“Uh.” The human blinked, appearing a little shocked that Rykal was actually talking to him. Rykal attempted a smile, baring his fangs. From what he’d observed, humans placed agreat deal of emphasis on body language, and small pleasantries seemed important to them.
The human paled. “I-it’s about two hours away.”
“That doesn’t mean anything to me. How long in Universal units?”
The human’s expression went blank as he did some mental calculations. “About fiftychalens,” he blurted.
“Ah.” Rykal leaned back, putting his hands behind his head. “In that case, I’m going to catch some shut-eye. Don’t wake me up unless there’s an emergency.” He’d been taught to be opportunistic when it came to sleep, but if anyone tried anything, he’d be awake in the blink of an eye, his hands flying to his weapons.
He closed his eyes and drifted off into nothingness, wondering what would come to him this time.
Images of broken worlds and darkness flashed through his mind, interspersed with nothingness. He saw cowed alien populations suffering in silence. He saw the facility where he’d been dismantled and remade, his memories stripped from him as they’d tried to break him.
It was so clear in his mind’s eye; a black, sinister structure on a remote planet, its pale, dusty landscape more barren and desolate than that of Kythia itself.
They’d erred. They’d made him so strong they couldn’t break him. They’d made all of them like that. They’d tried to break him. They’d failed, time and time again. He’d been angry, unanchored, and wild.
How he’d fought at first. It had taken a certain general to pull him into line.
Patience,Rykal.There will come a time when everything shall change, but for now, we must serve the Empire.
His thoughts drifted again as the slipstream of time became distorted. He was on the ice plains again. He didn’t know why, but he felt at home here. It was the only place in his dreams that didn’t feel painful or chaotic.
The coldness on his bare skin was invigorating. His hair was long, and it was whipped around his face by the fierce, howling winds. The wildness of the place made his heart sing.
He walked across the barren plains of the Vaal until darkness overtook him again.
Rykal drifted in and out of dreams, existing in a forgotten place somewhere between the void and the icy wilderness until human voices pulled him back to the surface.
He opened his eyes and found that nothing had changed. His human companions hadn’t dared move since he’d fallen into a half-sleep.
“They have arrived,” he said softly, causing both humans to turn, their eyes wide. He’d startled them.
Humans. They were such a flighty species, their thoughts easily betrayed by their body language.
“Hendrix II, this is theArawen, requesting permission to dock.” The male voice that greeted them was an unfamiliar one.
“Come aboard,Arawen. Docking bay three’s airlock is open and ready.”
“Uh, this is a drop-off only. We won’t be staying.”
The human pilot glanced warily at Rykal. “Yeah, we figured.” There was resignation in his tone.
“Where is docking bay three?” Rykal asked softly, turning to the second navigator. She raised her brown eyes, hesitating.
“I just want to say hello to the sergeant.” He tried to sound reassuring. He probably wasn’t doing it right, because the woman just stared at him as if he were mad.
“Show me the map,” Rykal said, leaning forward. The woman nodded and hastily brought up a three-dimensional representation of the freighter on the nearest holoscreen.
“Docking bay’s down here.” She pointed to a red marker in the lower regions of the ship.
“Good.” Rykal rose to his feet, retrieving his weapons and sheathing them. He activated his comm, an implant behindhis ear that threaded directly into his auditory nerve. “Anyone feel like doing me a favor and taking over in the navigation room for a while?” He sent his message out to the other five First Division warriors, who were busy prowling the decks.
Including the general, there were ten of them in total, but Kalan, Lodan, and Nythian had become separated from them during the chaos and had somehow landed on Earth, apparently in the company of some crazy-sounding human female. The general had returned to Kythia to take care of some mysterious business, taking a captured human female with him. The general rarely explained himself, but he always had his reasons, and ninety-nine percent of the time, he was right. Rumor had it that something big was about to go down on the Dark Planet.
So, including Rykal, that left six of them onboard theHendrix II.
That wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. They were used to working without Tarak al Akkadian, and being left behind to carry out missions on distant planets was nothing new, although they usually had their own stealth fighter,Darkshadow.
