Chapter 6 #3
Lilibet stared up at me with those impossibly expressive green eyes, and I caught a glimpse of something that told me that while she was undoubtedly a sweet child, a small but formidable being lurked just beneath the surface. I looked forward to meeting the spirited side of her personality.
“Can we have more pilot lessons later?” She whispered, her voice barely audible but filled with hopeful anticipation.
“Of course, Princess,” I leaned down and brushed my lips across her smooth forehead in a copy of the chaste kiss Jolie bestowed upon me earlier.
The youngling sighed happily, the sound pure contentment, and my heart underwent that strange transformation again, turning into a pile of warm, bubbling goo.
She grinned with sleepy satisfaction, immediately cuddling against Jolie, and was fast asleep within minutes.
I strode back toward the cockpit, knowing duty called, but would have been content simply to stand there and watch them sleep.
“The Kwado prince claims you stole them,” Vraxxan told me as I settled into the pilot’s chair, his holographic image flickering slightly as the transmission stabilized across the distance between us.
I rolled my eyes, along with issuing a disgusted snort that echoed through the cockpit. “Stole?” I repeated, my voice dropping to a low, dangerous rumble. “I found them hiding in an alley outside Space Pearls. The human has been held as a harem slave for years.”
Lucy’s features twisted with revulsion, her eyes flashing with righteous fury. “And the little girl?”
“The youngling of another slave, unfortunately deceased,” I explained, my jaw clenching. “The human raised her since birth. Qurbaga was planning to give the youngling to an associate as a gift, which precipitated their escape.”
If Lucy had possessed scales like her mate, they would have shifted to black. Instead, her hands clenched into fists at her sides as she spoke through gritted teeth. “You protect them, Diarvet.”
“With my life,” I vowed, though my mind was already churning over another troubling issue. “I wonder how the Kwado discovered their location so quickly. We’d been away from the space station for barely an hour when their warships intercepted us.”
“Someone must have seen you board the Eden with them,” Vraxxan conjectured, his teal eyes narrowing.
“No.” I shook my head with absolute certainty. “I used the cuddwisg device and disguised both of them as a Kerzak. The holographic facade was flawless. The only beings that knew they were aboard the Eden were my crew.”
“And you trust them implicitly,” Vraxxan hedged, though his tone suggested he already knew my answer.
“Without question,” I said, irritation sharpening my voice.
He knew Eden’s crew, handpicked from Zarpazia’s most loyal warriors, each tested in battle and proven beyond doubt, as well as I did.
Yet the nagging question remained—how had the Kwado learned of our passengers so quickly?
There was only one other possibility, and it sent ice through my veins.
“I sent an encrypted message to the Alliance requesting assistance with a rescue operation, but I offered no details regarding the nature of the mission or the identities of those involved.”
Lucy sighed heavily, her shoulders sagging under an invisible weight.
“I worry that the dissension within the Alliance runs deeper than the Prime suspects. We need to get you somewhere safe until Vraxxan and I can contact the Prime, Duke Ako, or Ambassador Khaion. We know we can trust them absolutely.”
“I suppose my original plan to head to Zarpazia is no longer viable,” I grumbled, frustration bleeding into my voice. “I had Merkit inform the Kwado Chamberlain that I had gone rogue to avoid any political implications for the kingdom.”
“Implications be damned,” Vraxxan snorted with characteristic bluntness, his scales darkening slightly with anger.
“Zarpazia will always stand firmly against slavery in all its forms, regardless of the political cost.” He sobered slightly, his composure reasserting itself as his ire waned.
“But you are correct. With Kwado warships approaching our system, bringing the human and youngling to Zarpazia would expose them to unnecessary danger.”
“You know where to go,” Lucy said softly. She didn’t speak the destination aloud. She didn’t need to. The glance she shared with Vraxxan conveyed enough.
“You would be safer there than anywhere else in the known galaxy,” my king agreed. “Alliance databases still list the planet as basically uninhabitable, and our friends will help you protect them.”
I nodded in agreement, already calculating trajectories. “I’ll adjust our course immediately. Using the Fibricanni wormhole, we’re only a few hours away.”
“You’ll need to go communications dark from this point forward,” Vraxxan warned, his expression grave. “Until we can determine who within the Alliance we can trust… and who we can’t.”
“Take care of them, and yourself,” Lucy added, her voice thick with concern. “We’ll send reinforcements as soon as we can.”
The holographic transmission dissolved into scattered particles of light, leaving me alone with the soft hum of the ship’s systems. I immediately punched in the security codes to remove the shuttle’s call sign from the multi-planetary communications array, effectively making us invisible to most tracking systems before setting course.
The Fibricanni wormhole, like its counterpart that allowed travel to Earth’s solar system, connected disparate points across the galaxy through folded space-time, cutting what would normally be weeks of travel down to mere hours.
Planet XZ1827R—lovingly nicknamed Eden by Lucy and Vraxxan.
Once known as a place of shame and exile for our banished king, now stood transformed into something far more precious. A place where I could keep Jolie and Lilibet safe.
And I would keep them safe—with every breath in my body, every beat of my heart, every fiber of my being—or I would lay my life down in the trying.