by Lee Savino
“Warriors, stand down,” Arkdhem says. There is bitterness in his tone. Whether it’s because he realizes Medik didn’t trust him and called Gavrill and Bogdan to the bridge, or because he wanted to attack the Vgotha and was thwarted, I do not know.
Bogdan
I put my hand on the back of my Pareena’s neck. She is staring at Arkdhem again, but now I can feel all of her emotions and I do not worry over why. She is suspicious of him and somewhat concerned, none of which sparks even the slightest hint of jealousy or possessiveness.
Of course, the mate mark on her arm does not hurt.
Guiding her away from the bridge and into the lift, I stroke her mate mark with my free hand, just as Tribute Dawn looks over at us and the doors close.
“Oh my… you have your mate mark!” Tribute Dawn squeals in delight. I feel my Pareena’s surge of answering happiness. Then Tribute Dawn’s eyes move to me and they widen. “And your suit has changed!”
Indeed, it has. I am surprised she has not noticed before now, but it is not a very showy change. My armor’s default color is still the endless black of space, but with the glitter of a swirling nebula now in its depths.
“It sparkles,” Pareena announces proudly.
What? “No—”
“It totally does!” Tribute Dawn gushes.
“I am a warrior.” I glower at both of them, which for some reason makes my Pareena feel both happy and proud. I had thought the same on the bridge, but I do not understand the reaction. I glower harder. “I do not sparkle.”
“If you say so.” Tribute Dawn turns away but she’s grinning. So is the High Commander.
“It’s a little sparkly,” Pareena murmurs. I give her a look. Behave. She shivers happily as she feels the erotic threat emanating from me.
“Congratulations,” the High Commander says, his fingers seeking out his Tribute’s mate mark to stroke. The two of them exchange a look and Tribute Dawn smiles, her hand moving overtop her stomach.
“We have some news of our own.” Tribute Dawn blurts out. “Gavrill wanted to keep it a secret but I have to tell somebody and you two should definitely know.” The High Commander beams rather than chiding her for disobeying his wishes and a suspicion rises inside me. My Pareena is much quicker to leap to a conclusion.
“What? No!” Pareena gasps.
“Yes!” Dawn squeals. “I’m pregnant!”
Gavrill clears his throat. “We do need to keep this between us and Medik for a time.” A wrinkle grows between his brows, probably because he cannot help but think of the other things that we must keep between us for now, but when he looks at his Tribute his expression softens.
“Is everything all right?” Pareena asks. “Everything’s… normal?”
“So far tests are all good. I’m healthy,” Tribute Dawn assures her. “Medik realized it when he scanned us after we returned and told us privately.”
It was probably a good thing she did not know before the Vgotha captured her. I cannot imagine how much worse the High Commander’s reaction would have been if he’d known his Tribute was breeding when she was taken. My Pareena leans in to hug her friend tightly in congratulations. I look at Tribute Dawn’s stomach, but so far, I cannot see any difference.
She carries the hope of our race in her womb… and the proof of the Tribute’s compatibility only makes the situation with the Jabol more fraught, but still, I feel joy at the news.
“So, what now?” Dawn asks, snuggling into her mate. “Are you going to tell the warriors about the Jabol?”
“I will have to eventually,” he says, exchanging a worried look with me. As Corin and Arkdhem have shown us, not all of them will take it well. “First, I must tell them that the Vgotha may not be the enemy we thought. I will tell them about the Riknari. The fleet retreating rather than attacking will help. That they attacked in order to take you captive and killed two of our warriors…” He sighs. “It will take some time. But in the meantime, we can search for answers. We cannot allow the Jabol to know our plans, so we will have to pretend to continue hunting Vgotha, but really, we will be hunting for proof. I want to try to contact the Riknari myself, if it is possible, to see what they say.”
The doors to the lift open, effectively ending the conversation. We cannot talk about any of this in the halls of the ship. Not yet.
“Are you okay with this?” Pareena whispers to me as I lead her back to our room. “It’s a lot to take in.”
She is right. And in times past, I would have raged louder than Arkdhem.
So much has changed. But the biggest changes are inside of me.
I do not want to lay down my weapons before I have avenged my family and my people, but my first duty is to my Tribute.
“Whatever the future holds, I will rise to greet it. As long as I have you, my Pareena,” I whisper back. I feel her love wrap around me.
Despite the many unknowns in our lives right now, I feel a happiness that I had never hoped for. We have more challenges to face, but nothing feels insurmountable with my Pareena by my side.
Epilogue
Marta
In the fading light of evening, I am dragged back to consciousness with a pained groan. My forehead pulses with agony, stabbing splinters radiating through my whole body.
What happened?
A cough clutches my chest and I whine and sputter trying to breathe, the renewed pain threatening to pull me under again. At least the ringing in my ears has stopped.
Ringing from the explosion. A fucking bomb??? Fucking cartel.
Miraculously, other than a sharp knock when everything fell, my head is clear of the wreckage. My right arm flops when I try to move it to wipe dust from my face, but after a long moment I manage to get it working. My left arm throbs painfully but won’t move and after an initial attempt, I don’t try again. The right is enough. Grit scratches my cheek but I scrub my eyes clear enough to open them. It’s just light enough that I can assess the damage… and I almost wish I couldn’t.
