Lazzar: The Kur'ik Minor Incident

by Serena Simpson

  “There will come a day when you and I will meet—.”

  “I find myself growing bored. Skip the spiel about my entrails decorating your neck and get to the point.”

  “You are in violation of Kur’ik Minor’s laws. They have called us to exterminate you like the vermin you are. This is your one warning, surrender and we will do this peacefully and by the book. If you choose not to surrender, then we get to have some fun.”

  Declyn stood slowly stretching every muscle as if he weren’t being watched by the Alpha of the Thalians. Taking his time he walked to the screen.

  “There are times I believe you are hard of hearing and I want you to hear every word. We will not surrender, we will not allow you to have Kur’ik Minor even though their new rules are ridiculous. I will clue you in to what’s happening since I’m that kind of created. Whoever sent those messages to you is not Thalian, and they are not Kur’ik. Someone is playing with both of us. Our best bet may be to ignore them.”

  He deliberately turned his back to show just how much he didn’t care which option Corso took and moved back to his chair with a casual elegant grace. There was a chance that he and his people along with the Thalians would die within a planet rotation. He wouldn’t run from that it’s what they were created to do, but he would not casually risk the lives of his battalion, his people because Corso wanted glory.

  He turned to flash both fang and blazing eyes before he gave Enzo a small motion to cut trans.

  “He wants a fight, and glory, I can see it in his eyes.”

  “I agree, I have never seen a Thalian as willing to die as this one. Find out where we are with the transfer of our people.”

  “Cole?” Enzo turned on the all com. “Report.”

  “Half of the females are back on the ship. The males are waiting to make sure the females are all safely aboard before they transfer.”

  “Caden and Xander, did we finish the ship-wide inspection?”

  “There are two sections that are still being looked at. One is life support.”

  “The other is the ships secondary engine drive.” Xander turned and pulled the schematics. “This will take the longest to verify. It will not be done before we leave the planets orbit.”

  “Do what you can.”

  “Declyn, what are we missing?” Xander asked.

  “Someone is holding him back, but I don’t think he realizes it. We’ve been at war too long for me not to know how he operates. Work on the last two systems I want to leave orbit as soon as all of our crew is on board.” He left the command deck looking for a few minutes of solitude.

  *~*~*~*

  “Kels you're next.”

  “I won’t go without you.”

  “Yes, you will.”

  They were standing inside a transfer station. Kels was right when she said being transferred to a field beat this any day. The station was devoid of personnel or even travelers going and coming from different worlds.

  The inside of the station was done in a flat black, there was no personality or color. That was how all the workspaces were for those who worked this planet. For a minute, she entertained the thought that maybe the world should be destroyed as a wake-up call to the rest of the solar system of what happened when you didn’t treat your employees right.

  Immediately the need to turn herself in for cleansing a fancy name for death rode her, but she ignored it. Maybe she was rogue after all, but she was tired of watching her friends die for a war that didn’t matter.

  She had taken over working the transfer controls to speed up the transfer of personnel back to the ship.

  “I know you're worried.” Amira gave her a small smile.

  Of course, she was worried. It had been planet orbits, but her friendship with Amira was all that got her through some days. Being the last of your batch and being labeled defective was something that stuck with you even when all the others finally warmed up and accepted you for who you were.

  “If you die I will come after you and pull you out of whatever afterlife you’re in so that I can have the pleasure of killing you myself.”

  “I would expect nothing less. I’ll see you on the other side.” She worked the controls and watched Kels disappear along with the other females.

  “She’s right you know. You should be on the ship where you will be safe.”

  “Not you too. Were you not in the same room with me when I transferred the intel I found?”

  “I was there, that doesn’t stop me from wanting you to be safe.”

  “I don’t think any of us will be safe. Someone wants us dead.”

  “I agree, and if we live, we will have much to answer for.” He pulled her close and wrapped her in his arms before he claimed her lips in a kiss in front of the males who were staring at them.

  “Declyn will have no other choice but to kill you.”

  “You’re assuming we will live long enough for that to happen.”

  That kiss had sealed their fate, one way or the other there would be no going back, and she knew it. She should grieve for the life she may be giving up, but it wasn’t a life.

  They fought, they slept, and if they were lucky, they were given food to eat and then they did it again. Her life started when she realized she wanted more than the world around her said she could have. When she looked into Lazzar’s eyes and realized she was more than the sum of her parts. She was more than a killer. When he touched her making her realize she was a female with forbidden emotions and dreams.

  She would keep her dreams to herself, there was already enough to have her put to death, but she would hold tight to them. It might be impossible, but right now that was all she had to put her faith into, the impossible.

  “Next group take the dais.” His voice was hard. He knew that some of his crew were still too new to understand the desire to want more. They didn’t understand what it felt like to lie alone rotation after rotation, orbit after orbit with nothing but the thought of Thalian blood splashed across your skin to warm you up. They had yet to understand the feeling of watching a friend die and knowing that the only person who would mourn his passing was yourself and you didn’t have time for that because staying alive took your every thought, your every breath.

