by Sonia Nova
Fuck… What an interesting female.
CHAPTER 4
NAOMI
It took a couple of minutes before Naomi’s pulse returned to normal.
She knew she had to get to the meeting as soon as possible, but she couldn’t possibly go there like this. Instead of heading straight to the palace strategy room, she slipped into a bathroom and locked the door before anyone else – royal or Alliance – saw her so shaken.
Everything in the palace was of an opulent red and gold design. Naomi took a velvety hand towel from a shelf and wet it in the sink with water from the coldest setting. She pressed the coolness to each cheek, trying to get her blush to subside.
The pilot – Arez – had just mildly annoyed her at first, but the awkwardness of the difference in their worldviews had made her especially eager to get out of the shuttle. Embarrassment flooded her as she thought of what had happened next.
If she weren’t so tired, she never would have tripped. That wasn’t normal for her at all. But the combination of exhaustion and wanting to get out of the cockpit as soon as possible had resulted in her almost face-planting on the platform.
Except…
Except Arez had caught her.
Her sides were still warm from where he had held her, gently but firmly. She couldn’t deny it. He was strangely attractive to her, as weird as it was. She never would have thought of the demonic-looking Ezak-X as attractive before. But something about his casual strength, his intensity, those insanely muscled arms and strong hands…
Nope. Not thinking about that.
Naomi shook her head briskly. Of course, she was going to have to spend the trip back to Eifan with him. She wished she could catch a ride in another shuttle, but that wasn’t how things worked. To make sure everyone was accounted for, the same pilot always took the same people back. Always.
So Arez would be taking her back… Now that was going to be interesting.
Naomi wrung out the cloth, hung it up next to the sink, and took a moment to evaluate just how flustered she looked in the gold-framed mirror. Her cheeks were still a bit red, but at this point, it didn’t matter. She had to get to the meeting, and hopefully the others there would attribute her flush to hurrying to make it on time.
And she did need to hurry. She’d seen some other Ambassadors getting drinks at the palace station before heading for the meeting, but she had been among the last to arrive on the planet so she couldn’t waste any more time. She left the bathroom and speed-walked the last few turns to the tall, shimmering doors of the now-familiar conference room.
The doors slid open automatically before her, swooshing to the sides. As she stepped inside the magnificent room, she could tell most people were already there. A dozen different aliens from all across the universe – the Ambassadors of the other races, along with the Agari representatives and the king of the planet.
And not one of them was sitting quietly in their seats. The conversation level was high, with several people arguing about different topics. Naomi could hardly make out their words, with so many people talking at once. She took her seat – the one reserved for the representative of Earth – and waited for the meeting to begin.
A few more people entered the room and then the melodic voice of the Va’ii woman, Lady Eneria, filled the room.
“I will get straight to the point,” Lady Eneria said after her greetings, and suddenly, everyone quieted around them and turned to look at her.
Lady Eneria was quite a beautiful woman; Va’ii always were. Long-necked, wide-eyed, it seemed as if her pale skin had an ethereal glow to it. She wore a long white robe with a light blue pattern on it. The robe was Va’ii design, incorporating the blue, white, and silver colors of the Alliance.
Unlike most of the people in the room, Lady Eneria wasn’t there to represent a planet. The Va’ii had their own representative, and Lady Eneria wasn’t it. No, she was here to represent the Alliance. And that meant that she had more power in the room than even the King of Agaria, who now sat in a seat no different from Naomi’s.
“The Krezlian invaders refuse to relent,” Lady Eneria said, and Naomi could feel everyone in the room tense at her words. She had known that the news could hardly be good, but having it said out loud… That was a whole different thing.
Lady Eneria’s expression hardened as she spoke. “Despite our peace negotiations, they have made it clear that they are not giving in. They refuse to leave the Agari airspace until they ‘get what they want.’ Their words, not mine.”
