Axtin: A Science Fiction Adventure Romance (Conquered World Book 2)

by Elin Wyn

  After days of trial and error, I had finally started to make progress.

  I had found ways to subtly alter the chemical compounds from the original scent bombs. With my new formulas, we could make different kinds. Stronger ones for the more formidable of the Xathi, the sub-queens for example, bigger, wider-range bombs for large groups.

  With the new variety of weapons, I thought we might stand a better chance the next time we went up against the Xathi.

  The thought still made my heart race, my palms sweat, but I was working through it. I knew that sooner or later, the day would come for another fight. Likely sooner.

  Since there was nothing I could do to stop it, I had resolved to be prepared.

  After spending time amongst them, I finally understood the full scope of the threat we faced. I finally understood what Axtin and the others had been up against for so long.

  They’d been the only ones left to fight the Xathi where they came from, all of them having watched as their planets fell prey to the monsters.

  It was illuminating really, seeing them in action. I now knew what drove Axtin to be the man he was, what fueled the fire in him that burned so brightly.

  He hadn’t been able to save his planet, he hadn’t stood a chance.

  None of them had.

  Now though, they had an opportunity to save others. To spare a new planet from the terror of the Xathi.

  I intended to help them do it, pouring all of my energy into the cause.

  Days after we had returned to the ship, I sat in the lab, as I did so often, my eyes skimming over the notes projected before me. I was finally content with my work on the scent bombs. The new iterations would give us an edge, something the Xathi wouldn’t see coming.

  I checked and rechecked the formulas, going over my own documents with a fine-tooth comb.

  It all checked out, my new formulas were ready.

  I added final notes to the files, saving them for later use. We would need to get started on production immediately, there were just a few new ingredients I needed.

  I closed the final file, leaning back with a sigh.

  That was it then, my contribution to the cause, all neat and bundled up. I only hoped that it would be enough to turn the tide in the war.

  The true test wouldn’t be done in a lab after all, but in the middle of battle, while people’s lives hung in the balance.

  I stared blankly at the screen; I tried to suppress memories flashing brightly through my mind.

  It would have to be enough, that’s all there was to it.

  I moved to switch off the console when an unfamiliar file caught my eye. I hadn’t noticed it before, being too focused on my research. But I saw something I hadn’t added to the memory.

  It must have been uploaded by mistake; it was from a completely separate branch of the university than my own research.

  With a swipe of my hand I opened it, preparing to press delete when something caught my eye. A simple phrase really, but it stilled me nonetheless.

  Beginning stages of immunodeficiency it read.

  I leaned in closer, my eyes skimming over the list that now filled the screen. As I read on, more phrases jumped out at me, more symptoms.

  They were achingly familiar.

  Of course they were, I had thought about these particular ailments every day of my adult life.

  My hand went to my mouth, my eyes widening in shock. There before me, plain in black and white, was a description of my condition, the genetic disease that even now lay dormant inside me.

  My hand shook as I reached to swipe further down the page, the blood beginning to rush through my veins.

  It was all there, every indicator, every painful symptom.

  I read to the bottom, hoping beyond hope for some new tidbit of information. I found it in the last line, the first new piece of information I had come across in my years of research.

  Likely cause: long-term exposure to toxic gas, N.O.X.

  I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, my whole body seeming to relax as I finished reading.

  This was it, finally a lead.

  I had never heard of N.O.X. before, not even a single mention of it in my studies, but as I stared unblinkingly at the letters, I felt a renewed sense of hope begin to build inside me.

  If this were true, if our condition really was caused by exposure to a toxic gas, then we might be able to find a cure yet.

  My head spun, a million thoughts blinking to life in my mind. I was so caught up, it took me a moment to come to the most important of them.

  I had to tell Mariella.

  I jumped from my chair, hearing it strike the wall with the force of my movement. I didn’t bother to stop and right it, I was already running for the door.

  I pulled it open, flying through the entry and into the hall.

  After several minutes of searching, I finally found her, standing in a hall with Tu’ver.

  “Mariella,” I cried, rushing towards them, “Mariella, I’ve found something, you need to come with me!”

  She turned, looking genuinely perplexed as her eyes fell on my smiling face.

  “Leena, are you okay?”

  I waved her concern away with the flick of my wrist, reaching down to take her hand.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Better than, actually. I need to show you something. Right now.”

  She hesitated a moment, flashing Tu’ver a look of complete and utter confusion before finally relenting and following. I pulled her at a near run, dodging her questions as we made our way back to the lab.

  I can only imagine how insane I must have looked, eyes wide, manic smile on my face, but I didn’t care. It would be worth looking like a fool, the moment Mariella saw the file.

  I dragged her into the lab, finally letting go of her hand in order to right the fallen chair. I pulled it back to the monitor, gesturing at it with my free hand.

  “Sit.”

  “Leena, what is going on?”

  “Just sit.” I said. “Look.”

  She raised her eyebrows in question but did as I asked, glancing casually towards the screen.

