by Jay Allan
He circled around more debris and found a dead Xiiginn laying face down on the lunar surface, and it looked like he held something clutched in his hands. Kladomaor reached down and pulled him over. The faceplate of his helmet had cracked and he must have died quickly. He had a tablet computer in his hands that was still working so Kladomaor pried it loose and opened the interface. This tablet computer wasn’t standard issue in the fleet, and despite the fleet uniform the Xiiginn wore, Kladomaor wondered where he’d gotten it. The interface opened and showed him a standard display. There was a tracking signal that Kladomaor uploaded to his suit computer, and the signal pointed to something away from the crash site. The tablet looked to have more information but he didn’t have time to go through it. Normally he’d upload the data from the tablet, but with the massive amounts of data from the Tetronian Key, he didn’t want to take the chance. He opened a storage panel on the leg of his suit and dumped the tablet inside.
Kladomaor went over to the escape pod, opened the door, and stepped inside. After searching the small space, he retrieved the survival supplies, which included an Arc sidearm that he attached to his hip. The Arc sidearm was more of a deterrent, capable of delivering a high-ampere electrical shock rather than a lethal projectile. He opened a comms interface and looked for any other distress beacons, but there weren’t any. He updated the standard message that there was at least one survivor and considered whether to include that the ship had been sabotaged, but since he didn’t have any evidence to support the sabotage claim he entered that the conditions of their crash were highly suspicious. He set the message on a loop and left the escape pod, marking its coordinates on his internal heads-up display in case he needed to find it again.
Once again scaling the gentle incline to the top of the shallow depression, he began scouting out the rest of the wreckage. He plodded along, pausing long enough to look for survivors, but there weren’t any. He couldn’t be the only survivor.
Jolted from his reverie by the sound of a hand canon being fired, Kladomoar’s gaze darted upward, following the bolt as it raced toward the great expanse. He noted the origin of the shot and quickly made his way toward it.
As he approached the spot where he believed the canon had been fired, Kladomoar found himself peering down into another crater at several Boxan soldiers standing among the wreckage, forming somewhat of a line behind Battle Commander Jaedon. A smaller figure appeared to be the Xiiginn Ambassador he’d seen earlier on the bridge called Mar Arden.
The Xiiginn was pacing in front of one of the soldiers, speaking to him, but Kladomaor was too far away to hear what they were saying. As he began to slide down the crater wall in a controlled shuffle, another one of the soldiers noticed him and quickly shook his head. Kladomaor had been about to call out when the Battle Commander aimed his hand cannon at the soldier and shot him.
Cycles of training kicked in and Kladomaor scrambled over to hide behind some wreckage, trying to make sense of what he’d just seen. Had the Battle Commander found the Boxan who sabotaged the ship? Kladomaor crept behind the wreckage and circled to the other side. He was much closer to the group now.
“Answer the question,” Mar Arden said.
“The answer won’t change. The key was in the cargo hold. I have no idea where it is now,” the Boxan soldier said.
Mar Arden stepped away. “He is of no further use.”
The soldier raised his hands. “Battle Commander, don’t do this! I’ve served the fleet—”
The soldier’s pleas were cut short as a bolt from the hand cannon tore through the chest of his spacesuit.
Kladomaor gasped and jerked his sidearm from its holster, stepping out from behind the wreckage.
“What are you doing? He surrendered!” Kladomaor shouted.
Battle Commander Jaedon swung the hand cannon toward him. Two soldiers took advantage of this distraction and rushed the Battle Commander, taking all three of them down as the weapon dropped from Jaedon’s hands. The soldiers fought to restrain the Battle Commander, but he managed to overwhelm them both and regained his feet. A third soldier charged toward Jaedon and the two grappled until the Battle Commander tore that soldier’s helmet off, exposing him to the poisonous atmosphere. The soldier immediately fell to his knees, choking. Kladomaor stepped toward the dying soldier, but his body went still.
“I’m not going to let you do it!” one of the remaining soldiers shouted. He picked up the hand cannon and aimed it at the Battle Commander, then shifted it toward Mar Arden.