She now turned to look at King Abah, the elderly Agari man with dark red skin that was typical to the Agari people, silvery black hair, and a long, braided beard.
“I have received word from the Alliance,” she continued. “They have gathered the necessary troops to protect Agaria and are currently discussing strategy in the Capitol. They will arrive at Agaria within the next few days.”
“The next few days?” One of the Agari representatives, a female named Sayhe, squeaked. All eyes in the room turned to her. “Will the current troops be able to hold off the Krezlians until then?”
Naomi looked at her worriedly, a new sense of unease starting to brew in the bottom of her stomach. There were around three dozen humans on the Eifan space station and their safety in the current situation was naturally her main concern.
After the attack on the Alliance spaceship Ka’elea a month ago, twenty-seven Ezak-X soldiers had been kidnapped, along with the human woman, Alyssa, and the troops around Agaria weren’t at full strength. That’s how the Krezlians had originally managed to surround the planet too.
The Alliance hadn’t been prepared.
And now, the question of the day was: Were they strong enough to keep the Krezlians at bay?
“As long as we can avoid a full-blown battle until the reinforcements arrive, the current troops are enough to defend Agaria,” Lady Eneria said. “They are, however, not enough to secure the airspace again.”
Naomi turned to Lady Eneria. The woman spoke with a neutral tone, but Naomi could tell this whole situation was hurting her. She was Va’ii, and the Va’ii had not warred for millennia. They were the epitome of peace, the other founding race of the Alliance, and their work was in peace missions, healing, negotiations, and ambassadorial duties.
That had been Lady Eneria’s first duty in Agaria too. To help all the other Alliance planets to establish trade, immigration, and other agreements with the newest planet in the Alliance. But then, all had gone to hell and now the planet was nearing war.
“What we need to do is stall the Krezlians,” Lady Eneria said in a stern voice. “Negotiate with them until the reinforcements are ready. This must not escalate to full-blown war before the Alliance troops have arrived.”
Because they would lose, Naomi realized, taking a sharp breath. Naomi could tell that’s what Lady Eneria had meant. If this escalated to war, the current troops wouldn’t be enough to keep the Krezlians out and defend the planet.
Sayhe seemed to have understood her words in the same way. “We should just give them–”
King Abah cut her off with a raise of his hand. He looked up at Lady Eneria.
“Agaria is a new planet in the Alliance, but it is our precious home. We will do everything to help the Alliance defend it. Whether that is negotiation or battle. What we will never do, however, is give in to their demands. We all know what the Krezlians want, and Agaria would never sacrifice any citizens of the Alliance. Va’ii, Agari, Ezak-X… We are all equal in this.” He put pressure on his last words, giving Sayhe a pointed look that seemed to shut her up for good.
After some more discussion of the details of the plan, the meeting was over. Slowly, everyone dispersed from the meeting room, Naomi included.
She noticed Mareb standing by the entrance. Maybe it was the palace lighting, but there were heavy bags under his eyes and even his red skin looked somewhat dull in color. He had looked tired at the platform, but then again, so did every diplomat working on Agaria right
now. Now he just looked… defeated.
Naomi felt a pang of pity for the man. She couldn’t blame him. His planet was at war, for reasons they had no control over, and he no doubt felt hopeless about the situation.
“Hey,” Naomi said as she walked up to him, putting a hand on his shoulder to let him know of her presence.
“Hey, good-looking.” Mareb smiled sadly at her when he saw her.
Naomi didn’t really know what to say to him. What could you possibly say to a friend whose planet was on the brink of war – whose home could be attacked at any moment? She couldn’t find the words.
“I know, celea,” Mareb said after a moment, forcing a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “When Agaria joined the Alliance in the last cycle, we never saw this coming. The Alliance represented peace, trade opportunities… Not this.”
“I’m sorry.” The words sounded choked even to her own ears, and she could feel tears starting to form in her eyes.
