Chapter 29 #2
Rel Parovek visibly relaxed, his shoulders lowering. His response was less monotonous, but still carried the same cadence of formality and distance he had employed before.
“Unfortunately shaped is a good way to put it. Fortunately, you had a guard that was shaped with pointed claws to intercept.”
The commander’s focus zeroed in on Fia, and she felt a sinking, permeating fear.
His eyes lit with violet energy, and icy darkness crept in at the edges of her vision.
The world dimmed, and she could hear his voice echoing all around her.
It was booming and terrifying, speaking directly into her very psyche.
The words fell from his lips unmoving, in venomous old-world-dialect Teelish.
“You have defended a human over your kin. Curious. I did not think your oaths were that flexible. We have much to discuss, my lost Sentu.”
Her blood felt frozen. As soon as she could find the strength to shrink and retreat, the veil lifted. The room flashed back into light, and Davik and her commander were smiling at each other and laughing. She had missed an entire conversation.
How long had that been? Seconds, minutes?
She shook her head to rid the residual sensation.
It was not the first time that he had used his gifts to invade her senses.
But in the past, it had not been a threat.
It was a utility, a tool for communication.
But this was an intentional invasion. The creeping feeling it left was chillingly effective at making sure his statement clung to her mind with fierce barbs.
They were all laughing, though. Her beloved, marred and likely scarred, brought levity into this strangeness.
“So, Rel — is it okay if I call you that? — You’ve been helping TCIP for a hot minute, it seems.”
“Something along those lines. And I would prefer Commander, but Vek will suffice if we must mince syllables. Rel is my clade. Closer to what you would refer to as my family name.”
“And have you been helping them alone? Or,” Fia asked, finally finding her voice after the intrusion into her mind. “Or are there others? What happened to our squadron?”
“It is … complicated,” he said, shaking his head solemnly.
“Our vessel was captured in Tau Ceti before any of us awoke. Wretched, opportunistic carrion. We should have been better prepared, better defended, but things went awry. If I had been the one making decisions, we would not be in this situation. But, alas.”
“So, who is deciding now?” Theos asked, tapping his clawless fingers on the counter as he spoke.
“Well, that would be the Sovereign.”
It was said so lightly, so offhandedly, that the sentiment did not have time to register. It was just a clarification, nothing more. Not a reveal, not an emotional wound reopened and cruelly wrenched. Just a statement of fact.
Fia did not find the words needed to ask the obvious question.
Her beloved engineer, however, found many.
“Wait wait wait, wait, wait. Wait. Wait. The Sovereign? Capital T, Capital S, as in the big lady who set the whole war in motion. The one who, you know, died at the end of it two hundred or so years ago?”
The Commander steepled his fingers and nodded, a wry smile quirking the edge of his lips, exposing a sharp fang.
“Why, yes. The very same.”
Davik made an exasperated gesture to encourage the commander to elaborate. When he didn’t, Fia finally found her voice anew.
“Is it truly her? Or has a new Sovereign ascended? Your sister, is she—?” she began to ask in the calmest Teelish she could muster.
“No, my sister remains in stasis. It is the selfsame Sovereign you swore your oath to, Leucifia.”
Her heart caught in her throat. In all the myriad outcomes she had imagined, that was not one she had considered possible.
“So why does the entire galaxy think she died centuries ago?” Theos’ gruff voice cut in with his own lilting tones, the orange flutter of his markings stressing the excitement in his words.
The lack of hearing Theos’ glee and confusion in the Chorus plucked at Fia’s heart. He made up for that silence with an abundance of expression, but it still stung to not even hear a whisper of his song, while hers began to thrum and trill with hope and reverence.
“Because our lineage is that of stubborn refusal to die,” Rel Parovek said, his tone gentle despite the flare of frustration along his scales.
“I will not divulge the intricacies to one not oath-pledged to the Fleet, but understand that our disappearance was more calculation than pure capitulation.”
Theos may not feel the bite of regret that stood in stark contrast to the commander’s calm words, but Fia felt it, grating and icy in a sea of conflicted emotions.
“Everyone at this table saved your ass, prince. It would be polite to speak so we all can hear,” Carissa interjected.
Fia expected more bristling and ire, but the blonde pilot garnered an impressed and deferential tilt of the head from the commander instead.
“Anyway, Vek,” she continued. “I assume then that you’re wanting to return to said Sovereign. So you tell us where to go, we’ll set course, and then we’re all square. Do I assume correctly?”
“You do. I will need time to arrange a rendezvous location, but it will be roughly two weeks of travel. The Fleet will furnish your payment, and will want to offer a formal reception out of appreciation.”
“They can just give me the coin, we don’t need to do a whole song and dance. You can enjoy your homecoming party without us. Believe me.”
“If I am correct, the Sovereign herself will want an audience. And I would advise you to accept that invitation.”
The Sovereign.
Fia had met her only a handful of times, and it was always a moment of great importance. She felt her heart nerves alight with a strange blend of relief, excitement, and duty-bound purpose flare to life.
The Sovereign to whom she had sworn an oath to serve was alive. Not only was she alive, but the Sovereign would also meet the human man Fia had nearly killed her son over.
I need to lie down.
Carissa’s groan brought Fia out of the urge to become catatonic. “Alright, we’ll exchange pleasantries, but then I’m going to take our well-earned coin, buy my husband back, and then go on vacation for at least two months. Understood?”
Theos and Fia both hid a growing grin behind their hands as Vek stared at Carissa, appalled.
“Understood. We will make sure that this visit with the supreme ruler of the Icthian Fleet does not impinge too much on your vacation,” he said, his words dripping with impressed incredulity.
Carissa gave a thumbs-up and pushed back from the table. “Alright, ping me when you’ve got a lock on where we’re headed. I’m bringing us in for a refuel, and then we’re off. Get me those coordinates.”
“I shall … do that,” Vek murmured, looking at Fia and shaking his head. In Teelish, he spoke with a touch of confusion. “Where did you find these people?”
“They found me.”
That elicited an exasperated eye roll. The table dissolved into chatter as Theos and Davik talked about re-bandaging, and the commander departed to his temporary quarters to contact the Fleet. To arrange for them to meet The Sovereign.
I nearly tore out her son’s throat. This is going to be an awkward reunion.