongside them, inside the wormhole, was one of the alien ships.
Amelie’s heart dropped, and her hands wavered on the controls. She glanced quickly out the other window, but only one of the ships appeared to have made it into the wormhole.
Then again, one ship was as dangerous as two when they had no weapons.
“What are we going to do?”
Before Kugah had time to answer, they were exiting the wormhole.
They’d done exactly what Tyris had been afraid off all along. Brought the aliens right to the Resolution.
How could she have done this? Ahead of them, the Resolution hung there in space, waiting for them to return. Trusting them to save them. Trusting her.
On the other side of Kugah’s ship, the alien spaceship was silhouetted against stars.
Why hadn’t she thought that the alien ships might follow them into the wormhole. Why hadn’t she put in a different set of coordinates, just in case?
Because she didn’t have any. Glesin had rammed home the fact that they couldn’t jump without knowing what would be at the coordinates on the other end of the wormhole. They could land right inside a planet or star. Even the middle of that star about to go supernova that Glesin had mentioned.
That was when the idea came to her. An idea so daring that it blew her breath away.
Would it work?
Could it work?
Since she didn’t have any other ideas, it was worth a shot. It was better than the alternatives anyway.
“Kugah, I need you to convince them to follow us,” she said firmly.
Ku
gah stared at her for a moment. “We can’t risk them returning home,” he typed swiftly on the tablet. “The Gokak will have the location to your ship. They will never stop chasing you.”
She knew it. “I’m not sending them home.” She pulled up the AWP controls, her fingers shaking as she entered the coordinates.
The alien voices filled the cockpit again.
Kugah didn’t have time to type more questions. He spoke back in the same language, the guttural voice grating on Amelie’s nerves. She shook it off. She trusted Kugah. He’d proved his loyalty a thousand times over.
The aliens argued back and forth a few times. Amelie’s hand hovered over the button to create the wormhole, waiting.
Kugah nodded. “Go,” he said.
Amelie’s other hand gripped his, and she whispered, “I love you, Kugah,” her throat constricting.
Kugah stared back, and she didn’t need to hear the words to know he felt the same.
She exhaled, and hit the button to open the wormhole, watching as it formed in front of them. She waited for things to go wrong, but the event horizon didn’t so much as shimmer.
It didn’t look any different. Had it worked?
Either way, it would be better than here.
Neither ship moved.
“They need to go first,” Amelie said urgently. “Not us.”
Kugah barked something at the aliens.
They didn’t even bother replying. Amelie held her breath while they turned their ship around, and flew straight into the wormhole.
Amelie stared at the vortex, half expecting them to come straight back out, even though she was pretty sure they weren’t going to.
She pressed the button to disconnect the wormhole.
Nothing happened.
Amelie uttered a curse she’d learned from Tyris.
Why hadn’t it occurred to her that this might happen?
Kugah typed a message. “Why isn’t it shutting off?”
Amelie swallowed. “Because the other end is connected to the sun that’s going to go supernova.”
Chapter 34
“You did what?” Tyris demanded from his wheelchair. He’d insisted on coming down to the briefing room to participate in the discussion, but Karla had apparently refused to let him walk. “Do you have any idea of the damage that could do?” He rubbed the back of his neck.
Amelie winced. But it wasn’t like she’d had a lot of options.
“Would you rather have the alien ship right here, pointing its weapons at us, when we have none?” Amelie said dryly.
“I’m sure there must have been a better option,” Tyris insisted.
Kugah just stood next to her, not saying anything, but his quiet presence supported her nonetheless.
“I’m not seeing one,” she said, her hands on her hips. She looked around at the rest of the Resolution senior staff, but no one was offering any suggestions.
Tyris ran his hand through his hair, but didn’t argue. Instead, he turned to Glesin. “Are we likely to see any effects from this?”
Glesin hesitated. “Well, it’s not exactly like anyone has ever done anything like this before.” He actually grinned at Amelie and Kugah, as though he was kind of impressed. “But so far, there doesn’t appear to be any negative consequences. The star still appears stable, although it’s a mystery why the wormhole won’t close. I’ll keep monitoring it.”
Amelie breathed a sigh of relief, echoed by several other people in the room.
The relief was short lived. Glesin kept talking. “However, if the star collapses in on itself, I suspect we’ll see something more.”
“What will we see?” Tyris demanded.
This time, Glesin looked solemn. “I can’t say for certain, as I said, this has never been witnessed before. But I believe that the existence of the wormhole as the star collapses will almost certainly form a black hole.”
There was a complete silence in the room. Amelie strongly suspected that no one was breathing. She knew she wasn’t.
Tyris swore. “I think I would have preferred the aliens with guns.”
Amelie wasn’t so sure. “I had no idea that this was going to happen,” she argued. “Would you have guessed it?”
She had plenty more arguments where those came from, but Tyris waved a hand at her. “Of course you didn’t. No point arguing over whose fault it was. Hopefully we’ll be long gone before that happens.”
