Striker Page 4

  Zeus remembered nothing of the people who shared his biology. He had not spent his life feeling lost or out of place. There were Noble Houses who did not have a high regard for him, but their perception did not cause him to wonder about his origin. His family loved him well, with complete acceptance. He never felt lost or lacking, so meeting Athena did not fill a vacancy within him because there had not been one to begin with. He could offer her an acquaintanceship but neither she, nor her people, would replace what he already had. Some day they would be friends, possibly great friends, and he hoped that would be enough for her.

  "Most of the experiments on my people were genetic. They could not understand how our two races could be so alike and yet different. Many of our females were bred to human men. I overheard the scientist say our male's sperm devoured the women's eggs but their men's sperm could not penetrate our female's eggs. They attempted to inject the eggs, but my body rejected the implanted embryos on all six attempts. They then attempted to implant my embryos into some of their women, and they all became very ill and passed into the fade. They could not determine the reason that their women did not simply miscarry."

  Her companion, Altan, reached over and laced his fingers with Athena's. "They experimented on all the females until they discovered Athena's heritage. We were also cruelly questioned about Prince Prometheus's whereabouts, but we had no information to give them. Those of us who would know are rumored to be dead. Afterwards, the experiments became more focused on her. I am of the opinion they wanted a Bespoken of their own, whether captured or created, they seemed to care not."

  "What purpose would be served to have a Bespoken of their own?" Zeus appreciated the fact Sohm’lan asked the question he had been internally debating. It meant he could stay out of the spotlight a little longer.

  "The Bespoken is the key to the grid. Without him, the grid would fall." Zeus relayed Alpha's words again, reluctantly realizing he would have to continue speaking for Alpha as Dargon single-mindedly devoured a platter of food.

  "If they wanted to control the grid, then they would need to control the Bespoken," Sohm'lan mused.

  "Why not take one of the crown princes?" Mestor leaned back in his chair, his gaze suddenly trained on Zeus. "They are more easily located than the Bespoken is right now. Besides, if Prometheus cannot be found, then another will bear the burden in his place. If the Terrens search for Prometheus, then maybe they do not know he can be replaced. Wherever they received their information, either the spy did not know that detail or only gave abbreviated information." Zeus had privately told the twins earlier of Dargon's worry about the galactic emperors using him as a substitute.

  To Zeus’s surprise, Athena's quiet companion, Altan, spoke up again. "The crown princes are too secure. It would be suicide to attempt to take one of them. Our people only recently became nomadic, leaving Valespia in small waves over several years. We are fighters, but we do not have a great defense, and no safe place to retreat to. Instead, we became like seeds blown on the wind, nomads scattered throughout the galaxies without a permanent home. Our vulnerability made us easier to capture, but at the same time, the most important of us have not been found—by anyone."

  "Are you saying you purposely left the security of your home on Valespia to protect Prometheus? Why?" Alpha whispered one word in Zeus’s mind that caused everything fall into place. "Betrayed. You were being betrayed and you knew it. This plan is not a sudden occurrence. The ball has been rolling for longer than I have been alive, has it not? You left Valespia because your homes were no longer safe."

  Altan nodded once. "Our elders worked diligently to make sure the Fal'Amoric would be hard to find. The royal family was the last to leave Valespia because they wanted to make sure Prometheus would begin bonding with the crown princes. When he returned, his connection to them would help to pave the way for an easier transformation into the new Triumphant. We left when Prometheus was twelve summers old. Zeus had not yet been born, our Empress only several months pregnant. Later, the Emperor and Empress split. Weeks away from giving birth, she took Prometheus and her most trusted bodyguards. The Emperor gathered those of us who remained and we went a different way. We have not heard from any of them since."

  The room went quiet for a moment before Sohm'lan spoke up. "That does not explain why the humans or the V'Saar would want to control the grid. Why not permit the grid to collapse allowing all of the V'Saar to cross over?"

