Page 32 of Guardian’s Destiny (Space Guardian’s Mate #3)

SLOANE

The climb had been a lot harder than our initial descent. The rungs in the wall had been in much worse shape, and at one point, I nearly fell to my death. Vraax caught me, though, saving my life. And now I felt like I owed him. Argh.

Then there was another incident where Moddekdum couldn't go on any longer. He was exhausted, at the end of his rope. I was in between the Ohrur and Vraax, so Vraax climbed over me to get to him. Good grief, that had been easily one of the most arousing moments of my life—funny how they all centered around Vraax. His hard erection had pressed into my ass and back, drenching my panties and I cursed him even more. Why would he have such power over my body? Why? Why him?

Argh, it wasn't right. It wasn't fair.

At least the rungs became sturdier again, and I didn't have to worry every time I reached for a new one that this would be the last thing I held on to before my death.

It seemed to take forever, at least an hour, if not more, before I noticed a faint light coming from above, which grew steadily brighter. We were almost there.

The next time I reached for a rung, instead of feeling the cold metal, my hand moved over a flat surface before it was grabbed, and I catapulted upwards.

Vraax. Right. Like I wouldn't have been able to climb out of the shaft by myself.

In light of the cooperation, I mumbled a barely audible thank you before I curiously stared around the area we had entered. Here, too, a lot of debris was covering the ground, the ceiling had partially caved in, and in one corner, I made out a few bushes growing. It wouldn't take long until nature reclaimed this place just like it had out in the forest throughout the ruins. Or was it even nature on an alien planet? I wasn't sure, but I wasn't inclined to mull it over either.

Moddekdum sat in a corner, curled up like a petulant child, breathing hard. Vraax had helped me out of the shaft and was standing next to it now, looking at me intently. I tried to ignore it and focused on Craygh, who was peeking through an opening in the wall.

I moved next to him to get a better idea of what we were dealing with next. He moved to the side when he noticed my approach.

About a mile from us lay a large airfield. Busy with all kinds of spaceships, coming and going in a steady stream. Farther to the right and left were several ships parked by large hangers. Either to be loaded, unloaded, or repaired. I wasn't sure. Or maybe they were just waiting for their pilots to come back from a night out in town. It was something we needed to investigate. The last thing I wanted to do was hijack a spaceship only to find out it was broken. Crashing was not on my to-do bucket list. Actually, my bucket list had diminished to almost nothing. Funny how that worked out.

"Do you know why those ships are parked there?" I asked Craygh, pointing to the left and right.

"Most of the ones to the right are in need of repairs, while the left is for loading and unloading."

A shadow moved over me. Vraax had joined our little lookout. I moved to the side to give him a chance to assess the situation.

"How do you know?" I asked Craygh.

"We've done some extensive research on this spaceport. For centuries, we had lookouts here. Only in recent years have we dwindled it down to monthly assessments." He explained.

"How come?" I asked curiously.

He moved his head back and forward. "There wasn't anything new for us to learn here, and we're not in a position to steal ships and take off."

Now, I was getting really curious. "Why not? You could have taken your entire colony somewhere else, started over."

"Ohrur is our home planet. One day, we will take it back, but not yet. When the time is right, we'll send more sentries here." He sounded defensive, and I understood. As the leader of whatever army the Ohrurs had managed to build, he was a man of action. A man ready to reclaim what was taken from them. But as a leader, he also knew that their army would never win against the Space Guardians. They would have to completely surprise the Ohrurs. Still, they had been waiting for twenty-thousand years.

"How much longer are you going to wait?"

He looked thoughtfully from me to Vraax, "Hopefully not much longer, it seems to me that our time has come. The gods sent you and together I believe we can reclaim what is ours. You Darlam," he sent a nod at Vraax, "and us Ohrur."

A noise stopped me from answering. I spun around and caught sight of Moddekdum as he was about to slip through a large crack in the wall.

"Oh no, you don't!" I jumped forward simultaneously with Vraax and Craygh. The three of us collided, but I managed to get far enough ahead to clamp my hand around the Ohrur's ankle. He howled in anger.

Laying prone on the ground, I held on to his ankle until Vraax got up from the ground and pulled him back.

"Nice try."

Moddekdum glared at him. "At least heal my ankle," he demanded.

"Even if I hadn't left the healing wand with Lord Hyugh, I wouldn't do so," Vraax declared, angered. "I think I prefer you limping for now."

Craygh sat down against a wall. "Might as well rest; we won't be doing anything until it gets dark."

"And then what?" I found a spot by another wall while Vraax tied Moddekdum against a piece of metal or pipe sticking out of the ground.

"Then we'll make our way toward the ships that have been left here for the night. Maintenance will be finished with them while the pilots visit their families."

Just like I had thought earlier, but something else made me curious. "When you say families, how exactly do the Ohrur's families work? I mean with the women being used like servants."

