by Sonia Nova
The sight of Alliance soldiers lying on the ground of the destroyed shuttle platform, with blood seeping out of their bodies and glass shattered around them, flashed in her mind.
She pushed the image away, trying not to remember. Silence engulfed the conference room, the heavy weight of the announcement filling the air. Nobody spoke for a long moment, until one of the Agari representatives cursed out loud, throwing a chair across the room in a sudden fit of rage.
The chair hit the back wall of the room, landing on the floor with a loud thud. And although bouts of violence were hardly acceptable behavior for the representative of a planet, it wasn’t like anyone could blame the man. He had just lost a part of the world he held dear.
Naomi glanced around the conference room. It was filled with people and yet silence echoed around her. Similar empty expressions met her gaze – as if no one really knew what to say or do.
Much like she didn’t. She just sat there, feeling numb.
She knew that now was the time to collect herself and stay focused but her brain just wouldn’t cooperate. Her rational self knew that while nothing could be done for those poor souls who had already lost their lives, something could still be done for those who lived.
But re-focusing after such a disaster was easier said than done. Because now, it was official. They had lost the battle. The moon station was gone, in the hands of the Krezlians. And that meant the enemy was a step closer to attacking the planet itself – to attacking innocent civilians. To taking the Ezak-X… and possibly her own people.
Naomi shut her eyes on the thought. She didn’t like to think about that part. Her people being potential targets wasn’t public knowledge and she liked to believe the Alliance had been mistaken. That the Krezlians didn’t even want them.
But she could hardly dismiss the possibility. After all, when the Krezlians had landed on the moon, they had immediately rushed for the humans. They had rushed for her. Tried to take her with them. The memory of that incident played over and over in her mind. Their scaly claws wrapping around her arms, starting to pull her away from the platform and…
She shook her head sharply. She couldn’t think of it. Wouldn’t think of it. The whole thought made her feel sick, and the fact that they had made a run for her immediately, as if she’d been the very thing they’d landed for… It worried her.
Were the Krezlians just after the Ezak-X? Or something more?
“We need to give them the Ezak-X!” The sharp words pierced through to her consciousness, and Naomi’s eyes snapped eyes. The same Agari representative who had thrown the chair – a tall, red-skinned male she didn’t know very well – was speaking. “We need to give them the–”
“Silence!” King Abah bellowed, his voice carrying in the room. “We will do no such thing.”
He looked at Lady Eneria, and Naomi could see the despair in his eyes. He was looking up to her for advice, for some kind of a miracle solution. But only earlier today, they had discussed strategy, and Naomi wasn’t sure there was a Plan B…
Lady Eneria closed her eyes slowly. She too looked paler than usual, the luminance of her skin duller than before, her posture not as straight as it had been. She rubbed her eyes in a strangely human gesture.
“The troops outside Agaria will hold the Krezlians as best they can. They have the orders to do everything in their power to hold back the enemy. But for now, the only thing we can do is wait for the reinforcements.”
“Wait?! We can’t just–”
“Ayal!” The King snapped at the outspoken representative, and the man finally snapped his mouth shut. “Leave the room. You are no longer required in this meeting.”
King Abah spoke to him in the Agari language, but with her extensive study of the culture and language, Naomi could understand him as well as if he had spoken the Alliance standard.
Ayal stared at the King for a moment, as if expecting him to change his mind or to say something more. His red complexion darkened in anger and defiance shone in his eyes. The king met his gaze, unrelenting and, after a moment, Ayal tightened his hands into fists, bowed before the King, and swiftly marched out of the room.
Naomi heaved out a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding. Violence had already erupted outside the planet, but more violence – especially among the members of the Alliance – would not end it.
The conversation resumed around her on what the Alliance would do next, but Naomi hardly heard any of it.
In a way, she could understand the representative’s reaction. Agaria was a new planet in the Alliance, and they were not yet used to working as a part of the system. They had been promised trade opportunities and intergalactic travel, but now that joining the Alliance had brought problems on their doorstep instead… She could understand why they weren’t happy.
If this had been Earth, she wasn’t sure how she would’ve reacted. If she would have reacted the same…
Naomi shook her head. No. She wouldn’t have. Although she could understand them – Agaria was their home after all, and they still thought of Agaria first – that just wasn’t how things worked. In the Alliance, you didn’t sacrifice one race over another. And while everyone had priorities – just as her priority were the humans – she could never throw another race to the wolves just to save her own.
People were people, and just like King Abah had said in their last meeting: Agari, Va’ii, human, Ezak-X… They were all members of the Alliance. All equal. And after working for the Alliance for years, after living on one of the Alliance main planets… Naomi couldn’t see it any other way. They were all citizens of the Alliance, even the Ezak-X. And to even suggest sending them out to the enemy… It was a sacrilege.
The Agari would have to learn to work together with the rest of the Alliance, and soon. Or they could lose more than the Ezak-X.
Naomi’s shoulders slumped at thought. Her mind returned to the soldiers outside the planet’s atmosphere, who were even now battling against the Krezlians in the stars… And to the one soldier she had met just earlier that day. The Ezak-X male who had quite possibly saved her life.