  One day they would want to breathe, to come to a place where the person who greeted them was the one they would fall on their knife for if she was no longer there. They didn’t understand how they would kill faster and better because they had something worth killing for. There was more to life than fighting someone else’s war, but it would take more planet orbits than he might have left to explain it to them.

  “Transferring.” Her voice rang out, and he took comfort in the sound of it. He wrapped it around himself like a blanket that he could take with him if Declyn or the controllers chose to put him down. If they didn’t make it out of the planets orbit, he wanted to take every memory of her into the darkness that would call to him.

  Amira, to be so cold and then to be graced by the warmth that was her. That was what life was about not the endless fighting to entertain people he would never see with his eyes.

  “Transferring.” He watched as the next group of males disappeared.

  “You should go in the next group.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Someone will tell our Alpha, but if you're already on the ship, I don’t think he’ll have the time to send you back to the planet.”

  “What will I do on the ship? Wait in the transfer room to see if you make it? And if you don’t, what then?

  “Lazzar.” Her throat moved with the emotions she was trying to hide within her body. All that mattered was that he was safe. She would accept any fate if she knew he would be alive tomorrow.

  He placed his hand on top of hers. “Transferring.” His deep voice rang out offering her comfort that could only come from him.

  “I won’t live without you. Isn’t this where we first started this conversation?”

  She nodded her eyes bright with
emotion.

  “Two more groups and then we will know if the ship will still accept us on board.”

  “Two more groups.” They worked the controls together until they were the only two standing in the transfer station.

  Nothing but silence greeted them, and he held her. Whatever happened they would be together.”

  “What are you two doing? Get on the dais we don’t have all rotation, leave is officially over.”

  “Cole?”

  “This is what happens when males and females get together on leave they officially lose their minds. I’m waiting.”

  He took Amira’s hand. She was too busy laughing to move. He pulled her to the dais.”

  “Transferring.” Cole’s voice rang out strong before the world around them disappeared.

  Chapter Eight

  “Declyn wants to see the two of you.” Cole looked them over before walking out the transfer chamber.

  “At least he didn’t leave us on the planet.”

  “He wouldn’t do that.”

  She gave him a brief nod and headed for the door. He took her hand making her stop.

  “We’re either in this together, or we’re not.”

  She squeezed his hand, and they walked out together. They found him in the officer’s lounge.

  “Take a seat.”

  They sat. She took her time looking around it was the first time she had ever been invited in. It was much different than the lounge where she hung out. It was done in pale colors of blue and green with a mauve as an accent color. The cushions were a little softer but still serviceable. There was both a drink and a food station on the back counter.

  He stared at them, and she hoped they weren’t playing the who speaks first game. She never lost with the enemy, but she was about to bubble over with words when Declyn spoke to them.

  “What am I supposed to do with the two of you?”

  “Amira is innocent, the blame belongs to me.”

  She cut her eyes to look at him before protesting. “He did nothing wrong I will take any punishment you hand out.”

  Please don’t kill me is what she wanted to say but she knew the punishment was cleansing and that meant killing her and reusing her enzymes unless she was found to be faulty down to her basic cells.

  “Do you think Lazzar will walk away accepting the fact that I put you to death?”

  “What other choice will he have?”

  “If I kill you, I have to kill him also he won’t give me a choice. I want both of you to stop volunteering for death. Unless you both would rather die than live with your choices?”

  That stopped the next words coming from her mouth. Was their Alpha going to give them a chance? In her world his word was law. There were the controllers, but they were a shadowy organization she never saw. The male she sat before was her judge and jury.

  “Go to your stations we’ll deal with what comes next after we win the war with the Thalians. Lazzar, we have four additional battalions on the ship. They were in stasis, but I’ve had them woken. I want you to assist making sure each battalion makes it to a lifeboat in case they have to be jettisoned from the ship. This is our fight, not theirs.”

  “Yes, Alpha.”

  “Dismissed.”

  Enzo uncloaked and looked down at Ven who was leaning against his leg.

  “You have earned their fidelity for life.”

  “Let’s hope we live long enough for me to enjoy that perk. Are you bringing Ven to the command deck?”

  “I am.”

  “Ven I’ve had a special chair installed for you. It has a forcefield perfect for your size that will keep you from being thrown around when the ship encounters enemy fire.”

  Ven’s blue eyes sparked. “Thank you, Alpha.”

  He was still small and shy. Being thrown into a working battalion was not where anyone his age should be. Declyn sighed and looked at Enzo.

  “If we make it he will make it.”

  “We will make it.”

  “Then let’s go fight a war.”

