by Cheree Alsop
Devren shrugged. “You never know about Damaclans,” he replied, his dark eyes twinkling with mischief.
A laugh escaped Liora that caught her by surprise. Devren took advantage of her lowered guard to throw a hook at her jaw. Liora swung her right arm in, blocked his hook, and slid her hand up his arm in a chop. Devren ducked under both their arms, spun around, and kicked in a roundhouse toward her back. Liora ducked the roundhouse and was about to answer with a two-handed punch to his exposed back, but something about his tense muscles showed that he was expecting it.
Instead, Liora dropped and spun, kicking his legs out from under him. As soon as he hit the ground on his back, she grabbed his leg, flipped him, and pinned him on his stomach with her arm around his throat.
Devren gave a grunt of surprise. “I guess I have a bit more practicing to do,” he said, forcing his words past her tight hold.
Liora let him go and moved back to her knees on the grass to catch her breath.
“That’s the most combat I’ve done since my back was burned,” she said. “I’ve got some practicing to do, too.”
Devren sat up. “It’s good to know you could have killed me otherwise. I suppose I have your scars to thank for my life. Did we destroy your burns entirely?”
The compassion and apology in his voice brought Liora back. She didn’t need anyone to worry about her.
“I’m fine,” she replied shortly.
“Do you remember that day on the Kirkos?”
Devren’s words caught her off-guard.
Thoughts of Malivian’s ship flooded Liora's mind. She heard two voices talking. In her memory, she saw the flashlight beam sweeping back and forth, illuminating the cages and aquariums that made up Malivian’s menagerie. The flashlight shone across her face, then away and Liora saw them for the first time, Devren and Tariq, two young Coalition officers filled with enthusiasm and the want to make a difference in the Macrocosm.
“I don't want to talk about it,” she said.
“I do.”
When Liora rose to her feet, Devren grabbed her hand. She stared down at him. He never touched her, always maintaining the professional, respectful distance required of a captain to a member of his crew. She couldn't turn away from the despair in his eyes. As much as she was hurting, he hurt, too.
“Liora, something made me walk into that ship. We knew we shouldn't be there, but I wanted to go, I needed to go, and so Tariq followed me.” His gaze was intense with the want for her to understand. “It wasn't you, I know that. When I felt you speak in my mind, asking me not to leave you there, it was the first time I had ever felt someone push into my thoughts. Whatever drew me into the ship was different. It felt like….” He hesitated, then continued, “Like fate held me by the hand and guided my feet. It felt as though every moment of my life centered on your dark eyes watching me from behind those bars. I would have come back even if you hadn’t asked me to.”
Silence filled the grove. A creature flapped its small, leathery wings in the tree above them, then settled again.
Liora shook her head. “Devren, I can't—”
He cut her off. “I'm not asking for feelings or to tell you that you owe me. I only want to let you know that there is a reason for this, a reason we are here right now. We are heading toward something, Liora. I can feel it. Whatever it is, it's big, and we're not going to be able to handle it alone.”
He met her eyes, his own impassioned by his words. “Liora, don't push everyone away, especially me.” He swallowed as if his throat was tight, then continued, “Because you are the only one who understood Tariq the way I did. You and I know what we lost, and it's something that can never be replaced. I shouldn’t have let you two leave Corian without me. Who knows what that one decision would have changed? I ask myself that every day.”
“You were obeying the orders of my father, your new boss,” Liora replied. “You were protecting the merchant fleet.”
“I should have been with Tariq. We watched each other’s backs. I shouldn’t have let him go by himself. Don't push me away because I can't be alone with this.”
Liora drew in a shuddering breath. When the silence felt so thick she could barely bring herself to break it, she said, “I'll try.”
Devren nodded. He knew not to ask more of her. It was enough that they were on the same ground together.
Liora held out a hand. Devren took it, but instead of letting her help him up, he grabbed her foot with his other hand and yanked up as he rose. She let his strength throw her backwards and completed the flip, landing on her feet in crouch with her hands up ready to block an attack.
