Secrets of the Prime Ones (Sentinels Book 2), page 6
Ixion snorted. “Hardly smuggled. Your borders aren’t very secure.”
Eyes flashed at the medic, but Melias wouldn’t let the man’s ire travel to his friend. “Actually, Lieutenant, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. Under the Articles of Cricellia on Free Trade and Spacefaring Traffics, you don’t have the right to detain my crew unless they violated the ethical statutes of the Interspace Justice Accords. I have every right to bring a Ter’ Oroi here as long as he is a registered Sentinel, which he is.”
That caught them all off guard. The soldiers looked around uncertainly. He was sure a few of them didn’t know the accords, or the articles of free trade and traffic, but he was also sure that some of them did know but hadn’t expected some scruffy Sentinels to know which laws and rights applied to them. Unfortunately for them, Melias was well-versed and knew what he could and couldn’t do, and what could and couldn’t be done to him and his crew.
“Young man, you do not want to break the accords and articles. They will not be kind to you nor your government,” Vasya added, with a note of sympathy in her voice that she saved when she wanted to persuade someone.
The soldier heard all of this and understood, but he still wasn’t happy. His turquoise face darkened another shade. Melias wondered if he might shirk the laws and do something reckless here. Small men with a small amount of power always tended to abuse their positions.
Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. A commanding voice cut through them. “Enough of this.” The air filled with weighty authority and wisdom in that voice, and it was a far cry from what it had sounded like minutes ago.
The soldiers parted to let Lord Aranaketh Saphio through.
Their weapons all lowered, now that the voice of reason had arrived on the scene. Melias and his crew backed down as well, sensing that the trouble was coming to a close.
Arke’s uncle came to the lieutenant's side and forced his weapon down for him. “Lieutenant, they are guests here, and as their captain has eloquently stated, their rights are clear under the accords. Please, lower your weapons and return to your stations. There is no need for this.”
Most of the soldiers looked skeptical. Their hatred and bigotry toward the Ter’ Oroi and Nummer were obvious and appalling, and those looks alone made Melias want to shoot them.
Thankfully, they listened to the pathfinder, turned their backs to the Goose and her crew, and returned to the building. The lieutenant did as he was told, his shoulders slumping but his body primed with rage as he and his wounded pride slunk away. Only once the last one disappeared inside did Melias finally sigh, and his heart began to return to a steady rhythm.
With a forlorn and troubled expression, the pathfinder watched the soldiers retreat inside before turning back to the crew of the Goose with a heavy sigh.
“Well, that was unpleasant. They were doing what they thought was the right thing according to our laws, but they either didn’t know who you were or they didn’t care. For their rudeness, I offer my sincerest apologies.”
He punctuated that by bowing low, his body at an almost ninety-degree angle.
The formality made Melias uncomfortable. “It’s quite all right. No harm no foul.”
The pathfinder straightened and adjusted his collar, recomposing himself. “Yes, well, it is better that we try to avoid inciting incidents like this, yes?”
Melias couldn’t agree more.
Before they were able to leave, the man walked over to his niece. Everyone tensed, wondering what reaction this might take. Arke looked at her uncle warily, but there was no anger or hostility in him. His eyes looked her over, and Melias spied a hint of sadness and regret.
“I cannot say that I am pleased about what happened to your father, or the circumstances of your leaving. I still wish that you were here, that our roles were reversed.” He paused and took a deep breath, releasing it with a bare but sincere smile. “However, you are doing what you’ve always wanted, and you are helping people in the process, so I suppose I cannot fault you too greatly.”
She clearly didn’t know what to say, and he didn’t give her an opportunity. They noticed that he had a collection of old notebooks tucked beneath one arm, which he handed to her. She took them and held them tight against the ancient book.
“Those are some of your father’s notes on the Prime Ones and their ruins and his thoughts on certain things. I was never able to make myself read all of it, but I believe there might be something in there that will be able to be of some use to you. I hope. Even if there isn’t, they should be with you.”
Arke began to choke up, but she held back her tears and nodded. “Thank you, Uncle. This…means a lot to me. I-I will try to come back sometime. When I have time.”
His lips formed a long line as he squeezed her shoulder. “Good luck with your mission. I pray your path is true and devoid of obstacles.”
“So that the journey is pleasant and fruitful,” she replied to the pathfinder blessing.
With that, they boarded the ship and bid farewell to this lush jewel of a planet. They had a grand mission ahead of them, and they couldn’t be held back by such a place as this.
5
They didn’t hesitate to leave that system at top speed. Melias had them out of the atmosphere, past the shield gate, and wormholing away before any of them could settle. He wanted to put as much space as he could between them. The further they got, the less they could think about everything.
Of course, they didn’t have a heading yet for the next device, so he just had them heading for a nearby system they stopped at sometimes to resupply. They didn’t need to do that now, but he wanted to be somewhere safe.
Once they were underway, everyone congregated in the common room, except for Aaron and Vasya. From the smell of the kitchen down the way, the former was already making something nice for them. Sometimes, Aaron would cook when he was angry, and this would qualify. He didn’t like when Nummer, or any of them, were discriminated against or treated unfairly. Melias understood the feeling. Vasya was no doubt below with the engines and wormhole generator, but she would be up soon.
