The Mercenary (The War Chronicles Book 1)

by Petra Landon

  “Trying to do a good deed, Saakshi?” Jolar teased her. “Your real job not keeping you busy enough? Perhaps you should have a chat with the Station Commander, Zoran.”

  Saakshi noted with relief that Zoran’s expression had lightened at her words and Jolar’s teasing.

  I was pining for you – the server job was merely a desperate attempt to escape the loneliness.

  Saakshi took a deep breath. She knew what she had to do - banish that blandly dispassionate expression from Zoran’s face.

  “With the Juntafeyore docked here, I doubt I’ll have my evenings free.” She tried to be nonchalant. Saakshi had been going for bold, but the words came out rather shyly.

  Jolar shot her another mischievously amused glance, but this one was threaded with a strong suggestion of approval. He left them alone with a muttered excuse after a quick glance at his friend’s countenance.

  “I doubt you will. I plan to make very sure of it” murmured Zoran in a deep voice, the scratchy quality of his voice reminding Saakshi of other times between them.

  Saakshi flushed at the look in his dark eyes, relishing the brief hint of his feelings he allowed her to see. He held out his hand to her and she crossed the few steps to put her much smaller palm into his where it lay swallowed up by his larger one.

  “Come, tseriya, let me walk you back to your chamber” he said quietly, his eyes gazing down at her from his much greater height.

  Saakshi allowed herself to be walked out by her tseriya after a quick goodbye aimed in Jolar’s general direction, her heart finally at ease after the revelations and turmoil of the last hour.

  The three nights before the Station Commander’s bash flashed by quickly for Saakshi. Her stint at BelDaap was nearing its end. She was serving out the last ten days of her notice, with one night off for the party. The evening hours at the alehouse in addition to her day job left her exhausted at the end of each day. Zoran presented himself at BelDaap every night, to share the last meal of the day with her at the Sustenance Pavilion on the station. Usually accompanied by his mercenaries at BelDaap, Zoran would ensure that it was only him and occasionally Jolar who joined Saakshi for the evening meal and conversation. From hints he let fall, Saakshi concluded that the Juntafeyore sailed away during the day on the Alliance Commander’s business. But Zoran made sure to dock at TF124 every evening before Saakshi finished her shift at the alehouse.

  He seemed relaxed for the first time since renewing their acquaintance. Back to his usual easygoing self with her, he would tease her in his laidback way and ask her about her work with the rebels. But he made no attempt to initiate a more intimate relationship between them. Yet Saakshi was happy, partly because she sensed that Zoran was content. Occasionally, she would catch Jolar watching them with mild speculation, but mostly he radiated indulgent approval at his Captain and Saakshi. On the last night before the party, Jolar excused himself after dinner, leaving Saakshi and Zoran by themselves. Zoran walked Saakshi to her chamber as usual, before handing her a package he had been carrying with him. The package was wrapped simply in plain white paper. Saakshi glanced uncertainly at him, unsure how to react.

  “I asked Jolar to get it from your dormitory before he left Keeyor 9. He was able to recover it with Pik’s assistance. I thought you might like to wear it tomorrow” he explained steadily before bidding her a quiet good night to walk away.

  Once inside her chamber, Saakshi tore open the package curiously, to find the gossamer fine Terilian dress that Zoran had gifted her on Keeyor 9. It brought forth memories of her reaction to his beautiful and expensive gift, as well as his response to her hasty reaction. This time, Saakshi wowed, things would be different. She would make sure that Zoran understood how much she valued his gift to her.

  Saakshi and Sila hovered at the entrance to the vast chamber that had been transformed with flowers and lights for the party. Sila wore a beautiful bright-colored gown that she’d informed Saakshi represented her home planet of Terra Agri 5. Saakshi wore Zoran’s beautiful indigo Terilian silk dress with the matching delicate sandals, her only embellishment her pura tenar band on the left bicep. They were only a half hour late, and yet the room overflowed with guests – administrative personnel, Budheya rebels and Hadari’Kor involved in the mission. The Station Commander, arrayed smartly in a formal version of his TF124 uniform, mingled with his guests, flitting from group to group with an effortless charm Saakshi had not previously associated with him.

