Inherited War 3: Retaliation (18 page)

“I have a question,” the Yvern ambassador said.

“Yes?” Thalo responded.

“It sounds all well and good, but if we issue the challenge will we get to set the terms?” the Yvern asked.

“That’s the rest of the story. After a year had passed, a small Roche fleet showed up once again in Pitt space. The flagship started to broadcast a message to all channels on the moon. It seems that the Roche Jeth killed was only one of two. The embryo split and somehow, not really sure how, produced a female as well. Sky could probably explain how it happened, but not me or anyone I knew at the time. Jeth had to accept, or they were going to launch a full out attack on the moon. Total eradication of all living things. Jeth has to pick the stakes this time because he was the challenged. Turns out she was bigger and meaner than her brother, but Jeth still managed an impressive victory.”

“She was angry, she lost control,” Jeth said.

“She was technically dead for thirty seconds or so when Jeth smacked her in the chest a few times and got her heart going. She was a big girl who was out for blood, but was a girl, nonetheless. Jeth is a softy sometimes,” Thalo said with a slight smile.

“We don’t know if she is with the fleet,” Jeth pointed out.

“He is here, she is here. I guarantee it. The Clan Leader who I had you show me was the same one from Pitt. If we can somehow let the Roche know that Jeth is planet side, I will bet anything you want that Jeth will receive a challenge to fight. She wasn’t happy to lose but even less excited about Jeth bringing her back to life.”

“No,” Snow said flat out.

“Excuse me?” Thalo replied.

“I said no. She has probably been preparing for this since the last time, and Jeth shouldn’t have to risk his own life,” Snow continued.

“Look at it this way, we can’t get them to leave forever like we did on Pitt, but maybe we can get them to stall for a few more days,” Thalo explained.

“So Jeth’s life is only worth a few days to you. Is that it? What good will that do? Two maybe three days and then what? We still lose our home.” Snow was visibly shaking as she spoke. Thalo had truly underestimated their relationship. He glanced at Jeth and hid a smile, so had Jeth apparently.

“Lots can happen in two or three days. Cole could turn up with his fleet and kick the crap out of the Esii again,” Thalo said with a shrug.

“I have met that man, and I do not have the faith in him that you do. In fact, I believe we need to distance ourselves from him,” Snow said.

“Now, Snow,” her father started.

“You don’t know, Poppa. You don’t know what he is capable of and what he has already done.” Her voice trailed off as she spoke. Those who hadn’t known what had happened on the human base looked around quizzically. Now was not the time to delve into this subject.

“I will fight again,” Jeth rumbled and rose to his feet. “How will we force her hand?” He placed his hand on Snow’s back and felt her shoulders sag.

“Pump out Jeth on all communication channels. Say he’s sending a message to our home asking for help. They have to be checking all our outgoing; one of them will see it and the word will spread. We just have to wait at that point for the challenge.”

“Fine, let’s get this over with,” Jeth said.

The group of officials parted company and went on their own way. Jeth, Thalo, and Snow stayed behind and recorded the message. It was a standard call for help, no mention of anything specific but it was all Jeth. She would find out and this invasion would grind to a halt, at least for a little while. When they were finished and had the message going full strength on all channels, Jeth turned to Snow and spoke quietly.

“Go, wait for me in your rooms. We will talk about this at length. For now I need to be with my bond mate.” Jeth looked her in the eyes as he spoke. Snow chewed on her lower lip for a moment before nodding her head and turning to walk away. Jeth turned to Thalo. Before he could speak, Thalo had his hands in the air.

“I know, don’t say it. I promised that you would never have to do this again.” Thalo stopped speaking aloud. He placed his hand on his brother’s arm and finished his thought.
“I am sorry, truly I am.”
The thought flowed from Thalo to Jeth through their touch.

“It is the right thing to do.”
Jeth responded in kind.
“Snow is right, she has been preparing for this for years now. I don’t know how I know, but I do.”
Jeth looked Thalo in the eyes.

“No, don’t even think it.”
Thalo thought at his brother.

“Come to terms with it. She promised to kill me next time and this is next time. You must be prepared for my death. We must separate now while we can.”

“No, brother that is where you are wrong. If you fall, I fall with you. I would not let you go on the next journey alone.”
Jeth saw a fierce determination in his brother’s eyes.

“I believe you,” Jeth said aloud, “and hope to avoid that journey for many more years.”

“Me too, brother, me too.” They ignored everyone around them and enjoyed the time with each other. It wasn’t fated to last long though.

“Excuse me, Sir’s,” a Nixa came hurrying up to the pair. “You may want to see this; it’s going out on all nets planet wide.” The Nixa turned on the nearest monitor. A massive face filled the screen. Green and sickly, moist with slime and a mouth full of ragged teeth. It still held a slight feminine quality.

“Jeth, come to me,” she said. “I challenge you to finish our fight. In one hour, one of us dies.”

CHAPTER 10

Sky had done the one thing Gavreal had told her not too, she had lost control. She was completely at the shadowy beings whim and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. This being, whoever it was, had ages of experience behind it while she had only days. Her revere was cut short however, as a new world slowly built around her. As the world came into focus, so did two beings, the hooded mystery man and shockingly enough, Cole.

