by Elin Wyn
I grabbed a few more blasters, another pack of grenades, and headed out the door. I led the way, Vrehx and Daxion to my left, Sakev to my right, and Tu’ver bringing up the rear.
We made our way north at a healthy jog, Karzin and his team a few hundred yards behind us.
When we arrived at the Quake station, we turned a bit west. We were close. I kept a look out, hoping we would see the Xathi tracks heading away from the tunnels, and only slightly hoping we’d run into them first.
I was itching for another fight against those bastards.
We weren’t that lucky. The Xathi tracks were all over the entrance of the cave, too many of them going inside. I let out a very human string of curses and entered the tunnels.
Tu’ver took Rokul and Takar down one branch, Vrehx and Karzin went down another, Iq’her went down a third branch with Sylor and Sakev, leaving Daxion to try and keep up with me.
I knew the tunnels were empty.
There was no way they could have hidden that many people that well, or that quietly. The Xathi had them, I knew they did, but I tried to hold out hope. I didn’t try for long. The tunnels were empty.
Srell! The damn bugs had Leena. Had the one thing I truly wanted in this life.
I used the comms to call everyone back to the cave entrance.
“We need to go after them.” I fought to keep my calm as I paced back and forth.
Tu’ver examined the tracks, trying to separate the chaos from the questions.
Vrehx put his hand on my shoulder as he came up behind me. “We came out prepared for a quick strike and retrieval. Not this.”
I threw his hand off my shoulder and turned on him. “What in the name of everything are you saying? We’re not going after them?”
“The longer we’re away, the more we’re putting the entire ship in danger.” He scowled. “You know that.”
“I don’t give a shit,” I borrowed from Leena’s extensive cursing repertoire. “We can’t leave these people to the damn Xathi. We need to save them. Even if we don’t have room for them on Vengeance, we can escort them to Duvest.”
I was losing my temper. The only reason that I hadn’t punched this sanctimonious-rule-following-srell in his pretentious little jaw was that I needed him. I couldn’t rescue Leena and the others by myself.
I needed all of them.
Then Vrehx opened his mouth and said the wrong thing. “No, I’m calling this mission off. We don’t know what we’re walking into. We don’t know how many Xathi are involved right now, or even where they took the humans.”
Tu’ver spoke, “I know where.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen Vrehx jump like that. I just wished I could make fun of him for it later, but I jumped about as high as he did.
Vrehx cursed a bit in his language as he started taking in deep breaths. “Damn it, Tu’ver. Stop sneaking around. And what do you mean you know where?”
“I know where, or at least, I know what direction. They headed east, towards Nyheim.”
“That’s where they crash landed. They’re heading back to their ship.”
“Then we know where to go,” I said.
Vrehx shook his head again. “That makes it even worse. They headed back to their ship where the rest of them are. Hell, by the time we get there, the humans might not even be alive anymore.”
“I don’t give a fuck. I’m going, with or without you,” I said slowly, not mincing my words.
“No, you’re not!” he yelled at me. “I’m giving you a direct order, soldier.”
I lost it. “Screw you and your damn orders! I’m going after them!”
“Don’t make me arrest you, Axtin,” Vrehx snapped. “I swear I will.”
“Take yourself to the Abyss. If this was Jeneva, you’d be going after her, but because it’s Leena and you don’t have a vested interest in her, she can just die?”
I was in his face, bearing down on him. “You’re honestly about to tell me that you’re allowed to sleep with a human and be happy, but if the rest of us find a mate, we can’t have them?”
He opened his mouth to say something, but I put my hand on his face and pushed.
“You can accuse me of desertion, you can hunt me down, you can try whatever you want, but I’m going to get Leena and the rest of them and I don’t really give a shit what your thoughts on that are.”
I hoped, so badly, I hoped he would attack me. I wanted to wipe that damn look off his face.
“You ever touch me like that again, I’ll break you,” he snarled, but didn’t move.
“So be it. I’m getting my mate back and I don’t give a srell what you say.” I walked off, heading towards Nyhiem and the Xathi ship.
I heard Vrehx and the others fall in behind me, Karzin talking to Vrehx in hushed tones. If they were planning my court martial, I didn’t care. I didn’t give a damn about that anymore. My only thoughts were on Leena and breaking every damn Xathi I could get my hands on.
The brothers, Rokul and Takar, came up beside me. Rokul was the one that spoke. “So, you’ve taken a human female. How is she?”
I growled at them both and increased my pace, trying to leave them behind. They kept up with me.
“Our apologies, we did not mean to offend,” Takar said. “We merely wanted to ascertain if being with a human female was worth the effort or not.” He was always formal when he spoke, even when he was being an asshole.
“You two are ridiculous. Get away from me.”
They retreated a few steps but stayed close by. I don’t know if they were ordered to stay close or if they decided to on their own. Frankly, it didn’t matter. In a crazed way, I was pleased. They gave me something extra to throw if anything tried to attack.
