Striker (11 page)

"Prince Azaes, Prince Mestor, please meet my son, Star Eater. One of the last members of the race known as the Ancients."

Alpha had not seen the twins speechless before. Explanations would be demanded later, for all had assumed the Ancients, the first people, were long gone. The Alpha-Zetamites did nothing to discourage the perception.

"Son, would you please examine my bonded. The Qrxzl have injected something into Zeus
."
If anyone could help, Star Eater could.

The guard holding Zeus stepped forward. Star Eater lifted the damaged hand and unwrapped the bloodied makeshift bandage.

"Qrxzl! Explain why you have attacked the bonded of an Alpha-Zetamite. You have violated your treaty by doing so. He smells of Mar'Sani." Those dark eyes lifted to Azaes and Mestor, who stood close enough to snatch Zeus away. "One of your princes, I am guessing." Azaes nodded. "So you have declared war on the children of Poseidon? What say you in your defense?"

Outside the ring of columns, two irregular-shaped crystals burrowed up from the white sands. Where the others who greeted them had been tall, black, and obelisk-shaped, these two were squat in comparison, and an azure blue. The only similarity was the pulsing light in the center of the mass.

Instead of the whispering horde, there was one voice with a soft echo.
"We believed him to be a human who had captured and subjugated those you see here."

"Did he introduce himself fully?"

"Yes."

"And yet you attacked? Did he threaten you or draw a weapon?"

"He appeared human. The Terrens are deceitful and crafty. We had been warned the humans were secreting across the galaxies, attempting to locate and steal the Bespoken to bring down the protective grid. What were we to do when this human—this male-appearing human, arrived?"

"Did my father, the Alpha-Zetamite speak up? Vouch for him? I cannot believe he would remain silent. Especially since he bears their children."

The Qrxzl became mute.

"You should have believed my father. You know him well enough. He crafted your treaty for the Valespian Pact. Your actions here today prove you are no better than the Terrens. What you did was just as deceitful."

"We will make reparations … however the Council of Neighn deems fit."

Star Eater delved his tongue into Zeus’s wound. The scowl creasing his brow cast his features into a thunderhead. "You struck him to kill."

"If he is a blender, as they claimed, then he will survive."

"Not true. He may have survived, possibly, if you had only injected crystals. But your crystals are full of power: enough to allow the Feteine to make quantum leaps. He is organic, Qrxzl; he cannot survive that type of energy. It will consume him, just as I consume stars."

Above him, Madux began to mewl. Alpha's skin felt tight, his emotions drowning everything else out. He did not know if he could survive the loss of another bonded. He had fought in the Arthro War after both of his bonded had been taken by the V'Saar. He had tracked them across the galaxies, and when he finally found them, he could do nothing to save them. The horrors of what happened there still haunted him. He could not count how much time had passed, and yet he vividly recalled the pain of losing them. If only he had the ability to destroy himself, he would have done so at that time. It was a miracle he could bond again. To be able to find the two who complimented him, and yet to possibly lose Zeus, lose a part of himself again …

Warm hands stroked him, slowly bringing him back from his waking nightmare. Madux lay on the cool stones, curled into himself, crying as Alpha wished he could.

"Father, you must stop this. He is an empath and you overwhelm him. "

Star Eater continued to stroke Alpha with soothing circles as he gathered the tatters of himself, drawing back into his mind. Attempting to leave behind the images burned in his memory so he could sooth Madux, he berated himself. He had not meant for his grief to consume him and flow over into his friend.

"There you go," Star Eater murmured.

Madux sniffled as Axis helped him to sit up.

"Star, I cannot lose him."

For the first time, Alpha became aware of the Mar'Sani milling in a tight circle around them, emitting dangerous hisses. He did not know if they responded to Madux's reaction to his sorrow or Star Eater's assessment of Zeus, but they were on the verge of rampaging.

Madux climbed to his feet with Axis's assistance.

"Look." Star Eater stepped to the side. Azaes and Mestor crouched, holding Zeus between them, awake and purging crystals as small as grains of sand.

Without being asked, Madux knelt next to the three and placed a palm on the back of Zeus’s neck.