The new place had been slowly building around her at first, then, in a moment, it snapped into place. Sky recognized where they were instantly. It was the place she had first come to Cole. It was one of the rare times that she was able to leave the ship. All she had to do was give the newborn a small injection and wait to see if it lived. She had done this very same thing dozens of times before, and all had been failures and the tiny lives were forever extinguished. She remembered this day every time she saw Cole, because this was the day she fell in love. She had entered the room in the dead of night. Captain Feng’s men had used a knockout gas on the adult humans to keep them from interfering. Sky had ascended the stairs and walked silently into the baby’s room. She had looked into the crib and seen the tiny life asleep inside. The baby was perfect in her eyes. She knew as soon as she had laid eyes on him that he would be the one. She remembered leaning down to administer the injection, and he had opened his eyes and looked at her. A smile played across his lips as he saw her face, and she returned it. He hadn’t fussed or made a sound as she injected him, and then she waited.

Cole had fidgeted a little but had ultimately gone back to sleep, no worse for wear. Sky had waited for an hour or so and when nothing had changed, she had kissed the newborn’s downy blonde head and left the house. She had smiled the whole trip back to the ship. It was the first time in years she had smiled.

Now, years later and fighting once again for Cole’s life, she was back in that room. Suddenly more people were in the room. The first of Cole’s foster parents suddenly appeared at the door to the room. They looked right through were the trio was standing and, oblivious to their watchers, they entered the room. The human female, Sky didn’t even know her name, had a small bundle held tightly in her arms.

“Shhh, little Cole,” the woman whispered and gently bounced the child. “We will be right down the hall, and I will check on you soon. You have had a long day and you need your rest.” She gently lay the small bundled up baby in its crib and backed into the arms of her husband. He wrapped those arms around her waist and held her tight to his chest.

“It’s really real, right?” she asked in a quiet voice as she looked at the crib.

“Yes dear, he is ours forever,” the man said as he lay his chin on her shoulder and spoke softly into her ear. She slowly turned in his arms and hugged him fiercely. “But now you have had a long day too. Cole is fed and changed, and you need some rest. I will stay up with the monitor and keep an eye on him.” He kissed the top of her head. “You need sleep. He is going to be up and active tomorrow, and he will need his mom.” She looked up into his face and smiled.

“Mom. I like that. It has a nice ring to it. Dad.” He smiled back at her and turned to take her out of the room. She broke from his arms momentarily to return to the crib for one final look at her new baby. “I have waited for this day for a long time. Thank you Cole for coming into our lives.” She blew the baby a kiss and left.

“These were my parents, the parents I should have had.” The sudden noise caused Sky to jump. Cole, the adult Cole, had spoken those words. “If I hadn’t been tampered with, they would have been my mother and father.” The sadness Cole felt at seeing this memory as an adult shocked Sky to her core. She tried to speak, to move, but she could do nothing.

“Pathetic,” the hooded being spat. “Emotion is a waste in oneself but a tool for another. Observe.” As he said the last word, a small ripple blurred the room for a moment. As the room came back into focus, Sky saw herself, as she had been twenty or so years ago, creep into the room. Memory Sky walked up to the crib, reached a hand down into the blankets, and yanked them off the sleeping infant. Present Sky finally broke her bindings at seeing this farce. She raced to the crib to stop what was happening but she couldn’t change it. She watched in horror as memory Sky ripped the swaddling blankets roughly from Cole’s tiny body. Sky tried to stop herself but her hands passed though the memory with no effect.

Baby Cole opened his eyes at the rough treatment and saw only one Sky standing above him. He did what he had done all those many years ago; he smiled. The memory Sky returned it with an evil frown, reached down, flipped the infant over, and rammed the injection into his tiny bottom. Memory Sky flipped the baby back over and placed her hand over his small mouth and nose.

“If it wasn’t for you and the rest of these human bastards, I wouldn’t be here right now.” Cole started to struggle in vain against the hand that was keeping him from breathing. Slowly he turned red then a deathly blue. “But you may be the one I need to free myself from this hell, so you will live, for now.” She pulled her hand from his mouth, and Cole took in a few coughing breaths before beginning to wail.

“What did you do to him?” a nervous voice asked from the hall.

“This is the one, let’s go,” Memory Sky said, and turned to leave. Sky was appalled at what had just happened. It was wrong. Nothing had happened like this, and she was confused. Adult Cole walked up to the crib and looked at himself as he cried and screamed.

“My adoptive parents were unconscious, and I cried for hours. I cried until I was hoarse. I remember it all now.” He turned to look at the real Sky. “I had done nothing, and you had been cruel.” Cole faded away while Sky was once again impotent to do anything. She suddenly found herself free to move and speak again.

“So now you understand the rules of the game,” the hooded being said. “The stakes are simple; does he retain enough love for you at the end of this to save your mind and his own? Or do I warp him so badly that he follows me to his and your destruction? The first seed of doubt is planted, onto number two.” The room faded slowly and was replaced by a new setting—one that Sky didn’t recognize. It was a stark room, bare of any wall trappings or decorations of any kind.

Four people occupied the room. Cole’s adoptive parents, Cole, and an official of some sort. Tension was thick in the air, almost as if they were waiting on bad news. Quietly Cole began to cough; it was wet and full of phlegm. Cole’s mom wiped at his mouth and nose. The official looked up from her computer, and Sky saw her face for the first time, it was Sky.

“I am sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but the State will be taking custody of the child.” Sky was once again taken off guard and failed to begin to fight back. By the time she tried to exert any of her own will on the scene, she had allowed the being to solidify the situation too much. She couldn’t change it, but she was fighting to change her character. She struggled to change the shape of her face as she continued speaking. “Too many trips to the hospital, too many injuries and bruises. We will not press charges, but we do have to take him back.” Cole’s mom was openly crying and started to plead her case to the official. The scene briefly stopped as a ripple slowly spread over the fake Sky’s features. As quickly as it had come, it vanished and the scene played out.                         “Furthermore, you will be banned from adoption in this state for the rest of your lives.”