by Lucy Snow
“I am getting in position and making ready,” Ark said, calmly, calling back to me, and I turned around, craning my neck back after giving one last furtive glance at the view screen and the glowing Mazon ship. I knew I was hallucinating but it almost felt like I could hear Khad’s laughter despite the empty space between our ships.
“Ready? For what?” I said as I unbuckled my own belt and slid to the floor, once again reminded just how much bigger Kreossians were than humans. When my feet hit the floor I ran into the aft section only to find Ark calmly drawing his blades from the storage locker.
“The battle to come, Melissa. The tractor beam is not just for show. If he wanted to destroy us he would have done so by now. Khad intends to board the ship.”
“You’re going to fight him here?” It sounded so strange - this ship had become almost a home of sorts over the last few days, and a knock-down drag-out fight to the death just seemed so…wrong.
“I do not have a choice in the matter,” Ark said, looking around as if assessing the tactical capabilities of the room. “Khad is in a position of strength and he has chosen the venue for us.”
I gulped. “Is there anything I can do? To help? I don’t just want to stand here and watch you two.”
Ark turned and gave me a cold stare that immediately softened when he saw the fear etched across my face. “No, Melissa, there is nothing for you to do here, and I will not have you in harm’s way.” Ark started to walk toward me.
“Wait, Wha-?” I gasped as Ark lifted me off of the ground and wrapped his huge arms around me, pulling me in tight to him, and kissing me on the forehead as he turned around and started walking back to the storage locker.
I kicked and tried to slither out of his arms, but each time I did, Ark only tightened them around me. “Ark!” I cried, the sound of my voice muffled by his forearm pressed against my face. “Don’t do this, I can help!”
“I do not want to worry about you while I am defeating Khad, my love,” Ark whispered. “It will only be for a short while.” Then he reached out one giant hand and opened the storage locker.
I saw the darkness inside a second before Ark half-pushed and half-threw me inside. I just had time to scream and turn around, raising my hands, when Ark shut the door on me.
I pounded against the inside of the storage locker, shouting and screaming till my head hurt, but even as my fists began to ache, I knew it was all in vain - Ark wouldn’t let me out till the battle was won. All I could see was out the small window in the door, which muted the light from the main cabin, but still let some in.
I watched in almost silence, calming down physically though my heart still raced at the thought of Ark and his arch enemy taking each other on in such cramped spaces. Ark still didn’t show any outward signs of distress - he walked around the cabin, standing in different spots and staring back toward the center, as if he were internally measuring the space he had to work with.
It was like watching a master craftsman in his element, doing what he did best - only instead of creating art, Ark was superbly adept at bringing death to whomever challenged him.
I realized right then and there that I had no doubt that Ark would win this fight - I knew him, as well as I could say that after only a week, but even though I didn’t know anything about this Mazon named Khad except that Ark respected his fighting abilities, the confidence I had in him bordered on unreal.
I just wish he would have let me help him. I had no idea what I could do, but I certainly didn’t want to stay in here the entire time.
I felt the ship stop moving, and I realized that whatever was going to happen would start soon. I furtively looked out the little window of the storage locker toward the shuttle’s airlock, and just as I suspected, it started the activation process.
Ark had settled on the opposite wall of the shuttle, right up against the door to the cockpit. I couldn’t hear him, but I saw his lips moving, like he was talking to someone. I was the only person left in the shuttle, so unless it was the ship’s computer he was conversing with, Ark was talking to himself.
I wondered if he always did that before a big battle. Would it help?
I felt like I was going to be sick - this was like watching a sporting event from the front row, but this time they were playing for keeps.
The airlock opened and Khad stepped through, dropping to a crouch instantly as he looked around the room.
“I would not attack you like that, Khad,” Ark growled. “I am no coward.”
Khad focused on Ark and stood up slowly, holding his curved and serrated blade up in front of him. I dunno if Khad looked like all other Mazon, but what I saw wasn’t pretty. There was a cold and hard elegance to the sharp lines of his body, but it looked like Khad was almost encased in dark armor. His features looked almost insect-like.
Khad sneered at Ark. “And that is why you fail, Ark. Take the advantage when it is given to you.”
“I do not need such subterfuge to defeat you. Plus, the victory will be even sweeter this way.”
Khad leaned forward and raised one leg off the ground, in what looked like a funky fighting stance. “Let us not talk anymore, Ark, it is tiring and I came here to your pathetic excuse for a ship for other reasons.”
