by A. G. Wilde
It took her a few moments to recognize what it was and the horror of it made her stomach turn.
They’d removed all of M’Agunt’s limbs and left him there to bleed to death. She only knew he was still alive because his bloodied eye moved as his agony-filled gaze followed her.
“Let me go!” she screamed again, thrashing in their arms even though she knew it wouldn’t yield favorable results.
The sight of M’Agunt was burned in her brain. He was an evil she was happy she didn’t get the chance to know just how much. But for him to die like that was horrific, to say the least.
What kind of being would sanction such a thing?
As her eyes rose to the ship she was approaching, her gaze caught the High Tasqal standing at the top in front of the large doors.
She could feel his eyes on her...hear its laughter in its throat.
That’s just it. She knew what sort of being would do such evil...she was looking right at him.
If the devil was real, he was it.
Fear gripped her.
Was this it? Was this how she was going to finally die?
And before she’d had a chance to tell him a proper goodbye...
The image of Kyro flashed in her mind as tears welled in her eyes.
He probably didn’t even know what had happened to her. He probably thought she’d left for the Hub. He’d never find out that she’d turned back for him.
He’d never know how much she cared.
39
The ride to Klepna 89 took forever but he was finally there.
Kyro straightened against the side of a cargo ship, his eyes and ears peeled for any disturbances that would give his position away.
He reckoned that M’Agunt had docked about three hours before he arrived. If he wasn’t quick enough, he wouldn’t make it before the tradeoff was completed.
On the far end of the dock was one Tasqal ship, its white outer surface making it shine among the other dull-looking ships.
It wasn’t hard to spot.
Clenching his jaw, he made his way through the shadows.
The only beings hovering around the docked ships on this end would be engineers. Still, the fewer people that saw him the better.
He was alone. The element of surprise was one of his weapons.
As he moved through the dock, he kept his eyes to the skies as well, noting the arriving shuttles.
Even though Klepna 89 was a lawless planet, he had doubted the Tasqals would arrive in one of their official vessels. But they had. His so-called Excellence didn’t seem to care even though he was working alongside a member of the Restitution.
After all, M’Agunt’s allegiance to them was still not known to the rebel alliance.
If word got out, M’Agunt would not be able to return to the base.
He assumed the Tasqals needed as many spies as they could get, but apparently, Tracki didn’t care about M’Agunt.
That meant he needed to keep alert.
The Tasqals could never be trusted. There was no telling what Tracki was really up to.
As he neared the large ship, the sound of a commotion caught his ears and Kyro hastened his steps.
Creeping toward the sound, he put himself into position so he could survey the scene.
It was just as he feared.
Tracki would leave no survivors.
The Hedgerud fighters were making quick work of the Kleeba. Even though the Kleeba were twice their size, there was no way for them to win. They were outnumbered.
To the right, his breath caught in his throat as he saw M’Agunt wrap his tentacles around Evren, pulling her backward with him.
He could feel his skin bristle; the temptation to shift into a beast was quite strong.
He needed to save her.
The gadgets he’d gathered were useless at the moment. His only weapon would be himself.
Could he take her now? There were probably over twenty guards, many of them standing and watching idly.
If he risked trying to rescue her now, the odds were not in his favor.
He reckoned he could probably take out five or six before the others intervened but then he’d still be outnumbered.
He couldn’t leave her to fend for herself after that. There were many evils dwelling on Klepna 89, the Tasqal just one of them.
He needed to be there till the end when she returned to the base safely.
A howl from M’Agunt caught his ear and he watched as Evren was thrown to the ground. A growl rumbled in his chest as he saw two fighters grip her before she could even run and began pulling her toward the Tasqal ship.
It was now or never.
Pulling the distorter from his bag, he slipped it over his wrist before punching in the code for the image he wanted to portray.
In what was only a few seconds, the device projected him as a Hedgerud fighter. Turning his hands around, he looked at the distorted skin. The holo image looked real. He just had to hope there were no defraying devices onboard or the distortion would fail.
Without thinking about it further, Kyro stepped from his spot behind the docked ship to join the group of Hedgeruds now heading toward the Tasqal ship.
None seemed to notice he had just joined the party, too hyped up on the bloodshed they had just been the cause of.
The bodies of M’Agunt and the two Kleebas lay motionless behind them as they walked up the ramp and into the ship, mere signals that a brawl had just occurred.
It was a pity the Tasqal had ordered M’Agunt’s death. He’d wanted his own revenge.
As the doors to the Tasqal ship closed, his ears perked for sounds of Evren as the other guards dispersed, heading back to the stations on the elaborate ship.
Moving with purpose, Kyro headed toward the sleeping quarters.
It ripped at him, but he had a good idea that’s where he would find her.
The first one was empty and so were the second, third, and fourth.
