9. Tyrxie
Chapter 9
Tyrxie
Negotiation
H ours of brainstorming with Felixus led us to devise a plan to rescue Xandor—an insane plan. I vaguely remember Felixus listing numerous caveats: the high likelihood of failure, the near certainty of our deaths, and the severe consequences, even if we succeed. How would we escape and live in exile, forever hunted in Nebia? Too many obstacles to list, but none of them deter me. Where my fear should be, I feel only an arcweave-like resolve.
But this mission requires more than just me—it requires a crew, my crew. And I must convince them. I will tell them the dire truth, because I refuse to lie. Each must agree, knowing the risks. I thumb my locket nestled in my clothes, taking a steadying breath, knowing the fate of my Xandor and all Nebia lies in the hands of five strange crew from a pile of space junk known as the Mutalisk’s Hammer.
“This planet too small!” Quad bellows, snapping me from my nervous thoughts. The Barlyxian huffs, having to stoop almost double with his broad arms squeezing tightly together, struggling to pass through the small door into Felixus’s quarters. “And tiny flying circles chaff my arse,” he adds, rubbing his backside.
I laugh at his silly and familiar antics, overcome with a strange giddiness, knowing I’m doing the right thing, even if I might not survive. “Oh, hello Tiny, Bug Brothers and Fuzzy,” Quad calls, waving his four hands at the others who are conversing with Felixus.
The last member to arrive. The moment of truth.
“Stop calling me Fuzzy, you dopey idiot,” Hyanxa snaps, puffing on her vaporstick, as I wonder if she was allowed to keep it because of Thalaxia’s interventions. The others turn, offering greetings to the newest arrival.
“Admit it, you glad to see me!” Quad bellows, approaching Hyanxa with arms outstretched. I wince, knowing from experience what comes next. With surprising speed, he rushes forward, scooping up the screaming Hyanxa in a spinning, teeth-rattling hug only Quad can deliver.
“For void’s sake, Quad, my vaporstick!” Hyanxa laments as her device is sent spinning into a pile of junk in the corner. “Okay, that’s enough!” she adds, the beginnings of laughter in her voice.
It wasn’t long ago I received a notification from Thalaxia stating the imminent release of the others. I replied, requesting they be brought to Felixus’ house immediately. Time is critical and if they got distracted, who knows where they’d end up?
Quad finally sets Hyanxa down. “Great, now the room is spinning,” she complains as Quad beams, his broad chest puffed out like he’s done a fine day’s work. I help steady the stumbling Hyanxa with a hand on her shoulder and move to join the others.
“Servo mechanism very smooth, precision cuts with immaculate tracing—excellent crafting. Yes?” Job marvels, holding one of Felixus’ devices of unknown purpose, a hand beneath his mouth slit.
“Spent bloody ages on that piece. Came out alright if I do say so myself.” Felixus beams, struggling to hold more objects, greedy for Job’s praise.
Hyanxa, now steadier, looks between Job, Felixus and the cluttered room, a frown creasing her scarred brown furred face. “What the void are we doing in this...” she pauses, gesturing to a particularly high heap of junk metal, “mess?”
Felixus bristles, “Now listen here. I’ve meticulously set up my quarters for optimal engineering efficacy. I didn’t expect a bunch of ruffians to show up unannounced.”
Mob picks up a black metal mechanism from the ground, “Could cultivate many mold spore cultures from these. No?” he inquires, tilting his narrow head.
“Give me that modulator!” Felixus snatches the object, his face turning a deeper shade of blue. “Spore cultures... The cheek!”
Quad stares at Felixus with his usual gaping-mouthed expression—the precursor to something particularly silly. “Wait, you tiny?” he points towards the frowning Felixus.
“I’m a Nebian. We aren’t known for our great height,” Felixus retorts with a sigh, peering up at the towering Quad, who scratches his bald head in puzzlement.
