Chapter 7
Commander Rax Veda
I hadn’t expected to be so deeply moved by the discovery of the latest crewmember. I could hardly believe the look of pain and anguish on the poor soldier’s face. If the bite wounds were any indication, it looked to me as if he had been massacred by what could only be described as a snow parasite. These types of creatures were extremely dangerous, and always had a tendency to pop up when they were the least expected. Not only that, but they were able to change their size at will. It was lucky that we had gotten out of there when we did. There was no telling what kind of dangers we could have faced if we had stayed any longer.
“What’s the first thing that you’re going to do when you get home?”
I glanced over my shoulder at the human, who had been doing her best to make light conversation the entire way out of the horrifying tundra and toward the desert.
Keldon Marcsu had been silent the entire time, and seemed to disapprove of the way we were making conversation. He could have contributed at any point, but he chose instead to try and make us feel miserable for doing what we could to pass the time together.
“I think that the first thing that I’m going to do when I get back to the planet Yala is to make some bread.”
The human seemed surprised to hear this, and let out a soft giggle.
“You want to make bread? Why?”
“Because I am not enjoying the food here at all,” I said, with a shrug. “I do not feel like my muscles are being well-maintained, and by using the sacred wheat on our planet, it will help me to restore the strength that I am losing by allowing my body to go on being malnourished in this horrible environment.”
“You would think that the people who sent you out here would think to send some supplements,” the human said, laughing to herself quietly.
I didn’t quite see the same humor in it as she did, but I couldn’t help but smile. Her laughter was contagious.
I shook my head and continued forward, wondering to myself just how long it would be before we finally encountered the final missing crewmember. According to my computer, it would only be a matter of hours, but sometimes, these things took a lot of time. Especially if any unforeseen monsters happened to show up.
Fortunately, the rest of the journey went smoothly, much to my surprise, and we quickly located the final crewmember. He had made himself a very clever shelter, and had chosen the desert area, probably because the types of creatures that lived in the desert were usually fairly peaceful unless they were taunted. If they were not provoked, most of the creatures who lived in such climates were generally the type to keep to themselves. However, it was still a gamble. Especially when considering the fact that we were all on a prison planet, and the highest security prison planet in the universe. Who knew what kinds of misdeeds these creatures must have done to land themselves here?
And yet, none of the three of us in the group had done anything particularly horrifying. It was starting to make me wonder a little bit about the rest of the creatures who had been imprisoned here. Most creatures got a trial, while others were simply dropped off and a report was filed to the Federation about their conduct. If enough witnesses were present, it was usually enough to keep the creatures imprisoned indefinitely.
“Are you all right in there?” I asked, quietly. I wasn’t going to let myself get my hopes up. After seeing what I had in the dark recesses of the snow parasites, I knew that it was probably of that idea to hope that of crewmember that had moved in a long time was actually going to be a survivor that would be going home with us.
“Who’s there? Please, go away. I can hurt you.”
A jolt of excitement surged through me, and I exchanged of thrilled look with the human. She was beaming, and waited for me to make my move. I ducked down, looking seriously into the makeshift shelter that the Raither had constructed in the desert.
“I know that this is going to be very difficult for you to believe,” I said evenly. “But I am here from our home planet, and I am going to take you back. That is, if you would like to come with us.”
The Raither in the shelter scrambled out, gazing at me in disbelief. “Are you really sure? You know, a lot of people start to go insane on this place. How do I know that you’re not just feeding me some delusion?”
“Because I would not let one of my Royal subjects delude another into having false hope about their rescue. My father has sent this man here to liberate us from this prison planet, and that is exactly what we are going to do.”
The surviving Raither gaped at Keldon Marcsu, and then suddenly dropped to his knees in a deep bow.
“Please, forgive my insubordination.”
Keldon Marcsu smirked, clearly pleased by the display. “Finally! Someone who knows how to treat royalty around here.”
I glowered inwardly but said nothing.
“You two would do well to take a lesson from this man. What’s your name?” Keldon Marcsu asked.
“My name is Lars.”
“Well, Lars, once you come home with me, you and I are going to have to talk with my father, then you are going to be rewarded for your bravery here.”
This seemed to fill Lars with a ridiculous amount of joy, and he beamed at the son of the Emperor, clearly starstruck. It was kind of disgusting in a way, but I couldn’t blame either of them for the way they were acting. It didn’t do any good to blame others for simply doing what came naturally to them. I would just have to hope for the best.
“So where is this ship that you are talking about,” the human asked, clearly as put off by the exchange as I was. I could’ve hugged her right then, but I knew that I would be risking execution.
