Silas: Imperial Warrior (A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Romance) (3 page)

It had always been her dream to have one of her very own. Ever since she’d stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast with her parents when she was a child. Just remembering the sense of wonder and being at home away from home that she’d experienced made her want to have something like that of her own, and as an adult, all of her extra money was going towards it.

Katia had plans. She had business plans, financial plans, layout plans for the inn itself, ideas about who she would have staffing it. All of it had taken shape in her mind and in a pile of notebooks that she kept in a drawer in her bedside table. As with most things, money was the thing in the way, hence the two jobs.

Her father had always told her that anything worth having was worth working hard for, and she was sure that it applied here. So whatever she had to do, she was going to do it, to make her dreams come true. As cheesy as that sounded.

“Are you getting enough sleep, Katia?” her mother asked, and Katia snorted, pouring her another cup of coffee. It was...probably very sad that the only time she could really make to have a conversation with her mother face to face was when she was at work.

Her parents understood her drive, her need to make this happen, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t worry about her and want her to not have to work her fingers to the bone. She could always see the concern in her mother’s eyes when she asked that question, and hear it in her voice, as well. Katia always nodded, though, before she took her break, settling in on the other side of the small table.

“I’m fine, Mama,” she said, propping her chin up in her hand, elbow on the table.

“And you would say that even if you weren’t fine,” her mother replied sternly. “I know you have dreams, Katia, but you can’t work yourself to death to achieve them. You need to take care of yourself.”

“I
am
,” Katia insisted. “I have three meals a day for the most part, and I get plenty of exercise running around here and the hotel. I get as much sleep as I can, probably more than I did when I was in college, even. I’m doing what I have to do, Mama.”

Her mother sighed and nodded. It always came to this, and they both knew it always would. Katia was pretty sure her mother just needed to say the words. That she needed to know that she had expressed her concern and that Katia was still aware of it. And still looking after herself. It was nice that her parents cared, at the very least.

“Tell me what’s been going on with you,” Katia said, changing the subject. “Any bride horror stories from work? You know how much I love those.”

A smile curled over her mother’s face and she settled in. They only had twenty minutes to catch up, but it was a time they both looked forward to, Katia knew that. She liked hearing her mother’s stories of being a seamstress who specialized in wedding dresses. It was a welcome break from thinking about her own jobs.

When her break was over, she’d go back to the grind, back to working herself to exhaustion in the name of her goals. It wasn’t a perfect life, not yet, but it was hers, and she had made it for herself. She was working towards making things even better, too, and that was admirable, even if only in her own mind.

So she let herself have this time, sipping her coffee and leaning back in her chair, ready for a story.

Chapter One: The Make of a Leader

The sound of polished boots on the hard, equally as polished floor rang out as Silas Kerandron, Captain of the Left Arm of HIMA, Champion of the Battle of Fells Deep, strode into the fortress.

As he walked, his feet continued to announce his presence, the not at all subtle
clomp clomp clomp
that made the people milling around the entry room of the fortress look up and take notice. There were servants going about their tasks, cleaning and tending to the various bits of tech that kept the place running. There were messengers, searching for the ears that their words were meant for while looking suspiciously at the other messengers going to and fro. There were other members of HIMA, collecting assignments from the higher ups, coming in off of patrols, preparing to head out. And of course, there were the guards, ever present, making sure that everyone stayed in line.

There was hardly ever a time when the fortress wasn’t a swarming hive of activity, and the guards were always on call, watching, collecting information, passing it on. They weren’t strictly a branch of HIMA, Her Imperial Majesty’s Army, rather, they reported directly to the Empress’ right hand, Carnello, and were tasked with keeping Her Imperial Majesty safe. They were her first line of defense, but only
hers
.

HIMA were the guards of planet.

As such, they were afforded much respect when they were out and about. Silas had no sooner stepped into the main part of the entry room when servants were bowing, messengers were inclining their heads, and the guards were thumping their right fists over their hearts before lowering them back down to their sides in a sign of respect. Silas returned all of these gestures with a nod. When he saw someone he recognized, he waved shortly, but kept moving. No time to stop to talk; he had a meeting to attend. With the Empress herself, no less.

It had been a good three full cycles since he’d been assigned to the position of Captain, and things had changed greatly. Now people looked at him with that deference in their eyes. When he had a victory, his name went on it, rather than just the name of the squadron he’d been in. And, probably the biggest change, now he had meetings with Her Imperial Majesty.

Ammaline was the Empress of Gathra, and as it was one of the biggest planets in the entire Quadrant, she had quite a lot on her plate. HIMA was spread out through the planet, broken up into different sections, named for the Empress’ body. She, of course, was the head. They were
hers
to command. Other than that, there were five sections: the right arm, the left arm, the left leg, the right leg, and the tail. Each section defended a part of the planet, and it just so happened that the left arm defended the capital and the areas immediately surrounding it.

Carnello was waiting outside of the Empress’ office when Silas arrived, head down, eyes focused on the tablet in his hands. The man was always doing something on that thing, scheduling meetings, attending to messages, fingers always in motion. He barely glanced up when Silas arrived, just motioned with one hand for him to proceed into the office.

“She’ll see you now,” he said in his usual bored, clipped tones.

“Thanks, Carnello. And you’re looking wonderful this evening.”

The man glanced up then, heavy brows knitted into a frown. “Excuse me?”

Silas just laughed and shook his head. “I said have a good evening, Carnello.” And he was through the door before Carnello could figure it out one way or another. Sometimes it was the little things in life that kept him going.

