Alien General's Fated: SciFi Alien Romance (Brion Brides) (3 page)

 

The fight had left him exhausted, but he refused to let it show. No duel for the position of a Brion general was ever easy. If it would have been so, the leadership would have been battled over every other day. And Hagen hadn't even been
old
, merely
older
.

He'd expected... well, not praise. Brions assumed that when you were good enough, you didn't need to be told you were. What he'd presumed was acknowledgment of some kind, not a fool's task that no one in his stead would have accepted.

Only a single person in the hall dared to look him straight in the eye. With an amused smirk, Ryden noticed that the woman was the only one not to have a protective shield of bodyguards around her. She was the lone person there he didn't immediately hate. High Senator Eleya had a reputation, and he guessed she would have cut out the tongue of the first person to suggest she needed protection.

She was the one to break the silence, her voice at once cold and menacing.

"
General Ryden
," she said through gritted teeth. "You have some nerve. You were summoned to appear before us as the new commander of the
Conqueror
. Not still dripping with the blood of the
former
general."

Ryden smirked, hearing that. He cracked his neck, standing up straighter, baring his teeth in a feral grin. His voice was hoarse when he spoke, rough from the cut in his throat. It had almost ended his life.

"This is what a general looks like," he said. "Perhaps you have forgotten, High Senator."

Several emotions warred on High Senator Eleya's face. There was the immediate anger, marking her as a born warrior. But there was amusement as well, knowing he spoke the truth. And bitterness at not being able to taste the thrill anymore, the intensity that only came from living on the edge. Being a general was a gift and a curse. It was a prize every warrior fought for, but it quickly turned to ashes in their hands when they had to start fighting to keep their position.

"I don't object to your victory," Eleya said, glaring at him. "I'm merely pointing out you're disrespecting the man you succeeded."

All the while, the other senators were quietly trying to find their seats without drawing attention. Ryden noticed that. It pleased him to see them grovel in fear. As they should, after all the troubles they'd brought upon Briolina. Even Brions thought twice before angering their generals, who were not known for being a forgiving group.

"I am not," Ryden snarled, emotions high from his victory. "I am honoring his legacy by showing the victory was hard won. He was a great commander, a tradition I mean to continue. Which is why this task is a joke. One I demand that you change."

The High Senator's eyes got even colder, if that were possible. She rose from her seat at the center of the room. Eleya was a tall woman, dark-haired and still fit. Unlike the other senators, she had the long line of valor squares going up her lean neck, implanted to speak of her victories and glories. Yet even as a warrior, she had to crane her neck a bit to look Ryden in the eye.

"You
demand
nothing," she said with emphasis. "You were given a task, General Ryden. You will do your duty."

"It is beneath me," Ryden replied coldly. " I need to be on the front line, in the thick of fighting to show my warriors I'm fit to lead. Not
sitting in some war council like a politician
!"

Eleya regarded him, her eyes flashing. Ryden knew he'd struck a nerve, but it wasn't his priority to spare her feelings. Even the Galactic Union couldn't summon him like a common serf.

"I'd already decided to send General Hagen," Eleya said, taking hold of her temper. "Since you killed him, you inherit everything he left behind. Including his duties."

"I am not the same man."

"That's why I'm not sending you for the same reasons," the High Senator snapped. "The Galactic Union is
under serious threat
. After years of bad blood, we finally have a chance to show them what we are capable of. To wage war, like we are born to do. The Union looks to us. But they need someone
there
to oversee things."

"
Don't lecture me on war
," Ryden growled. "I know what is needed and what is not. I see no merit in going. We belong in the battle."

"This is a big war," Eleya said, barely concealed venom tinting her words. He was trying her patience and Ryden had no desire to stop doing so. "There are many factions and many battlefields. It needs a coordinator. No one knows war like Brions do. You said it yourself."

"I did," Ryden said. "It doesn't mean I volunteered for the job."

"It's a good thing then that I don't have to ask for your opinion in the matter."