“Not your fault, beautiful,” Mareb said, lifting her chin up with his long fingers. “No one could’ve seen this coming. But we must stick together if we wish to defeat this enemy. Nothing good comes from pointing fingers. Besides, there is still hope, right?”
He smiled at her again, but his face held none of his usual charm. His hand fell from her chin as King Abah exited the conference room, and he quickly turned away from her to join him. He walked up to the King and the rest of the Agari representatives as they strode through the corridor and soon disappeared around a corner.
Naomi was left standing by the entrance, feeling thoroughly miserable. She stared down the corridor long after Mareb had already gone, her heart breaking for him.
For all of Agaria.
CHAPTER 5
AREZ
Arez stepped out of the shuttle and looked around the platform. Like everything in the palace, it was impressively designed with tall, glittering arches along each wall and carved details everywhere he looked… But it wasn’t a place he wanted to be stuck for any length of time.
Doing fucking nothing.
He could be out there in a speeder right now, on the front lines of the Agarian defense, ready to take out a Krezlian ship at a moment’s notice. The Ezak-X were bred to fight. Using him as a chauffeur was just a waste.
But here he was, leaning against a passenger shuttle with nothing to do except try not to think about that damned Earth Ambassador. For some cursed reason, the orange-haired female just wouldn’t leave his thoughts. Or his nose.
Her smell still lingered in the cockpit of the shuttle and on his hands where he had touched her. Or maybe it was just the memory of the sweet scent that refused to leave his mind. Either way, as soon as he started to let himself indulge in thoughts of her, his cock twitched in his pants, half-hard, and Arez groaned.
The reaction had caught him by surprise the first time, but now he was just annoyed. He grunted and was about to take a walk around the huge platform just to cool off, when a familiar face caught his eye.
Zeon was standing next to another passenger shuttle across the platform, messing with his wristband and looking generally bored.
Arez’s lips twitched in amusement at the look of annoyance on Zeon’s face. Was he also on pilot duty? The Alliance had reassigned two Ezak-X away from the front lines?
He knew Zeon wasn’t one to keep his displeasure to himself. Arez felt bad for the group he had escorted to the planet. Zeon was hardly the type to win hearts and make friends.
Not that he had any either, Arez admitted. But Zeon was perhaps the closest thing to a friend that he had. They had been in the same military training camp and had been sent to Agaria together. The two of them often even held the same position in the Agari space area, with an occasional third like Drezon, or a Ghelian male named Crag.
Zeon looked up and nodded in greeting as Arez joined him beside the shuttle. The sour expression on his face didn’t fade.
“I’m waiting to give some Ekrin and Ghelian representatives their ride back to Eifan,” Zeon said. “How about you? You here to babysit diplomats too?”
“Guess so,” Arez said, looking carefully at the fellow Ezak-X soldier before him. He was definitely in a worse mood than usual and didn’t seem like he was going to change the subject easily.
Not that Zeon had ever been one to censor himself. Even during their training days, he’d always been the one to speak his mind and question the way things were done. More often than not, he’d gotten in trouble for his ideas.
Lately, Arez had noticed that Zeon seemed to have developed some kind of a deeper problem with the Alliance though, one that he didn’t really understand. Zeon kept talking about their positions and how the higher-ups were either just ignoring them or bossing them around.
And yes, Arez knew that there was a certain hierarchy in the Alliance – even discrimination. It was also true that his kind were discriminated against more than others because of their past. If he was being truthful, there were times when it did get on his nerves, particularly when he was told he couldn’t do something because of what he was. But that only made him work harder to try to prove that he could do it too.
Zeon didn’t work like that. Neither did he seem to recognize that, even if some things in the Alliance weren’t fair, what they had now was a far better life than the one they’d had in captivity. It was a life. The one the Krezlians had given them had been nothing but a miserable existence, and sometimes, Arez felt like Zeon had forgotten about that.
