“Sure, the Zahkx civilians.” He emphasized the word.
“Given a couple hundred years, I’m sure we could get them battle ready,” Selene said.
“It’s too risky,” Rikkard snapped. He stepped away from the wall he’d been leaning against to join the conversation. “It’d be the Alliance rebellion all over again.”
Selene’s chest tightened. “Only there’d be no corrupt Director this time.”
Rikkard cut her a look. “That doesn’t mean information wouldn’t get out, or we wouldn’t wind up compromised. Running an operation like that would take too much manpower.”
Selene growled, her fists clenching. She hated how quickly they were all dismissing the idea that humans and the Zahkx could, and would fight back given the chance.
“Guys,” Flik said. He stood, holding his hands out, trying to diffuse the situation. “I have an idea.”
Selene took a breath to calm herself. “What is it?”
“Remember what the Zahkx originally came here for.” He flashed a smile. “The Zahkx—not the Aldar—came here to watch and observe. We came here with a beacon to relay the information we found back to planet Aldar. The beacon is already built… well, most of it at least. We just need to complete it.”
Selene raised her eyebrows. Hope stirred in her chest. “We could get the Zahkx to help us?”
Flik nodded. “All we have to do is finish the beacon and we’ll have backup. A lot of backup.”
Erock growled. “That’s all we need, more aliens.”
Selene shot him a look. “If they can save our asses, why not?”
The captain shrugged. “The Dominion came here with nefarious purposes in mind once, who’s to say they won’t do it again?”
Flik’s face flashed red. “The Dominion has been out of contact with their own corporation for as long as the rest of us. They wouldn’t be able to gear up in time to launch a new plan.”
“Says you,” Erock said. His eyes darkened with suspicion.
Selene held her hands up. “Okay, I think we all need time to cool down and digest all of this. Let’s take some time to think about it, and decide what we want to do.” She paused, glancing at each of them. “Fixing this beacon means breaking into the old Zahkx ship, right?”
Flik nodded. “The Saegon won’t be easy to infiltrate.”
She sighed. “Of course not, but when has anything we’ve done ever been easy?” Flik flashed a quick smile, and she returned it.
“All right,” Erock grumbled as he stood. “Let’s reconvene in the morning.” He yawned and stretched his back.
As the others emptied out, Selene folded her arms and watched. It hadn’t gone quite as well as she’d hoped, though she couldn’t quite imagine what else she’d been expecting. No one could have seen this coming, and they were completely unprepared.
Eria paused at the door, looking back to inspect Captain Erock. Selene’s eyebrows rose as they quite obviously assessed each other. After a moment, Eria smiled flirtatiously and winked before stepping into the hall. Erock was quick to follow.
Oh great. That’s exactly what we need.
Selene rolled her eyes and stood. Though her muscles ached and her bones felt hollow, she had no time to rest yet. She met Flik’s gaze as he hesitated by the doorway. He nodded slightly. Tonight wasn’t over.
Before she could rest, Selene had some information to extract.
“Meeting in the cargo bay,” Selene said, making sure the smugglers, and former alliance members heard her before she left Erock’s office.
The rest of the team was quick to follow, and soon they’d all gathered in the cargo bay, huddled around Rem’s desk. Rem went back to his holoscreen right away, his fingers flying across the holokeys as he searched the data they’d extracted from the Dominion for any information they had on the Saegon and current security protocols.
Sav and Flik joined them last, Sav still looking exhausted and Flik wary. Selene motioned for them to have a seat, though she continued to stand, her arms crossed. Her heart raced with anticipation. She wanted to pace, but tried instead to keep her feet rooted to the floor. Looking anxious in front of the crew wasn’t going to help their unease.
“So?” Flik raised the skin of his forehead as he sat on a large crate beside Rem’s desk. Sav joined him on the crate, while Darius sat on another beside them.
Rikkard hovered by her shoulder, leaning back against the wall of a cruiser. His shoulders were tense—the only sign he was anything but calm and collected.
