“I lied. Thankfully you believed me. Come on, let’s find the Senate.” Eetu pulled the bemused Kaya through the door to the ending Brox Catha box, which was evidently on Hara D’Noll. This would be the first time she would see Besh’s home planet, and she had no time at all to look around her at the sights. They had opened the door to a busy city street.
At least, that was all Kaya could call it. Skyscrapers lined the street, towering so high above Kaya could not even see the sky above them. Darkness reigned, although she could not tell if it was night or day. Flood lights were placed here and there, flooding areas and leaving others in total darkness. There were vehicles zipping past them at unbelievable speed on the ground, as well as hovering vehicles zipping by in the air. There were three levels of vehicles in the air, and the winds whipping by them were almost ear shattering. Kaya clasped her hands over her ears and ran to keep up with Eetu. For an older man, he was spry. In the darkness of the night, if she lost him, she would be in serious trouble.
Eetu zigged and zagged around the city, so she could not even return to the point they arrived. After running through street after street, he stopped in front of a building that was totally flooded with light and had many people milling about in front of it and the stairs leading to the doors. Eetu paused to look up at the building and then looked over to Kaya. She looked into his eyes, where she could see the wariness already building there.
“Are you ready for the fight of your life?”
“They aren’t going to believe me?”
“No, Princess, they probably won’t.”
“I’m Besh’s wife and that has to count for something?”
“You have not been formally introduced to the Senate, so in their eyes, you are not married yet. If there was a member of Senate present at your Joining and they have made it back by now, they may stand up for you. If not, you may be in for a huge battle just to be heard by the collective group.”
Kaya stared again at the building. She realized if she did not succeed, Besh and his family might die. She loved this man too much, craved a future with him more than anything she could imagine. She had to succeed; there was no other alternative. “I’m ready. They will listen to me, and they will help me save them.”
Eetu looked surprised for a moment, and then smiled deeply at her. “That’s right, Princess. They will listen; we will make them.”
They began ascending the long stairs leading up to the doors. Once they reached the large double panels, Eetu stepped in front of her and pushed them open, grabbing the guard at the door by the throat. There was power in Eetu’s grip as the soldier dropped his weapons and held stone straight in Eetu’s frail hands.
“Bow to your Princess. This is General Besh Et Fatel’s newly Joined partner. You will allow her entry.”
The soldier slightly nodded his head as a roll of sweat stretched down his temple. Eetu released his hand, and the soldier recovered his weapons, scaring Kaya. She assumed he was about to take them into custody when he rubbed his throat and lowered to one knee, bowing at her feet as he told them to pass. Kaya was able to breathe again, and the pair rushed past the guard down a long hallway lined with tall doors. She prayed Eetu knew where he was going because she certainly didn’t.
Eetu nimbly led her through hallway after hallway, rushing at breakneck speed. Weaving through the throngs of people who wandered the halls was not easy, especially since many were not humanoid. She had no time to gawk at the odd species of creatures she saw at every turn. She wasn’t sure if she would ever get used to this world if she had a chance to stay with Besh and the Empire was saved.
Suddenly they reached a solid wall that seemed to have no way through. They both paused, Kaya because she was unsure of even where she was, awaiting Eetu’s direction. He banged on the wall in three places and unexpectedly the wall separated and began to open as a door. Kaya walked through the wall with her Ga Hall warrior at her side.
“How dare you interrupt our Senate!” A mass of grumbling and arguing went through the cavernous space. Kaya could barely fathom what she was seeing; she likened it to what the old Roman Senate meetings may have looked like, but exponentially larger. There were at least three dozen rows of benches along the oval wall of the space, and the space was at least as large around as two football fields. Football field was a good analogy because it was like a vast stadium surrounding a space for the Senate leader.
Again Kaya was shocked at seeing creatures she could never have imagined in her dreams, including a couple of creatures that could have graced her nightmares. Creatures of every color, shape, and size were held inside this auditorium. She stood staring openmouthed at the sights before her. There was even a delegate who looked to be made entirely of light.
The Senate leader was standing on a podium in the middle of the floor, glaring at the two of them with disgust and contempt in his eyes.
“Princess D’Hanna Et Fatel requests an audience with the Senate.”
****
Besh watched as Dar Jin stepped in front of his cell on the transport to Hara D’Noll. “Good morning, General.”
“Keep your sarcasm to yourself, traitor.”
“There was no sarcasm, General. I know what you think of me, but know this. I wish things could be much different.”
“Keep your lies to yourself.”
Besh watched as an older man stepped into the holding area and stood beside Dar. Dar’s obvious distaste for the man showed on his face; Besh noted this before addressing the man. “I should have known you were involved in this, Dak Jin. I never trusted you, as many do not with your reputation of dishonor. But Dar,” Besh turned to the man he considered a friend, “I thought you had overcome the family trait. The years in which you had stood by our family, earning our respect only to betray us now? You dishonor my brother’s memory.”
Dar paled and looked visibly shaken. “Besh … there is so much I want you to know…”
Dak turned and shook his son. “Torment unlike anything you have ever known, boy. Keep your mouth shut.”