"Females do not mean anything in their culture." Craygh's expression turned derisive as his eyes moved to Moddekdum, who acted as if he was bored with our conversation. "They're nothing but bargaining tools and are being treated like servants; you're right about that. They are taught that their males are like gods, to be adored, protected, pampered, and have every whim fulfilled from the day they're born. They don't attend school or read or know how to use comms except for the simplest tasks, like ordering supplies.

"They cook, they clean, they do anything their male demands. They raise children until they are old enough to attend school, and then they're separated. The girls are being taught that males are gods, how to cook and clean and… pleasure a male." I scrunched up my face, and Craygh looked away while Vraax let out a loud hiss. "While the boys are taught… everything they need to know, including how to handle their females when the time comes."

"That's barbaric," I said, shaking my head. "And why?"

"Do you want to take that one?" Craygh sneered at Moddekdum.

"Because females bring nothing but troubles," Moddekdum spat. "Their bleeding hearts were the cause for the war. If it hadn't been for them, we would have been the gods of Darlam. They bring only arguments, fights, and chaos. They weaken the resolve of men, cloud their judgment, and sow discord where there should be unity. They are a distraction, a burden, and a curse upon our kind." His voice dripped with venom, his eyes burned with a mixture of anger and resentment as he clenched his fists, as if the very thought of women was enough to ignite his fury. "

A picture formed in my mind, "So it was the women who didn't want you to take Darlam over?"

"Mostly," Craygh explained. "At the time, we actually had a queen who fell in love with one of the Darlams. I don't think she knew about the mating marks, but when she found out about it, she ordered us to retreat from the planet."

"Which the merchants didn't like," I finished.

Craygh looked surprised enough to make me add, "We had similar things happen on Earth because of greed from people who could never have enough gold."

"There was tension before." Craygh elaborated, "The Krythar Order was old, and the Queen had been trying for many years to put a stop to their barbaric treatment of females."

"But how come they had a queen if females weren't allowed…" I drifted off, confused.

"Because at the time, the Luminal Union was gaining power. Led by a male who had educated several females and found out that underneath all their apparent ignorance lay some very active, intelligent minds. He mentored the Queen from a young age and proposed she take power to stop the Oligarchy, but she only ruled for a few years. Unfortunately, she was killed right before Darlam was destroyed."

"That traitorous bitch deserved to die," Moddekdum threw in. "She and that male would have destroyed everything the Ohrurs stand for."

Craygh looked as if he was about to contradict him but must have changed his mind because he only shook his head in disgust. Honestly, I had heard enough, too, and chose to look out through the peephole instead. It was getting darker outside, as the sun was moving behind the horizon. Still, the spaceport was as busy as it had been before.

"We should eat something," Vraax suggested after a while, and Craygh produced something akin to sandwiches. Meat rolled into layers of the thinnest flatbread, flaky like butter dough.

When we were finished, it was fully dark outside. Stars and two moons could barely be seen against all the lighting across the tarmac.

"Is this ever going to slow down?" I asked, joining Vraax as he unpacked the supplies Lord Hyugh had sent with us.

"The spaceport is busy day and night but will slow down in a few hours," Craygh assured me.

"With the lights on like that, it will be hard to sneak around." I cautioned.

"We’ll use the back of the building," Craygh laid out his plan.

I didn't like it, and a quick glance at Vraax showed me that he didn't, either.

"We've done this before," Craygh tried to alleviate our concerns, "when we absolutely needed parts or things."

"You're gonna get caught. You're better off letting me go and forgetting this whole thing." Moddekdum recommended snidely.

Simultaneously Vraax and I yelled at him, "Shut the fuck up." Well, Vraax used frygg, but it was the same thing. I hated that a few hours ago, we would have looked at each other and laughed, while now we avoided even the slightest glance at each other.

"So the plan is to just sneak out and around the hangars, get on a ship, and go?" It sounded too simple to me.

Craygh nodded, "In essence."

I still wasn't happy. It seemed too… willy-nilly, too much hinged on luck. "We should at least scope the ships out first. I hate for us getting one only to find out it's not working."

"I'll go snoop around," Vraax volunteered.

"You'll stick out like a sore thumb," I prophesized. He was so much bigger than the Ohrurs, and with his silver skin, he would gleam under the lights like a beacon.

"You too," he shot back.

I shook my head. "I'm not that much bigger than the Ohrurs. If I keep to the dark, nobody will notice me."

"But you have no idea if a ship is good to go or not," Vraax shot back triumphantly.

I didn't. He was right about that.

"It's a risk either way," Craygh interrupted our little powwow. "Let's just go, trust me, these ships are ready."

There was that word again: trust . A word I had worked hard not to apply to anything in my job. I didn't trust easily, whenever I did it usually bit me in the ass, I glared at Vraax quickly enough for him not to notice. I also learned long ago that you should not trust the people who say, Trust me .

I rose. "I'll be quick."

"Sloane," Vraax rose, but I was already through a gap in the wall. I heard his loud curses and hastened to blend in with the shadows.