Page 3 of Guardian’s Destiny (Space Guardian’s Mate #3)
SLOANE
With Zapharos far from my mind, I spent a few weeks at Daryus's palace studying up on universal politics, getting a general feel for the job as Chief Intelligence Officer. Daryus and I hadn't talked about me taking the job in so many words; we were both still working on figuring each other out. But my predecessor's demise didn't actually entice me to take the job. That and the boring, never-ending mountain of paperwork— it wasn't really paper work— Daryus threw at me. I realized I had a lot of studying to do, and granted, some of the information was pretty enticing. Still, I found myself more in the training room than behind my desk.
This was the reason I happily jumped at the opportunity when Daryus asked me to investigate a matter personally.
I had learned enough politics by now that I knew the GTU was, in broad terms, what the UN had been on Earth, just a tad bigger. The Pandraxian Empire was one of the mightiest members, especially now that they had assimilated the Cryons. The GTU had been wary of the Empire before, but now they were even more vigilant, going as far as demanding the Pandraxian Empire become more transparent. Again, in old Earth terms, it would have been as if the United States had merged with China or Russia. The GTU's wariness was understandable.
But when rumors of a secret, off-the-record meeting between GTU officials on a space station reached us. I understood Daryus’s desire to find out what they had to talk about. Especially when one of the said attendees was no other than Gar'Ny L'ym Tack, the GTU Overseer, the other was just a council member, Rhad'Dhor.
One of the Imperial Forces' ships took me to the space station ahead of the GTU members, while I planned and prepared for the mission during the journey. Spying on others was an ex-CIA agent's wet dream, more so with all the alien tech available to me now. I found myself more animated than I had been in weeks.
It didn't take that much to hack into the station's security cameras and turn them back on in the conference room where Rhad'Dhor and Gar'Ny L'ym Tack, were meeting—they had ordered them off—while sitting right next door from the room where they were holding their little tea party, listening and watching.
The moment two Moggadesh entered, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. This was a much deeper conspiracy than the Emperor had initially thought. The Moggadesh were not members of the GTU, and they were a major galactic threat to the entire universe, as well as the Pandraxians' sworn enemies.
The Pandraxians and the Moggadesh had clashed before on numerous occasions. Their most recent conflict occurred when the Hettitas, a highly intelligent yet militarily weak species, were forced to plead for Pandraxian aid after being attacked by the Moggadesh. In terms of size, the Moggadesh were on par with the Pandraxian Empire—or had been before Daryus overthrew the Cryons.
The GTU would never have approved of the Pandraxians engaging in conflict with the Cryons, not even to save Earth. Daryus also feared that such a distraction would give the Moggadesh an opportunity to strike against the Pandraxians, making him initially hesitant to intervene. To say that tensions between the Pandraxians and Moggadesh ran high was an understatement. But as far as I knew the GTU wasn't a friend of theirs either.
With disbelief, I listened to Gar'Ny L'ym Tack promise the Moggadesh that he would personally recall security teams from certain trade routes to allow the Moggadesh to intercept them. Most of the alien tech was still way over my head, but I did understand that some transporters were too big and heavy to go into hyperspeed. This was why trade routes that were supposed to be secured by the GTU had been established. Daryus would be furious when I told him about this betrayal.
I was about to pack up my things and log out of the system when the GTU members left, but then one of the Moggadesh mentioned a name that made me freeze: Zapharos.
"He will be on Rottvalen in a few weeks, where we will intercept him," the one who had spoken informed the other.
"I don't care about the details. I want the Arkhevari, and I want him alive," the other, who seemed to be the boss, replied.
Shit! I slapped my forehead. I wasn't looking forward to another confrontation with the Arkhevari, but I had to warn him. It wasn't like I felt responsible for the bastard, okay, maybe a little bit, but I had learned enough that having an Arkhevari under the Moggadesh’s control was similar to a human nation having captured a unicorn or dragon. Yeah, dragon was probably more fitting—a dangerous dragon at that.
Sitting in the room spying, so many questions flitted through my brain. Like where the Arkhevari had been all this time, what they had been doing, and why Zapharos had come forward now.
I had heard enough. I gathered my comm, turned the security cameras in the other room back off, and erased all traces that I had been in their system at all. It was time to get back to Pandrax and face a very enraged emperor when the door opened and six GTU soldiers charged in. Weapons trained on me.
Grateful to have my MARSOC background, I jumped behind the large conference table, turned it over, and pushed it against the soldiers while they were firing at it. That move gave me enough time to pull my blaster and take down two of them. Another was on the ground because he hadn't been able to avoid the table. The other three were storming around it from both sides. I took the one to the left down and bolted over his body. The one who had been hit with the table grabbed my ankle, nearly tripping me. A blast close to my head seared off some of my hair, and I cursed as I managed to get out and around the corner.
"Get her! She killed GTU soldiers," Gar'Ny L'ym Tack yelled from down the hall. How he had figured out I had hacked into the system would remain a mystery, but the fact of the matter was he did, and now I was enemy number one. Worse yet, I had killed GTU soldiers, and I was pretty sure they would come after me just like any police force on Earth would have after I took one of their own down. It was at that precise moment that I realized I was on my own.
They would know which Pandraxian ship had brought me here and never allow me to reach it. Or force a shootout with the Imperial Forces, something I would have liked to avoid at all costs. Emperor Daryus didn't need this added scandal when he took on the GTU. It would actually work in the GTU's favor and make the Pandraxians the bad guys.
All that went through my head as I ran down the corridors, trying to figure out my next move. I had a rudimentary understanding of how to fly a spacecraft, a Pandraxian one at least. But there were so many of them out there…
Easy, Sloane, it can't be that much more difficult than driving a car. If you can drive one, you can drive them all , I tried to encourage myself. Yeah, unless it has a clutch, then you're fucked , came my reply, and I groaned, slowing. I needed to blend in with the crowd, which wasn't easy. This space station wasn't a spot where many humans hung out. Security cameras were most likely already trained on me.
The only way out for me was to hijack a ship. I knew where they were, too; the problem was which one to pick. Unless I found time to hack into the docking log, I would have no idea what kind of ship lay behind each locked hatch.
First, though, I needed to get down to one of the docking stations. I pulled the hood of my shirt over my head, but a new group of GTU soldiers was already approaching. Hastily, I made a beeline for one of the chutes to take me to the docking levels. Keeping my blaster ready, I left the chute and turned right on a whim. It didn't matter; I was operating on a prayer and luck.
"Stop!" A voice behind me yelled, and I ran. I zigzagged to avoid being hit by the blaster fire that followed me.
Turning right had been the wrong move, as it turned out. Construction drones were busy working on an open shaft just as the group of GTU soldiers rounded the corner, and another team came straight at me. I didn't have any options left. Once the GTU soldiers got a hold of me, Gar'Ny L'ym Tack would have me executed before the emperor even knew I was a prisoner. I jumped into the open shaft, praying it wasn't a hundred miles deep or would lead straight into the void of space. Impossible, I know, but those were my thoughts as my body descended with increasing speed, and I still didn't land anywhere.
My hands tried to hold on to anything protruding from the ends of the shaft. I managed to hold on to a line, but my hands were too slippery from sweat, and there was nothing I could do to stop my slide down the line until my fingers only grabbed air once again.
But it helped slow my fall enough so that I didn't break my back or neck when I landed—only my ankle.