Dar turned his misery filled face toward his father. “You know as well as I do that my days have been filled with torment for years. I realize now I have nothing left. With this family in your hands, the only family that has ever treated me with love and affection, you have taken everything away from me. The trust, honor, and respect I spent years earning, trying to overcome the label I grew up with because of your treacherous soul, were only important to me through their eyes. They are the only people who matter to me.”
“If they knew the truth, they would spit on you.” Dak gripped his son’s lapels. “How I ever deserved such an ungrateful child, I will never know. I am seated in a position to overtake the Empire. You would think my son would support me in this time. Think of the power you could have had if you’d cooperated.”
“You have aligned yourself with the Bel Tak again; that is plenty of support, Father. You used me to help hand over the family that treated me with more love than you ever did. This isn’t what I signed up for. You were just going to separate the Earthling from him.”
“Another failure of yours. You could not even hold on to a mere human female. You’re worthless and a loser, which is why I chose not to clue you in to all my plans. Your failures are too great in number for me to include you in everything..”
Besh observed the men, his chest aching for his family and their safety in Dak and Dar’s hands. The two fought as if he weren’t even there, the anger between father and son saddening to see. Besh stood back, soaking in all the information, his mind whirling as he thought of a plan to escape and save his family, to save his woman. His worry for Kaya was a weight on his shoulders.
Besh kept seeing misery on Dar’s face and struggled to understand just what it was the man was hiding.
“And what are you going to do with them, Father? I know you will probably murder them all. By helping you, I will have their blood on my hands. I already have enough blood on my hands.”
Fear washed over Besh. Kaya was in danger. He had to get to her.
“Boy, you are one man. It is too late for you to save them. But that is just like you, weak of body and mind. Since you seem so intent on giving Besh a hint of our plans, even though it is too late for anyone to stop it, I think we need to fully clear the air.”
Dar’s eyes widened, and Besh noted he looked ill. But just as suddenly, Dar straightened and seemed to accept his fate. He then turned toward Besh. “I loved your brother like he was my own. He was the only one in school who stood by me, due to my father’s reputation. Your mother and father treated me with respect, with love, almost as one of their own. I have called you friend for many years.”
Besh listened to the words, the truth in them reminding him of the impact of Dar’s traitorous actions. “Dar, you may have helped cause the ruin of the Empire. Why should I believe you care for our family at all at this point?”
“I was forced into helping them.”
“Just what do they hold over you to force your hand in such a way?”
The air was thick between the two men. Dar struggled to look Besh in the eyes.
“I accidentally hurt someone I loved years ago, and my father found out. He threatened to tell the family. He planned to distort the truth and tell them I had purposefully done the act out of envy unless I aided him in small acts to further his cause.”
Besh felt his stomach turn, and he asked the question he already thought he knew the answer to. “The person you hurt years ago?”
Tears shimmered in the warrior’s eyes. “Your brother. I killed your brother.”
Rage flew through Besh, and he rushed the bars of his cell, grasping for Dar’s body, only thinking to hurt the man as much as he had hurt his entire family. Getting a hold of the front of his shirt, he slammed Dar toward him, hitting Dar on the metal bars of his cell. Rage had turned Besh into an animal, and he continued dragging Dar’s now limp body toward the bars, until he finally broke through the red haze and realized Dar’s face was bloody, his body slack. He dropped Dar immediately and watched the barely visible rise and fall of the man’s chest. Part of him was thankful Dar still breathed, as he could not be the cause of his death, the other part of him wanting him dead, dead like his brother.
Then he remembered he was not alone in the room and looked up into the smiling face of Dak Jin. A malicious glint fired his eyes, and it sickened him. Besh could not believe the man stood by and watched his son be brutalized without lifting a finger. At that point, he wondered if the man had a soul.
“I see you are just as much animal as those dirty humans on Earth. No wonder your mate was found there. You must truly be a perfect match. How the Emperor all those hundreds of thousands of years ago allowed the blood of true Aegarians to be dirtied with the genetic code of primates, I will never know. And then, for the current Emperor to include these people into the Empire and further soil the history of a once great people was beyond the pale. And then you compounded the situation by actually Joining with the modern day monkeys. Dar visited a zoo on his trip to Earth when he had scouted the planet and saw just what these beings had come from, and it disgusted me when he showed me vids of the beasts. The thought of you sleeping with it in your arms was sickening, and now you have even filled its body with your seed. It is vile, thinking of what kind of beast would be born of such a mating.”
“You will not speak of my mate as thus.” Anger roiled through Besh, and his fingers itched to reach through the bars and do to Dak what he’d just done to Dar.
“I realized years ago your father was going to destroy the Empire, giving slaves rights and giving more education and health care to the lower and middle classes. I met with the Great Olum Naucht and the Bel Tak High Chancellor, and they showed me the only way to save the Empire was to cleanse it of the Et Fatel Dynasty and restore the class system. The first step was to cleanse the Empire of its greatest warriors, the Ga Hall, and blame it on the old man Eetu. But unfortunately, I became suspect, and we needed to carefully plot the next step. But once the presence of the humans became known, we knew the filthy race could not be allowed to mix into pure Aegarian blood and taint it. So we needed to destroy Earth and all its inhabitants.”
