Shattered Destiny: A Galactic Adventure, Episode One (2 page)

I reached the door into the control room,
and slammed my hand on the biometric scanner next to it.

There was a dull beep that meant one thing
– it was malfunctioning.

“Fuck you,” I screamed, sucking in a
lungful of dust.

I coughed it back as I leaned backwards,
brought up my blaster, and shot at the lock. A powerful round of
energy sank into the metal, blistering what was left of the paint
that hadn’t been scratched off by the sand.

I leant back, brought up my leg, and
kicked the lock.

It was a powerful move. Strong. I hadn’t
always been strong, but these days I had a reputation amongst the
hardened workforce of the refinery. Nobody messed with me. Some of
the other guys were big, better trained. None of them ever went as
far as me. I couldn’t lose, and to date, I never had.

With one more pitching cry, I kicked the
lock.

And it un-clicked.

The
heavy duty metal door swung
open.

I rounded my shoulder, thrust it into the
door, and threw myself inside. I hit the ground, rolled to my feet,
and punched towards the bank of control panels on the opposite side
of the room.

Above the control consoles was
a massive meter-thick viewing window. Not that there was ever much
to view on this planet apart from
endlessly
encroaching storms. Still, it gave me a great view of the
swirling dust and sand beyond. It scattered against the heavy duty
glass.

My hands flew over the primary control
panel as I ran the sensors through a diagnostic.

“Come on, you bastards,” I said through
clenched teeth.

I heard something behind me.
Most wouldn’t have. Most wouldn’t have been able to discern it
above the grating cry of the sand-
scattering
wind.

I tensed, punching my blaster
out behind me and firing at the door before
I had
even confirmed there was anything there.

My round slammed right into a breaker,
sending it pitching back until it fell over the railing
outside.

It was then that I saw them marching over
the glass.

One, then two, then ten.

They were tall, sinewy
creatures with flesh the color of rotting corpses. They had long,
distended faces that ended in a pointed snout with two yellow tusks
that glistened with
perpetually
renewed
saliva.

They had one movable eyeball that could
shift all the way around their head, travelling through their
strange, gelatinous, almost water-like skin.

Though I couldn’t hear it now over the
wind, I knew the sound well – as they stared at you, their eyes
darting around to capture you in full, the movement was always
accompanied with a spine-tingling squelch.

The breakers had adhesive paws that could
lock onto most substances. They climbed over the window, heading
towards the door.

“Goddamn you,” I spat at them as I hunched
over the controls, begging my frenzied fingers to work as quickly
as they could.

Finally the computer beeped. There was no
critical problem with the array. It just had to be reset.

Before I could scream out in
relief, I commanded the computer to go through a reset procedure,
then I
spun
towards the door.

Just in time.

The breakers thrust through it and towards
me.

…

Prince Xarin

I sat in my command
seat,
deep
in the belly of my war cruiser.

The room was closed off to all other crew.
Only a member of the Arterian Royal Family could enter this room,
and I was the only one on board. Hell, I was the only one in the
sector. The rest of my family always stayed safely behind our
border. Leaving me alone to track down the Zorv.

As I thought of them, I clutched my chin
harder, fingers drawing into the flesh until my nails dragged
tracks down my skin.

Suddenly I shifted back violently, banging
my shoulders against the headrest, my ice white shoulder-length
blond hair scattering around my neck.

I opened my luminescent purple eyes and
locked them on the bank of holographic screens that swarmed around
me. If it weren’t for my superior intelligence and tracking
abilities, I would not be able to pick up the information flowing
off them. To an ordinary person, an ordinary alien, it would have
simply been a confusing mess of light and sound.

I shifted forward in my seat, locked my
elbow on the armrest, and propped my chin in my hand once
more.

I stared at the data flowing across the
screens. And every second I stared at it, my stomach clenched
harder and harder.

There would be no end to this war. There
was some powerful force behind the Zorv, there had to be. Though I
had mooted that point to the rest of my family on many occasions,
they refused to believe me. They kept saying that if I tried
harder, that if I fought more bravely, I would soon uproot the Zorv
and destroy their uprising.

I suddenly balled up a hand and
struck it on the armrest as a true
flash
of anger
swelled in
my gut. I clenched
my teeth, pared my lips back, and hissed through
an expletive
.

That’s when a screen on the far end of
this blackened room caught my attention. It flicked on, just a
burst of light in the darkness like a star being born in the depths
of space.

My gaze sliced towards it and I lifted a
finger up. It shot towards me, coming to a stop right by my
face.

The Zorv were not the only problem I had
to worry about. There was an issue of far more importance always
playing at the back of my mind. It shadowed my every thought,
always coming to the fore when I lay down at night.

My betrothed. I still had not found her.
Most of the other members of the Arterian Royal Family had found
their betrotheds long ago.

Me, I couldn’t sort her out
from the rest of the noise constantly playing in my
mind. If I was more
powerful, theoretically, I would be able to find her anywhere in
the galaxy. Instinctively know where she was. And yet, the most I
could manage was this diffuse sense that no matter what I did, I
would never find her.

I balled up a hand and struck
it on the armrest
once more. I felt the power in my muscles, the strength at
my fingertips.

It wasn’t enough.

It never had been and never would be.

…

Arterian assassin

She strode through the crowded marketplace,
purple cloak obscuring her features.