“Flik,” Selene said. Once she’d gotten his attention, she dropped her arms to her sides. “Tell us about the Darri.”
Flik tensed, his eyes widening slightly and his fingers curling around the edge of the crate. “What do you want to know?”
Selene bit the inside of her cheek. What didn’t she want to know? If she was about to go to war with an alien species she knew nothing about, she wanted to know everything. “Who are they?”
Flik sighed and shifted uncomfortably. “They’re one of the eight corporate clans, part of the Galactic Syndicate, like the Aldar Dominion.”
Selene’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “There are eight?”
Flik nodded.
“Meaning there are seven new alien species we know nothing about?” Darius balked.
“Yep.” Flik looked up as he thought. “There used to be nine, but that’s a story for another day.” His jaw hardened, and Selene filed that away as a question for later.
“Back to the Darri,” Selene said. “Are they like the Zahkx?”
Flik shook his head. “If you mean humanoid… then no. They’re more like a reptile-insect crossbreed.”
Her heart hammered her ribs. “Are they as advanced as your people?”
“Last time I checked, yeah.” Flik’s eyes darkened.
He wasn’t telling them something. Selene exchanged a look with Rikkard. He had the same glare of suspicion she was tempted to lay on Flik.
“So then they can be reasoned with,” Sav said.
She couldn’t help smiling at his optimism.
“Not quite,” Flik said.
Cold dread pooled in the base of Selene’s stomach. “What do you mean?”
Flik sighed. “The Darri are one of the most hostile races in the Milky Way. Even if we have two-hundred years before their arrival, it’d be a miracle if something didn’t provoke them sooner.”
“Shit,” Selene said.
“What she said.” Darius’s eyes widened.
“A hostile, intelligent species coming to take a planet they think is theirs… and enslave all of us.” Rikkard shook his head. “Fuck me.”
Selene nodded grimly. It was a lot, even for them. Maybe the others were right. Maybe they shouldn’t bother warning people. If the Darri were advanced enough to wipe them out and take Earth, maybe it’d be safest to give up the planet and flee. She bit the inside of her cheek and shook her head. What the hell was she thinking? They couldn’t give up Earth just like that. They had two hundred years to figure this out.
“We need to tell the people of Earth so they can decide what to do for themselves,” Selene said. Her fingers dug into her hips. Faintly, she heard a soft beep from the phone in her shirt pocket, but she didn’t bother checking it. This conversation was too important to neglect.
“And if they decide to war with each other instead of come up with a plan to save us all?” Rikkard glared.
Selene bristled. She hated when he looked at her like that, like she was a naïve child that knew nothing about the world. “If our entire planet hangs in the balance, humans and the Zahkx will rally.”
“You don’t know that.” Rikkard’s jaw hardened.
“I don’t, but I need to put my faith in something,” Selene countered.
“And what if your ‘faith’ sets fire to a war that decimates the planet’s few remaining resources?” Rikkard’s voice rose as he angrily threw a hand out.
Selene froze. “It won’t.”
�
��But what if it does?”
Selene’s fists curled. “It won’t. Not if this information is delivered in the right way. We need to expose the Dominion first, get them out of government completely, and then tell the world about the Darri. Once they learn these aliens are on their way in a couple hundred years, they’ll rally an army to fight off the Darri.”
Rikkard scoffed. “Wishful thinking.”
Selene gasped. “Wishful thinking?” Was he mocking her now?
“Yes! That’s all that is.” Rikkard threw his arms out. “Remember last time humans tried to rally after the solar flares? They killed another billion people fighting over resources!”
Heat flooded her cheeks. “That was three hundred years ago.”
“And have humans really changed that much?”
Selene paused. Had they? In the last few centuries they’d survived a lot, come back from a lot, but only because they had the Dominion’s help. Without the aliens, would they be lost? Would they descend into war and go back to their old ways? Selene shook her head. She hoped they wouldn’t, but she really had no way of knowing. None of them did. That’s why they had to tell everyone. They had to give them the option of redemption, even if they didn’t take it.
