by S. E. Weir
“You and Stephen, yes.” He named the Nacht in charge of counterintelligence. The man sobered at her question, though his eyes remained intent. “We needed this, Anna. We are spying on her for exactly this reason.” He waved his hand at the screen.
Anna lost all her humor as she took in the scene that showed Phina getting loudly berated by her aunt. Her heart grew heavy, making her want to reach out and rescue the girl. “How could she say things like this to her own niece?”
The man scowled but his eyes never left the screen. “Yes. How can parents verbally berate or abuse their own children? Yet, it happens all the time.”
Anna protested. “Not on the Meredith Reynolds, surely? Isn’t Meredith programmed to let us know when people are being harmed?”
He turned to her, anger swimming in his eyes as he gritted his teeth. “And what is Meredith’s definition of harm? Does it encompass mental and emotional abuse, particularly prolonged abuse? Does she know at what point she needs to intervene and let someone know it has progressed from venting occasional frustration to abuse?”
Anna felt too stunned by his ferocity to remind him again about his behavior. She wondered what drove him to push about this since the intensity seemed unwarranted in the current situation. “I…I don’t know. I thought we fixed things like this by offering mental services after that whole debacle with Anne’s mom. Meredith?”
“Yes, Anna Elizabeth?”
“Could you provide any insight here that could shed light on Phina’s situation and how it got to this point?”
“Apologies, Anna Elizabeth. This behavior from Faith Rochelle exceeds what she has exhibited in the past. Before today, her words could have been categorized as bickering, berating, or heavy nagging. This is the first time Faith Rochelle hit the markers for mental or emotional abuse.” She paused. “However, as I review the instances over the past several years, she has gradually gotten worse, though I see no obvious trigger for the change.”
“Thank you, Meredith.” She barely heard the EI’s further response. Her eyes kept returning to Phina’s posture, which vibrated a little more with each passing moment. “Grey, are you sure she’s the right person? I want to help her, but is this really the best course? You are going to need someone strong. Look at the poor girl; she’s trembling.”
His eyes were glued to the screen now. “She is strong. And she’s not trembling in fear so much as anger unless I miss my guess. She just needs to peel off the layers of BS her aunt has heaped on her to find her inner strength. Just watch… There!”
Anna watched Phina’s posture change until she straightened to her full height and spoke her final words to her aunt. “Fine then. I can’t, and I won’t.”
She was so relieved Phina had stood up to her aunt that she asked a question she didn’t really want the answer to. “Do you ever get tired of being right?”
He grinned, his own relief evident on his face. “Not so far.”
They watched Phina walk and then run away through the hallways. Just when Anna began to get antsy to do something as she watched tears falling, Phina stopped and took out her tablet. “What’s she doing now?”
“Sending you a message, I imagine.”
Sure enough, a new message dinged on Anna Elizabeth’s tablet. She read it, then looked at her old friend before shaking her head in exasperation. “How about now? She’s still in.”
“Excellent. Please give her whatever she needs.”
“You don’t think that’s going a bit far for one person, do you?” Anna felt troubled about where their attention should be focused. There were many more needs than those of one girl, regardless of how much she sympathized.
He turned away from the door and walked back to her, eyes bright with something Anna couldn’t name. He stopped just outside her personal space and spoke softly. “Believe me, that girl is worth the time and effort. She is as raw as a diamond in the rough now, but she has all the necessary potential. And when I am finished with her?”
The man she called Greyson Wells was lost in his thoughts a moment before abruptly turning toward the door. She couldn’t help calling to him, “When you’re finished with her?”
He turned again and gave her that careless grin she couldn’t stand, which resulted in her making a face at him.
“When I’m finished with her, she will be the hidden gem of the Empire, shining brilliantly even in the dark.”
His grin disappeared when he saw her face, and he sobered. “Trust me, Anna. We will need her.”
As he walked out, Anna Elizabeth thought she faintly heard him speak again.
