by Calista Skye
By the time they'd all decided on a lodge, she'd told him her intentions to help find the fiends who had held her captive and injured his people.
They docked at starrise, thinking it the wisest time to roam an area they were utterly unfamiliar with, restock supplies, and regain their balance before she led them to the lair of the savages his blood boiled to rain vengeance down upon.
He'd need to be stealthy, and he could only do it with her assistance. The tactics he'd already decided and prepared himself for. There was a way to lay waste to their station, and target only the fiends themselves without harm to any innocents they might be containing there.
And it rested in a very old ritual that he'd be calling on the spirits' help to perform.
It could work.
It would work.
It had to.
They exited the drifter after a short breakfast, fueled but not weighed down by anything too heavy. Jana had thoughtfully sewn Ayanu another suit, something more fitting for the public. It came with a cloak that hid her scarlet hair, lest she be recognized before she recorded the message for her father they'd be leaving to hail him.
Kesh and Jana would be making their hails at the comm stations in the lodge as well, even though neither were eager to. They had very good news to give, and they shouldn't dread the king's response. But the old man was so surly and bitter most of the time, he might be want to overlook the good their risks had won.
At Ayanu's request, Tarik would surely be off the hook. And with the right tactical approach, they now had a real, viable way to relieve their people. One that might succeed in destroying an entire faction of acquisitioners.
Perhaps, even some of the worst.
Stealing a glance behind him to check the security of the latches on the docking bay, though he'd checked them several times already, Kesh drew his cloak taut and headed forward up the metal ramps to the spiraling dome at its middle. It was of modest size, and unlikely to be holding more than a population of 300, but it had what they needed: a comm system and supplies.
That was good enough for them.
They had a ways to go if Ayanu was correct about the positions he believed they would need to take along the star maps to reach the hiding places of the red-eyed beasts they were preparing to hunt, but there would be optimizing tools they could utilize to make the drifter stronger. There were even cloaking devices that could be purchased and worked into the system.
Ticking up his chin, Kesh took the lead past the strange characters who eyed them suspiciously on their way up the ramp into the main inn. The eyes of their watchers gave the trio a keen feeling of discomfort, but they weren't the feral sort. They seemed the type only to engage in hot-headed in-fights when the mood struck, but there was a pride in them that set Kesh at ease. They wouldn't be interested in stealing anything. They were wanderers, but they were capable of sourcing their own goods.
Stepping inside the inn at the swish of the entrance doors, they were immediately greeted by the scents of delectable foods from across the galaxy that co-mingled into a sort of cross-culture that had come to be established at the station.
Approaching the boarder-master, Jana took the lead then.
"Good stars to you, we'd like a room. It should have a bath and three beds."
The boarder-master was a burly man with what looked like a permanent frown etched on his face. If it weren't for the starbursts circling his hairline, Kesh might have assumed him human, but he was definitely of the stars, probably even born on a nomad ship with no true planetary alliance. There were many, many halflings who took their own risks in the deep ink of space rather than deal with the purists among their people who tended to make their lives hell.
"Lofty sorts, I see. Wish we were lofty ourselves, but we are not. Our rooms come with two beds."
"That will be fine," Ayanu chimed, meeting Jana's look of question with an unmistakeable answer in her eyes.
"Very well. Two beds. But there must be a bath," Jana insisted.
"That'll cost."
"Hopefully, not more than 20 credits."
The boarder-master quirked a brow.
"Do you not have more than that? You look like well-kept sorts."
"Appearances can be deceiving. We have to watch our credits. Our journey is long."
"I cannot accommodate at so small a price," he sighed. "I can offer a room for 60 credits."
"25." Jana countered.
He crooked a brow. "I'm running a business here."
"And a fine job you're doing, sir."
He grinned, obviously appreciating her fire, and no doubt her beauty. "35. That's my final waiver."
Jana pursed her lips, obviously less than satisfied but sure of the firmness she saw in the man's eyes. He wasn't going a credit lower, and they both knew it.
"Fine. 35 is... somewhat fair."
"As fair as it gets around here, Sweet."
They made their way to the room when the transaction was completed and found it moderately fitting. The bath, especially, made the expense worth it. The drifter's own makeshift bath paled in comparison.
Jana was the first to enjoy the spoils, but everyone of them enjoyed it before they left again. This time for supplies. Jana did not fare as well with her negotiations with the suppliers, but mainly because the suppliers knew their need and didn't have to budge.
What supplies they could spare the credits for, they brought back to the drifter, securing them in the secret holds on the small craft before Jana insisted they take a load off and enjoy the recreational spots the lodging station had to offer.
The space bar they nearly passed on the strip beside the last supply store to turn down their efforts to gather more supplies. Jana's eyes glinted as she watched several Lopiens stumble out, singing merrily with one another, their wide-set red eyes glinting with mirth as they managed to keep from falling up the ramps on their way back to the main inn.
"This, we deserve."
Kesh loosed a silent huff.
"I'm not sure this is the right way to spend the eve, Jana."
