Alana watched with approval while guards hustled the old warrior out of the room, followed by Officer Ulric.
Over the next few hours, she remained at the Commander’s side, her respect increasing by the second as Tarak took firm control of the Darkon Empire with no opposition.
It seemed he was not alone in his distaste for the direction the Darkon people had taken and many embraced the new leadership with enthusiasm. The die-hard traditionalists were swept along by the Commander’s passionate determination. And no doubt, fear of retaliation. The idea of giving their lives in a fruitless war appealed to none of them.
Death in glory and taking as many of their enemies with them was now the Darkon warriors’ only goal.
“There has to be another way,” Jessamine hissed in her ear. “Men! This is sheer stupidity. What a waste!”
What remained of the initial band of five, now sat sprawled on chairs listening and watching in a room the Commander had taken over as a Control Centre. There were various consols now manned by Tarak’s men who were busy analysing the data floating in the air before them. There were seven holo displays of various star systems and planets, around which groups of Darkons hovered, muttered together then dispersed to hover over the next display.
“Mmmm.” Alana drummed her fingers against the armrest, her eyes fixed on the Commander.
There was a commotion at the entrance. With arms outstretched, his face wreathed in a huge smile, Norman burst into the room.
With a squeal, Elise jumped up and ran to greet him, throwing her arms around his scrawny form. They hugged. She was elbowed out of the way by Tina, who kissed him shyly on the cheek.
“Lordy, if you aren’t a sight for sore eyes!” Jessamine reached out and enveloped him in her strong arms, his smaller body almost disappearing from view.
“You are not damaged?” Norman’s three bulging eyes darted from one to the other.
Elise opened her mouth to speak but caught Alana’s shake of her head. She subsided and the other women moved aside as Alana stepped forward.
“Norman. I am so glad to see you unharmed. How can we ever repay you? The risks you took in sending out the message to the Commander.” She smiled and snapped her fingers. “They arrived in the nick of time.”
“That is good then?”
Alana laughed. “Very good.” She took his hands in hers and enclosed his bony fingers in a gentle clasp. “Always you have proven to be our good friend.”
The alien was shaking his head. “No, it is I who is thankful. You have given me such friendship as none others.”
Jessamine whipped out her handkerchief and blew her nose.
“So here we all are—together again. Well, most of us.” Elise linked arms with Tina.
“Not all for one is missing. Where is Linette?”
There was silence. Then Alana answered, “She didn’t make it.”
“That is not good,” muttered the alien. His sad gaze swept the room. He gave a heavy sigh. “The Commander now has control of Darkos. What are his intentions, Alana?”
Alana shoved her hands into her pockets, her eyes riveted to one broad back. “One final glorious battle.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
“Ugh! These Darkons always they think only of war.”
No one spoke.
Alana kept her eyes on Tarak’s figure, her heart heavy. She had not missed how the Darkon warriors had ceased their duties and had watched their reunion with the Jurian. No doubt they also marvelled, like Lord Barid at their affection for a species of another planet; a species considered inferior in both strength and physical prowess. Affection, love, respect—these vital elements which made up a human and were so important to her, obviously held little importance in the Darkon world. Not as important as being remembered swathed with valour and glory!
Damn him!
”Norman, do you still have the gateway map?”
The alien rubbed his hands together, his eyes brightened. “Affirmative. I hid it in a safe place when Lord Barid’s men came for me.”
“Excellent. I’d appreciate if you could go now and get it for me.”
For a moment she thought he was going to object but then Norman bowed his head. “As you wish Alana, this I will do.” He hurried from the room.
“So … you’re gonna just hand it over to them?” Jessamine placed her hands on her hips.
“Yeah at least it might give them a fighting chance.”
“Still, it won’t change much will it? I mean, if they win this battle, there’s still the Lord Liama guy to contend with and the fact their days are numbered.”
Alana shrugged. “Maybe at least they can live out those remaining days in peace.”
“But without us?”
“That’s the plan.” Alana sighed. “We can’t take the chance of falling ill like the Darkon women. I don’t have to remind you, this is not our home. This is not our world. This is alien territory. A place beyond our comprehension. Look what happened to Linette!”
Jessamine cleared her throat and continued huskily in a low murmur, “I should have seen it coming.”
“You weren’t to blame.” The guilt she saw in her friend’s eyes worried her. She caught her arm and led her away out of ear-shot of the other women.
Jessamine gave a short, harsh laugh. “No? I was supposed to keep an eye on her, keep her busy, try and get her to open up. Surely, if I’d been nicer to her, more sympathetic …” her voice trailed off.
“She wasn’t an easy person to befriend.” Alana kept her voice cool and clipped. “Linette isolated herself from the rest of us, right from the very beginning. The whole experience was clearly more of a culture shock for her than I thought it would be, her background being so very different from the rest of us. I kept on hoping she would adjust. I was wrong.”
“Yeah, well, Captain, we were all wrong. But knowin’ this we sure should have taken better care of her—given her more slack. Seems any form of violence had no place in her world and what happened on Isla sure was too much for her to bear.”
