Page 13

Chapter Seven

Cylo blinked at the message from Malo. “Detour to Mascroba? When females are in danger, and we are this close?”

“What is it?” Olin asked, raising his gaze from the mini war table set to the side of the comm.

“We are to sneak into yet another facility and steal a Durn.” The insanity of the command irritated him. Cylo gritted his teeth, wishing he could decline the assignment.

“Should take an hour at the most.” Olin tapped the 3D holographic of Yithia and zoomed into the mother city. “Ah, Tias has shared the location. It is near the throne room. Slipping in undetected might be challenging.”

Intrigued despite his frustration, Cylo studied the model. “What if we came up from below?” He ran his finger along the path they should take. “That chasm runs deep, does it not?”

Olin hummed. “Indeed, if the kuta could make less noise.”

“Then let us travel deeper.”

“What? And have the Durn plummet to us?” Olin chuckled. “Endangering such a rarity would not be well accepted.”

Cylo smirked. “He can climb down, can he not?”

“I suppose.” Olin swiped his wrist over Cylo’s. “Comm this Zucis. Set it up.”

“Why me?”

“Malo instructed me to collect the Durn? I was not aware I was entrusted with this.” Olin chuckled. “Fyca, were you aware of my new responsibilities?”

Fyca glanced away from the display vids while his fingers flew across the console. “It is well deserved.”

Cylo scoffed at their teasing. “Enough. I shall comm our target and have him prepare for our arrival.”

“Should I secure it? If secrecy is required?” Fyca gestured to the biggest display vid dominating the forevids.

“Wait. Let me ensure he is not surrounded by an enemy.” Cylo typed a quick message from his O.D.I. and settled into the nearest comfy. A zing shot up his arm. At a glance, he caught the gist of the message and signaled to Fyca to make the connection.

“Greetings, Etterian.” A blue-skinned, white-haired, and white-eyed male bowed his head. “How may I assist?”

“I have been instructed to escort you off Yithia.” Cylo rose out of the comfy, clasped his hands behind his back, and squared his shoulders.

“Indeed.” Zucis smiled. “Your Sub-Commander Aaro is honorable.”

Cylo wasn’t about to claim all Etterians embodied that trait when it was far from the truth. “Data Officer Olin will share our plan. See to it that you are in place at the correct time.”

“I will be there.”

When the comm ended from the Durn’s side, Cylo had no right to hiss in offense. A Durn was to be revered, but like Etterians who didn’t all value honor, so, too, should Durns not expect instant respect.

“How long?” he muttered.

“In four hours, we will breach Yithia’s atmosphere.” Olin angled his head. “At midday. Might be wise to let the weaker sunlight of ‘night’ shade us.”

“And give those Yithian xemi a chance to hurt the females?” Cylo leveled a glare at Olin. “No. Time is crucial.” He gripped Fyca’s shoulder in passing. “Just fly the kuta lower than their suns’ light can reach.”

He headed along the passage to the common. Operatives Nhyht, Unher, Durok, and Koddo gathered around the table. “We have a short, important mission above and beyond the Earthian females. Prepare for battle. You have four hours.”

Nhyht leapt to his feet. “Stealth?”

“In a way. I am hoping we do not need to leave the kuta.”

“But plan for the worst,” Durok said, lowering his chin to his chest. “This may be a chance to die for Etteria.”

Silence fell upon the room like the numbing effects of Foutas venom.

“The void cannot have you just yet,” Koddo said, patting Durok on the back. “We save the females first, then you may claim your honorable death.”

“Dying on Yithia?” Cylo forced a smile. “Let us find you a worthy opponent. We shall hunt the galaxies for such a creature.”

“My thanks,” Durok said, gazing at the males gathered.

Cylo tapped the med-gun in his pants pocket and nudged his head at Qaff in a silent request for Durok to get scanned.

If the male’s void threatened to consume him, Cylo needed to know how soon.

At Durok’s nod, Cylo abandoned the common for his quarters in the barracks.

Irritation had him pacing the narrow confines when what he wanted to do was roar at the delay.

Instead, he controlled his breathing and willed himself to calm.

In four hours, this issue would be behind him, and if all things went well, a Durn would be aboard the scimitar.

Fully armed, Cylo’s arms gleaming with the mini daggers he’d strapped there, he strode into the kuta’s compartment and settled behind Fyca. Shooting out of the bay was done in silence, with the shuttle’s well-maintained engines humming.