The Empress’ office wasn’t lavish by any stretch of the imagination. There were no sumptuous fabrics or tapestries depicting old battles on the walls. No draperies, no frills, no inlaid furniture. It looked like the office of a military general almost. Spare, clean lines, no excess.

Of course, it was different when the Empress sat behind her desk, because she added beauty to the room where there would have been none. There were some who said that Empress Ammaline was the most beautiful woman in the Quadrant. There were others who said she was the most beautiful woman in the entire galaxy. Either way, it was agreed upon that the Empress, with her creamy pale skin, bright jade colored eyes, falls of golden hair, and long, prehensile tail, was a vision.

She was a member of the Alagertha tribes, who hailed from the northern parts of the planet, and a member of her family had been in power ever since Gathra had declared itself its own independent governing force about five hundred full cycles ago.

Ammaline was kind and fair, smart and sharp, skilled and diplomatic. Under her leadership, Gathra was flourishing, while they were a military planet, it was much less focused on war and fighting than other planets who said the same. Their mission wasn’t to go looking for trouble, but rather to continue to defend against it when it came knocking on their doors. Unfortunately, that happened often.

Silas had a feeling that something having to do with a new threat was what he was in her office to discuss this evening.

He presented himself before her, keeping his eyes downcast as he bowed from the waist and then tapped his left hand over his heart twice. The traditional salute of someone who was essentially thought of as being the Empress’ left hand.

“Captain,” she said, in her dulcet tones, rising from her seat and pressing her palm to her head before extending it out towards him. She would make that salute to anyone in the army, as she was its head. “Please, do come in and have a seat.”

“Your Imperial Majesty,” Silas replied, moving closer to the desk and allowing himself to drop into the seat opposite it. “You said that this was a matter of some urgency?”

She nodded, golden hair cascading about her shoulders. It was held back this evening, with a circlet of platinum that sat nestled against her brow and was studded with the rainbow colored gems from the Dipthe mines. The greens brought out her eyes.

“I did,” she agreed, sitting back down once he was seated. “You’ve been keeping up to date on the attacks in the pleasure district, I assume.”

It wasn’t a question, and it didn’t need to be one. They both knew that any acts of crime that were committed around here came to Silas’ attention before long. “Of course,” he replied. “I’ve been getting regular reports from the people who do those patrols.” He pulled out his tablet and let his fingers find the relevant notes. “Seven attacked so far, several robberies, two people found dead, though no one can say for sure if they’re related to this.”

“I am inclined to treat it as if they are,” Ammaline said. “Targeting the pleasure district is a low move, Captain. Committed by someone who thinks we will not care because of where these attacks are taking place. I would like you to show them that we do, in fact, care. And that we will defend our people, no matter what area they might be from.”

“Of course,” Silas said again, a frown wrinkling his forehead. “Do you have ideas or suspicions about who is doing this, then?”

She nodded. Her tablet was in her hands in a second, and she drew a pattern on the screen with slender fingers, calling up a holo image that hovered above the desk in glowing blue lines. Silas squinted and then tipped his head back until the lines resolved themselves into something that made sense.

What he was seeing was a reptilian creature, hunched over, with long arms that nearly dragged the ground. Each finger on a large hand was tipped in a talon, and the same went for the feet, the toes of which were splayed outwards. A long tail
did
drag the ground, tipped in spikes that had to be at least half a foot long. As Silas watched, the image moved, and a long tongue came sliding out of the creature’s mouth. It licked a bulbous eyeball and then disappeared back into that mouth, slowly enough for Silas to catch a glimpse of sharp teeth.

“Well,” he said. “That guy’s not invited to any of my dinner parties.”

Ammaline smiled a tiny smile. “Likewise, Captain. Are you familiar with the Fremeri?”

He had to shake his head. Being a member of HIMA gave him plenty of chances to travel and see other planets and moons in the Quadrant, on the behalf of the Empress or chasing down some criminal, but he couldn’t say he had ever seen or heard of anything like that reptile creature.

“Not many are,” she explained, swiping her hand over the surface of her tablet and calling up another image. This one was of a planet, large and rocky. Even in bright blue, Silas could see that it was a dry, craggy place, and he leaned in closer. “This is Shuva,” Ammaline said. “A planet not in our Quadrant and thought to be dead. The Fremeri are its primary residents, and they are
also
thought to be all dead.”

“And you’re thinking that isn’t true?”

“I
know
it isn’t true,” she said. “The Fremeri supposedly died with their planet, nearly one hundred full cycles ago. As the story goes, the water all dried up, leaving the planet dry and barren. Nothing could grow, nothing could thrive. The Fremeri were already made to survive in dry conditions, but without any plant life or animals, they slowly starved to death and then cooked under the heat of their twin suns.”

Silas let out a low whistle. “Sounds like a good way to wipe out a species to me.”

“Indeed. But Shuva is riddled with tunnels and caves, underground places that could be used as shelter, or places to hide.”

“And you think the Fremeri have been hiding down there?” His voice was skeptical.

The Empress shot him a sharp look. “I do,” she replied crisply.

“But why...ah, Your Imperial Majesty?” Best not to forget his place here.

She gave him that tiny smile again. “Because I have seen a Fremeri before. If they were all dead, then I would not have encountered one.”

“Alright,” Silas said slowly. “Fair point. But then, what makes you think they’re doing this now?”

“Because someone saw one here. You have to agree that they are very hard to mistake for something else.”

And yeah, he couldn’t argue with that.