Star Brigade: Odysseys - An Anthology (17 page)

As her bare pink flesh pressed up against his alabaster white skin, Antur was reaching out telepathically to weave their minds together. By the time the two lovers were deep in the throes, Antur and Sunny’s thoughts were merged completely. Every memory of his were laid bare for her to experience, all except that one cataclysmic day from almost three decades past.

…the sheer horror of watching Earth’s atmosphere burn, the allegedly righteous pact with eleven other Korvenites that had set Earth’s ruin in motion…

Sunny would never know that side of Antur. Years of practice had allowed him to bury those memories from his paramour whenever their minds merged, without her ever realizing.

The sound of Sunny’s contented moan drew Antur back to the pleasures before him.
If tonight is my last night as a free Korvenite
, he mused,
then I will actively enjoy every last moment
. The Korvenite clasped Sunny’s hands, pinning her to their bed, and sank on into the warmth between her thighs.

After they finished, a telepathic call roused him from his slumber.

Antur.
The Korvenite sat up in the dark, recognizing the firm cadence of longtime friend Vycho.

Something wrong?
In the background Antur also sensed quiet mental chatter like a babbling brook, several Korvenites he didn’t recognize. That icy fear returned, but he couldn’t figure out why.

You’re needed in the Underground Hub,
Vycho continued.
Tharace found something.

Tharace was also a longtime acquaintance and sometimes friend. She was also the best tracker amongst Big Victory’s Korvenites. If she required Antur’s presence, then Tharace must have found a potential threat to this town. His breathing grew labored with anxiety.

He glanced to the left. Sunny continue to doze peacefully beside him, swaddled in only sheets and shadows. The human was dreaming of sparkling Galdorian seas she once visited as a child.

No need to wake her.
I’ll be there in ten macroms
. Antur swung his legs off the side of the bed.

After throwing on some clothes, Antur ventured out into the chilly night toward the edge of town. The more rural and scattered residential areas of Big Victory were evident by the increased dilapidation of the ships-turned-homes. Antur ventured to one of the mobile homes, an ancient mini-starliner so rusted over that Antur couldn’t recall its original color. After entering through the vessel’s helm, the Korvenite soon found himself in the luxury section of the ship.

The halolights came to life as soon as he entered that gutted section, revealing eight circular transmat platforms of crimson coloring, lined up in two rows of four. The walls of this former luxury section, however, were as timeworn as the outside of the ship.

These transmatters had been smuggled in sometime before the Earth Holocaust, allowing quicker transportation to and from the massive tunnels beneath Big Victory. The underground Hub was the refitted military bunker where the Korvenites in this town had been hidden, keeping them safe from global gene scans until UComm assumed they’d captured every Korvenite on Terra Sollus. When needed, the Hub also served as a meeting place for the town’s Korvenites.

“Computer,” Antur spoke. Immediately, a rainbow of blinking consoles lit up in the room. Antur stood on the circle closest to him. “One to transport. The Hub.” The insides of the transmat center vanished in a shimmer of white, replaced by the gloom of the subterranean tunnels beneath Big Victory. The transmat platforms were identical to those in the starliner, even down to their metallic sheen.

Upon stepping off the transmat platform, he was greeted by two senior members of Big Victory’s Korvenites. Vycho, stocky in build and sporting a mop of dark curly hair, offered Antur an anxious smile. At his side stood Tharace, petite and pudgy. But her pudginess was the only thing soft about the female Korvenite. Tharace’s crewcut lilac tresses were as severe as her flinty expression. Antur had known these two since before he’d made Big Victory his home, so he expected such greetings.

The babbling of thoughts he’d sensed from earlier was stronger and more pronounced. Several new Korvenites, most confused, some relieved, quite a few angry—all of them Retributionaries.

A chill swept over Antur. “[What’s going on?]” he asked in Korcei, approaching the duo.

Vycho led the way into a larger, more open room. “[See for yourself.]”