“Hold on,” Kladomaor said, holding his sidearm ready. “What happened here?”
“They sabotaged the ship,” Jaedon said. “I order you to take out the traitor.”
The soldier’s wild-eyed gaze swung between Mar Arden and the Battle Commander. Then, looking at Kladomaor in desperation, the soldier indicated Mar Arden and said, “He’s controlling the Commander. We didn’t sabotage the ship.”
Kladomaor looked over at the Xiiginn, but Mar Arden just held up his hands and shook his head.
“Let’s put our weapons away,” Kladomaor said.
“I gave you a direct order, Strike Commander,” Jaedon said.
“I heard your order,” Kladomaor said but kept his gaze on the soldier.
“He’s a traitor.”
“And he’ll stand trial for it,” Kladomaor said.
Mar Arden suddenly spun into action, sending his long tail out to strike the weapon from the soldier’s outstretched hand. The soldier scrambled to pick it up. The Xiiginn grabbed the soldier’s wrist and twisted. The hand cannon pointed toward the soldier’s face and fired.
Kladomaor pointed his weapon at the Xiiginn but was tackled by the Battle Commander. Kladomaor rolled away and the Battle Commander charged. Kladomaor fired the pistol and missed. Jaedon grabbed his hand and Kladomaor twisted free.
“Why are you fighting me? I’m not a traitor,” Kladomaor said.
The Battle Commander stopped for a moment, appearing to be confused. Then he looked over at Mar Arden. The Xiiginn watched them intently and then his expression relaxed.
“You were sent to the shuttle before the crash so you couldn’t be one of the traitors,” Mar Arden said.
The Battle Commander walked over to Mar Arden’s side and the Xiiginn handed him the weapon.
“What happened?” Kladomaor asked.
The Battle Commander looked over at Mar Arden as if unsure what to say.
“Engine failure caused the ship to go off course. We managed to level it off to avoid casualties,” Mar Arden said.
Kladomaor glanced at the Battle Commander, who gave him a nod.
“The Battle Commander was injured during the crash. I’m afraid he’s not himself. Did you find any survivors?” Mar Arden asked.
Kladomaor frowned. “Everyone I saw was dead.”
“You know how important the cargo we carried was. Did you find it?” Mar Arden asked.
Kladomaor looked around at the dead soldiers and fleet officers. They had all been shot.
“They turned on the Battle Commander. They wanted to take the key to the Star Shrouds for themselves,” Mar Arden said.
Kladomaor held his sidearm loosely in his hands. His instincts were crying out that something about this whole situation was off. The only thing he could be sure of was that The Battle Commander wasn’t himself.
“They were unarmed. I heard you asking one of the soldiers where the key was,” Kladomaor said.
Mar Arden narrowed his gaze. “You’ve seen it.”
“I’ve hidden it,” Kladomaor said. “I sent out a distress beacon from one of the escape pods. Help will be here soon and then we can sort this out.”
Kladomaor’s suit computer alerted him that someone was approaching and another Xiiginn came from the same direction that Kladomaor had come from earlier. The Xiiginn ignored Kladomaor and addressed Mar Arden.
“I found the Tetronian Key, but its power was depleted.”
“Garm Antis, this is Kladomaor. He
’s hidden the key,” Mar Arden said.
Garm Antis looked over at Kladomaor as if he utterly detested him. “Give us the key!”
“You don’t give me orders, Xiiginn,” Kladomaor said.
Garm Antis laughed and looked back at Mar Arden. “I don’t know how we’ve endured the supreme arrogance of such an inferior species. Have you taken him?”
Kladomaor raised his pistol. “Taken me? What are you talking about?”
“Haven’t had time. I only had the bridge crew under my power and he was a last-minute addition to the crew,” Mar Arden said.
Kladomaor looked at the Battle Commander and Jaedon’s eyes were vacant, as if he had no thoughts at all.
“Give us the location of the key,” Mar Arden said.
The Battle Commander raised his weapon and pointed it at Kladomaor, whose face registered the complete disorientation he was feeling. “What have you done to him?”
