They caused me as much pain as knowing this happened on the most important day of her life, and her white wedding gown had turned gray, was covered in soot and dirt, and was now shredded.
“Unfortunately, no. This is it.”
“Reva, Nyra, and Soleii take one,” Soraya ordered, taking command over her bride’s despair. “Megan, Trent, and Jasmine take the other pod. I’ll accompany the bartender.”
“But—”
“No, Megan,” Trent interjected, motioning her toward a pod. “All right, let’s go. We can’t keep stalling any longer.”
“Listen to Soraya,” I insisted, gesturing to the pods. “Enter the pods, lock your seats, and then press the orange button to seal the door and the red button to eject you.”
Taking my own advice, I jumped into a pod and quickly buckled my seat belt. To my surprise, the wedding party had listened to us, splitting up the way Soraya had suggested as the fierce bridesmaid climbed into my pod.
When I took one last look at the emergency hangar, I couldn’t believe how much damage the aliens had already done. Their technology was obviously far superior to ours, and we were severely outgunned.
Stardancerwas like theTitanic, except instead of the creators wanting to push the envelope, it was our head of command. Many lives would be lost today as a result of their greed and need to be the first—the best—at everything.
I cast a glance at the brave woman who was willing to travel with me instead of members of the wedding party, her gaze fixed on the same damage I had taken in. “You good?”
“Get us out of here.”
Her gaze hardened as our pod’s airlock doors sealed shut.
A high-pitched hum vibrated my eardrums just as the pod violently ejected, jerking and spinning away from the ship.
Instead of being astounded by the sight of theStardancerin space from afar, a sense of dread rocked through me as ice filled my veins.
Our space cruiser was surrounded by a vast army of ships... And, for some reason, none of the ships had separated from it to pursue us.
The army launched a barrage of missiles at theStardancer, and then a bright light flashed, blinding me.
My vision blurred as defeat set in, as darkness crept into the edges of my vision, following me as I fell into oblivion.
2
Ixik’tryl
Humans.
They were a thorn in my tail, coming from an unreachable place I couldn’t touch.
Why had they decided that now was the time to venture outside their sol system?
Whenever I’d answered my communications vidscreen, new reports of human emergency escape pods crashing onto planets across the galaxy appeared.
Thank the Four Winds that it wasn’t my responsibility to gather all the information about them—that was the job of the junior council members—but it still hadn’t solved all the problems caused by the mistakes the humans had made.
The Yzefrxyl were the most feral and territorial species within the Interstellar Protections Agency—IPA. They never caused problems for the council as long as they were left alone to do whatever they wanted on their forsaken cold planets covered in ice and snow. Their feral behavior and their attitude toward any species that they viewed less than them caused them to act first and ask questions later.
This aggressive mindset drove them to do anything to protect what was rightfully theirs, including shooting down a defenseless human colony ship as soon as it crossed their borders.
A loud chirpfilled my commons, signaling yet another report, and I bobbed my head in response to the piercing, irritating sound.
“How am I supposed to enjoy my vacation days if they keep sending me reports at all hours of the day?” I looked at the pulsating green light on my communications vidscreen, ruffled my wings, and let out a long squawk as I flexed my talons and shuffled my feet to let out my frustration. “They know I had this scheduled before the humans built that forsaken vessel, so why do they think they can bug me now?
“Unless an escape pod has entered Ekoiskra space and is on its way to crash on one of our settlements, or the Yzefrxyl has declared an outright war against the humans—which would necessitate the rest of the IPA intervening—I want to know nothing. The reports will still be there when I return.”
I looked out the window onto the ocean shore and noticed how the setting sun cast rich, fiery colors onto the violet water, making it look like it was on fire.