“If we had stealth,” Olin said into the quiet.

“Indeed.” Cylo grimaced. “Maloid has perfected it.”

“That is recent. We have yet to adapt, to learn how to detect them.”

Cylo scowled. “Not good.”

Blinding sunlight highlighted every corner within the compartment.

There’d been a buzz about Yithia harvesting their three suns and selling the sunlight to planets in need, but that had fallen through.

Not many wanted to do business with the Yithians when there were far more hospitable planets out there.

Olin rubbed his nose then gripped the support strap when the kuta shuddered. “They would have to hide their heat signatures as well as visuals. An intriguing challenge: becoming invisible in its entirety.”

Cylo remained silent at Olin’s awe. This development marked a change in the power dynamics.

Etterian led the way with their sheer numbers and combative approach to life.

Yet they could not penetrate the seas to reach Yithian’s underwater cities.

So, Maloid introducing stealth when Etterian relied on honest dealings with their allies…

Worse, if Maloid chose to share this technology with anyone other than Etteria, it could tilt the balance.

But all this was unconfirmed. Unless he ‘saw’ it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t worry about it.

King Xeus had prepared for a war, nonetheless, bringing the Gika into the fold.

Now, that had been a change in centuries of tactics.

Etteria had once used the Gika battlefields as a rite of passage.

Making them allies meant Etteria’s aging males could no longer find their deaths at the hands of eight-legged creatures.

Cylo rubbed his chest in remembrance. Images flashed in his mind of red mandibles and razor-sharp pincers. He’d used his great sword to dismember them while dodging their acidic saliva. It had been a long time since he’d last visited Gikaet. Perhaps, once the females were safe…

Even imagined battles fired his blood.

When Fyca steered the kuta into a ravine, darkness consumed the compartment. No one panicked at the loss of light, not when Etterians had excellent vision, even in shadow. The temperatures dipped, too.

Cylo grimaced when the kuta skimmed the side of the chasm, a screeching scrape that deafened him. “May I remind you that this is our only kuta.”

“It is made of Maloidian steel,” Fyca called, dropping the shuttle. “Should be wider from here on out.”

Tension tightened Cylo’s shoulders. Something…a sense, had him on high alert like they were flying into a trap. He studied his males. Only Qaff was on board the Kevol , and he wasn’t enough to storm the facility. No, they had to survive this mission, no matter what awaited them.

Fyca navigated the zig-zagging chasm with ease. Dark green plants clung to the black rock. And despite his excellent hearing, Cylo couldn’t pick up anything past the engines.

Which meant, if any Yithian was listening, they would hear them approach.

And yet, his males’ heartbeats were steady. He glanced at Unher whose stomach gurgled.

Fyca punched the console and yanked on the lever. The kuta careened to a halt—its backside rising before settling. “Sensors.”

Cylo peered through the forevid at two discs mounted to the chasm walls. Almost as black as the rock, they would have missed them if not for a telltale shimmer.

“Koddo, shoot the left on my command.” Cylo opened the door to a flood of heat, smelling of organic material and water. “I will climb over the roof to reach the other.”

Without waiting for a response, he gripped the top edge of the doorframe and swung himself up and over in a single move, his arms bearing his weight without issue.

Sprawled on the roof, he scanned the wall on the right.

A strip of sunlight above almost blinded him, forcing him to adjust his eyesight.

He shouldn’t have looked up, because when he focused on the shadows, it took him longer to find the device.

“Do not destroy them,” Olin said, peering over the edge at Cylo. “Stun them. Yithians may believe the devices have malfunctioned.”

“Agreed,” Cylo said. He leapt to his feet, spreading them wide for balance, and unholstered his blaster. A smack of the yellow button on the side set it to stun. He drew in a breath then exhaled. “Now, Koddo.”

The shots almost deafened him. The shimmer ceased. He strapped the blaster to his thigh and swung into the compartment.

Olin sealed the door behind him.

Fyca launched the shuttle forward.

“Let that be the only obstacle,” Olin said.

“You are troubled, too?” Cylo met his gaze.

“It seems too easy. Why the extraction when we can fly in and collect him without a fight?” Olin peered through the forevid.

“I agree,” Durok said. “Stealing a Durn should garner more resistance than this. Unless…”

Cylo scowled. “If he is a spy, then we shall deliver him to the Phoenix . I will not endanger the females any further.” He pinched his brow where a dull ache pinged. “I would prefer this task to be a disaster than the rescue of the females.”

