by Liz Paffel
“The thing about pizza is that you must either eat it while it is very warm, or after it has completely cooled. It does not taste the same with an in between temperature.”
“Meh.”
“The humans are divided on the temperature of their pizza. Some will only eat it hot; some prefer to eat it a day old while it is cold. I’m told cold pizza is a preferable meal after an evening of drinking beer and partying.”
Metetto chuckled, so Hahn continued. “If I were a human, I’d be in prime partying years. This is something youth does when they leave for college, which is an education system involving much studying, engaging in reckless mating, and consuming alcoholic beverages to the chant, ‘chug, chug, chug.”
His father’s grin was steeped in sadness as he accepted the slice of pepperoni. He sniffed it before taking a very small bite. Hahn watched him with anticipation. He’d never considered his father a small man but he appeared withered and wasted, his broad shoulders holding the remnants of a once powerful body that draped off him now. His once ramrod posture was slumped and tired.
Holding back his emotions like a true warrior, Hahn allowed a blip of satisfaction as his father ate more of the pizza. He needed to eat.
“The humans would never survive the rigors Axxeon youth engage in. Combat training, survival exercises. Flight and engineering immersion. It’s why they are weak and in constant need of protection.”
“My son, you did not come here to talk about your time with the humans.”
“No. But I’ve said all I have to say about my reason for being here today. Now, we are making conversation.”
“Small talk does not suit you.”
“You’re right. But if my plan fails, these are some of my last moments with you. I want them to count. We have spent so many rotations apart. I… want you to know me.”
Metetto set the plate aside and rose from the stool. His once bright blue hair was faded and hung in a limp braid over one thin shoulder. He looked to the floor as if he were a submissive captive instead of a man who had once been a king.
“I cannot allow you to sacrifice your future for me, my son. I wish for you to forget your plans. Instead, take a mate. Enjoy your time with the Galax Union. Support our people as a steadfast Prince.”
“I will not set my plan aside.”
“You must.”
Hahn rose and waved his father’s words off. “I will not.”
Metetto’s voice rose with an authority Hahn didn’t know he possessed any longer. “I forbid you to go through with it.”
They stared at each other, his father’s lavender eyes so much like Tryllin’s. Pride and duty and the hot edge of impending sacrifice rose in him, strengthening his spine with resolve.
“I will call on the law of Nanakka-Rak. I will complete a mission of honor in your name. Our people will have no choice but to obey the law, and you will be set free.”
Metetto cupped Hahn’s cheek in one dry, trembling hand. His eyes shone with tears. “My son. I will never truly be free after what I’ve done. Our people may allow me to walk among them on your act of honor, but I will not do so with their acceptance. I will always wear the shackles of their hatred over my poor choices.”
Hahn shook his head. “I don’t care. I will fight for you.”
“Son.”
“No!” Hahn burst to his feet. “You are all that Tryllin and I have left. I will fight for your honor, and I won’t hear another word against it. Our Third Commander Quixx has mapped a possible route for the Zeph and I intend to track it. If I can bring them home, it will be an undeniable honor that I will complete in your name. I can’t wait for that chance, though. First, I’m going to find you a safe planet where you can hide.”
As if on cue, the comlet on his wrist buzzed. He accepted the incoming transmission as voice only. He didn’t want Quixx to see where he was.
“Quixx.”
“Meet me in flight four at your convenience, my Prince.”
“I’m on my way. Is my flight suit ready?”
“Yes.”
Hahn closed the communication and cupped his father’s cheek with one desperate hand. His brother had warned him that visiting their father may open up painful memories, difficult emotions, and allow daydreams of things that could not be. He’d been right. Meeting with their father had done all of these things. There wasn’t a second that Hahn didn’t feel deeply what his father had done to their people when he allowed his young, new wife to sway him into ignoring the threat from their enemies that later killed their females.
He should have taken the threat seriously. He should have locked down the planet, shielding their city and calling his warriors to increase surveillance. Instead, he took his wife to browse the markets on a supply planet.
He hated that his own father had become such a disappointment. Yet, he couldn’t turn his back. He couldn’t hold the anger in his heart as his brother did.
He couldn’t let go.
“I’m going to take the Threv-beta on flight. Quixx and the crew think it is a simple breaking in session.”
“Hahn.”
“You will not stop me, nor will you mention to anyone what I’m about to do. If the Council thinks for even a moment that you were planning to escape, they will kill you on the spot.” Hahn let his hand slide away and went to the door. He paused without looking back. “I will be seeing you soon.”
He left before his father could say another word and concentrated on the hard sound of his flight boots on the corridor floor. Reaching the hanger bay, he went to flight four, his heart picking up speed as he stopped before the Threv-beta. It shone in all its metallic silver glory, her sleek lines and contoured figure jacking his sense of pride.
He’d designed this craft. The bones and technical guts of it had come to him over several weeks of plotting and planning while on Earth. He’d sent the specs to the base station for astro-engineering to mull over. They’d made a few changes and tied it together with their expertise. And here it was, a masterful design for a first-of-its kind spacecraft. It had dodge capability and interlock stabilizers which ensured the craft could roll and dart in all directions to avoid enemy craft and space debris, and always right itself back on course no matter how off target the ship was pushed. He could get dinged by planetary debris five times the craft’s size, and the Threv would bounce back on path, upright and stable.