“I will lead you there. Come now, it is not safe where we are right now in the open. It is not really safe anywhere on this planet, to be honest. But I have some means to protect us with, and then we will find our way out of here.”
He began heading back toward the forested area, where the coordinates for the rescue mission were set. We had nearly crossed the threshold, when suddenly, the human froze.
“Hey, Zina, what’s the matter with you?” I asked, nudging her shoulder. “Come on, we have to go. There is no reason to stop now. It is very important that we and this mission once and for all. You do understand why this is important don’t you? You don’t want to stay here any longer than you have to, do you? You saw what happened to that guy in the snow.”
But for some reason, Zina didn’t move. We all exchanged concerned looks, and then the earth beneath us began to quake as a dark cloud surface in the sky. I looked up, squinting against the brightness of the sun, and realized suddenly that what I was looking at was not a cloud at all, but a ship.
“Everybody, get out of the way!” I exclaimed. The others ran out of the way, but for some reason, Zina remained put.
“Zina, what are you doing? You really have to get out of here. This is not safe.”
But she was frozen, and I realized suddenly that perhaps she was under the thrall of some very powerful energy. I cursed under my breath and lifted her up bodily, trying to get her out of the site of the ship. But it seemed impossible, and instead of being able to move her, I became frozen as well.
“And just what do you think that you are doing?” A shrill voice sounded through the air. I cringed, frowning deeply at the disgusting leader of the Petchuvian race. He had teleported onto the surface of the planet Hexa, his fierce features boring into my eyes. I tried to look away. He was just too gruesome. I had never seen one of these aliens up close before, but now that I had, I wish that I hadn’t.
“Excuse me, but I believe that you are holding onto my human.”
His human?
I tried to speak, to protest, but he grabbed the human out of my arms. She moved easily, as if under a thrall, and I stared helplessly after her, fighting every muscle in my body as I attempted to work against the powerful force that was keeping me frozen in place.
“Come on,” I said, trying to move forward and get her. “She shouldn’t be with those creeps. They are monsters!”
“Oh,” the leader of the race said, turning and fixing up terrifying set of beady black eyes upon me.
“I don’t think that you are much to look at yourself either, you know,” he said. “But you don’t see me complaining about it.”
It’s not about looks. It’s about what you do. And I know what you try to do with the humans. And it didn’t work out. That’s what landed them on this planet in the first place. What the hell are you doing with her anyway? What’s the point? None of it’s going to make a damn bit of difference. You are all still going to be stuck in the same sad situation that you’ve been in for the past 100 years.”
“Actually, we thought about this,” the leader said, with what was probably a smile, but looked more like a grotesque grimace. “We do not necessarily need to replicate anything. In fact, we have found that humans are extremely versatile, and they can provide a lot of different types of benefits. Especially when they are spawning. Luckily, they are very compatible with several races throughout the universe, and if you are lucky, perhaps you could be one of them!”
I bellowed in rage,trying my hardest to fight against the terrible rays of energy that were holding me captive on the ground, as the leader of the race led my human way.
“Aren’t you going after her?” I finally shouted to the Emperor’s son. “She is your human. You have claimed her. You should protect her. There is no use in claiming a female if you are not going to protect her. So, you either undo your claim, or you go after her and you save her from those monsters.”
But before anything could happen, the doorway of the ship hissed closed, and the leader of the race that had originally objected to humans and dropped them off on this prison planet, was gone.
I could hardly believe what had happened, and went through the rest of the day robotically. I managed to somehow locate the ship, and get the Emperor’s son and our new friend Lars on board. The two had become fast friends, both of them being cowards who were tooafraid for their own lives to go after the human to protect her. No matter how hard I tried to fight against that beam of energy, I hadn’t managed to unfreeze myself. And it had probably cost that only being I had ever had any tender feelings toward to be killed.
Then again, perhaps she was simply being ushered onto the Petchuvian planet so that she could join others like her and repopulating this sad little chunk of rock that they call the home. What if they were going there to be bred for meals?
The thought had filled me with terror, and had made me move the other Raithers in my party forward, until we finally activated the beacon and made it back to the ship. I couldn’t speak, and remained dumbfounded all the way back to my home planet, where I finally managed to sputter out to my Captain that everything had gone to hell.
“What do you mean by that?” The captain asked, eyeing me coldly.
“I mean that I have to save the human. I have to help her. She is the woman that the Emperor’s son had claimed after all, right?”
I hated myself for bringing this up, but it seemed to be the only reason why any of these narrowminded Raither men would allow me use of their ships and the resources necessary to liberate the human from the awful little planet where she had been taken.
