Shattered Destiny: A Galactic Adventure, Episode One (7 page)

I didn’t need saving. Never had.

Sparks exploded from the bot’s body as I
tore out its remaining leg and threw it against the floor.

It began to whirr, its internal propulsion
mechanism spinning to maximum as it tried to blast from my
grip.

I didn’t let it shoot from my hands.
Instead I pivoted forward, pushed one dirty boot into the floor,
and spun on it. Locking one arm around the bot’s spinning body, I
threw it like a shotput.

The force of my throw was enough to knock it
off course, and instead of barreling over the top of the wall, it
shot right into it with so much force it dented the rusted metal
sheeting.

The whole shack gave a violent
shudder.

I didn’t stop. I bent down, scooped up one
of the thing’s legs, and got ready to thrust towards it.

I didn’t need to.

Mark fired off several rounds with his
blaster, the white-hot bullets slamming into the bot’s body and
ripping it apart. Its mechanical innards erupted over the room,
striking the floor and scattering into every corner.

Mark swiveled on his foot and
stared at me, dropping the gun to his side. His eyebrows marched up
his face until they disappeared
into
his hairline. His gaze jerked down to my blood-covered
fingers and the mechanical leg clutched in them. It was still
twitching.

His lips parted and he let out an
impressed half-chuckle. “Wow. What the hell were you going to do?
Beat it over its head with its own leg?”

I shifted past him, maintaining eye contact
as I gave a short, sharp nod. I knelt down and inspected the
largest chunk of the bot.

“…
It’s dead.” Mark walked up
beside me.

I caught sight of his expression as I
shifted my head over my shoulder and stared at him impassively.

He was making no attempt to hide his
complete surprise. It was like I’d sprouted wings and flown around
the room.

I fixed my attention back on the bot until I
was sure it was down and couldn’t fix itself. Throwing away a chunk
of its body, I wiped my bloody hands on my pants and stood.

Mark followed my every move,
brows still pressed high
into
his hairline. “I
shot it three times with a level III blaster. It’s not coming
back.”

“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” I
counselled as I walked past him and out into the primary
yard.

“Where the hell did you come from?” Mark
asked.

“You mean where did I learn to
fight?”

He chuckled. “Yes, I mean where did you
learn to fight?”

“Here. And in other refineries. You either
fight, or you die,” I said simply.

He made eye contact as he nodded. “Yeah, I
understand that.”

I doubted he did.

He was an Arterian. The only thing he
would understand was privilege.

I kept that particular thought to
myself.

He suddenly clicked his head to the side,
and it was clear he was receiving a message through his implant. A
second later he sliced his hand forward. “All crew are being called
back to the primary grounds.” He shifted forward.

I didn’t move.

He flicked his gaze towards me. “That
means refinery crew, too.”

Reluctantly I pushed off and followed
him.

My boots scattered through the sand, now
torn in places from my ongoing fights with the bots.

It didn’t take long to reach the primary
grounds.

It seemed the Arterian ship had already been
refueled, as the majority of the security forces were pulling back
and walking up the ramp in single file.

Suddenly my gut clenched and I jerked my
head to the side, gaze locking on a figure marching out of the
massive refinery doors.

My gaze locked on him long before the
doors opened and the prince strode out.

Again, I just knew where he was.

My stomach clenched as I became terrified at
what that could mean.

Mark cleared his throat. “It was nice
meeting you. Thank you for saving my life.” With that, he stepped
back and tapped a hand on his neck.

His helmet shot up and covered his face.

Almost immediately his behavior changed.
Though I could no longer see his expression, his countenance became
just as hard as his armor.

It was easy to see why – he clearly held a
position of authority amongst the Arterian guards. He would have
only dropped it around me because I was a simple refinery worker
he’d never see again.

Though I tried to distract myself with that
thought, it wouldn’t work.

Every sense locked on the prince as he cut
a straight path towards us. The wind kept billowing through his
cape, blowing it over his shoulder dramatically.

I still hadn’t seen his face, but that
didn’t matter. I felt as if I already knew exactly what he’d look
like. A strong angular, jutting jaw framed by wavy ice white hair
and offset by crystal purple eyes.

It was such an oddly specific image that I
just couldn’t shake it from my mind.

A second later the prince reached us,
brought a hand up, and tapped his helmet.

It receded.

…
And I stared at the man I had
imagined. Down to every detail.

I swore my heart chose that exact moment to
stop in my chest.

Mark appeared surprised that the prince
had taken off his helmet. He took a strong step forward. “Prince
Xarin, we can’t be sure it’s safe yet.”

The prince ignored him. “We have
recalibrated our scanners. We have scanned the hull. There are no
more bots. It is safe,” he said simply.

His voice was strong, boomed out of his
throat, seemed to reverberate in his large, barrel chest. It was
more like concentrated claps of thunder and less like the tone of
an ordinary mortal.

I knew I shouldn’t be staring at him so
openly, but there wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do to close my
eyes or turn away.

A second later, his gaze darted to the side
and locked on mine.

…
And it felt as if I
stared through a door into a completely different realm.

It was such an indescribable sensation, so
completely alien.

I had never led a free life. My choices
had always largely been dictated by the need to survive. And yet as
I stared into Xarin’s crystalline purple eyes it seemed as if the
entire universe opened up before me. A multi-verse, in fact, a
realm so large one would never be able to explore it
completely.