“I’ve left it long enough as it is.”
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Secluded Hallways
Phina closed her eyes and took a few breaths to calm down, but it didn’t seem to matter. The anger had cooled, but it was still there. She focused on all the emotions tumbling inside her, then mentally pushed them back. Within seconds, those emotions were gone. Phina was relieved, but she also felt a trickle of disappointment that she couldn’t handle them. A few moments later, her tablet indicated she received a message.
Don’t worry, Phina, you will still have your home. Keep your chin up. You have friends here.
Phina let all her breath out and nodded. She would be all right. Anna Elizabeth’s phrase, “you have friends here,” made her think about Alina, and ADAM, and Maxim. Alina’s friendship was solid, no doubt in Phina’s mind. ADAM had been a great new friend so far, but she didn’t want to bother him too often since he was busy with Bethany Anne and the General. Phina didn’t know about Maxim as a friend yet, but she leaned toward finding out. At the very least, if she sparred with him, perhaps she could work out some of the adrenaline now coursing through her.
She lifted her tablet and quickly sent another message. She hadn’t gone ten steps before receiving the reply.
Absolutely. Meet you there.
Though she still felt unsettled, she began to feel a glimmer of satisfaction. She had friends and would get through this.
Chapter Five
QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Marines’ Workout Area
It took Phina some time to traverse the massive space station back to her normal area and reach the training room. Enough time that she chose to use the tram, glides, and lifts instead of walking as she normally did. When she finally entered the training room assigned to her, she raised an eyebrow at the sight of Maxim speaking with a relatively young Yollin, who was around the equivalent of a human in his upper twenties or low thirties. The alien appeared to be very comfortable with Maxim as they exchanged glances after noticing Phina at the door. Ah. Right. Maxim confirmed her conclusion when he turned to her and introduced them as she approached. “Hi Phina, this is my friend and second, Drk-vaen. Drk, this is Phina, my new student.”
Drk-vaen stood tall, as did most Yollins. His family must have been higher in the old caste system Empress Bethany Anne had done away with. Shortly after leaving Earth and entering the Yollin system, Bethany Anne had defeated the old Yollin king. He had subjugated his people in many ways, one of them being segregating them into castes. One mark of the higher castes had been four legs. The lower-caste Yollins were bipedal like humans. The arms ended with hands containing only three fingers and a thumb.
Drk-vaen’s feet flared out from the heel into three toes with strong and sharp claws. His broad torso, currently covered in armor, narrowed at the waist. His face showed the typical bony ridges of a Yollin that extended from the nose and brows, with mandibles on either side of his mouth. As Yollins went, the male appeared magnificent and would become even more so with all the armor encasing his body.
Phina bobbed her head and greeted the Yollin in a human’s approximation of his tongue. Some of the sounds were difficult for humans to produce since the Yollins used clicks from their mandibles in their language, as well as sounds from their mouths. Phina had practiced until her Yollin verbalizations were as close to correct as a human could make them. “Greetings, Drk-vaen. I am very pleas
ed to meet you.”
Drk-vaen abandoned his own greetings in surprise as he jerked his head and clicked his mandibles. “You speak to me in Yollin without the translator!”
She smiled, putting aside her troubles with her aunt for the moment. “Yes. I learned Yollin many years ago and look forward to more opportunities to refine my understanding.”
“I look forward to those opportunities as well, Phina.” Drk-vaen’s alien features approximated a smile before he turned to Maxim, his tone chiding. “From your description, I expected a child, Maxim. She may be young, but she is no child. And obviously very intelligent since most humans don’t bother to learn the language and just rely on their translators.”
Phina crossed her arms and stared at Maxim with one eyebrow raised and her lips pressed together. Seriously, just because she didn’t have curves like Alina didn’t mean she wasn’t a woman. Maxim appeared uncomfortable as he raised a hand to rub the back of his head. “Well…”
She stuck her tongue out and made a face at him, startling a laugh out of both males. “It’s all right. I may be an adult now, but I am still young.” Phina raised her eyebrows and spoke pointedly. “I hope this is the last time you describe me as if I were a child, though.”
