Teeth & Claws_A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure

by Michael-Scott Earle

  As soon as we finished speaking, another group of six guards sprinted around the corner of the hallway, and the group closest to me raised their rifles to defend me. The new group slid to a stop as they took firing positions, and the woman who I had just spoken with screamed orders at the other group for several tense seconds.

  The group of six newcomers nodded, spun around and then ran back down the hall, and the armored woman turned back to me. “They will find the Prime Valkyrie, and we are summoning your personal guards.”

  “Those weren’t my personal guards?” I asked as I gestured to the fucker who’s arm I’d taken off.

  “No,” the woman answered. I couldn’t really see her face because of her helmet, but I noticed that her feathered armor had stripe shapes around the legs.

  “How did they pick me up from Persephone?” I asked.

  “I do not know, my lord,” the woman said, and then she barked a few orders to the other three guards she was with. They grabbed the two men I had left alive in the hall, and then we all moved back into the feasting hall.

  “The two singers helped save me,” I said as I gestured to the stage. “They will need medical attention.”

  “After we have secured you, my lord,” the guard said, and as soon as she finished speaking, an alarm began to blare from the ceiling, and my four protectors took a position at the doorway while I moved over to Paula.

  “You alright?” I asked as I helped her stand.

  “I think so,” she said, but I couldn’t really hear her over the alarm’s screech.

  I could see that Paula’s arms were shaking, and I pulled the gun out of her hand before I wrapped my own arms around her narrow shoulders. Her body was tense, but she relaxed a few seconds after I had embraced her, and she pushed her face into my chest. It didn’t feel like she was crying, but I still ran my hands down her hair and tried to whisper comforting words to her over the sound of the alarm.

  Then I counted.

  Thirty seconds later, there were guards everywhere, and I had a ring of about twenty around me. Voices shouted in Nordar at each other, and a medical team began to work on the two singers. There was an order to the chaos though, and we were soon escorted to the room next door. This space was about half the size of the feasting hall, but armored barricades by the doorways allowed my guards to face the exits while they had cover. Paula and I were instructed to wait in a shielded center area, and the alarm turned off.

  “Damn,” I said as I rubbed my ears. “I much preferred the skald’s singing.

  “Me too,” Paula chuckled as she pulled away from my chest. She actually hadn’t been crying, but she did look upset.

  “I think I owe you a better date,” I said.

  “This wasn’t your fault.” She finally smiled.

  “It’s all my fault,” I said with a shrug. “I’m the king. These are my people. I was exposed, and you almost got hurt.”

  “You take too much on your shoulders,” she said as her blue eyes stared into mine.

  “No, I take responsibility.”

  “It’s part of the reason I am drawn to you,” Paula said. “It’s part of the reason we all love you. You want to save the galaxy, not because you can, but because it is the right thing to do, and someone needs to do it.”

  “I can save the galaxy, though,” I laughed as I gestured to the guards around me. “I have a massive empire and a group of wonderful genius women to help me.”

  Paula opened her mouth, and I expected her to disagree with me, but then she just smiled and shook her head.

  “I’m glad I met you, Adam,” she finally whispered as she reached up to adjust the roses in her long blonde hair. “You saved my soul.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Before you, I didn’t care.” Paula shrugged her slender shoulders and then smoothed out her tight dress. “I wanted my revenge and then… I didn’t know what I would do. Probably nothing for the rest of my life. I certainly wouldn’t have helped people. People were shit. People were the reason that my sister was taken from me.”

  “You are too hard on yourself,” I said. “You wanted to help when we found out those girls were being sold as slaves.”

  “I suppose I did.” Paula sighed, and then her eyes darted to the door, I followed her gaze and saw an angry Madalena and Eve moving through the crowd of guards like twin sharks through a school of fish.

  “Hello ladies,” I said as they reached Paula and me.

  “Are you okay?” Madalena said as she looked at both of us.

