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Piercing screech echoing around her, something buffeted her body, surface beneath her trembling.
Eyes opening, mind groggy with sleep, a giant blur hovered above. Another shriek echoed, zapping Dani into full wakefulness, details of the blur becoming sharper as her eyes quickly focused on long, pointed, gnashing teeth.
She shot from her bunk, grabbing the blaster from beneath her pillow as the hellbat dove at her, flapping wings knocking it from her grasp—
***
YAPPING AND BARKING sounded in the air. Disappointment wove through him. Even in his dreams, he couldn’t understand a mogha.
There was a yelp, followed by a howl. The mogha sounded young, just a pup.
Something grabbed his leg, shaking back and forth—
K’vyn’s eyes jerked open, pulling his leg out of the grasp as he shot upright.
At the foot of his bed, C’hase trotted to the door and back again, yapping loudly.
L’iza materialized at the door. “The mogha was scratching at the hatch. He seems distraught, so I let him in.”
C’hase grabbed his foot between his teeth, tugging twice before letting go and running to the doorway again.
Did the wind die down? It usually lasted throughout the night. And the hellbats only came on windless nights.
As if to answer his question, a shriek pierced the air. That sounded close by—
Jumping from his bunk, clad only in his underwear, K’vyn raced to the hatchway.
Dark clouds filled the sky. A quick look at the fire and his stomach fell. Only smoking coals remained, not enough to ward off the winged—
Another screech and an ugly giant dove at something on the ground by the freighter.
Throwing on his boots in record speed, K’vyn raced down the stairs and headed across the field, followed closely by the mogha. Another hellbat dove by the human ship and his jaw dropped in open astonishment as the molk took both beasts down in the time it took him to cross the popsies. The little varmint appeared to be guarding a chicken that somehow wondered out.
The ramp of the freighter was closed.
C’hase stopped where the ramp would have been resting without so much as a second glance at the molk or the chicken, fingers extending, grasping at what appeared to be a crank. He barked loudly, executing several quick glances between the crank and K’vyn, antennae pointing.
Then it hit him like lightning, Dani’s terror infusing his muscles with adrenaline.
Help is on the way, he called through the bond. Hang on!
Grabbing the crank, he unwound the ramp until there was just enough room for him to jump through the opening.
Once inside, the sound of flapping leathery wings and a hair-raising shriek directed him to Dani’s location.
The human was crouched on the floor, arms flung protectively over her head, eyes squeezed shut. A blaster lay out of reach, apparently ripped from her grasp as the sharp talons of a hellbat snapped around her.
Lunging forward, he pulled the beast from the air by its wings, plunging his knife into the base of its neck as it hit the flooring in a flurry of frenzied movement.
As the hellbat writhed in death throes, he picked the trembling woman up from the floor and carried her out of there.
“Come,” he said. “We must stoke the fire back to life.”
As she shook in his arms, guilt ate at him. He would not let his guard down again.
***
DANI COULDN’T STOP shaking as K’vyn stoked the flames, large log he threw in popping, embers rising high into the sky. Hellbat impaled on a spick, he raked aside several coals to roast it upon.
She had no appetite whatsoever. The encounter with the hellbat was too close. And finding a way into her ship when the ramp was raised—
Another tremble wracked her body.
Warm fur brushed against her leg as C’hase lay at her feet. Reaching down to pat his head, an orange flower opened. She picked it, studying the patterns on the petals. Something so beautiful was a nice distraction from the ugliness of the attack.
She wanted to thank the little flower for opening in the dark. Come to think of it, she’d seen them open at night quite a bit.
“Popsies only close when there will be wind,” K’vyn’s rumbling voice sounded next to her.
Under the impression he was trying to get her mind off the hellbat, Dani welcomed conversation.
“You call these flowers popsies?’” she said. That didn’t sound like a Korthan word. She’d have thought there would be a harsher term for the orange blossoms.
“Yes,” he said, holding up his left hand. “Because they popsy open.”
Palm up, fingertips pressed together in a cone above it, he spread his fingers from the point.
She smiled, the word combined with the action comical coming from a big bad Korthan warrior who ate hellbats for breakfast.
The expression on his face lit up and she felt warm all over.
