by Cheree Alsop
Liora forced herself to smile. “I’m used to being lied to.”
He shook his head. “This time, it’s unforgiveable. I didn’t have a choice, or at least I didn’t think I had one. I thought I was protecting you.” He paused, then changed his words. “We thought we were protecting you.”
Liora had no idea what he was talking about. “What do you mean?”
“I mean….” Senior Commandant Day blew out a breath. He let go of her hand and sat up. “Liora, I lied to you about your mother.”
Liora sat back, winced at the pressure of the seat against her skin, and straightened again. “My mother was Tenieva, Queen of the Damaclans.”
Her father shook his head, making her words fade before she had finished speaking them.
“You loved her,” Liora tried again. “You said you met her on your ship. She loved you back.”
“I loved Tenieva,” her father said. “I didn’t lie about that.”
His vague answers tried Liora’s patience. She asked him straight, “Dad, what did you lie to me about specifically?”
He met her gaze. “Tenieva was not your birth mother.”
Cold ran through Liora. She shook her head. “I grew up on Ralian. She taught me about my heritage. She took care of me when Obruo….” Her voice faded to nothing when the senior commandant shook his head.
“Liora, I shouldn’t have let you go there. I was wrong.”
“Let me go there,” Liora repeated, her thoughts whirling. “Dad, you’re not making any sense.”
The Senior Commandant sat forward. His expression was intent as he willed her to understand. “Liora, I did care for Tenieva when she boarded my ship. She was strong, confident, a woman who garnered respect from everyone who saw her.” He paused, then said, “We spent plenty of time together, and spoke in the cafeteria as I told you, but it wasn’t about our lives or potential future together; it was about you.”
A chill ran across Liora’s skin. “But I wasn’t alive yet.”
“You were three days old,” her father replied. “And being the daughter of the captain in a merchant fleet wasn’t safe for you for many, many reasons.”
Liora turned her head at his tone. “What reasons?”
He let out a breath. “A Foundling baby is a target for every major political body. If your presence was found out, assassins would be sent from every direction. The peril of one of your origin threatens the security of anyone in power. You can adapt, you can survive situations that would kill normal races, and every move you makes sends ripples throughout the Macrocosm.”
The words beat against Liora with the toll of a drum. She shook her head, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “You sent me away to protect me.”
He nodded. “I sent you to the one place nobody would think to look. Tenieva promised to raise you as her own, to protect you, to make you strong.”
Liora tried to remain calm. “Are you saying I’m not a Damaclan?” The thought was barely comprehensible. Being a Damaclan was all she had that kept her from falling apart. Her race, her heritage, everything had begun with the half-Damaclan blood in her veins.
“You are a Damaclan,” her father replied. His tone was urgent when he tried to explain it to her. “With your Foundling blood, wherever you were raised, you would take on the characteristics of the race who lived there. I figured that being adopted as a Damaclan would give you strength to draw on.”
Liora shook her head. She couldn’t understand what he was saying. She looked at him and her eyes burned with tears she refused to let fall. “He tortured me.”
Her father’s gaze lowered to the floor. “I didn’t know, Liora. Honest. If I had known the condition in which you were living, I would have taken you away from them. When we heard about the death of Obruo’s clan, there was no trace of you. The moment I heard rumors of a Damaclan causing a stir in the Macrocosm, I sent Brandis after you. It took years to track you down, but you are my daughter. I never gave up.”
Her father saw the lost expression on her face. He touched her arm.
“Liora, there is one constant in your life. I am your father, and that will never change. I promise you that.”
Liora shook her head. “Dad, there are no constants, ever. One minute, you think you have things figured out, life makes sense, and people in your life fill it with purpose, meaning, and direction.” She paused and shook her head. “Then they are erased, torn away as easily as a knife slicing flesh. They vanish into thin air as though they never existed, and the only sign of them left is the hole in your heart they used to fill, the hole that becomes you, consumes you.” She let out a slow breath. “I am nothing left but a shell, Dad.”
Her father’s expression was pained. The understanding on his face echoed the ache in her heart. “I know how you feel, Liora. When I lost Brandis’ mother, I nearly took my own life. I would have if it wasn’t for the fact that my little boy needed a father and my little girl was out there somewhere.”
Liora swallowed, her throat so tight she could barely breathe. “My heritage is not my own; my people are not my own. Without Tariq, I have no purpose.”
Senior Commandant Day held her gaze. “You do now.”
“What do you mean?” she forced herself to ask.
“Your mother needs your help.”
Liora sat back, caught off-guard by his words.
“Liora, I didn’t lie to you to hurt you; I did it to protect you. Foundlings are a dying race. There are so few of them left that they are forced to hide.”
“What is killing them?”
“The right question is who,” her father replied. “The Foundlings have been hunted for centuries by a deadly race known only as the Sadarin.”
Liora’s breath caught.
“What is it?” her father asked.
“I’ve fought them before,” she replied.
The commandant’s eyebrows rose. “When?”
“After we destroyed the orbs. The Sadarin were the Nameless Ones from Ralian who killed my clan.” She paused, then corrected herself. “Tenieva and Obruo’s clan. They left me because they knew I would bring them to the orbs.”
