by Luna Hunter
It is pretty far up. One slip and I might not make it home… but staying here and waiting is not getting my home anytime soon either. I think of Brock, with his blonde, tousled hair and those mischievous light-blue eyes of his. Where is he now? What’s he doing?
“Ready,” I say as I wrap my wrist around the sheets.
As ready as I’ll ever be, anyways.
I hold on for dear life and jump out the window, wrapping my legs around the makeshift rope. I instantly slide down several feet and my heart leaps right into my throat.
I must be losing my damn mind to try this!
My muscles are starting to burn and my palms turn sweaty. I glance down and my stomach flips upside down.
Mistake.
“How are you doing?” Evelyn yells.
“Peachy,” I answer.
Just peachy.
“Okay Hannah, you got this,” I say out loud. “One foot at a time. Come on. It’s too late to turn back now.”
The sheets slide through my palms as I make my way down. The moment my feet touch solid ground I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
“Ready!” I yell.
Evelyn follows my lead and climbs out the window — only she slips on the sill and has to reach for the sheeting.
“Oops,” she laughs.
“Oops? Oops?! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”
“Oh please,” she says as she slides down effortlessly. “You think this is the first window I’ve ever shimmied out of?”
“Don’t tell me,” I say as I hug her tightly. “I don’t even want to know. Never scare me like that again.”
“Not to burst your bubble, but this is far from the most dangerous thing we’re doing today. We still have a ship to steal and a blockade to rush through.”
“Don’t worry. Unlike climbing out windows, racing spaceships is my forte.”
Like two master spies, we sneak into the palace’s courtyard. Thankfully the Lance hasn’t been moved yet. The royal guards that greeted us aren’t on duty — there’s only a single soul, and he looks bored out of his mind.
We both duck behind a bush as we come up with the perfect strategy.
“How about you knock him out from behind?” I whisper.
“Violence? I like it,” Evelyn laughs. “But I have a better plan. Watch this.”
To my surprise Evelyn stands up, throws her hair over her shoulder and struts into the clearing like she owns the damn thing. I stare, dumbfounded and horrified as she walks right up to the Zoran guard.
What in earth is she doing?!
She glances over her shoulder and nods towards the vessel. Right, I have a ship to steal!
“Howdy, partner,” Evelyn says.
The Zoran royal guard pipes up. “Greetings, earthling,” he says formally.
She twirls a strand of her hair between her fingers. “Do you come here often?”
The Zoran raises his eyebrows. “Every day, yes.”
“Just wondering. That’s a fine looking suit of armor you’ve got,” she coos as she places her palms on his broad chest.
“Err,” the Zoran stammers. “What is the meaning of this? Are you not supposed to be in the palace?”
“I’m just out for a stroll,” Evelyn answers as she leans into the tall, alien. “You don’t mind, do you?”
While the royal guard only has eyes for Evelyn, I sneak behind him and into the Lance. I have to do my best to stop myself from laughing as she pulls out every old trick in the book to keep the warrior’s attention.
“Do you have a light?”
“There,” the guard says, pointing at the sun, “is the light!”
“You’re silly,” Evelyn laughs, twirling her hair like a schoolgirl. “A silly goose.”
“Goose?!” the guard growls. “I am not fowl!”
I’m happy to see my ship is in the exact same condition I left it in. I sink back into my familiar captain’s chair and grab the control stick. Ready for lift off.
I hit the power switch and the engines instantly fire up, the entire ship rumbling with power.
“Hop on!” I scream as loudly as I can.
“Thank you for your time, stranger,” Evelyn tells the guard. “Got to run!”
She jumps onto the walkway and a second later I hit the gas and we blast off, the power of our exhausts blasting the guard right off his feet.
“Had fun?” I ask my best friend when she sits down next to me.
“You took your sweet time,” she complains. “I was running out of ideas!”
“I wanted to see what you would come up with,” I laugh. “You sweet talker.”
We fly into the open sky. The blue fades to black as we leave the atmosphere — and come face to face with the enormous military blockade. Countless Zoran ships, thousands upon thousands, face us in every direction.
“Sweet talking won’t get us out of this, though,” Evelyn says. “Are you sure about this?”
I grab the control stick hard, my knuckles turning white.
“I’m sure.”
20
Drakan
Humans.
With their words, their talking, their lies. Hannah promised that I meant something to her, something more than words could describe, yet she will not assist me? I am more than pissed off. I am furious.
And completely done with the council. I kick the heavy wooden door open and the room instantly falls silent.
All eyes turn to me, and I return their angry glares.
“And?” I growl. “Have you made your decision?”
“We have,” King Vinz says as he stands up. “Zorans don’t run.”
Death it is then.
I welcome it.
“Very well,” I say. “I will return to the ZMC Dreadnaught right away.”
I stride away, cursing under my breath. The moment I turn away my com beeps. Janko.
“Come in,” I say.
“Uh, we have a situation, General,” Janko says. “Is Hannah still with you?”
“She is with Miss Archer,” I say. “Why?”
“Because someone is trying to escape Exon Prime onboard the CS Lance, and they’re not answering our hailing calls.”
