by Lucy Snow
Ark looked away, pensive. “I know it.”
“That’s not very reassuring.”
“You will find a way to be satisfied with that answer all the same.”
“OK, so say we get off this zoo alive, what then? You go back to your fleet and I go home?”
“I will defer to Admiral Kaalax. He is my commanding officer.”
I took a half step closer to him, Ark’s scent wafting toward me and drawing me in like a moth to a flame. I couldn’t resist him, even though I needed to. “You said it yourself, Ark, his injuries are critical.” Ark’s face hardened. “What if he doesn’t survive?”
“Then I will lead the Kreossian fleet to destroy Earth.”
The matter-of-fact manner in which he said it made my jaw drop. “Excuse me? Destroy Earth? Why the hell would you do that?”
“Because saboteurs from your planet will be responsible for the death of the Kreossian Empire’s most famous commander and diplomat. It is the only fitting way to avenge Kaalax’ death.”
If it were possible for my jaw to drop any further, it would have in that moment. “WAIT!” I shouted, not wanting to, but unable to control my approaching-hysteria. “You think humans were responsible for what happened on the station?”
“I do not think it, Melissa Crane of Earth. I know it to be true.”
“That’s bullshit. You have no proof!”
“I do not know what a ‘bull’ is, but I gather your meaning.”
I stepped closer and punched Ark upward, right in the chest. “I will not let you destroy my planet, Ark. I will not allow it.”
“You will not be able to stop me, Melissa. You have seen but a small fraction of the Kreossian power. When the empire learns what happened on the station, they will mobilize to avenge our loss. It is how we work.”
“But there’s no proof humans had anything to do with this! We are good people! We don’t do these things anymore! And we don’t deserve to be destroyed just because of an accident.”
Ark stared at me like I had said the dumbest thing he had ever heard. “This was no accident, Melissa. It was deliberate sabotage.”
“You can’t know that.”
“This was not the first time I have seen an explosion. It was not the first time that I have been inside an explosion. In fact, I have seen hundreds, if not thousands of them. There were clearly a series of explosive devices hidden in the conference room.”
“But why? Why would we do it? Ambassador Fuller might have been the most famous person on Earth!”
“It is entirely possible that Fuller did not know he was about to die.”
“Of course he didn’t know he was about to fucking die! Who does that?”
“Fanatics, Melissa. Fanatics.”
“We don’t have those anymore! Not since Fuller and Kaalax met!”
Ark sighed, and looked down at me almost like a father scolding a bothersome child. “Fanaticism does not just disappear overnight, Melissa. In fact, it never goes away at all. It just goes underground.”
I stepped back, tears coming to my eyes, and I tried to rub them away, but in this heat I didn’t know if I was moving sweat or tears away. “We’re not like that anymore,” I whispered.
“You do not know it, but you are. We have monitored the dissident movements on your planet.”
“What? How?”
Ark stood up straight. “There are Kreossians on your planet in disguise. They keep watch for us, and report back.” He said it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“You’ve…you’ve got Kreossian spies…on Earth?”
Ark laughed. “Spies are a different division. These are advance scouts.”
“This is no time for jokes, Ark, this is serious business!”
“I am well aware of the situation.”
“Why have you been monitoring us? You must have already decided that we were ready to join the rest of the galaxy before Kaalax and Fuller met.”
“All we had decided was that you were ready for first contact. After that, of course we still watched to see how you would respond to it.”
“We must have done well enough to get this far.”
“Better than most, not as well as some.”
“But you still think that we could have had a hand in this.”
“The Kreossian Empire doesn’t give out its plans for meetings with other species, Melissa. The only others to know of it were humans.”
I grabbed Ark’s arm as he turned to walk back to the ship. “But what about someone inside the Kreossian Empire? Why are you so quick to blame humans when it could have been one of your people?”
Ark laughed. “To what end? Admiral Kaalax is loved across the empire, no one would do this to him. We do not have dissidents like your people do.”
My temper flared. “I seem to recall you just saying that fanaticism doesn’t disappear, Ark, it just goes underground.”