As he reached the fifth, the ship rocked a bit as it lifted off, the low hum of the engine creating what should be a comforting sound. Only, on this occasion, all he could think of was the fact that they were in alien territory.
He had no idea how he was going to get them out of this, only that he could not fail.
Opening the door to the fifth room, his heart fell when he realized it too was empty.
There were only two more places to check: the upper room and the bridge.
According to data on this make of ship, there was one private quarters on the upper level of the ship.
He had no second guesses that was the room the High Tasqal claimed for himself. But he couldn’t get in without distorting, taking out his pad to create a code that would unlock the door, and then distorting back to the Hedgerud fighter form.
It would take much time and it would be quite dangerous to lose his disguise, if even for a minute.
He’d head to the bridge first and hope that his presence wouldn’t set off any alarms.
On the way to the bridge, there was no one. No fighters walked in the corridors and there was no other ship crew. The lack of their presence made something within him tighten.
Something was not right.
As he neared the doors to the bridge, they slid open with a soft hiss. Inside, several Hedgerud fighters sat at their stations controlling the ship. Another two stood guard at the door and two by the captain’s chair.
From where he stood, he could see that the chair was occupied, the white robes telling who it was that sat there.
Below, on the lower deck, Evren was on her knees and Kyro’s heart jerked just seeing her.
But something wasn’t right. Even more so now, the feeling was growing.
For one, he hadn’t expected to see the Tasqal sitting in his chair as captain. The Tasqals tended to let their minions do any and all labor. They were a hedonistic species. They preferred pleasures of the flesh rather than doing any sort of toil. A captain’s job they would see as menial.
It b
ecame clear to him then that he may have walked into a trap. He didn’t know what sort of trap yet but a trap nonetheless.
He could feel it.
40
Her head was pounding, the effects of the patch that M’Agunt had tried to fry her brain with still going through her body. Her legs had given out and she’d fallen to the floor on her knees just as she’d been placed in front of the High Tasqal.
She was unwillingly kneeling before it. She didn’t even want to raise her gaze to look at the evil beast. She didn’t want to give the beast the satisfaction.
Not kneeling. Not surrendering.
Legs are just weak.
Not surrendering.
GET UP, EVREN!
As she pushed herself up on her shaky legs, her gaze finally fell on the Tasqal.
There’d been an eerie silence in the room since she’d been brought in and she didn’t like the lack of sound.
It seemed as if the Tasqal was waiting on something.
Behind him, the doors to the bridge closed as another of his men walked in and she cringed as a slow smile spread the Tasqal’s face.
It was the creepiest thing she had ever seen in her life.
Its lips spread so wide; it appeared as if its entire face was split in half.
“You are here,” the Tasqal finally spoke and, she couldn’t quite tell how she knew, but it wasn’t speaking to her. “I must say, those little devices you barbaric species use are delightful.”
Huh?
The guard behind him stopped walking and she swore every other guard in the room was tense. She could even sense the wariness of the ones that stood by her side.
The fear this Tasqal incited was real.
“No words?” the Tasqal continued. “I know you are here, rebel. I have been waiting for you.”
No one in the room moved and she was beginning to think she may be misinterpreting things until the Tasqals’ gaze fell on her.
His eyes were pure black, yet she could feel his heavy gaze on her the moment that he held her in his scope. Along the sides of his face, bubble-filled sores oozed in their pockets and her stomach turned.
“Very well. If you won’t reveal yourself, maybe your little human friend can get you to.”
What?
With an almost imperceptible jerk of his head, the Tasqal motioned to the guard right next to her. There was no other indication of what was to come next and she was hardly ready for it.
Pain rocketed down her back as something hard was jammed into her shoulder blade. Her legs gave out and she fell to her knees once more, her body falling forward with the force of the blow that she had to stop her fall with her hands even as the pain made her vision go dim for a second.
Biting her lip hard, she knew she would be drawing her own blood soon, but she’d rather do that than cry out in pain.
When her vision cleared enough for her to raise her head, the guard to her left had a smirk on his face as he readjusted his heavy blaster in his arm, the butt of which she was sure had just been what was slammed into her shoulder.
“Harm me and the human dies.”
The Tasqal’s words didn’t make sense. Lifting her gaze through the burning rage that filled her, she rose her eyes to the Tasqal once more only to see something unexpected.
There, holding a blaster right to the Tasqal’s head was one of the guards.
Had they finally had enough?
Was the tension among the guards because they had all been waiting for the right moment to start a coup?
“How did you know of my presence?” the guard snarled and Evren watched the exchange with bated breath.
If they started fighting, she needed to get the hell out of the way and quick. If they killed the Tasqal, there was no telling if they would spare her life, kill her, or worse, use her like the Tasqal was planning to.
She’d like the first option, but a girl couldn’t choose.
“How?!” The guard roared and pressed the blaster farther against the Tasqal’s head.
“I have my ways,” the Tasqal answered and it was then that she began to realize that something wasn’t quite right.
