Kesh
The shuttle ramp lowered and three rows of armed Sol Alliance guards greeted us, glistening tek-pistols drawn and mean looks on their human faces. Tek glinted in their eyes and the lining of their uniforms. Even after waking on Calicto and now residing in an organic tek-ship, seeing humans bristling with so much tek was jarring.
Sota and Sirius flanked me. I waved them down to stop them from shooting into aggressive-defensive mode and getting us killed in a hail of bullets before anyone had drawn breath to say hello.
Lifting my hands, I showed them I was unarmed, for all the good it’d do if things got tense. Sota and Sirius mirrored me. These humans expected submission, despite us being lethal without any obvious weapons.
“Pierce, you wanna come out and show these nice people how we’re all friends here?” I called.
Captain Pierce, dressed in her neatly pressed Sol Alliance uniform, emerged from behind my line. “Don’t shoot,” she told her people. “We have three shuttles waiting to dock. The Excalibur crew are all present and in good health.” She stepped in front of me, and for the first time, I noticed how much shorter than me she was. Despite her size, she had no problem putting herself in front of three-dozen nervous trigger fingers.
Had Talen or Kellee been here, this would have already turned into a bloodbath.
“We’re sorry we borrowed your ship,” I said, wondering if sorry cut it, but it was all I had. “But the situation required it.”
No official had stepped forward, and as nobody replied, we waited. A drone hovered at the back of the line, feeding the footage to whoever was running this show.
“What you see happening to the Excalibur now was… unexpected, but we can explain, and I’m willing to explain, if you’ll allow me.”
The door behind the barrier of humans opened. The lines parted, and a tall, thin male approached, gleaming in his tek-lined Sol Alliance dark blues. I’d spent so long in the company of males with hair longer than mine that this man’s grade 1 cut lent him a savage appearance. The shrewd look continued in his cold eyes. This was the man I’d be negotiating with. He looked as though he’d been chipped from stone.
“Lower your weapons,” he commanded his troops. Guns rattled as each was relaxed. “Captain Pierce, are you being coerced in any way?”
“None, Admiral.”
The admiral’s lips twisted. “Your reputation precedes you, Kesh Lasota. The Messenger?” His eyes dropped to the whip at my hip and then examined Sota beside me, reading the clues and confirmation. Before Faerie, I’d been a symbol of hope to Halow’s remaining people. I had no idea if that was still the case, or if they knew I was also technically Faerie’s queen. I probably wouldn’t mention that recent development, or the fact I happened to be the Nightshade too. This was complicated enough.
I lowered my hands. “May we talk like civilized people?”
The admiral’s penetrating glare landed on Sirius and found its match. The man’s eyes narrowed, and Sirius dead-eyed him right back, his spicy magic tickling my nose. He was getting annoyed, and as I’d learned, an annoyed Sirius was about as easy to tame as an angry, wet pixie.
“Okay, all right…” I said, tacking on a smile to ease the tension. “We’re talking, see? Your people are waiting to dock. Let’s start with letting them go free and continue from there, shall we?”
The admiral nodded and extended his hand. “I’m Admiral Briggs, and on behalf of the Sol Alliance and Earthen people, I welcome you and your escorts aboard the Chesterain.”
I took his warm, firm hand in mine and shook. Perhaps this would be easier than I’d imagined?
“Stark, take our guests to their quarters,” Briggs ordered.
The soldier sprang into motion. “Sir.”
Briggs returned his gaze to me. “Allow me to receive the Excalibur crew with Captain Pierce, and we’ll meet at fifteen hundred hours.”
Being on Faerie time, I had no idea when fifteen hundred hours was, but I hoped it wasn’t long. There was a lot more happening than this little meet and greet, and every moment away from Faerie was another moment the Hunt gained strength.
I nodded and followed Stark into the depths of a smaller tek-ship than the Excalibur. Our quarters were small, neat, and functional, exactly as Earthens liked it. I missed Shinj’s organic chaos.
Sota appeared at my door moments after Stark had left. “They didn’t lock us in, so I guess we’re not prisoners?”
“Will wonders never cease?” I mumbled dryly. I poked at the bed, finding it board-hard. I had no plans to stay long enough to sleep in it. I didn’t spot any cameras in the room. “Listening devices?” I asked.
“None,” Sota confirmed.
Sirius’s scowling presence filled the doorway. “These humans and their tek are making my arm itch.”
“Your arm can’t itch,” I told him. “It doesn’t have surface receptors.”
“Tell that to my arm.”
His lips quirked, and Sota double-blinked, then thumbed at the guardian beside him. “Was that a joke?”
“More of a humorous observation,” Sirius deadpanned.
Sota swung his wide eyes to me. “He has a sense of humor? When did this happen?”
