Surly?
He almost
chuckled. He’d certainly been called a lot worse in his time. He rubbed his
chin as he stared out into empty space and thought about her questions.
He wasn’t used to answering to anyone. He’d
made his rank early, years ago, but hadn’t responded well to authority. In
fact, he’d burned down a training facility. On purpose. So he’d been stripped
of most everything, until his brother’s last Earth mission and his own escape
from temporary banishment on the Sand Moon. In the blink of an eye, things had
changed for all of them.
Giving up his rebellious ways to embrace
the Koll family legacy and the true warrior way hadn’t turned out as he’d
expected. With responsibility came choices he’d rather not make. A lot of
people were relying on him to do the right thing. What if he failed?
“Torque? You’ve been zoning out and overly
moody since we began this journey. It’s worrisome.”
He turned his head to look at her and
finally spoke. “I just think all this is a piss-poor idea, as the humans are so
fond of saying. Coming out here without adequate weapons and fighters is, well,
about as close to a suicide mission as it gets.” There, he said it. He knew she
wasn’t going to like it, but what the fuck.
Brianna locked her gaze with his. Her eyes
hardened and her entire being tensed. “I don’t want to hear that from you.”
“You shouldn’t have asked then. We can’t
win this fight, Brianna.” Their asses had been fried by their enemies. Now they
were headed into another fight with even fewer resources.
“And your solution would be? You know what
will happen if we don’t stop this.” When he didn’t respond, she asked, “Is that
how you truly feel? Like this is hopeless and a waste of time.”
“Pretty much.” Hell. He didn’t know how he felt.
It was all a jumble in his head. Self-preservation versus military duty versus
family loyalty versus avenging Xylon. To truly win this war, they needed their
fleets restored, their commanders back in charge and their society whole again.
How could the few fighters who remained be victorious? He’d been all for
getting out of that hole they’d been stuck in on Xylon, but now that he’d had
time to think about things, he realized just how under-prepared for this fight
they really were. He didn’t want to lose his family or any more Xylons to a
cause that seemed destined to fail.
“You’d better get a new attitude quick,
brother.”
Her tone grated on his nerves. And his
patience. He never liked being told how to act or feel. Not even from his own
family. She couldn’t ask him what he thought, then demand that he change when
what he said didn’t meet with her approval. That was just fucking screwy. His
attitude was his damn attitude.
“Did you hear me, Torque?”
“Yeah. I heard. And if I don’t change my
attitude?”
“I’ll assign Halah to take your place. If I
feel like you’re going to jeopardize this mission, I will do whatever has to be
done.”
Torque recognized his sister’s command
voice. He touched the insignia Laszlo—Xylon’s military leader—had given him for
this mission, partially reinstating his own command status. He did have the
authority to provide input on how this mission went down.
Before he said what was on his mind though,
she spoke again, “Don’t think that insignia will stop me. I still outrank you
with my time in grade.”
“Official time in grade. I made rank first.”
“Irrelevant, since you were stripped of
that rank and taken out of commission with just cause.”
Even so, he knew the ways of war better
than most and he’d challenge her decisions if he felt justified. “I don’t want
to argue about this, Brianna. I’m not going to purposely jeopardize anything
but we’re headed into more trouble than we can handle. You know that.”
If she did try to remove him from this
mission, he’d have a tough choice to make. Would he obey his sister’s amended
orders or follow their leader’s original orders? He trusted and loved his
sister. He neither trusted nor loved Laszlo. Still, deep down, his sense of
duty to Xylon was as strong as it had been years ago when he’d first made rank,
despite his transgressions. Of course, a third option did exist—to do what he felt
would be best for all, regardless of orders, even if that meant taking over
this mission himself.
Brianna’s voice penetrated his thoughts.
“We have to save Earth to save ourselves. If we don’t stop what’s happening,
our enemies will gain almost unlimited power. Nobody else has the firepower or
the inclination to do this.”
“
We
don’t have the firepower.” And
how many warriors would have the inclination, after what happened to their own
planet, remained to be seen. Besides, he wasn’t so sure that saving Earth would
truly save themselves in the end.