Alana let out a slow loud breath. Misery lodged as big as Uluru in her chest. “I’m just as guilty, if not more. I took on the responsibility to keep everyone safe and, bloody hell, it’s a complete fiasco.”
“It could have been worse.”
“Maybe.”
Jessamine shuffled her booted feet self-consciously. “I guess we sure don’t have many choices here, now do we?”
Alana turned her head and met the other woman’s eyes. “Unless you have a better idea?”
”You know, honey, now that you mention it.” She gave a tentative smile. “We’ve all been talkin’ about it. You know, about findin’ our way home. It’s a fairly dicey deal.”
Alana emitted a short laugh. From across the room she saw Tarak raise his head and stare at her. In a low voice, she admitted, “Yeah I have visions of us wandering around space for the rest of our lives!” She grimaced. “Still, we have to try.”
The Commander strode towards them, his eyes intent, his face stern. The force of his aura slammed through her body, revitalising her energy, making her soul sing.
“There is a long range star cruiser which is being prepared for you and the other females.” Tarak’s voice was terse. “We have made contact with a Scaleen Trader Captain. I am hopeful he will lead the voyager to a galaxy from which you may find your planet.”
For the life of her, Alana could not speak. She nodded. So this was it.
“How long?” Elise asked.
“Four perhaps five aons.”
“Four or five weeks, that soon!” wailed Elise.
Commander Tarak’s brow rose in surprise. He said in a voice stiff with pride, “You have been given your freedom and the means to return to your homeland. There is no future here for you. None of you.” His gaze met Alana’s.
She took a deep breath and heard the door behind her slide open. “We’re grateful. Truly we are, but we’re anxious about the journey as you can imagine.”<
br />
Norman trotted to her side. With care, he handed her the small object.
Alana in turn offered it to Tarak. “Here take this, as a gift from all of us. Norman assures me, the maps contained inside the data cube may help in your assault against the Elite Forces.” Though she had to force her smile, her voice was steady.
A sudden silence blanketed the control centre. The Darkon warriors’ attention was riveted to the small group of women.
Tarak turned the object over. “You give this to me? To the Darkon warriors who took you against your will, imprisoned you and made you endure such hardship on Isla?”
“Well, as you keep pointing out, Isla was not of your doing! No, seriously.” She enfolded Tarak’s fist over the cube. “We hope it will give you an advantage over your enemies. Perhaps give you a chance to live on, in peace. So take it. We have our freedom and will be leaving soon. This is the only thing we have to give.”
“You are wrong.” His voice sounded as if it was wrenched from deep within him. “You have given us more than you can ever know.”
“Keep Norman safe. That’s all we ask.”
Unable to bear any more, Alana swung around. Her stride lengthened until she was almost running as she hurried from the room.
As far as she was concerned, the day they left Cerciron couldn’t come quick enough.
* * *
Chapter Twenty
Alana collapsed into the chair Norman shoved her under her legs. She was experiencing a peculiar sensation—not painful, rather disembodied, as if she was floating somewhere outside her skin, listening to the drone of the Jurian’s voice as he went on and on and on.
She held up a shaking hand to stop him. “Norman, please!”
The alien stopped his flow of words. With the tips of his fingers he elongated his lower lip pulling it into a pout, then releasing it.
Over and over.
She clutched her head with both hands. “God, I need to think. Are you positive?” She winced at the high pitch of her voice.
“Of course,” Norman whined and fidgeted with a flap on his flight suit. “I would not tell you untruths, Alana.”
“I never thought this would happen! I thought the IUD I had inserted would protect me.”
Norman cocked his head.
Aware she was rambling to avoid thinking about this latest development, Alana added, “An IUD is a device inserted into a woman’s uterus. Here.” She patted her lower stomach.
He held up a bony finger. “Err, you are referring to the non organic device we found inside some of the females?”
He shuffled at few paces backwards, cringing when Alana stared at him in mounting outrage.
“We?” Even she heard the anger in that one softly, spoken word.
Norman’s gaze darted about the room. He spread his hands wide and shrugged. “The Scaleen traders’ medic and I. Anything non organic was removed during a routine examination whilst you were in hiatus.”
“And you didn’t think of telling us?”
The Jurian shook his head, his eyes puzzled. “What function could they serve?”
“What if someone had a pace maker installed?” Alana shuddered at the thought but it served no purpose ranting at Norman, who showed no sign of understanding the ramifications.
“Strewth! I’ve got to warn the others.” She sighed, but didn’t move only laid her head back against the chair. She gnawed at her lip for a moment, while deep down inside an ember of buoyant joy flickered into life. “This changes everything,” she mumbled.
”How? The Commander has given us our freedom. The voyager is ready and waiting only for us to gather our belongings and leave.” In his anxiety, the alien wrung his hands together.
Her head still reeling from this latest revelation, Alana struggled to focus and gazed at Norman with sad eyes. His thin lips trembled.
“You can’t come with us Norman.”
“I do not see why not!”