“But known for huge cranial capacity. No?” Mob declares with excitement. I wince as he approaches Felixus with a metal measuring device aimed at his head.
Felixus recoils, almost tripping over random junk. “Get that away from me, you blockhead!” he steadies himself before turning to me with a grimace. “Where did you find these people?”
It’s a good question which only Kaanus could have answered.
I shrug, having no answer as my heart hammers in my chest, struggling to pick an opportune time to make my desperate plea.
“But she is Tiny?” Quad bellows, pointing two arms at me while the other two still scratch his head. “Two Tinies...” he whispers, his voice trailing off perplexed by a dilemma he may never recover from.
“I’m not that small,” I protest. “Especially here, where I have to stoop through doors. I’m basically a giant now.” I nod with satisfied vindication.
“Pfft!” Quad spits globs of drool across the room, forcing Felixus to avoid it with a quick dash.
“Voidsons! His species aren’t poisonous, are they?” Felixus’ side-eyes Quad with renewed suspicion.
“Depends on what he’s eaten,” Hyanxa declares from the corner of the room, still bent over, looking for her lost vaporstick.
I laugh, but seeing Felixus so perturbed fills me with regret for bringing this trouble on him. “I’m sorry, Felixus. Quads harmless though.” I glance over at the hulking Barlyxian, who’s now rotating his meaty arms like turbines of destruction. “Most of the time,” I add with a frown.
“I know, I know!” Quad exclaims, his face beaming. “You still Tiny.” He jabs a thick finger in my direction, “but he can be Tiniest!” He declares, nodding towards Felixus.
A collective groan emerges before a moment of awkward silence. This is my chance to convince them. “Um, everyone... the reason—”
“Ah, found it!” Hyanxa exclaims, holding aloft her vaporstick, her face ecstatic.
Annoyance flares within me like heated Elerium. “Everyone, shut the void up and listen!” I glare at the others, my face heating. “Okay?”
Void, I sounded like Kaanus just now.
My outburst surprises everyone, including myself. Mod and Job exchange a look before shrugging, Hyanxa recoils as if stuck, Quad stands with his mouth agape and Felixus folds his arms with a nod.
Despite my heart pounding in my chest, I know I must forge ahead. “I’ve got the payment for the mission,” I declare, relishing the stunned expressions on the crew’s faces. “Kaanus sent it to me before... before he sacrificed himself.”
Farewell Kaanus.
Quad’s head droops. It’s hard to know how much he truly understands, bouncing between total bewilderment and surprising insightfulness. “Goodbye, Spikey!” He booms, pumping his enormous fists into the air.
A sudden lip trembling emotion hits me at Quad’s earnest gesture. “Rest well, Kaanus.” I join in with a raised fist, my heart swelling.
To my surprise, Mod and Job repeat the gesture, both intoning. “Matter to dust, Captain mammaloid.” Followed by their unique respective suffixes. “No?” and “Yes?”
Hyanxa approaches her expression fierce, yet her golden eyes glisten, hinting at the turmoil beneath. “For nearly two decades, I served with Kaanus. Void, he was clever and ruthless back then, like the Mutalisk he borrowed the ship’s name from.” She pauses, taking a heavy draw from her vaporstick. “He could be a real bastard... We all knew that.” She glances around the crew. “But he was our bastard... he was my bastard.” Tears stream down her furred face as she raises her fist. “So long Kaanus.”
I gasp, having never seen Hyanxa so emotional before, unsure how I’d react given the same crazy circumstances. “Well said,” I offer, hugging the sobbing Hyanxa. Suddenly, Quad squeezes us both in a ribcage-crushing embrace, forcing the air from my lungs and making my teeth rattle.
“Big hug!” Quad booms in an eager tone. While I’m eager to escape this bone-snapping pressure.
“Stop! Stop, you big dopey idiot!” Hyanxa protests, her voice muffled.