“My Prince,” Quixx greeted as Hahn stepped up to him.
“We grew up together and spent three years inside an underwater compound on Earth where you repeatedly reminded me that I’m a reckless asshole with an authority problem. Call me Hahn.”
Quixx grinned. “Your authority problem worries me. Does your brother know about this jaunt you’re about to take?”
“I won’t answer to him about anything today, my friend. This flight is between you and me.”
Quixx raised an eyebrow. “Our King will hear about your escapade when the Threv-beta is detected on the atmospheric scans.”
Hahn slapped the Commander on the shoulder. “That’s why I’m leaving here cloaked.”
“You are not.”
“I am.”
“My Pr—Hahn. My loyalty is to you both; however, you are aware that I answer to your brother. If he questions me, if he even circles around what we did here today, I will have to tell him.”
Hahn’s eyes widened with pleasure when he spied his flight suit. He lowered the front fastener and stepped into it. “I would expect nothing less from a loyal warrior, Quixx. Do as you must. But not until you must. I will deal with his attitude when I get back.”
Quixx frowned and stepped back while Hahn settled into his body conforming suit. It fit perfectly over his pants and shirt made from impenetrable meta fabric. The suit was made of the same tough layers, offering protection against heat and force, and, in the event of a crash or accident, impalement. He helped Hahn slip into his helmet, the face shield raised.
“Will you tell me why you insisted on this flight
today? Where are you going?”
Hahn shrugged. “I’m just breaking her in, testing her controls and responses. Every spacecraft needs a few hundred hours of use to ensure it’s working correctly. I’m going to… just, cruise until I feel like coming back.”
“I see. Any chance that you might “just cruise” in the last known direction of the Zeph?”
“Not yet.”
Quixx didn’t look convinced. “You’ll have your tracking on?”
“Eventually, yes.”
“Shit, Hahn. Why all the damn secrecy?”
“For someone who hated Earth so much, you sure picked up their cuss words.” He slipped on his gloves. He was ready. “I love Tryllin. But he does not need to control my every moment. I’m suffocating inside this base station. I know you understand.”
“Yes, well, I did. But having a mate now makes me see and feel things differently. I do not mind being stuck here. With her.”
“Well, I’m tired of being stuck with you assholes. Me and my authority problem are going on a road trip.”
“Be safe, my Prince.”
Quixx stepped back as Hahn released the hatch and stepped up into the craft. He lowered himself into the pilot’s seat. There was one other place for a passenger, and a back compartment for supplies. The Threv was a discovery craft, but it was also equipped as a fighter. Today, he intended to jump ahead to the planet Escapat and do a fly over. Intel revealed that it was a hospitable planet with welcoming tribes on the remote northern quadrant where mountain ranges and deep basins suggested a perfect hiding place for his father. He would still be in exile, just not on a wasteland.
Hahn fired up the craft, his pulse jacking at the indomitable roar of the engines. He worked the control panel, hovering his fingers over the controls. They obeyed from the heat and motion of his hand. The door to the flight bay opened as the craft rose a few feet off the ground. His lips pulled into a tight grin. With one last look at Quixx, he flicked the accelerator control. The craft burst forward, launching from the pod and making two three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rotations as it spiraled into space.
“Hahn, comms on.”
He held back a groan at Quixx’s voice. “Yes, Commander. Comms on. Cloaking activated. Navigation record disabled. How about you go find that nice mate of yours to give yourself something to do?”
“Nice try. She is sleeping. Growing a kinder is exhausting work.”
“No, putting up with you is exhausting. She’s probably pretending to be asleep so she can avoid you.”
Quixx grunted, his voice lined with humor. “One day, when you have a mate of your own, you’ll know what it’s like to wear her out so she must sleep all day. She does anything but avoid me.”
Hahn let out a breath when he realized Axxeon 9 was out of sight. In the back of his mind, he’d anticipated his brother demanding he come back. “You know, Quixx. I kind of miss the grumpy asshole you were before you found Priya.”
Quixx grunted.
Silence fell, and Hahn was grateful for it. He should probably feel guilty over what he was doing, but he couldn’t force the emotion to surface. He needed to get his father to safety, and Escapat offered a good alternative. In a perfect scenario, Hahn would find the Zeph and her crew and claim Nanakka-Rak in his father’s name, freeing him to live the rest of his life as a free man on Axxeon 9.
But in case that didn’t happen, he needed a backup plan.
Hahn set the course to Escapat. He’d need to jump twice to reach the planet. He’d keep the locators off so his path could never be detected or retraced. The control panel alarmed, warning him of impending jump mode. Settling back into his seat, he authorized the control. Time and awareness split and came together again as a flash of brilliant white light before his eyes. The craft stopped on the other side of the leap, hovering as Hahn blinked to clear his vision.
A muted voice played in his ear. He tapped on his headset to adjust the quality, but the sound remained strained and far away.