“Our forces can be reorganized. Fleets of
warriors will join us and we will win. I believe in our people.”
“You have a lot of faith.” If she was
wrong, Earth was definitely doomed. As Xylon already had been.
Their brother Braden—second-in-command of
Xylon’s Warriors—along with others, were headed for a Xylon outpost to gather
their fleets, if any still existed. They were supposed to rendezvous in orbit
around Earth to take out any Egesa ships.
The Egesa—half humanoid, half lizard-like
creatures—were headed toward Earth to enslave its people and save their own
powerful leaders from certain death by harvesting much-needed human spinal
fluid.
Xylon’s warriors were the only ones
advanced enough in warfare to stop the Egesa from plunging Earth as well as
other systems into chaos and destruction—Laszlo’s words. Torque figured the
Xylons’ odds of success, given their current circumstances, were slim to none
against the cold-blooded creatures. At full force, they’d been taken down and
now here they were coming back for more. Granted, the leader of the Egesa had
surprised them with an ancient weapon long believed destroyed. But maybe that
made their enemies smarter than Xylon’s leaders, who’d been fools to trust that
none of those weapons still existed.
“Best to change the subject, Torque, before
our disagreement becomes heated, for it would serve no purpose and not change
our circumstances.” With that hard look still in her eyes, Brianna checked
their energy levels. “Is the thruster working correctly now?”
“It’s indicating. Halah’s checking the rear
panel to make sure.” He waited a heartbeat before he continued. With a slight
smile and trying to shift the mood, he asked, “You and the Colonel haven’t fucked
since we took off. Troubles?”
Brianna’s hand stilled and she looked over
at him. “Not the best subject, Torque.”
He cocked an eyebrow, suspecting that’s
exactly what they had been doing down below. If not, they were fools not to
take the opportunity. He couldn’t help goading her about it. Most Xylons would
have just moved into the back of the ship and gone at it, regardless of an
audience. But since joining with him, Brianna had adapted her behavior. “I
haven’t even seen him touch you, except on the hand.”
“Just because Sam’s not into public, sexual
displays if he can avoid them, doesn’t mean we haven’t been together. Besides,
even Xylons don’t openly fuck another where an opposite-sex sibling is likely
to see, except maybe during a Joining Party. And even if you weren’t on this
mission with us in such tight quarters, you know how Earthlings feel about
these things.”
Yes, the sexually repressive attitudes of
those from that backward planet were well known and documented. Sometimes he
believed humans simply needed an excuse to act on their true desires. Briggs
had agreed to their sexual initiation rite readily enough. Or a modified
version of it. The man wasn’t shy. Even so, Torque knew that problems loomed.
“He doesn’t fit in with us, Brianna. An Earth-trained soldier never will.”
“Airman.”
“What?”
“Sam’s an airman, not a soldier.”
“Who the fuck cares what he’s called,
Brianna! That’s not the point.”
“He cares. Therefore, I care. And keep your
voice down.”
Torque glanced toward the center of the
orbiter where Briggs and Leila Abdera, a Xylon Healer, sat quietly discussing
the serum they’d manufactured from Briggs’ altered sperm, if the occasional
word he caught was any indication. If the serum didn’t protect human males from
the Egesa poisons and diseases—if it didn’t help them heal faster from any
wounds inflicted—their planet didn’t stand a chance of survival.
Even if the mission somehow proved
successful, once back on Earth, Torque had a bad feeling that Lieutenant
Colonel Sam Briggs might not honor his commitment to Brianna or he might try to
separate her from her family. Something in the man’s eyes told him that he
harbored a lot of secrets and that disturbed him in more ways than one. They’d
all had to deal with enough secrecy recently to last them a lifetime.
“Alexa fits in. She’s from Earth,” Brianna
finally offered in a softer tone.
Their brother’s mate was one of the few
super breeders in existence. A woman capable of producing multiple children
with each birth. A rare and important find for the survival of their species.