“Hmm, how much pressure can squishy mammaloid bodies sustain? Yes?” Job postulates, his voice barely audible to my smothered ears.
“Help!” I squeak, my lungs almost empty, overwhelmed by the sour, clammy smell of Quad’s sweaty armpit pressing against my face.
“Hmm, they very squishy. You help collect organs when skeletal structure fails. No?” Mob chimes in as my vision grows dark, fearing I’m at the point of collapse.
“I think that’s enough, big lad,” Felixus interjects, his voice laced with concern.
Finally, Quad lets us go, merciful air filling my lungs in great, doubled-over gulps. “You smell nice, Tiny.” He beams while I struggle to remain conscious.
“Nice?” I rasp between mouthfuls of sweet oxygen. “I probably smell like your armpit now!”
Quad frowns, sniffing his armpits. “Smells fine to me.” He shrugs.
“Come here, you voiding buffoon.” Hyanxa sneers through hoarse lungs as she slaps Quad around his broad shoulders. Quad only smirks, standing with his arms folded, like he’s enjoying the attention.
Righting myself, my breathing returning to normal, I’m annoyed I’ve been distracted again. My hands dart over my wrist console, sending the crew their rightful payments. “Twelve thousand and five hundred credits. Two-point-five percent of the total,” I declare, followed by the dings of their notifications.
The others halt before checking their wrist consoles, their faces lighting up with beaming smiles and cheers. “And some celebratory Earth fruits,” I add, unloading my pockets, frowning as my fingers become sticky—the fruits almost all squashed by Quad. “Lovely.”
“Hmm, Earth must have very high gravity? No?” Mob muses with a hand beneath his mouth hole.
“Eww, more mammaloid sustenance.” Job pokes a fruit as if it might be poisonous, his antennae drooping. “Lack’s wiggling. Most likely harmful to superior Glaseroid physiognomy. Yes?”
Hyanxa stares at me with folded arms and an ominous glare, filling me with dread, anticipating what she might say.
“Thanks Tiny!” Quad booms, scooping up all the fruits and devouring them without a second thought.
“Fruits?” Hyanxa says the word like it’s the most ridiculous concept in the universe. “Voiding fruits, Tyrxie?” She approaches with an expression of outrage. My feet itch to retreat, but I hold my ground, knowing I must be strong for Xandor.
“What? They were tasty,” Quad interjects, patting his massive belly.
“Shut up, Quad!” Hyanxa and I say in unison, mirroring each other’s fierce determination.
“You have the rest, don’t you? The whole five hundred thousand?” Hyanxa demands, pointing an accusing finger at me.
“I do,” I concede with a nod, my eyes boring into hers like hardened green-tinted arcweave.
“I’m the second in command by rights. It belongs to me.”
“Kaanus is dead, the ship is too. There is nothing to command.”
“Mutalisk shit, as his lover, I’m entitled!”
Please forgive me, Hyanxa. “No! You abandoned him when he needed you most. I was like his daughter—”
“Daughter! Don’t make me voiding laugh, you were little more than a slave—”
“I was there at the end! Where were you? Running away frightened looking after yourself, like you always do!”
“No... it wasn’t like that.”
“Kaanus could have given the credits to any of us. But he chose me because I was like a daughter to him, because I cared!” I round on Hyanxa, my voice full of intense passion.
Her eyes drop, her posture slumps in defeat. I can scarcely believe it. I’m so stunned that a long silence lingers, the eyes of the others darting between the two of us.
“So, no more credits?” Quad interjects, scratching his head, almost as confused as me.
Despite the shaking of my hands and the buzzing in my mind, my passion still burns, knowing that this is the hardest part. “No, there are credits. One last job and I’ll split the rest between you four. I’ll even give up my share.”
Will it be enough?
The Glaseroid brothers’ antennae perk, and I can almost see them calculating the hefty amount in their narrow heads. Hyanxa leans against a nearby wall puffing from her vaporstick. “What’s the job?” she asks with a cautious golden side eye.