It was unnaturally quiet despite their all being there. Ixion leaned against the wall, arms crossed, looking sullen. Tomi and Arke sat beside one another, both staring ahead distantly. Arke still clutched her uncle’s ancient book, as if her arms were locked in place like the chains that had bound it. For a moment, Melias wondered if perhaps that was the case.
Red sat in front of a blank monitor, tapping her fingers absently. He wondered what she was thinking about, what she thought about this whole ordeal with the Lightbringers. Was she a Lesser? They’d found her in a pile of debris and wreckage with strange-looking bodies all around. They hadn’t looked like what Octopoids were depicted as, so it was unknown who she was fighting or if that was what had left her in stasis for so long.
It was clear that she had some sort of connection to all of this, with how she reacted to the Lightbringer and its words and all the writings, the words that had ominously come from her. Now that they had some more information, he wondered if she would be more willing to divulge what she knew.
She wasn’t the focus at the moment, however. Melias found Nummer sitting on the floor, his back against the holo-projector. He didn’t look scared, but he wasn’t pleased, nor should he have been, given that he just had two dozen of his people’s mortal enemies pointing weapons at his face with the intent to kill. He was a warrior, and he had fought in battles against the Cereleans, but that didn’t mean it would be easy every time you faced death.
Melias was going to say something to him, attempt to give him some comfort and encouragement, but Arke beat him to it. It was probably better that it came from her. They were close friends, despite being on opposite sides of a war. She put the book aside and went to kneel in front of Nummer. He lifted his head to see her and didn’t have his usual casual, almost-playful demeanor. Now, there was a great sadness behind his eyes.
Before he could say anything, she wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him close, her ear to his chest. He jolted, not expecting the sudden embrace.
“Nummer, I am so sorry,” Arke said, her voice quivering.
He hugged her back, though gently, as he was strong enough to hurt her if he squeezed too tightly. Managing their immense strength was something all Ter’ Oroi were taught. After some sniffling, Arke pulled away from him, though they still held each other in a half embrace, arms clasped. If other Cereleans saw this display, they would faint.
He placed a hand on her head and his lipless mouth curved into a warm smile. “There is no need. I do not blame you for the actions of your people. We should not be judged by the sins of others unless we condone them.”
Her shoulders slumped, exhaustion lacing through her. “I’m so sick of the war. I wish it would just end already.”
Ixion snorted. “I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon.”
“Ixion,” Melias hissed.
The medic shrugged. “Sorry but you know I’m right. I wish I wasn’t. But you and I, and Nummer too, we’ve all been in war. They are not so easily extinguished, especially a feud that goes back thousands of generations and of which no one even remembers the cause of it. You would think that would make it easier, but the war is so far removed from the people that have the power to stop it that they likely won’t.”
“Too good for business,” Tomi muttered.
Ixi pointed at her. “Precisely.”
Melias pinched the bridge of his nose, though he knew Ixion was right. It was the same with the war between the Confederation and the Union. Both sides hated one another, based on some initial conflict in the year following the mass departure from Earth, but that conflict festered over many years before finally blossoming into full-scale war. Melias had once hated the other side too, buying into the propaganda his own side had spoon-fed to him since he was a child, but when you were on the battlefield, seeing your friends dying, seeing the enemy dying, it made it all so clear. That went on years longer than it needed to.
Arke hadn’t bought into the spiel that her people in the core worlds peddled. She knew Nummer and his own weren’t the mindless, savage brutes the Cereleans said they were. Though, Mel was sure the people of the border systems that saw the war up close would probably disagree, but it wasn’t pretty no matter who you were when you saw it up close.
But when it came to Nummer, he had fought. He had seen war, killed her people, and had friends who were killed by hers. Melias didn’t know his beliefs, but he was sure Nummer had believed those things at one time or another. For him to have left that, Melias couldn't imagine what he had seen or done.
Back when they first met Nummer, it had just been Melias, Niath, Vasya, and Aaron.
Melias and the others had gone on a few small missions, nothing too intensive, but they knew they needed more firepower. That was when Melias saw Nummer drinking heavily in a bar on Pulexx. He’d had bandages on his bicep, but they were torn off when he stumbled from the bar. This revealed his warrior brands that had been sliced into his arm, which meant that he had been court-martialed and sentenced to death—though clearly, he wasn’t dead. He’d had a sadness in his eyes that Melias knew didn’t belong to someone who had done something wicked. When bounty hunters came for Aaron, Nummer had almost singlehandedly taken them down, even though he was drunk.
From there, they bought him a drink and asked if he wanted to help people. When he said yes, he joined their crew.
Nummer had never volunteered why he had been sentenced to death, what he had done, though they all knew he was a good person with a soft, kind soul.
Arke must have been thinking the same as him, because, hands wringing in her lap, she faced him and spoke shyly. “Nummer, I have a question, and you don’t have to answer if you’re not comfortable with it, but it’s something I’ve always wondered about but didn’t want to pry.”
He regarded her for a few seconds before nodding. “Ask it.”