Antur stepped out of a short corridor and into a bowl-shaped meeting room built to fit hundreds. It had been his home for almost a year after the Earth Holocaust. This room was just one section in a vast underground complex capable of housing the whole town if needed.

Antur spotted over two dozen Korvenites who worked town security, all armed with pulse rifles. He exchanged greetings with them as well. Antur was far less welcoming to the new group of Korvenites, nameless faces under the dim lighting of the Hub.

Their complexions were white as snow, like his own; their hair, varying shades of purple similar to his; their eyes, black on gold exactly like Antur’s. Korvenites, birthed from the same world.
But they chose to murder willingly,
Antur fumed.
They are nothing like me.
He lost count of how many were present but noted that all appeared robust and well fed. Yet many sported wounds that ranged in severity; from minor cuts and bruises to poorly bandaged wounds and serious burn injuries. The majority wore next to nothing, and shivered from the brisk drafts underground. Clearly these Retributionaries escaped the ruins of Conuropolis after Maelstrom had been thwarted and killed.

And now, they have found Big Victory. That icy fear from earlier had seeped into every cell of Antur’s body. Regardless of his private fears, the Korvenite approached the gaggle of his own kind with as much confidence as he could muster, speaking with them telepathically.

We want no trouble
, a Korvenite female named Cymae assured him.
Only sanctuary. There’s nowhere else for us to go.
Cymae’s plea mirrored all of these Korvenites’. They needed shelter and safety. There was nowhere else for them to go. The ice filling Antur’s insides thawed then, but not the fears.

Some were older and had known freedom before the Earth Holocaust. Most of these Korvenites were either younger or children, whose only homes had been the internment camps. The bitterness and anger ruling many of these younglings’ thoughts tasted of poison, but not nearly as much as the unanimously staunch hatred all of these Korvenites harbored for anything human.

Antur knew without question that Big Victory did not need this infusion of rogue Korvenites. But they’re still my brethren. If he turned them away, their chances of survival dropped to nil. “[How did they find us?]” Antur asked after putting some distance between himself and the new Korvenites.

“[I sensed their presence a day ago and led the group to this location,]” Tharace declared, as if he’d asked a stupid question. “[They’ve been walking through Terra Sollus’s subterranean tunnels for days.]”

Antur rubbed at the bridge of his nose, sensing the onset of anger, arguments, and a massive headache. “[Are you sure they weren’t followed?]”

“[Yes,]” replied Joreis. The young and brawny security guard kept shooting uneasy glances at this new group of Korvenites.

Antur’s heart thundered hard against his chest as he considered what to do next. “[Check again with the military scanners,]” he ordered Joreis, “[We can’t be wrong about this.]” After Joreis departed, Antur gave both Vycho and Tharace pointed looks before stalking even further from the gathering.

His mind was a mess. The other non-Korvenite citizens were on edge as it was after the Battle of Terra Sollus. The arrival of Korvenite extremists that had tried to wipe them off the face of this world could ruin everything. A quick read on his fellow companions told Antur most of what he already knew. Vycho wore a heavy disquiet on his face and his thoughts. Tharace, while concerned about the town’s reaction, had no conflict in helping these arrivals. The trio walked away until they were out of earshot.

Once the Korvenites had all properly shielded their minds from any psychic eavesdroppers, Antur immediately asked. “[How many?]”

Tharace’s irises gleamed bright gold in the tunnel’s gloom as she said, “[Seventy-four.]”

Antur’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “[Sweet Korvan, you two!]” He turned and began pacing, hands on his hips. How could he let these butchers into Big Victory’s mostly non-Korvenite population, yet how could he turn them away to be captured and slaughtered by the UComm? The conflict was a whirlwind inside of him. And by Vycho’s contorted features, Antur wasn’t alone in his ambivalence.

“[You expect us to allow that many Retributionaries into our town?]” he asked the female.

“[Maelstrom is dead,]” Tharace stated flatly, “[These Korvenites have no further ties to him.]”