Ark thought about this, and I could see his face soften. “You are correct on that front. I had not considered it in some time.”
I let go of his arm and he turned around, but before we started back to the ship, Ark looked over his shoulder at me. “I hope I will not have to destroy your planet, Melissa Crane of Earth.”
“I hope so too,” I whispered as we trudged back to the wreckage of the ship. I knew that I wouldn’t let him do it even if he wanted to, but at the same time, I was trying to be realistic - if Ark and his Kreossian fleet wanted to destroy Earth, I didn’t know that I or the rest of humanity would be able to stop him.
Of course we’d certainly die trying, if it came to that.
“Wait a second, Ark.” I ran forward, stopping just behind him.
Ark froze in place and looked back. “Yes?”
“That thing you did on the ship. The scales and the wings thing.”
“What of it?”
“What was that about?”
Ark sighed and turned back around. “My people have two forms. The one you see before you, and the one you saw on the ship.”
“You can just switch between them?”
“Yes. We do not do it often outside of battle. It is considered…a loss of control amongst our people.”
“Kinda like Vulcans?”
“Vulcans? I do not know this species.”
I waved it away. “Never mind. So you can fly and stuff?”
“Yes. And we are more resistant to injury, and immune to being burned.”
“That sounds really useful.”
“It is one of the reasons the Kreossian Empire exists, one of the reasons we are the most feared warriors in the galaxy.”
“How come you don’t do it more often?”
“In my lifetime, there has been a movement throughout the empire to become more…civilized, is a good way to put it. Shifting more rarely outside of battle, flying only in designated areas, etc.”
“That sounds pretty backwards to me. If I were your people I would be embracing it - it sounds like a wonderful gift.”
“There are many amongst my people that agree with you, Melissa Crane of Earth.”
“And you? What do you think?”
“I have seen the destruction I can cause in that form. I respect that more than anything else.” Ark faced forward and kept walking back toward the ship.
I followed him, mulling over his words before realizing that he had managed to deftly avoid answering my question at all. For a warrior who mostly spoke with his weapons, Ark was adept at verbal sparring as well, and I found that exciting above and beyond how much his sexy body called to me.
“You know what you look like? I mean, when you’re in that other form of yours?” I asked to Ark’s back.
He stopped, and I almost collided with his back. “What do I look like?” His voice was questioning and wary, unlike him.
“You look like mythic creatures from Earth’s past. We call them dragons.”
Ark turned toward me, and I looked up as he rolled the word over his lips. “Dragons. Dra
gons. You have seen us before?”
“That’s not what I said, I just meant that there are creatures from our lore that remind me of you - the wings, and the scales, and the immunity to fire.”
Ark chuckled. “It seems that the scouting division gets started earlier and earlier.” He turned and started walking again.
I stood there, dumbfounded. “Wait, what? Hold on! Come back here!” I charged after him, but Ark didn’t slow down. “You mean to tell me the dragons from all our mythological stories…were real?”
Over his shoulder, Ark called back, “I do not know for sure, Melissa.”
He knew more than he was letting on, and I hated how he could leave me hanging like this. “It is curious, however,” he continued, “that your planet’s historical record contains mythological creatures that look like my people.”
Well, shit.
When we got back into the ship, Ark immediately set down his blade and supplies and checked on Admiral Kaalax, consulting the medical panels that hovered above him, giving various life signs and diagnostic information.
I still couldn’t understand the readouts, but as I put my own things down and sat down on a nearby bench I could read it in Ark’s face that the outlook was grim. Kaalax would probably not make it.
“How’s he looking?” I asked, trying to sound optimistic and hopeful, and probably unsuccessful at either of them.
“His condition remains critical,” Ark said, his tone suggesting that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I was only too happy to oblige.
“Is there anything you can do? Can he shift into his other form?” I was grasping at straws here.
“He is beyond the help that could render,” Ark said, gravely. “He will not survive much longer.”
“I am well aware of that fact,” came Admiral Kaalax’ voice from the bed below. “Especially with you two talking so loudly.”
“Sir,” Ark began, “is there anything I can do to help?”