Ryden moved so fast none of the other senators even saw him charging. The muted, shocked gasps of surprise and outrage only echoed after the dust had settled. Their bodyguards came closer, but Eleya waved them off. She was awkwardly bent backward over her senatorial seat, Ryden's spear inches from her throat. Her own was lying on the ground, knocked out of her grip.

There was no fear in her eyes. Ryden understood that much. Brion generals didn't listen to anyone who cowered from them, and Eleya knew this as well as he did.

"I think you find that you do," he hissed at the High Senator. "I will
not
watch this war happening on a holoprojector because you think I can be manipulated."

Eleya scowled at him, quite a feat for someone inches away from dying in a very unpleasant way.

"Do you honestly think I'm sending you because I'm petty?" she asked furiously. "I'm sending you
because I think you are needed there
."

"There is nothing to do," Ryden said. "It is a job for an administrator, not a warrior. I will go where my skills are truly needed. The council of the Galactic Union isn't it."

"It is," Eleya said, trying to control her breathing. "The Clayors have made threats against the council itself. If you would have let me explain, I would have said so. It's not just the planning, General. I'm sending you to defend Ilotra."

That... that was something else. Unsure if he was being toyed with, Ryden pulled back. Eleya sat up, rubbing her scratched throat, coughing. Some of the other senators had fled, but that was to be expected. The bodyguards were still there, though, ready to try to take him into custody at any moment if told to do so.

Eleya ordered them to stay put. Ryden knew that after being on the verge of civil war, Eleya was doing her best not to let another quarrel between senators and generals to break out. Ryden himself would have gladly welcomed the attempt, even if he was tired from his duel. A Brion warrior never missed the chance to hone their skills, and frankly, he doubted he'd get more than a light warm-up from those assembled if things got that far.

It was also the reason the name Ilotra changed things.

The fortress of Ilotra was the home of the GU's main council. It was a construction unlike any other in the galaxy. Initially a companion to the gigantic gas planet Ilo, several hundred years after its discovery it had transformed completely. The fortress now covered the companion moon entirely, forming a half-artificial, half-celestial symbiosis. It was
immense
, serving as a central point to politics, trade, and everything else that the Galactic Union controlled.

No serious attempt had ever been made to attack a fully operational Ilotra, but the way Ryden saw it, the Clayors were just mad enough to try. And possibly mad enough to succeed. His kind of enemy.

It wasn't in the nature of Brions to be the
defending
side, but that was a different matter completely.

"Why me?" he asked, relaxing his body like a big cat after pouncing, like attacking the High Senator was something that he took little to no notice of.

"Again, you're not happy," she shot back at him, glaring, supporting herself on her seat.

Happiness serves no purpose,
he thought dryly.

That may have been a justified comment, though, Ryden figured. Perhaps he had overreacted in his disappointed fury. All generals wanted to immediately distinguish themselves. How else would they assert authority over thousands of bloodthirsty killers in their new command? To hear he was to babysit a bunch of bureaucrats had tested his temper.

"Interested, this time," he said, hoping Eleya didn't need more to see he was being truthful.

Luckily, the High Senator wasn't one to hold a grudge. Luckily for her, that was, if one were to ask Ryden.

"I think you can do it," she said. "We need someone on Ilotra who can whip those lazy bastards into shape. Someone who can immediately react to new dangers. I trust you to be able to do that, to defend the whole moon."

"You flatter me," Ryden growled. "I asked for a real answer."

"I do," Eleya admitted. "Doesn't mean I don't believe it. I'm giving you a chance to prove yourself beyond anyone's expectations. And you have the support of your fellow generals."

That
was surprising. Ryden had only been a general for an hour, counting the time clearing the senate room of the rats and the men barely worthy of being called Brion. When did Eleya have a chance to consult the others? But of course news like that traveled at the speed of light.

"Really," he said, disbelief muddling his words and a wry smirk playing on his lips. "I doubt Faren or Diego Grothan would be thrilled to leave all the glory to someone else."

The High Senator grinned at him, smiling like only Brion warriors did.