19
Leena
The Xathi herded us into a dark and cold room, with floors out of some sort of metal that sucked the warmth from us the moment our skin made contact.
I kept a tight hold of Calixta’s hand as the heavy door slammed shut behind us. I heard a thunk as the locking mechanism slid into place.
The only light came from a series of glass panels on one side of the room. On the other side was a room of some sort filled with equipment I didn’t recognize. I didn’t want to know what it was for.
Beside me, Calixta whimpered.
“Hey,” I said softly, crouching down beside her. “We’re okay.”
She leaned into me, hiding her face in the crook of my neck.
“I don’t like the dark,” she cried. I rubbed her back in small circles.
“That’s okay,” I said, trying to keep my voice bright. “I don’t like the dark either! Let’s try to be brave together, okay?”
Calixta sniffled and nodded, wiping at her tears.
“Is Koda here?”
“I’m sure he is!” I smiled, even though the answer to the question made me sick to my stomach. “Let’s go find him, okay? You know, sometimes the dark can be really scary but it’s also really good for playing make-believe. Maybe you and Koda can think of a fun game to play!”
The idea appealed to Calixta. She nodded and excitedly began to look for her friend.
I didn’t want to think about what I would tell her if she couldn’t find him.
When she found Koda, she let go of my hand to hug him. I chewed on my bottom lip, trying not to cry.
“How about you two play for a bit while I talk to some of the grown-ups? But play quietly, though, okay?” I asked, trying not to look nervous.
“We’ll be quiet so the monsters don’t come,” Calixta said with a somber nod.
I was truly amazed at how much she and the other children understood. But at the same time, I was immensely relieved they couldn’t grasp the full reality of our situation.
“Let’s build a big laser so we can help the green man kill all the monsters!” Koda whispered excitedly.
I couldn’t help but smile. If…no…when I saw Axtin again, I think it would make him happy to know how much these kids looked up to h
im.
Leaving the kids to play, I found Vidia standing by one of the glass panels, her arms wrapped around her body. She was staring intently at the various machines on the other side of the glass.
“What do you think they’re for?”
“I’m trying not to think about it,” I said bleakly.
“Will your friends come for us?” she asked as she turned to look at me. Her face was drawn. She looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks.
I’m sure I didn’t look any better.
“Of course,” I said with confidence. “Axtin wouldn’t just leave us here to—” I couldn’t bring myself to say the word ‘die’. I wasn’t going to let myself go there.
Axtin was probably on his way right now.
“Those…things took all of our equipment,” Vidia spat angrily. “The radios, the nav units, everything! What do they even need it for? How is your friend going to find us if you don’t have your nav unit?”
“The Xathi are too big to move stealthily through the forest,” I said as calmly as I could manage. “A hundred or so people aren’t subtle either. We would have left a clear trail behind us. Axtin and the others will have no problem following it right to the ship.”
“You have a lot of faith in him,” Vidia mused.
“What’s the alternative?” I replied.
Before Vidia could answer, the door we had been herded through slid open with a loud bang. Two Xathi, one black and one blue, stood in the doorway. They clicked and chirped to each other.
For some reason, the fact that they had a language disturbed me even more. Because of their appearance, it was easy for me to categorize them as animals that killed because it was their nature. But no, they were intelligent beings who knew exactly what they were doing.
They were systematically trying to wipe out humans.
Suddenly, the black Xathi dashed forward. Everyone scrambled to the back of the room, desperate to escape its grasp. But the Xathi already had its target planned out. It took hold of Anton, who screamed and thrashed in its grip.
Myself, Vidia, and a few others moved forward to help him.
Anton’s pleading cry echoed through the room even after the metal door slammed shut again. But what I did not expect was for the two Xathi to appear in the next room over, the one we could see through the panels.
They dragged a still struggling Anton into the center of the room and strapped him to a table. He thrashed frantically, even when one of the Xathi pushed a long, thick needle into his ear.
I gently pushed Calixta’s head down so she couldn’t see anything, but I couldn’t look away.
The room was a lab. The Xathi were experimenting on us. When they removed the probe, they plugged it into one of the foreign machines, which immediately flickered to life.
I didn’t understand what they were measuring or the reading they were getting but they didn’t look pleased.
They scuttled back to Anton. Each Xathi took up one of his arms and one of his legs. In a movement so swift I could only process it after it had happened, they ripped him apart. The survivors screamed, moving as far away from the windows as they could.
“Gather the children and get them as far away from the door as possible,” I heard Vidia command. I couldn’t move. I watched in horror as one of the Xathi ate one of Anton’s arms.
Someone took Calixta from me. Her cries sounded far away, like a fading echo. I couldn’t look away from the pile of blood and bones that had once been a person.
I felt myself closing off from the other people around me. I needed to think. I needed to examine the facts. I could figure this out if I just had a moment to think.
The door snapped open again and the Xathi came through to collect their next victim. They chose another man, larger and sturdier than Anton was, but he was still no match for them.
