Something was wrong.

The camp was nearly as bright as daylight, every crack and crevice filled with a blinding orange glow from the extraordinary bonfire in the very center of the Novai’s allotted space. Their slender and disturbingly ridged bodies were flailing about as haphazardly as the smoke gathering above the flames in a dance I could have only assumed was ritualistic, and their colorless skin appeared black against the unnaturally bright light behind them. The screeches saturating the air were not those of mischievous, stir-crazy troublemakers. Rather, they were the sounds of war and strife and malevolent intent, and they set my jaw on edge.

Xam and Qula were on either side of me. Their gaar’kons blinked with aqua light, just as mine did, and their eyes were fixated on the very core of the bonfire, just as mine were. In the center of the snapping flames floated an orb of such whiteness, such brilliance, it was akin to a star. Its unmarred roundness and smooth surface and thick aura were perfect, so perfect, it fact, that it seemed unnatural. Nothing was beneath upon which for it to sit, nor was anything dangling above from which it could hang, yet it was poised exactly in the middle of the fire for all to see.

“What is it?” Qula intoned to me. His voice was dark and suspicious.

“I do not know,” I muttered back. “I have never seen such a thing before.”

The vibrations within the camp were intense, tangible. I could feel the energy radiating from the Novai as they performed their odd and disconcerting dance as viscerally as if it had been my own. They were riled and excited, but it was an excitement flavored with threat. I sensed the danger lurking within, and my instinct that Lena was nearby seemed to claw at me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I glided my eyes over the scene, bypassing the silhouettes of the aliens in search of the woman I wanted to find. Their huts and structures on the opposite side of the camp were very visible, and I was just about to round the fire toward them in my hunt when I froze.

There she was.

Lena’s ample figure was trapped inside a cage made of familiar wood, wood I recognized as being the material from which the crates were made that we used to deliver food to the Novai. She was throwing herself against her constraints, rocking the cage enough that it would soon tip over, and two Novai were barreling toward her to stop her. I could hear the sound of her voice rising above the screeches of the Novai as I focused on her, and I realized she was screaming questions at them.

“What do you want? Why am I here? Why did you take me?”

Her panic and terror were evident in her tone, and the sight of her trapped like that in conjunction with the pure fear in her voice sent me spiraling into a warrior’s fury. It was unlike anything I had ever felt before, completely overtaking me and rendering me void of all ration and reason. As if in slow motion, my body began to move, traveling from my place between Xam and Qula to the Novai sprinting toward her. I could not hear my pounding footsteps, nor could I hear theirs, but I continued to hear Lena’s wails like she was howling them straight into my ear.

Everything inside my body stopped. My heart stopped, my mind stopped, and even my breathing stopped. I had become nothing more than a shell fueled by rage, and my actions were no longer my own. As I drew nearer, I sprang into the air, throwing my gaar’kon to the ground. I did not want a weapon for this. I wanted to kill them with my bare hands.

Before I could land on my feet as I expected, however, hands pulled me back. I felt myself being tugged through time and space, and where Lena had been growing closer to me before she now fell back, shrinking in size. I was thrown to the ground without warning, and everything resumed pace as it truly was rather than the slow motion I had been experiencing. My wind was torn from my lungs as my back collided with hard earth, rendering me immobile for a split second and speechless for several.

The Novai, upon seeing me, had changed direction. No longer were they racing toward Lena. They flew toward me with such speed that they were nearly invisible, and they both landed on top of me. I felt a knee crunch into my gut while an elbow slammed into my temple, but I could not be deterred. In a flash, I rolled and spun onto my feet, crouched and ready. Blood pounded in my ears now, blocking out Lena’s cries entirely, and I circled the offending Novai.

“Chief! No!” Xam shouted. I only dimly heard him, though, and launched myself at the nearest creature anyway.

Our bodies tumbled to the ground again in a knot, limbs and torsos twisting into each other. He was making the same horrible screeching sound the Novai who had attacked me had made, but I was numb to it. The heel of my hand soared upward, colliding with his chin and sending his jaw into the roof of his mouth. He retaliated with a swift kick to my shin, and I felt the bone crack beneath his force. I roared in pain and ire.

“Chief!” Xam yelled again. I felt his hand closing over my upper arm, and a hard tug wrenched me free from the Novai’s locking grip. “Do not do this!”

“Let her go!” I bellowed. Almost all of the Novai nearby had stopped their dances and were gathered nearby, though none appeared alarmed by the scene. “Free her! Now!”

“They do not speak A’li-uud, Chief,” Xam hissed in my ear.

I climbed to my feet in a quick leap and dug down into my diaphragm. “Release her!” I shouted in Novai. The screech that exited my mouth was painful in my throat, but it was the only way they would understand me.

One of the nearest Novai, a particularly slender and very ghostly-skinned being, stepped forward. I recognized him as one of the camp’s leaders and turned my angry gaze to him.

“Release her,” I snarled in his language again.

“I heard you,” he replied. He motioned backward toward Lena, who was no longer screaming. Her fingers were curled around the wooden slats serving as bars, and her eyes were wide as she stared at me. I could see moisture glimmering on her cheeks. “She will remain with us until you return our brothers.”

“I do not have them,” I snapped. “Let her go now.”

“If you do not have them, you know who does,” the leader said calmly. I was surprised by his demeanor. After Sevani had informed me the Novai had become aggressive and hostile in the absence of their brethren, I had anticipated a much more sinister exchange. On the contrary, the Novai was well-restrained and composed.

“Give her to me!” I shouted. Xam’s grip tightened on my arm, but I ignored him.

The leader angled his head almost pensively as he considered me. “I cannot. She is our only leverage until we are reunited with our missing colonists.”

I knew my orders. I knew what I was duty-bound to say and what I was duty-bound to keep to myself. Certain privileges came with being War Chief, but those privileges were accompanied by an obligation to contain certain information.

But I was past the point of caring. I wanted Lena beside me.

“Your missing colonists are not being held hostage,” I hissed. “They are dead.”