“I don’t hate all humans,” he said.
Her eyebrows furrowed. That was abrupt—
“What I mean to say is, I received an elementary education from the Human Colony Alliance,” he amended.
So, K’vyn had been in the exchange program. No wonder he could speak perfect Standard.
“I have a lot of human friends,” he said, pulling a cut of meat from the roasting beast. “But the treaty was simple: Only terraform worlds without life. Breaking that treaty doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Korth started a war,” she said.
“We are not at war,” K’vyn scoffed. “You would know if we were in all-out war.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” Dani said. “What would you call it, then?”
“Conflict.”
“Conflict? You make it sound as if we’re just exchanging punches in a fist fight.”
There were vicious dogfights, space battles, and turf skirmishes on numerous planets.
“Solving our differences with a fist fight would’ve been acceptable,” he said. “Loss of life on both sides is a tragedy we could have avoided.”
“There’s a term for that,” Dani fought from rolling her eyes. “It’s called ‘war.’”
“Korthan farming worlds do not need to be terraformed to support human life. We can co-exist.”
Sensing the truth of that statement, Dani thought of the widespread human belief that Korthan food was poisonous to humans. From experience, that wasn’t true. Why would the Human Colony Alliance actively spread such lies when co-existence was possible?
The otherness that lurked within didn’t comment on that thought, but it was there.
Looking across the dark landscape, then back at the fire, Dani said, “The Earth Council of Habitable Worlds would be interested in this planet.”
K’vyn stiffened. “That’s not amusing.”
“It would not need to be terraformed. Although,” Dani threw a sidelong glance at K’vyn. “Would you miss the hellbats?”
The Korthan bristled. “Hellbats are not the most desirable of creatures, or the tastiest.” He threw a bone in the fire after devouring the meat. “But they are still life. They have a place in the ecosystem of this planet.”
Dani looked at C’hase, who raised his head with an attentive gaze.
“I guess that means he would miss them,” she said, touching her nose to the mogha’s.
***
K’VYN LEVELED A MEASURING gaze, the woman talking about him to her companion as if he wasn’t sitting next to them.
But he wasn’t bitter. The true marvel was how much he tolerated this particular human. He’d have fought his human friends for saying the same things.
Was it the mate bond that made him so accepting? Was it possible to truly have unconditional love?
Judging by the mogha and his all-encompassing devotion to his human Alpha, especially after the mistreatment he suffered from humans—
“How did you find your mogha?” he asked.
A dazzling smile lit up her features as she scratched behind the mogha’s ears.
“C’hase found me,” she said.
“How?”
“I was between cargo runs on Station 12 when he started talking in my head.” Turning towards him, her eyes met his, a slight frown on downturned lips. “He was in a lab.”
Mirroring her frown, he said, “A lab?”
“Yes. He and Hedge were both in there. Basically, I stole them and hid them in a cargo of chickens.”
His heart felt full. A human rescued two Korthan creatures, even if one of them was just vermin.
“I’m supposed to deliver the chickens to Colony 739. They are very expensive. I will lose my license if they don’t make it.”
K’vyn gazed at the dilapidated freighter. “I don’t think you’ll be making that delivery.”
She let out a big sigh. “They’d probably arrest me as soon as I got there anyway. Not my smartest move.” A chuckle. “I honestly don’t even have a plan.”
The red feathered avian rushed passed, followed closely by the molk, and C’hase jumped to his feet, letting out a happy yap before taking off after them.
K’vyn thought he’d seen everything in his lifetime.
“I was hoping to find Mogha from there,” Dani said. “So I can return C’hase to his kind.”
Alarm coursed through his veins.
“You cannot deny a mogha its master companion,” he said. “You are alpha for life. C’hase must stay with you.”
***
FOR LIFE? DANI SAT on the bridge of her ship, feet propped on the console in front of her, playing the conversation with K’vyn over in her mind. She couldn’t imagine living without C’hase, but didn’t he belong with his kind?
I belong with you, the mogha’s young voice sounded in her mind. I go where you go.
Could she keep the hellhound? She thought once she found the mogha home world, she’d be saying goodbye to C’hase.