  "I have fought the bugs. I know what they do, what they are capable of. Whole planets, races, even civilizations have been consumed by them. We, along with the Zetas and the Ancients, fought against their hordes and were able to cripple them long enough to build the grid to imprison them. It is possible they are having a civil war." Zeus thought Alpha would have spit if he could have, his disgust was so apparent.

  "Building the grid would have taken a millennia." Azaes wore an incredulous expression.

  "Longer."

  "You cannot possibly be that old." Zeus heard Azaes's doubt, not that he could blame his brother. A life that long seemed beyond impossible.

  "Why not? Not all races share the same characteristics. Why would you assume they would all have the same life spans when you know they do not? There are races that have been here since the very beginning. The galaxies are diverse."

  "Set the age debate aside," Dargon commanded. "Zeus, the information on the trap in Valespian space: is your source reliable?"

  He met Dargon's steady gaze. "I would stake my life on it."

  "Would you stake Dargon's and Alpha's lives on it?" Sohm'lan challenged.

  "Yes, I would."

  The navigator, Axis, pulled out his tablet. "If we change course now, we could arrive outside the planet of Qestaire in about six hours."

  "Make it so," Azaes commanded.

  Sohm'lan dispatched his lieutenants with various orders.

  "Why did you come back from the Waters of Poseidon injured?" Sohm'lan asked after the door closed again.

  "There was someone there with whom I had a difference of opinion." He would not elaborate. Mestor and Azaes's silence seemed to indicate they agreed with him as Sohm'lan calmly waited for Zeus to say more. He felt guilty for not confiding all to Sohm'lan but he wanted, no, needed to speak to his parents first.

  They completed the meal in heavy silence.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Azaes sent a call to have the remains of the meal removed. "We need to contact Father. Are you staying?"

  "Yes. I missed the last communication with him." Injured in the fight to liberate The Gorgon from the hostile boarding party, he had been kept abed for quite some time after.

  Zeus moved closer to the twins and dropped his voice. "I am concerned. This morning's conversation about the Terrens’ activities and their search for someone to serve as the Bespoken …" He trailed off, realizing he had not told his brothers everything.

  He held up a hand and waited for people to depart to attend to their duties, leaving Zeus, Dargon, Azaes, and Mestor alone with Sohm'lan and the guards. The Monticore spread out and took positions along the wall throughout the room. After the security of The Gorgon had been breached by the brigands, the Monticore took extra precautions.

  "Zeus?"

  He did not answer Alpha's question, but waited instead for Dargon to rejoin him.

  "Do you remember when our parents took me to see the Chtichlians?" The Chtichlians were an arachnid race whose scientists were well-known to be the best geneticists in the combined galaxies.

  Azaes nodded. "They were consulted about your eyesight, but you returned extremely ill. Father and Meme were enraged and none could calm them. They still refused to share with us what happened."

  Zeus took comfort in Dargon's embrace. "While under the effects of their anesthetic, I could not move, but remained conscious. Because of this, I heard them discuss Prometheus and the fact they had altered me to be the decoy. They were the ones who set me adrift in space, in the path of a Terren vessel, so they were surpris
ed the Mar'Sani found me first."

  The twins began to hiss in anger and the Monticore went on alert. He still struggled to wrap his mind around why his biological parents would allow the Chtichlians to experiment and alter him, especially now that he understood the drive to protect one's young.

  "How were you supposed to be a lure for the Terrens?" Azaes demanded.

  "The Chtichlians rendered me blind at birth. The Bespoken is born blind but gains sight in puberty. The last of the sexual organs begin to develop around thirteen or fourteen summers. I had been on the verge of the final development of my sex when father sought the Chtichlian's assistance to repair my eyes."

  A moment passed before what Zeus left unsaid seemed to dawn on Azaes. "You were born to be both sexes? I do not understand. You are not the Bespoken."

  "No, I am not. One of the closely-guarded secrets is that Athena's people are comprised of three sexes. Almost half of their population are what the Terrens termed ‘hermaphrodites’, comprising both male and female, with fully-functional reproductive systems. Those like me are said to be pure, the omegas of the races. We have the full genetic makeup of all the races, allowing us to bear offspring from the races we have been blended with." Zeus felt his face warm with his embarrassment. He shared much with his brothers but to discuss his sex brought out an awkwardness he had not experienced since he reached puberty.