  “We are fine, you know that.” I reached out and pulled both of them to me. They returned my hug and then I gestured for Paula to enter our embrace. The blonde engineer looked surprised for half a moment, but then she wrapped one arm around my shoulder and the other around Eve.

  “Now that we are somewhat alone,” I said as we all huddled together inside of the armored center of the room. “What the fuck happened?”

  “The living assassins are being treated for their wounds,” Madalena said. “We need to question them, but first I wanted to see if you were okay.”

  “How did they even get to Adam?” Paula asked. “Were those his personal guards?”

  “No,” Madalena said. “I will peel every single tongue out of every single mouth on this fortress to learn what happened exactly, but it appears that these assassins were sent from the Jotnar, and they have been living as Vaish for the last twelve years.”

  “Damn,” I said. “I’m going to guess that I wasn’t their original target.”

  “No,” the Prime Valkyrie said. “They were probably intended to kill my father, but they must have received orders to kill you instead.”

  “You do not need to peel any tongues out of mouths,” Eve said to Madalena. “You have me.”

  “Yes,” the Prime Valkyrie said. “Let us go speak with the assassins and see what we can learn.”

  “How many are alive?” I asked.

  “Just two. One died before--”

  “Bring them each here,” I said, and Madalena nodded before calling out to the guards.

  Half a minute later, both of the men I shot in the hallway were carried to us on stretchers. The armored guard whose arm I had taken off looked pale and somewhat disoriented, but the drummer seemed alert.

  Both stared at me with hate-filled eyes.

  “You attacked me,” I said as the medical crew set the men down at my feet.

  “Death to Vaish,” the drummer said.

  “Who do you work for?” I asked.

  “The most powerful Blood Overlord Clan,” he replied.

  “Who is that?” I asked.

  “You know,” he coughed. “The wolf will eat the crow.”

  Ask him about his rite ceremony.

  “Where did you take your rite ceremony?” I asked as I squatted down so I could be closer to the man’s face.

  The man’s eyes opened when I moved, and he drew his breath in sharply. I’d seen the move done thousands of times before living in the gang-infested streets of Ganymede, so my fingers darted out to close around his mouth.

  “It’s rude to spit,” I said as I squeezed his lips together.

  Tell him that horses spit, not wolves.

  “Horses spit, wolves don’t,” I said. “Why are you trying to spit?”

  The man’s eyes opened wide, and his skin seemed to pale even more.

  Yes. That is what I needed, my love. These two are from Waymund. Their entire task force is. Their purpose was to kill Madalena’s father and place the blame on Jotnar if captured to begin the war in earnest. They have been planning the event for a dozen years. All of these assassins have infiltrated the Vaish forces, but did you take notice of their armor?

  At Eve’s words, I looked down at the heavy metal armor that the other man wore. I didn’t see what Eve was talking about, so I gave her a puzzled look.

  “He is not wearing the Aegis,” Madalena said as she nodded around the room. “That is our medium grade heavy armor for fo
ot soldiers. It has been embellished with rank notations, but you and Paula should have been picked up by your personal guards.”

  I turned to the various men and women walking around in armor. The armors did look very similar in style, but the Aegis versions looked sleeker, and I could see the tiger strips around their shins and forearms. The armor that the assassin guards wore just had the feather designs.

  “We routed your request away from your guards,” the man said.

  “You are being honest with us now?” Paula scoffed.

  “My mission failed, all that is left is Odin,” the man said.

  “You attempted to assassinate his avatar,” Madalena said. “There will be no seat for you in Valhalla.”

  “My queen has promised me life at her side there, and the wolf sits higher than the crow.”

  “The crows sit on Odin’s shoulder, fool.” Madalena turned to Eve and the woman with red eyes nodded before they both turned to me.

  “Throw him in the brig,” I said, and both of the women gave me a confused look. I knew they wanted me to kill him, but I waited until the guards took him away before I disclosed my plan.

  “He’s not Jotnar,” I said as I looked at Eve.

