Hotbloods 6: Allies

“Weird,” I mumbled, tapping the edge of my chin thoughtfully.

“Maybe it was a space squid latching on to the back of the ship. They do that a lot around Almaghura. They’ll just attack a ship out of nowhere and rip into it, often tearing out the engines!”

I grimaced. “A nice image, Xiphio, but we aren’t anywhere near Almaghura, and there’s no sign of impact whatsoever. That’s what is so strange. If it was an asteroid or a bit of debris, we’d be able to see a dent or something. But everything looks fine.”

“It may just have been an engine judder,” Xiphio suggested. “It happens frequently on Fed ships, especially when they’re traveling consistently. It’s simply something in the engine turning over, restarting itself. Nothing to worry about, but a little perplexing.”

“An engine judder?” I repeated dubiously.

“Yes, quite normal, nothing to fear, though it does get the blood flowing!” He laughed brightly. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss here. Bangs and crashes like that didn’t just happen… though what did I know about alien engineering? Perhaps, out here, they did.

“We should be getting back up to the cockpit,” I said. “They’ll be listening in for the transmissions, and I want to be there when they do.”

“Very good, Miss Riley. I’m sorry our search wasn’t more exciting.”

“It’s better that it wasn’t. I doubt we could deal with another problem, to add to everything else,” I said wryly, as I clambered up the stepladder and out of the hatch, with Xiphio following a little too closely behind. I was glad I wasn’t wearing a skirt, or Xiphio might have ended up with a punch to the face.

Knowing we would be getting close to Vysanthe by now, I hurried down the corridor with Xiphio at my side, eager to get back to the cockpit before the transmissions started trickling in. Xiphio, however, seemed eager to talk.

“And what shall you and Navan do, once all of this is over?” he asked.

I glanced at him, amused by his relentless positivity. Right now, I wasn’t even sure we would make it that far. “Live happily ever after?”

“How delightful!” he cried, his cheeks flushing. “A love like yours is a wondrous thing to behold. Once all of this is over, I should like the same thing. Once we have vanquished those tiresome rebels, I would very much like to settle down with a nice girl and live a peaceful life somewhere.”

I smiled. “That sounds nice.”

“You don’t happen to know what Miss Lauren’s plans are, do you, after all of this is done with?”

I almost burst out laughing at his lack of subtlety. “You’ll have to ask her yourself, I’m afraid. I’ve meddled in crushes and love lives before, and it has never ended well,” I said, remembering what had happened between Queen Brisha and Bashrik. He had embarrassed her in front of a party full of people because I’d encouraged her affections for him, and she’d ended up with her heart broken. Yeah, I was never going to play matchmaker again.

“Miss Riley! You are… well, you are not mistaken, but… you think I have a crush on Miss Lauren?” he stuttered, his cheeks flushing a darker shade of purple. “I must say, I’m quite surprised… I didn’t think I was being so obvious. Does she know? Oh, goodness, tell me she does not! I’ve yet to properly woo her, and I wouldn’t have her think badly of me.”

“She doesn’t think badly of you,” I assured him.

“So, she thinks… fondly of me?” he pressed, testing the waters.

“Sorry, pal. I’m not getting involved!”

He pulled a disappointed face. “Well, if you won’t help me, Miss Riley, then you must swear that you will not breathe a word of this to Miss Lauren! Please, promise you’ll keep my affections a secret until I can muster the courage to tell her myself?”

I lifted my hands in agreement. “I won’t say anything, but I’m pretty sure you’ll give yourself away long before then.”

As we approached the cockpit, the rasp of the news transmission feed filtered through, the sound of it quickening my pace. Inside, the others were already gathered, clustered around the central hub, listening to what the media outlets of Vysanthe had to say about the last month.

“Whose side is it?” I whispered, tucking myself against Navan’s side.

“Gianne’s,” he replied.

“Can you find a transmission from Brisha’s side?”

He shook his head. “There’s only one channel coming through. If Brisha even has any media outlets left, they’ll have resorted to archaic measures—short-range radio waves and pirated broadcasts. We’d have to be on the ground to hear those.”

I realized that meant we’d be hearing things from Gianne’s perspective, with her doing whatever she could to maintain her nation’s patriotism, but the bare bones of truth would, hopefully, still be there. Bashrik fiddled with something on the control panel, and the raspy transmission cleared up until I could hear every word.

“The aerial assaults on the North have been a success, even with the departure of our allies. We are mightier than they are, we do not require outside support, and we shall always prevail,” the newscaster said. “The palace of the usurper was hit at six o’clock this morning by a bombardment of new supernova missiles. We must take a moment to remember the comrades who have so bravely given their lives in the use of these missiles. Queen Gianne has already engraved their names on the honor memorial, so they shall be remembered in the annals of Vysanthean history. It shall be known that they were the ones responsible for the new dawn that has come to our nation…”

A crackle distorted the next few words, but I heard the last ones the newscaster spoke. I didn’t think I’d ever forget them.

“Queen Brisha has been assassinated.”





Chapter Twenty-Eight





I stared at the windshield, looking at Vysanthe in the distance, feeling like the rug had been pulled out from under me. My heart sank, my eyes blinking slowly in disbelief. Queen Brisha was dead, and that could only spell disaster for the rest of the coldblood planet.

“No…” Lauren gasped, tears glittering in her eyes. The two of them had been closer than the rest of us, spending evenings in Brisha’s library, talking like two ordinary young women—despite the fact that they came from opposite ends of the universe and led vastly different lives. I could see the pain on her face, knowing that Brisha was gone.

Stone put a comforting arm around her. “Sorry ‘bout that, Ren. I know the pair of ye was tight.”

Xiphio eyed the action with disdain, but he didn’t say anything, evidently realizing that now was not the time or place to squabble over Lauren’s affections. She was cut up about it. We all were. An air of utter shock had settled over our group.

“I can’t believe she’s dead,” Bashrik murmured.

“I didn’t like either of them much, but Brisha wasn’t a bad egg,” Angie added, nestling into her boyfriend, her face sad.

“Does that mean… Gianne won?” Ronad wondered, narrowing his eyes at the planet, which was just visible beyond the windshield.

I looked up at Navan, who had yet to say anything. A muscle twitched in his jaw, his slate eyes growing steely. Although he’d been a Southern Vysanthean for most of his life, I knew his thoughts on Gianne—we shared the same ones. She was an insane tyrant with an enormous amount of power, and now that she had nobody standing in her way, she could seize total control of the planet.