“Do you know what I realized the other day?” Zeon asked when Arez didn’t say anything for a while. He didn’t wait for Arez’s response, continuing, “We have all these Alliance ID cards and what not. But do you know what’s different about ours compared to anyone else’s?”
Arez cocked an eyebrow in question. He was in no mood for Zeon’s observations and theories, but at least it was a distraction from thoughts of the Earth Ambassador and the boredom of being stuck on the palace platform with nothing to do.
“They have an Association on theirs. Agaria, Va’ii. Ghelia. Earth. We don’t have any. We don’t have a representative sitting in their fancy conference rooms, at their important meetings. No one to lobby for our business in the Alliance.” Zeon gestured around as if indicating whatever meeting was going on at that moment in the palace.
“So?” Arez frowned.
“So?” Zeon repeated, an incredulous look on his face. “So, we’re second-class citizens! The Alliance might have saved us, but they’re just using us too. And not even for what we’re good at. We should be out there getting our revenge on our makers, but they’ve got at least two of us riding around in passenger shuttles and standing around.”
Arez had to nod, agreeing with Zeon’s last point. The male’s eyes lit up and Arez groaned inwardly, realizing the nod of agreement had just encouraged him.
“Don’t you wonder,” Zeon continued, “what they're talking about at all in these important meeting that we don’t even have the right to attend? Don’t you think they’re talking about giving us up to the Krezlians? I can tell you, Arez, they are. And even if they don’t give us up to them, what are we doing? Following their every command. We’re disposables, convenient soldiers, their little puppets – just like we were before. The Alliance is no better than the fucking Krezlians.”
Zeon’s voice turned into a growl by the time he finished his little speech. Arez’s eyes narrowed.
No better than the fucking Krezlians? What the fuck was he on about?
Zeon made it seem like life in Krezlian captivity had been all sunshine and rainbows when, in reality, it had been anything but. Had he lived in a padded cell? Because that’s where he should be right now. Did the male even understand what he was complaining about?
Yes, they worked in the military but in exchange for that, they got to be free. It was work. In exchange for money. Not fucking slavery and, every once in a while, they would get to go to places, eat at nice restaurants, do things they would’ve never even imagined in
captivity. They weren’t held in cages. They weren’t tortured. If fighting was the payment for at least some kind of a freedom, Arez would take it.
Especially when the fight was with the very race that had made and tortured them. Driving a few diplomats around between battles seemed like a fair, if annoying, price to pay. But Zeon was clearly no longer satisfied with that.
“I’d rather be out there on the front lines than standing around here,” Arez said. “But I’d rather fight for the Alliance – with all its drawbacks – than be forced to fight on the side of the Krezlians.” He ended his sentence in a questioning tone, daring Zeon to explain how he could feel any differently.
Zeon let out an exasperated breath. “Of course I feel the same way. I want to see those bastards in pieces more than anything. But that’s beside the point. Don’t you find it wrong that they push us to risk our lives to protect those that the Alliance sees as more ‘important’ than us? How our lives matter less than theirs? Like… Hey, look.” Zeon suddenly turned toward the entrance of the platform. “What was I just saying? Here they come. And there’s no way we’re going to find out whatever happened in that meeting.”
Arez turned to look in the direction of Zeon’s gaze. A group of representatives he didn’t recognize had walked onto the platform, conversing quietly, their expressions tight. The Earth Ambassador was nowhere to be seen.
“I’ve got to get out of here,” Zeon spat before the representatives got into earshot, and it was clear he wasn’t talking just about getting back in the shuttle and returning to the moon. “I’m done. I’ve had enough. When the war is over, if I’m still alive after killing as many of the fucking lizards as I can, I’m going to do what I should’ve done a long time ago.”
“Which is?”
“Leave the Alliance. For good.”
With those words, he pressed a button to open the door of the shuttle cockpit and climbed in, letting the door lower and click shut behind him without even a goodbye.