"We sincerely apologize, Alpha-Zetamite. We only wished to free you of the human."

Mestor gave a hissing growl. "From here on out, I will skewer any who calls Zeus a human or Terren again! I will not tolerate the disrespect anymore. Maybe if I leave a trail of bodies, tongues will be more cautious when speaking to us."

Zeus gave a wheezing chuckle. "I love you, too."

Alpha flowed down Madux's arm, crossing over the hand loosely gripping Zeus’s neck. The first touch of skin calmed both he and Zeus considerably. He moved into his accustomed torque shape, content for the moment to just be close to his Marked.

Zeus wanted to gather his loved ones and go home to Atlainticia. His patience wore thin, and with the accumulated exhaustion from the trip, it had been increasingly hard to ignore the slights heaped upon him, his family, and his people. As his body rejected the Qrxzl poison, he attempted to find the patience he had exuded all of his life, in order to accomplish the task his brother, Canry, had sent him on.

The moment Alpha slid over his skin, calm came over him. He welcomed Alpha with a bevy of soft emotions. The strange male who had been hovering over him when he opened his eyes moved to Dargon. Zeus sensed the rush of power surrounding Dargon. Sensing no alarm in Alpha, he unlatched the fastenings to his jacket and then his shirt as he watched the mysterious person work on his lover.

"Star Eater, one of my children from my life before the grid,"
whispered Alpha as he settled himself about Zeus’s collarbone.

His curiosity piqued, he studied the person. Seeing past the shimmering red hair seemed more difficult than it should have been. The color was so captivating that for long moments, it was all Zeus saw. Then he noticed the long, pointed ears, the tips poking up through the hair. As if Star Eater sensed Zeus’s scrutiny, he turned his head and dark eyes met his gaze, the corners crinkling as Star Eater smiled at him.

Dargon began to cough, drawing everyone's attention. "There, now he will rest comfortably. His fractured nervous system has been repaired," Star Eater said with a relieved sigh.

"Star Eater,"
the Qrxzl did not sound as confident as before, almost pleading.
"We were acting on the information given to us. We …"
The Qrxzl trailed off.

Zeus rose to his feet next to Star Eater. The crowd moved, making a pathway, and allowing him to see what held everyone else's attention: Feteine and V'Saar.

"I see. We need a place to speak, somewhere preferably out of the sun," said Star Eater.

"Of course, we can adjourn to the dome. Please follow us."
The two azure crystals fractured, and with a strange lumbering gait, moved across the stands. The wind blew, revealing a red stone pathway that followed in the wake of the Qrxzl.

"Azaes, could some of the Monticore please take Dargon back to the ship?" Zeus asked.

Azaes, his hand still resting protectively on Zeus’s shoulder, gave the order. With a tender kiss to Dargon's slack lips, Zeus watched Dargon being carried away with an aching heart. Guards hustled as they gathered around their charge, disappearing in the direction of the landing pads.

Half of the remaining Monticore scouted ahead, verifying the threat level before allowing Zeus and his brothers to follow. A hand grasped Zeus’s shoulder, drawing his gaze up to Star Eater's. "I promise he will be well when he wakes. He is a strong male." Zeus nodded. The reassurance did not stop him from worrying, though.

The V'Saar stood within the circle of the Feteine. Zeus’s lips curled back over his teeth as he listened to Alpha explain what had transpired while he lay unconscious. The chimeras stayed with the group as they moved up the path.

Axis, still shirtless, whispered close to Zeus’s ear. "They are Chimera, are they not? What they did … I did not believe that to be possible … and yet …"

Zeus squeezed Axis's arm. "They are the revered triplets."

"That thing they do: are they born able to meld together?"

He glanced at Axis, noting the avid gaze, and Axis' compulsive swallowing. "The ability is unlocked when they are ten summers old. They are sent out into the Black Sands Desert on a quest to track down the sages who live there to teach them the secrets of the Three form. Not all Chimeras share the same characteristics of their inner self. Once they acknowledge and accept who they are, they then are able to combine to become what you see here. How they shift their shape is an unanswered question."

"Their trust in their brothers must be immense."

"Their bond is so close that they either do not find a mate or they share one between them."