“I’ve told you, it wouldn’t be safe for you on Earth. Hell, I can only imagine what they’d do to an alien in their midst, after the UEC was lied to by the traders. God only knows what they’re going to do to us and we’re from Earth!” She half rose from the chair only to collapse back again, and blinked like a stunned mullet at the ceiling.
The last few days had gone past far too quickly. There had been little for them to do in order to prepare for their journey—as Norman had said, gather their few belongings together. They had spent their time helping with the wounded. Lost in her misery, Alana had been barely aware of the other women’s doings and even less interested in what had occupied Norman’s time. She knew he had been closeted often with the Healer Char, and had taken little notice of their muttering and insistence on taking blood samples from her and the other women. She had vaguely assumed it was being used for blood transfusions with some of the injured.
Of Tarak, she had seen nothing.
A course of action which had suited her just fine. She felt like one of those poor bastards stretched out on a rack in the bowels of some dungeon while some sadist oh-so-slowly turned the wheel. She did not think she could bear being anywhere near him. If he looked at her, touched her once more, she was terribly afraid she would cast her responsibilities to the four winds and leap into his arms.
Then where would they be?
Her mind tumbled with a mish mash of half formed thoughts, wild ideas and turbulent memories.
But this—could she? Dare she?
Unbidden, a sudden memory invaded her mind. Scott with his oh-so-confident smile, the one that had had her falling for his lies and protestations of love. He had broken her heart with such callous disregard she had vowed never again to seek out a life of love and family, burying deep her secret longings by throwing herself into a challenging career.
Alana pressed a hand against her stomach.
Tarak was nothing like her ex —it was laughable to think otherwise.
She chewed a blunt fingernail and wondered whether her family had given up hope of her return. Did they still live?
She remembered the chaos her world had descended into and wondered whether the UEC had found any solutions to the problems besetting her home planet.
And what about the time continuum issue? What if they screwed up the final jump through the black hole that existed in the very middle of the Milky Way? The final jump had to be calculated with exact precision. They could arrive back home and find everyone they had ever cared about had lived out their lives a long, long time ago!
Norman gazed longingly at her with the entreating eyes of an abandoned puppy, albeit a strange puppy with three eyes.
She heaved out a deep, long sigh. “I still don’t understand how this could happen. I thought the Darkon race is unable to reproduce.”
He wagged his finger and puffed out his thin chest. “Aaah, we believe this to be true only with incompatible species. Medic Char and I discovered a genetic sequence which is similar in both your races.”
Alana’s mouth dropped open. She snapped it shut. “Do you mean, we’re like—related?” she squeaked.
“We believe it is possible sometime in the past, both races intermingled.”
She whistled soundlessly. Alien conspiracy theorists and the origins of human life on Earth, eat your heart out!
A short burst of female laughter broke into her jumbled thoughts. The other women were lounging about the spartan room in groups, chatting. Numbly, Alana registered the evidence of their forthcoming departure from Cerciron, the scattered holdalls, a few wrapped parcels, the miserly sum total of their possessions. She fingered the compu on her wrist and transferred her gaze to the old fashioned dial where the second hand ticked relentlessly away.
Counting down.
Beside her Norman now scratched at the scab on his forehead. A frown furrowed deep lines above his eyes made him resemble a wrinkled, hairless gnome. She knew in her bones she would have to do something about him. As soon as her back was turned, no doubt he would be scu
ttling off and hiding somewhere on the voyager. She dared not risk his life and freedom. Tarak had promised one of his ships would take the Jurian to a safer planet. All she had to do was ensure he was kept away from the departure bay until the shuttles had left Cerciron, and they were on board the ship.
Alana’s gaze returned to the women.
Jessamine was talking to a small group not far from where Alana sat, and she couldn’t help noticing the respect on the other women’s faces as they listened. Her second-in-command, she thought with pride.
No, she was more than that!
Life beckoned.
It crooked its little finger in enticing invitation to a destiny she had long believed denied her.
Long believed she was unworthy to live.
She frowned deep in thought. For just one split second, she was back there—a child of ten clinging to the side of the rock face, the sound of her father’s voice echoing in her ears. She could almost feel the crisp winter wind chilling her skin and smell the hint of rain sweetening the mountain air. Hear remnants of a child’s shrill scream. Her father never should have taken a young child on such a difficult climb and in treacherous conditions. It had been her father’s hand that slashed through the rope tying them together. His decision to die, so she could live.
As for her last mission?
That was war and in war, tragically lives were lost. All any soldier could do was his or her best to ensure success with minimum loss of life.
This time, this mission would not fail.
She raised her chin and smiled. The dragging anchor of guilt which had existed inside her soul for years, evaporated like mist soaked up by the new dawn.
A calm acceptance flooded her turbulent mind and resolution flowed with renewed strength through her veins.
She seized the armrests and shot to her feet as if propelled by rocket boosters and beckoned her friend closer. “Is everyone ready?”
The other woman huffed out a breath and flicked her black braids over her shoulder. Shadows darkened her brown eyes. “I guess.”
“Good.” Alana reached out and grasped Jessamine’s hand, gripping it tightly. “There’s something I have to do.”
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