“On Faerie.” I smiled, enjoying the ease of the moment. By Faerie, we didn’t get many. “He hides it way down under all the grousing. You have to look for it.”
As they hadn’t confined us to our quarters, we roamed the Chesterain, taking stock of the efficient Sol Alliance crew and their careful glances. Sirius deliberately kept his tek-arm outside his coat, as though it somehow made him closer to them, and many Earthens openly stared at the guardian. Among them, he looked alien. Too tall, his ear tips prominent through his mass of braided red hair, his eyes too green, and his russet red and brown clothes like nothing an Earthen would wear. He soaked up the attention without comment.
Our self-guided tour was interrupted by a guard who escorted us to a comfortable room, complete with a seating area, desk, and bank of monitoring screens. Briggs waited for us inside. His personal drone loitered at the fringes of the room.
Sota gave it a good once-over and muttered, “Pinnacle Attack Drone.”
Which meant that innocuous little ball of tek could microwave our insides before I could free my whip. So Briggs didn’t trust us. I couldn’t blame him. A Faerie guardian, an upgraded AI wardrone, and the Messenger were a formidable force to meet with.
“Captain Pierce had quite the story to tell,” the admiral mused, standing with his back to the narrow strip of windows. Outside, Calicto’s curving surface shimmered like a marble in the black. “It will take some time for the Sol Council to work through it all.”
Time.
Something I didn’t have.
“Sir, there are forces at work on Faerie that could have consequences far worse than Oberon’s stalled war.”
“The Hunt. Yes, we are aware of its occurrence. Tell me more about this Hunt.”
I glanced at Sirius. Faerie’s law was his forte, not mine. He nodded and began to relay all we knew of the Hunt, how it was formed, where it had hid, and how it had come to be free. I wouldn’t blame the Earthens if they decided to retreat behind their new defense net and stay there, shutting the gate on the rest of the worlds. Kellee had believed they’d do exactly that, but the thunder darkening Briggs’s face as Sirius spoke told me a different story. Kellee had once admired Earthens enough to consider allying his vakaru with them. Today, we could right the past.
As I listened to Sirius’s deep voice describe the last few months of my life, everything I’d been through solidified in my mind. I’d blamed Eledan for manipulating us, but reliving events from the outside reminded me of everything he couldn’t have controlled. He’d had his touch in everything, but suggestion was just that. The implementation belonged to me, Kellee, Talen, Sota, Sirius, and Aeon.
“You have a plan to subdue the Hunt?” Briggs asked.
“We have its creator, and while he can be unpredictable, I believe he wants this to end, like we all do.”
“And he knows how to stop it?” Briggs asked.
I thought of Eledan’s warfae marks, the original marks given to him and Oberon, and considered how the Wild Ones had persuaded Eledan to bring his nightmares to life. The book with its blank pages was part of that; otherwise, Ailish wouldn’t want it. Eledan, the marks, the book, and me. “Yes, he does.”
“If the Hunt is contained or stopped,” Briggs considered, “what will happen to Faerie then?”
“Faerie never wanted this war,” Sirius said. “She has no interest in Sol or its inhabitants.”
“Then how do you explain that?” Briggs gestured at the window and the obvious green and blue ball that was a living Calicto, once a tek-only human world.
Sirius glanced at me, hoping I had the answer.
“That is…” I swallowed. “I’m not sure what that is. There are lifewells all over.”
“On Earth?”
“I don’t know for certain.”
“Do you know?” Briggs asked Sirius.
“It is likely there was a lifewell on Earth. It would have been the source of all life on your planet. I don’t know if it’s still active. Oberon rarely spoke of Earth or Sol. He saw it as a… failed experiment.”
Briggs breathed deeply. I imagined being told you owed everything you knew and everything you were to an alien planet took some getting used to.
“I would like to help you, but it’s not my decision. I will need to liaise with the Sol Alliance council. I can do nothing more at this time.”
It was enough to know they had no intention of firing on us like they had on Hapters.
The admiral’s gaze fell to Kellee’s star and recognition sparked. Perhaps he knew it as a symbol of justice? “This is a delicate situation,” he continued. “Whatever is happening on Calicto is of great concern, not least because I personally observed a planet steal a Sol-made ship out of the sky and turn it into a living creature. We will be monitoring the planet closely, and if we observe any signs of a threat, the Sol Alliance will defend itself.”
We’d do the same.
He offered me his hand again. “These are interesting times, Messenger. I believe we are on the cusp of peace, but the Hunt concerns me. If you can subdue it, you’ll have my support and the support of my fleet, but beyond that, I cannot make any further promises. Don’t fuck it up, Messenger.”
I tightened my hand around his and returned his smile. “We’ll do our best, Admiral.”