  There was a brief hush in the conversation as the two ladies drew the attention of the guests. The Station Commander hurried forward to welcome them, and the hum of conversation resumed again. The Commander’s gracious and unaffected welcome put the ladies at ease in short order, and they soon found themselves ensconced amidst a small group of Budheya. Most Budheya were acquainted with Sila from the sculpture classes she conducted twice a week on the station. Saakshi was soon at her ease amongst her new friends, and thus not caught too off guard when Jolar and Zoran approached their group. But when Sila greeted Zoran familiarly like an old acquaintance, Saakshi’s astonishment was clear.

  “Captain Hadari-Begur-Kor came to my aid at great personal risk when I was in desperate need of assistance” Sila explained to Saakshi, correctly interpreting her friend’s surprise.

  Although the words were directed at her friend, all conversation in the group ceased immediately as the rebels’ attention focused on the two females. The rebels were cognizant of the station gossip about the attention the Hadari’Kor Captain had been paying to their Budheya Personnel Coordinator. Saakshi was a figure of immense curiosity to the rebels – a Budheya employed at an Alliance station and moreover, a Budheya, well informed about the prevailing conditions on their home world. Some of the rebels also felt protective of the young Budheya girl who helped them adapt to the alien conditions here, who was always ready with a smile for anyone in need of assistance, and who seemed to be alone on this station.

  “Nehlia Saakshi, are you acquainted with the Captain, too?” Taynor, one of the older rebels, politely addressed Saakshi.

  Saakshi claimed acquaintance with Zoran without hesitation. The rebels’ response made their curiosity abundantly clear. She launched into an explanation after a brief glance at Zoran’s impassive face and watchful eyes.

  “The Captain came to my aid as well on a space station called Keeyor 9” she explained succinctly.

  “How did you end up on a Keeyori space station?” a younger male impetuously exclaimed.

  “I was incarcerated in a Ketaari prison on Budheyasta, when they sold my prison contract to a trader on Keeyor 9” Saakshi said.

  A sudden silence descended on the group at her matter-of–fact explanation. Even Sila, curious about her friend but always respectful of her privacy, gazed at Saakshi with appalled sympathy. The Ketaari were known to be brutal to their prisoners.

  “One day, a Ketaari Unta-Golar came to the alehouse where I worked as a server on the station. When the Unta-Golar started harassing me, I asked the Captain for assistance. The Captain was a frequent patron to the alehouse I worked at, although I’d never spoken to him before. He made sure that the Unta-Golar never harassed me again” Saakshi said simply, unaware that she was staring straight into Zoran’s dark eyes as she revealed a simple version of their story to her captive audience.

  The Budheya rebels, most of whom had a passing acquaintance with Ketaari prisons and all of whom were fully aware of how the Ketaari treated the Budheya, gazed at Zoran with new found respect.

  “Why did the Ketaari imprison you?” Taynor asked after a brief pause, his voice heavy with implication that the Ketaari usually needed no excuse to lock up Budheya in their prisons.

  “For suspicion of helping the resistance” Zoran replied smoothly before Saakshi could answer the query. Two could play at this game, he thought in amusement. If his little Budheya was on a mission to have her Budheya friends acknowledge his role in her good fortune, then he would make damn sure they knew about her contribution
to their cause.

  “You were in the resistance?” One of the Budheya gasped in surprise. “Which cell did you fight for?”

  “I was part of the 3rd cell of PrezaDorn Province.”

  “3rd cell of PrezaDorn” mused Taynor aloud. “That is led by Tilabok, is it not?”

  “Tilabok was my commander” Saakshi acknowledged with an inclination of her head.

  “I did hear a rumor to the effect that it was Tilabok who brought the offer of this new pact to our leaders” Taynor mused shrewdly, gesturing casually between Zoran, the rebels and their surroundings to signify which new association he referred to.

  “Yes, Captain Hadari-Begur-Kor is the one responsible for this new pact. He used his contacts with the Alliance to bring them to the negotiating table and travelled to Budheyasta at great risk to recruit Tilabok” Saakshi stated firmly.