I freeze in my tracks, my blood running cold.
Has Hannah seriously deserted me?! How daring, to steal a ship from right under my nose…
“Patch me through,” I growl. “Tell her it’s me.”
A second later I’m staring at the holographic image of Hannah, with Evelyn right by her side.
“General,” she says coldly. “I have made my decision.”
All the warmth, the love that was in her voice this morning has disappeared.
I ball my fists in anger. I feel completely betrayed, and for the first time in my life, at a loss for words.
What do I say? Do I yell, scream and curse? Do I blame her for abandoning me, for leaving me?
Of course not. I cannot show weakness.
“Very well,” I say. “Goodbye.”
I cut the connection and rest my back against the stone wall. Fuck.
My com beeps again — Janko once more.
“General?” he says. “I can disable the Lance’s engines if you want. Just give me the signal.”
“No,” I sigh. “No, let them go. The council has made their decision. We’re staying and facing our enemy. It’s better this way. Let them go.”
“Affirmative, sir.”
“I’m on my way up, Janko. Over and out.”
With Hannah by my side, I had something to live for. A future. I wasn’t sure what it had in store for us, but I could paint a mental picture. There was a house in the woods, by a lake. Acres of land in which we could grow our own vegetables. A flower bed. A few pets roaming around.
And of course children. Her hips are made to carry my offspring. Six in total: three boys and three girls, with my strength and their mother’s determination and wit.
Now, that idea, that future, has disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Hannah is gone, and our future with it.
It was a foolish dream to begin with. She has her own planet, her own people, her own family. A brother.
I am a warrior. A general. Killing is in my blood, my genes.
It never would have worked. We were doomed from the start.
Now I’m facing certain death — if Hannah’s visions are proven true.
Death by combat is the only fitting end for me. I don’t belong on a farm, raising children. I should die with my axe in my hand, coated in the blood of my enemy.
I might just get my wish.
21
Hannah
For a second I fear that the ZMC Dreadnaught is about to open fire on us. I can see their weapons primed and pointing right at us, the tips of their beam-cannons already faintly glowing red.
I suck in a deep breath and keep my hands on the control stick. I could probably dodge its fire — but if I turn the wrong way, and the shot hits a fuel tank, we’d be evaporated in a puff of smoke.
When the Zoran warship stands down, I breathe a sigh of relief.
“What?” Evelyn asks. “What just happened?”
“We’re going to live,” I tell her. “That’s what just happened.”
Seeing the disappointment in Drakan’s face when I told him I had made my decision cut me deep. More than I thought possible.
I blame him — so why did his wounded look make me so sad? Why did I care so damn much about the alien warrior? He’s a Zoran. A bull-headed, cocky, arrogant, strong, sexy, reliable warrior.
Wait, no, damn it.
It doesn’t matter now, anyways. What is done is done.
Exon Prime becomes a blip in the distance. I hope that they win their battle if it comes to one, but it’s not my fight. It’s not my war to win. I’m already someone’s older sister. I have my work cut out for me.
Brock is my number one priority. He always has been and and he always will.
Just when my shoulders relax it starts.
My temples throb painfully. One wave of pain after another, like a rising tide, each one stronger than the next. At the edge of my hearing I hear a sound, like a sharp whistle. At first I think I’m imagining it, but it becomes louder and louder with every throb. It’s like a train that’s headed in my direction, and I can’t move. I want to run, jump or scream, but I’m frozen, inert, trapped.
I double over, pressing the palms of my head against the side of my head, wishing, cursing, pleasing for the pain to stop.
I’ve only ever felt like this once before in my life — when I looked that feral, crazed Tyk’ix in the eyes and I saw those nightmarish visions.
“Hannah! Hannah!”
Evelyn is standing in front of me, trying to make eye contact with me, but I look right through her. I can see that she’s right there, but at the same time, I feel like I’m a million miles away. My soul feels like it has been ripped from my body and transported across time and space itself.
Then, I see it with my mind’s eye.
A giant armada. Countless and countless of ships, rows upon rows, heading towards their destination.
Exon Prime.
At the back, a ship the size of a small moon appears, looming up from the darkness. I can hear thoughts, voices, whispers emanate from the metal sphere.
The mother brain. It’s talking to me. Its words are a jumble in my mind, the alien language completely foreign to me, but I understand its intent perfectly.
It’s a call to arms. An order for total destruction.
The mother brain is emitting order to its Tyk’ix troops, and I am receiving them as well, somehow.
When I gazed into that Tyk’ix’s eyes, it must have created some kind of psychic link, or a bond of sorts.
I’m a part of their network, and I can hear a million separate voices all at once. I feel stretched thin, my mind on the very point of fracturing.
A weakness.
Suddenly, through the forest of images, sounds, and thoughts, I see a weakness in the mother brain’s planet-sized ship. It just dawns on me, like I am accessing the thoughts of the hive mind that constructed this ship.
Perhaps that is exactly what I’m doing.