  “You’ve…made a list of our symptoms?” she asked, turning to look at me

  “No, not me. Just keep reading.”

  She turned back to the screen, her shoulders slumping as she read over the dire symptom list that she already knew too well.

  I saw the moment she got past it, the very second that her eyes found the final sentence. Her shoulders tensed, her hand pausing mid-air as she leaned in for a better look.

  “Gas?” she finally said, her voice an octave higher than usual.

  “Yes, something called N.O.X. Have you ever heard of it?”

  She shook her head, eyes still glued to the screen.

  “No, I haven’t. Leena, do you think this could be true?”

  “I do. Mariella, this could be our answer!”

  She sat another moment in stunned silence, her eyes tracing over the sentence again and again. When she had apparently assured herself it was real, she stopped, turning in her chair to face me.

  She wore a grin to match my own, her eyes burning with anticipation. “It’s there. In the files. You found it.” She sprung up, arms wrapping around me with impressive force, squeezing the air from my lungs.

  I didn’t mind, I hugged her back with equal vigor.

  After a long moment, she pulled back, wiping at the tears that now brimmed her eyes. “I didn’t think there was any hope.”

  “I know, it’s okay, Mariella.”

  “No, it’s not okay. I gave up, on a cure, on us. I should’ve known you’d find something eventually.”

  I stopped her mid-rant, silencing her with an upraised hand. “Nothing’s for sure yet, Mariella, it’s only a chance.”

  She nodded, taking my hand. “I know, but it’s more than I thought we had. We’ll figure this out together. I mean, hell, I’m an archivist. Finding information is kind of my job.”

  I smile
d up at her, squeezing her hand as tears stung at my own eyes.

  “Okay, then,” I gestured towards the chair, “let’s get started.”

  30

  Axtin

  I had never felt such peace as I did in the days after waking up in med bay. I had never felt such calm.

  I knew that it was Leena’s doing.

  What else could it have been? Nothing else in my life had changed, not really.

  From the moment I woke up, life around the Vengeance had been much the same. The halls still seemed to bustle with activity, the crew still vibrated with anxious energy, plans were being made, threats assessed. From all appearances, it was life as normal, but something about me seemed to have changed.

  I was calmer, more thoughtful. My mind still wandered often to the Xathi, but that was no longer the only place it traveled. I found myself thinking of things that I hadn’t in years, pleasant things—things that revolved chiefly around Leena.

  I still woke occasionally to nightmares, long-buried memories that forced themselves out in the dead of sleep. It was nothing new, not for anyone aboard the Vengeance.

  The days that we could rely on peaceful sleep were long gone, burned up with our families and our planets. I suppose that stood true, but for me, they had started to come less often.

  For me, Leena was now there to pull me out of them, to remind me that things had changed since those days.

  This was a new life.

  A new planet.

  And even though we weren’t yet free of the Xathi, we were no longer playing at such a great disadvantage.

  We were making sure of that, more so with every passing day.

  Leena spent her afternoons holed up in the lab, working tirelessly on new and improved scent bombs to use against the Xathi. I, for my part, was also working relentlessly.

  There was always something new to learn about the enemy, always another plan to go through. My days were spent in command, working with General Rouhr and the others, desperately trying for any advantage.

  We were approaching the problem from all sides now, no longer only relying on passion and determination to see us through. Sure, we had all wanted the Xathi dead before coming here, but that hadn’t been enough, not really.

  We had been desperate men, the last of our respective species.

  Nothing left to fight for but our revenge, nothing to protect but ourselves. It was no way to live.

  It was no way to fight.

  Desperate men might’ve had nothing left to lose, but they’d also had nothing real to hope for. That had all changed in the days since our arrival. We were approaching things from a new perspective now, one of strength rather than desperation.

  For the first time in a long time, I felt that we might really have a chance.

  We had to be different now, better. There was another planet at risk, countless more lives.

  After years of doing, we were stalled, thinking before acting.

  To be completely honest, there were moments where it was all but infuriating, but they were fewer than we might have expected. In a way, it was freeing to act like more than soldiers for once. Most days, anyway.

  It didn’t help that my physical training had hit a roadblock. Recovering from my injuries had been slow and painful. I still trained to the best of my ability, but it was a weak imitation of my prior self. I couldn’t yet swing my hammer, could hardly keep up with Vrehx on runs.

  Still, the doctors assured me I would heal with time, that there shouldn’t be any lasting damage. Most of the time I believed them, sometimes my impatience got the better of me. I was eager to be back to my full strength, to feel capable again.

  On the bad days, Leena was there. She reassured me, she encouraged me, and perhaps most importantly, she distracted me.

  When training became too much, I would head over to the lab to spend some time with her.

  At first, it was enough just to watch her work. She was amazing, the depth of her understanding blew me away. Sometimes I’d ask questions, trying my best to follow along with her explanations.

  Most days I’d just watch in utter fascination as she built weapons from next to nothing.