"Nonsense. After the trip we've had, all cramped up in that drifter. We have to do this. Think of the stories we'll have for the king's table."
A twinge went through Kesh at the mention of his father. They'd be calling the royal pod tomorrow. Telling them everything. Kesh stole a glance at Ayanu, swallowing his discomfort. Claiming his fingers, she squeezed his hand.
"Jana's right. Let's go."
Jana swept a glance over their bound hands, meeting Ayanu's eyes and then Kesh's. "Not a bad choice after all, Kesh. Listen to the girl."
So, it was settled.
There'd be no arguing with two feisty femmes intent on an eve on the town.
Kesh entered the bar with reserve, especially after a sweeping glance that revealed a number of surly looking types, aliens from all sectors of the galaxy settled in one podunk space station at the very edge of unallied territory. There couldn't be a good reason that they were gathered there.
They were running from something, and they likely had the lethal, survival instincts such nomadic lifestyles require to evade death when it's nipping at your heels.
"What's good around here?" Jana asked the bartender, leaning in with that flirtatious glint in her eye that had most men giving her anything she asked for in the sentence to follow it.
As mean as the bartender had looked when they first approached the bar, he proved a giant softie once Jana began talking, and they were all soon laughing and clinking glasses as they partook of a number of heady "samples," Brucie Lex was inclined to extend to Jana's friends.
"I must admit," Kesh announced happily after his fifth "sample," ticking his glass against Jana's and then Ayanu's, to whom he gave a lingering and smoldering glance. "This is the best suggestion you've had since we boarded the drifter."
"I am brimming with magnificent ideas, Prince," Jana cackled, downing the "Blue Betty" old Brucie swore was the best Earth drink ever to make it to his humble bar.<
br />
"Mmm. I may have to visit this 'Earth' if the delicacies are as good as this."
"Indeed," Kesh agreed.
Ayanu was strangely silent, and Kesh's eyes followed her line of vision to the line-up of brutes obviously preparing for war a beat away from them.
Shouting something unintelligible, the shortest of the pack in shining, green uniforms leered toward the tallest of the group robed in muted silver. The spiked hairs on his head swayed slightly with the daring tilt of his neck.
He said something else none of the trio could decipher and made a sign with his hands that brought out a glowing-eyed rage in the group his gaggle of friends opposed.
"There goes the neighborhood," Jana mused with a giggle.
"You should head on out now, pretty one," Brucie Lex advised through gritted teeth, never taking his eyes from the group. "Take the side door. This will get ugly."
Stepping back, he cupped his hands around his mouth.
"Bar's closed. Drink up. Get out!"
Not the wisest words, perhaps, when a battle of potentially epic, back-alley proportions is about to spark. No sooner did the words leave his mouth than glasses, fists, and blunt space weapons began to fly between the warring groups.
Kesh was quick to grab the hands of Ayanu and Jana before anything hit their precious heads, and the three raced to the side door Brucie Lex pointed out, just as the mean expression covered his face again and he pulled out a thruster the size of both of Kesh's arms combined.
Leaping through the doors as they swished open, the trio took a quick glance back with ill-placed relief before turning to set their sights on the last pair they expected to find waiting for them.
"Good Stars, brother."
"Doon."
"You look well, son."
"Mother."
13
Ayanu
Kesh's unease at the sight of his family sang through Ayanu's blood, and it was his mother who noted the protective change in her eyes from autumn amber to blood-pink. Fearlessly, the queen reached out to her and took Ayanu's hand.
Her gaze found her son's next, and Ayanu saw a love that flowed from the depths of the women's spirit reach out to him.
She took a surprised glance Ayanu's way, tilting her head just so before looking to Kesh again.
"Where are you staying?"
Ayanu could feel it then, a certainty in the royal mother, something she'd detected in Ayanu that had her quickly concerned about getting them out of the general public of the station. The mystery of it disturbed Ayanu beyond words, but no matter how she tried, she couldn't break into the woman's consciousness. And every time she attempted it the Queen's eyes landed upon her.
The royal mother was a seer of some sort.
It was the only explanation for that.
Stopping to speak with the boarder-master when they arrived in the front lobby, she returned with a key, setting sights keenly on Kesh.
"What good luck! Our room adjoins yours. Shall we?"
Poorly suppressing a frown, Kesh followed behind Doon and his mother, his fingers deeply knitted in Ayanu's. The trip to their room seemed to take ages the way it all dragged out, and every step of the way Ayanu felt Kesh's discomfort. Even detected a bit of fear.
Jana kept her silence walking in the procession, instantly sobered as they all were by the Queen's appearance. Even Doon, whom Ayanu could feel the fiery spirit of, did not utter a word as they walked. Nor did he say a thing when the queen waved the key before the doors, entering their temporary room.
Turning with a smile full of pageantry, she ushered them all in, just as carefully as she pleased.
Her eyes flitted to each of them and she waved to the beds and parlor chairs in the half moon dip that almost constituted an extra quarter room.
"Sit. Please."