“I suppose I hadn’t thought of it that way,” the captain said, stroking his chin gruffly. “You know, the Emperor is extremely impressed with you. There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be allowed access to whatever resources you might think you need. So, you should make sure that you are doing your best. Just explain the situation as calmly as you possibly can, and I will help you to do the rest. Everything is going to be all right. We will get the heir to Emperor’s human back.”
I prickled at the sound of the Zina being considered the property of the Emperor’s son. And yet, I already knew how the rules of my world worked. I already knew how disgusting it was. I already knew that there was probably never going to be any way to change them. However, there was a chance for me to somehow make things right and rescue the human from the horrible race that had gotten her into this mess in the first place.
Fortunately, as soon as I found myself in the hanger, the crew was already assembled and ready to listen. A heavy wave of relief washed over me, and I began to issue orders as if I had been born to do it. Everybody followed me, and soon, I was piloting a ship, heading towards the territory where they had taken the human.
There was a nervous knot in my stomach, and I couldn’t help but feel bitterness at the fact that even though the human was technically the claim of the Emperor’s son, Keldon Marcsu was currently being pampered and spoiled at home right that moment. Sure, he had been through a traumatic ordeal by being stuck in the prison planet for so long, but if he actually cared enough about the human being to claim her, wouldn’t you think that he would be willing to do what it took to rescue her as well? It was painfully obvious that he only cared about himself.
But I had to redirect my thoughts. This was war, and Raithers were good at war. Not only that, but it was important work. It was a war that signified many things to me, one of which being the hypocrisy of my own people. The Emperor had allowed me to use the resources, sure, but he had not shown any legitimate interest in the human’s well-being, despite the fact that she was the most incredible creature I had ever known to exist.
I could not abide by a government that care more about the quality of their own lives than about the quality of those that they were supposed to be looking after. Everybody knew how vulnerable and defenseless to humans were. If a Raither was to claim a human, that could only mean that it was his job from that moment forward to protect her. Even if you had been stuck on a prison planet for the past six months.
But I had to try not to focus too much on my bitterness. I had to keep calm and think cool thoughts, otherwise, I would become hotheaded and trigger-happy. That can be a dangerous situation.
Finally, we approached the territory of the abductors, and I picked up my communications device.
“Everybody, make your formations. We are not going to show them any mercy.Aumble caused me to lose track of my thought and cut off my words before I was finished speaking.
“Commander, we have been hit. They are hot on our trail. We have to take care of this. Now.”
I cursed, and we turned the ship around, unable to create the formation that would make an invasion upon the enemy planet successful.
“Attack!” I shouted. “Show no mercy. Attack your enemies. We are in Raither ships. That means they are of the best quality in the universe. There are no excuses to lose. Attack your enemies.”
I was getting angry. I hated the thought of Zina stuck anywhere near one of these vile creatures. She had already had enough contact with unwanted alien life. This was supposed to have been her chance to escape all of this madness. She should have been sitting around in the palace along with the Emperor’s son, getting pampered and spoiled after her horrifying experience.
“Hello commander,” the seedy voice of the leader of the Petchuvian race said from the ship’s console, causing me to cringe. “Somehow, I knew that this would prompt an attack. You Raithers are such do-gooders. Always sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong. Fortunately, this was a trap. You do realize how much we hate your kind, don’t you? Our labor has been exploited for far too long. You take our resources and sell them at the little city hub of yours, but we never see the benefit. All we ever get his backlash.”
“Your goods are not g at all!” I shouted. “Your goods are the remains of creatures that are too sick to survive your horrible climate. You have no right to try and guilt tripped me into submitting to your demands. If you wanted to be successful, you need a better market. What you don’t need is a human.”
“Oh, but we do. You see, it’s about time that the planet Yala is challenged. You guys have been monopolizing the field for far too long. But with our human hybrids on the market, we are going to really start getting things going around here, and you guys are going to go down.”
“Human hybrids?” I exclaimed, revolted by the idea of anything touching Zina at all. “You’re insane. Human hybrids will be of no use to you.”
“That’s what you think,” the leader said, his voice still just as disgusting over the radio waves as it had been when I had heard it in person. “You would be surprised just how much people are willing to pay for a good human female of breeding age. They are pretty well guarded on earth. I assume that was the Raithers’ doing as well?”
I shouted in rage, and turned back to my second-in-command. “I’m telling you. Attack. Destroy everything. But try not to aim at the planet. We are going to have to try to rescue the humans. Let’s do the smart thing, but show no mercy.”