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Someharemwench of a triad. Some war-bride, captured.

“Dad, you have no idea the risk they took to save your life. If anyone suspected what they were doing, it would be obvious they took me, and they’d have their heads cut off. They saved me, and you.”

“And I worked for the last year to give you a future. Two more years and I would have been able to buy your contract out. I didn’t want to let you go work for Paulus. That was my weakness. But I’ve been working triple shifts, thinking of the day I could make it all right again.”

“It is all right again. It is. Those three…they aren’t like other Aurelians. They don’t have a harem, they aren’t cruel, they’re people, just like us.”

“You can’t know what’s in one of their heads. We leave tonight.”

I reach into my pocket, bringing out the four bars of credit. His eyes widen as I put them on the table, next to his funds, and the year of his slave-like labor pales in comparison to the gift the triad gave without thought.

“I’m no grubby pimp. That’s their money,” he says, and I back away from him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

That hurts, worse than if he slapped me.

“It’s okay,” I say, but it isn’t. “You just went through something horrible. Look, Dad, I know it’s hard to accept but I…I love them.” I say it, and as I do, I realize the words are true. I can’t imagine the dullness of life without them.

He sits down, heavy. “Gods in the heavens above. What did they do to you?”

“Nothing. They didn’t do anything. And I’m going to sit here, and wait for them, and they will come back for me,” I say, standing and moving the chair to the window. It’s small, and dirty, so I grab a hand towel from the bathroom to wipe it, and look outside. “They aren’t buying you, or me, or anything like that. They just wanted you to have a good future. You can buy a home, or a ship, or go to the Human Alliance, but I’m not leaving.”

I tear my eyes from the window, knowing they will come back. “I didn’t have a choice to go work for Paulus. For once, I have a choice. Please, don’t try to take it from me.”

He sighs, exhausted, but finally nods. “I’m sorry. I…I’ve failed you so many times. I thought I could make everything right, now, you know? That all this…that it wasn’t for nothing and…”

I saw my dad cry once, when my mother died. I thought all emotion had drained from him. Now he looks old, and weak, and I go to him and give him a huge hug. “It’s okay. It really is okay. I’m safe, and you’re alive, and everything’s going to be okay.”

22

BOLDEN

My heart pounds in anticipation, my hand wanting to clutch the hilt of my blade, but instead wrapping around the controls of the Orb-Beam gunnery. Five triads are packed in our Reaver with us, staring out at the ship bay of the Matador. How they managed to get the damaged ship repaired so quickly, I have no idea, but it’s flying above the planet, readying for an Orb-Shift.

I clench my teeth together. Soon, I will be in battle against Aurelians. We are striking on Elsinor. It is controlled by the Aurelian Empire, and they will have bolstered their defenses.

They still cannot know that we have Obsidian guiding our Orb-Shifts. And even if Queen Jasmine’s spies informed her, it cannot help. We can strike anywhere that is not blockaded by ancient technology that prevents Orb-Shift, but that technology is long lost to our species, coming from another age before the galactic war, before our species was decimated.

I breathe in deeply, then out, hating the stink of nervousness coming from the other five triads. “Get to the doors,” I bark out, not wanting them near me a second longer. They nod, and file out of the bridge. As soon as we shift above the capital of Elsinor, we will blast out of the loading bay. Only one Aurelian triad remains, led by a thin fellow with double honors, the second brand on his forehead filled in with black. He will pilot the ship once we are close, and we will follow the other four triads out, to fight in the streets. Ra’al wants as little collateral damage as possible.

With humans among the Aurelians defending the planet, we’ll see how possible that is. In their fear, they’ve been known to use munitions even in city fighting. I can already see buildings crumbling, streets red with blood, the screams of defenders and innocents in the carnage, and I hate it. I was expecting to feel the deep calm of battle. Instead, I feel that something is wrong, deeply wrong, like some fracture in my being.

“Orb-Shifting in one minute,” says Khra.

Ra’al briefed us on the mission in private. Once he saw that we were with his ranks, any suspicion of us must have waned. He gave us a long, searching look, but he never interrogated us.

He told us that Obsidian is coordinating three strikes at the same time. That makes me uneasy. Three different Orb-Shifts, and his focus will be split.

I will have to trust in our War-God. I will have to trust in that man who lives every moment in agony, his veins cursed.

Would we be damning our own son to that fate, if we put the Scorp-Venom in our veins?

Dammit!

I have no time for such thoughts. But no matter how much I try to think of the battle ahead, she’s in my mind, splitting my focus. When I used to fight, I wanted to dive into the fray. I wanted to be the one who turned the tide of battle.

Now I just want to get home safe.

“Ten,” says Khra, and I close my eyes, emptying my mind, preparing for the unknown.