by Sonia Nova
Arez shook his head and started to walk back toward his own shuttle. If these representatives were arriving, Naomi could be coming at any moment too.
Honestly, he had to admit he could understand where Zeon was coming from. They had never really been treated like proper citizens of the Alliance. Not real citizens that mattered, at least. But as he looked around at the peacefully busy platform and thought about the meal that awaited him back at the station, he knew things could be much, much worse.
And what was the male going to do if he left the Alliance? Become a pirate? Arez didn’t think Zeon really grasped the reality of life outside. Not that he knew anything either, but for now, discrimination or not, he was enjoying the comfort of the Alliance, and he wasn’t going to give that up. He only hoped Zeon would see reason soon as well. Maybe actually getting to kill the Krezlians would help.
Arez grunted, knowing that was partly the origin of the problem. Zeon was frustrated. He was, too. He wanted to feel the adrenaline pulse in his veins as the lifeblood of his makers spilled to the ground, or as they exploded in a thousand pieces in space. Wanted to feel how they sucked in their last breath, a look of horror on their faces as he destroyed them for good.
And right now, the Alliance was keeping them from that. He was here. Right here. This close to the enemy. And yet, the Alliance hadn’t given the order to engage.
But judging from the serious expressions on the faces of the returning representatives, that order might come sooner rather than later.
CHAPTER 6
NAOMI
Naomi stared into space through the passenger shuttle’s window. The ride back to Eifan was quiet, and she found herself lost in thought. Her mind kept mulling over everything that had happened in the meeting. The stubbornness of the Krezlians, the fact that negotiation was all that remained between Agaria and a war that could obliterate them all before the Alliance reinforcements arrived, the hopelessness on Mareb’s face as they had spoken afterward…
A heavy sigh escaped her lips, and Naomi could feel a pair of dark eyes turn in her direction. She knew Arez had noticed her silent behavior during the ride. She could feel the pilot glaring at her at times, as though he expected her to be the one to say something, to make conversation as she had on the way to the palace.
But Naomi didn’t have the energy or the words. There were simply too many thoughts in her head… and all about classified information at that.
Adding all of that on top of her exhaustion, she definitely didn’t have the willpower to talk to anyone, let alone Arez, who seemed to know exactly what to say to frustrate her and push her diplomatic training to the limit.
Moments passed in silence, until a quarter of an hour later, Arez finally landed the shuttle back on the Eifan station.
Naomi absentmindedly thanked him for the ride and climbed out of the shuttle – watching her step carefully this time – and left to walk back toward her room. At least now she could return to her accommodation, be alone, and not have to worry about being polite and friendly to the gruff, yet strangely attractive Ezak-X.
The hallways were thankfully nearly empty – almost emptier than they had been when they had left that morning. Of course, Naomi realized, most Alliance personnel on the station had just returned to their shifts after the midday meal.
Lunch.
Naomi realized she was starving. She wanted to head straight to the canteen and grab something reminiscent of Earth food to devour, but there just wasn’t time for that. She could pass the canteen on the way back, stop and grab an energy bar or something portable, but she didn’t have time to sit down for an actual meal.
The Ezak-X pilot had reminded her that she needed to finish reading the new report on the Ezak-X and human females. Officially, she didn’t have the time to read it, in the middle of everything else that was happening, but it related to the woman who had gone missing on the Ka’elea – Alyssa. Although Naomi had already heard the gist of everything that had happened from the woman directly, she needed to know what additional details the Alliance had discovered.
There were also routine reports and paperwork from the other humans on Eifan to review, not to mention the follow-up material from the morning’s meeting and letting her people know what was going on with the Krezlians…
Naomi sighed, thinking about the meeting she’d have to organize with all the humans and wondering when she’d actually get to sleep.
She was turning a corner down another hallway, nearing the housing quarters of the station, when she suddenly paused at the sound of heavy footsteps behind her.
She had heard someone walking behind her earlier, but she had not thought much of it. Now she could tell that the same heavy footfalls had just turned, right after she did. A quick glance behind revealed that Arez was just ten or twenty feet behind her, striding down the hallway at a similar pace. Naomi’s heart leaped in her chest.
Why was he here? Right behind her?
She quickened her pace just a little to try to lose him, without alerting him to the fact she was doing do. Hopefully, they would soon go their separate ways and she wouldn’t have to deal with him any more that day.
The hallway ended, opening to either side, and Naomi took the right turn.
So did he.
It was barely early afternoon but she was already so done with this day. Exhaustion, stressful meetings, a planet on the brink of war, and now this? A near stranger following her?
She stopped walking and spun around on her heels to face him. Naomi watched as the Ezak-X male continued to walk toward her with a determined step, like a predator stalking its prey. His dark eyes were intent, his posture confident, and the closer he walked, the more Naomi was reminded of how huge he actually was.
Her heart skipped a beat and she swallowed as he approached her with that strong, purposeful gait. His pitch-black eyes moved to meet hers and, for some reason, the fiery look in them made her squirm. And she never squirmed.
