“Trouble,” Driok growls. “We need to get to the ship, and we need your Paralnyi friend to come up with the goods, then we can go after the Ulep.”
“Is that wise?”
“It is the only option,” Driok says as we reach the area I vaguely recognize from the remote flyer.
“Is this it?”
“I might have gone in the hard way.” Driok looks at the devastation around us.
“Just a bit.” I survey the twisted metal and then I see them.
All the other species the Ulep were holding captive. A vast variety, including Paralnyi, are milling about waiting to get on board our ship, with a Sarkarnii warrior who piloted it ushering them on board.
Now I get it, more than anything. The Ulep were a concept in my mind, but looking at the poor shell-shocked creatures who can’t believe where they are and what is happening to them—that was me. That was my friends. Frightened, alone, lost. All the emotions come rushing back. The fact the Ulep didn’t even care about these creatures, that they would simply be traded away in pursuit of their aims, mere flesh and bone, makes my blood run both cold and hot at the same time. Anger and despair at the same time.
And a feeling rising within me that the Ulep cannot continue.
We’re surrounded by Sarkarnii warriors, and many of them eye me with something akin to respect, which I find slightly odd until I realize how pregnant I must look to them. After all, they’ve been in stasis, ana the last time they saw me, I didn’t look pregnant at all.
Driok is growling low under his breath, checking his comm and scanning the area.
“This way to the ship,” he announces and approaches a low lying building which appears to be made out of the dust of the planet itself.
“Here?” I query.
“Here.”
“I think it might need some work.” I narrow my eyes at the building, but it still looks like a building, with empty windows and a flat roof.
Driok takes another step towards it, and there is a low, deep humming sound. The ground under us vibrates, and the dust slowly shifts until the building is gone and the ship is there. As if it was always there.
“It’s time to fight,” Driok growls. “It’s time to end our enemies.”
DRIOK
Iset my warriors to work checking over the ship for any signs of Ulep interference. I expect they kept it because of the ability it had, in theory, to get past the defenses on Vorostor. Not because of any sort of vengeance but because of the star fuel Daxx mines. I have no doubt the Ulep would find it the biggest draw. The Sarkarnii they could enslave would be less than secondary.
My mate stands to one side of the bridge, leaning against a bulkhead, looking out at the planetoid, her gaze on the remainder of the other species in stasis with my warriors finally being loaded onto our old craft.
Not the spaceworms. They have been put in a temporary stasis, and I will return to remove them to a quiet nebula somewhere they can’t cause any trouble.
Maggie looks up at me as I join her, watching as the final Paralnyi is loaded and the ship takes off.
“Where are they going?” she asks me.
“I have asked the warrior pilot to take them to the nearest space hub where they can return to wherever they want.”
She nods and chews at the soft pale claw on her thumb.
“Lord Driok.” A warrior bows to me. “There is a…Paralnyi at the airlock.”
“Let him in,” I order. “He has the xoh-antenna. Take him to the array.”
“What now?” Maggie turns away from the viewing window. “How do we deal with the Ulep now?”
“Once the array is complete, we have to deploy it, which should be simple enough,” I explain. “But once it is deployed, we have to be sure the Ulep are outside of the galaxy before it is activated.”
“What stops them coming back?”