Images of hiding him under her bed on the space station flashed through her mind. That wasn’t exactly a sustainable option.
And she didn’t tell K’vyn everything either. She had to warn the moghas. A human fleet was preparing to invade their system and terraform their world for a new colony.
Looking at her freighter, there was no way her ship was getting off this planet, but— Turning her gaze across the field of popsies, she eyed the advanced Korthan vessel.
Could she trust the Korthan? Did she have a choice?
You can trust him, C’hase’s voice sounded again.
But, why couldn’t the new colony just settle on this world? Could she tell the Human Colony Alliance about this planet? Would they lighten her sentence if she did?
The comm squelched and Dani pulled her feet from the console, stomping down on the flooring with a thud as she leaned forward, turning a knob to clear out the static.
“The fugitive crashed on an uncharted world in the Mogha system,” a voice said over the comm.
The Mogha system? Was it possible that she was already that close to finding Mogha?
“Any survivors?” another voice said, authoritative.
“Unknown.”
“Proceed as planned,” the authority said. “Double back for the fugitive once the objective is complete.”
Oh, no, they were moving now. How far away was Mogha?
“We will hit the Korthans where it hurts,” the first voice said.
Hit the Korthans where it hurts?
An image of the soft expression on K’vyn’s face as he watched C’hase flitted through her mind. And what he told her about his desire to have a mogha companion of his own, that all Korthans possessed this desire—
Dani’s blood froze, stomach dropping in dread. A colony wouldn’t be placed on Paradise, because the humans wanted to terraform Mogha next, to cause as much pain to the Korthans as possible.
Stars, she had to tell K’vyn. He probably even knew exactly where Mogha was.
***
STANDING NEXT TO HIS ship, K’vyn’s heart dropped as Dani raced from her freighter, crossing the field of popsies straight at him. Was she hurt? Was C’hase hurt? Her frantic emotions hit him across the chest.
“They’re moving now,” she was yelling, words coming out in a panting holler as her legs swiftly carried her in long strides over the flowers.
What? Who?
Searching the sky for hellbats, K’vyn pulled his knife. But no dark clouds were rolling in, the telltale sign of the beasts’ arrival nowhere to be seen.
Replacing the knife back in his belt, the woman was at his side in the next instant.
“They’re moving now,” Dani said again, gulping in a breath, hands gripping her waist. “We’re running out of time.”
Brow furrowing, K’vyn said, “I don’t understand.”
“The Human Colony Alliance,” she paced in front of him. “They’re on their way to terraform Mogha.”
Face falling, the whole of his insides flushed downwards as time suddenly stood still.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” he heard himself say, his very voice sounding as if someone else were speaking the words.
“You shot down my ship,” Dani said. “I didn’t know if I could trust you.”
“The molk crashed your ship,” he corrected.
“Shooting at me didn’t help,” she retorted.
The world around him sped back up in a rush. No time to discuss the details of the reality of how her piece-of-molk-dung freighter fell from the sky, he turned to his ship.
“L’iza, ramp,” he commanded and bound up the ramp that materialized in front of him, leaving the human standing there with her mouth hanging open.
***
THE RAMP OF THE KORTHAN ship appeared step by step as it did when Dani first saw the warrior.
Closing her jaw as K’vyn ran up, disappearing into the confines of his ship, her heart stopped as an orange and gray blur brushed by her legs, racing up the ramp.
“C’hase,” she called. “No!”
She froze as the pup went out of sight. Dammit—
Waiting a full minute, she peered into the ship as best she could.
C’hase, she projected her thoughts. Come back.
Without warning, the ramp completely dissipated at once, hatch where the top previously entered clanging shut with a whoosh of hydraulics.
Dani’s heart pounded in her ears. C’hase!
***
FOUR HOLO-PROJECTIONS stood before him as K’vyn clasped his hands behind his back.
“Are you certain?” A’ryk Chiste, Death Angel of the Korthan Cyborg Corps, said, projection on the right. “A move on Mogha would mean all-out war.”
Humans only believed they were at war with the Korthans. Numerous scout ships ran interference to divert humans from inhabited worlds, ran blockades. Troops occasionally clashed in bloody battles. Fighters clashed in vicious dogfights—
In terraforming Mogha, the humans would learn what war with the Korthans was really like.
