Chapter 26
CHAPTER 26
D’Var
T he cruiser O’Rec has arranged for us, is situated in one of the southern docking bays. We don’t speak a word while we are preparing for takeoff. It’s a small vessel, with only enough space for two Warriors. There is a small command center, lavatory, sleeping quarters with a bunk bed and a small cargo bay. It is not a ship designed for comfort, but for clandestine missions.
My mood is dark, so I do not appreciate the ship's exceptional controls and technology. O’Rec plots a course to the Caudata Moon. The bond is aching, pulsing, hurting and the further we get from the Ring, from L’Ren, the worse it gets.
“You have to let go, my friend.” O’Rec’s voice is shaking me back to the now.
“Let go?” I huff, “that is easy for you to say.” O’Rec shrugs.
“I know it is not an easy thing to do, but you are on this journey with a purpose.
Despite how much it hurts, it needs to be done. You know this. It is either sacrifice now or be in trouble later. You need to find a place for your guilt.”
I stay silent. O’Rec is very observant. He knows a lot, he always seems to know the right thing to say.
“I do not want to leave her, but I cannot leave Yalix alive. I have to make sure he will never come for her. I do not believe that he will ever give up on L’Ren.”
O’Rec nods. “I think you are right. I think this is the right thing to do to keep your mate safe. I also know it pains you beyond reason, and that is something we cannot have. You need to have a clear mind. You need to be focused on the task. If we want to kill Yalix, we have to be smart.”
O’Rec is right. I cannot defeat Yalix when guilt is on my mind and the anguished cries of my mate haunt my thoughts. I need to find my calm within, need to let go of the guilt and save the thoughts of her cries for later, to act as fuel in battle.
I breathe in a cleansing breath. And another one. Just as long as it takes to find my calm.
“Good.” O’Rec looks at me, I see the same calm I feel, mirrored in his eyes. He spins his chair and touches a couple of buttons.
“Here is my plan.” He pulls up a map. “This is Wrixal, the moon we believe is Yalix’s residence. It will take us approximately 4 days.”
I arch an eyebrow. “That fast?”
O’Rec nods, smiling broadly. “This is a high-speed stealth cruiser my friend, I know you are not in a mood to notice and enjoy all the beauty it has to offer, but I am certainly looking.” I shake my head at his enthusiasm.
“You talk about it, like she is your Zarra.”
O’Rec laughs at my observation. “I wish. Now, when we get into Caudata space it gets tricky, but we have advanced stealth tech so if we do not physically encounter anything, nobody should be able to sense our ship. This beauty can hover in the atmosphere, the perfect opportunity for us to do our scans. From what my research shows, Exparix has 5 moons and 3 of those are sold to very rich prominents. We have to assume Yalix is a very important asshole, he owns and controls everything on his moon.”
I nod. That makes sense. I have learned at a young age that the most terrible of people are mostly the ones that are rich and powerful.
“Do you have specific biometric parameters of Yalix?”
O’Rec shakes his head. “No, that is the flaw in our plan. We have no way of knowing which one of the lifeforms is Yalix. We can specify species based on body temperature, but if there are more Caudata, we have to guess which one is Yalix.”
“So, once we have established a scan of the moon and know where all the people are we know which place to target first, or if we are unlucky, we have to make an educated guess.” O’Rec nods.
“We have to go in silently,” I continue, and O’Rec agrees as a plan starts to take form in my head.
“But we go out with a bang,” I flash O’Rec a feral grin, which he returns.
“Are we blowing up the moon?” he asks and I nod.
“We are blowing up the moon.”
O’Rec and I take turns sleeping over the next few rotations. The bond with my mate is now a humming in the background. The pain of our separation only presents itself if I let it, and I have decided I will not let it hit me, until our way back. I need to stay thoroughly focused on our mission.
The journey is a quick one, O’Rec was right about how amazing this ship is. It glides through space at an astonishing tempo.
As we are approaching Esparix I can see the moons in orbit. O’Rec pulls up the map and points in the direction of Wrixal, our destination.