Arez.
He had jumped in to her rescue. All without any actual obligation toward her.
…And had ended up in the hands of the Krezlians because of it.
Naomi’s heart constricted in her chest and tears threatened to spill forth from her eyes. She had managed to escape, all thanks to him, but with the ongoing fight, she hadn’t seen what had happened to him in the end. Had he gotten away? Or had he… He wouldn’t have… would he?
A hard lump rose into her throat and a choked sound escaped her lips as she fought back the tears threatening to spill over. She couldn’t even think the word out loud. Couldn’t face it. He had to be alright. He had to have made it. Anything else… she wasn’t sure she could deal with.
Pushing back the tears and wiping her face, Naomi looked around the room, searching for a friendly face, for some – any – reason to be happy. Her eyes caught sight of Mareb on the other side of the room. He stood beside the King, his hands clenched at his sides. His eyes were fixed on the floor, seemingly lost in thought, and much like her, he didn’t seem to be following the conversation in the room either. And although his expression was far from happy, Naomi was glad to see him there. Glad to see him alive.
She continued to stare at him for a long moment, but Mareb wouldn’t budge, wouldn’t lift up his gaze to look at her. Naomi’s heart broke for him once more. Just as it did for everyone who had lost their lives on this day. For Arez.
The tears she had been holding back finally spilled down to her cheeks as she continued to think of the soldier. He had to be alright… He had to. For how could she live with herself if he wasn’t?
CHAPTER 11
AREZ
Cold…
Arez could feel the ice crawling up his veins. His consciousness returned to him slowly, and so did the pain. His nerves throbbed and his whole body ached. The icy cold in his veins continued t
o spread all the way to his fingers and toes – and to the core of his heart.
Arez groaned. Where was he?
His vision was black but he could feel people around him. A shuffling noise. Voices.
“Put him under. Put him under!” A harsh voice shouted somewhere in the distance. It took him a moment to realize the words had been spoken in the Krezlian language.
Oh, fuck…
“I can’t give him more if you want the simulation to proceed,” another Krezlian voice said, this one closer, calmer. Maybe a scientist.
Or a “scientist.” Arez would’ve scoffed if he could. As it was, his tongue felt like pudding in his mouth. His vision started to slowly return to him, and he could see the metallic sheen of the ceiling. He was lying down. No doubt on an examination table. He’d been on hundreds before.
Feeling started to return to his body, and he could even feel the shackles on his arms.
“Put him under, NOW!” the first Krezlian shouted again, his voice much clearer now.
“Sir, the serum must be able to take effect–”
Arez blinked, trying to get his vision to focus. Trying to make his senses work.
“NOW!”
“But the serum–”
As if on command, obeying the scientist’s plea, the serum seemed to kick in just at that moment. The icy cold that had been crawling up his veins pierced through his heart like a knife, and the next thing he knew, he was howling in pain. His muscles contracted, and before he’d even properly woken up, his thoughts muddied and he was out again.
Cold…
The darkness swallowed him once more. It carried him away to the depths of his mind where nothing but old memories lived. Old memories that he would be happy to never, ever revisit. But it seemed he had no choice.
The serum continued to work.
Soon, the sensation of falling into his memories faded and his consciousness settled. He was on the Krezlian home planet they called Eqathoz… in the bottom of the Pit made specifically for his kind.
This couldn’t be real.
The cold penetrated his bones, just as it always had, and he could see his breath freeze in the air before him. He felt the cold dirt beneath his feet, smelled the sulfur around. The stench of rotting corpses. He heard the shouting of his makers as they watched him enter the Pit.
Everything about this scene felt real, pulled straight from his most hated memories of his makers. Arez gritted his teeth. The serum. They had him fucking drugged. Being on the examination table seemed like a distant memory, but Arez held onto that memory as hard as he could as he looked around.
He had been put into a maze, and he wasn’t the only one. Arez could see another creature to his side, ready to enter the challenge. They were separated by an unbreakable glass – he knew, because he had tried to break it once in the past. He had been punished for it back then.
And although the glass couldn’t be broken, Arez could still see clearly through it. He watched the creature on the other side. The beast stared straight into the maze, not returning his gaze. Its body was two times the size of his, with shaggy black fur covering its skin in patches and large horns crowning his head – much larger than his own.
The creature hunched over, ready to launch into the maze like it lived for this moment. For the hunt. For the battle.
Somehow, Arez knew he was supposed to follow what his makers’ command had always been: “Get out.”
No doubt, the other creature would do the same.
Arez turned away from him, and instead glanced to his other side. Another glass had been erected to his right, and again, he saw a creature on the other side of it.
But this one wasn’t like the other. No, this one was… like him. He stood upright on two legs, had long black hair on his head, horns just like Arez, and his skin was a deep, matted gray like his own. His body was covered in tattoos and scars, similar to the ones decorating Arez’s body. And unlike the beast to his other side, this one wasn’t staring into the maze. He was staring right at him.