“Listen to me, Ark,” Kaalax said, his voice soft. I leaned forward, straining to hear, though after a second I felt like I shouldn’t, like this was a special and intimate moment between two men who were very close.
“I am here, sir.”
Kaalax’ eyes flicked over to me, studying me before going back to Ark. “I know you well, Ark. You have worked for me for a long time.”
“Not long enough, sir,” Ark said, almost reverently. “We have many more battles to fight together.”
Admiral Kaalax coughed, and even with my extremely limited experience in dealing with Kreossians, I knew that cough didn’t sound good. “You say that, Ark, but we both know it is not true. I have one more battle to fight, and you will too, someday, but not any time soon. I will fight this battle without you.”
“If it must be that way.”
“It must, and you know it.” Admiral Kaalax’ looked at me again. “You have other responsibilities now, and preserving life is more important than presiding over a dead man.”
“I know it to be true.”
Kaalax coughed again, and motioned Ark closer to him. Ark knelt down in front of his commanding officer, and I leaned forward too, just close enough that I could hear without making it clear that I was eavesdropping, though I totally was.
“Do not move me from this place, Ark.”
“What? You are a hero of the Kreossian Empire. Your body will be enshrined in the Hall of Legends with the rest of your equals, sir.”
Kaalax shook his head. “I never cared for that kind of recognition.” He looked around at the blue and yellow leaves. “This planet is more important than you know, Ark. I chose to have our meeting with the Humans here for a reason. I wish to remain here.”
I nodded, unable to speak at such a request.
“I know one more thing, Ark. The humans did not do this. They were not responsible.”
Ark moved head back sharply, his face filled with subdued rage. “You cannot mean that, sir. The humans had every reason to sabotage the meeting. You saw the reports from the scouts…”
“I saw them. But more importantly, I understand the humans. They are immature and they are reckless, but they are also not foolhardy. They know that attacking the empire would result in their destruction. They are not so stupid to have actually done so.”
“They are the only ones who could have done this.”
Suddenly Admiral Kaalax seized forward, wrapping his arm around Ark’s head and drawing him closer. I could see the pain on Kaalax’ face, and I knew he was saying his last words.
I watched as he whispered something to Ark, and Ark’s eyes widened in response. As Kaalax fell back onto the bed, Ark leaned back, standing up. I could see his face was wracked with a different kind of pain - the pain of losing a dear friend and mentor.
“Ark,” Admiral Kaalax whispered one last time. “Think before you judge - remember what I said, otherwise it will be…your…undoing.”
Then he spoke no more, and the look on Ark’s face as he stared at me told me that his friend was gone.
CHAPTER 06 - ARK
I stayed standing in front of Admiral Kaalax’ body for longer than I would like to admit. I kept watching him, thinking he would wake up from a long nap and we would proceed to get off this planet together.
As I stood there waiting Admiral Kaalax to awaken, all the battles we had fought together flashed into my mind. Conflicts across the galaxy, campaigns that affected the futures of thousands of systems, and Kaalax and I had fought together, strategized together, and conquered together.
And that was just the two of us. Before Admiral Kaalax met me he had been the most decorated warrior in the history of the Empire by himself, with songs sung of him throughout the galaxy. He was a legend.
And now he had died on this backwater planet in the middle of nowhere. He had a died a death without glory, while trying to induct a tiny and meaningless world into the Commonwealth.
I shook my head in disgust. This was not the way for a warrior to die. This was not a battle, this was not how I wanted to leave this life. And Kaalax would have agreed with me.
Then, of course, he would have smiled to me and said, ‘Remember, Ark, that we do not get to choose how we leave this life, but we do get to choose how we make use of it.’
It made me feel a mixture of great sadness and relief that my friend and mentor and commanding officer’s voice still resided in my head like that. I knew that as long as I could hear his advice I wouldn’t steer myself wrong.
Finally, I shook my head, knowing that this was getting me nowhere. I still had a planet to escape from, I still had a fleet to return to, and I still had a…human to keep alive. I glanced at Melissa. She sat off to one side, watching me with those big eyes of hers, saying nothing, giving me the space to breath and grieve. I was thankful for that small courtesy.