The tip of her tongue snaked out of her lips and licked them nervously, her eyes shifting before finally gaining the courage to look at him again. “Why… Why did you desert your people? I know what the penalty for desertion is, and once you become a warrior, it is a lifelong commitment.”
The room went silent. Melias was pretty sure it was something they had all wondered about at one point or another. Nummer still kept his upper arm covered over the scarred mess when he could help it. Non-Ter’ Oroi might not always know what it meant, but enough did, and he certainly didn’t want fellow members of his species to see it. At a minimum, they would be mistrusting. Worst case, they might attack him, or give away his position to bounty hunters or the Bocerri, which were a special branch of Ter’ Oroi military who hunted down deserters, military exiles, and criminals. They were formidable and even as Sentinels, the Goose crew had to be careful.
So, with bated breaths, they waited for him to speak. And speak he did.
With a heavy sigh, he began, “I was part of the warrior program from when I was a youngling. I was fed all of the propaganda that both of our kinds give us about the other, even if most of us don’t know when or why it started, or if it was even true, though we were bred to believe that it was. When I was of age, I and my other trainees were eager to fight and die for our people. Osha vok Oroi. If we died, we would honor the great hunter and join him in his eternal hunt.
“I fought on many campaigns over a few years, bouncing between the border worlds. Defending our colonies and attacking yours. Never striking a decisive blow, but we didn’t let that weather our spirits. We are Ter’ Oroi. We are strong. Geldok suf ire. Strong like iron. Eventually, my unit went behind enemy lines on Seci 7. I’ll spare you the details of the mission because it’s not important, but most of my unit was killed, and I and a few others were captured. We were tortured for information, but my people are hardy, and we had endured training for just those situations, so I didn’t crack.”
His face darkened as he paused, recalling these painful memories. None of them pressured him to continue.
He shook his head. “When conventional torture didn’t work, they starved us, dehydrated us, tried their best to make us weaker, to erode our resolves. I can't say if it worked on the others. They kept us in separate cells, and we weren’t tortured together. I hope they stayed strong, but even all these years later, I don’t know. After a while, I stopped hearing their screams…”
Another pause. A long, shuddering breath. Everyone held their breaths. Melias’s knuckles popped as he squeezed his fingers tight into trembling fists.
“My resolve was wavering, I won't lie. I don’t know how much longer I would have lasted. But I… I had a savior. Lavati.” The way he said the name, with such tenderness and raw fragility, made Melias’s heart wrench because he just knew whomever they were, they probably didn’t have a happy end.
“She was one of my guards, and would talk to me, but was not cruel. Over time, she took pity on me and helped me escape. It wasn’t easy, but she managed it. We went on the run, managing to escape from Seci 7. During that time, we got to know each other and learned about each other’s people. I learned that everything I had been raised on and taught was a lie, and she’d come to that same conclusion. We grew close, first as trusted companions, then as friends, and then…”
He trailed off, his words and breath hitching. The grim, lipless line of his mouth sat agape as he gathered his thoughts and words, then pressed on.
“We jumped through the border worlds, but it was hard, what with us being on opposite sides of whatever world we managed to get to. Finding passage out of our people’s sectors was difficult. Unfortunately, we were never able to. We were picked up by a warrior patrol vessel. They took us prisoner—well, more her than me, but they didn’t like how I defended her. That aroused suspicion, but at the time, I was a POW that had escaped so was seen as a war hero. But that soon changed. I didn’t want to be away from Lavati, and I knew she couldn’t stay in custody, knew what would be done to her, so I tried to do what she’d done for me. I tried to help her escape.
“I— We were caught before we even really got underway. Maybe they always knew what I would try to do. They… They found me kissing her…” He gulped hard like he was swallowing molten lead. “They shot her on the spot, before I could even scream or say her name or say good-bye. I lost it, attacked them, killed one of my own… From there, they removed my warrior marks and then prepared me for execution. I thought I was going to meet my end, and I was ready to, ready to see Lavati in the Eternal Hunt. Then, our ship was attacked by a Cerelean battle cruiser.”
He leaned back and sighed, his heart settling. “The rest is pretty standard. I escaped, stealing an escape pod and making it to the closest planet—which was our own—and was able to barter passage off-world and out of border space. But some of my kin survived, and I was marked for death. From there, you all know the rest.”
And that was that, the end of his tragic tale. Melias had always suspected that something horrible had happened, whether by his hand or done to him, but this was awful to hear.
A heavy silence fell over them, like they were buried by an avalanche and couldn’t possibly hope to dig their way out, like they were at the bottom of an ocean with the weight of a billion gallons pressing down on them.
Melias found that he could hardly breathe. His heart was about to burst.
It was Arke who finally spurred them from their stunned stupor. She hugged him again, tears in her eyes as she clutched him close, as if letting go would cause one or both of them to die. He squeezed her back.
“I’m so, so sorry, Nummer,” she said through a shaky breath.
Nummer didn’t respond. His mouth was pursed as he stared longingly at the floor. No doubt his mind was a million lightyears away thinking about Lavati and all that he had endured. Melias had been similarly disillusioned by war during his service, as had Aaron, though Aaron was the only one that had actually deserted.