“Rescue Xandor.” I let the words hang in the air, my chest fluttering, hoping with every fiber of my being that they will help. “He’s being held by a group called the Praetorian Guard. In the Nebian Imperial place.” I suppress a wince at asking them to strike at the very heart of Nebia—a suicide mission to any sensible ears.
“I’ll help, Scary,” Quad booms, thumping his chest with his many arms.
I exhale, feeling a renewed sense of respect for my strange Barlyxian friend. “Thanks, Quad,” I say with a solemn nod.
“The Imperial place.” Hyanxa scoffs, puffing out a plume of colorful smoke. “Is that the impenetrable fortress we just flew over on our way here?” She inquires, and I nod in agreement. “You’re a voiding mad bitch, Tyrxie.” She shakes her head.
Her frank words echo my fears and I feel my hopes sinking like a solid slag of arcweave. “I can get you in. All of us,” Felixus declares, rallying my hopes. “Straight through the first three layers of defenses. To the very heart of the control center, from there we can cause all sorts of havoc.”
“Oh yeah? And how are you going to do that?” Hyanxa inquires, flicking a hand through her long red hair.
Felixus puffs out his chest and places a stubby hand over his heart. “Because I’m Magister Machinator to the Imperial court, that’s how. I’ll load you blockheads into a hover transport, feign a replacement for an Elerium generator, and boom, we’re in,” he finishes with a solemn nod.
Hyanxa puffs on her vaporstick, inspecting her sharp nails, appearing thoughtful. Please say yes, please say yes.
Quad stumps over to the Glaseroid brothers, leaning down to whisper. “Job, you smart. How many credits we get?” he booms, his failed attempts at whispering jarring my ears.
“What?” Job startles as if from a trace, his arms flailing in defense. “Oh, I get one hundred fifty thousand credits. You get one hundred thousand. For my management fees. Yes?” the sly Glaseroid peers up at the open-mouthed Quad, his antennae twirling.
“I have manager?” Quad frowns, scratching his head. “Okay!” he yells, smiling with a nod.
“Job, stop trying to scam, Quad,” I reprimand with a stern look, and to my surprise, Job flinches. “Everyone gets one hundred and twenty-five thousand, including the payment I’ve already given.” My gaze falls to Mod, his arm limbs poised beneath his mouth. My pulse races, wondering what he’ll decide. “So, can I count you two in?”
“Yes. Yes?” Job says in a rush, filling me with hope.
“No. No?” Mod interjects. They both round on each other, their antenna fluttering. Crushing my fledging hopes.
This is bad.
“With that many credits we retire to Veridesh, attract many females, start hive, sire new swarm. Yes?” Job implores with frantic arm limb movements.
“We already have twelve thousand and five hundred credits. What good is more if we expire? No?” Mod retorts, the two brothers now face to face.
Mod, always the smarter one.
“But not enough to retire. We gamble, we become hive-sires, just one mission. Yes?” Job snaps back, his words carrying my fleeting hopes.
“You gamble when you should hold, foolish spawn-kin. No?” Mod replies. They flutter their arm limbs at each other until they lock antennae in the strange and familiar way they do during heated disagreements.
“Huh?” Felixus approaches the two Glaseroids who are now completely motionless. “It’s like someone turned them off,” he adds, jabbing a finger into Mod’s shoulder, who doesn’t react. “Some sort of nonverbal communication?” He speculates with a downward frown.
I hope Job wins this one.
“They’ll snap out of it soon,” I explain, my gaze shifting to Hyanxa, who still puffs on her vaporstick, her posture pointed away.
“Let’s say we get in. What do we do about the guards and how the void do we get out with our hides intact?” Hyanxa asks in a sudden rush, her eyes shifting between Felixus and me.
She’s thinking about it.