“He has learned his place, as will you,” Mar Arden said.
Kladomaor shifted his pistol, trying to decide who was the real threat. Blinding halos surrounded each of them and the pain in his head intensified. He cried out, bringing his hands to his head but then quickly pointed the pistol back at the Xiiginns. He stepped backward.
“Where are you going to go? We have the only way off this moon,” Mar Arden said.
“I disabled the distress beacon,” Garm Antis sneered.
Kladomaor squeezed the trigger and a bolt blazed toward Garm Antis. The Xiiginn fell over as his suit systems were overloaded. Kladomaor dove to the side and shot another bolt toward Mar Arden, but the Battle Commander stepped between them. Kladomaor raised the Arc sidearm to shoot again, but someone grabbed him from behind. Kladomaor was spun around by a Boxan soldier and thrown to the ground. Another two soldiers leaped onto him, pinning his arms to his side. He tried to twist free, but the soldiers held him down. The third soldier disarmed him and the other two dragged him to his feet. They brought him before Mar Arden, and Kladomaor clenched his teeth.
“Where is the key?” Mar Arden asked.
The soldiers forced Kladomaor to his knees and he glared at the Xiiginn. “You betrayed us.”
“You have no idea how long we’ve planned for this,” Mar Arden sneered.
“I’ll never give you the key.”
Mar Arden nodded to the soldiers. They picked Kladomaor up and slammed him onto the ground. Suit integrity alarms showed on his internal heads-up display.
“I’m going to—”
“What? You’ll do nothing. Would you like another demonstration of the power of the Xiiginns?” Mar Arden asked.
The Xiiginn looked at one of the Boxan soldier standing to the side. “Kill that one,” he said, pointing to another soldier.
Without hesitation the soldier attacked the other soldier, pushing him to the ground and bludgeoning him until his helmet cracked.
Kladomaor looked on in shock, then turned to the soldier who held his arm. Nothing of the horror they’d just witness registered on the soldier’s face. “Why don’t you fight back?”
Mar Arden laughed gleefully. “They can’t fight back.”
Something deep inside Kladomaor pushed its way through him—a primal force left over from an age when the Boxans had waged war amongst themselves. He was alone and couldn’t figure out how the Xiiginns were controlling the others.
“You can’t fight us,” Mar Arden said, bending over so his face was in Kladomaor’s line of sight.
Kladomoar sprang to his feet and grabbed Mar Arden by the neck, but the Xiiginn squirmed out of his grasp and kicked off Kladomaor’s broad chest. The remaining two soldiers tried to grab Kladomaor, but he twisted free of them, using the momentum of one to send them into the other. He spun around, looking for the Xiiginn, and found him standing over the Battle Commander. Jaedon pushed himself to his feet.
“Stop,” Mar Arden said. “Back away from him.”
The two soldiers immediately did as they were told.
Mar Arden narrowed his gaze. “You admire this Battle Commander, don’t you?”
The Xiiginn took the hand cannon from Jaedon’s hand and circled around him, pointing the barrel of the gun at the Battle Commander’s head.
Kladomaor stepped forward. “Don’t,” he said.
“Give me the key and I will spare his life,” Mar Arden said. “I’ll spare yours as well.”
Kladomaor’s brows pushed forward into a deep frown. He glanced at the two soldiers, who stood waiting for Mar Arden to tell them what to do, and he took a step back. “You can’t kill me or you’ll lose the key forever.”
Mar Arden was unimpressed. “We’ll find where you’ve hidden it.”
“How? There are four of you. Do you plan to scour the entire surface of the moon until you find it?” Kladomaor asked, trying to buy some time.
“You think it’s just the four of us? Let me show you,” Mar Arden said, then shouted, “Come out! I need you!”
From the surrounding wreckage of their ship came the crew of the Boxan frigate—the remaining bridge crew, as well as others who served in the fleet. They all exhibited hauntingly vacant expressions except when the Xiiginn called to them.
“Now, tell me what I want to know,” Mar Arden hissed.