A woman ran forward but the others restrained her. She fought against them, screaming and sobbing.
“I love you, Miguel!” she cried.
I could practically feel her heart as it cracked open.
“I love you, Leticia,” the man, Miguel, yelled back before the door closed again.
Vidia immediately went to console Leticia, who had crumpled to the ground.
I watched, unblinking, as the Xathi strapped Miguel to the same table that was still covered in Anton’s blood. They performed the same test and measured the results in the same way.
But Miguel wasn’t ripped to shreds. Instead, they injected him with something that appeared to render him unconscious and ushered him into another room.
Data. This was data. Something I could work with. Something I could measure.
I began to pace frantically. There were pieces of this puzzle scattered in front of me. I just had to put them together. I could do this.
One result means food, I thought. That was pretty obvious. The other result means…a successful injection of something. Something like the language implants Jeneva and the others had back on the ship? Maybe. A successful injection of...something without side effects? Okay. It wasn’t much but it was a starting place.
What were the Xathi after? They were an advanced species physically and technologically. What were they missing?
My thoughts chased themselves in the same circles over and over until pain sprung up between my temples. I continued to pace even as the Xathi came and took more people for their tests.
I paced through screaming children and crying loved ones. I could solve this problem. I could fix all of this if I could just think.
I walked to the darkest corner of the room, as far away from the others as I could manage. I sat with my back pressed against the icy metal and squeezed my eyes shut.
The ones the Xathi don’t like get eaten. All I have to do is figure out which people those are and make sure they get taken last.
Wait, no. That isn’t right. Too much conjecture. Not enough facts. Not enough data. No data. No data. No data.
I didn’t realize I was crying until I choked on a sob. I couldn’t solve this problem. People were dying and they were going to keep dying. There was nothing I could do about it.
There was no magic equation to make it all better. There was no process to follow to get the results I wanted.
It was just me and the cold and the darkness.
“Axtin,” I moaned quietly. I needed him. I wanted him to wrap me in his strong arms and tell me that everything was going to be okay.
I would do anything to see him again. I would give up my life’s research if it meant I could see him again, if it meant an end to the slaughter.
“Axtin, please save me,” I whispered into the darkness. The darkness didn’t answer.
20
Axtin
It only took us two hours to make it to the Xathi ship, but that was two hours that the Xathi had Leena and the others. Two hours for them to have done whatever it is that they do to their prisoners. I needed to get in there.
But Vrehx held me back. “Look at the ship, do you see any openings?”
I took a look.
The thing made the Vengeance look small, and we were one of the bigger ships in the fleet. A bit awkward, I couldn’t figure out how the thing maneuvered when in flight; the Xathi ship was—when not broken—essentially two pyramids on top of one another.
When we were pulled through the rift, the top half of their ziggurat had broken off, leaving the bottom half—still a pretty big portion—to fall through and crash onto the planet.
The crash destroyed roughly half of Nyheim. Even now, weeks after our arrival, there was still some smoke rising into the air from parts of the city. From what the females told us, Nyheim had been the cultural, social, and economic center of the planet.
Now there was a massive gash in the ground for several miles, ending in the center of the city, the entire east and south sides obliterated. The rest of the city was in ruins.
The Xathi had been thorough in their search. It was unlikely any humans survived at all.
&nbs
p; As for the ship itself, there were several points of entry, but each of those were guarded by at least a dozen Xathi soldiers, their blue shells vibrant against the gray of the ship. The black-shelled hunters roamed the city and walked patrol around the ship. Even some of the green-shelled farm-bugs worked some of the land just outside the crash site.
Too many Xathi to go in headfirst.
“Okay, you’re right. We need to be smart about this. But we can’t take too long, or they’ll have already killed everyone.”
“If they haven’t been extinguished already,” Takar remarked.
I snarled at him and he quickly held up a hand in apology.
“Easy, boys. Put the fangs away,” Karzin cut in. He stared both of us down until we looked away. “Vrehx, this is your boy, your mission. Thoughts?”
Vrehx stayed quiet for several minutes. We knew he was thinking things through, but why did it have to take so long?
I was just about to lose my mind when he spoke.
“Okay. The current openings are no good to us, too heavily guarded. So, we need to make our own door.”
I perked up a bit. I did enjoy watching things go boom.
“Our only problem once we’re inside is that we don’t know where the humans are being held. Too big an area to search within a reasonable time.”
“I can help with that,” Tu’ver said.
We all looked at him in anticipation.
“I will use my disguise holo and get captured. When they take me to the others, I will broadcast our position. Then you come and rescue us all.”
He was insanely calm, and that unnerved me to no end. He was willing to let himself be captured, and he’d have to do it unarmed, and he was as calm as he would be choosing his morning meal.
“That might work,” Karzin admitted. “And while he’s in there, we’ll set some charges around the ship to make our way in.”
“I’ll get the charges,” I said, but Vrehx held up a finger and tilted his head.
