She smiled.
“I love you too,” she said.
“Come on!” Stari said. “There’s time for that later!”
“Maybe not,” her Yayora comrade said. “We could die any second.”
He wrapped his arm around Stari and kissed her full on the lips.
Stari blinked rapidly in surprise. Then, belatedly, slapped him across the face.
He pressed a hand to his cheek.
“I thought you liked me…” he said.
“I do,” she said. “It’s just… Oh, to hell with it.”
She kissed him so hard, she almost knocked him off his feet.
“Can we continue with the mission now?” Stari said.
“Yes, sir,” the guy said.
I glanced at Maddy for an explanation.
“It’s… complicated,” she said. “This is V’Sen, by the way.”
“I believe we’ve already met,” I said.
We ran through the door, along the hallway, and then up three flights of stairs. It might not be the fastest route but it was the only one I knew.
We reached the Control Room. We could see the production crew busy at work through the tall glass walls. Probably trying to figure out what was going on.
A bolt of plasma zinged past my ear and over my shoulder.
Stari and V’Sen dropped and opened fire.
I grabbed Maddy by the hand and led her toward the Control Room. Once we reached it, we turned and provided cover fire for the others to join us.
We bolted up the stairs and entered the first production floor. The workers were so busy they didn’t notice us enter.
Stari grabbed a chair and jammed it under the door. An advanced alien civilization and they still performed the old shove-a-chair-under-the-door routine.
“Which machine is responsible for defenses?” Maddy said.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Why don’t we ask?”
I fired a shot across the room. It burnt a hole in the window. The workers screamed at the intrusion and turned to face us.
“Excuse me,” I said. “We’re looking for the defense controls. We want to disable everything you have. Right now.”
A Changeling with a stiff gait marched toward me.
“You can’t be in here!” he said. “You don’t have the proper clearance!”
“We have a selfless volunteer,” I said.
I aimed the pistol at his face.
“If someone doesn’t tell me what I want to know right now, your friend is going to get a new eyehole,” I said.
The workers were silent. Then they turned to one worker at a far corner computer.
“Everybody up!” I said. “Get over here!”
I marshaled them to one side. By now, the rest of the workers on the other floors had begun to gather around, peering down at us to watch a show they had no control over.
Half a dozen plasma bolts struck the door on the other side. It was reinforced and did not give easily.
Stari and V’Sen covered the door and prepared to open retaliatory fire. It was only a matter of time before they got in.
“Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast!” Stari said.
“How do I turn the defenses off?” Maddy said to the worker sat in his chair.
“Just destroy it!” I yelled.
“Good idea,” Maddy said.
She took aim and opened fire on the machine. Unlike the door, it was not reinforced. She blasted half a dozen holes in it before the lights began to flash and warnings flared on the monitors.
“What’s happening?” Maddy said.
Through the windows, lights flickered and the world reformed into fractal images.
The Changeling soldiers outside must have noticed it too as they slowed their attack on the door.
The geometric shapes flashed purple, yellow, blue, and green, then shattered completely. It was only then I realized it wasn’t the world that was flashing in every color of the rainbow. It was the Control Room’s camouflage technology.
“Is it down?” Stari said. “Is it over?”
I kept my gun trained on the workers and edged toward the window to peer at the world below.
“The defenses are down,” I said. “But it’s not over. It’s only just begun.”
The Yayora, upon seeing the disintegration of the Control Room’s defenses, came running over the horizon in our direction. A swarming mass of natives that just got their chance to take back what was taken from them.
Their homeworld.
V’Sen eased the door open and peered out at the Changeling soldiers on the other side. He yanked it open and kept his blaster pistol raised.
“What are you doing?” Stari said.
He raised a hand for her to be quiet. Before them were two dozen Changeling soldiers. They stared at the horizon, at the endless horde of Yayora rushing their way.
The thoughts running through their minds were easy enough to read.
Did they want to fight them? Did they want them to tear them to pieces? Or was it better to surrender now?
The soldiers put down their arms and raised their hands.
Stari watched as her enemy, those who had treated her nothing better than a serf her entire life, surrendered to her.
Tears sprung into her eyes and she wrapped her arms around V’Sen.
One of the Changelings eyed a pistol on the ground and looked about ready to try his chances and scoop it up.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” Maddy said, her pistol right up in his grill.
I wrapped my arm around her and kissed her on the cheek.
“You heard her,” I said. “Trust me, you don’t want to get on her wrong side. You’ve seen her in action. She’s merciless. Especially when she’s on top.”
Maddy glared at me but it melted into cheerful laughter, a sound I promised myself I would endeavor to hear every day for the rest of my life.
It wasn’t only the Yayora’s nightmare that was over, mine was too. And now, with Maddy in my arms and the whole galaxy at our feet, we could go anywhere and make any kind of future we wanted.
I knew with absolute certainty that any future with her was one I was desperate to have.
For once, I would go on an adventure without knowing what the obstacles in our way would be. I looked forward to overcoming them with her, my soul mate, my love.
My Maddy.
Wondering what happened to the other girls? In the next book in the series,