Antur stopped pacing and pivoted toward his two longtime friends. “[No further ties except for their crimes and their hard hatred for humans. How are we supposed to spin this with our neighbors?]”

Tharace appeared offended by such a question. “[We can spin them in any direction we want.]”

Vycho gaped at his partner. “[Keeping the town in line for events like Maelstrom’s attack is one thing. Manipulating them to accept a group of Korvenites that nearly eradicated them all?]”

The female Korvenite shrugged. “[We’ve persuaded them on other matters.]”

Antur frowned. Even after so many years, he was continuously galled by how Tharace’s passion to protect their species outweighed her need for scruples. “[You’ve grown far too comfortable bending others to your will.]”

She folded her arms and made a rude noise. “[Like you have with your Earther puppet?]”

Antur bristled. “Watch. Your. Mouth,” he warned in Standard.

The venom in his voice wiped the sneer right off Tharace’s features. She pointed at the cluster of Korvenites standing far from their debate. “[If it wasn’t for us, these Korvenites over there…our brethren…would still have a homeworld.]”

Antur recoiled as if she’d slapped him, except the slap might have stung less. These three Korvenites leaders shared more than just a long friendship. If anyone knew the dark secret that had brought them to Big Victory, Antur knew that no place in the galaxy would be safe for them.

“[She’s right,]” Vycho blurted out. He looked Antur in the eyes, standing half a head taller. “[We ruined Earth. And the entire Korvenite species still pays for our sins. Maelstrom wouldn’t exist if not for us.]” Vycho shook his curly-haired head with such sorrow. He carried his guilt over the Earth Holocaust like weights around his neck. It had pained him only a little more than when Antur and Tharace had convinced him to sneak back onto Terra Sollus instead of leaving Union Space, like the rest of their group had originally agreed. “[Some of these Korvenites have never stepped foot on their rightful homeworld.]”

“[And after what Maelstrom and his brainwashed sycophants have done,]” Tharace pressed on, “[do you think the Union will let the remaining Korvenites live?]” Despite Antur’s distaste for her methods, he could not help but be mesmerized by her zeal. “[As stupid as they were to follow that fanatic, this group could be all that is left of our brethren in this universe.]”

Antur absorbed her words and quickly saw no other choice. Neither did her partner, Vycho. “[Very well. Let me discuss this with Sunny first.]” Antur owed his human lover that and more after everything she had done to support the Korvenites in Big Victory.

Tharace looked appalled. “[You need your human’s
permission
? On Korvenite natters?]” she spat. “[Do you also need her consent to wipe your own ass too?]”

“[Show some respect, you piece of flotsam,]” Antur got right in the female’s face. His irises vanished, eyes turning pitch-black in anger. “[She is this town’s mayor.]”

“[And she will
remain
Big Victory’s mayor,]” Tharace snarled, not backing down, “[unless we say otherwise.]” Her eyes had also turned blacker than night.

A green flush crept up Antur’s neck at her words. He itched to slap the insolence off Tharace’s smug face. Thankfully Vycho stepped between the two Korvenites before wish turned to action. “[This isn’t just about Sunny. Bringing in these Korvenites affects the whole town.]” The import of his words reminded Antur of the larger picture. He was still too angry to forget Tharace’s disrespect, but currently he had to deal with the issue of these refugees.

“[They stay underground and out of sight, for now. We tell the others to persuade the non-Korvenites first.]” Tharace stated in cooler tones. She refused to look at Antur directly. Whether out of disgust or remorse, he had no interest in probing her mind to find out.

Nonetheless, Antur nodded in agreement with her solution. “[Keep an eye on them while I talk to Sunny.]” He turned around and headed back toward the transmatter that had brought him here. “I see no reason why she wouldn’t grant them asylum,” Antur decided, confident in Sunny’s answer.

After waking up his lover and explaining the situation, the Korvenite had assumed wrong.

“Absolutely not!” Sunny Nakamura threw back as soon as he finished.

“Sunny!” Antur yelped in surprise. Her refusal was a knife thrust to the heart.