  Mestor pushed back his plate. "The humans are part of the Valespian Pact. Not to be insensitive or crass, but why did their attempts to impregnate Athena fail?"

  Alpha supplied the answer. "When the ancients approached the humans about donating their genetic material and participating in the pact, they were a young race on the cusp of designing a space program. The Terrens attempted to confiscate the ships and other properties of the ancients. When the ancients easily took back what had been stolen, the human leaders offered up their shunned ones as the genetic material in recompense. They were accepted by the ancients and later became the Fal'Amoric race. The humans were found to be deceptive, dishonest, and greedy. The Terrens signed the Valespian Pact, but the ones who were offered up to represent the humans evolved. With their consent, the ancients sped the Fal'Amoric's evolution, not only designing them to be a blender species, but causing them to become genetically different enough to make them and the Terrens incompatible. When the Chtichlians engineered you to become the decoy for Prometheus and then placed you in a position to be caught by the Terrens, they were unaware they handed over someone who could replace him no matter what they did."

  "But we found you instead," Sohm'lan said.

  Zeus read Azaes's anger in the tremble of his upper lip, as if he struggled to keep from baring his teeth in fury.

  "Yes, and now I am to be a father. I do not want to risk Dargon and Alpha being captured, or our child stolen." Just the thought had Zeus both terrified and enraged. He mastered the outward appearance, but the turmoil continued to roil in his gut. He desperately needed to take Dargon and Alpha home, where he could protect them and the kit. The urge to nest threatened to overpower his more logical thought processes.

  "Any who dare steal your mates or your youngling will answer to the Mar'Sani." The Monticore salute confirmed Mestor's declaration.

  Humbled by the display, they reminded Zeus he was not alone. "Thank you," he rasped.

  "You will need to be careful of everything you say on the hypernet. We discovered the hard way that a psionic monitored communications in and out of Valespia, searching for information on the Oethra 7. I have not dared contact Prince Malek since," Dargon warned Zeus’s brothers.

  "Good. Then you will not argue when I ask you not to appear on screen." Zeus grinned widely as he watched Dargon open his mouth to argue, only to snap his jaws shut.

  "I would stand by your side and meet your parents, not hide in the shadows." Zeus understood Dargon's aggravation. He would have Dargon next to him when he spoke to his father; if not for the danger it would place Dargon and Alpha in.

  "And you will. When we arrive at Haven, you will meet my father. I would not willingly hide either of you," Zeus soothed, stroking Dargon's cheek, Dargon's defensive posture melting away.

  Alpha sighed. "I apologize. The emotional fulgurations are my fault."

  "I am not emotional." Dargon lifted his lip in a snarl.

  "Normally, I would be able to shield him from the excess hormones, but this pregnancy has hampered my abilities."

  "Is there a problem with the kit?" Zeus’s heart skipped in alarm. How could he protect them from something he had no control over?

  Azaes and Mestor stepped closer. He knew they responded to his rising panic and he appreciated their tacit support.

  "Nothing is wrong. I only recently realized I carry two kits, which explains the drain I have had on my energy the last few days."

  Suddenly, he felt lightheaded. Zeus’s legs wobbled underneath him, his mouth silently forming the word 'two'. Azaes and Mestor barely caught him as his knees gave out, grasping his elbows firmly as they flanked him.

  "Zeus, you must breathe," Azaes coaxed while Mestor called for a medic.

  Breathe? Trapped air rushed out of his lungs. He gulped and inhaled unsteadily. When did he sit down? Dargon sat a couple of meters away, Mayra speaking softly to Dargon as he shook his head.

  "Prince Zeus?"

  He blinked, and before him knelt Dr. Solon. Zeus felt a giddy bubble of laughter brewing in him. "You found me when I was a youngling," he blurted before pressing his lips together to keep the inappropriate mirth from escaping.

  Dr. Solon held Zeus’s wrist, taking his pulse. Zeus had always liked the doctor's yellow dorsal ridge and blue eyes. It was such a pretty combination.