Kladomaor looked around, unable to believe what he was seeing. He stumbled back again and then ran, darting past his fellow crewmembers, who just stood there. When he heard Mar Arden howl in anger, Kladomaor risked looking behind him and saw that the crew of the ship was chasing him.
A comms channel opened on his suit and Mar Arden’s face appeared. “You have nowhere to run, Protector.”
Kladomaor kept going and saw the marked location of the escape pod. At the edge of his screen were the marked coordinates he’d gotten from the Xiiginn tablet he’d found earlier. He maximized the power output to his armor and ran as fast as he could toward it. The Boxans that pursued him fell behind. Their spacesuits were no match for his Protector armor. He’d worn it because he was going to be officially transferred to the fleet upon their arrival at the Confederation space station.
Ahead of him was a Xiiginn shuttle. Boxans and Xiiginns had coexisted for some time and had adjusted their shuttle’s interior to account for their differing sizes. This model of shuttle looked to be one that could easily accommodate his size, and the fact that the shuttle was here at all meant that the Xiiginns had been planning this for some time.
He reached the shuttle and snatched the Xiiginn tablet from the storage compartment in his armor where he’d placed it earlier, using the Xiiginn’s credentials to open the shuttle.
Kladomaor climbed aboard and shut the doors. His pursuers caught up to him and he heard them banging on the hull for a few moments. Kladomaor went right for the pilot’s chair and began bringing up the shuttle’s systems.
Mar Arden’s face appeared on the screen in front of him. “If you try to leave, that shuttle will explode.”
Kladomaor paused for a second but then kept working. Either he would die in here or he’d most certainly die out there. He disengaged his helmet, which retracted into its storage compartment at his neck.
Mar Arden sneered at him.
“I’ll take my chances,” Kladomaor said and powered up the shuttle’s engines.
The shuttle hovered above the lunar surface and he retracted the landing gear.
He looked at the screen, meeting the Xiiginn’s hateful gaze.
“Where is the key!” the Xiiginn screamed.
“I am the key,” Kladomaor said and raised the thrusters, leaving the moon behind.
“I will hunt you down. Your empire is finished. You’ll see,” Mar Arden said.
The comms signal fragmented and then went offline.
Kladomaor glanced around the small shuttle. The Xiiginns had betrayed them. They had been first among the cultivated species into the Confederation and yet he’d never sensed the hatred they’d shown today. His mind raced as he tried to recall everything Mar Arden had said.
The Xiiginns were part of Boxan society and they were the most trusted among other species. They were even allowed to reside on Sethion. Kladomaor felt a great weight settle into the pit of his stomach. He had to warn them. The Xiiginns couldn’t be trusted.
Kladomaor opened a connection to the long-range comms platforms and there was nothing in the normal logs and alerts that indicated there’d been an attack. He next used his Protector authority to get the encrypted channels. Video logs kept appearing and disappearing as if there were someone erasing them. Selecting one, he downloaded it to his ship before it disappeared.
He opened the message and a Boxan’s face appeared.
“This is Prax’pedax, Battle Commander of the Sethion fleet. There have been reports of multiple attacks in almost every star system in which we have a presence. Multiple Confederation species have turned against us. The ship bearing the Tetronian Key has been lost, and we have to face the fact that the key to the Star Shroud interstellar network is gone. If you’re seeing this message, your orders are to return to our home system at once. Return to Sethion. I must warn you that we’ve had reports of Boxans attacking other Boxans as if they were under someone’s control. We’re doing everything we can to sort this out, and any Boxan out in the great expanse must be careful and return home.”
Kladomaor sat back in his seat and blew out a breath. Multiple attacks meant that Mar Arden hadn’t been lying. A smoldering rage built inside him. He’d spent the bulk of his life as a Protector whose sole purpose was the preservation of life. In his mind he kept seeing Battle Command Jaedon helplessly doing the bidding of the Xiiginns, and he wanted to turn the shuttle around and take out every last one of them on that moon. A small part of him wanted all this to be a misunderstanding, but he’d seen it with his own eyes. Those images were burned into his brain.