Devren stared at her. “I’m definitely going to need to learn that.”
A true smile touched Liora’s lips. “It’s going to take some work.”
Devren lifted one eyebrow in a challenge. He advanced with his fists up.
“Ready for more?”
“Always,” Liora replied.
By the time they made it to the meeting with Tramareaus, both Devren and Liora were covered in bruises and breathing hard.
“My back may never forgive you,” Liora said on their way into the room that had been set aside.
“I forgot about that,” Devren replied. “Are you going to be alright?”
Liora gave him a mocking look full of steel.
Devren raised his hands with a laugh. “Alright, alright. I give up. You’re fine.”
Liora nudged him with her elbow and he winced when she found the bruised ribs. “Are you going to be alright?” she asked, mimicking his tone.
“Very funny,” Devren replied.
He pulled open the door to reveal Tramareaus, Shathryn, O’Tule, and Zran waiting for them.
“What have you guys been up to?” O’Tule asked.
“You disappeared after the wedding,” Zran replied. “We couldn’t find you for the luncheon.”
Devren glanced at Liora. “I asked Liora to show me a throw I’ve been working on.”
“Keep it up and you’ll be giving her a run for her money,” O’Tule said. “I’ve never seen anyone train as hard as you’ve been.”
Something changed in Devren’s gaze when he glanced at Liora again. There was a hint of embarrassment as though he didn’t know the crew noticed how much he had worked.
He cleared his throat. “We’re missing the point here. Congratulations,” Devren told the newlyweds.
He crossed to Shathryn and Tramareaus and gave them both a hug. Shathryn gave Liora a huge smile over Devren’s shoulder. She held out her hand, motioning Liora over.
“You know I’m against this,” Liora protested.
Everyone laughed when she allowed Shathryn to pull her into the hug.
“I’m happy for you,” Liora told her. She looked at Tramareaus. “For both of you.”
He inclined his head in a graceful gesture and put his hand to his heart. “Your words means the world, my dear.”
“I made it!”
Hyrin burst through the door, his chest heaving and sideways eyelids blinking rapidly. He stopped just inside the room with his hands on his knees.
“Uh, are you alright?” O’Tule asked.
Hyrin looked up at them. “Fine.” He straightened and took a calming breath. “Why do you ask?”
Everyone exchanged glances.
“No reason,” Devren replied, his tone slightly baffled.
“Let’s, uh, get this started,” Tramareaus said.
He gave Hyrin another searching look, but the Talastan merely shrugged.
Tramareaus motioned for them to follow him to the table made of purple wood in the middle of the room. A tarp had been spread across objects on the table. Tramareaus grabbed the corner of the first tarp and pulled it to reveal a Ketulan lying in pieces on top. A chill ran down Liora’s spine.
Devren approached the table with a hint of wariness in his stride. “Do I dare ask where you got a Ketulan?”
“You can ask,” Tramareaus replied. “But I won’t tell. My sour
ces are, shall we say, shy but efficient.”
Devren nodded. “Fair enough. What have you learned?”
Tramareaus looked at Liora. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Liora, but Ketulans are an interesting sort once you get down to the circuits and wires of it all.”
Liora didn’t know how he knew what he did, but she nodded. “Their minds are more than just circuits and commands. There’s an underlying thought pattern.”
“Exactly, thank you,” Tramareaus replied. “I figured that with your particular skillset, you might be able to verify what it is that I have found.” He gave her a grateful smile. “In my exploration, I have found that Ketulans have two different drives, one internal that makes up their individual thought processes, and an external drive that delivers commands from an outside source. The outside commands take precedence over the Ketulans’ inside processes.”
Again, he looked at Liora and continued, “Because of this, the Council was wrong to deny recognizing Ketulans into the registry. I apologizes for the inconvenience and crassness with which you were faced when you were there, and I have sent them a strongly worded letter.”
Liora stared at him. “You’re a member of the Council?”