“If we get to the control center, Felixus is confident we can subvert their security systems, even creating distractions,” I reply, noticing Felixus standing proudly with a puffed-out chest. “Then we go out the way we came in.”
“If...” Hyanxa scoffs, approaching with a stern look. “I know from experience the dangers that lie in such easy words. It’s the Nebian Imperial court! The place will be teeming with voiding battlesuits, laser-equipped guards, and void knows what!” she finishes with a dismissive wave.
“Actually, that’s not accurate,” Felixus interjects, peering up at the heated Jungarian. “Most of the defenses are on the perimeter, preventing access, but we won’t have to worry about them. Think about it. They’d never expect anyone to breach such a heavily defended fortress in a million years.”
“If we get in, if we don’t trip the alarms, if we get to the control center, if there’s a distraction. If we don’t get blown to pieces from voiding orbit!” Hyanxa shouts, shaking her head with disdain. “I know you care for Xandor but this is madness. What’s the point of throwing your life away? Take the credits and live a good life, for void sakes.”
Her words strike my heart like an icy blade. Yet my eyes find hers, expelling any doubts in a stern glare. “Because I care. That’s the difference between you and me. I won’t abandon someone who’s risked their life to save mine, someone I love...” My words trail off as my face heats at the public admission.
“Come on, Tyrxie, you’re smarter than—” Hyanxa begins,
“Don’t you care about Noroth? If we rescue Xandor and he gets their peace deal done with Felixus’ help. Both he and Logarn will be released, too,” I interrupt, imploring with outstretched hands.
“Noroth?” Hyanxa frowns, taken aback with surprise. “He’s a good male. A bit of fun. But I’m not about to waste my life in some vain attempt to rescue him.” She puffs from her vaporstick.
I’m losing her. She’s not like me; she’s not motivated by the same things. What could motivate her?
“Think about the stories you could tell. Six...” I pause, turning to Felixus. “Blockheads assaulting the Imperial court of Nebia itself. Your name will go down in history—Hyanxa, the daring raider, and her crazy fearless crew, striking at the heart of the mighty Nebian empire. One last job, one massive payout and a legacy that will echo through the galaxies.” The words spill from my lips, as if I’m possessed.
Hyanxa remains silent, her eyes downcast, lost in thought.
“Like the old days...” she whispers finally, the weight of nostalgia evident in her voice. The room seems to hold its breath.
Then, with a solemn nod, she meets my gaze. “Void it. I am in.” Her words send my heart soaring with hope. “I know I’m going to regret this.”
“You won’t regret it, I promise. We’ll succeed. I feel it in my heart,” I reply, rushing over to give Hyanxa a heartfelt hug. “Thank you, Hyanxa,” I add, squeezing her tight as she stands, giving me a weak pat.
“Another hug!” Quad booms, approaching us, sending my pulse racing.
Hyanxa and I break our embrace in the blink of an eye, terrified of Quad’s brutal ‘hugs.’ The hulking Barlyxian stands with his arms thrown wide, a look of confusion spreading over his face. “Oh...” he hangs his head in disappointment.
A tinge of sadness for the simple giant compels me to add, “After we rescue Xandor, we’ll all have a big hug. How about that?”
Quad nods, beaming once again, flexing his massive arms and cracking his thick, knobby knuckles. “Just waiting for these two, then?” Felixus questions with a gesture towards Job and Mod, who are still frozen, locked by their antennae.
Then, as if having heard Felixus’ words or sensing our attentions, the two Glaseroid brothers snap to focus, their antennae now disentangled. “We gamble. No?” Mod intones.
“You won’t regret this!” I exclaim, casting my eyes over the entire crew filled with a fierce respect for them I never knew existed. “When do we leave?” I ask, turning towards Felixus as my chest flutters with a heady mix of excitement and anxiety—on the verge of attempting the almost impossible.
“Within the hour, as soon as we all go over the plan,” Felixus intones with folded arms.
Good, Xandor won’t have to wait much longer.