  After a while, I became even more interested in the process, offering my help whenever I saw an opportunity. Leena, of course, was only too happy to put me to work.

  She was amazing at the science of it all, the chemistry. But I soon found that I had a lot to offer to the task. I might not have understood it all, but building came to me like a second nature.

  For hours at a time, we would sit together, me assembling the bombs while Leena worked at her concoctions. She had already come up with several new versions of the originals, each seeming more effective than the last.

  With her help, I felt like real progress was being made.

  As much as I loved my physical training, I started to really look forward to those days together. I had spent so much of my life as a weapon; it was like I had forgotten I could be anything else.

  It was typical of my species, the Valorni were almost always dismissed as brutes. With our stature and natural talent for warfare, I suppose it wasn’t exactly an unfair assumption, but we could be so much more than soldiers.

  It was just one more thing that Leena reminded me of.

  On a day not long after I had begun to assemble the bombs, Leena and I sat in the lab, talking over a pile of equipment. By this point, she had started to trust in my abilities, no longer watching me like a hawk as I pieced together the weapons.

  She had been busy triple-checking a formula when she suddenly sighed, sinking into her chair with a look on her face like defeat.

  “What is it,” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

  She leaned forward, propping her elbows on the desk and resting her head in her hands.

  “Will it be enough?” she finally asked, not bothering to turn to me.

  “The bombs?”

  She sat up, “Yes, the bombs. All of it. Do you think it will be enough?”

  I wanted to say yes, to reassure her immediately. But I knew Leena well enough to know that anything other than the truth would be pointless. She could smell a lie from a mile away, especially on me.

  I stood from my chair, crossing the room to kneel in front of her. “I don’t know.”

  She nodded as if she’d been expecting the answer.

  “Some days it feels like it won’t.”

  I knew what she meant. Some days it all felt almost pointless to me, as well. Those were the bad days, the ones where everything seemed so bleak.

  “I have those days, too.”

  “Often?”

  I thought on it, running my hand through my hair as I did so. “Less often than I used to.” I answered, reaching for her hand.

  A small smile tugged at her lips, “And before?”

  That was easy enough to remember, “Before, I don’t think I ever believed anything could be enough, not really. Back then, the most I hoped for was to take out as many Xathi beasts as I could before they dragged me down with them.”

  She didn’t pretend to be surprised at that, having witnessed it first hand when we first landed. She just tightened her grip on my hand, leaning down to press a kiss to my lips.

  “I’m glad you don’t feel that way anymore.”

  So was I.

  “I really do think that we can beat them, Leena. Just look what we’re accomplishing here,” I gestured around the room. “This matters. This could make all the difference.”

  She sat silently for a long moment, the wheels in her mind clearly turning. Finally, she nodded again, sitting up straighter in her chair and looking around the lab.

  “Well then, I guess we better get back to work.”

  Epilogue: Leena

  The sound of leaves crunching underfoot was almost a comfort after so many days spent in the lab. I’d half forgotten how nice the sun felt, how clean the air was.

  For a while after the attack, I thought I might never be able to leave the sa
fety of the ship again, or Axtin, for that matter. But as the days drew on, my strength started to come back. After a while, I was practically itching to get out.

  I wasn’t alone. Vidia and the other survivors were also struggling to adjust to life on board the Vengeance, used to far different accommodations as they were.

  After a while, they had started to plan trips outside. Nowhere far, of course, but out in the fresh air. Vidia had arranged most of them, still leading in her own unique way. She’d worked a compromise with General Rouhr to create an outer enclosure, safe from the native terrors, still shielded from the Xathi.

  At first, I’d reluctantly gone with Axtin, feeling responsible for Vidia and the few survivors after all that we had been through together. After that, it just became another part of the routine.

  I turned to Tu’ver, smiling as he scanned the forests for threats. He, like all the rest of the crew, had become very protective of the new human contingent.

  “I think we’re okay,” I said, drawing his attention to me, “I can still see the ship.”

  He scoffed. “I’m not about to get lazy because of it. It’s not worth the risk.”

  “I don’t think there are any Xathi nearby,” I chided.

  “It’s Axtin I’m worried about. If I let something happen to you, he’d kill me for sure.”

  I laughed loudly, startling birds from the trees. After a while he joined in, though we both knew he was probably right.

  It had been like pulling teeth just to get Axtin to let me go outside without him. He’d been busy with General Rouhr and insisted I wait until tomorrow. Of course, he finally relented, but only on the condition that I take Tu’ver along.

  I’d pretended to be bothered, but really, I was grateful. I might have been ready to go outside again, but being alone still frightened me.

  Tu’ver didn’t make me feel quite as safe as Axtin, nobody did, but he was a close second. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would gladly put himself in harm’s way for us. He was just a good man like that—or alien, rather.

  I felt a tug at my hand and turned, smiling down at Calixta. She, too, was growing used to the crew of the Vengeance. She still occasionally shied away from Tu’ver and Vrehx, but Axtin had already grown on her.