“Alexa is different. She’s only half human and not military. Her other half,
along with her heart and soul, is pure Xylon.” Plus she was the daughter of
their leader Laszlo. “She was fated from birth to be with us, accepted as one
of us. Our breeding problems are—”
“Not as dire as the council had us
believing. Or so I’m beginning to think.”
That took Torque by surprise. Laszlo and
the Council of Thirteen had harbored their own secrets. Laszlo was guilty of
manipulating all their lives. But Brianna rarely voiced doubts about their
leaders. “Perhaps.”
He looked at Leila, studying the woman. As
the warriors’ chief healer, she would know the truth. Or should. Breeding on
Xylon had been strictly controlled after most of their females mysteriously
became sterile. Then even tighter controls were instigated when the majority of
Xylon’s men became unable to breed with most other humanoids in the Xylon
system. Because of a lack of suitable mates available, they’d eventually had to
search other systems for specific DNA-compatible matches to help preserve the
race.
He wondered just how much Leila knew about
the situation and if she’d been sworn to protect some secret truth. In the
past, he wouldn’t have thought Leila deceptive, especially being mated to one
of the most trustworthy warriors he’d ever known. But so many had betrayed
their trust that almost everyone was under suspicion in his eyes now. His gaze
switched back to Sam and more uneasiness churned inside him. “The Colonel’s
presence, this
exchange
with Earth, disturbs me.”
“I know you don’t like Sam—”
“I don’t trust him.”
“You don’t trust anyone.”
When her brow furrowed and she busied
herself unnecessarily, once again looking over the instruments and readings, he
knew that she was at the end of her patience. Their family had been through too
much. He didn’t want more friction between them. He touched her hand. “I trust
you
.”
She looked over at him.
Before either of them could say anything
more, Halah reappeared. “You fixed it.”
Brianna pulled back her hand and slid out
of the seat. “Good.”
Halah sat beside Torque and looked over the
data panels. “It was a minor glitch. I’ve been watching the readings since we
took off. There’s a small incompatibility problem between the older thruster
hardware and the upgraded software system. It might need manually resetting
from time to time. I see the tracking equipment has been turned on.”
Torque nodded. “For all planets, orbits and
outlying areas. We’ll be encountering traffic soon.”
Halah turned to Brianna. “When we reach
Earth, we’re going to have a hard time staying cloaked for an extended length
of time. The energy consumption is enormous for the age of this ship. The fuel
doesn’t regenerate as quickly as we’re accustomed to with our newer ships.”
“Yes, I figured as much. After we’re
on-planet, take the ship out of orbit and tracking range. At least until we
have backup. If it’s safe to de-cloak at that time, do so. Go as far out as
necessary to conserve our resources. Come back into contact range periodically
to check in. Keep this ship safe at all costs. It may be our only way back
home.”
Halah nodded. “Understood.”
“Brianna?”
She turned at the sound of Briggs’ voice.
“Yes?”
“How are we going to communicate with the
ship and with each other once we’re on Earth and separated?”
“After we lifted off from Xylon, Halah
found some old equipment, previously overlooked, that was stashed with various
engineering parts stored below. With it, we’ll be able to use Earth’s
satellites to communicate. Our own grid is still down, making our current
devices useless, but we can bounce messages off your telecom network with the
older vid-cell units.”
Torque reached into a compartment and
pulled out three old-looking handheld devices. “You’d better get them set up.”
Brianna nodded as she grabbed one of the
devices. “Once these units are programmed and energized, they should work fine
with Earth’s satellites unless something has changed that we’re unaware of.”
“Why will the old ones work and not the
new?” Sam asked, looking at the unit in her hand.
Halah took hold of another unit. “They use
Xylon’s old grid specifications, which are still different from Earth’s, but
compatible, whereas our new devices aren’t. For security reasons, as Earth
advanced, Xylon changed the system, so whenever our ships approached the
planet, no one could come across or tap into our communications without our
permission or knowledge.”
“You don’t happen to still have my comm
device, do you?” Sam asked.
Torque shook his head. “It was destroyed.”
That would have been a good option for contacting his people on Earth, but
since it had been one-way only, it wouldn’t have served them in any other
capacity.