“The orbs you destroyed?” her father’s tone was confused.
Liora nodded. “They wanted to use them to create a gateway to our galaxies, but I destroyed them and brought false orbs back to the Sadarin on Ralian.”
“Which is when Tariq was almost killed,” her father said.
“Exactly. The Nameless Ones, the Sadarin, were sucked into the orb vortex and destroyed. We killed them all; they should be gone.”
Her father didn’t look reassured. Instead, he rose and put a hand to the panel on the wall.
“Show me the Valier file.”
The screen wavered. Instead of an image, a voice came through.
“Julius, you have to warn her…” The screen flickered and the sound cut out for a moment. It came back on. “She’s not safe. None of us are. Dondrell is dead. They found…” Again the fuzz. The sound gave a low thump, then returned. “He’s almost here. Warn her, Julius. Keep her safe.”
The sound cut off completely and the screen went blank.
“It’s her.” Liora could barely say the words, her shock was so great.
“Who?” her father asked.
“The woman with the silver hair. She was at the head of the Council.”
Surprise showed on her father’s face. “Raliel was at your hearing?”
The name was one more thing Liora could fit into the puzzle of her life. At the moment, everything was jagged edges and gaping holes. As soon as two pieces fit together, something else vanished, like the fact that Tenieva wasn’t her mother. Liora changed that thought. Tenieva had raised her, sheltered her as much as she could against Obruo, and taught her everything she knew about the Damaclan heritage and what it meant to be strong in the face of adversity. Tenieva was her mother. Raliel might have given her birth, but she knew who had guided her earliest steps and put the first knife in her hand
. Tenieva was her true mother.
“When the Ketulans attacked, I saved her life,” Liora replied.
Something about that statement bothered her. She remembered waving the woman over, protecting her when the Ketulans sliced at her with their merciless blades. She saw their metal bodies reflected in the woman’s silver eyes. She had helped the woman to her quarters to get help.
The memory wavered. Liora saw the woman at her side, beneath her arm, helping Liora to safety instead of the other way around. The blood from her back had coated the woman’s hands. She had turned her medic over to Liora, waving away her own care. She had given Liora her quarters. The last thing Liora remembered was the feeling of safety and peace the woman had pushed to her before Susa began burning her skin to cauterize the life-threatening wounds.
“She saved my life.”
The truth struck Liora.
Her father watched her.
“He has her.”
“Who is he?” the Senior Commandant asked. “I’ve sent out mercenaries to track her down, but they’ve all disappeared. We have no leads. If you know anything about the man who took her, we’ll be that much closer to saving the remaining Foundlings.”
Liora shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s a voice in my head.”
She glanced at him, worried he would think she was crazy. Instead, he merely watched her, waiting for whatever she would say with an accepting expression on his face. She was grateful for that expression.
“He’s dark and evil. That much I know. She argues with him and somehow he has the ability to hurt her. He taunts me, telling me to give up, to lay down and die.” Liora rose to her feet. “I need to get her away from him before he kills her.”
Senior Commandant Day followed her to the door. “I don’t want you to go running off alone after some unknown evil able to slay your race.”
She waited impatiently for the door to slide open. “You don’t know me very well,” she told her father as she hurried down the hall.
The door at the end opened and Liora paused. Devren, Hyrin, Straham, O’Tule, and the majority of the crew of the S.S. Kratos waited for them. Each person was in a uniform bearing the blue and silver colors of Corian. Guns were in holsters at their sides and each held a helmet for their atmosphere suits.
“I think I know you well enough,” her father said, stopping by her side. “Devren assembled a crew he felt would be competent for your mission, and Hyrin has overseen the outfitting of the Kratos.”
On impulse, Liora gave her father a hug. He let out a grunt of surprise, then wrapped his arms around her.
“I don’t know how to thank you,” she told him.
“Promise me you’ll be safe,” he replied.
She glanced over to see a small smile cross Devren’s face as he shook his head. Rescue missions and staying safe seldom, if ever, went hand-in-hand. He knew that was the last thing Liora would do.
“I’ll try my best,” she answered, keeping it vague on purpose.
“Stay in touch, don’t take unnecessary risks, and above all else, come home.”
Liora nodded.
Her father put a hand on her shoulder, drawing Liora’s attention back to him.
“Liora, come home again, please. I don’t know how much longer I can stand to let you rush off about the Macrocosm worrying if it’s the last time I’ll see you.” He blinked. “The time I missed being your father as you grew up is the biggest mistake of my life. If I outlive you, it’ll make that look like a quark in comparison. I feel like I should go with you, even if you don’t want your old man hanging around the Kratos.”
Liora was touched by the emotion in his voice. “Dad, I know you’re needed here. You have an entire merchant fleet to command and protect. Millions of families depend on you. In comparison, I’m one girl.” She saw his gaze tighten and he was about to protest, but she gave him a smile. “But I’m a girl whose father is Senior Commandant Day, creator and owner of the Corian Merchant Fleet. I have the instincts of a Damaclan and the heart of a human. With a little luck, we’ll be back in time for the wedding.”