My legs and torso are hidden, trapped under rubble of the building that practically came down around me. I can’t feel them, but going by the weight they’re under, I’m thankful that they’re numb. That or I’m going to start feeling them any minute and it’s going to be awful. This is definitely the worst situation I’ve ever found myself in.
I try to take a deep breath and fire flashes along my side. Internal organ damage? Highly possible. My right hand explores my head. Mild contusions, probable concussion. My left arm can’t move at all. Broken… possible shoulder dislocation.
Situation: desperate.
Think, Marta.
My cell phone is in my pocket. It’s basically a satellite phone. With the places I go, it’s best to always be connected to some form of communication. I force my arm to go fishing until darkness invades the edges of my vision. When I draw my hand up, it’s bright red. More liquid leaks out onto the dusty rubble beside me. A small pool, dark and growing.
That’s a lot of blood. Too much blood.
I’m so fucked.
A strange sort of resigned sadness trickles over me and I sigh, leaning my head back and resting for a moment. The sky beyond the squat buildings of the Barrio is so pretty. Pale pink tinged with gold.
There are shouts in the distance, honking cars. But the cartel owns this part of town. If they blow one of their own buildings, no one will come to investigate.
“Be safe,” My mother had pled with me before she died. “That job is going to get you killed.”
She feared for me as she’d feared for my father, another fallen soldier in the fight for truth.
Sorry Mama… you were right. Again.
No one is coming to help.
No one even knew I was here, chasing a whisper of a lead about an American billionaire making bank—and not just through his pharmaceutical companies but from other drugs as well. Last time I checked in with my managing editor, I was in Mexico City. She doesn’t expect me to check in for another day. There’s no wa
y I’m going to live that long.
My breath claws through my middle. I could try again to dig out my cell phone, but I have even less energy than I did before. Judging from the amount of blood leaking onto the ground, I don’t have much longer.
I definitely hadn’t wanted everything to end this way… on the brink of exposing corruption without managing to file my final story. I’d wanted my life to matter. If I’d at least managed to find the proof I was looking for and send the story to my editor before I died, I would have thought this sucked but… at least it would have been worthwhile. Instead, I’m going to die a failure.
And in so much fucking pain.
I force myself to relax on my uncomfortable, rubble-strewn bed, and let my breathing slow. The sun is almost gone now, gilding the horizon with fire. My last sunset. So beautiful. I close my eyes. I feel like it’s just for a moment, but when I open them again it’s full dark and something shimmers in the corner of my vision. My brain feels muzzy. Did I lose consciousness again? The minutes slipping away with my life blood...
I crane my head to distract myself, trying to see what is glowing, and a bright rectangle greets me, shining in the rubble.
My e-reader.
Huh.
I reach out and my hand falls on the smooth surface. I scrape my knuckles against the rocks but when I draw the device to me, it’s unharmed. The screen has not a single crack. Unbelievable. And it’s on… I guess somehow the explosion hit the power button and it didn’t automatically turn off. So I must not have been unconscious for as long as it feels like.
I wipe my bloody fingers on the inside of my collar to clean them as best I can before clearing the screen of dust. I never knew who sent the mysterious device. I assumed it was a co-worker’s idea of a joke, loading up a next generation reader with tons of naughty erotic stories, but when I asked around, no one confessed.
I am so glad it is here now. The home screen glows to greet me like an old friend. It has no data and can’t connect to Wi-Fi—no calling for help—but its familiar presence soothes me.
At least I can die doing my favorite thing—reading. The pain I’m in is debilitating, but hopefully this will help distract me from… everything.
Before following a man that I am pretty sure runs the local section of the cartel, I’d just finished reading a hot alien abduction story. It opens right to the end of the last book in the Trilogy, but instead of the last page of the book, the e-reader screen flashes with a question I’d never seen before.
Are you Marta Flores Romero?
My lips move with the question. Huh. Weird. I should not be connected to Wi-Fi but… hey, if someone is asking, I’ll answer. Maybe they can send help? The hope that rises in me is almost shocking.
Yes, I press the blinking answer.
Do you want to die today?
Holy hell.
No, I press the button. I really, really don’t want to die. Duh. My lips move, forming words that I don’t have the energy to actually speak. Help me.
Tears begin to slide down my face, blurring the screen’s instructions.
I try to move my finger, but I can’t. The pain is gone, the numbness spread from my lower half to my shoulders, creeping up my neck.
Marta Flores Romero, the device beeps.
Subject’s vitals are failing. Initiating emergency sequence.
A pulse of light rolls over me and the pile of rubble, expanding like a sunrise.
And everything goes dark.
Arkdhem
Silently seething, I can only watch as the shuttle carrying the High Commander, Bogdan, both Tributes, and a small team of warriors descends back to the planet. The warriors the High Commander had instructed to find the place where the Vgotha had been hiding had been unsuccessful. The Tributes have convinced him to take them back down again to see if they can find the cave they'd been held in.