What the hell was wrong with her? She’d dealt with aliens before. Sure, not Ezak-X, but they weren’t the only race considered “scary” by human standards. She’d been trained on composure, knew how to be rational, to act calm… and yet this man was getting under her skin.
Crap… Maybe confronting him was a mistake. His expression was the very same deep scowl that Naomi now thought must come naturally to him. As he finally stopped in front of her, hulking over her, Naomi couldn’t help the shiver that ran along her spine.
She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
“Excuse me,” the soldier said in a half-amused, half-annoyed tone, looking past her down the hallway.
Naomi blinked. Was he mocking her?
“What do you mean? Why are you following me?” she snapped, her words returning to her.
Arez cocked an eyebrow. “I’m going back to my room. I’m off duty now. I’m guessing that’s where you’re going, too?”
She could feel his gaze on her and it was like he could see right through her. A deep flush rose onto her cheeks and, suddenly, she felt more self-conscious than she had in years. Like she was back at school again, holding her first ever presentation and stuttering through every word of it.
She fought not to let that show. She’d learned to do that well enough in her current line of duty. To hide her emotions. To hide her fears. To stay calm and just breathe.
“Oh,” she said finally, her cheeks burning hot in embarrassment. “Oh,” she sighed again, truly understanding her mistake. She shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. All of her training had taught her to avoid judgments like that. “I’m sorry, really, I–”
“Are you afraid of me?” he asked, cutting her off.
Naomi just stared at him. Her heart beat fast, not quite in fear, but… her pulse accelerated nonetheless.
“No,” she said honestly. “I–” She was going to finish the sentence with “I don’t know what to think of you,” but she was interrupted by a blaring alarm that echoed throughout the stat
ion.
The noise made her gasp. Arez jogged to her side with a determined expression, almost as if he meant to protect her.
“The canteen,” Naomi called to him over the alarm. “The ceiling!”
He seemed to know exactly what she meant and they both started to run the final stretch toward the nearby canteen.
The canteen had a giant glass ceiling that had a magnificent view of the Agari airspace, meaning most of the Krezlian ships were visible from the tables in the canteen. If the alarm had anything to do with the Krezlians…
She came to a halt in the doorway of the canteen and Arez stopped beside her. A few Agari and various other representatives were standing in the center of the canteen, looking upward with looks of horror on their faces.
Naomi followed their gazes and her eyes widened as she realized why the alarm was still blaring. She looked up just in time to see a blast of fire fall down from space.
The ground shook as the ball of fire crashed onto the ground and hit the surface of the moon near the station. Naomi’s heart jumped in her chest and her whole body chilled as she realized exactly what had happened.
It looked like the attempts to stall the Krezlians hadn’t worked after all…
CHAPTER 7
AREZ
It was on.
Arez’s heart leaped in his chest as the alarm continued to blare in the canteen.
It was happening and he wasn’t out there!
His body moved on instinct, ready to rush to the station’s docking bay, get his speeder, and join the fight. But when he glanced at the female before him and noticed she wasn’t moving anywhere, something inside him made him pause. Her eyes were fixed on the sky, and she stood as if frozen in place.
A sudden realization dawned on him.
She was Alliance – one of the people who had been trying to prevent this war. Trying to find a “peaceful solution” as the Alliance liked to do. For him, this was a joyous occasion, something he had been waiting for, something he had been craving and had only dreamed of his entire life. His fate.
For her, it was probably a nightmare come true.
He felt a nagging guilt in his chest. Or at least, he guessed it might be guilt. He had never felt guilty about his thirst for blood or his violent tendencies before. In fact, he wasn’t sure he’d ever felt guilty about anything before.
“You should get to safety,” he said to her finally, his voice sounding oddly gruff. It came out sounding like a command.
A voice inside him demanded he get her somewhere safe. She shouldn’t be here. She should be somewhere safe for a fragile human like her. He didn’t know why it bothered him so much all of a sudden, but he didn’t like the thought of something happening to her. It made him feel… uneasy.
Naomi turned to him slowly, her amber eyes focusing on him as if she had only just now remembered that he was there. He didn’t like that. Her empty gaze made something inside his chest tug.
Part of military training included a couple of weeks of common psychological responses to violence and the symptoms Naomi was showing were straight out of the textbook: she was in shock.
His brows knotted together in a frown, and when she still didn’t say anything to him in response, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward the exit.
“Hey, wait,” she said, wincing in pain at his grip.
Arez grimaced, realizing he needed to be gentler with her, and he immediately loosened his grip, but didn’t let go. The skin of his palm warmed as he held onto her arm, and the feeling spread the longer he touched her.
He felt bad for grabbing onto her like this, but he knew she would forgive him once she was somewhere safe and came back to her senses. Already, the canteen was starting to empty around them. Chaos had erupted, with people screaming and running in different directions. The few diners and employees who had been there were rushing to the exits as beams of light flashed above them and the battle raged on in the airspace.