Selene opened her mouth to say as much to Rikkard—to try to explain herself, and why they should give humans a chance—but instead a cough tore from her throat. She covered her mouth as pain shot through her stomach and her throat burned. Something wet hit her fingers, and she opened her eyes to find red splashed across her palm.
She closed her hand quickly, trying to hide the blood and wipe her mouth, but as soon as she looked up at Rikkard, she knew he’d seen. His ice blue eyes widened with shock and concern. His anger and frustration melted away as he closed the few feet between them, his hands flying to her shoulders.
“Selene, are you okay?” he asked.
Selene nodded, even as another cough forced her to double over.
“Shit,” Flik said. He leapt off the crate, followed closely by Sav and Darius.
“Her clone,” Sav said.
Her mind swam with fog as stars flickered across her vision. In all the drama of the last few hours—days?—she’d completely forgotten her clone body was decaying. She’d only had a few days when her clone had been made, and her time was well up.
“Get that doctor up now!” Rikkard barked. Flik raced from the room almost before the order left Rikkard’s mouth. “Darius, do you know where the cloning chamber is?”
Darius shook his head.
“I do.” Rem leapt up, shutting his holoscreen down. “I’ll lead.”
Rikkard nodded, and before Selene could do anything, he scooped her off the ground in one quick motion, forcing a yelp of surprise from her tightened throat.
Rem led the way out of the cargo bay through the maze of halls back to the lab a few doors down from the doctor’s office. He flashed a hand across the panel beside the door and it disappeared into the wall.
“Hurry now!” the doctor called from inside. His blonde hair was dishevelled and he wore sweatpants instead of slacks, but he donned a lab coat, and his fingers flew across the command module’s holokeys as if he hadn’t been pulled from his bed in the middle of the night.
Selene’s throat squeezed and she gasped in a breath of air. Her lungs constricted and black sparks crowded her vision. Though she’d known her clone would eventually fail her, she hadn’t thought it’d be quite this fast.
“Dammit.” Rikkard raced across the room, his face contorted with worry as he set her down by the clone pod on the left. Its lid popped up and slid open, and the black color receded to clear glass with a frosted bottom.
“Rik,” Selene coughed, barely holding onto consciousness. Her mind swirled and her eyes watered as she placed a hand on his rough cheek.
“Get her in the pod!” the doctor snapped.
“You’re going to be fine,” Rikkard said, his voice higher than usual. “I’m going to undress you for the pod, okay?”
Selene barely had time to nod before he yanked the shirt off over her head. It wasn’t how she imagined Rikkard first seeing her naked, and she briefly hoped it wouldn’t be the last time.
Rikkard’s strong arms wrapped around her again and he slowly lowered her into the pod. She held onto his neck, her entire body growing hazy like static rain beneath her skin. Cold pressed against her back and legs, but she hardly felt it as shadows took her.
“Selene… Selene.”
Selene’s eyes flashed open, and she sucked in a great lungful of air. Color burst in front of her eyes, and bright light stabbed her skull. She groaned and covered her eyes, shielding herself from the sudden explosion of noise, light, and smells.
“What the fuck?” she croaked. The pungent scent of body odor flew up her nostrils, and then the undercurrent of bleach, followed by a distant whiff of sandalwood, and vanilla. Her mind swam and dizziness nearly took her back to sleep.
“Everyone back away please,” the doctor said with a sigh. “This can’t be your first time around a new clone.” He was scolding the crew—her crew—a bunch of smugglers and former Alliance members. She smiled, betting he talked to the pirates like that too.
“Sorry,” Darius said.
She heard the muffled retreat of footsteps, and most of the scents filling her head drifted away, all but the bleach.
Selene rubbed her eyes, and tried lowering her hands again. Light burned her retinas, but it didn’t send a stab of pain through her skull that time. Slowly, she lowered her arms.
