Shattered Destiny: A Galactic Adventure, Episode One (16 page)

It didn't.

Shar
was a crumpled, bloody mess by my
feet.

Something in me
snapped.

Whatever was left of my reason,
my sense, was blown away.

I fell beside her, wrapped a
hand on her broken shoulder, and gently placed my other along her
cheek. I shifted her head, using my scanners to ensure her neck
wasn’t broken, then I looked into her eyes.

They were half open….

A surge of fear churned through
me. Crumpled me. Tore down every wall. It felt as if it scoured my
heart and ripped every single centimeter of flesh away like a man
paring back the skin on an onion.

I doubled forward, collapsing
over her, until finally my senses registered she was
alive.

Her half-
open, bleary eyes suddenly
blinked, and she looked at me.

There wasn't a great deal of
consciousness there – she was clearly on the edge of death –
but she was
alive.

And that was all that mattered.

Though the Illuminate device
was just a few meters away, I didn't jerk to my feet to check it.
Instead I methodically took off pieces of my armor, wrapping them
around Shar’s body.

My armor was so sophisticated
that it would be able to heal her, despite the fact she was not
Arterian.

It was dangerous – goddamn
foolish to be taking
off
my armor. Half the
galaxy wanted me dead. But half the galaxy weren’t in this room.
And even if they had been, I would have done the same.

I couldn't see her die.

Those words kept reverberating
in
my
mind as if somebody was singing them right
into my ear.

Once
I was done, and my armor had adjusted
around her body until it encased her in full, I rested
back.

I kept one hand on her shoulder. I was still
connected to my armor, despite the fact it was no longer on me.

…
And after a few seconds
it confirmed it was healing her.

Slowly. She'd still need
medical attention, but she was no longer critical. The armor could
keep her in a safe stasis for days, if not years.

So finally I was free to push
to my feet.
Slowly,
carefully
, I
walked towards the white plinth in the center of the room. As I
approached, the dull lighting brightened. No, it wasn't the
lighting – it was the device. It began to glow.

I reached a hand towards it,
watching, completely mesmerized as the blue and orange lines of
light doubled. It was as if I was watching veins grow over the
metal.

I hesitated one final time,
then pushed forward and plucked the device up.

A part of me that still vaguely believed the
traditions of my people waited to be struck down by God.

I waited for the force to push down from the
heavens and smite me.

When it didn't, I wrapped my
hands around the device harder, bringing it close as I brushed a
thumb delicately over the smooth surface.

It was warm. And
powerful.

Strangely powerful.

Though I did not have my armor on, I didn't
need to.

As I tenderly brushed my fingers over the
surface of the device, I felt something.

Some strange connection that spoke of a long
history.

A
long forgotten legend….

I suddenly jolted as I received a
communication to my internal implant.

I clicked my jaw to the side.
“Yes?”

“
We
lost communication with you there for a while,” it was Mark. “Your
highness, are you okay?” There was an undeniable quickness to
Mark's words. Fear for my safety – it had to be.

I
forced myself to nod. “I'm okay, but
I have a casualty. Returning to the ship. Instruct my men to board
the transport.”

“
Casualty?” Mark questioned. “Who?”

“
Irrelevant,” I said as I swiveled my gaze and locked it on
Shar.

I wanted to believe she was
irrelevant. I tried to harden my gaze, lock my teeth together, and
pull my heart away from her.

…
I couldn't.

So I pushed down
and picked her
up.

Despite the weight of my armor,
I was still strong enough to pick her up. My muscles tensed, my
back stiffened, but it didn't matter.

Her
head lolled to the side at what
looked like an uncomfortable angle.

I shifted my arms back and tilted until her
head rolled to the other side and nestled against my chest.

…
Something about this felt
right.

So unbelievably, impossibly
right.

And yet wrong at the same
time.

With
her still form crumpled against my
own, my heart quickened with fear.

I
ran all the way through the facility
and back up to the transport. Before I reached it, I reluctantly
took my armor back from her.

I wasn't so far gone to forget
how strange it would look if I dressed a simple soldier in my own
armor. So I chanced upon a quiet place, and took each piece of
plating off her one by one.

Fortunately the armor had
already stabilized her body, and by the time I took her back to the
transport, I snapped at the field medic to attend to her
injuries.

It was a short flight back to
my ship. But in my mind it dragged. It felt like years were flying
through my fingers.

I'd already locked my helmet in
place, and wouldn't have removed it for the world. It hid my
expression. It hid my panic as I watched in full, heart pounding
terror. As I waited for the transport to finally arrive aboard my
war cruiser and Shar to be taken to the medical bay.

Prince
Xarin

I stood close to the primary medical bay
door. Hovering.

I was a
prince of the Arterian Royal
Family.

I did not hover. Never lingered. Always
moved with singular purpose. And yet here I was, lacking the
courage to move inside or walk away.

Not for the first time, I brought my hands
up and stared at them.

And I didn’t know why.

There was no earthly reason to focus on them
so clearly, and yet I could not push them down.

…
Over the past several weeks,
I’d felt a strange, ghostlike, niggling sensation in my palms and
fingertips. It was almost as if they were moving without my
permission. And yet every time I glanced down at them, they
remained steady.