Destroy Earth? Besh knew he had to act and fast. Simmering rage, coupled with the bars at his fingers, made him feel like the beast Dak claimed him to be. The idiot before him continued, so assured in his plans to overthrow his family.
“So we developed a new strategy. Neutralize the ruling family, invade Hara D’Noll and take the Senate hostage, incriminate and execute every member of the Et Fatel line, and take over. The Bel Tak-Jin Dynasty is within reach.”
Over my dead body. Besh was going to tear Dak Jin limb from limb.
****
Looking into the cage the mighty general was incarcerated in, Dak knew his dream was soon to become a reality. After Dar had abducted him from the bed of his filthy lover, Dak and his loyal warriors paraded him shackled and nude through the entire village, listing his crimes loudly for all to hear, leading the people to believe the Earth bitch was to blame for Besh’s fall from grace.
He wondered where the slut had gone. He had planned on shipping her back to Earth and making sure she was on the planet when it exploded. Somehow, she had gotten away, and he did not even read her life signs on the planet at all. Silly girl, she was too naive and too new to this world to ever hinder his plans. She would die soon enough. She could not get far, and eventually, she would surface. He just hoped he would be there to end her life himself. It had been too long since he had killed, and the thought of breaking her slim neck sent pleasurable sensations through his body. Oh, yes, he would squash her like the bug that she was.
Chapter Ten
“Ga Eetu, you know until she is presented at court and in the senate, she will not be formally recognized by this group. Take her away.”
“If you do not let me speak, there will be no court and no senate to present me to.”
The speaker turned incredulous eyes to her and stared at her brazen stance. Something changed in his face, as he began to realize perhaps she needed a moment of their time. He shook his head, closing his eyes. “I am crazy for allowing this.”
He turned and presented Princess D’Hanna Et Fatel to the Senate. Kaya approached the podium, still clad in the sheer gown she had grabbed on the way out of her and Besh’s room, which she’d haphazardly twisted incorrectly around her body. Hair wildly flung, unbound, she was sure she was a sight, not exactly giving them the best first impression. She gave no care. Lives were held in the balance.
“Senators. I’m not well versed in your customs or your protocol. But I was Joined with Besh Et Fatel yesterday. This morning, he was charged with breaking the law of Si’ ni mon and abducted by Dar Jin and a group of soldiers. The Emperor and Empress, as well as the rest of their family, have been taken into custody. Bel Tak ships have landed on the Inoc planet we have been staying on.”
Murmurs abounded through the cavernous room.
“And why should we believe you?” came from somewhere in the huge crowd.
“What reason would I have to lie? I’m asking you to defend the Empire and save the man I love and his family. What do I have to gain from lying?”
“It’s a trap. She is trying to save her planet from further invasion,” came from one end of the room.
“She is an Earthling. She cannot tell us what to do,” came from another.
“If you don’t believe me, check for yourselves. Contact the Inoc planet. Find out what’s going on there yourselves. You may not care for me because I’m human, you may consider me less than you, and I don’t care. I do care about the man I love, and I’ll do whatever I need to in order to save him and his family. So don’t believe me, but check the planet. And do it quickly, before you have the blood of this family on your hands.”
A quiet hush fell over the room.
“Take her from the room so we can discuss this issue, Ga Eetu.” Kaya and
Eetu were ushered out of the room by two large bodyguards. Kaya fell into Eetu’s arms and wept, scared for her future, scared for Besh and his family. She had come this far on instinct; she did not know where to go next.
“Your fight was not as difficult as I expected it to be.”
“What are you saying?”
“Only a handful of senators commented negatively. Others remained quiet. If they were quiet, their ears were open.”
“So you think they may have believed me?”
“Hopefully. I have friends on this planet; one may be able to help us further. Come on, Princess.”
****
Eetu led her through the city again, and Kaya was brought to an area of the city that was not as hectic, where the buildings were not quite as tall, and she could see the sky. It was daytime, or so she thought, as the sky was a pale periwinkle and she saw four small objects glowing in the sky, what looked like small suns.
As they rounded another corner, a lush green space emerged and the riots of color she had seen on the Inoc world were here as well. She stopped walking and looked around, trying to take in every small detail she could see.
“Princess, we have little time.”
“I’m sorry, Eetu. I just realized that if we do fail, this might be the only opportunity I have to see this place. It’s so beautiful here and only a few blocks from the craziness we stepped into.”
“The older part of the city is quite hectic, but it is where most of the senate offices are, so we had to go there. The majority of the world is like this, open and green.”
“Eetu, I want to thank you now for all you have done so far.”
“Don’t thank me yet, little one; we still have a battle ahead of us. Let’s go.”
He grabbed her hand and rushed through the mazes of gardens and greenery to a small building on the other side of the open park. He knocked on the door and a wizened old face looked through the open crack at Eetu.
“Welcome, Eetu!” The old woman grabbed Eetu about the waist and hugged him until Kaya thought she would crush him. Eetu just smiled down at the woman and then looked across to Kaya.
Her Alien Abductor (Aegarian Saga) Page 13