“We are nearing the meet point,” Fyca called. “Five minutes.”

“Any movement on the rock face?” Olin asked Fyca when the male glided the shuttle to a stop.

“Nothing yet.” Fyca touched the console, flicking the forevid to infrared. “No heat signature either.”

“We will wait,” Cylo said then glanced at Durok. “Head onto the roof. In case he needs assistance.”

Olin smacked the button that opened the door. Durok swung out and up.

“Nhyht, Koddo, go with him.” Cylo nodded at his males.

They followed while Olin crowded the console. Cylo fired off a message to Zucis, and of course, no reply was forthcoming.

Gritting his teeth, he stomped to the door and swung out, landing on the roof with a thump. Koddo met his gaze from his position guarding the rear of the shuttle. Durok peered up one rock wall, Nhyht the other.

Cylo tapped his O.D.I., summoning the meet point. It was closer to the right. He burst into action and threw himself against the side of the chasm, digging his fingers into gaps to hold himself in place.

“Cylo,” Nhyht called. “Be careful.”

Durok paused beside Cylo, gave him a slow nod, then started to climb.

Up they went, taking the time to find grips and footholds.

The light brightened the higher up the chasm they traveled and, still, no sign of the Durn.

Cylo paused at the bright stream of sunlight across the rock.

If he continued upward, he’d be revealed.

Meters above him was a platform. Durok hesitated, as well.

“I do not like this,” he said.

“I agree. We do not know what awaits us.” Cylo glanced into the depths of darkness, picking up the clear outline of the shuttle. He wanted to abandon this stupid mission. Now more than ever.

A steady tread approached. He stilled and raised his gaze to the edge of the platform. He released one hand and twisted to unstrap his blaster. Plastering himself to the rock face, he glanced at Durok, who’d drawn his weapon, too.

A face appeared, and the sight of it whooshed air out of Cylo’s lungs.

“My apologies, Operative,” Zucis whispered. He adjusted his carry-all across his chest and shoulder, then leapt over the side.

Cylo hurried to holster his blaster, anticipating that he might need to catch the Durn’s arm. But the male caught ahold of a jutting rock and hit the wall with an ‘oomph.’

“I could not slip out as quickly as I wanted to,” he said, starting his descent. “Nor could I respond to your message. My thanks for waiting for me.”

Cylo grunted but said no more. He hurried past Zucis, needing to reach the kuta before the male did.

A glance at Durok conveyed the message to trail the Durn.

Durok nodded. The lure of a mission completed flooded Cylo’s limbs with energy, and he touched down.

Koddo and Nhyht faced ahead and backward while Cylo gazed upward.

The Durn climbed without hindrance in his open-toed footwear. Not an easy task but he did it well.

Moments later, they were in the kuta, the door sealed.

“Flipping,” Fyca called.

Cylo grabbed a strap and gestured to Zucis to do the same.

In time, too, for Fyca yanked the nose up and somersaulted the shuttle, rolling them to head back the way they’d come.

Cylo hung while the shuttle rotated, his booted feet touching the ceiling a second before the shuttle righted.

Fyca strapped to the seat didn’t need to hold onto anything.

Their braids whipped, though, showing the movement.

“Heat signatures ahead,” Olin called, once more peering through the forevid. “They are repairing the sensors.”

“Alodon’s balls,” Cylo grumbled. “Drop as low as you can. Let us wait them out.” He activated his O.D.I.

and messaged the Phoenix , warning them to anticipate their arrival and who they were escorting.

No one spoke, their gazes fixed on the two Yithians glowing blue-green on the forevid.

Their nearby shuttle hovered, its single engine glowing red.

It didn’t take long for the repairs to be completed considering the devices had been short-circuited and not destroyed.

Fyca didn’t bring them closer to the sensors until there was no doubt the Yithians were out of range.

Only then did Cylo and Koddo re-stun the devices before Fyca shot them off-world.

“Anything on the buzz?” Cylo asked Olin, who’d been staring at his O.D.I. since they’d left Yithia and headed toward the orbiting battleship Phoenix .

“Nothing so far.”

Cylo allowed his shoulders to slump. Thankfully, Zucis did not speak. Cylo had nothing to say to the Durn, nor did he want to inadvertently reveal their Iphara plans.

He gazed at the male, not even bothering to offer a polite smile. “Welcome to the Phoenix ,” he finally said, gesturing to the battleship filling the forevid.