Ark was still whispering to himself as Khad talked, but I don’t think Khad noticed, considering how into his bad movie villain dialogue he looked. I pressed myself up against the storage locker door, my breath starting to steam up the inside of the window before I wiped it away.
All of a sudden, Khad charged forward, directly at Ark. Out of the corner of my eye as I watched Khad speed across the deck of the shuttle, Ark stood low into his own combat stance and stepped forward, neatly intercepting Khad’s charge.
The crack of their blades as they met threw sparks off that bathed the shuttle in bright light for a half second. As soon as they connected, Ark transformed into his natural form, and I saw the scales show on his hands, neck, and face. His survival suit must have taken this into account, because Ark’s wings grew out without encountering the material.
Every time Ark transitioned I couldn’t help but be mesmerized - here was my mate, my wonderful and sometimes gentle, sometimes forceful lover, and I so rarely got to see him look like this. It took my breath away. If you had asked me a week ago whether I could be with a man who was basically part dragon, I would have laughed in your face, but now I was transfixed by my mate.
He was gorgeous and exotic and I was lucky to have met him, even given how it had happened and all that we had been through.
Over the next few minutes the dance Ark and Khad weaved all over the small shuttle was mesmerizing, their blades clanking off each other as each looked for the right in, the right place to dig in deep and catch their opponents unaware.
I couldn’t drag my eyes from it, and wouldn’t have been able to even if I had something else to watch from the storage locker.
Each time Khad advanced a step, I drew in a sharp breath, but Ark was quickly able to push him back, and gain the same step in reverse.
I found myself sweating and getting tired just watching them fight, the cuts of the blades seeming to get faster and faster by the minute, which was strange cause I would have thought they would be getting tired.
Through the thick door of the storage locker I couldn’t hear much except the crash of the blades together, but as far as I could tell, neither Khad nor Ark was saying very much. All the bluster Khad had shown while on the view screen was gone - on both their faces all I could detect was grim determination, and the beginnings of sweat.
This was going nowhere - I had to get out there and help - even though I was no fighter, and far from it, maybe I could catch Khad with his guard down while he was busy with Ark and together we could turn the tide.
I looked up and all around the door holding me in - there was no latch on the inside; I guess Kreossian shuttle plans intended this as a way to keep smaller races out of sight for a little while.
I leaned back
against one of the walls and looked behind me, searching for something I could use to help me open the door. After a few seconds of furtive pawing at the gear hanging from various pins and piled up on the floor behind me in the low light coming from the door panel, my fingers closed around something metal and almost cylindrical.
That was the ticket. It wasn’t quite a crowbar, but with the tapered edge to it like a larger screwdriver, I knew I had just what I needed. Leave it to the Kreossians to pack for all occasions, including breaking out of one of their own storage lockers.
I looked back through the panel to see if the timing was right but Ark and Khad looked so locked in to each other as they clashed that I don’t think either of them would have noticed if the ship around them exploded.
I picked up the metal bar, trying to get a sense of its weight before sticking into the tiny gap between the door and the storage locker’s frame. Gritting my teeth, I pressed the bar in as far as I could and started pulling it toward me, trying to wrench the door open.
It gave a little bit, which was heartening, but after 10 seconds of pulling as hard as I could, I didn’t feel like I was making nearly enough progress.
I stopped and got into a better stance, realizing for the first time that for a storage locker, this thing was pretty damn spacious. I set my feet and gripped the bar one more, letting out the strongest roar I could as I pulled on the bar with all my might-
The storage locker door groaned open and I groaned with it as I tumbled out, forgetting to properly plan in advance for the physics of the bar actually doing what I wanted it to do.
The bar came with me, and landed right next to me. I lay there until I recollected my senses, and then got to my feet, picking up the bar with me.
Ark and Khad were on the other side of the small room, still locked in mortal combat. As I had suspected, they were so into it that neither of them had noticed me spill out of the storage locker.
Perfect.
I pulled the bar back behind my head like a baseball player at the plate and charged, directly at Khad. “FOR EARTH!” I shouted, because up until that moment I had never thought up a battle cry, because I had never been in a battle before. That seemed like as good of one as any I could think of in the moment.
I barreled down at Khad, and I saw him stiffen, and Ark’s eyes widen as he saw me come into his field of view. “MELISSA, NO!” Ark shouted, breaking his concentration as he raised his free hand to wave me off.
I didn’t listen - I was on a mission and all I could see was red. Khad had come aboard our ship and threatened my mate? Oh hell no, this wasn’t going any further than this.