Why wouldn’t she move?
“You need to get to safety,” he repeated through his teeth, annoyed that she wouldn’t listen to him. But then, why would she…? Not only was she in shock and not thinking straight, she was the superior here. She was the one used to giving orders, not receiving them.
Arez’s wristband started to beep, flashing with an urgent message. He knew what it would be without even opening it, but he released his grip on Naomi and swiped the screen anyhow.
“All military personnel report to speeders. Immediately.”
His whole body tingled with anticipation. This was what he had been waiting for. And now he couldn’t go because of this infuriating female? Because something about her just pulled him to her and made him not want to leave her alone in the middle of all this and…
Naomi shook her head, as if trying to clear it.
“Alright,” she said all of a sudden, taking a deep breath. Suddenly, she seemed professional and calm, as if her brief moment of shock had never even happened.
Arez stared at her, wondering when she would snap, but she never did. He marveled at how a moment ago, she had seemed to be at a complete loss, staring at the sky as if the whole world was falling apart – which it was, in a way – and she now seemed far calmer than even him, with his heart thumping from the adrenaline rush.
Her reaction surprised him. Weren’t human females supposed to be panicky?
People were still rushing to the exits of the rapidly emptying canteen, and here was this female, standing calmly as if some minor disturbance had interrupted her day and not a full-blown war. It confused him. Just as he had thought he was starting to figure her out… he wasn’t.
“It seems the negotiations didn’t end up working after all,” she sighed, perhaps more to herself than to him. She looked down and read the message on her own beeping wristband. “I have to go to the emergency shuttles,” she said, looking at him. “We’re evacuating.”
Her expression was carefully neutral, as if it had been practiced, but Arez could detect a hint of sadness in her eyes, and he realized her suddenly calm demeanor might not be what it seemed after all. The thought made his stomach lurch.
Something made him want to escort her to the emergency shuttles. Now that the fighting had started, there was no guarantee the walk back to the docking bay would be safe.
As if she could read his mind, Naomi gave him a slight smile that wasn’t completely convincing. “I’ll be fine,” she said, and started to move toward the exit.
Arez stepped in front of her, blocking her path. “Be careful.” The warning escaped his lips before he even realized he’d said it, and he immediately knew the words were useless. Words couldn’t protect her from a Krezlian shot.
Although truthfully, he didn’t even know why he cared. Why was he being like this? He should just let the damned Ambassador go on her way. If anything, he was putting her in more danger by keeping her here for a moment longer. But something about her… He couldn’t let her go.
She looked up at him, her amber eyes bright. “It was nice to meet you today, Arez,” she said, “I hope we see each other again after this is all over.”
Arez’s throat tightened at her words. He knew what she meant. He was a soldier, about the head out to the battlefield. He knew what she saw in him at that moment: someone who might not come back. Just an hour ago, he had been talking with Zeon about how the Alliance didn’t care about their lives, about how they saw them as disposables as well – just as the Krezlians had.
But he didn’t think this female was like that. She seemed… kind. And she had never really looked down on him as they’d talked, had she? She hadn’t looked at him as if he was an inferior – an animal, as many others liked to think – like he wasn’t worthy, like he didn’t matter.
Arez frowned at the thought but didn’t have long to ponder on it as another explosion shook the station. Screams echoed down the hallway outside, and whatever response he might’ve given her was swallowed by the noise. Naomi nodded to him as a good
bye, and swiftly ducked past him and out of the canteen.
Fuck…
He shook his head, trying to clear his mind.
The Ambassador would be fine – she had said so herself. She was being evacuated along with the rest of the higher-ups. And on top of that, although she’d had her brief moment of shock, she had otherwise acted completely rationally in this situation, not panicking like some of the others.
All she had to do was get to the shuttle station and take an emergency shuttle to the surface of the planet, which was in the opposite direction to where the battle currently was – in the airspace beyond the Eifan moon.
Arez closed his eyes. His hands clenched into fists at his sides as he made his decision.
Yes, he had to trust that Naomi would be fine. But the Krezlians wouldn’t wait.
He rushed away, taking the canteen’s back exit toward the military section of the platform where his speeder sat waiting for him, fully fueled and stocked with firepower…
Then, it would be show time.
CHAPTER 8
NAOMI
Naomi dashed through the eastern corridor of the station, following the crowds of evacuating people. Blood pulsed in her ears as she felt the ground shake beneath her once more as the explosions hit the station’s surroundings.
People all around her were pushing and shoving each other ahead toward the shuttle station. But the corridor could only support so many, and instead of moving forward, Naomi soon found herself as one of many sardines in a can.
Great… If she hadn’t been claustrophobic, she certainly was now.
There was an appropriate evacuation plan for the station, with separate alternative routes to the escape shuttles, but of course, in the midst of crisis, no one had followed their training. She could hardly blame the people for wanting to get out, but the more they pushed, the more they clogged this corridor and the longer it would actually take for them to evacuate.