We could be pursuing the Vgotha fleet, but instead I am stuck on the bridge, useless, while the High Commander and Bogdan risk their Tributes yet again. We are fairly certain the Vgotha have fled the planet entirely, but there is no way to be sure. Not only that, but we don't know all the dangers that the planet offers. And the Vgotha could have left traps.
All points which I made when the High Commander informed me of his plans, and which were dismissed.
Just as I was dismissed.
Twice now, I've had the responsibility of protecting the High Commander's Tribute, and twice now I have failed. Which was why I've been left behind this time. The High Commander said it was because someone must stay in overall command of the ship, since he planned to be on-planet for as many cycles as it took to find the Vgotha's planet side base of operations, but I know it is because the High Commander has lost faith in me.
In fact, it now seems as though the High Commander has more faith in the Vgotha than he does in me, his third in command. The entire reason he wants to find their base of operations is to see if they left anything that will help prove they are innocent of destroying Tsentur. Something I find very difficult to believe.
If they are innocent, why hadn't they tried to meet with the High Commander before?
If the Jabol are guilty, why are they trying to perpetuate the Tsenturion race by providing us with Tributes?
I find it very convenient that the Vgotha are suddenly claiming innocence and providing dubious 'proof' against the Jabol. It could be completely fake. It is suspicious that right when the Jabol have finally found compatible mates for the Tsenturions the Vgotha found evidence that they were set up. If the Vgotha's goal is the complete destruction of the Tsenturions, then of course they would want to interfere with our matings. If they succeed in doing so, then they can just keep running, secure in the knowledge that we will eventually die out, because we cannot breed.
The High Commander acknowledged all the points I made, all the questions I asked, and then decided to go planet side without me anyway. He was far more swayed by Tribute Dawn's belief that we have all been duped. I don't blame her. We have become close and I understand she holds some resentment toward the Jabol for abducting her from her former home and life, even though she is happy now. She hadn't liked the Tribute program to begin with. But, in this, she is wrong and she is leading the High Commander astray.
The warriors look at her and Pareena and see our futures... all of which was provided by the Jabol. Everything the Vgotha claim would shatter that... it would destroy us a second time, in a blow possibly even more devastating than the first because it would be the eradication of hope.
I cannot accept that.
And I am not the only one.
Corin had not been present on the bridge when the High Commander had ordered the warriors not to speak of the Vgotha's claim. He ran into more than one warrior and told them what he knew, on his way to be disciplined after attacking Medik. Word spread quickly, and the warriors are torn on whether or not to believe the Vgotha. Most of them feel as Corin and I do—the Vgotha cannot not be trusted.
Many of them are unhappy to be in orbit above the planet, rather than pursuing the Vgotha fleet. I heard the mutterings when the High Commander opted not to follow the Vgotha fleet and investigate the planet instead. I obey my orders, though, and have not told anyone that the Vgotha have accused the Jabol of being the real attackers. The entire fleet would have likely torn itself apart at the news, which also would have served Vgotha purposes.
By their accusations, they have set us up perfectly to destroy ourselves. Thankfully, Dawn and Pareena decided to share the message the Vgotha gave them with the high command only. The Vgotha had likely been counting on them blurting out the lies in front of multiple warriors.
Halfway through my shift, during which nothing happens because the Vgotha have fled and we are still just circling this drakk planet, the bridge com chimes with an incoming transmission from the shuttle. I nod at Jakar, who opens the channel. The H
igh Commander's face appears on the main bridge screen.
"Commander Arkdhem, we have located the Vgotha's den, with the help of our Tributes. The location is secure and there are vestiges of their technology that were left behind. Their base was very large, and it will take us time to search through it."
"Yes, High Commander," I respond dutifully. "Will the Tributes be returning to the Command ship?"
The High Commander's armor flickers and he shakes his head, his expression changing slightly, to one I recognize. Dawn has talked him into something. It is an expression I've worn often enough as well. Although, I do not fight against indulging her the way the High Commander sometimes does. If—when—I receive a Tribute of my own, I will happily indulge her every whim as long as it does not affect her safety.
In my opinion, the High Commander indulges too many of the wrong whims of his Tribute, but it is not my place to ever express such an opinion.
"Dawn and Tribute Pareena will be staying planet-side with us," the High Commander says, sounding slightly pained. "They are the only ones who have personal experience with the Vgotha technology. They also wish to observe the Earth custom of a 'honeymoon' and spend some time off ship with their mates."
From my conversations with Dawn, I know what a honeymoon is, and I nod my understanding. This is likely as close as she thought she could get to the Earth custom. I would not allow it of my own Tribute, at least, I would have found her a much safer location. One that hadn't recently served as a Vgotha stronghold and didn't have the risk of being riddled with Vgotha traps. I've already made my opinion clear to the High Commander and repeating myself in front of other warriors will only be to my detriment.
"Deep in the caves our tech can only communicate short-range and it does not seem to reach beyond the cave system, so you will be the acting High Commander while I am on planet," he finishes with a nod.
"Thank you, High Commander," I reply, keeping my expression solemn. It is an empty gesture of faith, as he has already privately given me orders.