  "Can you tell me what happened? You and Dargon went into shock at the same time."

  "We did?" Zeus leaned over to look around Dr. Solon, only Dargon no longer sat in the chair. Before he could ask, Dr. Solon directed his attention to the corner where Dargon now lay on the couch with an arm over his eyes.

  "I am going to be a father." He did not mean to say that aloud.

  "I heard. Congratulations."

  Zeus met Dr. Solon's worried gaze. "Tw … tw … twins."

  "Twins!" Zeus jumped at the bellow. His brothers snatched him out of the chair to be smashed between them, noises of congratulations filling the air. Their enthusiasm helped to shake him out of his shock.

  Concerned for Dargon, he broke from his brothers' embrace and went to kneel next to the couch. Dargon's arm was draped over his eyes and Zeus glanced at the medic, Mayra, for guidance. With him kneeling and her standing, he met her gaze without her craning her neck to look at him. Her large, brown eyes were soft and liquid with worry, but she gave him an encouraging smile.

  Dargon's copper braid draped over the side of the couch to coil like a thick rope on the floor. He ran a comforting hand over Dargon's exposed arm. His golden skin, covered in a fine, soft fuzz, tickled Zeus’s palm, relaxing Zeus as much as it did his lover.

  Dargon's arm slowly dropped away from his face. Green eyes brilliant with shock stared back at Zeus. "I am sorry. I … well … I am slightly surprised. I mean, having twins is not a terrible thing … they are simply uncommon. I mean, I do not remember the last time this happened. The chances are so small."

  "What do you need?" Zeus asked softly, unsure what to do to help his lovers.

  "You," Dargon responded, his voice just above a whisper.

  "You already have me."

  Dargon's arm dropped further away. "I apologize. I should have reacted better … suspected … "

  "We were both taken by surprise."

  Zeus’s fingers ghosted over Dargon's cheek, dropping down to caress Alpha. "Alpha, can you safely carry the twins without help from the medical facility of the Hedisa Gamai? Is there anything we need to pick up? A special diet maybe, certain foods or vitamins?"

  Zeus sensed the warmth of Alpha's emotions. "I have already discussed my needs with Mayra. I will need extra nourishment
from Dargon, and I will probably sleep much more than previously anticipated, and be lethargic even when I am awake, as I meet the demands of carrying two kits instead of one."

  He echoed Dargon's exhale of relief.

  "Prince Zeus, the scheduled call with the Emperor will commence in two microns," Sohm'lan announced in a formal tone.

  "Go," Dargon urged. "I will stay here and rest out of view, but still be able to listen."

  Zeus brushed a soft kiss over Dargon's lips before he rose to his feet. Non-essential personnel exited the stateroom as the panels on the far wall retracted to reveal the view screen. Azaes always received regularly-scheduled calls with their father when either one went offworld. Zeus had not seen his father in a long, long time. Excitement made him want to bounce on his toes.

  The screen lit and a soft chime notified them of the incoming transmission. Zeus ran his hand down the lapels of his black jacket, self-consciously smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles. The screen flickered, the picture faint before sharpening. Communicating while traveling in hyperspace could be tricky. Most used the hypernet, but the psi-trackers gleaned and stole information that was not properly protected. Azaes and their father currently used a system Zeus had designed before he left for the space station. His network worked but had a couple of glitches. Zeus discussed the problems with Azaes and promised to look at the system later.

  Ampheres, their father's personal assistant, sat in front of the screen. Her slanted amber eyes narrowed in concentration as she fiddled with something unseen. "Almost have it, Your Highness." She glanced between the screen and the controls. "This is the best picture yet."

  Emperor Valdor Vondorian moved into view and took the seat that Ampheres vacated. Zeus’s throat constricted; he appeared older, his scales still holding a healthy sheen, but the black around his eyes and nostrils had lightened as the scales went gray. But the sunrise yellow of his eyes glowed with intelligence and patient wisdom. When Zeus met his father's gaze, he straightened to stand a little taller under the weight of his parent's steady regard.