Shattered Destiny: A Galactic Adventure, Episode One (5 page)

I listened carefully, a strange
queasy feeling alighting through my gut. Quick and hard, it
f
elt like
I’d been punched by a brick.

Squeezing a hand under my thick tunic top, I
curled my ragged nails against my stomach as I tried to dig the
uncomfortable sensation out.

Suddenly a rattling alarm blared over the
refinery main grounds. I had to jerk my head to the side and cram a
hand hard over my ear, nestling the other against my shoulder.

“Incoming ship deploying security
personnel. Refinery crew will comply,” the main computer instructed
in a booming voice that echoed over the grounds.

My lip twitched.

I’d already made it half way across the
massive dirt yard that separated the main habitation building from
the primary refinery facility.

The refinery was a massive structure,
though you couldn’t really tell that from the surface. The majority
of its infrastructure was sunk under the sand like an iceberg. It
was over a kilometer deep and two kilometers wide. And that wasn’t
to mention the gas pipes that crisscrossed under the surface of
this desert planet.

The Royal Arterian cruiser dwarfed
everything. It was like a floating city.

More than its size, I’d never
seen a more sophisticated ship dock at the refinery. We tended to
get dilapidated tankers and cargo
ships
.
Occasionally we’d get military vessels, even pleasure
cruisers.

But this….

There was another blaring alarm, and I
watched a hatch appear out of the side of the ship. A ramp built
itself, smart metallic plating locking into place and slamming into
the dust-covered earth.

I jerked my head to the side and tucked my
scarf further over my mouth.

A second later, troops began to deploy
down the ramp, their heavy metal armor echoing against the ramp,
sending thumping, drumming beats reverberating through the
facility.

The sun glimmered off the guards’ armor,
off their guns, too.

My eyes narrowed.

“Obedience is expected,” the computer
suddenly blared. “Every refinery worker will comply with every
order given by the Arterian Security Forces.”

Obedience was expected,
ha? More
like
mandatory
. Step out of line, and it was clear
these gun-toting guards wouldn’t think twice about mowing you
down.

I tucked my head down and continued towards
the facility.

Around me, my fellow workers continued to
speculate about what the hell could bring an Arterian war cruiser
down to our refinery. As I walked further under the shadow of the
hull, I gazed up and realized why.

The ship had been in a fight. There were
black swathes of burnt plating scattered over the hull, a few gun
turrets nothing more than smoking pits.

The ship was sophisticated enough that it
was self-healing – I could pick up the faint green crackle of
organic technology fields encasing the damaged sections.

“Head down, worker,” someone suddenly
snapped from my side.

I glanced over to see an Arterian guard. He
gestured towards me with his gun, the muzzle of the gun, to be
precise.

I darted my gaze to the side, locked it on
my feet, and walked past the guard. As soon as he was behind me, I
ticked my head back up and continued to assess the
damage.

That’s when my gaze locked on an odd black
protrusion.

I had great eyesight. Good
hearing, too
. And I swore I could hear an odd cracking sound above the
steady whir of the cruiser’s engines cycling down.

“Get a move on,” someone snarled from
behind me.

I half turned to see another security
guard.

I flicked him an obedient if still petulant
look, turned hard on my boot, and headed towards the refinery.

I didn’t reach it.

For at
that moment, something truly strange
happened.

I felt as if an ethereal hand reached out
from nowhere and clutched my shoulder, stopping me in place. It was
such a distinct, real sensation that I let out a startled
gasp.

I shifted hard on my foot, swinging my gaze
from left to right as I looked for the source of the strange
sensation. That’s when my gaze locked on the ramp.

Another figure was
cutting
a
path down the long metal ramp, its
footfall heavier than most, every step ringing out like a deafening
drumbeat.

I brought my hand up as a strike of sunlight
glinted off the man’s armor. I protected my gaze as I stared at him
through my fingers.

All of the security personnel appeared to
react to his appearance. They straightened up, snapped salutes, and
brought their guns down in respect.

The man ignored them. He reached the end
of the ramp and strode off it. For whatever reason, he was wearing
a cape. It was a deep rich purple color, and connected to a gold
insignia on his left shoulder. It then swept across his back and
connected to a point beneath his right shoulder.

Why anyone would wear a cape, I didn’t
know, especially with armor. But it confirmed one thing – this man,
whoever he was, had to be royalty. Arterian royalty, to be
precise.

The Arterian Empire controlled most of the
central galactic states. They had the most power, access to the
most resources, and the most influence. Though the modern galaxy
professed to be democratic, the Arterians held all the power in the
Senate.

I had never seen an Arterian, let alone
royalty.

The man stopped several meters away from
the ramp, and began conversing with what looked like a senior
guard. While most of the other members of the security force wore
simple, drab, grey-black armor, this man wore white adorned with
silver.

The man in white bowed down low, pressing a
hand against his chest.

The man in purple waved him up.

I stopped.

I couldn’t move.

It wasn’t just the memory of the ethereal
sensation that had pressed against my shoulder, it was the effect
of the prince.

He was… I couldn’t describe it.

My whole body was suddenly beset with such
violent emotions I had to stop and wrap a sweaty hand over my
brow.

My head was spinning, my ears ringing like
I’d fired a blaster in the center of my skull.

I pressed a shaking hand against my parted
lips as I stared at him.

Even if the refinery had exploded behind me,
I wouldn’t have been able to tear my eyes off him.