Though Xarin had only looked at
me for a fraction of a second, it felt like a year. And when he
flicked his gaze away, I almost wanted to stagger
over
, clutch a hand to his chin, and wrench it back
until I could stare into his eyes once more.

….

Instead I staggered back and swallowed as I
realized how insane my thoughts had become.

Fortunately Xarin appeared to ignore me
completely. “Our ship has been refueled. We are leaving.” With
that, he turned and walked towards the ramp a few meters to his
left.

“Already?” Mark asked with surprise.
“Aren’t we going to pause for repairs?”

“We can do it in orbit,” Xarin remarked
without turning around.

“.. Yes, your highness.”

Xarin paused a few meters up the ramp. The
wind caught his cape and suddenly furled it over his shoulders.

He inclined his head slightly to the left,
locked his gaze on me, and appeared to come to some decision.

Then
I heard three words. Three words that
felt as if they punched through my heart and shook my rib
cage.

The prince nodded towards Mark. “Bring her
aboard.” With that, he turned and marched back up the
ramp.

Again I felt an ethereal hand lock on my
shoulder. Just as I wanted to turn and run away before Mark could
catch me, something stopped me in place.

Mark looked surprised for a few seconds,
but shrugged his shoulders, and turned to me.

“The Arterian forces are always looking
for good recruits. Strong recruits. Fast recruits. Soldiers who can
fight no matter the odds. And today, you’ve proved you’re just what
were after.”

My mouth was dry. It felt as if I’d fallen
down to my knees, unhinged my jaw, and scooped a handful of sand
down my throat. “What are you saying?” I managed.

“That you are being invited into the
Arterian Security Forces,” he said directly. Though he dipped his
head back and had a certain hard kind of look about him, his voice
was still soft.

I looked at him steadily. “This isn’t an
offer, is it?” Perhaps I should have been controlling my tone. I
couldn’t.

Mark nodded.
“You’re being
drafted. The Arterian Security Forces have full
powers from the senate
to draft any citizen of the galaxy.”

“Drafted,” the word rolled off my
tongue.

I knew I should have been incensed, fearful.
Yet I couldn’t tug my eyes off the ship’s hull and the thought of
Xarin within.

“Get your stuff. Our ship’s leaving in
five.”

“I have no possessions worth keeping,” I
muttered, still unable to tear my eyes off the titanic
hull.

Out of the corner of my eye, I
watched Mark tip his head back. “The
Illuminate
is one of the most sophisticated ships in
the Arterian fleet.”

Fear pounded into my gut and my
eyes opened so wide it felt like the skin split.
“What?” I
spat.

“Don’t be afraid. With what you’ve shown
today, you’ll easily fit in amongst the security
forces.”

That word. That goddamn word did something
to me.

It rang in my mind as if a whole city of
people screamed it into my ears.

Illuminate.

I couldn’t stop my lips from
cracking open as my eyes somehow cracked even further open.
“What… where does
that name come from?”

“What? … The name of the ship?” Mark
appeared to catch up. He looked thoughtful. “It’s traditional. A
name from the Arterian’s past. Beyond that, I don’t know what it
means.”

“Aren’t you Arterian?” I
stuttered.

I had to know what that name meant. Though
all reason told me to drop this, I couldn’t. It would have been
easier to rip my own heart from my chest.

“Me? I’m only half Arterian. Half human,
like you.” He nodded at me.

Before I could press him for
more information, he ticked his head to the side. I watched him
shift his jaw in a clear move as he obviously turned on his
communicator.
“I’m coming aboard now,” he said.

He briefly made eye contact before turning
away.

I stood on the ramp and watched
him. It didn’t take long for my gaze to be tugged back onto the
ship
. And it
took less than half a second for my thoughts to center back on the
prince.

…
I had no idea what was wrong
with me.
I
soon found myself walking up that ramp, my
worn boots reverberating against the metal ramp with every
step.

As I walked into a massive deployment bay,
I couldn’t deny one thing – I felt as if I was walking into my
future, and yet, at the same time, my past….

Prince Xarin

I sat in my command seat,
cape
tossed
over my shoulder, head pressed back
against the head rest, eyes closed.

After a few quiet, restless minutes, I
brought a hand up and pressed it close over my eyes. I ground my
thumbs into the flesh around my temples as if I was trying to
unscrew it.

I’d been seconds from losing my
goddamn life. If that refinery worker hadn’t acted when she
did
, and
torn
the bot from the
very sky, I would have.

My free hand twitched as I clutched it hard
around my arm rest. I drove the fingers so hard into the yielding
fabric that my short nails cut it.

A second later I drew my hand
back, balled it into a fist, and slammed it on the arm rest as
a
roar
split from my throat.

I was losing. On every battle
front
and in
every
encounter
. So I balled my hand up, brought it back, and struck my
arm rest with such force it broke free from the back of the seat
and clattered onto the floor by my feet.

I kicked at it petulantly, sending it
scattering over the floor until it struck the far wall.

I punched to my feet and began to pace the
room, finally latching a hand on my cloak and wrenching it free
from my armor with a hiss. I discarded it in disgust over the back
of my chair.

Before I could continue to take my anger out
on the furniture, a warning beeped through the air.

I jerked my head back and ticked it to the
left, activating my ear implant. “What?” I snapped.

“More Zorv detected in the adjoining solar
system,” a toneless electronic voice informed me.

I jerked my head back and drove
my eyes fully closed, lips
drawing
back from my teeth.
“I’m on my way.”