Tramareaus nodded. “That was the reason for my presence on Titus. I was asked to verify whether the Coalition was ready for inclusion into the Council for the Unification and Order of the Cosmos.” He waved a hand to include Devren and his crew. “As you can guess, my answer was no. We don’t need more individuals so narrow-minded and prejudiced.” He winked at Liora. “The Council is already full of them.”
Liora knew he wasn’t there when the Ketulans attacked. One more friendly face in the audience wouldn’t have helped much given the stubbornness of those who refused to accept her side of what had happened.
“Do you know of Raliel Valier?” Liora asked. It was a shot in the dark, but one that struck home.
Tramareaus’ eyebrows rose and he said, his voice almost a whisper, “You know.”
Liora nodded.
“Know what?” Shathryn asked.
“Seriously,” O’Tule cut in. “You guys are talking about Councils and whispering secrets. It’s like we have no business being here.”
Liora glanced at Devren. He watched them both with a puzzled expression.
Liora fingered the knife strapped to her thigh for reassurance. She wasn’t sure how much she should tell them. When she looked at Tramareaus, he opened a hand as if to indicate that it was up to her.
“I have no right to ask you to come along when you have no idea what you’re getting into,” she finally said.
“We’re here no matter what you need,” Devren replied.
O’Tule nodded. “Though it would be nice to have a little information. I feel like we’re flying blind here.”
“I hate flying blind,” Hyrin put in.
Liora kept her attention on the slain Ketulan. “My father called me back from Cree to tell me that my Damaclan mother isn’t really my birth mother.”
O’Tule gasped.
Out of the corner of her eye, Liora saw Hyrin open his mouth to ask questions, but Devren shook his head and Hyrin shut it again.
“I may have been raised as a Damaclan, but I’m not one.” Liora couldn’t help looking at Devren. She had to know what he thought about her words. She hadn’t lied to him, but she hadn’t told him all of the truth, either.
Devren merely nodded, waiting for her to continue. There wasn’t judgment on his face, just confusion as though he wondered why she had kept it to herself.
“My mother is a Foundling named Raliel Valier,” Liora continued. “She and my father decided that with the Sadarin assassinating our race, I would be safer raised in hiding.”
“They chose Damaclans to raise their child?” Shathryn said with horror in her voice.
Liora picked up one of the Ketulan’s claws. “My dad admitted that it wasn’t their best decision, but when they tried to track me down, the Sadarin had already killed my people.”
Devren’s voice was quiet when he asked, “Why did they leave you alive?”
Liora shook her head. “I’m not sure. The only thing I can piece together is what the Sadarin said when they killed my, I mean, the Damaclans’, clan.”
“What did they say?” Tramareaus asked, his voice gentle.
Liora closed her eyes at the memory of the voices. “They said, ‘She’ll be the key to the end of it all, the girl from the stars. The girl without a soul.’”
“The girl without a soul?” Hyrin spoke up. “What does that mean?”
Liora shook her head, but didn’t answer.
“The key to end it all,” Devren repeated. “You did end it all. You killed the Sadarin on your planet.”
“I didn’t kill them,” Liora said, meeting his gaze. “Tariq did.”
“Maybe the prophecy was wrong.” Tramareaus didn’t sound convinced.
Liora wasn’t, either. “My goal is to end it all for them before they end it for the Foundlings. Whoever sent the Ketulans and the Nameless Ones has my mother. I need to free her from them and the ship on the red planet is the key.”
“We’ll help you reach your ship,” Zran promised.
Nods of agreement came from the others.
“I have just the thing for you,” Tramareaus said. He grabbed the edge of the other tarp and pulled it back.
“What is this?” Hyrin asked in awe. He set a hand on the blue metal as if he couldn’t help himself.
“What if I told you there was a way to control the Ketulans yourself?” Tramareaus replied.
Chapter 10
“You have got to be kidding,” O’Tule replied. “Control the Ketulans ourselves? That’d be like having our own nearly indestructible army!”