"I assure you," she said. "Those were their exact words. 'That arrogant prick will do it,' General Faren said, 'or we will achieve a decisive victory cleaning up his incompetence.' Diego Grothan merely laughed."

Ryden nodded, recognizing the attitudes of the two most feared Brion generals immediately. He didn't feel bad; on the contrary, it might have seemed morbid, but Brions took life simply and rationally. In their stead, he would have said much the same. Coming from the only two men he could say he begrudgingly respected, simple recognition was high praise.

"I will go to Ilotra," he told Eleya, already turning and walking away, "let them know."

"Gladly," he heard the High Senator replying with a hint of laughter in her voice. "I'll tell them you're
their
problem now."

Ryden grinned, but his mind was already on Ilotra, his hand resting around his spear, always ready. There had been no painstaking plotting, no planning that had led to this moment. He had seen his opportunity and taken it. He'd feared his first task as a general would be an inglorious one, but he'd been wrong.

Glory awaited him, glory like nothing else. To fail would be to die, but that was all he'd asked of the fates. A chance to die or triumph—it was all a Brion warrior needed.

CHAPTER FOUR

Aria

 

Aria was standing in the biggest hangar on Ilotra, staring out of the huge view screen. Traffic around Ilotra was busy as always, ships coming and going with smaller vessels and transport drones shuffling between them. Without an AI to point out the correct ship, it was almost impossible to distinguish any of them.

She'd been told she couldn't possibly miss the Brion warship.

Her assistant was looking into the space around the fortress as well, a concerned expression on his face.

"They look nervous, don't they?" he asked.

Aria had to admit it was true. There was a fidgety sort of unease about the ships. In peaceful times, Ilotra was a center of trade as well as politics, creating a busy but excited atmosphere around the armored moon. It wasn't unknown for a huge flock of ships to connect to each other with long, airtight corridors, making it possible to travel around them without venturing into open space.

With the threat of war upon them, there was nothing of the sort. Ships jumped into hyperspace as soon as they were clear of Ilotra's gravity and vice versa. Vessels bound for Ilotra clearly couldn't wait to be under her protective shadow, safe and sound in its immense hangars.

"Yes," the young ambassador allowed. "What do you expect, Elik? Clayors are on the warpath. Against the
Galactic Union
. Something that ridiculous hasn't happened in ages. Not in our lifetime, certainly."

"You're not worried?" the assistant asked. "They could be right upon us."

Aria looked at her reflection on the screen, which was transparent and filled with stars. A young, confident woman stared her right in the eye. An ambassador, no less. Only she wasn't a
full-fledged
ambassador yet. Terra had only five ambassadors appointed, and the others had seniority over her. Her pink lips, usually smiling, were drawn into a tight line. Long straight honey-colored hair fell in two neat lines over her shoulders. The form-fitting gown she wore over her curvy body—the GU's pure silvery white marked with an ambassador's sash—should have given her power beyond her comprehension. Only it didn't, yet. All she had to do to get into the big boys' club was control a temperamental warlord. Easy peasy.

Aria regained her composure. She could pout about them clipping her wings at some other time. Right now she had a job to do. A task she did not relish.

"No," she told Elik. "Clayors are insane, but they're not magical. All reports say they're delayed in the Delta sector."

"By the Brions," the assistant added carefully.

"Yeah," Aria sighed, "by them. I'll eat my favorite hat if they ever let us forget that."

"They're the best we have," Elik pointed out. "It's better to have them with us than against us."

"So they keep saying."

Elik was quiet for a moment.

"You don't like them very much, do you?" he asked.

"I have a long memory, that's all," Aria said dismissively. "But Terra likes them right now, because of that woman binding to one of their generals. We're friends."

"Your tone says plenty about that."

Aria sighed again.

"It's not that I hate them," she explained. "All species in the galaxy have their place, and so do they. But they've proved time and time again that the only thing they're really good at is waging war and making trouble for the rest of us. Inviting them to protect us is pretty much just choosing one kind of trouble over another, hoping they'll leave us less broken than the Clayors would. And I'm supposed to greet this new general who has come to tell us what to do."