The Tasqal looked oddly calm for someone being threatened. It was almost as if he believed he still had all the cards in his hands and the thought made a niggling feeling of anxiety begin to form in the back of her mind.
Something wasn’t right.
None of the other guards were moving either. Instead, they were all watching the exchange, standing as if ready to intervene at any moment.
“You love the human?” The Tasqal turned his dark gaze to the gator-guard holding the gun to its head and the bubble-popping sounds began in his throat. “How precious.” His laughter began to echo in the room and Evren found herself swallowing hard.
What was he talking about?
She didn’t understand.
With another almost imperceptible movement of his head, the Tasqal motioned to the guard standing beside her once more and she felt the cool metal of the blaster against her skull.
“One wrong move, rebel, and I assure you the human will be pulp against my pristine floor.” The Tasqal turned his head slowly to look at the gator-guard by his side. “She is not so valuable that I would hesitate to kill her.”
There were a few moments of complete silence and she watched as the guard lowered his weapon slowly, his eyes on her the whole time.
His eyes were a deep gray, like silver, and there was thick emotion in them.
It took her a few moments to realize she knew those eyes.
But...it couldn’t be.
“Kyro?”
She was imagining things. The patch M’Agunt had put on her head was making her imagine things.
“Relieve him of his weapon,” the Tasqal ordered and two other guards marched forward to pull the weapon from Kyro’s hands.
No.
Please no.
He didn’t come into this shitfest to rescue her, did he? How did he even find her? She couldn’t be the reason he died.
“Run the interference signal,” the Tasqal ordered next. “Let’s see who is under this disguise.”
There was a low sound and a beam that lit up the whole room.
For a second, nothing happened and then it was almost as if Kyro glitched, his image changing back to his usual gray-skinned form then back to the gator-guard.
It was as if her mind was falling apart and making up things for her to see.
After three more glitches, the image finally stopped blinking in and out, and there he stood before them his hands clenched at his sides as he watched her.
“Kyro!” She launched herself toward him only to feel herself dangling in the air. The two gator-guards at her side had each grasped one of her arms, preventing her from moving farther.
“Kyro!”
They were going to kill him. She could feel it. And all because of her. Why had he come after her?
Why?
She didn’t realize there were tears in her eyes until her vision became blurry and her pain quickly turned to anger.
“Let her go.” She almost didn’t recognize Kyro’s voice and when she squeezed her eyes just so the tears could fall so she could see better, the look on his face made something inside her clench.
There was a resoluteness there that hadn’t been there before. It was the kind of look she’d seen in the movies where a soldier was about to sacrifice himself. And, if she was right and that was what he was thinking, she couldn’t let him do it.
“No...” she whispered. Then louder, “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. Don’t do it.”
His eyes never moved from her, but it was clear from his next words that whatever she’d said had gone through both his ears but not his brain.
He wasn’t listening to her.
“Let her go. Take me instead.”
The Tasqal laughed, the thick bubble-popping sounds starting low before they began to boom in the room.
“Take you instead?” The Tasq
al laughed. “I have no use for you, Borxclan.”
As suddenly as it began, the Tasqal’s laugh stopped.
“The human though...I have many uses for her.” His tone darkened so much there was no denying his meaning.
Before she could even think it, Kyro launched himself at the Tasqal, wrenching himself from the guards that held him and punching the beast so hard, the Tasqal fell from its chair to the floor.
Chaos ensued.
The guards at the surrounding stations rushed forward, blasters pointed as a few reached for Kyro.
Eyes wide, she didn’t realize she was struggling to get to him until she was jerked backward and another pain shot through her shoulder, causing her to fall to her knees once more, her body still held upright by the guard’s hold on her arms.
But Kyro didn’t need much help. She’d never seen him fight before. She didn’t even know that he could fight but he was taking down the guards one by one as they came at him.
She watched as one was launched straight toward her, crumpling at her feet with a groan of pain as Kyro held the neck of another in his arms. With one twist, he rendered the guard motionless even as more came at him.
She was barely aware of the Tasqal crawling to safety and for once in this messed up situation, she felt a sliver of hope that they would make it out of there alive.
But that was a wish brought forth by mere innocence. That one sliver of hope was quickly cut down as the doors opened and a new set of guards rushed through.
They were piling onto Kyro one after the other and struggle as she might for the two guards holding her to release her, their hands held firm.
Two guards grabbed Kyro’s arms, another guard restrained his head in a headlock, and others had their blasters pointed.
Kyro struggled till he could struggle no more, his gaze moving to her.
There was no winning this.
There was such pain in his eyes. She wondered if he was seeing the same in hers.
From the corner of the room, the Tasqal rose to its feet, its lips oozing something green, which she assumed was its blood.
“You will pay for that,” was all he said before his eyes fell on her, his lips spreading in a slow smile once more as his laughter rumbled in his throat.