Hyrin gave a visible shudder. “I wouldn’t want an army like that.”
“Better on our side than the other,” Zran pointed out.
“Exactly,” Tramareaus said. He held out a hand for the claw Liora held. “May I?”
When she gave it to him, Tramareaus’ three hands made short work of putting the Ketulan on the table back together. He flipped a switch on the blue box he had unveiled, and set a hand on the reader in the center.
“They are stubborn creatures, but if you can reach their outer conscience, they will listen,” he said. He motioned to Hyrin. “Go ahead. Connect the power cell.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the Talastan replied. He looked at Devren. “Should I, Captain?”
Devren pulled out his knives. Liora did the same.
“We know how to deal with them if it gets out of control,” Devren replied.
Hyrin picked up the wire with shaking fingers and shoved it into the exposed fuel cell. The box buzzed, then the Ketulan was up and spinning around.
Shathryn shrieked and hid behind Tramareaus. Zran stepped in front of O’Tule. Devren and Liora crossed to cover Hyrin in case the machine got out of hand.
“I’ve never seen one so still,” Zran said, his gaze not leaving the Ketulan.
He was right. The Ketulan merely hovered there, turning slowly in a circle as though unsure what to do.
“Land on the table,” Tramareaus said.
The Ketulan hesitated.
Tramareaus’ eyes narrowed. “Land on the table,” he repeated, pressing his hand more firmly to the box.
For a moment more, it appeared the Ketulan wasn’t going to obey. Liora’s grip on her knives tightened. She blamed Ketulans for Tariq’s death. If they hadn’t dismantled the ship and sent it crashing into the dome, she could have gotten him out.
Hatred for the creature flowed through her. The Ketulan, as if sensing it, turned to face her. It raised its claws.
“Liora, calm your emotions,” Tramareaus ordered.
Liora realized with a start that her anger was clouding the Artidus’ ability to control the Ketulan. Against her instincts, Liora lowered her hands. She took a breath and let it out, releasing her anger and instead choosing t
o feel nothing at all.
The Ketulan spun to face Tramareaus.
“Land on the table.”
At his command, the machine settled onto the top of the purple table.
“Dismantle your fuel cell.”
The Ketulan immediately obeyed. It reached beneath it with a claw, there was a popping sound, and the machine fell onto its side. The revealed power cell showed the wire removed once more.
“That was amazing!” Hyrin exclaimed.
Tramareaus ignored him. He watched Liora with a concerned expression. “You overrode what I was trying to do.”
“I’m sorry,” Liora replied. “I’m not sure if I can do this.”
“You hate them that much.”
It was a statement, not a question.
Liora nodded.
Tramareaus didn’t ask her to explain, something Liora was grateful for. Instead, he picked up the box.
“You have to learn to control your hatred if this is going to work. Hatred is the counterbalance to love. They are both the strongest emotions a human can feel. If you can’t control it, you are going to overrun anyone’s abilities to keep these creatures from shredding your crew to pieces.”
Liora was going to reply that she was a Damaclan, but the statement was no longer true, if it ever was. The anger and rage she had felt when confronting the Ketulan still whispered in her mind.
“I’m not sure if I can do it,” she replied.
Tramareaus indicated the box. “If you can’t, your crew’s dead,” he stated.
“That’s a little harsh,” Devren began.
Tramareaus shook his head. His gaze was intense. “Liora, I don’t know what happened, but I can tell you aren’t the same girl I met on Titus. Your zeal has been tarnished. You are no longer innocent despite all you’ve gone through. You are scarred, shredded. Only a sliver of that brightness shines through.”
Liora reminded herself that the blades in her hands were only for if the Ketulan got out of control. She could take verbal abuse. She had done so her entire life. Cutting down the man who had just married Shathryn wouldn’t be in the best interest of her crew or her mission. Nonetheless, it took all of her willpower to slide the knives back into their sheaths.
Tramareaus put his hands on her shoulders. His free hand cupped her chin, forcing her to look at him.