Irregardless, I instinctively know that a perfectly placed shot in the third exhaust on the right can trigger a cataclysmic chain reaction that will blow the entire moon-ship to the high heavens.
It’s a one in a million type-shot, but it’s possible.
A slap in my face pulls me back into my own body, and when my vision returns, I see Evelyn is hunched over me, her eyebrows furrowed.
“Hannah!” she screams right in my face.
“I’m here,” I mumble, rubbing my eyes. “I’m here.”
“You scared the hell out of me,” Evelyn says, hugging me tightly. “Your face lost all color, you just went totally blank — and then you started screaming!”
“They’re here,” I say. “It’s happening.”
“Who?”
“The aliens,” I answer. “The Tyk’ix.”
Evelyn goes quiet. I scramble back up and sit back down in my captain’s chair.
“What did you see?” my best friend asks softly.
“Ships,” I say, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Thousands. Tens of thousands. More than I can count. Or even comprehend.”
A shiver runs down my spine when I think of Drakan. They’re headed right for him. My heart feels like it’s breaking.
I have to go home and take care of Brock — but I can’t just leave Drakan to die either. I have seen the weakness in the mother brain’s ship. If my hypothesis is correct, and that giant Tyk’ix brain is the literal brain behind the entire war, then only I have the power to end this war.
I’m just a pilot, not a soldier. I’m not a hero.
I never asked for this.
22
Drakan
The entire bridge is tense. I’m back at my post, the command chair of the ZMC Dreadnaught. The place where I belong.
A single beep draws my attention.
“I’m picking up a signal on my radar,” Nenad, my helmsman says.
“Is it the CS Lance?” I ask. I’m not about to ready my missiles for the human freighter again.
Another beep comes in. And then another.
And then the beeping doesn’t stop. It’s a cacophony of sound, the beeps from the radar turning into a single drawn out tone.
“This… doesn’t make sense,” Nenad says. “This must be some kind of malfunction.”
“Impossible,” I say. “My ship doesn’t malfunction.”
“It has to be.”
He rises and I can see the color drain from his face. Annoyed, I stand up and look at his screen.
And my heart skips a beat.
The entire display is lit up. The long-distance scanners are picking up more signals than they can display.
“By Zora. Can you get a visual?”
Nenad snaps out of his trance and a moment later, pulls up a visual image on the screen.
And the entire bridge falls quiet as we watch an impossible amount of ships descend upon us.
There are a few colossal ships surrounded by thousands upon thousands of shuttles, like bees circling their hive.
Hannah was right.
All we can do now is fight for survival.
“Red alert,” I growl. “Orbren, ready torpedoes! Janko, inform the council!”
The alarm sounds and my men go to work, everything working in tandem like a well-oiled machine.
This is the moment we’ve all trained for.
The entire Zoran fleet moves as one towards the incoming enemy — but I can tell that we are hopelessly outnumbered. Fortunately, we are never outgunned.
“Fire at will!”
The sky above Exon Prime, normally a beautiful and tranquil sight, is transformed into a battlefield. Lasers, cannons, missiles, torpedoes — I throw everything we have at our enemy. I imagine the entire planet’s surface is lit up from the massive explosions.
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The small shuttles turn to twisted metal underneath our powerful blasts. We swat them away like flies, but more and more seem to appear, the capital ships spreading them like spores.
And then, the firing stops suddenly. The entire Zoran fleet falls still, hanging in the air, as if frozen in time.
“What’s happening?” I growl. “I didn’t order a cease fire!”
“My system is not responding!” Nenad says.
“Mine neither!” Orbren says.
“All communication seems to be down,” Janko says.
“What do you mean?” I say, rising from my seat.
All screens in the command center turn to black — and then I see a mangled Zoran face appear on every screen, a horrible hybrid of skin and technology, like a twisted, metal zombie.
“Greetings, Zorans,” a grating metallic voice says. “I am Malice.”
23
Hannah
“Do you think it was another dream?”
“No,” I say. “No, this was more than that. This was real. They’re really here.”
I wipe the sweat off my forehead. It’s cold. I’m shivering. I know what I have to do, but knowing it and doing are two different things entirely.
“Let’s check the scanners.”
I tell my ship to do a long-distance scan, and the next minute is filled with tense silence as we await the ship’s answer. When it comes in with a ping, Evelyn and I both lean forward excitedly — before slumping back into our chairs, our hopes destroyed.
The battle has already started. Tens of thousands of ships going head-to-head, the future of Exon Prime, or perhaps life itself, at stake.
Any moment now their sun will be destroyed and their galaxy will be coated in darkness.
“What do you want to do?” Evelyn asks.
I glance up at her. How do I tell her that I think we should go back and join the fight, and risk both our lives? I can never ask someone else to risk their own life like that.
“I know what I want to do,” I say. “The question is what we should do.”
“And what’s that?”
“We should go back,” I say softly. “I saw… a weakness, in their mothership. We’ve got one shot to destroy their fleet. I think we have to take it. If we don’t do it… then no one will.”
I expected Evelyn to blow up on me, to scream, to curse, to plead, but instead, she nods, with a resigned look on her face.