When I was a couple steps away from Khad’s back, I jumped into the air, raising the bar above my head, ready to slam it down against the back of Khad’s skull.
Time seemed to slow down to a crawl…
And then Khad, almost lazily, turned around and as an afterthought pushed me out of the way.
Pushed was the wrong word for it. A better way to put it would be that Khad grabbed me out of the air and threw me back against the wall next to the open storage locker I had just come out of.
I slid down the wall, hurting all over, the wind knocked out of me. The only thing I could do was barely keep my eyes open.
“MELISSA!” I heard Ark shout through ears that could barely hear through all the ringing. I wanted to call out to him, but I couldn’t even speak - nothing worked right.
I watched in horror as Khad turned back to Ark and deflected Ark’s oncoming attack, parrying around him and pressing the advantage that came from Ark reaching out to me.
Within less than a second, Ark was on the ground, with Khad standing over him, his blade right under Ark’s throat.
I opened my mouth to scream, but just as I was about to let loose, the entire cabin was covered in a reddish glow, and alarms went off all around us.
“NOOOOOOOOO!” Khad screamed as Ark took advantage of the situation and rolled out of the way.
I looked out the nearest porthole, expecting to see empty space.
Instead, the entire view was brushed metal that moved slowly across the view, sleek patterns of glowing lines running all up and down, lines that reminded me of the lines on Ark’s skin.
There was another ship out there.
CHAPTER 14 - ARK
“Commander Ark, do you require assistance?” The sound came over the comms. My eyes widened. It was the Kreossian fleet. They must have found us and patched in.
I stood up, dusting myself off. Khad looked stricken, and I could see in his eyes that he knew he was defeated. I tapped the wall next to me. “This is Commander Ark.” I glanced at Khad and turned my head slightly. After a moment, he nodded. “Everything here is under control. Khad and his ship will be leaving soon. Make no move against them.”
There was a pause, and the comms crackled again. “Understood, Commander. Let us know if we can be of any assistance.”
“Acknowledged. Shuttle out.” I let go of the wall. “We understand each other?”
“You may have secured your life for another day, Ark, but this is not over,” Khad growled.
“It most certainly is not, Khad, and next time, you will not be allowed to leave.”
Khad looked around as he turned, then back to me. “Pathetic,” was all he said before he made his way to the airlock and back to his own shuttle.
I let out a sigh as the airlock door sealed with a hiss. It was just Melissa and I - Melissa! I rushed over to where she lay, moving and trying to pick herself off the ground.
“Melissa, my mate,” I whispered, cradling her in my arms, but careful not to move her too much. “Are you alright?”
Melissa opened her eyes and looked at me. I feared for the worst, and about to shout for a medical team from the flagship, but she smiled at me and nodded, and I felt a wave of relief pass over and through me. “I’ll…be fine,” she whispered. “Are you OK?”
My heart went out to her - she had been through so much and she was still making sure that I was alright. “I am fine, my love, my life.”
Holding her there, I started to change back into my more-human looking form, but Melissa reached up. “No, don’t.” I looked at her, question in my eyes. “I want to see you like this, just for a bit.”
“You’re…not scared?”
Melissa laughed, which quickly turned into a rough cough, and I pulled her closer into me. “Don’t speak, just rest,” I said.
“I-I’m fine,” Melissa whispered back. She ran her hands up and down the scales on my shoulders and arms. “You look so gorgeous, Ark, like this. I’m not scared at all.”
“You are truly my mate, Melissa Crane of Earth.”
“I know I am. And you’re mine.”
I kissed her on the forehead. “I will never let anything bad happen to you ever again, my love.”
“I like the sound of that,” Melissa said, and closed her eyes again, before stretching her arms out. “What do we do next?”
“Can you stand?”
She quickly nodded and I gently stood up, bringing her with me and getting her feet hit the ground slowly. Melissa took a tentative step still holding my hand, and smiled as she stayed upright. “Right as rain! What’s next?”
I looked around. “We dock the shuttle with the flagship and alert the Kreossian Empire as to what happened with Admiral Kaalax and the planet below. And with Khad.”
“Why did you let him go? He would have killed you.”
“I know. I would have been well within my rights to do so, but it would have been the wrong move at the moment.” Melissa cocked an eyebrow at me. “The Mazon and the Kreossian Empire have an uneasy truce at the moment, though things change quickly. Killing Khad would have upended that without us being prepared for what would come next.”