“I am certain,” K’vyn said. “Their location is unknown, but an Invader fleet is heading towards the planet as we speak.”
A’ryk’s frown deepened, the other projections shifting on their feet. “How did they find it?”
The best defense the Korthans had against Invader terraforming was in simply hiding the locations of worlds. From early contact with humans, even at the height of cooperation and good will, the Korthans kept key worlds a secret. K’vyn wasn’t sure he wanted to know how they found the location of Mogha.
“We will discuss the possibilities at a future time,” the delegate from Korth said, projection on the left. “For now, the Korthan Citizen Warrior Brigade will arrive in two days.”
“The Death Angels are enroute,” A’ryk said. “But I’m in the Zeta System. I won’t make it in two days.”
“The Galaxy Ship will protect his Korthan and mogha allies,” Captain K’ursick, second from the right, said.
“The Korthan Cyborg Corps will arrive on the Galaxy Ship,” L’den said, second from the left.
“This will be a rescue mission,” the delegate said. “Unless the Death Angels have figured out how to detect which Invader ship carries the seed torpedo?”
A’ryk’s lip curled as the delegate looked at him. “There isn’t any one ship that carries the seed. They switch it up each time. We won’t know until the torpedo is launched.”
“Then it’s too late,” K’vyn said with a frown.
The Invaders were clever. To K’vyn’s knowledge, they’d never been able to stop a targeted planet from being terraformed. When the humans set their mind to a planet, they succeeded. A dozen Death Angels could show up and shoot every human ship down to the last one, but that one remaining would still launch a seed torpedo into the planet. K’vyn was convinced all Invader ships had the terraforming seeds.
“You are the closest ship,” A’ryk said. “You must travel to Mogha to warn them post haste.”
There was no radio comm capability on Mogha. The only way to warn the inhabitants was to go there directly.
“I will be there within the day.” K’vyn nodded his head forward in a quick bow of acknowledgement.
“The Galaxy Ship will be unable to land on Mogha,” Captain K’ursick said.
“The scouts are on their way, too,” L’iza said. “We will load as many mogha as possible on each ship and take them to the Galaxy.”
“KCC fighters will escort them,” L’den of the Korthan Cyborg Corps said. “We will ensure each scout makes it to the Galaxy safely.”
“The Citizen Brigade will position around the Galaxy,” the delegate spoke up.
“And we will shoot as many of those monsters as we can from around the planet,” A’ryk promised, gaze intense.
Nodding slowly, K’vyn rubbed his chin. Since it was impossible to defend against a seed torpedo when they didn’t know which ship would be launching the damnable thing, this was always going to be a rescue mission.
Scout ships would evacuate the mogha and head to the Galaxy Ship. Korthan Cyborg Corps fighters would escort each scout, shooting away any Invader that got near. The Citizen Brigade would protect the Galaxy, and the Death Angels would hold off any Invader ships approaching the planet—
“A solid plan,” the delegate said. “Concur.”
Each Korthan repeated the word with a nod.
“Execute,” he said next and the projections began winking out.
Just as the projections dissipated, C’hase trotted into the cockpit, antennae high as he explored.
“Ah, you found your mogha companion,” A’ryk said, soft smile gracing his features. “Congratulations.”
K’vyn froze. A’ryk was his friend, but this was not the time or the place to explain what was really going on.
“He’s a hand full,” he said, deciding to play along.
The Death Angel’s grin grew wider. “Yes, they can be.” Then A’ryk sobered, silver eyes hardening. “The Invaders must be stopped. I will see you in three days.”
The hologram of A’ryk dissipated, K’vyn watching the curious pup sniff along the wall. Yes, the Invaders must be stopped. They would succeed in terraforming Mogha, but they would not succeed in the extinction of the inhabitants. Life without mogha companions would be meaningless for all Korthans.
L’iza’s holographic form materialized next to C’hase.
“I got the pup,” she said. “Time to go.”
Frowning, K’vyn said. “You know I can’t abandon my mate.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Oh? You’ve accepted the human after all?”
The mogha sniffed at the holo-form, tail held straight up.
“I’ve accepted that Dani is my mate.”