She cracked her neck from side to side,
pushing past several alien traders.

As she did, she subtly used her scanner on
them, using its sophisticated sensors to not just assess what goods
they held, but to steal every scrap of data she could from every
one of their devices.

There wasn’t a data encryption method known
in the modern universe she couldn’t break.

Or rather, the old Illuminate technology she
possessed couldn’t break.

As a member of the Arterian Royal Family
she had full access to the royal cache of technology.

It was the Arterian’s edge.

Their birthright.

And also, conveniently, the means by which
they maintained a stranglehold on power throughout the galaxy.
Power he was threatening.

As she thought of him, of his
hubris, of his goddamn arrogance, she clenched her teeth so
tightly
she could feel the muscles in her neck
twinge.

She pushed through the crowd harder now,
faster, not caring who she had to shove away.

They would all recognize the royal purple
and yellow of her cloak, all know what it meant.

To wrong her would be a permanently fatal
move.

Suddenly the device around her wrist beeped,
and she brought it up, looking at it from under the protection of
her cloak.

Close.

She’d been through here.

The one who could destroy everything.

The assassin walked faster now, gathering
speed as she shoved through the crowd with all the force of a
battering ram.

Finally she pushed her way into what looked
like a Baryian merchant’s den.

She had to push past several electrified
laser sheets.

Primitive security meant to keep intruders
at bay. Suffice to say, it had no possibility of working on
her.

As soon as her resounding footfall struck
the metal floor beyond, several traders lurched for their weapons.
Simple blasters and directional pulse rifles.

Child’s play.

With one hand behind her back, she clicked a
button on her portable fire suppression device.

Static suddenly filled the air as the device
kicked into gear.

The closest trader tried to shoot her, a
sneer puckering its fat lips.

His gun clicked, but nothing could
discharge.

Slowly she tilted her head to the side and
smiled. “I suggest you take the talking option.”

“Talking option?” the nearest trader said
as he latched a hand on his belt and withdrew a knife.

She didn’t pause as she faced
the two remaining traders. Nor did she stay her hand, as she
quickly, seamlessly
spun
forward, clutched
the knife, and used it to split the merchant’s throat.

The blow was vicious enough
that it almost
lopped
his head off. He was dead long
before he struck the floor.

The other two traders lurched back, eyes
opening with pure undiluted fear. She walked towards them, head
tilting further to the side, cloak never moving from her face.

She reached them both, and they were smart
enough to cower in the corner without foolishly trying to fight
her.

She brought her face close to the nearest
trader, until she could practically taste his putrid breath. “Where
is she?” She began her familiar routine as she plucked the
holographic drive from her pocket. She brought it out, thumbed it
on, and waited for that perfect hologram to appear.

“Where – is – she?” she labored over every
word, pushing her lips around them until they formed with full,
punching clarity.

Though the idiotic traders may not be able
to appreciate it, she possessed many arcane skills of
manipulation.

And right now, she employed them in
full.

She continued to stare into the closest
trader’s eyes, even though he could not see her own.

“Where – is – she?”

“I… don’t… know…” The trader eventually
managed.

She tipped her head all the way to the
side until it felt like she’d wrench it off her neck. “I will break
you in half if you do not tell the truth.” She put even more effort
into snarling out her words. She also put more effort into
controlling the man.

But when he stuttered out once more that he
didn’t know, she balled up a hand and struck him in
frustration.

She struck him once more, and he fell.
Unconscious, and unlikely to ever wake again.

She now moved towards the last trader. He
was down on his knees, hands pulled over his head, body shaking,
practically convulsing with fear. She got down on one knee right
next to him. She brought a hand up and brushed the cloying sweat
from his brow. Then she brought that same thumb up and licked it.
Letting the taste linger on her tongue she smiled. “You’re afraid.
You’re right to be afraid. You have everything to fear in me.
Everything,” her voice bottomed out low, ringing with a truly
ominous note.

The man shook. She suddenly jerked a hand
forward, locked it on his shoulder, and pushed him against the
wall.

His eyes were so wide she could have scooped
them from his skull with a spoon.

“You know where she is. She’s been here.
I’ve detected her presence.”

With those wide shuddering eyes he continued
to stare at her. She grabbed his head and pushed it down until his
eyes locked on the hologram once more.

“Where – is –
she
?”

“I’ve… never… seen her.”

The assassin hissed with true frustration,
and balled up her fist, anger ready to punch from it and tear into
the man. But with a deep breath, she barely managed to control
herself. “She’s been here. I’ve detected her presence.

Suddenly the man’s desperate gaze tore off
her and locked on something at the far end of the room.

Still pushing him against the door with a
grip that was impossible to break, she slowly arched her head and
let her gaze dart around the room.

There. She could see something.

She pushed to her feet and languidly walked
over. She had implants in her eyes, and she detected a familiar
electronic signature.

The betrothed.

The only person in the entire galaxy with
the power to destroy the perfect Arterian Empire.

The assassin bent over, sweeping an arm over
the desk to get rid of the mess that covered it.

Finally she saw it.

A goddamn sand scarf. A
mere
scrap of fabric tied around a blaster
gun.

“We… bought it off a refinery worker in
the Argoza sector. Nothing more than a blaster. It’s yours. It’s
yours,” the trader stuttered, obviously wanting to buy his life by
volunteering information.