  The entire group, barring Jolar, turned their attention to Zoran with varying degrees of fascination, respect, surprise and awe. Sila nudged Saakshi in the ensuing melee as the Budheya converged on Zoran to shake his hand and thank him for his efforts in forging this new alliance they were confident would help free their people from Ketaari rule.

  “The station has been rife with whispers of a HadKor merc sniffing at your heels the last few days, Saakshi, but I didn’t know that it was Captain Hadari-Begur-Kor.”

  Saakshi nodded a little sheepishly at her friend.

  “He’s a good male” Sila said, turning serious in the blink of an eye from her teasing tone. “He helped me out of a bad jam once, merely because someone I knew asked him for his assistance. I was taken by slavers and he helped free me from their clutches.”

  Saakshi stared at her friend, aghast at the revelation. The brutal trade of slavery flourished in neutral space where no law was strong enough to be recognized, a casualty of the unending war in Quadrant Five. The Ketaari certainly looked upon and treated the Budheya as less worthy than their own race, but they had not yet descended to selling and owning sentient beings as property. Gentle, wise and artistic Sila did not deserve such a fate, and would never have survived it for long, Saakshi realized with horror.

  “How did you come to work on this station, Saakshi?” inquired one of the Budheya curiously, forcing Saakshi’s attention away from her friend.

  Saakshi hesitated just a tad while her mind searched for the right words to respond, her thoughts still grappling with her friend’s shocking disclosure about her previous circumstances.

  “When the Ketaari Unta-Golar realized that he could not get to Saakshi on Keeyor 9 with Zoran watching over her, he had her contract revoked and a Ketaari Transport pick her up from the station while Zoran was away. Zoran chased down the Transport and rescued her in the teeth of the Unta-Golar’s opposition, although I did hear that Saakshi gave her Ketaari captors a good account of herself while on the Transport” Jolar jumped in to explain, succinctly summing up the set of events.

  “When Zoran was negotiating with the Alliance, he made sure to include Alliance ID tags for Saakshi as part of the Hadari’Kor demands, since she’s now a fugitive of the Empire.”

  A few of Zoran’s mercs as well as other Hadari’Kor joined their group, just as everyone was digesting this news about Saakshi. It was now clear what part Zoran had played directly and Saakshi indirectly in setting in motion a chain of events that had culminated in an unexpected and hard-fought pact between three factions against the Ketaari Empire. A pact that had the potential to, one day, alter the balance of power in Quadrant Five and win the Budheya their freedom. This unlikely tale of the Hadari’Kor mercenary and his Budheya rebel would spread all over Budheyasta, the worlds of Hadari and Kor as well as the Alliance territories slowly, to eventually become a part of the legend tied to an unending bloody war and the unlikely partnerships forged to win it.

  The rest of the evening passed in a blur for Saakshi, who wandered from group to group with Sila, engaging in perfunctory and polite small talk. Zoran, accompanied by his Second-in-Command and friend, made his own rounds to socialize. As the evening neared its end, Zoran cornered Saakshi in a secluded corner, their presence hidden by a gigantic flower display. Jolar and Sila wandered off in search of more refreshments to leave the two in their little private cocoon of intimacy.

  Zoran studied Saakshi where she stood in the curve of his big body as he braced himself against the wall, his torso hiding her from the other guests milling around behind him.

  “I was right” Zoran said huskily, his voice scratchy.

  “About what?” Saakshi whispered back, unable to look away from the blazing fire in dark eyes that skimmed over her.

  “That the dress would look beautiful on you.”

  Two fingers reached for her to feel the soft skin at her cheek in a delicate caress. Saakshi closed her eyes to lean limply back against the wall.

  “I’ve had the silk for years. Somehow, the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew that I’d been waiting to give it to you” he confessed softly.

  Saakshi’s eyes opened to tangle with his gaze, the mix of emotions in the dark eyes holding her captive. His thumb wandered to her lips to press softly against her skin. Her breath hitched and the fingers on her cheek trembled.

  “I’m sorry that I was not very appreciative of your gift … before” Saakshi stuttered with some difficulty.