  *~*~*~*

  The ship rocked throwing Amira across the room before she crawled her way back to her battle station. Fighting in the ship was worse than when they fought planet side. There was nowhere to retreat to in the ship. No way to lay low and wait for the right moment to strike. She was manning the laztech they used to fight in space. Her job was to eliminate any Thalian ship trying to breach their hull.

  Most of them were droids which meant no loss of life unless they got past her. She locked herself into her chair and became one with her station using her mental ability to direct the attack. Her brain worked faster than her hands. Her brain also didn’t stop to wonder or hesitate with whether the droid ship was occupied, it simply did its job. It was war she reminded herself as she shot one after the other out of space.

  They were retreating, but she didn’t buy that. Declyn was drawing the Thalians away from the planet. The coordinates he sent out earlier would take them to deep space before the real battle began. For now, she would keep firing at the droids.

  “Amira, I am detecting something to your right, but my screen is unable to define it. It looks like a mass then it shrinks in size.” Kels warned her.

  She took care of the last droid and turned her chair around to get a visual of what she was seeing. It looked like a small light that grew and shrank as if it couldn’t keep its size.

  “Amira to the command deck.”

  “Go Amira.”

  “We have located an anomaly on our view screen. There doesn’t seem to be any substance to it. I will try to destroy it on your word.” She rattled off the coordinates then waited.

  Several minutes later the ship wide alarm sounded.

  “Strap in everyone we are in for a bumpy ride. A rift in space was just identified. Alpha has decided going around it will be safer.”

  “Do you think we’ll make it?”

  One look at Kels was enough to tell her that she wasn’t worried about their lives.

  “They will make it and so will we hold on.”

  “What the hell is happening?” Lazzar growled as they went spinning through the air.

  “We just lost Kgrav.”

  “You think?” He reached for the back of his chair and pulled himself into it before hitting the field that would keep him from being thrown around the room again.

  “Engineering we lost Kgrav.”

  “No shit. What gave it away when you floated out of your chairs? Chairs you’re probably now locked into. Call me back if you discover something I don’t already know like why we lost Kgrav.”

  “There are days I like Xander, and then there are days like this.”

  “I agree, but he raised a good question why did we lose Kgrav.”

  He turned back to check the readings that were pouring over his screen as much as he hated to agree with Xander, he and Arkel were correct, the loss of Kgrav was an indicator of something seriously being wrong

  “I’m doing a thorough check of the hull right now. At this time, I cannot detect any breaches.”

  “Command deck to Lazzar.”

  “Lazzar here. I am running another scan on the hull looking for breaches the first one came back negative.”

  “Run a separate scan checking the engines and the secondary engines for a hull breach.”

  “Yes, Alpha.” The all com discounted.

  “Is there any other way for that to happen other than sabotage?” Arkel was checking the interior of the ship for any anomaly.

  “Anything is possible, but sabotage would be the first thing I looked for.”

  “The ship is turning.”

  The battalion was a huge ship that covered miles of space. It was surprisingly fast when aimed in a certain direction. Turning it, on the other hand, was cumbersome and something only done in rare circumstances like this. It was so large and unwieldy and housed so many Kur’iks that it took skill and patience and time to turn it. Skill they had but time and patience were in short s
upply.

  Lazzar ran his scans allowing them to filtrate to Arkel’s screen for a second pair of eyes.

  “Do you see this?”

  “I do, but I want to run the scan again to make sure that ions have not escaped from the core of the engine corrupting the sensitive equipment.”

  “Alright, I’ll measure the heat levels and check for any burst of ionic activity.”

  Lazzar started the second scan before he started one in the secondary engines and went back to studying the hull for signs of a breach. Three scans later he was sure there was a minuscule breach in the hull from the engine room. It wasn’t big enough to actually rupture the hull, but it would be soon.

  “Lazzar to Xander.”

  “This better not be you wanting to chat or tell me about the Kgrav again.”

  “I would tell you that you were grumpy, but I found a small tear in the hull on the engine side.”

  “That’s impossible. I’m reviewing your data stream right now. I see it. We’ll have to take the main engines offline and engage the secondary engines.”

  “I’ll keep monitoring the hull.”

  “Enzo to Lazzar. Excellent work on the engine hull breach. Have you found anything in the secondary engines?”

  “I don’t see any type of hull breach in the secondary engines.”

  “But?”

  “They sound different.”

  “Repeat?”

  “I know it doesn’t make sense. We have been monitoring the secondary engines along with the energy outtake and the ionic bursts. We tapped into sound because the secondary engines make a unique sound. It sounded fine then it changed just before you called us.”

  “Xander to command deck.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “The secondary engines are failing. They seem to have come online without me running the proper sequence and are powering up. We are going to run into whatever you're trying to avoid.”

  “Shut them down!”

  “I will at the risk of the battalion blowing up.”

  “To all the crew this is your Alpha, hang on things are about to get out of control. Lifeboats prepare to jettison.”