Axis stared, swallowing several times. "They have beautiful wings," he uttered so quietly that Zeus assumed Axis did not want anyone to hear.

"The location has been secured." Sohm'lan strode along the path toward their group, still appearing strong and unwearied, despite the upsets of the day.

Somehow Zeus found himself leading the way, the Monticore in a loose circle around them. Azaes and Mestor flanked him, one on either side. After skirting several dunes, they came upon a flat area with sculpted river rock under their feet and sparkling turquoise domes arching overhead. A couple of the royal guards stood at the entryway, gazes combing the dunes, searching for any hint of a threat.

Inside, the rest of the Monticore had spread out along the wall of the room. Overhead, multicolored crystals jutted from the dome's interior wall, each pulsing with their own inner light. The Feteine separated from the V'Saar, who settled in what Alpha indicated as a nonviolent posture. Star Eater strode into the room but stayed off to the side.

The dome's interior walls were made of flat, hexagon-shaped crystals. Zeus watched, turning in a slow circle, as one by one the crystal faces became alight with a soft, warm glow. The floor sloped down to a ring of low steps leading into a pool of turquoise water. A single red obelisk rose from the center of the pool. Glyphs of an unknown language were carved into the stone. As the wall lit up, the tip of the obelisk began to glow softly.

The three V'Saar on the opposite side of the room seem to stare unblinkingly at Zeus. They resembled the bug who accompanied the T'Sali in the raid on The Gorgon weeks earlier. The only difference Zeus could see were the blue stripes over their dark exoskeletons. One of them had two thick, white bands circling the abdomen near the tail.

"They are the equivalent to our emissaries."
He sensed Alpha's bloodlust as he spoke.

He turned his attention to the Feteine, six individuals in all. Each of them was different, with some appearing newer than the others, the purpose for what they were originally designed for apparent in the shape of their bodies.

Two separated from the others. One was once painted a yellow that had become dingy and chipped around the body's segmented edges. It was flat-faced and featureless, with a long, banded window glowed blue in the place of eyes, and an egg-shaped speaker in the place of a mouth.

The second figure appeared newer: white glossy paint, and no dings or chips could be seen. Whoever designed the Feteine gave the robot a feminine appearance, with a human-like face including eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Even the wires that went from the crown of the head to loosely connect to the upper spinal column gave the appearance of hair.

The two Feteine walked down the steps and stopped at the edge of the pool. To Zeus’s eye, they appeared split by the body of the obelisk, one appearing on each side. The lighted crystals along the wall flickered gently, but six darker than the others near the top of the dome shone a beam of red light on the tip of the obelisk protruding from the pool.

"Who will act as the questioner?"
The wall crystals intoned.

"I will." Star Eater descended to the pool. He seemed very calm, as if he knew what was to happen.

"Who will speak for the emissaries?"

One of the V'Saar stood and moved to the space between the Feteine and Star Eater.

"Who will speak as the leader of the offended?"

Azaes stepped forward. "I speak for Emperor Valdor Vondorian of Atlainticia."

"And finally, Zeus, as the party who has Rights of Retribution, would you please join the group."

He hesitated, wary of being led into another trap by the Qrxzl.

"This is the Qrxzl's Pool of Truth. Those who stand on the lowest platform must be forthright in all of their words. If they are not, the obelisk will reveal what the speaker intended to hide. This possesses no danger to us,"
Alpha reassured him.

Cautiously, Zeus descended the steps to the pool's edge. Upon closer inspection, the liquid seemed thicker than water, more like gel in its consistency.

"The tribunal has started. The recorded proceedings will be hand-delivered to the galactic emperors and the Council of Neighn. Star Eater, the oldest living son of the Alpha-Zetamite, presiding. These accounts will begin with opening statements from Europa Astarte and Laeretes Arcesii, Feteine representatives from the planet Sidonia."

The feminine Feteine stepped forward. Her strangely human-like gaze scanned the Mar'Sani and Dargon's crew members before her stare took in Azaes, whose tail slashed back and forth, the only outward sign of his agitation. Finally, Europa's gaze stopped and rested on Zeus. She began to speak.