O’Rec brings us into orbit of Wrixal to perform the first scans, before he slowly sets in the descent. We are hovering in the atmosphere, over where Yalix's main compound is. We are lucky the compound is centered in one location, whereas the rest of the moon is desolate. I check our shields and scan the airspace, while O’Rec is focused on what happens on the ground. I hear him grunt and he pulls up a map of the compound, made from the data we gathered.
“This wing here is where the most activity is. There are three Caudata lifeforms, four Sternotheri and one human.” He then points to a lower level. “I believe here are the cells, you can see lifeforms here and there, and they are all separated at a similar distance. There is one Caudata here and the rest are all a mix of different species.”
This complicates our mission. If there are slaves, we should at least try to rescue them before we blow up the moon. And the human. I think of my mate, enslaved and I know she would want us to bring the other human with us.
“Fuck,” I curse. O’Rec nods.
“Fuck indeed.”
We think of a couple of different scenarios, while we follow the people in the compound for a while. We think we have managed to figure out which one is Yalix, because there is only one Caudata who frequents the lower levels, alone or with the others. The Sternotheri are not an issue, we will slay them all.
O’Rec agrees that L’Ren would want us to bring the human with us to the Ring. While we can fit in one extra, we cannot take all the other slaves with us. Also, they might need long term care and I do not think we should risk our people with these things. Our situation is already tenuous as it is, we cannot tend to refugees like we used to do on our planet.
“We should take the Sternotheri and the Caudata on the upper level out first.” O’Rec says, and I nod agreeingly.
“They pose the more immediate threat. I agree. I also think we should split up and make it as quiet and quick as possible. Though they definitely do not deserve that.” O’Rec nods. We establish entry points for us to infiltrate the compound, making sure we avoid the large water area, we believe is an indoor pool, because that is where the Caudata are strongest.
“We must land close, so I can hack into the security system,” O’Rec says.
“Find a spot,” I growl and look at the scans again. This time, I focus on the tech.
While O’Rec is busy picking a landing spot and guiding the ship there, I suddenly see the solution to our problems.
“Escape pods!” I exclaim and O’Rec echoes without looking at me.
“Escape pods?”
“Yes!” I bump his shoulders. “There are two dozen escape pods on the upper level.” I point them out to O’Rec.
“If we put the slaves into stasis, put them in the pods and direct them to a safe place, we can still save them, and blow up this forsaken moon.”
O’Rec looks at me now. “That is a brilliant idea. I know just the planet”
“Novaron,” I say, O’Rec nods.
“Novaron.”
O’Rec continues landing the ship and I think about my mother’s home world. It is the planet we landed on when we first escaped the devastation of the destruction of Arracate. They have always been great allies and O’Rec has formed a tight friendship with their rulers over the years.
“We should send them a message through the secure line. Tell them we will get into direct contact with them as soon as it is safe, but that we count on their generosity to take care of these injured people.”
“I will take care of that as soon as we land,” O’Rec says. “Message, hacking, entering.” O’Rec smiles broadly. “That sounds like fun.”
We waste no time after we land. O’Rec does his computer duties, while I double check security, the perimeter and lay out our weapons. When O’Rec joins me in the cargo bay, we are ready to go.
We load ourselves with as many weapons as we can carry, equipping ourselves us with breathers as we head into the wasteland.
The moon is cold, and there is a fierce wind blowing. Luckily, we only have a short walk before we get to the compound. The compound is situated under a giant dome and O’Rec guides me towards the entryway he created.
“This way. I have disabled their entire security; put it on a loop so the guards do not notice. I have found this backdoor into the secure environment. Watch out for the pool areas though.”
O’Rec really has done a good job, because we can slip inside the dome at exactly the spot he tells us, without tripping any alarms. We run towards the walls of the compound, as we split up. My entrance is eastbound, his is on the west.
“I have arrived,” I tell O’Rec, when I reach the door checking my wrist comp to scan for enemies.
“A couple more moments for me,” O’Rec tells me as I wait patiently.
“There are two Caudata downstairs, with one Sternotheri. The other ones are on the upper levels, but they appear to have split off.” I give O’Rec a quick rundown of the results of the scan.
“I can enter as well, I see. I will go for the Sternotheri, they are closest to me. Come to me when you have disposed of the Caudata.”
“Done,” I tell him before I enter the compound.