His eyes drew to the control panel where a wavering blue line from an incoming transmission caught his attention. Frowning, he leaned forward in the seat and adjusted the volume on the panel. The signal was steady yet filled with artifact.
The voice came in his ear again. “This… is… an S.O.S… mayday.”
He clicked on navigation to track the signal’s location. Though it was steady, it wasn’t strong enough to fully determine what the voice was saying. Coordinates came back inconclusive. Strange. He was inside a mapped galaxy, with all planets and stars accounted for.
“S.O.S…”
Where had he heard that before? He ran the word through his mind. It wasn’t a familiar term. Or, was it?
“Please… women and infants…”
His heart slammed against his chest as the words broke through strong and clear. The voice was female.
The female was human.
It clicked. S.O.S was known terminology among humans asking for help.
Putting his path to Escapat on pause, he recalibrated the transmission’s coordinates. It gave him a general direction, but the source of the signal was from no known planet.
It could be a ghost planet. One with an atmosphere that drew spacecraft and debris down into them, like a giant, sucking whirlpool. He’d never seen one, but he’d heard of them. Ghost planets should be avoided at all costs… yet, couldn’t it be possible that’s what happened to the Zeph?
He reset his direction and cruised in the direction of the signal, watching the line on his panel for indication that he was headed the correct way. The signal increased in intensity as he went, the hills and blips creating a strong pattern.
He pressed his comm button, prepared to send a response transmission. He paused. He didn’t know what was out there.
“Is anyone there? This is Sasha Black. I’m a nurse. I have stranded women and children who need help. Anyone? God, Blume, this is a fucking waste of time.”
Hahn startled at the clarity of the transmission, then laughed at the unexpected profanity. Yep, all human.
Looking up from his control panel, he pulled the craft into hover, his eyes going wide. A mountainous asteroid drifted out of the way, revealing a downward slant in the expanse of space to his left. It was barely noticeable, and if not for the floating rock catching his attention, he may have missed it. He blinked, thinking it was a trick of his mind.
“Hahn. Do you connect?”
He approached slowly, the downward slant coming into view. It looked as if the fabric of space had been forced downward. Maybe ripped. It was hard for his eyes to matrix what he was seeing.
“I connect. You won’t believe what I’m seeing.”
“Put me on screen.”
“I can’t do that. It will record and then I’ll have to explain myself.”
“Damn it, Hahn. What do you see?”
“Remember when your mate was always threatening to push you off a cliff? I’m looking at one right now, but in the middle of space. A defect, maybe?”
“I see where you jumped. That quadrant is mapped; there shouldn’t be anything there that we can’t see. Did you… drink some of those horrible beer beverages you brought back from Earth?”
The signal went crazy, buzzing at a high rate of intensity as if it been waiting for him to finally get to this point. If there was something down there… his middle clenched. All this time, the Zeph could have been so close. Stuck. Trapped.
He’d get closer, and then he’d try communicating with whatever might be down there.
“I’m going in.”
“Hahn! Wait.”
Cruising to the top of the ledge, he sucked in a breath, angled the controller, and burst ahead.
Chapter Five
The craft spiraled out of control.
Hahn pulled back on the accelerator, but the craft didn’t respond. It picked up speed as if it was being pulled down from some unseen force. A large jolt caused the Threv to shudder. The controls suddenly responded, and the cr
aft righted itself into a soft hover. Hahn did a double take at the scene outside the viewscreen.
An atmospheric storm raged before him. Swirls of debris whipped in fast rotation, highlighted by bolts of repeat lightning that pierced through thick clouds. He ran a scan of his surroundings and watched in awe as the outline of a planet populated on the screen.
There was a planet behind this mess. A ghost planet. Pulled inside an abscess created by the debris and space detritus it sucked inside with it. Checking for the signal he’d intercepted from the female, he found it none. He tapped his comms. “Quixx. Do you connect?”
Nothing.
Pulling back, Hahn made a circumferential sweep around the storm. It varied in intensity, showing spots where the storm seemed to be less strong. He was almost fully around when his comms crackled and Quixx’s face popped up on the interva screen.
“I am here. Where the fuck are you? You’ve been gone two rotations! Turn on your tracking and send me coordinates.”
Two rotations? That wasn’t possible. He’d only spoken to Quixx a few moments ago. He ran an internal scan to search for a gas or particulate leak that might be messing with his clarity. All systems checked out.
“It’s possible that I jumped through a tear or fell into a warp. Are you sure it’s been two rotations?”
“I haven’t slept since you left. It. Has. Been. Two. Rotations. Would you care to ask my mate?”
How was this possible? “I’m sure that I’m looking at a ghost planet.”
“Ghost planets are just scary stories the elders tell to make young warriors behave in flight school. Turn on the viewscreen, Hahn.”
Turning on the screen would start a recording he couldn’t stop and create a footage link that remained permanently inside the flight database. He wouldn’t be able to hide where he’d been.
With a curse, he turned it on. “Look.” He moved around the storm where it had cleared just enough to show the planet below. “This storm rotates with the orbit. I think the signals we received came from here. I intercepted one a few moments ago. From a human female.”