  “Shh, tseriya” he whispered, his thumb rubbing the pad of her lip. “The past is the past. I’m happy you wore it for me tonight.”

  Fourteen

  Eight days later, Saakshi found herself accompanying Zoran to the Docking Bay. The days since the Station Commander’s party had flown by quickly. Saakshi had worked every evening at BelDaap, ending her day with Zoran at the Sustenance Pavilion to chat over the last meal of the day. Most evenings, they’d been joined by Jolar and a few times by Sila. The abbreviated version of Saakshi’s story and Zoran’s part in forging this new pact between the Budheya and the Alliance had spread like wild fire. The result was that Zoran was now mobbed by Budheya whenever he stepped foot on TF124. Most wanted to simply shake his hand and proffer their gratitude before moving on, although a few had become a little better acquainted with Zoran, bantering with him and discussing insurgency strategy when he had the time. Though private moments between them had been few and far between, Saakshi had never been happier with her circumstances and her new equation with Zoran. Very much anticipating the end of her stint at BelDaap, she had been overjoyed by Zoran’s invitation to spend her first evening with him.

  They stepped into one of the docking elevators and she watched Zoran punch in their destination before the doors slid shut silently.

  “I have a surprise for you, Saakshi” he turned to her with a smile. “I was hoping you’d be up for a short trip with me. I promise to get you back to the station before you start work tomorrow morning.”

  Saakshi acquiesced immediately, suffused with pleasure at his words.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked in anticipation, her pleasure at his plans obvious.

  In response, Zoran held out his palm to her, followed by a casual one-handed hug and a quick kiss on her hair before he answered her.

  “Somewhere I know you will love” he said easily and with confidence, his arm holding her close to him.

  Saakshi hugged him back unreservedly, immensely pleased by his affection. He was usually more reserved on TF124, where they were the cynosure of all eyes.

  “I discovered it on one of my reconnaissance trips and knew you would love it. It’s on a small moon on a planetary system some forty minutes away by shuttle.”

  The elevator doors slid open silently as Zoran grasped Saakshi’s hand with easy affection to guide her towards a gleaming shuttle with the words “Sebaah Seran” painted on it.

  “It means nesting bird” Zoran explained as he helped Saakshi into the spacious interior of the shuttle big enough to transport twenty people in comfort.

  He directed her to the seat beside the pilot’s chair and helped her st
rap in, before strapping himself into the pilot seat and beginning undocking procedures.

  Saakshi watched him coordinate with the Docking Bay personnel as he efficiently ran through the shuttle’s subsystems checks. The gigantic Docking Bay doors slid up silently into space, and they were smoothly airborne in no time.

  Zoran maneuvered the craft skillfully through the few starships attached to the long docking arms that bordered the asteroid belt chosen for its ability to camouflage the station. Saakshi couldn’t help but admire the effortless way Zoran navigated the shuttle through the many asteroids.

  “Would you like to fly it?” he offered, noting the rapt attention with which she watched him handle the small spacecraft.

  “Can I?” she asked eagerly, her eyes shining with excitement.

  Zoran couldn’t help but smile at her excitement.

  “Absolutely. Once we’re clear of the asteroids, I’ll give you a quick tutorial and you can take the helm.”

  Ten minutes later, Saakshi strapped herself into the pilot seat in anticipation as Zoran walked her through the navigational controls and sensor readouts. Zoran watched her helm the shuttle nervously for a few minutes before he stepped in.

  “You’re doing fine. It gets better with practice. These things practically fly themselves, so don’t worry too much. Enjoy yourself, Saakshi.”

  Soon, Saakshi had settled down after her nervous start to enjoy flying through the vast darkness of empty space all around them. Zoran excused himself as she became more confident at the helm, leaving her alone to enjoy her first time handling a spacecraft. Snatches of his conversation with someone on the Juntafeyore drifted to her in the background while Saakshi concentrated on flying the shuttle.

  They flew for about twenty minutes with Saakshi making minute corrections to the shuttle path to follow the route Zoran had entered into the navigational system to guide her. Zoran returned to relieve her as they approached a distant speck in the dark space.