  “No,” she said. “He is Waymund. All of his conspirators are. There are no others. They have been deep undercover for most of their lives. We gain nothing from keeping him alive.”

  “No,” I said, “except that I can bring him with me to Waymund as leverage during their negotiations.”

  “I would not have expected this from Waymund,” Madalena said with a slight frown.

  “That’s probably why they did it,” I said. “This was a good forked attack. The original plan was to kill your father. If they were successful, you would have believed it was Jotnar, and gone to war.”

  “And if they failed, then Madalena’s father would have believed it was Jotnar, and gone to war,” Paula said.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Madalena, you said that Skyad was the third most powerful clan after Vaish and Jotnar?”

  “Perhaps,” she answered with a shrug. “Idonan, Skyad, and Waymund traditionally have been equal in power, but other than border skirmishes with each of the clans, we have not had a major conflict since I was a child.”

  “During the briefings I had with your admirals, they indicated that the Waymund Blood Overlord Clan had a strong defensive navy because they often kept to themselves and didn’t press on other clan’s territories.”

  “Yes,” Madalena said. “That is why their attempt at assassination seemed strange. I would have expected it from Jotnar, or maybe even Idonan.”

  “Skyad seemed fine with pushing some sort of assassination at us,” I said.

  “Yes and no,” Madalena replied. “Sivaha came here personally. That is Skyad’s way. They are hot-blooded and like to take care of their problems face to face. Waymund doesn’t normally cause problems.”

  “You are visiting Idonan next?” Paula asked.

  “Yes,” both Madalena and I replied together.

  “Perhaps we should wait to do our rite,” Eve said.

  “No,” I replied. “We’ll just end up putting it off for another month. Between Madalena, Sivaha, and I, we can negotiate with these different clans.”

  “Not to disagree,” Paula said, “but if Eve wasn’t here, it’s possible that you and Madalena would think the Jotnar were behind this assassination. Having her abilities gives you an edge that none of these assholes are going to expect.”

  “I’m not planning on any diplomacy,” I said. “I will show up with the armada, demand they serve me, and then destroy them if they don’t.”

  The women were silent for a moment, and then Paula shrugged.

  “Guess that’s one way to do it.”

  “By the time you four are done with the rite, we’ll be back from dealing with Idonan and Waymund,” I said. “Then we will all work on the Jotnar.”

  “They will be the most challenging,” Madalena said.

  “Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “We’ll have the entire Nordar navy and will outnumber them at least four to one. They will kneel or die just like everyone else.”

  Paula, Eve, and Madalena nodded at me, but I could sense the misgivings from Madalena. If this was a gun fight or a space battle, she would have thrown herself into the struggle with confidence, but the next few weeks were going to be a mix of posturing, political talks, and threats. I could understand her hesitation, so I was glad that Sivaha was also going to be at my side during these talks. The silver-haired woman was more aggressive in her conversations, and she has had more recent interactions with the rulers of the Idonan and Waymund clans.

  “So…” Paula said. “I guess that was it for dinner?”

  “Let’s go back to Persephone,” I said. “I’d still like to spend some time alone with you if you are okay with it. We have food in the kitchen I can cook.”

  “Yes!” the blonde woman said quickly. “That would be fine.”

  “I will need to spend time with the guards recounting what happened,” Madalena said. “But your private escorts will take you.”

  “Do you need my help?” Eve asked the warrior woman.

  “If you did not have your rite tomorrow, I would say yes. But you should rest and go to sleep early tonight. You have a challenging few days ahead of you.”

  Eve nodded and then gave the other woman a smile. The conversation between the two of them seemed unusual, but I was quickly able to put my finger on what had changed: The two women seemed to have developed a friendship. I had been used to the slow current of hostility between them, but that now appeared to be gone. If anything, the way my two lovers talked to each other seemed friendly and supportive, and I guessed their relationship had developed during their time on Ganymede.

  “We’ll meet you back on Persephone tomorrow morning,” I said to Madalena, and then I gave her a brief kiss before Eve, Paula, and I walked with my guards and boarded the hovercraft.