Leave, you’re making a fool of
yourself,
I
tried to tell myself, but there was little point.

I could not be reasoned with.

A minute later, it didn’t matter.

I received a call, the implant lodged in my
jaw clicking to the side with an unmistakable tingling feeling.

“Who is it?” I snapped, taking my anger
out on them.

There was a moment’s pause. “It’s me,”
came Arteria’s delicate tones.

I stiffened immediately, for more reasons
than one.

“Arteria,” I said, my usually calm voice
pitching with emotion. “I am sorry. These are trying times,” I
added quickly.

“I understand that,” Arteria said, never
raising her tone.

She paused.

Though her call and the mere sound of her
voice should have cut through my tension, it did not; it made it
worse.

I brought up a
stiff-
fingered, white-knuckled hand and rested it tensely on my
chest. “Why have you called?” I asked directly. I winced as soon as
I heard how harsh my voice was.

Before I could mollify my words, Arterian
gave a light sigh.

“There’s something important I need to
talk to you about,” she began.

The medical bay doors opened from behind
me, and I suddenly lost all concept of what she was
saying.

Shar
walked out, a hand clutched at her
stomach, but her footfall still steady.

I was not a man who was ever lost for words,
and yet, as I stared at her, my mind drew a blank.

At first she frowned,
expression dark, then she clearly became confused at my startled
reaction. She watched me warily.
“Prince
Xarin
, are
you okay?”

I couldn’t say there was true compassion
twisting in her tone, but there was something.

….

I suddenly realized that I was still on
the line to Arteria.

I cleared my throat and straightened my
back.

“Your highness?” Arteria asked
carefully.

Shar continued to look at me warily. I
could tell she was seconds from asking what the hell was wrong with
me, when I turned sharply and directed my back at her.

I heard her let out a terse breath of
air.

If she were any other soldier, I would pull
her up on that.

Instead I continued to stride down the
corridor.

I told my mind to settle. I’d seen her,
and she was clearly okay, otherwise she wouldn’t have been released
from the medical bay.

So I strode away. Arteria kept asking if I
was okay, but I could not reply until I was well out of earshot of
Shar. Even then, that unfamiliar trace of nerves kept crawling up
my back.

“Your highness, it is critically important
that I speak to you,” Arteria continued.

“What is it?”

“I need your help,” she said in a
fluctuating tone.

There was something about that tone that
made me stop on the spot. My mouth suddenly became dry.

“What is it?” I asked quickly, voice
punching from my throat.

“I need your assistance to get off the
home world.”

My brow crumpled.
“What?”
I
hissed.

“I’m no longer safe here,” the longer
Arteria spoke, the more strangled her words became.

I put a hand up to my suddenly beating
chest.

“Certain factions are moving against my
family,” her voice now shook so badly I had trouble discerning the
words.

“What?” A metallic taste filled my mouth.
It felt as if I’d been struck on the head.

“I don’t know which family it
is, all I know is that I’m in mortal peril. I need your
help.
Please
give it to me.”

There was the sound of rustling fabric.

The skin along the back of my neck
prickled.

“My prince, I am down on my
knees. Please, say you will help me.
Please,”
she pleaded one final time.

“I will send a ship for you,” I said,
determination punching from my throat.

I heard her sigh with relief. “Oh God, I
knew I could rely on you.”

“You must keep yourself safe until my
guards arrive. I will transmit coordinates to you. They will lead
to my family holdings. You will be safe there,” I said with a great
deal of conviction and hope.

“Oh, Xarin, I will never be able to thank
you enough.”

“You mustn’t mention it. Endeavour to
remain safe. You will hear from me shortly.”

With that, I ended the call.

That’s when I discerned footsteps behind
me.

Shar.

It took a while for her to come into view,
but with my extended hearing, she sounded close enough to
touch.

Several seconds later, she rounded a corner
and came into full view.

She stopped, boots skidding to a halt.

At
first I wanted to be angry at her
interruption, furious at the prospect she may have overheard me,
but the anger couldn’t last.

I felt my expression soften as my gaze
darted over her form, locking on her stomach. My lips parted and I
asked what I should have asked before: “Are you well?” For some
reason I spoke with more conviction than I usually did. I couldn’t
control my tone. I was like a child learning to speak.

Again she looked at me warily, but I
fancied her expression softened until she nodded. “I’m fine. The
medical technicians managed to repair most of the damage to my
body.”

“Most?” I locked on that word, for some
reason terrified by it.

Again she looked at me warily,
there were
flickers
of… something beginning to
burn
in
her gaze. “I’ll be fine. It’ll just take
some time.”

My mouth was so dry, I couldn’t stop
swallowing. “Good,” I forced myself to say. “Good,” I repeated
awkwardly.

Then silence swept in around
us. I should ask Shar – no,
demand
of her – whether
she’d overheard my conversation with Arteria. Even though she could
not have heard Arteria’s words, she could have learnt a lot simply
from my responses.

Shar turned away, giving a brief nod. “I’m
sorry for taking your time, your highness, I’m sure you’re
busy.”

For some ungodly reason my hand jerked out
and my fingers spread wide as if I wanted to lock her in
place.