I couldn’t see his face. Didn’t need to. His
whole body was obscured by his purple gold armor, but that didn’t
matter. There was something about the man….

Suddenly an alarm blared out over the
refinery. It was such a shaking, shrieking pitch that I had to
clutch both hands over my ears as I practically fell to my
knees.

The
prince jolted forward, the man in
white by his side.

The security forces ran around
chaotically, obviously looking for the source of the
alarm.

Me, my head suddenly ticked back as if
somebody had jerked it there. My gaze locked on that odd black
protrusion on the hull above.

That's when I heard a cracking noise,
distinct, impossible to ignore.

Before I knew what I was doing, I pitched
forward, throwing myself into a sprint, aimed at the
prince.

I honestly had no control of my body. It
felt as if somebody had reached inside and had wrapped their hands
around every muscle.

The man in white saw me spring towards the
prince, and grabbed up his gun.

But it wasn't in time.

And I had no intention of attacking the
prince.

Just the opposite.

Something shot out of the black protrusion
along the hull. Small at first, it grew in a fraction of a
second.

It was a Zorv bot. A kind of
self-replicating assassination drone.

Before I knew what I was doing, I leapt
into the air and intercepted its course. I wrapped my arms around
its middle as it slammed into my gut.

I was thrown backwards into the ground.
But there I did not remain. Immediately I pitched my legs up and
around, rolling, pressing the bot against my stomach with both
hands.

I felt
two
metallic arms try to protrude from its back.

I jerked my hand away for just a second,
then jerked it back once the legs had formed. I grabbed them,
pitched around, and threw the drone on the ground by my
feet.

By now the security personnel were acting
– they were thrusting towards me, guns held high. They weren't as
fast as the man in white, though. He pulled up some kind of
directed energy blade from his side, and sprinted towards
me.

None of them were close enough.

I doubled back, just as the bot tried to
shoot me with a laser. It sliced over my arm, collecting the side
of my top, but not powering through my shoulder below and slicing
my arm off.

Immediately I jerked an arm around,
intending to grab the blaster from my back, but it wasn't
there.

We weren't allowed to be armed.
I'd left it back in my room. Instead my prying fingers grasped
against a lock wrench. It was a device designed to adhere onto
most
surfaces
so you could pry back tricky panels
or rock or what have you.

With no other weapon, I thrust forward,
deliberately falling to my knees just as the bot sliced towards me
with one of its pincer-like, impossibly sharp arms. It managed to
slice off the end of my dust scarf, but missed my face by a good
few inches.

Though it was fast, I was faster.

And desperate.

Though I'd been in my fair share of
fights, a different kind of fear pumped through my veins. One I'd
never experienced before.

People had often asked me if I felt fright.
I seemed so composed most of the time, so cold.

I'd had more successful run-ins with the
breakers than anyone else at the refinery.

That's why I had a reputation. But this –
desperate, frantic emotions charging through me – I'd never felt
them before.

They pushed me on, charged me up with a
truly powerful energy that saw me dodge once more as the bot sliced
towards my face.

It extended its metallic arms towards my
throat.

I saw my opportunity. I brought the wrench
around and locked it between the thing’s dangling arms.

The force of the magnetic
field
it emitted
was just powerful enough that it
locked the thing’s arms in place.

I pitched backwards, grasping
along the
magnetic holster along my back once more, desperately
trying to find a more powerful weapon. Though I could hold the bot
in place with this wrench for now, it wouldn't last. Soon the thing
would pull free.

Just as I clutched hold of a rudimentary
laser cutter, a blade swept past my side.

It didn't belong to the bot.

Instead it was bright, purple, and the most
brilliant thing I had ever seen.

It missed me by a good few inches, for I
was not its intended target.

Rather it slammed into the bot, slicing it
in half with the ease of waving your finger through the air.

The bot twitched and fell apart at my feet,
one softly smoking side rolling until it banged against my
boot.

I swiveled my head to the side and saw
him.

The prince.

He was still in his full armor, a burst of
wind catching over his shoulder and sending his cape billowing
around him.

He was holding a specialized kind of
energy sword. It pulsed and crackled with light and charges of
electricity, looking like tamed lightning.

I….

It was like a part of me shut
down. As I stared at him – even though I still couldn't see his
face – I lost all concept of where I was, time,
and dimensionality
.

B
efore I could stay too long in that
strange reverie, I heard something whirr at my feet. It was such a
subtle sound, I shouldn't have been able to discern it over the
hubbub of the security guards and the continuous cycling down of
the cruiser's engines.

But something reached inside and alerted
me.

Before I knew what I was doing,
I
spun
down, pushed to one knee, and brought the
magnetic wrench forward. I stabbed it into one side of the bot just
in time. For a split second later, it tried to divide. A great
convulsive crackle of electricity cascaded off its form, sinking
into the dust and seeing any organic matter trapped within burst
into flame.

I had stabbed the wrench onto the bot's body
just before it could split in half, and now it fought against the
powerful field coming from the wrench.

It fought against me, but clenching my
teeth and bearing my lips wide, I pushed the wrench down and
down.

“Get back,” somebody said. That same
somebody latched a hand on my shoulder and jerked me
away.

The prince. He brought his massive purple
blade down and sliced the bot in half. Then he wasted no time in
clutching a strange, powerful gun from the holster around his hip,
setting it to maximum with a smooth flick of his thumb, and
obliterating all remaining parts of the bot.