  Chapter 3

  When we returned to Persephone, Paula, and I spent an hour alone in the kitchen snacking and talking about the rite, my strategy with the clans, and the assassination attempt. It could have been the alcohol, or maybe it was just that we were both used to the violence, but neither one of us were very concerned about how close we came to getting killed.

  Close calls with death were expected. We were both jaded by our experiences together and there wasn’t much that surprised us.

  We didn’t talk more about her admission of her feelings for me, but the topic hung in the air above us, and I could sense her wanting to talk more with every sip of wine that she took.

  But I wanted to spend the rest of my night with Eve and Zea, so we bid each other goodnight at around ten, exchanged a comfortable hug, and then went our separate ways. Both Zea and Eve were waiting for me in my room, and the three of us made love for a few hours before finally falling asleep. We didn’t talk much since they knew I was afraid for their rite of passage, and they were both afraid of me journeying to Idonan space without them.

  When morning arrived, the three of us enjoyed each other again, and I washed them both in the shower before we suited up and went to meet everyone at Persephone’s loading dock. Madalena, Sivaha, Paula, Kasta, and twenty heavily armored guards with aegis armor waited for us, and we all exchanged greetings.

  “Are you ready?” Madalena asked as she looked at Eve and Zea.

  “Yes,” Eve said with her usual smile.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” Zea sighed as she shouldered a leather backpack. Each of the four women carried one, and it held basic survival gear and enough food and water to last them two days.

  “We are ready,” Paula said, and Kasta winked at me. All four of the women were wearing Nordar fatigues made out of a thick leather-like material. It was a bit weird seeing them out of their flight suits, but Madalena had said the clothes that they were wearing were the traditional garb.

  “You four will do fine,” Sivaha s
aid as she smiled at each of them.

  “Yeah,” Zea said as her eyes narrowed at the silver-haired woman. “I’m kind of surprised you are here.”

  “Why?” Sivaha asked.

  “Kind of thought you didn’t like us,” Zea answered.

  “Of course I like you,” Sivaha scoffed. “I’ll like you even more, when you are my sister.”

  “Sister?” Paula asked.

  “Yes,” Sivaha said as she gestured to Madalena. “You’ll be Nordar and married to Adam. We won’t be sisters through blood, but we will know each other’s emotions and desires. I’ve already apologized for being a bit of a pain when we first met, but I understand Adam better now, and I know he is sent by Odin to unite our people. I am grateful that I am married to him.”

  “Huh,” Zea said as she shrugged. “Fuck it, I’ll take it. Thanks for the well wishing.”

  “We will escort you four to the pod,” Madalena said, and the four women nodded.

  Then we all walked out of Persephone, got on the hovercraft, and made our way to the white spire in the middle of the harbor.

  The staging room for the rite looked similar to the room I had once been in, but I knew there would be no foul play here. Everyone wanted the four women to be successful, and Madalena checked through their packs a final time before she debriefed them beside a holomap projection.

  “You should land in this area,” the Prime Valkyrie said as she pointed at the base of the mountain range where I had once landed. “Make your way south to this tree line, then you will have to cross the ravine.”

  “Maddy, sweetie,” Kasta said. “You’ve gone over this with us sixteen times.”

  “Hmmm,” Madalena huffed, and I was a little surprised by the slight worry I sensed coming from her. “I suppose you know the way.”

  “Yeah,” Zea said after a long breath. “Let’s fucking do this thing.”

  Then they all looked at me.

  “Okay,” I said as I tried to keep my voice calm. “You all will do great. I know it.” They nodded at my words and then I held my arms out as I looked at the blonde hacker.

  Zea came into my embrace and then kissed me passionately while the other women watched. Then Eve did the same, and she spent a few extra moments looking into my eyes and caressing my cheek after we had kissed. She didn’t need to speak to me telepathically for me to know what she was thinking, and I fought against the desire to tell them that I didn’t want them to go.