“We can’t go anywhere without a way to protect everyone from the radiation from the wormhole,” she reminded him.
Tyris nodded. As if he needed reminding. “First though, we need to heal everyone.”
Amelie nodded. That she could do. She hoped. “We need a volunteer,” she said. “Someone who’s willing to go first.”
She looked around the room, not surprised to see faces looking nervous. It was a big ask, being the first to trial Kugah’s machine. It was one thing to volunteer for a technology you understood, but this was far riskier.
“I’ll do it,” Tyris said, when no one else spoke up.
“You can’t, bro,” Kerit responded immediately. “You’re the captain. We need you. I’ll do it.”
The interaction was so typical of the two brothers that Amelie couldn’t help smiling.
Neither could Tyris. “Kerit it is then,” he agreed.
Amelie nodded. “I’ll do Kerit’s treatment today. Then I think we should wait a few days just in case there are any side effects that we can’t see initially.”
“I understand that’s the ideal situation,” Tyris said quietly, “but can we afford to wait?”
Amelie nodded. “The ageing is halted, and everyone’s condition has been stabilised. A few more days isn’t going to hurt anyone. And if there are side effects, it could give us a chance to adjust our treatment to avoid any unnecessary risks.”
Tyris nodded. “As long as you feel it’s safe, I’ll agree with waiting.”
Amelie’s heart beat a little faster. He’d agreed. And if they were waiting anyway, there was no reason for Kugah to wait any longer. “While we are waiting, I think we could make use of that time by helping Kugah undergo his own transformation.”
Tyris’s frown was immediate. “Is that why you suggested waiting?” he demanded, his voice rough. “I brought you along on this trip because I trusted you to do what was best for everyone, but lately all I seem to see is indications that your loyalty has shifted. I ignored them, trusting you, and believing you were on our side. But this one I can’t let slide. I can’t believe you tried to convince me to put off the treatment of patients under your care, patients who are seriously sick, because you have a thing for an alien.”
Amelie stared at Tyris, dumbstruck, for the length of his tirade, unable to think clearly enough to formulate a response. But his last line hit too close to the bone.
Kugah let out a growl, and begin to type furiously on the tablet, but Amelie wasn’t waiting for his response. This wasn’t about Kugah, it was about her.
Tyris had done it. He’d challenged her right in front of everyone.
Well, at least he’d finally said what he really believed. Now they could sort this out. No more hiding. No more pretending.
Amelie’s hand went to the dolphin hanging at her throat, and the little creature, as well as Folly and Kerit’s support, gave her the courage to straighten her back and look Tyris straight in the eye. “I made my recommendation to wait based on sound scientific and medical practice. In reality, if the situation weren’t so dire, I’d be suggesting waiting several weeks. I certainly didn’t suggest it to create an excuse for Kugah to have his treatment.”
Tyris opened his mouth to say something, but Amelie continued on before he could. She still had a lot more to say. “However, since we’re talking about Kugah, how about we talk about the risks he’s taken to help us, all without asking for anything in return. He nearly killed himself giving us his blood for goodness sake. Then he returned to a planet where an enemy alien race had experimented on him,
and even when it looked like he wasn’t going to escape, he risked his life to make sure we had the code we needed to save our people. And you’re objecting to taking two days, two days in which we shouldn’t use the machine anyway, to help him return his body to the one he was born with? Listen to yourself for a minute Tyris. We owe Kugah.”
She took a deep breath, trying to stop her voice from shaking. Everyone was staring at her, their eyes bright, even Tyris. “I think it’s time for us to show him that we can make sacrifices for him too. That we can give back to him what he has given to us.”
“I think it’s time for us to accept him as one of us.”
Kugah stood frozen, staring at her.
Everyone was staring at her, and Amelie had to gulp great gasps of air, in an attempt to not burst into tears.
Kerit spoke up. “I agree with Amelie.”
Amelie shot him a grateful look. She knew she could count on Kerit.
But would Tyris see her point?
Marlee put out a hand, awkward because of the two babies she held, and touched Tyris’s arm.
He looked down at his wife for a moment, and a silent communication passed between them.
Then he looked back at Amelie, and heaved a sigh. “You love him, don’t you?”
This time, Amelie’s eyes did fill with tears. She couldn’t trust her voice to speak, so she just nodded.
Kugah reached out to take her hand, a show of silent support.
Tyris smiled at both of them. “Then let’s do this.”
Chapter 35
Kugah bent over Amelie, her sweet scent filling his nose, as she stared at the controls of the Metamorphosis Device. Explaining how the machine worked without being able to speak her language was a challenge. He occasionally wondered if it would be quicker if they completed his metamorphosis first. Then he could help her more easily.
But her people were already giving up so much to let him have the time he needed. If they could get Kerit’s treatment completed first, then the time he spent in the machine was at least progressing something for them. She’d already argued for him to go second, and that filled him with enough dread.