They did as she asked, and she watched them with a patience that unsettled them all, her blue metallic lips pursing when her eyes found Ayanu.
"You are new."
Ayanu nodded.
"And yet... With child?"
Quirking a brow, Ayanu looked to Kesh, whose eyes widened slowly with surprise. Heart thumping in her chest, Ayanu turned her startled attention to the queen. The royal mother gently smiled as one who knew this was news to the young Tavalar ward.
"Two pulses beat when my fingertips grazed your wrist."
The unease descending upon the room was palpable.
"It is a good thing the king is on his way. Someone will need to direct this circus before you contact your father."
She had humor in her eyes, and the blood-ink in Ayanu's own began to die down seeing it. This woman, this royal mother meant them no harm. Her job was damage control, and she hadn't expected an additional matter might be waiting for her clean-up skills when she arrived on the station.
It was obvious in the way she carried herself now, with the grace of one who was not pleased to see things take such an untraditional direction, though somewhere in her secret heart, she probably delighted in it.
"I'll ring for calming tea," she announced, give them all a sweeping glance before disappearing into the small control room at the back of the temporary quarters.
Every eye in the room glanced the other. Doon searched Ayanu a moment before his eyes met Kesh's. Then he grinned and leaned back with a satisfaction that could only come from seeing an older brother fail to hide something.
"They'll be just a moment," the queen announced, sweeping back in, her robes fanning out behind her like the petals of a Dorn bloom.
"Let's get ourselves up to speed in the meantime."
14
Kesh
Kesh's heart swelled with a joy he couldn't ever remember feeling, but in the same turn, fear crept at the edges of his internal holiday. There was no telling how Ayanu's father would react. They hadn't had time to ease anyone into it. The lovers hadn't been properly wed. Her father had not given his blessing. And yet, it couldn't be denied that her father would not wage war over such a thing.
If only for the damage it would do to his image.
Good old Han's wisdoms again. There was a cause for every effect. His heart squeezed when he considered that Ayanu absolutely could not be allowed to come with him to the acquisitioners' secret den of depravities.
And his eyes flicked to Doon, who seemed to read his exact thoughts with a smirk.
"The spirits have blessed you beyond measure, but you cannot hope to gain the King's consent for the trip you have planned."
Kesh averted his eyes.
"Son, he will never agree," she pressed.
"Is he content to have the blood of our people in the acquisitioners' hands?"
The queen frowned at Doon's outburst.
"Watch your tone, Prince."
The true meaning of her words was clear: Doon was not the king, and he'd do well to keep his ideas and notions to himself.
Kesh wisely said nothing, his head still swimming with the news of his impending fatherhood and all of its implications.
His eyes rose to meet his mother's when he felt her gaze set on him again.
"There is a great deal of merit to your actions, and though your father is in a fury, he will come to understand why this was necessary. Not even he can deny the will of the ancestors. And because of you..." Her gaze swept to Ayanu and back to Kesh. "And your lovely intended, we may liberate our people from a horrid fate at the hands of these disgusting red-eyed fiends."
Kesh swallowed his reserve, seeing no other choice but to challenge her last assertion.
"How? If neither I or Ayanu will be allowed-"
"Leave the matters of war to the chief of the battalion," the queen answered with a smile in her eyes that told all in the room how she adored her son. "Can you think of no other way the acquisitioners can be dealt with than for the king to send his own sons?"
"But the honor of defeating our enemies-"
"Falls to all of the warriors in the kingdom as selected."
Kesh's gaze fell ont
o his hands.
He was a moment before answering.
"But are they equipped?"
"Are you?"
Her eyes bore into him, and he understood her meaning in the instant. Could he be trusted to remain objective knowing his child was growing in Ayanu's belly? Would Ayanu even be stable without him at her side? Her body was new, and the spirits had awarded him to her care. Trusted his request and granted it.
Leaving her side would be an insult to the grace the spirits had shown them.
The evidence of their intent that he remain on the sidelines could not possibly be more obvious but for the child growing in Ayanu's womb.
"I see you understand."
Kesh drew a stilling breath.
He did.
His eyes swept the room, almost making their way back to his mother when the glint in his brother's gaze revealed something that set him utterly on his guard.
Oh, Doon.
~
It was clear what Doon had decided after their mother's little talk when he managed to intercept Ayanu and take her hand under the guise of conversation.
Kesh hadn't noticed it at first, though he should have been watching his brother like a Dalk wing. His brother had read Ayanu in that short space of time and seen the location where she'd been changed.
And now he was gone.
Obviously having commandeered a drifter or pod with his sights set on the red-eyed savages who'd stolen "the blood."
Kesh burned to chase behind him, but his mother, ever aware of his intentions, placed a hand on his shoulder, coming to stand at his side as he looked out over the balcony of his inn room.
"Your father has arrived."
Kesh found his mother's eyes, and he drew a deep breath.
"Ayanu is speaking with her own father."
Doubly troubling news.
"Do not pre-judge him. Hear him. He is aware of Ayanu's condition, and he has a solution I think everyone will be happy with."