“Welcome back,” the doctor said. He stood a few feet from the pod, his hands in the pockets of his lab coat, and a lopsided smile on his face. He reminded her strangely of a golden retriever, a dog she’d only ever seen in movies, but it fit his dorky expression perfectly.
“Thanks.” Selene cleared her throat, her fingers hesitating on her neck as she remembered the painful coughs that had taken her into unconsciousness. She shook her head, and sat up slowly, cold licking her bare skin.
She froze, crossing her arms to cover her chest as she remembered Rikkard ripping her clothes off in a desperate attempt to get her ready for the cloning pod. Her cheeks heated as she looked at the others.
Thankfully the pod was still black, shielding her from the shoulders down from any prying eyes.
“Hey guys.” A tentative smile curved her lips.
Darius narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms angrily. “You’ve got to stop scaring the hell out of us like that!”
“Agreed.” Sav and Flik joined Darius in their cross-armed distaste for her near-death habit. It’s not like she could help it.
She grinned. “Sorry.”
Rikkard crossed the room then, gathering a small folded pile of clothes for her, the same ones she’d worn before being placed in the pod. He set them on the edge of the pod, his eyes lingering on her face for a few long moments. Then he stepped away, and everyone gave her a few moments to pull herself from the pod, and throw a shirt and panties back on.
Once she was dressed, she pulled her boots back on and gave the others the go ahead to turn around.
“It’s not like we haven’t seen you naked already,” Darius huffed. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
Selene’s face heated and she narrowed her eyes. Great.
“The procedure went perfectly,” the doctor said, coming over with a clipboard in hand. “I knew you looked familiar, and once Rikkard explained about the situation with Zelena Stein, we were able to get your old body back… in a way, at least.”
Selene’s eyes widened. “Wait, what?”
The doctor laughed and lowered his clipboard. “Zelena Stein’s body index was on file in the national registry. It’d have to be for her to be considered a potential candidate for the interim president position,” he explained. “So, using her records, we were able to clone you into a nearly identical body as your old one, even with the enhanced strength, reflexes and night vision.”
Her eyebrows fu
rrowed. “Wouldn’t that just be like my last clone?”
The doctor shook his head. “Not quite. Since your natural human body was genetically modified like that, we were able to clone you without modifications. So this body should last you around ten years like most base-model clones… though it’s hard to say how the genetic modifications might affect that. I’d stay safe and check in yearly with a certified cloner like myself to make sure the deterioration process doesn’t hit too early.”
Selene looked wide-eyed between the crew, and the doctor. She’d fully been expecting to wake up in some half-ass clone body like the one Pate had made her, especially if Rikkard had his way. The way he seemed to see it, the longer she lived, the better. But now, she’d be like her old self again.
She turned to Rikkard, her heart swelling with thanks.
“Don’t mention it,” Rikkard said before she could say a word, giving her a blasé shrug.
Selene smiled. Though they’d fought moments before things went south, he still looked out for her. Crossing the distance to the wall Rikkard leaned against, she took his face in her hands and kissed him. His lips were warm against hers, and his hand rested gently on her hip, while the other went to her cheek.
He kissed her for only a moment before pulling back.
“Thank you,” she whispered, and pecked him on the lips before stepping away.
Rikkard nodded, a ghost of a smile crossing his lips.
Selene turned back to the others, who did a great job of not looking too awkward at their public display of affection. She flexed her muscles and grinned. If what the doctor said was true, that meant not only did she have her muscles and reflexes back, but she also had her muscle memory.
She spun in a roundhouse kick, her foot flying clear through the air, her body responding exactly as it always had.
She grinned. “Thank Aldar!” Energy flowed through her. She was ready to move.
“I don’t think we’ll be thanking Aldar much longer,” Darius commented.
Selene paused. She hadn’t thought about it before, but the saying, similar to the ancient ‘thank God’, had only come about after the Aldar Dominion ‘saved the world’. Now that they knew that wasn’t true, maybe it was time to let the saying die.
The Darri Commission: A Sci-Fi Dystopian Adventure (Dominion Rising Book 3) Page 2