Maxim held up his hands in surrender. “Done.”
Phina’s body drained of tension as she took a breath, then nodded at the two males. “Thank you for the last-minute training session.”
“No problem.” Maxim gestured to his Yollin second. “Since I was with Drk at the time, I thought it might be helpful to show you how that move I taught you yesterday could be used against a Yollin.”
She agreed and stood back to watch the two move to the center of the mat.
Maxim demonstrated the move she had learned yesterday in slow motion. Whether a person got in her face, punched toward her, or had a gun or another weapon in their hand, this move was a fast and efficient way to neutralize the threat. According to Maxim, anyway.
He had Drk-vaen stand in front of him, holding his fist out as if to throw a punch. Maxim glanced at Phina, his muscles bunching in anticipation of the move. “Let me know when you see the problem.” He quickly stepped inside the Yollin’s reach and caught Drk-vaen’s arm with his left hand while reaching out to grab the Yollin’s throat with his right. He pivoted, intending to throw the Yollin to the floor as he showed her yesterday, but…it didn’t work. It had worked during the last couple of training sessions when Phina had landed on the floor.
“Oh! It doesn’t work because he has four legs instead of two, so his center of gravity is different.”
Maxim released his hold and turned to her with a nod, his eyes warming with approval. “Exactly. Any thoughts on the best way to adjust for taking him down with the extra limbs?”
Phina ran her eyes over Drk-vaen, picturing different scenarios in her head but coming up with very little. She noticed the Yollin fidgeting as if he wanted to say something but held it back. Finally, Phina shook her head. “The only direction I see working is forward, but I don’t know how that would work with the move you showed me.”
She glanced at Maxim to find him nodding with a small smile that made her feel like she was doing something right. “Exactly, Phina. The basic idea is the same, but the hold and takedown are different. Watch and see how it changes.”
Returning to their original positions, this time Maxim caught Drk-vaen’s left arm while simultaneously grabbing behind the Yollin’s neck and flinging his own weight backward and to the floor, pushing his feet into the Yollin’s front legs. The combination of the maneuvers pushed the four-footed alien off his center of gravity enough to make a difference. As he fell, Maxim used his leverage to pull Drk-vaen to the side. Once they hit the mat, he rolled on top of his friend, holding him down with a knee to the back and pulling the still-captured arm back at an angle where the Yollin couldn’t move much without pain. Maxim’s other hand pressed down on his fellow Guardian’s neck to make sure he stayed there.
Phina hadn’t known if she would like learning how to fight, but she had to admit that looked fun, as well as having the advantage of not being in pain from a fist to the stomach. She rubbed her belly at the thought. Phina didn’t feel much pain anymore, but she still had lingering bruises since Todd didn’t seem to have pulled his punches much. At least, that was how she felt. Maxim had assured her that if Todd hadn’t pulled the punch, she would have needed to go to Medical. It didn’t seem like Maxim had pulled his punches just now with his second.
Drk-vaen moaned while lying on the floor. “Come spar with me, he said. Show off some moves to a young girl, he said.” He mumbled something after that which sounded suspiciously like a Yollin curse. “May your progenitors never meet, your armor become brittle, and your family be scattered to the wind.” He groaned as Maxim let go and they both pushed up off the floor. “I knew I should have worn all my armor!”
Phina giggled, more at the comical expression on the Yollin’s face and the memory of the way his back legs had flailed in the air than anything else.
“Sorry, Drk.” Maxim gave the male’s shoulder a hearty smack in commiseration. “If it helps, Phina here is much smaller than I am, so it should be as soft as landing on a hillcat. Nothing to worry about.”