“Wedding?” her father asked in surprise.
Liora grinned. “Ask Brandis. He’ll laugh.”
Chapter 7
“Did you tell Dad about the pressure from Malie’s family?”
Brandis’ voice made Liora turn.
He stood in the control room of the S.S. Kratos as Devren’s crew prepared it to depart.
“I might have hinted at it,” Liora replied. “Sorry about that.”
Brandis chuckled. “I don’t think you’re sorry at all.”
“That’s true,” she replied.
Brandis looked around the room. “It looks good. Dad mentioned his engineers made some improvements.”
“They’ve been in here day and night since we took off in the Nines,” Hyrin said from his seat near the main screens. “It’s like a whole new ship.”
“Couldn’t get them to give her a facelift?” Zran asked, running his hand over the worn keyboard where Shathryn used to sit.
“I like it the way it is,” Devren replied from the captain’s chair. “She’s got character.”
“Ornery and sassy, just the way we like her,” O’Tule replied. The green-skinned woman grinned. “I can’t wait to go back out again.”
“I thought you liked Corian,” Zran said.
O’Tule set her hand on his and gave him a warm smile. “I like the company on Corian, but the Kratos will always be home.”
He leaned over and kissed her.
“I should be going with you,” Brandis said, drawing Liora’s attention back.
His words took her by surprise. “But what about Malie?”
Her brother gave her a half-smile. “I said I should be going with you. I’ll definitely be staying with Malie. Though I wouldn’t mind getting further away from the kind of pressure her family’s putting on us.”
Liora smiled at him. “Half the Macrocosm isn’t far enough?”
Brandis shook his head. “Not unless the communicators fail. They have no qualms about contacting us at any time, day or night.” He tipped his head to one side. “Think I could convince Dad to block out all incoming transmissions for a day, or even a few hours? It would be divine.”
“If you do that, the Fikes might head to Corian.”
Brandis’ face paled. “We don’t want that. Madam Fike is, well, to put it lightly, a very persistent woman. I’ll consider myself grateful we made it this far away.”
Liora gave him an empathetic look. “Good luck with all of that.”
Brandis hugged her. “Good luck finding your mother. Try not to upset too many Gauls on the way.”
“Now you’re just taking away all the fun,” Liora replied, hugging him back.
He waved at her and walked away down the hall. The door slid shut.
“We’re ready to depart,” Hyrin said.
Devren looked to Liora for confirmation.
“Let’s go,” she told them.
Chapter 8
“Look at that.”
Everyone stared out the windows and at the monitors of the S.S. Kratos. The red planet couldn’t be seen beneath the mass of Ketulan bodies surrounding it.
“I guess we found out where the Ketulans went,” Hyrin said.
The mood that filled the Kratos control room was a somber one.
“What do we do now?” Zran asked.
He and O’Tule exchanged worried glances from their seats at the computers.
The thought of catching the attention of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Ketulans wasn’t a pleasant one. Liora looked at Devren.
“It’s your call,” the young captain replied. It was obvious by his expression that he didn’t relish the thought of confronting the machines, but he waited for her word.
“We need time to think,” Liora said.
Devren turned to his crew. “Hyrin, get us out of here before we draw their attention.”
“Yes, Captain,” th
e yellow-haired Talastan said.
He spun the ship around and gunned the thrusters so fast everyone had to grab onto each other and the chairs for support.
Devren cracked a smile when Hyrin finally let up. “Thank you for your haste,” he said with a hint of sarcasm.
Hyrin nodded, his sideways eyelids blinking rapidly. “I don’t think they followed us.”
“You didn’t give them a chance,” O’Tule replied with a breath of relief.
Devren turned in his captain’s chair to face Liora’s seat near the back wall. “So now what?”
Liora shook her head. “I’m not sure. A wall of Ketulans was the last thing I expected to find when we got here.”
“I guess that shows we’re on the right track,” Straham said.
The older man didn’t appear thrilled at the knowledge.
“Yes, it does,” Liora agreed. “The ship is where the original Nameless Ones, the Sadarin, came from. If we can search the records, we might be able to find its origin of departure.”
“Last time we went there, we were lucky to get out with our lives,” O’Tule pointed out.
“Seems like we might be faced with that situation again,” Hyrin replied, his expression anxious.
Liora crossed her arms in front of her chest. The movement pulled at the skin on her back. She clenched her jaw and didn’t let the pain show.
“What we need is a way to get through the Ketulans without getting everyone torn apart. Some sort of a diversion would be perfect,” Liora said. “Also, the Sadarin technology is completely different from our own. We’re going to need help.”
“I know who can help.”
The enthusiasm in O’Tule’s voice surprised Liora. It could only mean one thing.
“We need to go see Tramareaus and Shathryn!” The small, green-skinned woman jumped up and down in her seat. “It’s their wedding, anyway. We promised we’d be there. A crewmate can’t have a wedding without the rest of the crew present, right?”
She gave Liora and Devren pleading looks.
The last thing Liora wanted to do was go to a wedding.