In his dark eyes, Arez could tell that he knew it too. The beast to his left didn’t, his enthusiasm for the battle revealing his lack of intelligence for what was to come. But this creature – this man – did. He knew. Just as Arez did.
Only one of them would make it out alive.
That was how it had always worked. Now, it only came down to who was the fastest, the strongest, but most importantly… who was the smartest.
Arez had won challenges like this before.
He turned back toward the gate facing the maze just as the drill blared in the depths of the Pit. The gate clicked open before him, and he knew it was on.
He immediately ran into the maze, instinct kicking in. Simulation or not, he couldn’t escape the urgency he felt. Every fiber in his being told him either he made it out alive first… or he died.
Taking turn after turn, he ran through the endless paths of the maze. His heart pounded in his ears as adrenaline pumped in his veins.
After a while, he arrived at a larger clearing. Several paths spiraled to different directions around him, and he took a moment to think, to examine each path. Taking a deep breath, he tried to smell whether any of the paths led to danger.
By the entrance of one, he smelled blood. Not a lot of it, but enough to make him not choose that one.
He concentrated again, his ears twitching as he suddenly heard footsteps to his right. A moment later, the male who had stared at him in the beginning rushed into the clearing. He looked battered and there were a few scratches on his body, along with smudges of dirt. His black mane looked disheveled and perspiration shone on his skin.
No doubt, he had already encountered something in the maze …or someone.
The male paused for a moment as he noticed Arez, staring at him just as he had through the glass. Arez returned his gaze, but this time, the other man was the one to turn away first. He didn’t stop at the clearing like Arez had. Neither did he choose to fight Arez. Instead, he rushed down one of the paths on the other side, obviously not caring what he encountered.
Arez looked after the other male for a moment, and then suddenly, a deep growl emerged from behind him.
He snapped around quickly, turning to the path he had just come from. The growl emerged again, together with some thumping sounds.
Footsteps. Four of them. They were loud, heavy, and he quickly realized that there was a rhythm to the steps. Two feet moved almost exactly at the same time, in coordination. Whatever it was, the four feet belonged to one creature. Perhaps the one he’d seen to his left?
Arez took a step back toward the center of the clearing. His heart pounded in his chest as he listened to the growls and footsteps padding his way. They were coming closer.
He crouched on his feet, ready to take on whatever was coming his way. His heart thumped in his chest. With a massive growl, the beast that had stood to his left in the beginning charged into the clearing.
Jackpot.
The beast noticed him, its red eyes wild. Arez noticed that it had a tongue that was far too big for its mouth. Its thin lips opened to a set of sharp fangs as it growled a low warning. Saliva slopped out of its mouth and, just like the male to his right, this creature had a few scratches on its hide too, along with a bloody gash above its shoulder. It was clear that it too had already encountered something in the maze. Or perhaps the male to his right and the beast had gone at each other. Either way, it seemed that Arez had been lucky so far.
But now… His luck was over. His indecision about which path to take would cost him because it was clear that this creature was out for blood. It wanted to fight.
Arez stared at the beast as it approached him, taking slow steps and growling all the while. He looked at it eye-to-eye as it started to circle the clearing, moving around Arez like the predator it was. But Arez wasn’t backing up. He continued to stare at the beast, letting it know he wasn’t going to surrender.
He was a predator too. And he was goi
ng to show the creature that.
Suddenly, the beast pulled its head back and howled an ear-screeching, mad sound. It charged at him a split second later – head first, with its massive horns pointed toward him.
Arez jumped out of its path swiftly, but kept his eyes trained on the creature, examining it for a weak spot as it raged on the clearing. The beast stared at him now, its red eyes crazed and angry. It charged again, and this time, Arez jumped on top of it. He grabbed the beast by its shaggy, patched fur, and tried to climb on its neck.
But the beast wasn’t having any of that. It roared in anger and shook its body, throwing Arez off its back. He flew back onto the ground, the sand scraping his skin as he rolled on the dirt. Now he too was scratched. But he didn’t let the small sting of pain bother him. He’d felt much worse in his life after all.
Standing up, he faced the creature again. It was ready to ram him again, its red eyes fixed on Arez like it had no other goal except to destroy him. Arez glared back at it, but this time, he could see something else besides madness and anger in its eyes.
Pain.
Not the kind of pain he’d just felt when he had been thrown onto the ground. No, this was different. He could see the pain inside. The kind of pain Arez too had felt when his makers messed with his head. When he had wished for his own death.
The creature suffered, Arez could tell that much, and something moved in his chest at the thought. He didn’t like it when he felt the inner pain himself. No doubt this creature didn’t like it either. And that made him… He didn’t have a word for it. He felt. Something. For the creature.
He knew the suffering this creature experienced on a daily basis, existing only to be tested and tortured by the Krezlians. Arez’s knowledge of what that was like was literally inked onto his own skin. He didn’t know what the point of this simulation was supposed to be, other than to awaken these memories, but now he had a purpose to follow other than his own survival instincts.