The Yollin turned to stare at his friend suspiciously. “The ones from Skahna? Those had huge claws!”
“They did? You know, I think you’re right.” Maxim seemed to be holding in a smirk even as his eyes widened in mock disbelief. “Then maybe you do have something to worry about.”
Phina dissolved into full belly laughs. She didn’t know if they were always like this or if it was for her benefit since they could tell she had been upset, but as Maxim called her over to try her hand at the move, she felt a lot more at home. She just had to survive her aunt over the next several weeks until she left and classes started.
Drk-vaen groaned as she walked over. “I definitely should have worn all my armor.”
Etheric Empire, Vermott, Planet of the Baldere
Terland glanced around the corner to make sure he had no witnesses to what he was about to do. Since none of the sounds he heard were coming closer, he sped toward the command center, using the key card he had swiped from another guard who was assigned here. After closing the door behind him, he paused to make sure no alarms sounded or guards moved toward his location before he turned to the data terminal.
He had always wanted to make a difference and help the leadership of the Baldere. When Drestin, the previous Jeskir of the Balderian race, had offered him a place in his guard, Terland had jumped on it. He hadn’t always agreed with the male, but he could see now the former Jeskir had tried his best to put the needs of the people first.
When Velof had taken over as Jeskir almost ten years ago, Terland had asked to stay, and for a while, life had been good. His duties were easy: guard and patrol, occasionally accompanying Velof or another official while they were out on business.
It took him far too long to realize that half the business he guarded was shady and against the law. For a while he had looked the other way since by then he was already involved, and he needed the money to support his mother.
After he overheard two guards describe how they had pushed around a little shopkeeper, one Terland liked and who reminded him of his own mother, he realized he couldn’t turn a blind eye anymore. He opened his eyes and ears to see what was really going on with Velof and his government, especially with the guards.
What he found made him ashamed to call himself a Baldere.
His current task was an attempt to make it right, or as right as he could. Terland used the password he had surreptitiously gleaned from the guard who worked here to access the terminal.
He had always thought of his computer skills as a hobby, and he thanked his lucky stars that he hadn’t thought to make them known to his boss or co-workers. They would have mocked him, saying it wasn’t warrior work. He would use his skills now to take them all down. He cracked his knu
ckles and got to work.
Thirty minutes later, he had a good-sized file filled with as many documents and videos as he could find to support his suspicions and knowledge of what Velof had been doing. His stomach turned as he recalled the brief glimpse of a group of Velof’s guards chasing an alien with an elongated body and a funny-looking head. The guards had behaved like a pack of animals chasing prey. He was sick that he had thought those Baldere were his friends and comrades.
He checked his tablet. “Vrukk!” He had no time left. He quickly uploaded the file before frantically burying everything in layers of folders and encryptions he didn’t think anyone would be able to find or access without serious skills. He didn’t have time to do more. He would have to come back.
He made himself slow down as he covered his tracks to make sure no one would notice his activity. Sloppy work would get him caught as easily as being found in the room. Finally, he was finished and ran a cloth over the keys just in case.
Quietly and carefully, Terland opened the door and shut it behind him. Too late, he heard footsteps striding down the hallway around the corner. Whirling, he knocked on the door he had just exited while trying to calm his breathing. A moment later, Gaudin appeared.
“Hey, Terland!”
Terland turned and feigned casualness. “Oh, greetings, Gaudin. Just who I came to see.”
Gaudin scowled, causing alarm to trickle down Terland’s body. “What are you doing here? Velof sent for you half an hour ago!”
“He did? I hadn’t heard that. Is he in his office?” He tried to calm his nerves. No Baldere would tremble in fear or panic. It just wasn’t done. “I’ll go find him, hey?”
“Come on, then. I’ll take you to him.” Gaudin turned to retrace his steps.
“That’s not necessary. I’m sure you have plenty to keep you busy, hey?” Terland glanced at the command center door again as he slowly took steps toward the other guard.
